Title: Remember
Pairing: None.
Rating: K
Genre: Angst, Episode Tag
Cat: Gen
Spoilers: Tag for Safe Harbor.
Warnings: None.
Summary: Mariam's question sticks in Ziva's mind, so much that she can't forget.
Author's Note: So, this is entirely theoretical and kind of, WHAT, but the idea came up and I couldn't NOT write it. It's not long, but I didn't want to lessen the impact by making it longer. It says what it needs to say. :)


Little by little, she reveals herself.

Her words to Mariam are a release, though she still hesitates, keeps things to herself. There are some parts of her past that she cannot put into words.

She wonders if Mariam noticed the flash of guilt, and pain, in her eyes when she asked if she had children. She almost told her then, but it was too much, and she had a job to do.

Now, the family has been sent away, the paperwork has been filed, night has covered the city and Ziva finds herself driving without thinking, her mind on one thing only.

She arrives at her home and heads straight for her closet, a hidden drawer, a box within a box. As she lifts the cover, her eyes blur over as her emotions take control, and she wipes the back of her hand across her face and lifts out one of the small pictures.

A tiny baby is encased in an incubator, oblivious to the world around it. Her. The baby is a girl. Someone's daughter.

Ziva's daughter.

She runs a finger over the photo, the way she has many times before, when she needs to remember, then quickly puts it back in the box, covers it and shoves it away.

She climbs into bed and as she eventually drifts into sleep, Gibbs' words linger in her mind:

You're never alone when you have kids.

end