Disclaimers: NCIS, the rights to the show and its characters do not belong to me.
Spoilers: very minor ones for S7's The Inside Man and S8's Enemies Foreign/Enemies Domestic, if only for the name of Ziva's mother.
Pairing: Ziva/? [insert-your-own-ship story, though it only works with a male partner, sorry]
He notices it a couple of times over the years, but it's actually not until they get together that he starts wondering about it. It's a strange place to have a scar, and he can't help but wonder about the story behind it, but figures that, much like the others ones on her body, this one is also off limits for him to talk about.
When they have been together for a few months and are lying in bed, she suddenly covers his hand as it traces down a soft scare on her right side.
"Pick one and I'll tell you how I got it." she offers, her voice soft in the dimmed light, her dark eyes guarded.
He runs his hand over her body, pausing on some scars and kissing them. He feels her shiver against his hand a few times, shudders running through her body as she no doubt remembers just how she got each and every single one of them. Then he suddenly withdraws his hand, reaches up and taps her left earlobe.
"What?" she asks, frowning.
"This one. How did you get this?" he asks her and Ziva stares at him, blinking slowly.
"Of all of them, you actually want to know how I got this one?" she wonders and he nods.
"Yeah. It's an odd place for a scar." he shrugs, taking her earlobe into his mouth and grazing over it with his teeth, making her giggle and squirm against him.
"Okay, okay." she agrees, gently pushing against his chest so she's able to look at him again. "I was ten." she starts and he raises an eyebrow as she sighs.
They had just moved to the new neighborhood. Ten year old Ziva David was stabbing at the food on her plate, glaring daggers at her mother.
"Ima!" Tali complained in her whiny voice. "Ziva is kicking me again!"
"Ziva, stop it." Rivka scolded the girl, reaching below the table to still the girl's legs.
"I wanna call Papa." Ziva declared and her mother sighed.
"No, you spoke to him yesterday." she shook her head, the grip on her fork tightening as Ziva threw down hers and crossed her arms. "If you are finished go wash your hands and get started on your homework." Rivka told her. Ziva glared at her again before pushing back her chair and running from the small kitchen, banging the door to her and Tali's room shut behind her. She ignored her mother's instruction to wash her hands and do her homework, instead throwing herself onto her bed and hiding her face in the pillow.
She hated this place. It was tiny. In Tel Aviv, she had had her own room to sleep and do her homework in and a play room she shared with Tali. Now she had to share a room with her sister all the time. It was all her mother's fault; she had ripped them from their father. She missed Papa and wanted to go back to sleep in her old room again and play with her friends. No one she knew lived in Jerusalem. Her new classmates were stupid; she didn't like any of them. At home, she had been friends with half of the other children and gone to many sleepovers. And today her mother had declared that she wouldn't be getting any dancing lessons soon, because she had to find a job first. Until then, they would have to make do. But of course Tali didn't have to cut back on anything. She had been allowed to continue her swimming lessons. Ziva didn't care that they were supposed to help her sister coordinate her movements. She'd even have taken those stupid lessons, too, but when she had said that, her mother had told her to stop sulking, she knew that those were lessons Tali needed and not just playing in the water for an hour. Well, for Ziva it looked a lot like that, though.
She sat up in her bed and glared at the two desks sitting next to each other at the wall. Walking over, she made a point of kicking against her sister backpack so it fell over, spilling some of the contents onto the floor. Served her right for setting it down in the middle of the room, Ziva thought as she lifted hers up on the chair and took out her books.
She had just finished with her math homework when the door to the room opened.
"Go away." Ziva told the other person, not even caring if it was her mother or her sister she was talking to. She was mad at both of them, why should she make a difference?
"Ziva, I have told you before, you do not talk to me like that." Rivka David sighed, walking over to her and resting her hand on the girl's head briefly, but Ziva shook it quickly and her mother pulled back, looking over her shoulder to see what she was doing.
"I want you to go outside with Tali." she told the girl.
"I'm not finished yet." Ziva shook her head, brushing her hair from her face and filling out a word in the crossword puzzle.
"You can do that later when Tali is in bed."
"Where am I supposed to do it when she is sleeping here?" Ziva argued, looking up to see her mother pinch the bridge of her nose.
"Do not test my patience, Ziva. You will go outside with your sister and keep an eye on her. And when she is in bed you can finish this in the kitchen. Now change your clothes for something appropriate outside." her mother told her, kissing her head and leaving the room, pulling the door shut behind her. Ziva glared at the wood before throwing her pencil against it, giving a low growl.
She hated having to watch her sister. Just because Tali was stupid and did not get that she was not supposed to run off on her own. But at least in Tel Aviv, Ziva had had friends living in the neighborhood that had come outside and keep her company. Now, though, she knew no one, and had to watch her stupid sister throw a ball against the wall of the apartment complex, blundering attempt after attempt to catch it. She rolled her eyes at the other girl and kicked against a small stone, sending it flying over the tiles in the backyard until it came to rest at the feet of the stairs back inside. Where a few boys were coming down now. Ziva narrowed her eyes. She recognized two of them; they were in her class and had made fun of her yesterday. One had pulled her hair and the other had laughed at her in class when she got an answer wrong.
"Look who's here." the one who had laughed grinned at her.
"Go away." Ziva shouted at him, clenching her small fists when they all just laughed.
"Hey, look." one of them she didn't know suddenly said, pointing at Tali. Ziva felt her stomach drop. Oh no. She prayed for her sister to stop her ridiculous attempts and was relieved when Tali bent down to pick up the ball again, pausing when she caught sight of the boys.
"Zivi?" the younger girl asked, sounding confused when the boys started approaching her.
"You two know each other?" the guy that seemed to be the oldest asked, picking up a small stone and turning it over in his hand. Ziva opened her mouth to deny it, but her sister was faster than her for once in her life.
"She's my sister." Tali told them.
"What were you two playing?" one of the boys asked. Ziva suddenly remembered his name. Ibrahim. His last name was something with a Z, she thought and watched as he held out his hands wordlessly, waiting for Tali to hand her ball over. The girl frowned and wrapped her arms around the toy.
"I wanna go inside now." she declared and made to move past them, but the four boys blocked her path and cut Ziva off from her.
"Leave her alone." she told them, trying to sound intimidating.
"Or what? You'll go run fetch your parents?" Ibrahim laughed and turned, hitting the ball from Tali's arms. Ziva watched as the bottom lip of her sister trembled and tears pooled in her dark eyes.
"Oh, is baby going to cry?" Ibrahim's friend that had taunted Ziva at school asked. Tali sniffled and wiped her nose.
"It's okay. What's your name, Ziva's sister?" Ibrahim asked her and Tali gave him a suspicious look.
"Tali." she answered, frowning lightly and taking a step back when the boy reached out his hand towards her.
"Don't touch her." Ziva growled. Ibrahim gave her a look of smug triumph before taking a quick step forward and yanking on Tali's ponytail.
It was as if something had snapped inside of her. Ziva never remembered moving, but the next thing she knew was that she was wrestling Ibrahim on the ground, kicking and hitting him with her fists, biting down hard when he tried to shut up her screams by putting his hand over her mouth. The fight was over before either one of them could gain the upper hand as a woman came barging into the backyard, yelling at the boys. Ibrahim let go of Ziva and scrambled to his feet, running for his life with his friends. Ziva slowly sat up in the dirt, wiping her sleeve over her eyes to get rid of the sand that burned in them.
"Did they hurt you?" the woman asked as she knelt down next to her, gently prying her arm from her face. Ziva shook her head, desperately trying not to cry at the humiliation and pain. Tali gave a scream, pointing with a trembling finger at her sister and the woman drew in a sharp breath.
"Oh dear." she muttered, pulling a tissue from her pants and pressing it to her earlobe. Ziva cried out at the sudden pain and tried getting away from her.
"It's okay, sh." the woman tried to calm her, stroking her hair as she turned to Tali. "Sweetheart, can you go fetch your mother?" she asked her and Tali nodded, running back inside, managing not to stumble for once. "Ah, it's okay." the woman repeated when she looked back down at Ziva and saw she was trying to stop crying. "You're David's older one, aren't you? Ziva, right?" Ziva stared at her, blinking at the tears running down her cheeks. "I work at the shop with your mother. I am Rebecca." the woman introduced herself, looking up when she heard crying. Rivka appeared, carrying a crying Tali.
"What on earth, Ziva?" she muttered, running her hand up and down Tali's back. Rebecca took the tissue from Ziva's ear and Rivka paled visibly, her mouth becoming a hard line. "I told you to watch your sister, what happened?" she demanded to know, setting Tali down and bending down to inspect the damage, giving a soft curse.
"It wasn't her fault, Rivka." Rebecca shook her head. "Isaac's son and his friends did it. She isn't the first to get in a fight with them."
Ziva's mother shook her head and gave a soft sigh. "Thank you for looking after her." she turned to Rebecca, picking Ziva up and making her stand before bending down to pick up the girl's earring.
"I will drive you to the hospital." the other woman declared as she stood, too.
"That is not-"
"Unless you want her earlobe to remain like this, she needs it stitched up." Rebecca argued. "It is no trouble and I know you do not have a car. Come on, you could use someone to stay with Tali while Ziva gets treated, too." she insisted, taking Tali's hand and pulling the girl with her resolutely.
He flinches, gently tracing his finger down her earlobe.
"That must have really hurt." he mutters, kissing the skin and Ziva sighs, turning her head to catch his lips.
"It did." she nods. "Though it had its upside. My mother went upstairs and yelled at his father for twenty minutes, we could hear them in Rebecca's apartment. He never touched Tali or me again."
He gives a soft smile, tracing his hand down her body again, making her squirm against him.
"I suppose I'm not going to get another story anytime soon, huh?" he mutters as he starts kissing his way down from her neck over her collarbone down the valley between her breasts.
"Keep it up and I may reward you for good behavior." Ziva breathes, a gasp falling from her lips when his hand slips between her legs. She throws back her head and arches her back, her hands twisting into his hair as he grins against the smooth skin of her stomach, continuing his journey south.
fin.
Thank you for reading. Reviews are greatly appreciated. And again, not revealing who is with her was an intentional move.