Title: Changes in a team
Fandom: Navy NCIS
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summery: Gibbs' niece watched Ziva kill Ari from her hiding place in his basement.
Season: end of season 2, beginning of season 3
Pairing: Abby/Ziva and Gibbs/Kate
Encounter with the beast
When Ari carelessly walked into Gibbs' home whilst the agent was at work he was surprised to see a blond fixture on the living room couch. He knew that Special Agent Catlin Todd was staying with Gibbs after her near-death experience. He also knew that everyone else including his half-sister were at NCIS HQ, looking for him. However he was unaware of who the figure was.
Ari decided to approach with caution as he then noticed that the fixture was around the age of sixteen. There was a creek in the floor that he was unaware of, standing still he was slightly afraid to look up. A pair of crystal blue eyes much similar to Gibbs approached and stood arms length away from him.
Most teenagers were afraid when strangers walked into their life with out notice, most were afraid or robbers and terrorists, most were not the same as the current teenager standing in front of the infamous terrorist. Her ability to not run, scream or question in his presence made him smile on the inside, and her ability to look as if she was reading a persons soul though their eyes fascinated him.
Looking over the figure, he noticed that she had no weapon on her and he did not recognize her from any file Ziva had given to him about the people he was likely to interact with. In his mind, he cursed her for that until the girls firm and confident voice broke into his mind.
"My uncle wants to kill you," she stated, "and I didn't leave the door unlocked" the girl mused for a minute. "Fornell is gonna be pissed because you are not in his custody no more" she added.
"Since you know who I am, who are you?" he asked, putting the gun on the table to his right as she moved back to sit down. He waited for a response that never came as her gaze became fixated on the screen and his presence became oblivious to her.
Sitting down on the couch next to her, he begun to wonder who she was. Then it struck him; Jethro had a niece whose parents recently murdered in front of her and there was no other relative to take her in, her name was Melinda and she was from California, more specifically; New Port. He was silently glad Ziva was his sister, as no one else knew of the adolescent's existence.
"Can you cook? I am hungry and I have homework that's due in on Monday," she told him as she rose and turned the television off after an hour had passed with Ari studying her as though she held the answers to NASA's launch code.
"What would you like?" he asked, realizing that she was not a danger to him. Looking at her as she walked into the other room, he cursed American's for their ability to trust.
"Anything that you can't kill me with," Melinda noted, pulling out pens as she laid her work down on the counter near the stove and hoped onto the counter.
As he finished the task under her watchful gaze, she asked; "You know how to perform an autopsy? I'm learning in class but I already know how. The stupid teacher yelled at me for it" she mumbled the last part, drawing arrows from the human diagram of a dead person that was on her worksheet.
An hour later, Ari heard the front door open and Gibbs call out for the teenager who was currently gagged and tied-up in the cupboard in the basement. He did not want to hurt the girl but the best way to leave her unscathed was out of sight. Furthermore, Ari did not expect to see his sister at the corner of his eye in his last moments on earth.
The aftermath: days later
Jenny remembered that Melinda spoke to her for a brief moment after Ari's body was shipped away and Ziva was gone. The quiet girl admitted that she saw his death, insisted that Gibbs shot Ari even though she knew it was a lie, she insisted that Ari never hurt her, but the conversation was short lived as Tony entered the room. That was the last time the child spoke.
Gibbs was aware or this and was still cursing Ari's dead form. He was unsure of what the FBI former-mole had done to her as the teen refused to talk and function in daily life.
When Kate had moved her last box into his place in order to help him with Melinda and since her lease was ending, the former marine noticed that Melinda became more drawn when Tony mentioned Ari's corpse and the fact that Ziva was gone.
The aftermath: a month later
"Ziva?" Abby questioned in a hard tone as McGee told her that the Israeli was a permanent fixture in the building before the team had come to see her in the lab.
"Abby" she acknowledged back with a nod.
Gibbs begun to question the Goth about the new case, but broke off after fifteen minutes when he saw Melinda rush threw the lab and into Ziva's arms with Kate, Ducky, Jimmy and the director not far behind. Whispering comforting words in Hebrew into the teen's ear, Ziva let the girl hug her without any resistance on her part.
"Sorry, I accidentally let is slip down in autopsy when she was with me that Ziva was working with us and was currently in the building," the old man said as Kate walked into the room with Jimmy in tow.
"I was just glad that she remembered to take off the scrubs as she ran past these ladies with a hell of a lot of speed" Jimmy mused out loud. Kate gave him a smile after she noticed his panicked look. She knew the assistant was afraid of their boss and did not want to worry him more than was necessary.
A couple of minutes later Tony's voice rang above with small talk amongst the agents,
"So Ziva is the key to getting Mel to talk, huh?" Tony mused, earning a slap to the back of the head from his boss.
"Agent DiNozzo, please keep the obvious question to yourself and as for you agent Gibbs," she waited for the dramatic pause to take affect before the director continued; "I told you that a woman at her age should not be able to watch a live autopsy or help out with an ongoing case. Is that understood? Okay" Jenney added, then turned on her heal and walking out.
"But the kid likes autopsy" Tony whined as the elevator doors closed, "it makes her happy" he added gaining a roll of the eyes from McGee. "McGee, who killed this man?" Tony asked, getting back on track.
Whilst in the mist of answering questions, Abby could not help but notice that Ziva had grown on the team like a fungus without her knowledge.
Jenny could see the small changes in the team…
Should I continue??