A/N: Two One-Shots in a day... Well, guess being sick has it's advantages. Enjoy!
Fifth and Final.
Ziva David had been a normal teenage girl, at least as far as Mossad let her, so she had never had to examine her attraction to anyone. She would usually go for people she was forced to work with closely – it made things easier. Dating was a pain, so she never quite got into that. Then again, if she had been more selective with her partners, maybe she wouldn't have been hurt so many times.
Even as she grew older, somehow the attraction to questionable men just stuck with her and, as much as she tried to deny it, sometimes the anger, the frustration, even the danger that came with some relationships, turned her on.
Of course, everyone comes to a point where the need for company – comfortable, happy, loving – becomes more pressing than the need for adventure. Ziva had reached that point when Tony killed Michael. It had been her rock bottom. Afterwards, somehow, she had bounced right into the next extreme: the most boring relationship she had ever had with a man – CI-Ray. Somehow, even he had disappointed her and Ziva was left with nothing. Her entire life she had been with men who seemed dangerous, who did not match her personality well enough for comfort, who ended up hurting her – she always saw it coming, yet never found a way not to feel the pain. Being with a man she knew she could not trust – he was a spy after all – but who gave her most of the other things she wanted – stability, freedom, someone who loved her – seemed like a good idea. At least she knew she would see betrayal coming, since she always had. His love for her might also keep him from betraying her at all – but that was just wishful thinking, was it not?
Well, shit hit the ceiling – the lamp? the ventilator? Oh who cares... – rather quickly and somehow, she was glad. Now, years later, she is glad things turned out this way, as she turns over in the bed that is not hers and snuggles close to the man that is.
He is, after all, the most dangerous of all of them. There is no way that he cannot take them all in a fight. Not only is he the most dangerous, he is also the most loving and of course the most trustworthy. He is a man of many talents and Ziva had never met anyone who had this flawless combination of traits – perfect to meet all her needs and then some.
Then again, it had not been easy to even get to this point with him. He had his own demons and while some matched her own, some presented a challenge to even her. But he was worth fighting for – he always had been. It had taken her way too long to even realize how perfect he was for her – to realize how much she already loved him – and getting him to realize his own feelings was seemingly impossible. Again, he was not an easy man.
He had been through a hell of his own and he carried that baggage with him, always. However, Ziva let him be himself, she let him carry his baggage and helped him get up his strength to deal with it, she let him see that he was worth loving and that he was allowed to fall in love again.
And here they were, in his bedroom – soon to be hers as well, officially – a year of loving looks and smiles and touches and kisses behind them, the ring already sitting on a plate downstairs, just waiting for her to find it.
This is it. Fifth and Final. The woman he had waited for for decades. The woman that would not replace Shannon, because they were two entirely different people, and he was an entirely different man from when he was young. He would do anything in his power to protect her and she knew. She knew she could trust him unconditionally. There was no doubt in her mind, that Leroy Jethro Gibbs was the man she was supposed to be with – not by normal standards, conventions, rules, but she never had use for normal anyway – and she knew she would never get hurt by him. She would not have to be prepared for it, she would not have to be waiting for it, she would not have to threaten him to be a good man – he just was and he would just treat her well, because that was his nature. He might be a dangerous man, but he was nothing but loving with her – angry sex excluded, because they both like that and those bruises are not permanent and do not hurt enough to even bother them.
The End
A/N: Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would never be able to be a 'serious' writer – I'll always break up long and somewhat serious chapters with awkward little sidenotes, soooo yeah. I'm not even sorry.
Hope you enjoyed! Reviews won't hurt me, so please don't hold back :D