Disclaimer: NCIS is not mine... sadly... I would probably make Gibbs walk around shirtless all the time and Ziva would try to seduce him all day long...
Protection from the nightmares.
She couldn't believe she had ended up here again. No matter how bad her dreams had been in the last few months, she had never run out of her apartment like that.
The nightmares had been horrible. She hadn't slept well in at least six months. Memories of the incident left her traumatized and, being herself, she never asked anyone for help.
'The incident' was a day two weeks before Christmas, when Ziva got kidnapped. She had been on her way to Starbucks to get some coffee for herself and the team when two men attacked her from behind and knocked her out immediately. She still remembered waking up in the van once, hearing the sounds of other cars. The next time she woke up, must have passed out again in the can, she was in a basement. It was dirty and wet and there were a few rats keeping her company. She couldn't stand up, too dizzy to really move at all. There were no lights, no windows connecting her to the world.
Her training made it possible for her not to go crazy in that place. Spending five hours in a room like this would have been to much for a lot of agents, but for her it was pretty standard. It was nothing against her time in Somalia. Yet, not being able to move had it's disadvantages. She wanted to find a way out of there, not knowing how long those men intended to keep her. Instead, all she could do was wait and hope the team would find her soon.
Gibbs had carried her out of that place only five hours after she had gone missing. It had felt longer.
That night, he had made her stay at his place. He didn't want her to be alone, knowing she would be scared, no matter how good her training was. She would need some comfort and he intended to give her whatever she needed.
They had spent the night in his basement, working on his boat. He had tried to teach her some things about the wood, but in the end she would just sit there with a glass of bourbon, watching him build his boat.
It calmed her and for some reason kept her from having nightmares that night. She fell asleep under the boat, but woke up on the couch in his living room, with him sleeping in the chair next to it.
At that point he had already been dating Samantha Ryan for at least half a year. She hadn't moved in yet, so Gibbs had called her and told her what had happened to Ziva. Ryan probably wouldn't have been okay with any woman staying at Gibbs' house, but she knew that he and Ziva were friends and that nothing would happen.
Now, six months after the incident, Gibbs was still with Ryan and they were now living together in his house. Her son had his own room upstairs. Not Kelly's room, that one had been locked for years. Ziva doubted that anyone would ever live in that room again.
The Israeli had picked the lock of Gibbs' front door, which had been locked ever since the Ryans moved in. She knew her boss would have woken up by now, no matter how quiet she had been. However, Samantha and her son are completely oblivious to small noises like that.
Ziva was now standing in the middle of his basement, waiting for him to come downstairs. He would know it's her. He always did.
TBC
A/N: Damn, I wanted this to be short... now I feel like this is gonna need several chapters... ah well... REVIEW PLEASE! I have a tendency to forget stories if I don't get reminded every once in a while!