So, I am going to begin a chapter story. Not sure what everyone will think of this, but here it is. Premise is that Gibbs is bitter towards Ziva for leaving and an angel shows him her past so he understands why she left NCIS. This is while tony is looking for her, so before 11x02 and before the phone call between Ziva and Gibbs.

AN: Ziva was born in 1982, Tali in 1984, and Ari in 1969 (as stated on NCIS wiki for Ari and Ziva. I made up Tali's birthdate)

I will try to make my events as canon as possible but I can't claim to know everything about the show, so some facts will be made up.

And I don't own the characters

Leroy Jethro Gibbs had experienced a lot in his years as a Marine and as a NCIS agent. He had met a lot of good people, and lost a lot of good people too. In more recent years, he had had his major response team that had become more like family than anything else he had had since Shannon and Kelly died. Tony DiNozzo, his senior field agent and closest informant, and his protégé. Timothy McGee, completely different from both himself and Tony, but still someone that Gibbs cared deeply about. He respected McGee's brilliant mind. He had lost Kate Todd after only a short time, but had felt her loss like he had felt Jenny's, like he had felt the loss of countless others. Abby of course was special to him even if she wasn't on his team, and Ducky was a longtime friend. Even Leon Vance had a place to Gibbs. Like all of his team members and fellow agents, Ziva David was special to him.

Unlike his other friends, Ziva had left by choice. She hadn't been gunned down like Kate and Jenny and Jackie Vance. She hadn't taken a leadership role like Tony had been offered and turned down. She had left, turned in her badge with the rest of them and never picked it back up again. She hadn't told Tony or Abby or him where she was going or what she intended and just left. After eight years of stakeouts and missions and dinners and trials and tribulations and after they RESCUED her from the Somalian desert, she had left. Tony was looking for her now, but he wasn't going to find her. She had been trained to disappear and if she did allow DiNozzo to find her she wasn't going to go back with him. She wasn't coming back this time.

It wasn't easy for him to be feeling these things. He loved her, and always would, and would go to the ends of the earth over and over for her, just like he would for Tony or Tim. He respected her for her abilities that he truly believed outshined his own in the field. However, he was angry. Angry that he would have to find another agent to replace her, that he would have to find another agent to train and love and protect, angry that Tony and Tim would have to go through that again. It wasn't right. Had the years meant nothing to her?

The more he thought, the more he sanded the boat. What was her excuse? Did her father's death make her have to run back to Mossad? Did her resigning from NCIS make her feel like she had lost her only family left? The strange thing was that he didn't think she was going back to Mossad. She seemed to be in the wind from any intelligence agency. Being an officer, an agent was in her blood. How could she give that up?

"Jethro."

He whirled around at the unfamiliar voice. The woman was beautiful, mysterious, and not quite human looking. In fact, light he couldn't explain had illuminated his basement, mostly around the woman. "Who are you?"

"My name is Mercy."

"What do you want?"

"I'm here to talk to you Jethro. About Ziva David."

"What do you know about her? Who are you?"

"I'm called a lot of things. To you, I am a guide. I have been sent to guide you through Ziva's life and show you the reason she walked away. That is what has been bothering you isn't it?"

Gibbs slowly nodded, still confused and a little in shock. "Like an angel."

"That's a technical name, yes. I'm sure you have some idea of why Ziva left you don't you?"

Gibbs really did try and think of a good reason, but nothing new surfaced. "My only guess is that it has something to do with the death of Eli David." He replied, knowing that it wasn't the right answer.

"I guess that's a small part of it. But there is so much more. And soon Anthony is going to find her and he is going to understand why she is leaving, even if it will destroy him. You, however, do not yet understand. You love her, in a different way than Anthony does, but you love her regardless and she and you both deserve an explanation. Are you prepared to get one?"

"I'm waiting."

"Well, I can't just tell you. We're going to take a little trip of sorts. I'll be there for part of the ride and some will be on your own. Don't worry. You'll get back in plenty of time to finish the boat."

Her voice was warm and Gibbs felt that he trusted her. So he nodded, and waited for whatever was going to happen next.

There was a bright flash of light and Gibbs was no longer in his basement. Instead, he was in a house that he didn't recognize. Mercy was standing next to him. In another room, angry voices could be heard, although the words themselves were hard to hear. Mercy smiled at him. "This is where we start."

"Where are we?"

"Tel Aviv, 1985. You can go in. They won't see or hear you." She faded away and Gibbs was left alone. Disbelieving, he wondered around the kitchen. He could look out the window and see the desert, and he could see the date on the newspaper lying on the table. Still unsure of going into the other room, he picked up the paper and glanced through the front page. He was halfway through an article when he realized that he was reading Hebrew and understanding it. This dream was getting weirder and weirder.

With the knowledge of Hebrew present in his mind, he wondered across the house. Eli David was there, younger and healthier, but still looking like Eli. He was fighting with a beautiful brunette woman, who bore a strong resemblance to Ziva. Of course she resembled her. It was her mother.

"I will not have him in this house!"

"He is my son! My son, and he deserves to know his family!"

"We are not his family! I have no connection to him, and I don't want Ziva and Tali around him!"

They were arguing about Ari. Gibbs left the room and passed several others down the hall. In one was a baby sleeping in a crib. This was Tali, Ziva's sister. In the room next door, he found them.

A teenage boy, probably about 16. Ari, the rogue Mossad officer who had killed his agent and terrorized his team, looking anything but that man as he sat, his arms wrapped around a crying girl. Gibbs knelt down and looked three year old Ziva in the eyes. She was adorable, her hair as curly and wild as it was when she was an adult, and his heart tugged as it did every time he saw a little girl.

"Why are they yelling at each other?"

She was speaking Hebrew of course, and Gibbs wondered if this was the only language she knew at this tender age. Ari pulled her tighter. "It's about me, Z, not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Why is mommy mad at you?"

"She's just having a bad day Z. Don't worry about it. We all love you, and we are all your family. You don't have to worry about me."

"I love you Ari."

Gibbs tried not to see the tears glistening in Ari's eyes as he moved Ziva onto his lap. He didn't like to feel compassion for his enemies. "I love you too Z." Ari choked out, resting his head in her hair. "I always will."

There was another bright flash and he was in a ballet studio. He easily picked Ziva out of the line of girls, her hair partially contained in her bun. He would have guessed her age to be around six, and this was confirmed when he saw a calendar listing the year as 1988. He watched the routine, entertained, and smiled at the look of concentration on Ziva's face. Suddenly, the door burst open behind him, and two men in expensive suits walked in. Some of the girls started to cry on command, but Ziva stared at them, unfazed. She seemed to know them.

"We need Ziva David."

The teacher nodded, and Ziva was pushed out of the studio. As soon as they got outside she was pushed into a van and whisked away. For a moment Gibbs thought they were kidnapping her, as he jumped into the van after them, but one turned to her.

"We are friends of your father's. He has big news for you."

No other words were offered and Ziva did not ask questions. Instead, she put her hands in her lap and waited for them to arrive at a familiar compound. Mossad.

"Ziva!" Rivka David grabbed her as soon as the van pulled into the building, a huge smile on her face. Next to her stood Tali, looking much like Ziva, only with lighter, straighter hair. "Where's dad?"

"He was promoted to director of Mossad. This is huge Ziva. This is going to change everything."

"Then why are you happy?"

"He will no longer have to travel so much, and he will not be in so much danger, Ziva. He will be able to come home, home to us."

"I wasn't done with ballet."

"We needed to get you safe. You father will have enemies now, and we have to be more careful." At her words, Eli David swept in to the room. "Ziva, you are here."

Unlike the others, he was talking in what Gibbs's brain now processed and understood to be Arabic."

"Hi Daddy!"

"Ziva, remember, you must not use Hebrew with me anymore. You can use Arabic, Farsi, or Spanish."

"But they're harder." Even in the midst of complaining she had listened and switched to Spanish. Eli smiled. "You have to know more than Hebrew if you want to be a Mossad agent."

"Eli…" Rivka David shot him a warning glance and he ignored it. "You want to be a Mossad agent don't you?"

"Yes, I do!"

"Mossad agents do not have the luxury of speaking Hebrew. That is your first lesson."

That's all for Chapter 1! Don't worry, more will come, and soon, if I get a response. Next up is some early training for Ziva and some more Ari. Leave a review!