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Something that came up after Tuesday's episode. Everyone on the team has certain Daddy Issues, only Ziva's are at a physical end. Time ran out for her and Eli. What can she say to McGee that could help him?
Ziva eyed Tim McGee from across the bull pen. "Hey, how did your meeting go with your dad?"
He looked up from his keyboard. "Good, I guess. He stopped criticizing my life. That's at least something. I don't know where we go from here."
Seeing something like the hopeful look of a kicked puppy in his eyes, Ziva walked over to him. "Tim, I am the last person to give advice on fathers and their children, but keep going. The Admiral is beginning to see you for the wonderful, caring, highly protective and dedicated man you have become and I think he feels guilty that he was so absent in your life while you were growing up. Keep talking to him."
McGee sat silent for a while. "You're right, you are the last person to give me advice on this subject. But you might have something; maybe something you wish you had with your own father?"
Ziva, former Mossad Officer, whom was used to bending and breaking suspects to gain information pertinent to the investigation at hand, replied, "I do not know, Tim. I tried. I really did and he just kept...ruining it by confessing more and more and by what he was hiding." Tears welled in her eyes and she jerked herself back from the brink. She was trying to comfort him, not the other way around. "You still have time, Tim. Time I did not have with Eli. Use it. Make it right between you. Do not..." She wiped at a traitorous tear. "Do not end up like me. Make peace. Do not carry the guilt of angry words spoken and things that cannot be taken back. Despite everything, let him know you love him."
McGee, uncharacteristically, but in the relative silence of the bull pen, hugged her tightly for a few moments, both to continue to comfort and support her after her father's assassination and in her support towards his father. Tears welled in his eyes. This was his father. "Thank you, Ziva. I'm going to try if he'll let me," he paused, " You know Eli loved you, right?"
"No, I do not. He used me as a weapon from my first martial arts class when I was five. But he tried to make it right and kept failing. That he tried is, I suppose, enough. It will have to be. There can be no more chances," she said, deep sorrow of a child never confident over a parent's love in her voice. "But there is for you and the Admiral. Enough about me and Eli. You and he need to try and make it right between you. I know he is very sick. You do not have much time. Make it right, Tim. Make peace before time runs out. You have a huge heart and a lot of love there. It is not weakness to love. It is bravery, no matter what he says. Telling him and loving him is no cowardly thing. Make him see that. I know you can."
Timothy McGee looked on his sometimes partner, so raw in her emotions wanting to help him and hugged her again. "I will. I promise I will, Ziva. For you and Eli. I promise."