NCIS Story: Where I Truly Belong

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, if I did Tony and Ziva would have already gotten together.

Chapter 1- Set after Good Cop Bad Cop Episode: 7x04

So much has happened in a span of just a few months. I had stayed in Israel after Tony killed Michael Rivkin. During the summer, I was captured and held in Somalia by a devil named Saleem. He had wanted information on NCIS, but I would not tell him or his men anything. I was beaten, tortured, and…I was even raped a few times by Saleem and his men. I thought I was going to die in that hell hole, but then one day I was being taken to the same room I assumed for more beatings, little did I know when Saleem's men sat me down and took the bag off of my head, I saw the person I least expected to be there…Tony DiNozzo.

"Why are you here?" I had asked him.

"Couldn't live without you I guess," he had told me.

My heart had skipped a beat when he said that. He was not angry at me for how I treated him after he killed Michael in my apartment. I had expected my father, Eli David the Director of Mossad to send out a rescue team for me, but when I saw Tony sitting across from me and McGee laying on the ground, pretending to be knocked out, I had started to wonder why they were here and not my own father. Next thing I know, Saleem has a knife to my throat and Tony is saying something about wild cards, I think that's what he was saying anyways. Then I hear Tony say:

"You have 30 seconds to live Saleem."

"You are lying!" Saleem yelled back.

"I can't lie," Tony said back, "Remember when I told you my boss was a sniper?"

Then all of a sudden, I no longer felt a knife to my throat and Tony and McGee are untying me and I see Saleem's lifeless body on the ground with a bullet to his head right between his eyes. I look up to the only window in the room and there is a bullet hole in it. Tony and McGee are both helping me to walk; we rounded the corner and saw Gibbs with his sniper rifle saying the three words I have wanted to hear for the longest time:

"Let's go home."

I have been back at NCIS for a few weeks now and I am stuck doing desk duty until my request to be an agent is approved. However, it now seems less likely I will become one after what happened about an hour ago in the interrogation room. I had to tell both Gibbs and Vance about my mission on the Damocles and relive the time that I was captured by Saleem. The last few minutes of what happened in interrogation are still fresh in my mind:

"Your father is a bad man Ziva. You didn't have a choice; he didn't give you a choice. He had raised you to be a ruthless and soulless killer," said Gibbs.

I had replied with the only thing I knew I could say to Gibbs at the time:

"I am sorry Gibbs."

After I said that, he looked at me and smiled. He walked over to the other side of the table and whispered in my ear:

"Don't apologize."

The he kissed on the side of the head, then left, and the next thing I know I had started to cry in the interrogation room before heading back up to the bullpen.

Since then I have been waiting for Gibbs to come down from the Director's office with any news. Then suddenly I feel like a weight has been put on my legs, I look down to see McGee's dog, Jethro had put his head on my lap. He whines and licks my hand wanting me to pet him. As I'm petting him and scratching behind his ear, I'm hearing Tony and McGee having yet another argument; this time about a virus that got onto McGee's computer. Turns out they had come to a draw in their bet which meant I ended up doing their paperwork. Then Gibbs had popped out of nowhere like he always does and placed a piece of paper on top of the paperwork I now had to do. As he sat down at his desk, he said:

"Get to work probie."

That was the greatest thing that I had heard today. The rest of the day went on slowly with McGee listening to his self help CDs and Tony throwing paper balls into McGee's trash bin. Tony…hmmm…it seems that he is always what I'm thinking about foe these past few weeks. Just a few days ago I had kissed him on the cheek and I still have no idea why I did that, but for some reason it felt right that I had kissed him that day. I look up from the load of "my" paperwork (Tony's and McGee's) and Tony is staring at me yet again. Then our eyes lock and then it seems as if time itself all around us had stopped. He smiles his usual DiNozzo smile and I look back at my paperwork to hide the fact that I had just blushed. Gibbs breaks the silence by saying:

"Go home, nothing to do here."

Home, that's a word whose meaning has changed so much in my life, but now I have finally come to the understanding of the true meaning of home. Abby, Ducky, and Palmer come up from Autopsy and the lab and Abby said:

"Time for the official annual Team Gibbs dinner party at Gibbs's house!"

"BARK!" Jethro the dog barked excitedly.

Everyone else gets up and heads to the elevator. Tony stops in front of my desk with his hand held out for me. I take his hand and get up from my desk; I start towards the elevator, but Tony stops me by grabbing the arm and turning me towards him. I start to say:

"Tony…"

It was all I could say before he placed his lips on mine in a soft, sweet kiss, but then broke the kiss all too soon. One again he gives me his trademark smile and for the first time in a long time I smile back at Tony.

"DiNozzo! David!" shouted Gibbs.

Tony takes my hand again and we walk to the elevator to join the others. The elevator doors close and we head to the ground floor. I look around at the people with me and I know now for sure without a doubt I am finally home because after all home is where the hearts is and my heart was always here with my NCIS family.

End of Chapter 1