Tears
Everyone sees Ziva David as a strong, invincible, ninja superwoman. Blessed with speed, beauty and quick wit to say the least, but only Ziva sees herself as the complete opposite; weak, vulnerable, slow and undesirable.
She told this to Tony once, and know he knows why…
Ziva David sat by herself under a small tree, as far away from the other children as possible. She shielded her face from view with her long brown hair to try and escape notice from the cruel, prying eyes of her fellow students. Her eyes darted from side to side, back to front all the while trying to read 'Moby Dick'. Sometimes it really sucked to be the daughter of the Mossad deputy Director.
She heard footsteps behind her and before she could react she was sprawled to the ground and her book snatched from her hands. She began to pull herself up to see who had pushed her. Nimrod; a big, muscled boy drop-kicked her book at her then grabbed a handful of her hair and hauled her to her feet.
"I bet you think your so tough, Daddy being Director of Mossad." He snarled at her.
"Lo." She whimpered, tears leaking from her eyes as Nimrod yanked her hair.
"Lo?" Nimrod gave her hair on last hard pull before he let her crumple to the ground. He ripped her book in half, threw it at her, then kicked her for good measure before stalking off with her bag. No! she thought, not my bag. Her mother had died earlier that week, on a secret Mossad operation so she didn't know the details of her death. Her father had given her the effects that her mother had left for her in her will that morning on the way to school that morning and she had put them in her school bag. The bag Nimrod was walking away with.
Ziva left her torn book and ran after Nimrod, he heard her coming and started running too. Everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch the confrontation between Nimrod Shelby and Ziva David.
Nimrod tossed Ziva's bag on top of an old school building; no one even dared go up there, the roof was rusty and about to collapse in on itself, whatever got stuck up there, stayed up there.
Ziva punched Nimrod with her small fist, it did little against his massive back but earned her a return blow to the stomach. Ziva doubled over, coughing.
A few items fell from her bag; it hung slightly over the eaves of the double storey building, books and a few pens and pencils. She didn't care all of her mother's things were in that bag. Her star of David, her menorah, countless priceless objects and an unopened envelope.
When she regained her breath the crowd was gone, already inside at their next lesson, she looked up at the rooftop; her bag impossibly far away. Her father would have told her not to cry but she didn't care. It was his fault her things were on top of that crumbling building and it was his fault she would never read what her mother had written and it was his fault her mother was dead. It was his fault and she hated him.
A glimmer of gold caught her eye… the necklace. Hanging from a rusted piece of corrugated iron eight metres off the ground.
Everyone had gone home, she should have been to but her father had forgotten to pick her up again. Now Ziva David climbed the crumbling wall to retrieve the necklace from the rooftop.
"ZIVA!" a voice yelled in fear, "Get down! You can fall!" the loud voice startled her and she slipped. Falling…falling…falling… strong arms caught her before she hit the ground. She whimpered into her savior's shoulder.
"Ziva don't scare me like that."
"Ari." She wept.
"It's okay, you're safe."
"Where is Aba?"
"Working." He said coldly.
"Ari… I miss Ima." Ari put his sister down
"Don't cry Ziva, it does no good." He murmured darkly. Ziva ran away from her brother.
"Don't turn into Aba, Ari." She walked home by herself. Only to be met halfway by Nimrod and his friends. When she finally arrived home her face was bruised, her clothes were torn and dirty, her hair was a tangled mess and blood oozed from her split lip and torn eye brow.
Eli David didn't even notice.
