Thanks for all the wonderful feedback. Much appreciated. And now on with the story...
Chapter two
Ziva watched the arrival of her partner from across the street as she sat sipping on a steaming hot cup of coffee with both hands wrapped around the large round cup, soaking up its heat into her chilled hands. She'd figured that he would have been there at least an hour ago and was a little disappointed and bothered that it had taken this long.
That she'd had to endure five cups of the expensive coffee, AND seen off two suitors that figured she was waiting to be picked up hadn't helped her frazzled mind, but, sitting there waiting had allowed her the time to sit and take stock of what had happened.
When she had found out that Amit Hadar was in America and looking for her it could only mean one thing to Ziva; Revenge. In her eyes he'd always been a loose cannon. It took a lot to scare Ziva, but this particular Mossad officer was one of the few that did. He was evil and merciless and would stop at nothing to get at his prey and Ziva had a huge hunch that she was next on his hit list.
Ziva's memory flitted back to a few months ago when Tony had killed her lover, Michael Rivkin. It had taken a long time for her to forgive him, but eventually, with the help of her father's betrayal, and her old nemesis, Amit Hadar filling in the blanks that ultimately led to the true reason for Michael's interest in her, Ziva had realized that Tony had only been looking out for her. If the scenario had been the other way around, Ziva would have done the same for him. She knew that now.
But for a while it had hurt - really hurt and she'd taken every ounce of her pain out on Tony, and he'd taken it all upon his broad shoulders, every miserable second of it, without complaint. The experience had changed both herself and Tony and had left behind a brooding awareness between them. Occasionally she would find Tony watching her solemnly and would watch him boldly in return; daring him to put into words what his eyes were telling her.
But Tony would never do that, of that she was sure. There was Gibbs' rule # 12 to consider for starters. And most men were afraid of her, she knew that, most of time, and she reveled in that knowledge. But sometimes – just sometimes, she wished men would see beyond the cool façade that was her and see the fragile woman that lie beneath it.
Only a privileged few had seen the true Ziva David. Michael had, Gibbs had, and Tony had, and, unfortunately, so had Amit Hadar, albeit a very long time ago. Even now, on the odd occasion that she saw him, Amit still loved to try and get beneath her skin, as well as get between her sheets, and she rebuffed him each and every time. Ziva wasn't interested in him, in any shape or form now.
But unfortunately he was still interested in her and took every opportunity to let her know the fact, whether it be with romance or with playful brute force, and now, Ziva feared that she had pushed Amit to his utmost limit.
Amit hadn't liked it when Ziva had almost broken his neck after she'd discovered her dead lover's betrayal, and as she remembered back she silently sniggered as she recalled leaving him with some handsome bruising around his throat. Now though, she was sorry she hadn't done what she'd wanted to do, and that was kill him. It was no more than he'd deserved after betraying her, and it was only because she'd needed information that she had reigned in her temper and allowed him to live.
And now she was going to live to regret it. Or maybe she wasn't. Either way she had no intention of finding out until she was ready to face him, but preferably after she'd put a bullet through his head.
Or better still, his heart.
Tony silently cursed as he moved from Ziva's door and peered in through her window, but there was nothing to see. He considered breaking in, but thought better of it as he imagined himself stepping into her hall way only to come face to face with the lethal end of her gun, or worse still, Ziva in a really, really bad mood. Or maybe, he pondered, she'd even booby-trapped the whole place. Or maybe, he worried deeper still, somebody else had booby-trapped the whole place. Tony was completely in the dark as to why Ziva was running, but one thing he sure as hell did know was that it was down to him to find and bring her home, preferably in one piece, and alive.
Easier said than done when you're an ex member of the Mossad, especially when you're the daughter of the head of Mossad.
There was only one reason that would explain Ziva's sudden departure and that was because she was running from something, or someone. That she hadn't asked for help or back-up from her closest friends was worrying as well as bull-headed.
But then that was Ziva for you, the biggest bull-headed pain in the ass of them all.
tbc...
