Title: "Awake"
Rating: FR13
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, Romance
Pairing(s): McGee/Ziva
Summary: Agent Ziva David is assigned to protect Timothy McGee, a disabled college professor who is a star witness to a murder. While she spends time with him, her eyes are opened to an understanding of the world around her and a different perspective to a matter she had been toiling to avoid.
Notes: I got this idea after watching a video about a mother talking about her disabled son. I hope you guys enjoy!
"I am asleep, but my heart is awake."
—Song of Solomon 5:2
Chapter One
Ziva trudged across the campus ground, unaware of the surprised stares from the students catching the whiplash of the anger radiating from her. She searched around for her person of interest, but her lividness won over the best of her. Tony was supposed to be picking up the witness. It was his turn. However, he somehow managed to convince Gibbs on clearing him off the task, and he had volunteered her instead for the two-hour drive.
When she confronted him after being given the assignment, he reasoned that he and Jeanne, his girlfriend for almost three years, were going to celebrate their anniversary tonight. Of course, irritation instantly filled her. There was another sensation that gnawed inside her heart, but she had long ago reserved nothing but ignorance for it. It was better to kill it by not paying any attention to it rather than test herself by acknowledging it.
Her mind automatically veered to the case they have at hand. Captain Emilio Burns had been found dead at a parking lot two days ago. There weren't much to work with. The only laceration found was one clean stab at the back, and because it was Greek Week around the campus, no one was able to identify any odd occurrences—which may either be because the students were too busy holing away from the noise or too inebriated to care. No surveillance videos were available; they were being replaced by new ones the day of the incident.
The team was convinced, though none spoke it aloud, that the case was soon to be declared cold.
However, a call came in this morning from a college professor who said that he knew who the culprit was and how everything happened. He promised to cooperate if he was guaranteed protection. He said to meet him on the campus, where he would wait under a big tree.
Two yards from where she stood, under the shades of an oak, on a bench, lightly slouched a sandy-haired man. Her eyes arched while she examined him as she approached. "Professor McGee?" she asked.
The man sat up straighter. "Yes," he said, turning to the source of the voice.
"I am from NCIS," she clarified.
It visually eased him from discomfort. "Oh. Well, that's good," he said before resuming his watch of the landscape ahead. He closed the book on his lap then transferred his cane on the other side of him. "Why don't you sit down for a moment? You must be a little tired from the drive."
Ziva responded by reluctantly taking his offer, although his refusal to acknowledge her fully by removing his sunglasses didn't make a good impression. "So you called about Captain Burns?" she inquired.
"I did," he said, still fixated on the view ahead. Then, he smirked. "Although, to be honest, your voice sounds better in person than in the phone, Agent Gibbs. You sounded a little hoarse. I probably called too early, huh?"
Ziva grinned. "I'm Agent David, Professor. Ziva David," she cleared. "Agent Gibbs sent me here to get you."
"Ah," was all he said before he subtly froze in defense.
Ziva took notice. She understood. "There's nothing to be worried about," she assured. She drew out her badge from her pocket and showed it. "I have this to prove it to you."
He didn't move. Instead, he snorted out a chuckle, but Ziva heard it as a scoff. "Okay. Yeah, he did send you," he said.
It revived the vexation inside the Israeli. Still, five years of training in the agency prevented her from mistakenly retaliating with something acid. "Do you really know who did this?" she asked casually, unable to help herself.
The smile on the man's face degraded into a mere ghost. "Unfortunately, yes," he nodded. "Jealousy can do so much to a person. Lio was a good student, very polite, would have been successful at being a JAG—which he told me was his dream, but it's not going to happen anymore." He paused, unknowingly deepening the sting to Ziva from a word in his statement. "This is the least I can do for him."
"Why did you only come to us today? Why not the night of?"
"Because I wasn't sure," he answered, deflecting the frustration in her words. He knew it was not directed to him. He smiled when something occurred to him. "Wait. Aren't you supposed to interview me when we get to the Navy Yard? This is a little unsafe."
Ziva narrowed her eyes, incredulous of his perception of the matter.
He shrugged. "I've had my share of crime procedurals," he admitted.
Ziva's eyes lessened into slits, but she quickly shook her head to rid of it. They would arrive at NCIS late lingering like this. Gibbs would be waiting. "This is not to intimidate you," she said. "We just have to make sure that what you know is really what we need for this case."
"Do you doubt me?" he asked, his face devoid of any expression.
"I do not know," Ziva answered. "But one thing I do know is that the sincerity of your words is lost by you choosing not to look me in the eye while you wear those dark sunglasses."
"Sometimes you have to see past what your eye shows you."
"Well, it would have been a start if you did," responded Ziva, irked by him.
"But I cannot ever look at you," he said.
Her features curved into that of shock and indignation. If he tells me it is because I'm—
"How can I?" He finally turned fully towards her direction, and then he removed his sunglasses. His eyes, orbs in a lackluster hue of emerald and untrained to what was in front but only to what was ahead, melted Ziva's anger and shifted it into remorse. He smiled lightly. "I'm blind, Agent David."
To be continued...