CHAPTER 4
Harms Apartment
Monday
1725
Ziva sat on Harm's couch again for the twelfth time in the past three days, looking at nothing in particular too caught up in her thoughts. The urgent knock on the front door as if someone had been knocking for a while drew her out of her trance and back to reality. Harm was still at JAG and she obviously wasn't expecting anyone. Harm had told her not to answer the door as if she needed telling. Ziva pulled out one of her many guns from her body and walked to the front door, looking through the peep hole to see the woman she had spoken to on last Friday when she came to JAG, not in uniform but dressed in jeans and a red short sleeved shirt. Ziva put her gun back on her person and opened the door.
"Yes?" Ziva said to the woman not interested in her reason for being there.
Mac looked the Israeli woman up and down shocked to see her standing in the door way. "Is Harm here?"
"No, he is not." Ziva began to close the door but Mac pushed forwards
"Can I come in?" Mac more told than asked as she walked past Ziva through the door and into the familiar apartment.
Ziva closed the door and could feel the glare before she saw it as she turned to face Mac who was in full Marine/ interrogation mode.
"Who are you?" Mac asked unfriendly
"I should ask the same question" Ziva replied now matching Macs entire demeanor getting up in her face, glaring right back at the JAG officer. Ziva didn't particularly enjoy being questioned, last week she only complied because of the situation at the time though now with no reason not to go head to head with the woman she felt that she might as well let some of the anger out that had been building up in her.
Just then the front door opened as Harm stepped through the door to see both women up in each other's face as if in the middle of a glaring competition. Neither one backing down.
"Hey," he said "what's going on here?"
"Hey Harm," Mac said breaking contact with Ziva and began speaking in a quiet, almost shy tone "I just came by to see if you wanted to have dinner tonight, you could come over to my place and I could cook-"
"You…cook?" Harm was surprised at this and laughed lightly, Mac had never, ever offered to help him cook whenever they had their weekly dinners let alone cooked an entire meal herself, she hated to cook and he wasn't sure even if she could cook. So why was she offering now?
"I meant take out Harm," Mac added, her face lowering and turning red at his laughter to her offering to cook, it was embarrassing enough that she felt jealous of the woman who was staying with Harm. She had never acted like this before and she really meant nothing by it, she didn't even know the woman to be acting the way she was with her, but the thought of Harm being with another woman had caused her to react possessively over him. Though now she just felt stupid about the entire thing. Obviously this woman was living with him so they must be together, she would have to apologize to her when Harm wasn't around.
Harm saw the discomfit on Mac's face from his laughter and he mentally scolded himself for reacting the way he did and then said seriously. "I'm sorry Mac, but I'll have to take a reign check on dinner, I need to make sure Ziva is safe here…oh wait you two haven't formally met yet have you?"
Ziva looked at the woman standing across from her and saw a change in her face, was she embarrassed? Sad? Was that jealousy she saw on her face? Then it hit her this woman liked Harm. Well she would have to tell this Sarah Mackenzie that she could back off because even though Harm was a great guy and all, her heart belonged to another. None other than Tony.
Ziva's face dropped at the thought of her partner after she had tried so hard not to think of him. Thoughts of him threatened to overcome her, but Harm calling her attention pulled her back to reality.
"Zi," Ziva looked at Harm "this is Sarah Mackenzie, I work with her at JAG she's a marine, very tough, kind, stubborn, and not to mention she has been my very best friend for the past 8 years." Mac smiled in reply to Harms words, especially when he said her name.
"Oh, and she prefers when people call her Mac…it's a marine thing." Harm added and Mac playfully jabbed Harm in the rib, making him fake a wince
Harms face became serious as he addressed Mac
"Mac, this is Ziva David," he paused to look at Ziva asking permission to continue, Ziva nodded "she is from Tel Aviv and has been living in the U.S for about 3 years, she is a very good friend of mine… saved my life several times."
Mac noticed the gratitude and deep meaning to what he was saying, she also noticed the look of respect he had for her. Harm continued
"Ziva needed somewhere to stay for right now and I offered my place to her for as long as she needed…"
"But I won't be here for much longer I do not want to impose-" Ziva said but was cut off by Harm
"And I told you that you are not imposing and I will not let you leave until I know that you are safe somewhere where your father cannot find you." Harm spoke with a little edge to his voice
"I will leave soon no matter what, I appreciate your kindness Harm but I must figure this out myself. It is just how it has to be. I am very grateful for all you have done for me so far, but when the time comes I will leave." Ziva countered, her tone final and firm.
Harm was about to reply, his neck turning a light shade of red but then decided against it in fear that if he argued with her she would only become angry with him and possibly retreat back into the silence that he had witnessed from her since Friday. It was only late Sunday that Ziva had begun to communicate with him, and the last thing he wanted was to argue with her. He wanted to help her as much he could and so decided to drop it, for now.
"Ziva?" Mac asked with caution knowing that there was obviously something more to Ziva's reason for leaving and staying with Harm than he was telling her. "I know that I wasn't exactly friendly the first time I asked you, but would you mind telling exactly who you are…I mean it's obvious that Harm didn't tell me everything, and what does your father-"
"Mac I don't think that-" Harm cut Mac off to tell her that he didn't think it would be best to ask those questions but he himself was cut off by Ziva.
"It is alright Harm if you trust her then I trust her. Ziva said giving him the go ahead to tell Mac.
"Harm nodded and then turned back to Mac. "Ziva, as I said before is from Israel but what you don't know is that she is a Mossad agent, and Eli David, her father is director of Mossad." Shock ran across Mac's face but was quickly replaced with curiosity. "The reason Ziva is in America is because she was assigned as a liaison officer to NCIS." Harm finished.
"Ok," Mac said still waiting for the bigger part of the explanation, "So why are you here…no offence?" Mac said turning to Ziva waiting for and answer.
"Well the main part of the reason is because I am done being tied down by Mossad-" Ziva answered
"So you're saying you left…just left Mossad and your father?" Mac asked in complete awe at this.
"Yes," Ziva said simply "my father has always had a hand on me-"
"You mean, hold on me, Zi." Harm corrected her
"Yes," Ziva continued "my father has always had a hold on me and I no longer want to be a Mossad agent, all I want is to work at NCIS. Here I am able to live a life, in Israel with Mossad all I knew was mission after mission and nothing else," Harm listened even more clearly, surprised at how Mac got Ziva to talk so easily, something he was trying to do all weekend. "I do not want to risk having to go back to that." Ziva continued.
Mac had an understanding and slightly still shocked look on her face from Ziva's explanation though still had a question, "But why didn't you just stay with NCIS?"
Ziva took a long sigh before answering suddenly looking sad and slightly frustrated, "Spending time in the U.S, I have to agree with my father has made me weak and because of that I did one if the things that most agents in Mossad frown upon…" Ziva trailed off
"and that is?" Mac pushed Ziva to continue
"I got emotionally close to them, all of them at NCIS, they are much more of a family than my father ever was to me." Ziva stated with emotion.
"That still doesn't explain why you had to leave NCIS."
Ziva looked down at her feet then looked up with anger in her eyes, "If I did not leave my father would have gone after the team trying to get to me, he will kill them all if he thought for a minute that they knew where I was or he thought that they were trying to protect me. So, I did the only thing that would protect them and allow me to leave…I left both NCIS and Mossad, I left a letter for my partner telling him exactly why I had left, that way my father won't go after them. By me leaving them he will think that I do not care for them and won't try to hurt them…instead my father will only try to find me and bring me back to Israel."
Mac saw the hurt in Ziva, and she also saw how that hurt had deepened when she mentioned her partner, Mac made a mental note to herself to question Ziva about this partner of hers seeing that he obviously played a role in her decision to leave NCIS.
Harm walked over to Ziva and placed his hand on her shoulder as comfort seeing the pain flash across her face as she spoke only to disappear just as quickly as it had appeared.
"Meaning," Ziva continued "that my team at NCIS as well will believe that I abandoned them and do not care for them, even though that is definitely not the truth, though as long as they are safe it…it does not matter."
The pain of leaving her 'NCIS family' was evident in her eyes even though her entire stance said that she was tough and could handle it, Harm knew better than to believe that and Mac could clearly see the truth in her eyes.
"I'm…sorry-" Mac started sincerely
"Don't apologize, it is a sign of weakness," Ziva said instinctively "besides you have nothing to apologize for, you do not have anything to do with this situation."
Harm could see that Ziva was going back into her silence state and reacted quickly to prevent that from happening. "Ok, I'm going to take a shower and change clothes so Mac if you don't mind staying with Ziva until I come back I'd appreciate it a lot." Harm said trying to avoid the death glare he could feel Ziva shooting at him.
"Sure Harm…no problem."
"That is not necessary Harm, Sarah I thank you but you do not have to stay. Actually Harm I think that you should take Sarah's offer for dinner at her place, I'll be fine here and if this is your usual thing to do it is ridiculous that you should cancel because of me." Harm finally met Ziva's eyes to glare back at her as she added "I do not need a babysitter Harm, I can most definitely take care of myself."
"That's not the point Zi, I don't want to leave you alone, what if your father-"
"My father will not find me here, he doesn't know that we are acquainted if he did I would have never come here and risk your life. I will be fine, you should go to Sarah." Ziva urged Harm, not missing the hopeful look on Macs face.
"I'm sorry Mac but I can't tonight, maybe when this is all over." Harm said and saw as Macs face dropped in sadness.
"-but," Harm continued "if you don't mind Ziva joining us we could order take out and spend the evening here."
"Yes, that'll be great…as long as you don't mind me staying Ziva." Mac asked looking towards Ziva
"I'm fine with that arrangement." Ziva couldn't help smile at Macs growing joy, knowing the reason why she was so happy was because she would be spending time with Harm. Ziva wondered if the two knew how each other felt about one another, she could see that Harm felt something for Mac.
Harm broke eye contact with Mac to give Ziva a warning look that said 'be good' then he excused himself to go take a shower and get out of uniform. After he went into his room to grab some clothes to change into he walked into the bathroom and closed the door. Ziva and Mac were alone in the room.
After a second of silence Ziva walked over to the chair she was sitting in before Mac had rang the door bell, and picked up thinking on the same subject she had left off on…Tony.
Mac watched Ziva do this and couldn't help but wonder, if she is a Mossad assassin and as tough as she leads everyone to believe she is, then regardless the emotional connection she received with NCIS she shouldn't be taking this situation so hard. 'There has to be something more to it than just having to leave them, I bet it has something to do with that partner of hers.' Mac thought and at that moment she had made it her mission to find out exactly what that other reason was.
Hey just wanted to say thanks for the reviews and please keep them coming-
I love reading your reviews it keeps me inspired, the more you review the faster a new chapter gets posted!!!
Thanks again for the reviews!!!
Next chapter MAC and ZIVA bonding.......that couldn't possibly go well. ^_^
