Ziva had shifted uncomfortably in her office chair most of the morning. She was amazed that Tony's hand could sting this much. The burn seemed to have increased long after the spanking was over. McGee, thankfully, had not noticed, but she was certain that her constant squirming would not pass by Gibb's discerning eye. Tony had watched in mild bemusement over the files on his desk. When Abby asked for her help in the lab, Ziva jumped at the chance to get out of the bullpen and to stand for awhile.

She strolled casually through the Lab doors and offered a quick "Hi Abby."

"Hey," Abby replied over her shoulder. "We got a fingerprint match in the Schuler homicide. It comes back to, surprise, surprise, Mrs. Schuler."

Ziva shifted from side to side, attempting in vain to find a position that didn't make her bottom smolder.

"If you have to pee, we can finish this in a minute," Abby offered.

"I am fine. But thank you."

Abby eyes her friend cautiously. Ziva had been subdued all morning. It was difficult not to notice Tony carefully watching her, though he obviously tried to be discreet.

"Why are you staring at me Abby?" Ziva asked self consciously.

Abby's face lit up with the enthusiasm of secret discovery. "You got spanked," she said as a statement instead of a question.

The flush of embarrassment on Ziva's face was all the confirmation that she needed.

"Tony?" Abby asked, searching for details. "What is a fun spanking or punishment spanking? They can both hurt, but there is something different about…."

"Abby!" Ziva interrupted.

"How'd he do it? Does it still hurt a lot?"

Ziva signed, reconciling that she was not going to get out of this without answering at least a few of the Goth's questions.

"Over his knee. With his hand. And yes it still stings a great deal."

"Did it make you feel better?" Abby asked with the innocence of a child.

It was an odd question to Ziva. One she had not considered until now, and she thought carefully.

"Yes it did," she replied thoughtfully. "You know when we were punished as children, there was never any prolonged human contact. We stood or bent over some object of convenience. We were not allowed to show pain or seek comfort. Such things were signs of weakness. And weakness was the gravest sin of all."

"That's horrible," Abby replied with sadness at the admission. She paused briefly before bouncing back to the opposite emotional extreme of excitement. "So what was it like, being spanked by Tony?"

Ziva paced around the metal table, gathering her thoughts with embarrassment mixed with confusion. "It was the strangest feeling. In many ways last night was worse than some of the punishments I received as a child, there was nothing to hide behind, not even clothing. Lying over Tony's lap was embarrassing and humbling. Having to take down my pants was simply mortifying. But it was also" she searched for the right words in English.

"Intimate? Safe? Loved?" Abby offered.

"Yes. It was painful and it stung life fire. But I felt completely safe for the first time in my entire life, I do not understand this. My emotion didn't frighten him or repulse him."

"If inflicting pain was sufficient to for you to feel that you had paid some penance, I think spending three months being beaten and tortured in a terrorist camp would have done it, don't you? "

Ziva let out a heavy sigh.

Abby stared into the face of her friend and recognized a woman fundamentally changed forever. The Ziva she knew before would never have been able to speak so openly. Abby secretly wondered what else about her would never be the same.

Abby's voice lowered and her eyes filled with sympathy and understanding. "You've spent your entire life hiding. Afraid that if anyone ever sees who you really are, understands how you really feel inside that they will never love you or they you will let them down or they will leave you.

Ziva's eyes filled with unshed tear and Abby knew that her words had struck an emotional cord. "You had nothing left to hide behind last night. You had to submit fully and completely to another person. To submit to being spanked over Tony's lap, you had to surrender completely to someone who loves you and who would die to keep you safe. For a moment you stopped hiding and you realized, what we all already know, that Tony is always going to be there to catch you. We all will ZIva, whether you want us too or not, whether you think that you deserve it or not. We love you and you are apart of us."

Abby wrapped her arms around Ziva and felt her body quietly tremble as fresh tears escaped her eyes.

#

"So, you spanked Ziva," Gibbs said flatly taking a sip of coffee and sitting on Tony's desk, intentionally invading his personal spaced.

"Look Boss," Tony replied defiantly, taking a deep breath. "I am not going to apologize for what I did. I did what I had to do in order to get through to her. I took her pants down. I put her over my knee and I spanked her. And I would do the exact same thing again."

"Did it work?" Gibb's asked simply.

"I hope so," Tony his large hand over his face. The worry and anguish in his voice was obvious. "She cried for awhile and she slept through the night for the first time. Gibbs, she doesn't think that she deserves to be loved. She has lost so many people, that it's like she thinks she deserves to join them."

Gibb's inhaled deeply, considering Tony's words carefully. "She's got to talk, about what happened in Africa and what's happened in her past."

"But isn't she seeing a department shrink?"

"Ziva is experienced enough to tell a shrink exactly what they want to hear," he said quietly, allowing his own concern to show through for a woman he considered a segregate daughter. "She needs someone that she can't manipulate, Dinozzo. She needs someone who will love her enough to push past her bullshit and not back down."

"What do I need to do Boss?" Tony asked.

"You already know what you need to do," Gibbs replied with an unyielding stare that spoke more than his words. "I don't want to see either of you back here this week."

Gibbs's toss the empty coffee cup into the trash and turned to walk away.

"What if it doesn't work boss?"

"Spanking worked once, do it again."