DISCLAIMER: I obviously don't own NCIS.
OH MY FRIGGING GOD. This episode just ripped me apart. I can't even find words to describe what happened to my feels at the end. I just...I can't even.
Anyways, I know this is short, but it's a drabble, so it's sort of supposed to be. I plan on publishing a longer fic at some point, probably adding on to "The Darkest of Nights", but I had to get this out of my system first.
"ABBA!" she screams, and the world falls away around her.
It's too much. Finally the world has given Ziva more than she can handle. The last remaining tie to Israel has snapped and nothing is left of the life she once knew. Tali, Ari, her mother—all gone, all in a place where she cannot reach them. And now Eli is dead as well.
She is the last one standing, the lone survivor, and even as Ziva keens with grief a small part of her appreciates the irony. Is this not what her father wanted her to be—a survivor? Did he not train her from the time she was small to be able to endure anything set before her? Isn't this strength: To know you are the last of your kind and yet keep living? If so, she is done being strong. Ziva buries her head in her father's chest and cries more tears than she knew she had, silently begging God to take her life if He will only let Eli breathe again.
"Ziver." A strong hand on her shoulder, soft blue eyes and the voice of one of the only men she has ever truly trusted. "Ziver, come on. Let's get you home."
It is in the grip of his fingers and the gentle tone of his voice that Ziva reads Gibbs' empathy. He knows—he has had his world ripped away from him too. Stumbling to her feet, not caring who might see, she rises only to collapse against his chest, needing to feel her father's heartbeat and know he is alive. Gibbs is not her abba—he will never be that—but he is her father more than Eli ever could be, and in this moment, that is all that matters.