Vance walked out of his office clutching the box containing the last of the belonging he had left there before he was forced into leave. He had decided to make his leave longer than he had originally planned. He was now finishing emptying his office to make Deputy Director Craig feel more comfortable. His eyes met the one item he both yearned to have back and desired to toss in his shredder. The last picture they would ever take as a family. It was their Christmas card picture. The one with the Vance's 2012 in gold script on the bottom corner and Merry Christmas in large green box letters at the top. The one that he and Jackie had fought over when she noticed the tooth pick peeking out of his mouth. The one where Kayla starred angrily at the camera with her arms crossed because she had gotten into a fight with them the night before over a party. The one where Jared had a grass stain on his tie from playing soccer with his friend during his last class after he had already changed. The one where Jackie looked angelic. The one where if he had known what would happen a mere two months later he would have insisted been the kids smiled and wore clean clothes and he would have ditched his tooth pick in the trash basket in the office of the photo studio.

As he walked towards the stairs he looked down at Gibbs's bullpen. Gibbs was gone likely on a coffee run, McGee and Tony were working as normal, but Ziva was trying to make herself hidden from. He hated that she felt the need to hide herself. She had lost someone too. Even if she had resented her father she still loved him deep down and he was all she had left of her own flesh and blood anyway. He didn't blame her for what happened that night. He knew his kids had some resentment towards her but he was trying to lead them towards forgiveness. Blame and resentment were how wars got started. Yes he knew that him blaming Ziva likely wouldn't ignite a war with Israel. Since with her father her ties to her homeland had died. She had returned for the funeral and would likely never step foot there again. Yet wars between families could be just as ugly and bloody as wars between countries. If the remaining Vance's resented Ziva then Team Gibbs would resent the Vance's. It could split NCIS down the middle and lead innocent lives being lost. Of those in the agency, the families of Marines and the Marines themselves. He refused to allow any more families to mourn because of his loss. That would be far to selfish and cruel. Another factor that kept him from hating Ziva was that he loved her like a second daughter. He had known her since she was young since before Jackie and his biological children. He also knew that even if Jackie hadn't been shot by the gunman sent to kill Eli. She could have still died that night. A robbery really could have gone wrong, one of the kids could have gotten sick and she went to get them and never came home, she could have had a heart attack, or even bumped her head on the counter and brushed it off because that happened all the time only for her to close her eyes and never open them as a result. He remembered years ago when Kayla was in pre-school she acciedently killed the class hamster when she forgot it was her weekend to take it home and it died. She felt terrible and everybody in class hated her. Finally he told her that even if they didn't act like it her classmates didn't really hate her and still loved her and if they really hated her who needs them. Now she actually was really good friends with a couple of them and talked to most only one or two still disliked her. Right now he thought Ziva needed the same reassurance though.

"Ziva!" Vance called.

Ziva was surprised by the calmness of his voice and that he had used her first name and not Agent David. "Director?" she asked wearily.

"I just wanted to tell you something." Vance replied.

"What?" Ziva asked.

"I don't blame you for what happened. Yes I know right now some people may blame you and claim that they hate you but they will come around and if they don't who needs them." Vance replied.

"Thanks a lot of people said it was my fault and you should hate me." Ziva replied.

"Hatred leads to war and even if just between to families war is ugly and unnecessary and Jackie wouldn't have wanted it." Vance replied.

Gibbs, McGee and Tony watched the scene play out with smiles on their faces. Maybe just maybe there was hope for the world.

A/N: I wrote this because I can't see Vance resenting Ziva. His behavior in Shiva showed that he did not want war between countries because Jackie would have not wanted it that way and I'm sure he feels the same way about hating Ziva. I also wanted to point out that Jackie could have still died that night even if it weren't for the shoot-out. Hope you liked it please review.

A/N2: Shameless plug please vote in the poll on my story "New Life" thanks. Will be up until Thursday or Friday.