Title: Shalom
Summary: Following on from the last scene with Ziva at the house. Major, major spoilers for Shabbat Shalom & Shiva
Author Notes: This is a tag to the episode Shabbat Shalom. I saw the episode yesterday just after having watched the Christmas eppy which had inspired me to write a little tag but once I saw this eppy this story woke me up at 2 am and just begged to be written.I think it will be about two chapters.
I am Australian and I do try to use American terms but some of the Aussie terms may slip through. Apologies in advance for any typos or mistakes in grammar. I am not Jewish but do work for an orthodox Jew so have a reasonable understanding of the rituals but have backed them up with the necessary research.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters on NCIS. I am only playing with them and will put them back safely once I have finished with them but I'm not promising that they will be in the same condition I started with them! Mind you, the writers of NCIS don't do that either!
SHALOM
Part 1/?
Palmer entered the house tentatively, following the purposeful stride of Agent Gibbs. The late night call to attend at Director Vance's home for the body of Eli David had caught him by surprise. He had stuttered in response as he stumbled to find car keys with a lot of questions running through his head, which he had wisely chosen not to ask. While the multiple bullet holes in the exterior of the house had given him plenty of warning of what was to come inside, it also served to increase his curiosity and concern about what had taken place. Right now wasn't the time to try to have his questions answered.
He adjusted his grip on his case as he heard Ziva's distressed voice, murmuring softly in her native tongue. The words sounded like a prayer, heavily punctuated with sorrow and despair. Looking over to the far side of the dining room, he caught sight of her in the doorway where she sat huddled with her father's body pulled tightly in her arms, her hand gently caressing her dead father's head. Blood coated the front of Eli David's blue shirt. Palmer could easily see the entrance wound from one of the shots.
Gibbs approached Ziva and crouched down beside her, softly whispering into her ear. Ziva paused in her recitation, quietly absorbing the words he had said. She turned her sorrowful dark eyes towards Gibbs, her face stained with tears and slowly gave a single nod of acknowledgement. Gibbs held out his hand to her. She said a few more words and gave her father a final kiss on his forehead before allowing Gibbs to assist her to stand. Her legs were unsteady beneath her momentarily and Gibbs gently wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer to him. His eyes met with Palmer's and gave the signal to him to come and attend to the body as Gibbs took Ziva outside the Vance's home.
"Where's Dr. Mallard?" Palmer asked. Jimmy had expected his mentor to have already been on the scene since he hadn't been at the NCIS building when he had arrived to collect the medical van and he had been told in no uncertain terms to hike it to the crime scene.
"He's not on call in the evening, Palmer," Gibbs quietly reminded him. While Ducky had returned to most of his duties as medical examiner, his cardiologist had recommended a six month stay before returning to his on call duties.
Palmer knew better than to ask why he hadn't been called in specifically for this case. If there was ever one that required Ducky's expertise and diplomacy, this was it. In the past, Gibbs would not have hesitated to call Ducky, despite any medical recommendation in a situation like this one but ever since Ducky's heart attack, Gibbs had been careful not to overexert the older man.
The night air had a bite to it, the frigid air immediately combining with the dead feeling in her heart and sweeping any warmth from Ziva's limbs as she stepped out onto the porch. She shivered in response.
Tony had been watching her quietly, concern for his dark-haired partner clearly evident on his face. He immediately removed his coat and draped it over her shoulders, the length swishing around her calves. She gave him a small nod of thanks devoid of her usual smile of appreciation. Ziva gripped the woollen material tightly around her body.
"What happened Ziver?" Gibbs stood in front of her, his eyes watching her carefully. He was concerned for her emotionally fragile state. First caused by having her father turn up unannounced and now being torn in two over his death. He had seen her broken before but she was a survivor - she had proved that in Somalia and he knew that she would do so again. He would ensure that she was going to be able to see through her grief.
Ziva drew a deep breath, debating whether Gibbs wanted to hear about the conversation with her father in her car or closer to the attack. Ziva doubted that she could recount the conversation with her father right now, regretting that they were the last words she had spoken to her father.
"I came outside to phone you about my father and Tyler Wilkes." Ziva held Gibbs' gaze, her eyes still puffy from her tears. Gibbs watched as she straightened her back, a steely glint coming to her eyes as she focussed on recounting the attack. Ziva moved down the driveway and looked towards the Vance's house, the first time actually absorbing the enormity of the attack. The house was riddled with bullets. Her training had kicked in on the first shot and she had defended her position; it didn't even occur to her to check on her father and hosts instead of chasing the shooter. It was only now that she was regretting that choice. "The shooter was located over here and began firing within seconds of my ringing you."
"How did he miss you?" Gibbs looked to the spot where the shooter had been and back at the house.
"When I came outside, I was standing behind the pillar and I beat the ground immediately when I heard the gunfire," Ziva responded.
"Hit the ground," Tony automatically corrected.
Ziva looked across at him, the familiarity in the correction comforting. She continued "I ran from the pillar to the edge of the house and caught him running towards his car. I shot at him twice before moving for a better position. He ran down to his car which was located over there. I fired another four rounds shooting out the back and side windows of his car as he drove off."
Tony watched his partner recount the events, her words were precise and clipped without any emotion. He recognised the signs, her details given on auto pilot. Ziva was putting up her defences and retreating behind it.
"I saw the direction he was taking and I jumped the Vance's fence to head him off in the street behind. I stood in the middle of the road and fired five shots into his windshield. He lost control and crashed into a parked car. He was wounded. He left his vehicle through the passenger door, and that's when you caught up with me."
"Do you know who the shooter is?" Gibbs recalled the shooter's words to Ziva. He knew who she was by sight.
"No. I do not know him." Ziva told him succinctly.
"He seemed to know who you are," Gibbs quizzed her, raising his eyebrows and looking at her for explanation.
"He is an assassin. You always know your target." Ziva looked at him, her eyes asking him not to pursue this line of questioning.
Gibbs recalled Ziva's dossiers on all of his team when she was Ari's control agent. The first time he had met Ziva and the time that she had had to kill her half-brother to save his life. Being reminded of the loss of her half-brother on the day that she had lost her father would be too great.
"Who do you think he was working for?" Gibbs asked, changing tact.
"My father had many enemies." Ziva recalled their discussion when she first met him the previous night. "I told him that he was foolish to be here without his protection."
"He met with Arash Kazmi today. Any chance it could be connected."
Tony didn't recognise the name. Obviously it was one of significance.
"Yes. No. Maybe. It would not seem a coincidence that Kazmi is here when my father is assassinated.."
Gibbs inclined his head in agreement.
"I have not seen my father in two years so my knowledge is outdated. Five years ago I was set up by the Iranians to destabilise the relationship between Israel and America."
"In this case your father's death would only serve to destabilise the relationship between Iran and Israel."
"There is no relationship - they are only one step away from war. Iran wants to annihilate Israel."
"Not what your father and Kazmi were trying to accomplish."
"No. But I did not hold out much hope for what they were trying to achieve. Not when you have the leaders of the country wanting to eliminate and obliterate Israel. Brigadier General Jalali was recently quoted as saying on Quds Day that no other way exists apart from resolve and strength to completely eliminate the aggressive nature and to destroy Israel."
"Your father's death could bring retaliation from Israel against Iran."
"Definitely." Ziva had grown up in a country that was constantly under attack from a neighbouring country. You learned to live with it but you did not accept it. She had lost her sister to the conflict and now her father. "Times have not changed that much."
Gibbs frowned, trying to follow what she was saying. "Ziva, we will find out who is responsible for this."
Ziva nods. She hears the wheels of the gurney with her father's body being rolled out of the house. "I must accompany my father's body to the morgue."
"No you don't." Gibbs told her firmly. "Go home, Ziva."
"No, Gibbs. I cannot go home. I must accompany his body. It is a Jewish custom, Gibbs. Someone must stay with the body until burial." Ziva told him. "It is my duty. I let him down tonight. He had no protection and I should have stood in their place. I knew that as Director of Mossad that there was no chance that he had entered America without detection. I should have protected him. I will not let him down again."
"Ziver..."
"I must go." Ziva ran to catch up with Palmer as he gunned the engine of the NCIS medical van. Palmer looked at her in surprise as she opened the door and hopped in. "I am going with you."
Palmer stammered acknowledgement and ground the gears as he drove off.
Gibbs grimaced at the sound of the gears, wondering how Ducky coped with his comedic and at times, seemingly inept assistant.
"Di Nozzo, you process inside the house. McGee!" Gibbs called to the junior agent who had stayed back beside Ziva's car while Ziva had been recounting the scene.
McGee hurried over to his senior agent.
"I want you to process outside here. I've called in another team to help process the scene in the next street." Gibbs turned on his heel and headed to his car.
"Ah, boss? Where are you going?" McGee was surprised to see him leaving the crime scene.
"To the hospital."
"Where is Ziva?" Abby asked Tony as they entered the lift to go down to the lobby.
"Sitting at the morgue with her father's body." Tony thought about her final words before she left with Palmer. Ziva had over a short period of time endured the loss of all of the members of her immediate family. While he didn't have a close relationship with his father, it was a healing one and he was grateful for it. Ziva's relationship with her own father was unusual, to say the least. What kind of father grooms his daughter to be an assassin. What kind of father sends his daughter on a suicide mission to Somalia. But she had been devastated to find her father dead, her anguished screams would haunt his sleep for a long time.
"On her own?" Ducky asked, surprised that no-one had thought to go with her.
"Yes."
"What were you thinking, Tony!" Abby exclaimed. "How is she?"
"Upset as you can imagine," Tony said. "Her father was just gunned down. And she's blaming herself."
"This is not the time for her to be on her own," Ducky chastised. "Did Mr. Palmer contact the Chevra Kadisha?"
"The what?"
"Chevra Kadisha. They are a Jewish organisation that ensure that the bodies are prepared for burial in accordance with Jewish tradition and are protected from desecration. The also provide shomrim which will be very important considering that Eli David has died on Shabbat. Jewish law requires that a body is buried as soon as possible but it also prevents this happening on shabbat."
"I wouldn't know, Ducky. Maybe you could give him a call and find out." Tony responded tersely, his ego smarting from the dual attack.
"Yes. Yes I will." Ducky pulled out his cell phone as the lift arrived at the lobby ready to ring Mr. Palmer.
End Part 1/?
Author note: The quotes about the annihilation of Israel are quotes from Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a senior cleric in Tehran and Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali in August 2012. I had been contemplating taking this story down a track with also assassinating Kazmi which would have been interesting but given the current real state of affairs between Israel & Iran, it's too close to home for me to even contemplate writing. This story will just be a missing scenes to Shabbat Shalom & Shiva.