Sail

Rifiuto: Non Miriena

Summary: A person is a person, is a person. Except when they aren't. When a case brings NCIS and Boston PD together, Dr. Maura Isles finds her past catching up with her... a past she wasn't even aware she had. NCIS/Rizzoli & Isles crossover. AU.

A/N: Just something I wanted to try, while I'm killing my muse for not cooperating over my other stories...

Ziva came into the bullpen, to find both her partners sitting at their desks, completely silent. There was no friendly bickering like there usually was, no rambling conversations between the two, no rolling of eyes or cheeky grins. She glanced at Tony and then at Tim, before dropping her gear behind her desk and making her way to her boyfriend. "Everything okay, Tim?" She asked, rubbing his back as she joined him at his desk. He didn't seem to hear her. "Tim?"

"Sorry, you say something, Zia?" He asked, finally looking up at her. She raised an eyebrow, although she was unable to hide the tug of a smile at the use of his name for her. Since they'd started dating- sneaking around being Tony's word for it- behind Gibbs's back nearly four years ago, they often used code words to communicate; a secret language only they knew of, their own form of gibberish or pig Latin, if you will.

"Everything all right?" She glanced at Tony, but he hadn't moved his gaze from whatever he was looking at. "It's awfully quiet in here. And neither one of you have said anything snarky to each other since I stepped into the bullpen. Tim sighed.

"Sorry, Zia. Everything's fine. It's just..." He sat back in his chair, and after a moment, Ziva perched on the edge of his desk, catching his eye. He sighed. "It's the anniversary." Ziva furrowed her brow.

"What anniversary? Ours is not for another two months." He shook his head and got up.

"Not that anniversary, Zia. An anniversary of a different kind." He rested a hand on her waist and kissed her quickly on the lips before moving out from behind the desk and heading towards the break room. Gibbs had, at that point, returned with coffee for his team, and had caught the kiss his two youngest agents shared. He decided, as he set a cup on Tony's desk, one on Ziva's, and then one on Tim's, that he'd let it slide, being the day of all days. He could chew them out for breaking Rule Twelve tomorrow, after the anniversary had passed.

Once he was gone, Ziva returned to her desk, before stopping. She glanced over at Tony, and then turned back to Tim's desk before heading to Gibbs. "What is the anniversary?" Gibbs looked up, blue eyes startled. She leaned against the desk. "Tim said that 'it's the anniversary,' but I..." She stopped, swallowing. "I did not know there was an anniversary. And if there is one, what is it for?"

Gibbs sighed. He glanced at Tony, who still hadn't said a word, and then to Tim's desk, to find him coming back with a granola bar that was quickly forgotten as he leaned back in his chair and picked up the photograph he'd been staring at before Ziva had arrived. Taking a deep breath, he got up, motioning for Ziva to follow. They stopped in the small alcove beneath the stairs, and Gibbs turned to her. "What anniversary is it, Gibbs? I have never seen Tony and-"

"Ziva, how much do you know about the woman who occupied your desk before you?" The question caught the Israeli beauty off guard, and she stared at him, eyes wide.

"Um... just... just that she was... a Special Agent that... that was killed in a shootout. That was... on your team for two years before... before my brother killed her." She whispered, feeling the familiar pinpricks at the back of her eyes whenever she thought about Ari. Gibbs nodded. "Kate, I think you said her name was."

"Special Agent Caitlin Todd." He whispered. Even now, it still hurt to think about her; he'd lost agents in the field before, sure- Jenny, Val, Paula, Michelle- but none had hurt or cut as deeply as Kate. To this day, he couldn't think about her with hearing the splat! as Ari's bullet made contact with her skull, entering between her eyes and exiting out the back of her head, spraying brain matter and blood all over Tony.

"She was... who I... replaced." Ziva whispered slowly putting the pieces together. Gibbs nodded.

"She was former Secret Service, protected the President. Raised in Indiana, two older brothers and an older sister. She was a good girl and a damn good agent."

"And Tony was in love with her." He raised an eyebrow, mulling over Ziva's words, and then nodded.

"Yeah, guess he was. Guess he still is."

"So, today... is the anniversary of her... death." Ziva bit her lip, the pieces slowly falling into place. "And, because today is... the anniversary, and because I sit at her desk..." She stopped, unable to finish the thought. Taking a deep breath, she whispered, "I am sorry, Gibbs. I will try not to remind you too much of Kate." But Gibbs didn't say anything. Instead, he just went to her, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead and squeezing her hand before returning to his desk.

Ziva stayed in the alcove for several minutes, trying to process everything that she'd learned about the woman who's place she had taken. Suddenly, it made going back to that desk hard. It was the desk she had sat at, she had worked at, across from Tony, diagonal to Tim, next to Gibbs, for two years. And with her death, Ziva had come and taken it over, changing little things about it and adding her own touches. And in those four short years, she had managed to wipe away any, all and every trace of Kate Todd that had resided in or around that desk, without any thought or regard to how her partners would take it, to how her boss would react. In essence, she had, metaphorically, wiped all traces of Caitlin Todd out of their lives, forever.

As she returned to the bullpen and stopped, unsure if she should take a seat at the desk that had once been Kate's, Gibbs stood, snapping his phone shut and grabbing his things. "Gear up! We've got a dead Marine!"

That seemed to snap both Tony and Tim out of their thoughts. "Where, Gibbs?" Tim asked as they followed him to the elevator. Ziva quickly grabbed her things and dashed to catch up, slipping her hand between the closing doors and stepping inside once they slid open again. Gibbs glanced at her as they closed, before he replied,

"Boston."