Everything Ziva wants is his signature on the recommendation. But Gibbs is hesitating. This is what TV didn't show at the end of episode 7x03, "Inside Man", but this is too important to be left out, so I wrote down what my heart showed me. A little Zibbs, but not much.

Disclaimer: NCIS does not belong to me; it belongs to David Bellisarius and CBS.

Same goes for the song text I used; the lyrics belong to the artist.

Part 1: Ziva

Carrying bags and a navy taxi man said
"Take your time love
'Cause you don't have to rush
 'Cause it's your life and it's no one else's, sweetheart
Don't let someone put you in a box."

So I take all that other stuff that I said before
And I'm gonna make it work
Because I'm losing my mind and it's driving me up the wall

Kate Nash, "Navy Taxi"

The byro was placed right above the printed piece of paper, but nothing happened. She was standing in front of his desk in a nice-schoolgirl-waiting-for-daddy-to-praise-her pose and felt really useless.

Decorative, but useless.

And while she observated him, with her restless fingers nestling on the hem of her violet shirt, Ziva started to wonder.

What was it that kept him hesitating?

They had talked to each other ond Ziva had hoped, that every single doubt had been eliminated. She had hoped, everything would be okay between them, that it could be again like it was before… a foolish thought, retrospectively. She had changed. The things that happened during her captivity in South Africa had torn her apart a little bit. It hat broken her just a little bit, but enough to make Gibbs and Director Vance suspicious.

There was just one thing Ziva could trust in: that he was still the same.

Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the man, who could be bent by noone and that was what she appreciated about him. And because he was still the same, he would know that he could trust her unconditionally. He just had to realisethe true meaning of this document. And what she really wanted to say, when she had told him, that the wishes of her father were irrelevant.

Gibbs had used to ask her, if she was with him. Well, actually she was the one with the question and he replied with the counter question, but who cared.[1] The answer was this:

She was his girl, she's always been.

'Maybe I should have left out the "you're like a father to me" part… Maybe that was to much.'

Ziva didn't feel for Gibbs like she felt for a father, she had chosen the wrong words to express her feelings. But that happened often – English was just not the best language to describe something [2]. He was not a father for her, he was way to… present in her life.

He had teased her and challenged her, had listened to her, when she was close to the breaking point and he had tried to protect her, but only when he knew, she wasn't able to do it herself.

He was more than a father. So much more.

She was waiting.

She was waiting for his signature, while her thoughts driftet back to Mexico…

[1] Season 3, I guess. Gibbs told Tony and McGee what to do and Ziva asked: "And I'm with you, yes?" Gibbs replied: "I don't know Ziva, are you?" I love that moment. ^ ^

[2] Stephen King wrote this in "on writing". He also said that when many people speak german, it sounds like big machinery. I disagree. But even if it sounds like that, german is still a language with more synonyms. And it is the language of gorgeous words like angst, doppelganger and kindergarten. Blitzkrieg too, but this word is not nice. Unfortunately, we failed to find a correct translation for words like creepy.

So? What do you think? I know it's short (actually, that was why I picked it, translating something is quite stressful -.- I had to check up ), and I know one has to be quite into the situation, because I wrote this short fic just after the episode aired in Germany. I just hope my grammar doesn't suck. This is by far not the first fanfic I ever wrote but it's the first one I translated into English and I have no beta reader, so I'm glad it is so short. ^^ Another reason for picking this ff is that I already finished it. There will be two more chapters, the next one from Gibbs POV and the third one will actually contain dialogue. (Shocking, huh? XD)