Title: Life Not Lived
Fandom: NCIS
Author: Alidiabin
Words: 311
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Warnings/Spoilers/Rating: none || up to 4x01 ||
Parings: Tony/Ziva
Summary: Ziva shows Tony a picture of Tali.
Life Not Lived
He had been to her apartment six times now but still he always managed to find something new to look at. As he glided to the piano for their fifth piano lesson he noticed a photo in a plain black frame. He picked it up to admire it, hoping to find evidence that his partner had a social life beyond NCIS. He did not find evidence of a social life; instead he found evidence of a past one. The photograph contained a younger Ziva was standing with her arms around another girl who looked almost identical too her both of them had smiles on their faces.
"Is this Tali?" Tony asked as Ziva moved from the kitchen with a tea-towel on her shoulder.
"Yes," Ziva whispered as she focused on the photograph. "My cousin sent it to me. She is building a nursery so she and her husband have to clean out the spare room."
"You don't talk about her," Tony muttered.
"Chiara and I only ever used to see each other once a year and after my mother died we grew distant. I do not even remember if I attended her wedding," Ziva blabbered.
"I meant Tali," Tony replied, in shock that Ziva had revealed so much about her family so easily.
"I do not like too," Ziva whispered.
"Too sad?" Tony queried. Ziva reached for the photograph, Tony handed it to her.
"It used to be. But I can remember her now, without being sad," Ziva uttered as she ran her finger across the glass of the frame. She stared at it for a moment, and a smile appeared on her face as she got lost in a memory.
After a few minutes of quiet Ziva handed him a piece of unfamiliar sheet music.
"It was Tali's favourite," she told him as he placed his fingers on the keys.