Please read prologue piece 'Observations of a Family' first.

Story is set in early Season 7 but contains events and characters from Season 8 and 9.


Ziva was different. She knew it. Tony knew it. Gibbs knew it. Even Tim, Abby, Ducky and Palmer knew it. Ever since the team had rescued her from the hell that was Somalia, Ziva was different. More vulnerable. It was to be expected after the three months of humiliation, torture and whatever else she had endured at the hands of Saleem and his followers.

The team had tried not to think too much about what she had endured as the only woman in a terrorist camp in the middle of the desert: instead concentrating on the joy they felt as the bag was ripped off her head exposing her skeletal figure, and beloved face whose eyes no longer held that David spark. She had been to the very edge of hell and yet she had come out of it alive. Alive but different.

Sitting in the bullpen she let her mind wander, ignoring the mountain of paperwork that was stacked on her desk. After Somalia, her mind tended to revisit memories of her life in Israel-which she often missed- and back to the forbidden memories of her mother, Tali and had loved her brother more than anything else in the world. He had been her idol; the one who had hugged her when she cried, the one who had taught her how to shoot, the one who had threatened any boys that dared break her teenage heart and the one person who supported her through every decision she had made. But now he was dead by her hand and she had never had the chance to say goodbye.

Ziva shifted uncomfortably as she felt an unfamiliar prickling sensation of tears in her eyes and snapped back to work as she realised that Tony was sitting opposite her and would no doubt tease her for not working.

Today is not the day for one of Tony's stupid planks err not planks...pranks! She thought to herself.

Although she had to admit, since the first time she had walked into the bullpen and met Tony, he had changed. Over the years he had become more grown up, more like a man as opposed to a womanising immature boy that he had once been. Like Ziva, the recent years had tested him through the tragedies of Paula, Jeanne and Jenny, and now Ziva was sure that Tony was ready to settle down with a woman.

But in her heart she knew it would not be her. It could not be her. She was damaged goods both mentally and physically from the scars which lined her body, cut into her flesh by Saleem's hands.

Tony sat watching Ziva, peering at her over his folder. Ever since Somalia, Ziva was different- more silent, more thoughtful. He often wondered what the Israeli was thinking. Truthfully he would kill to know what went on in Ziva David's head. Hearing the 'ping' of the elevator, Tony began to quickly type just as Gibbs and McGee rounded the corner after coming from Abby's lab.

'Gear up! Dead petty officer.' Barked Gibbs and the team hurriedly did so, except Ziva who took her time. Gibbs noticed but said nothing. After what the woman who was like a daughter to him had endured, it would take time before things would be normal again. However, unbeknownst to the one and only Leroy Jethro Gibbs, things would never be the same for the MCRT ever again.


Reviews are greatly appreciated.

The first few chapters are quite short but trust me they get longer!