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Author's Note: Chapter Three is 90 percent flashback to Tel Aviv. I don't like writing flashbacks, but I thought it was necessary. Spoilers for Season 6 Episode 25! Major Spoilers! Also, I changed the details about what Abby and McGee found, but only a little. :) Thank you all for reading this story and please leave me your thoughts! :)
Disclaimer: NCIS and its associated properties are not mine, nor do I intend for them to be.
Summary: Ziva and Gibbs remember Tel Aviv
Rating: K (Perfectly safe!)
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His words leave her breathless, and although she was standing still, Ziva felt that she was stumbling un-controllably.
Her hands go to his wrists, and move his hands from her body. Lowering them to his sides, Ziva can only nod.
Gibbs can feel her fingertips still on him and he doesn't mind. When he sees her nod, he knows she's treading on un-certain and new territory.
Slightly pulling her into his side, his arm wraps fully around her waist and he leads them to the couch they had just left.
Although he still wants to pull her into his chest, he settles on sitting side-by-side.
If Somalia was going to be what they disused she would probably need her space.
Un-sure of what to say and how to start, he doesn't have to speak first. Someone has beat him to it:
"Although I do not know what you are planning to do while you are here, I think I should tell you it is not necessary."
"Here to help."
She knows he's trying, she really does. But this is how she handles things, she bottles them up-and moves on.
Suddenly a flood of emotions hit her as she remembers:
"You have told me that before. In Tel Aviv."
Turning her head to the side, she looks at him and gives him a true smile. Those from her were rare these days.
His smirk warms her, and he remembers that trip and those conservations with a surprising amount of clarity.
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TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
Gibbs never liked to be here, it represented pain and misery of someone he cared deeply for.
He had witnessed the argument between Ziva and Nadar. Heard the words he had violently thrown at his Ziver.
'You are the reason he's dead!'
Nadar leaves, after handing her a photo, that much Gibbs can make out. Who or what is in the photo, he can't see.
Going down the stairs and landing on the same level as Ziva, her voices explains, but her eyes say more:
"Nadar set the fire."
"Covering for Rivkin."
Every time Gibbs said that name, he hated the man a little more. Her voice is rushed, and he wants to calm her down, though he's focused on her words:
"I was betrayed. By Mossad, by my father, by Tony. Who's next? You?"
She's shaky, wanting to run in any direction, this Gibbs can tell.
Turning to her left, she begins to quickly walk away and is on the third step before Jethro can take no more:
"Hey!"
Stopping cold, Ziva turns, still on the step and faces him. He motions for her to return to where she was, in front of him.
Not wanting to fight about bodily location, she relents and lowers herself back to her previous spot. His voice is much calmer now:
"You think I'd betray you?"
Still rushed, still shuffling her feet, she now twists the photo nervously in her hands:
"Every one else has. I have no doubt that Abby and McGee have told you about the encrypted e-mails. That fact alone should leave you running for the mountains."
She's pissed, so he won't correct her.
He didn't know how she knew that Abby had called, but the fact that she did was all he needed to know:
"Yeah, they told me."
She shakes her head, not wanting to fight him:
"Did they find the e-mails I returned to him?"
If they had, they hadn't said so. But Ziva already knew that answer:
"They didn't! Because I never responded to him! Any information he ever found about Mossad in D.C. or anything else did not come from me! I am not the only member of Mossad in D.C. or the country! I found about his killing a Special Agent and last night I called Nadar, telling him to remove Rivkin. Had I not walked in on him and Tony in my apartment, you would have been my next call."
Nodding, he can tell she's telling the truth. His gut said so, his eyes told him so, his heart made it so.
She's still cagey, still fighting, trying to get the truth out. He knows, Gibbs always knows:
"I know."
"You know?! How could you have known that you were who I would call?"
For the first time since he had left D.C., a smirk appears on his face:
"Because I know you. You're on my team and like it or not, when I say you've found home, it's true,"
Ziva remembers when he sat her down to tell her the apartment she had was torched. He said it was her home and she told him it wasn't before she walked away from him. And now his voice was leaving her no choice but to be grounded to the present:
"You know I wouldn't betray you."
"Yes, I do. But given the circumstances you must be able to understand my position."
"Yeah, I do. But you have to understand mine."
His position? He wasn't the one who was dealing with his father, he wasn't the one who wanted to shoot his partner and probably would, he wasn't the one whose apartment was blown up:
"And what position would that be?"
She's still moving, still unable to calm herself. Putting his hands on her arms, she instantly freezes:
"Where I'm trying to protect you and you're fighting me at every turn."
Her breath catches and her eyes fill with tears, just as they have done consistently for the past few days:
"I am not…not trying to fight you. Being back here, given the situation…"
Her voice trails and they both know if she continues tears will fall:
"I know,"
He doesn't care in this moment. Doesn't care where he is, doesn't care who would see, he just doesn't care.
Removing his hands from her arms, they enclose her before she has a moment to think. She's surprised at her own behavior, surprised at how easy it becomes to have his arms around her.
Gibbs guides her the rest of the way, her head landing softly on his chest.
It felt so relieving to have her so close.
Ziva's hands land on his back, making small fists out of his jackets cloth, trying to hold on to something that mattered. His lips find her temple, a soft kiss landing upon her skin. The deep rumble of his voice interrupts her thoughts:
"Ziva, I'm here to help. Ya have to let me."
She knows he is right, knows that he wouldn't leave her in the cold.
If she doesn't let go of him now, she never will.
Backing out of his embrace slowly, still with tears in her eyes, she looks at him and nods:
"I know."
Her hand cups his cheek and she tries to smile before letting him go and walking away from him and up the stairs.
Standing in the same spot, he knew she wouldn't be alright. He knew when he'd arrived at the hospital.
The mere sight of DiNozzo enraged him. A headslap was meaningless right now.
Tony had caused the woman Gibbs cared for pain. That was un-acceptable.
They had spoken, then Tony left only after he heard Ziva blame him for Rivkin's death.
Gibbs walked through the doors and was instantly met with the sight of a very pissed off, very defensive woman who had her walls up.
Again, she tried to walk away.
Again, he had stopped her with a single word.
Although he didn't like nor trust Rivkin, he didn't think Ziva loved him. Cared for Rivkin yes, but not loved.
His gut told him she wouldn't let her walls down to him.
And although Gibbs didn't know it for a fact, he was right.
Yes she cared for Rivkin and yes they had slept together-though only twice-she could not love a man with so man un-certainties when it came to his past.
When he heard no response to his apology for her loss, he knew she was hurting and hurting bad.
Not because she loved him, but because it was yet another death she had to go through.
And death always was a consistency for Ziva, though they both wished it wasn't.
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TEL AVIV, TARMAC
Ziva ran to him, stopped him cold. She was un-sure about Tony's actions and the moment she said that, his gut churned, causing him physical pain.
This conservation was headed to a bad place.
And fast.
'Transferred' had never sounded so bad in his entire life.
Ziva was going to be 'transferred'. Everything in him was screaming 'NO!', but Ziva could make her own decisions.
And apparently, she had made one.
Trust issues was what she was telling him. And without speaking a word, he knew in that moment she wasn't going with them.
Ziva David was about to take one for the team she didn't even feel a part of anymore.
And that spoke volumes.
He finds her dark eyes and nods to her, words becoming foreign and difficult to form at the moment.
He knows arguing with her would serve no purpose, she was staying and that was that. They both knew the investigation would continue at NCIS with or without her, and apparently she had decided it would be without her.
That was not what Gibbs wanted.
The decision to stay was not one of loyalty, love, or lack of either. It was a decision she made to try to distance herself from those she cared about.
Even if she didn't voice her care.
Apparently picking up Rivkin's slack was what she would be doing, though it was not what she would have carved out for herself.
Gibbs knew she was trying to do what she thought was best for everyone else.
And she was putting herself last. That action would come back to haunt her, eventually.
The thought caused a tightening in his chest instantly.
Leaning in closer to her, she moves away, un-sure of what is happening and mindful of those around them both.
Again, Gibbs didn't care.
Saying in her ear:
"I'm here for you, Ziver."
He kisses her cheek and pulls away, telling her to take care of herself before walking away and getting on the plane before he has even a moment to change his mind.
A moment would be all it would take.
Once they had arrived in D.C., things didn't get much easier:
Ducky mentioned the loyalty between Gibbs and Ziva, He and Leon had one hell of a fight, and to top it al off-Vance had told him Ziva had orders to kill her brother.
That last one had stung a little and whether or not that was true, Gibbs really didn't care.
He cared about Ziva , and even if they were orders, she still shot her brother for Gibbs, whom at the time was a complete stranger to her.
More so than that, she returned to NCIS and wanted to be on his team.
That initiative and want wasn't an order. That was Ziva.
He left Leon's office and arrived in the bullpen to find Tony checking his phone.
Again.
As Gibbs sits behind his desk, he looks over to Ziva's.
These three men weren't the same, there was no light left in them.
It finally dawned on Jethro:
These gentlemen needed their lady.
And until she returned, they would not heal. They couldn't heal with a hole in their chests.
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Snapping back into the present, Ziva is still sitting up straight, not relaxing in the slightest. But she is closer to him than he last thought.
Glancing around her place, he's still impressed at her connections with the right people in the right places finding her a place so fast. Noticing his eyes, Ziva will tell him the secret:
"The apartment came furnished and my last neighbor works at a clothing store, so she let me use her discount."
Nodding, it made sense. But he has to get back to what they were speaking about before. She would not avoid getting through this:
"Meant it then, mean it now."
"I know you are here,"
And she did. He was sitting right beside her.
She just couldn't understand why he was trying to help her. She wasn't worth the effort, this much she knew:
"But I am having some difficulty with the why."
Confusion rushes over him and it takes a moment before he can respond:
"Why I'm here?"
At her nod and glance in the other direction, he continues:
"Because I care."
She finds his eyes and her breath is lost:
"The ones who care end up dying Gibbs. If I were you I would not get too close."
He knows if he says what he wants to say, there will be no turning back. But for this woman, he would continue to do whatever is necessary to show her how important she is in his life:
"Told you on the tarmac to take care of yourself. You're not. So I will."
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