Okay, so this is my first storyand I'm super nervous(: I have re-read this chapter as much as I possibly can and found no mistakes but if you see some, let me know(: Sorry I tend to ramble on with my stories, but I hope you enjoy!

I do not own any of the NCIS characters.

Watching NCIS is very helpful to this story, or else you might not get it completely. Thanks so much for reading(:

Being in an explosion was practically the scariest and most exhilarating thing she had ever experienced. When the debris stop flying and the smoke cleared she lifted her head up from the ground. She turned to her sister, who was no longer by her side. Now, she stood on her feet despite the pain she was feeling from the impact. Her vision was blurring but when she squinted she almost could see almost clearly. This was no time to panic, she thought not seeing her sister or her half brother, be prepared for anything. But nothing would ever prepare her for what she was about to see; not her Mossad training, not her constant field work, nothing.

Ziva felt hands on her hips. She whipped around with her knife tight in hand, but it was only her half brother. She cursed at him. His fingers went to his lips signaling her to be quiet. She rolled her eyes. Whatever was about to happen, whoever was about to come through the light dust, the two of them could take, not to mention her sister who was some where around the battle ground. All three of them have had the most elaborate, most intense, Mossad training there was. They were invincible.

"Where is Tali?" Ziva whispered violently. Ari shrugged his shoulders as he called for back-up. After he finished, he drew his gun as did Ziva, not worried about their sister who was perfectly well trained to take care of herself. Splitting up, Ziva and Ari both went to the opposite directions. After a few minutes of maneuvering herself through the dust, Ziva heard footsteps. They were heavy and large. Male footsteps, not her sixteen year-old sister. Ziva proceeded forward towards the man until she came to a clearing where they faced each other. Ziva brought her leg up to his face, satisfyingly kicking him in the jaw. He fell to the ground, but tried to get up. Before he could, Ziva took her gun and whacked him on the skull. He passed out. She dropped to her knees and searched through his pockets finding that he was part of Hamas, a military group that was responsible for most suicide bombings towards Israel. Ziva stood over the man's unconscious body. Suspecting he was a terrorist she tied his hands together and proceeded further. They would most likely pick him up and bring him back to Mossad for interrogation. As she got closer and closer to the eye of the explosion, more dead souls surrounded her. Without the right training, she probably would've cried, or even vomited. Finally, she saw Ari, who was standing over a dead body.

"Did you find Tali?" Ziva called out to him. He looked up at her, sorrow ness on his face and shoulders hunched. "What is wrong?" She walked closer, almost tripping over something. She looked down and noticed the detonated bomb attached to the disincarnated body. "Suicide bomber." She mumbled to herself, disgusted.

"Ziva." Ari said as she came closer, "Don't."

"What are you saying?" She asked, still walking despite his warning. As she approached him and studied the ground that he was standing on, Ziva realized she should have taken his advice. "That can not be her," was all she could say as she dropped to her knees and stared into the dead eyes of her younger sister.

Ziva David awoke from her deep sleep. Breathing hard, she got out of bed. Her alarm would go off in a matter of minutes; there was no point in going back to sleep now. Changing into her running clothes and slipping on her sneakers, she left her apartment for her usual run. It seemed she dreamt of her sister at least every other night. It didn't make the dream all much better that her half brother Ari always showed up. Having Tali's life taken by an absurd suicide bomber and the reminder that she had ended Ari's life a few years ago was never a good combination for a dream. Let alone, a dream she experienced almost every night.

Ziva arrived back at her apartment a half a hour later. She continued with her morning routine and slipped into the shower washing off her sweat from the day before and her jog. Sometimes, she blamed herself for Tali's death. Why was she not protecting her on the mission? Why had she not been there? Sometimes she even blamed her dead half brother, but admittedly regretted it and apologized to herself for forcing blame on a dead man's grave. Deep inside herself she knew who really was to blame. Eli David, her and Tali's father. How could he send Tali, a sixteen year-old girl, into the field and expect Ziva and Ari to protect her? He should have been the one there, risking his life for his country, instead for his youngest daughter.

Gibbs, Tony, Tim, Abby, and even Ducky had finally convinced her that her father was not all the man she thought he was. Of course, they only knew from experience of what he put Ziva through. Sending her into combat constantly, having an agent pretend to love her only to spy on her, putting her through a mission that involved her getting captured and tortured for three months, and finally, raising her as a killer. They did not know about Tali, how her father sent her to consult a suicide bomber that led to her death, and they would never know.

Ziva climbed out of the shower and dried off. After slipping into her clothes and putting on a fair amount of makeup she pulled up her thick brown hair into a ponytail. She grabbed her new NCIS badge and gun from her bedside drawer hoisting it to her belt. Ziva looked into the mirror smiling at her badge. She had gone through hell trying to earn this. Earning back Gibbs' trust, taking her citizenship test, and going through NCIS evaluations, which was extra hard considering she took it after three months trapped in a bunker in the middle of Africa. Not to mention learning how to trust Tony once again. She sighed deeply putting all of her memories behind her for another day of work. At least she had one thing to thank her father for; sending her to NCIS, the place she loved more than anything.

Ziva arrived to the squad over ten minutes late. Usually, Gibbs would have taken her to the elevator, giving her a lecture about being on time for work. Usually, Tony and McGee would be giving her a hard time about being tardy. McGee would let it go after a few jokes but Toy would drag it on throughout the day. Today, however, no one said a thing. Ziva some how wished they would give her a hard time, be mad at her for a few minutes, but ever since Africa, all three of them let her slide on almost everything. She hated it.

"Sorry I am late." Ziva said reminding them that she was not on time so they might yell at her or laugh or something. No one said a thing. She sighed and fell down into her chair. Why could they just let it go? Why could her team just treat her like they used to instead of an injured little puppy? She thought. It had been weeks since they rescued her. Of course, whenever they saw her scars from her three months in the middle of the Sahara Dessert they admittedly grew sympathy for her. She was sick of it. She was over it, why weren't they?

"So what is our agenda for today?" Ziva asked tired of the silence. That was most of her love for NCIS, always so loud, so busy, never a dull moment. Now, they all just worked in silence. Gibbs looked up at her for the first time.

"Just paper work Ziva." He told her. She sighed again. Paper work, another thing that irritated her completely. She was thankful though. Her stack on her desk was getting a bit large and she desperately needed some to catch up on it. Ziva grabbed her first file and opened it finding a picture staring up at her.

"What is this?" She asked holding up the file. They all looked up at her.

"Oh sorry." Tony said recognizing the file and getting up, "I must've put it on your desk on accident. That's mine." He reached for it, but Ziva pulled it away. Tony bit his lip. Truthfully, he missed arguing with her but today wasn't the right day to start a fight. They hadn't even spoken about anything but a case since Somalia. Well, he had congratulated her on her new permanent position at NCIS. But now, he felt like it wasn't right to irritate her, or better yet, purposely make her angry. Tony just wasn't sure about his partner the last few weeks. Ziva wasn't herself, and he understood. Three months as a prisoner could do that to you. He felt like it was his duty to become more mature with Ziva because of her summer, which was the least he could do. So Tony didn't argue with her and snatch the file away, he didn't tickle her sides to force her to release the papers, he didn't say a word.

"Do not apologize." Ziva whispered to him, feeling his sympathy towards her, again. She had never heard him apologize over something so little before.

Again, the urge hit Tony to say something sarcastic or annoying. He searched his mind for the right words to say, something a mature adult would say. He didn't find a single sentence. Just when Tony thought he would have to resort on saying something completely rude, Ziva's scar on her wrist caught his eye. Now, sympathy grew inside of him. He knew Ziva wasn't the one to like getting treated with love and kindness, and certainly not sympathy but he had no choice, he couldn't make her angry, not today, not this week. Tony sighed deeply, "Can I have my file?" He said, almost choking on his words.

Ziva took in a deep breath to prevent herself from arguing with her partner about treating her like a little girl. In the last few moments all she was hoping for was for Tony to snatch the file out of her hand and quote a movie or something completely ridiculous like that. That's what he would've done in the past, before he shot her boyfriend and she chose to stay in Israel. "No, you can not." She snapped and opened the file on her desk. Now McGee and Gibbs were next to them looking over Tony and Ziva's shoulder. Ziva pointed to the victim's familiar picture. "I know him."

"How?" Gibbs asked, grabbing the file from her desk. He was relieved that Ziva was opening up a cold case. She was beginning to go back to her normal self plus; they wouldn't be stuck with paper work all day. "McGee, get this up on the plasma." McGee followed orders having the old case on the screen in less than a few minutes. Ziva studied the picture again. McGee looked at her, smiling. He missed the old Ziva's feisty and a bit aggressive personality. Even when she had pulled away from Tony a few moments ago he couldn't help but laugh a little to himself. Things were so much different now, so much more clam. The MIT graduate noted that Gibbs hadn't even slapped Ziva on the back of the head for coming into work late. He wondered if Ziva enjoyed getting treated with a little more sympathy around the bullpen. Probablynot,McGee thought.

The Israeli looked at the familiar face on the plasma. This was the last thing Ziva had hoped to happen today. First, her whole team was treating her like a child instead of the assassin that she was and now, she was looking at her friend dead, murdered, on the screen located in the middle of the squad room. Ziva opened her mouth, breathing in air but not saying anything. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Who is he?" Tony asked. She gained strength from his touch. She felt a little more able, and willing, to tell the team just who the victim really was.

"Aalee Jabara was a Mossad Agent."

Yes, I do know its basically impossible for Ziva to get her NCIS badge only a few weeks after the team rescued her from Africa, but just go with it(; More chapters comming(: Thanks for reading!

-Sam