Thank you so much for all your love- you are all wonderful! Also big thanks to Mechabeira, who taught me how to break out of my writers block. Your advice helped me to figure out where this story is going! Enjoy, and leave a review on your way out!
Chapter 4
"Blackbird singing in the dead of night. Take these broken wings and learn to fly. All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive."
The Beatles, Blackbird
A few days later, Tony made Ziva get outside and take a short walk around the neighborhood with him. The air is crisp with fall colors, and Ziva realizes how much she missed fresh, clean air.
They pass the local high school, where three girls are walking home, text books in hand. Their eyes are shining and they look innocent in their uniforms, leaves crunching beneath their feet. Their loud, singsong voices carry all the way across the street, where Ziva is trying hard not to stare wistfully.
"I barely graduated high school." She admits softly, looking down at her feet. "And I never went to college."
Tony puts a hand on her shoulder. "That's ok. It doesn't make you any less intelligent."
She shakes her head. "Tali was always the smarter one. She wanted to go to medical school, like Ari. She wanted to save lives, not end them. She talked about opening a cheap clinic for poor families who could not afford medical care."
"That's amazing." Tony muses, deciding to let Ziva really remember her sister at her best for a moment, not strewn like a bloody rag doll, torn to shreds by a bomb.
"Yes." She agrees, and kicks a leaf around with the toe of her boot.
"I am tired of death." Ziva declares. "I am tired of suffering and grief and evil."
His heart leaps into his chest. "Do you want to come back to NCIS?"
She shakes her head. "I love the team- and am so grateful for all you have given me. But I do not think I have the ability to face our work again after... All that has happened."
"Will you leave D.C?" He asks, almost frantic.
"Of course not." She reassures him."Perhaps I will start dancing again, once I am well enough."
Tony smiles. "That would be great. You could open your own studio."
Ziva shakes her head. "I do not have the money, and frankly, I do not know how to manage a business."
"We could all help you! I know the McGeek knows a thing it two about business plans, and I took a finance class in college. We can figure it out together, if that's what you want."
Ziva pondered the idea for a minute, fantasies of dancing and teaching running through her mind.
"I would like that very much." She finally said, and smiled genuinely for the first time in months.
Tony grinned too and put an arm around her. "Lets get you back, my dancing ninja."