Let me first start by saying that I do not intend to insult anyone. I do not claim to have all the facts right simply because I have no idea whether or not Mossad even gives out Medals simply because they work in the shadows. They probably do but we will never know so I'll just take what I can find on the net. It's just a story that was stuck in my mind.

Hers

There was a large box on Ziva's desk when she arrived at work. It had been cleared by security and the internal mail had brought it to her desk. She was in the middle of looking through its content when Gibbs came walking into the bullpen announcing that they had a dead body.

The box was immediately forgotten by Ziva and left on her desk. She and Tony were the ones to question the neighbours of the victim while Gibbs and McGee went back to NCIS after they were done processing the crime scene. Gibbs arrived back in the bullpen and noticed the box still standing open on Ziva's desk. He wasn't one to pry around in someone else's belongings but he saw a little box half opened sitting besides the box. He picked it up but before he could put it back an medal came falling out. When he picked it off the ground he saw that it was a chromed covered medal, it had a small olive branche on it and a bright yellow ribbon attached to it. It wasn't much to look at but he thought it must mean something to Ziva or else she wouldn't have asked it to be shipped to her.

Gibbs took a look at the box and saw it had come from Israel. He figured Ziva asked someone from her family to send her some private belongings. He put the little box with the medal back into the package but while doing so he saw the award certificate that went with it. His curiosity was peaked. He grabbed the certifcate and handed it to McGee.

'McGee find out what it means'

'Boss'

'Just do it and let's keep it between us'

'Why'

' just humor me OK'

After McGee had scanned the award into his computer Gibbs carefully put it back into the box. He felt a slight pang of guild because after all he normally he wouldn't have done something like this without a very good reason but his gut told him to do so and he learned a long time ago to listen to his gut.

The following day McGee came to Gibbs.

'Boss'

Gibbs turned and saw McGee clutching the scanned award certificate.

'it's the medal of Valor'

Gibbs raised his eyebrows. He knew what that meant. It was the highest military award any military could get in Israel. It compared to getting the Medal of Honor in the US. Ziva never mentioned it. When would she have gotten this.

McGee must have sensed his thought cause he answered Gibbs unspoken question.

'She received it shortly after we brought her back from the dead. Ziva is only the 41st ever to receive the medal and one of the very view to receive it while still alive. Just like with our…' McGee paused… 'recepiants of the military Honor she would have gotten tax benefits, free transport and so on if she would have remained a Israeli citizen'

Ziva sat at her desk when all of a sudden she remembered her package. She picked up the box and started going through her belongings. A view weeks ago she had finally picked up enough courage to mail her father. She didn't have the guts yet to call him directly. It had taken her much courage to ask him for a favor. She had asked him to send her some of her more personal stuff if he didn't already got rid of them. To her surprise he had complied rather easily. He send her some photo's, diploma's, birth certificate and even several photo's of her mother, Tali and Ari. From the looks of it he had send her more than she had asked for. Her medals, her service ribbons. She knew that he did not want her to forget what she had been fighting for and for whom she had done so. She really didn't care. That wasn't her life anymore. She dumped the medals and ribbons without given it any real thought. Gibbs watched her do so and when she had left to follow a lead on the case he went over the her desk and retrieved all of them. McGee and Tony watched him with their eyes wide open.

'Boss, what are you doing'

'Making sure she doesn't forget and regret'

A week had gone by since Ziva had dumped her violent past. She never mentioned the medals, ribbons or any of the other stuff she had gotten from her father. However one day she came into the bullpen and found that her medals had miraculously found their way back to the wall behind her desk in a beautiful handcrafted wooden box. She stared at them, tears welling up. She turned around to see Gibbs sitting there looking at her.

'You earned them. Be proud of them'

It took a while but Ziva learned to be proud of them. Gibbs was right she had earned them. She called the ambassador of Israel in Washington DC and apologized to him for being so rude to him when he had come over to hand her the medal of Valor in the name of the State Of Israel. She wasn't ready then but she was now and she was glad he had the hindsight of sending the Medal Of Valor to her father instead of sending it back to where it had come from.

Sometimes when they would get visitors from an Israeli agency they would salute her and treat Ziva with the utmost respect any person alive or dead would receive. She had earned it and she became proud of them and whenever someone asked what they were and were she got them she would just smile and say ..

'they are mine and I earned them'

The End…