The sweltering heat, the mesmerizing beauty, the lure of hidden secrets.

Memories arose inside her, rushing to her mind adorn with boiling tears. She was now here, in the hot Israeli desert, after resigning from NCIs and forced back to Israel. Still after months she yearned for the navy yard, to be happy with her family.

She wondered how Gibbs was, her adopted father, she hoped he was safe.

She had lost too much, she could not afford to lose another loved one.

Mcgee and Abby, how were they? They had been in touch yet not for the past week. Both were struggling to adapt.

And tony, well tony. She missed him dearly, she ached for his protection, for his LOVE.

It was not fair.

It should not have turned out this way.

Ziva turned, facing shops full of colored fabric, hard stone walls looming up. She moved closer, winding between crowds of flustered people. Faint strands of a Hebrew melody wafted in the breeze, the sound enticing and luring.

Above, the boiling red sun burned down, its rays submerging Israeli's in unbelievable heat.

She knew Gibbs was away in a far and dangerous place, risking his life to escape Parsons plans.

Similar to her.

Neither had had a choice, for him it was that or become a fugitive, for her it was return to Israel and lose her honored citizenship or be prosecuted in America. They believed she was a spy, a backstabbing assassin. Well now if given the opportunity, she would literally stab them in the back at first chance, preferably with the lethal dagger hidden by her ankle.

Ziva entered a dark shop, white sheets hung upon the windows, the ancient walls cracked and mangled. Carefully, she picked up a delicate ring, the diamond sparkling as the facet caught a spectrum of placed it over the fourth finger of her left hand, and Tony's once uttered words washed over her.

'Looks good on you.'

She remembered it perfectly, she would never forget a moment with tony. She really did wish she could talk to him again, if only making contact wasn't so hard. Mossad naturally watched her every move, they were hidden in the dancing shadows, but she had sensed them, she sensed them now, she sensed them all the time.

She returned the ring to the counter, delicately placing it down.

She missed NCIS, the one place she had truly felt home.

It had been her safe place, where she had been happy.

She wanted to go back and she wanted to go back and see Tony.

Ziva sighed, recognizing she needed to hear Tony's voice or suffocate. She exited the shop discretely, she needed no more unwanted attention.

Once in a darkened alleyway, she found her phone, and pressing 1 on the speed dial, she listened impatiently to each ring.

Looking around, she observed her surroundings, high building walls seemingly reaching to the sky and the far away sound of children playing.

She was alone.

ALONE.

Aht lo levat Tony had said a life time ago. Now she was calling him.

And suddenly he answered, and with a wave of only recently explainable relief and happiness to her, she heard the sound of his voice.

'Ziva.' unmistakably he was happy.

She would tell him now.

But he got there first.

'I have to tell you something Zi.' he said.

She paused, hesitant but deciding she had to tell him now, first and immediately.

'No Tony, I have to tell you something.'

'Okay Zi, go ahead.' tony replied also hesitant.

She took a deep breath.

'tony, I love y-'

And the alleyway exploded with a deafening sound, walls crumbling down, the flattening granite immediately burying Ziva.

She would be with Tali now.

With Rivka.

With Eli.

With Ari.

They were reunited again.

Fire exploded from every angle, thick dark smoke rising to the heavens.

'Ziva!' Tony yelled from the other side of the line.

But everything was silent.

Utter, complete silence.

Only the sound of his anguished yells could be heard, echoing from the phone stuck tight in a crevice of fallen rocks.

Eventually people began to scream. Some in agony for themselves, other in agony over other.

Eventually sirens began to approach, their wailing splitting the cacophony.

Eventually Tony's tortured screams turned to broken sobbing.

And eventually the found her body, bent and broken, and at some point the eventually organized for Ziva David to rest in peace beneath the olive trees with her family.

But never, ever did tony once forget her.

Never did he move on.

Never did a moment pass where he did not yearn for his ninja.

'I love you too Ziva.' he would often say.

But Ziva was forever gone.