Yeah, this popped into my head after a particularly hard day. Some days, having your CNA is not always a light hearted thing.
Sanctuary is not mine. NCIS is not mine.
Helen Magnus was finally asleep. She was in her bed and she was clean and safe. She and Kate had been taken hostage while they were on a routine outing dealing with some of Helen's patients. Helen and Kate had been held for seventy two hours with a young Naval Officer by a serial killer. The NCIS team had barged in the front of the house while Will, Henry, and Declan came in the back. A battle of will's had ensued and after a check-up from a charming ME called Ducky, the women had been allowed to go back to the hotel suite they shared in D.C.
Helen jumped awake at the soft sounds of knocking on her bedroom door. "Enter." She called tiredly. It was Kate. Helen sat up and turned on her bedside lamp. Helen took in the face of the younger woman, noting the fresh tear streaks and the signs of being woken from a nightmare. "Kate, come here." Helen gently instructed the young woman to climb under the covers with her. Kate complied and immediately curled into Helen's side.
Meanwhile three blocks down…
Special Agent Ziva David lay in her bed staring at the ceiling of her bedroom. She couldn't quite shut her mind down. She had been taken and held hostage with two other women, one of whom was British and looked very much like her mother had. There were things about the woman that didn't sit right with Ziva. She sighed and got up. Pulling on a black silk robe she headed for her special room. She opened the door to what was supposed to be a second bedroom but instead held her piano. Ziva was no stranger to being held hostage, Somalia had changed her though. She sat at the piano and began playing from memory, still thinking of Dr. Helen Magnus.
The woman looked no older than perhaps forty, yet her eyes said she had lived so much longer and through more terrible things. Ziva wanted to know more about the woman who was this enigma. Ziva abruptly stopped playing. She left the piano open and ran back to her bedroom. She dressed quickly and grabbed her weapons and keys before jogging out her doorway. She was going to the hotel three blocks down where Helen had said they could be found.
Back at the hotel.
Helen and Kate had fallen asleep. Finally. They were wrapped around each other, sleeping soundly. Helen was on her stomach, an arm draped over Kate, hugging her close. The other arm under her pillow, hand wrapped around the gun she always carried.
The two women snored lightly as they sought comfort from each other. Helen was pulled out of her sleep by a knock on the door. She sat up and carefully extracted herself from Kate. She donned her black silk robe and grabbed her gun before going to answer the door.
Helen looked through the spy hole and saw the woman they had been held prisoner with. She opened the door. "Special Agent David, can I help you with something, at three in the morning?" Helen questioned the young Israeli.
"Actually, yes, do you mind if I come in for a bit?" Ziva asked the British doctor. Helen nodded and let her pass. "I couldn't sleep, and I wanted to know more about what you do. My bosses couldn't find much of anything on you other than you have lots of money and own a private research facility." Ziva said sitting on the chair that Helen had motioned for her to sit in. Helen sat across from her.
"So, you couldn't sleep. Would it have anything to do with the fact you were taken hostage, again?" Helen said, knowing about the woman already she felt that she could trust Ziva, even if her father was an ass. Ziva looked up in shock.
"How did you know?" Ziva squeaked out, shocked that Helen knew this.
"I have worked with Eli David before; I am guessing he is your father?" Helen said looking at Ziva. She nodded and smiled, becoming more comfortable with Helen.
"Tell me Dr. Magnus, what do you think of my father?" Ziva asked.
Helen thought for a moment. "I don't like him though I have to deal with Mossad for my operations in Israel. I'm guessing you don't like him either?" Helen asked, noting the stiffening of the young woman before her.
"He is a man with no feeling. I used to be proud of him, and then I volunteered for Mossad. I was always the shining star for my father, top of my classes always, the perfect Kidon Assassin, and then he sent me on my first mission. I was fifteen I had to take care of a suicide bomber. The boy was maybe ten years old. I shot him." Ziva sighed and looked at Helen. "When I got home that night my father showed how proud he was of me, we had a family celebration. I was numb, the boy was just a child and I killed him. That was when the second guessing of my father really started I suppose, but that life was all I had ever known." Helen nodded, realizing that this was the child he had said he was so proud of. Eli's story had disgusted Helen to almost no end.
"I remember the story, your father told me. I couldn't imagine doing that to my daughter; I didn't even want her to do what I do. I wanted her to have a normal life, she insisted on working with me. I couldn't stop her though." Helen said, thinking of Ashley.
Ziva looked at the doctor and noticed the note of sadness that had suddenly settled on the room. "May I ask what happened to your daughter?" Ziva said, wondering why they were getting along so well. Helen nodded and closed her eyes, willing the flash backs to go away.
"We had a group of people called the Cabal, who wanted to use my daughter against me and bring my entire network down. They very nearly succeeded. They kidnapped Ashley and drugged her. When I found her almost three months later, she was not my child; she didn't know me, or Henry. She took out five of my facilities around the world before she came after me. I had almost broken through the haze of drugs she was on before she was murdered in front of me. I see it over and over again in my dreams and I can't help but think that it is my fault that she is gone." Helen finished and watched the emotions flitter across Ziva's features.
"Wow. I did not know that, I am sorry that I asked I did not mean to bring up bad memories." Ziva stood to leave thinking that Helen would not want her there anymore.
"Ziva, you don't have to go, it is good for me to talk to someone outside the loop, I learned that a very long time ago." Helen said, stopping Ziva from rising.
"May I ask you a personal question?" Ziva asked as she sat back down. Helen nodded. "You look to be in your forties if that, but your eyes and the way you speak, you posture holds that of many years, beyond what you look. But not in the same way I do, I grew up fast, I had to. You are different." Ziva said. "Why is that, what is your secret?"
Helen took a deep breath. This is what she had been expecting. "I have not aged in over a century. Counting the time loop I went through too fix the latest disaster that plagued my work I am 273 years old, but by your records I would be 160." Helen said. Ziva in a rare not-Ziva moment, dropped her jaw in surprise.