I am glad to see you didn't hate me too much.
They make up in this chapter, I'm not sure what I think about this chapter, I have changed it a lot and still don't think its as good as the other chapters. I have also decided that this will be set after season 8, it fits in better with what I have planned.
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters, they belong to their respective owners.
She turned around and was faced with her old Mossad partner and his new partner: her father's old body guards, Malachi Ben-Gidon and Liat Tuvia.
"Oh great just what I need," she said under her breath, but walked past the two Mossad officers and to their car placing her bags in the back of the seven seated, black car. She took her seat without complaint.
The others began to follow suit. Gibbs waited until they were at the car before talking to Tony. He hit him on the back of the head, "What the hell were you thinking DiNozzo? She could have killed you," he said. Tony began to get a little defensive, "does it really matter what I was thinking it worked, didn't it?" he said, "And before you ask I didn't mean any of what I said," he added walking past his boss to the car.
Vance was already in one of the back two chairs so Tony took one of the seats in the middle row. Thinking Gibbs would sit next to the director and be aide he didn't want to sit next to him. Ziva was sitting behind the driver's seat and looked toward the other door from the window when the door opened. Tony had finished putting his bags in the boot before McGee did so he was in the middle. Ziva didn't acknowledge him as he climbed in. She simply kept staring out the window and moved ever so slightly closer to the door.
The car was pretty pack by the time every one was in. Their safe house ended up being just out side of the city. It didn't take them long to get there.
Once they in the safe house with their bags Ziva looked around. It was the same as she had been in before, but it was slightly different. Smaller than a house, but it still had separate rooms. She started walking around. It had small kitchens which looked as though it joined to a living area, just with out the normal accommodations. She walked to another room, this one and the two either side of it had a few beds, clearly bedrooms. Across from that there was the bathroom.
She walked back to one of the bedrooms and threw her bags under her chosen bed. She hated these places; they always made her feel like a prisoner.
She returned to the living area where Tony and McGee were both looking lost, like they weren't sure what to make of this area. When Liat and Malachi walked in Liat announced, "There are two beds in each of the five bedrooms. Do not ask why, there just is. The one closest is Malachi and mine, two of you can be in two of the rooms and the other can be on a different room," she paused seeing a Ziva with no bags, "It looks like someone has already made herself at home," she added.
They made their ways to select rooms and beds. While Ziva looked away Gibbs basically told McGee that Tony needed to make amends with Ziva, with that McGee walked into the room he would be sharing with Gibbs. Vance had a room to himself.
Ziva walked back into the room after exploring the house a little more to discover Tony sitting on one of the other two beds, she didn't see him. She closed the door closing herself off from the rest of the world.
She turned and froze when she saw him, but still ignored him. She walked the bed she had claimed as her's and sat in the middle sitting on her legs, staring at Tony – if looks could kill...
"I do not want to talk to you," she told him when she saw he was about to talk.
"Don't talk then. I'm only asking you to listen," he said.
"What if I do not want to listen to you either?" She replied.
"Well I'm going to talk anyway," Tony replied, "I'm sorry about what I said before," he said. She didn't say anything. He continued, "I didn't mean it I just wanted you to see perspective. I know you didn't do what you have done because you wanted attention. But I needed you to hear something like that to get you to come with us," she still didn't say anything.
Tony remained patient with her, "You know," he said as he stood and moved closer to her, "It would absolutely kill me if you died. If you left before I would have given you another thought, I wouldn't have been able to help it. You know what lengths I went to get revenge on your 'death' when I thought you died on the Damocles. I flew half way around the world to make sure the guy who I believed was the reason for your 'death' died," he said this time sitting next to her.
She turned to watch him. He moved to the middle of the bed and sat next to her looking into her eyes, "Can you forgive me?" he asked.
She was slightly confused. Tony - to her - was easy to read, you could tell when he meant something and what he was feeling when he said certain things.
At the airport, when he was yelling at her all she could see was fire and anger. What she saw in his eyes then told her that he meant what he was saying. But as he was apologizing she saw sincerity and begging for forgiveness, she could tell he meant what he was saying now too.
"Yes," she said, cautiously though. She trusted him with her life, literally, every day. She couldn't afford to loose that trust.
"Thank you," he said, he watched her. She was thinking or remembering something. She bit her lower lip and looked up, trying to stop the tears that filled her eyes from falling.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, placing a comforting hand on her arm. She took deep breaths to try and stop he self from breaking down. She shook her head; there was no point in denying it now.
He pulled on her arm a bit, "Come here," he said when the tears began to fall. She moved closer to him when he pulled on her arm and he wrapped his arms around her, and she did the same to him. She rested her head in the crook of her neck with both her arms around his waist and they hung loosely at his back. He was holding her in a similar fashion.
After a minute he pulled her back a bit, she didn't let go of him. "Are you okay?" he asked again.
She wanted the contact between herself and her partner back. She couldn't explain it, she felt comfortable and safe while she was in his arms, but that wasn't the main reason she wanted the contact back.
She shook her head and he brought her back into his arms. Holding her while she silently cried. The stress of the past days had gotten the best of her. She was tired and he knew what he had told her before was not helping. He felt bad for that but was glad he was there for her then.
She was glad that the door was shut. She didn't like the fact that she allowed her self to loose control in front of her partner, but she definitely didn't want anyone else to see her in her weakness. She tried to pull back to keep away from Tony seeing her break down, she knew it was too late and she knew he had seen her like this before, but she still didn't like the idea of him seeing her like this. He just held her tighter knowing why she was trying to move away from him.
It wasn't until her breathing return to almost normal that he spoke, "It's okay to cry Ziva. It's not a weakness," she didn't do anything just keep her head resting against him and her arms around him as long as his arms were around her.
She had grown up being told that it was, she now knew it wasn't, but being back in Israel and being there because her father was dead, made her feel as though it was.
"Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" he asked in a soft voice.
She shook her head but still spoke, "What you said earlier, some of it was true and it hurt to have people acknowledge it and throw it back at you. The part about me doing all of it for attention - I feel that that is true, but it was the only way I could get him to notice me. I have been unfair to you all, and I know there is no excuse for it," she said. She took a breath against his neck, "I am just confused. I have let everything get to me, and I hate how weak it's making me feel, and add to the fact that I am being supposedly targeted by someone," she paused then continued a moment later, "I do not know why it is bothering me so much. I make a target of my self every day when I step out of the house, when I step on to the field at work. I do not see the difference. It might not even be a revenge attack. Just an enemy taking out the director of Mossad. It was a matter of time before anything like this happened, to any director, it just so happened to be my father," she said.
As Tony listened to her he thought she sounded like she was in a little bit of denial, whether it was the fact that someone, anyone, could try and kill her at any moment or whether it was the fact that her father was dead. He didn't know but the more he thought about it the more likely it seemed to be the second. Ziva had been in multiple near death situations or heading into situations where she didn't know who the bad guy was, why should this be any different.
"Maybe it's different this time. You know that someone out there is consciously making the decision to come after you. While the other times, you probably had a cover, or they didn't know who you are," he said.
"Maybe," she replied.
"And just so you know, I know you didn't do all of that for attention, I know all you wanted was for him to be a father, and I am sorry that I brought it up, I honestly didn't believe anything I said," He told her.
"I know," She replied
"Can I ask you a question?" he asked after a bit.
"You just did," she smartly replied.
"Why are you here? I mean you and your father didn't have a close relationship, and if my father trained me to be someone I didn't want to be and then left me to die, I wouldn't want to go to his funeral," he asked then explained.
"That is the difference isn't it. Your father did not train you to be any one. I am here because I do not fully believe what has been told to me. I am here for the closure that this is offering," she said.
He rubbed her back with one of his hands.
"You know what I did when mum died?" he asked. She shook her head, "I dealt with her death badly. On a suggestion of a relative I told her what I thought of her, told her about my favourite and least favourite memories and just relived some of the good times we had and told her what I was thinking. But I was eight and your older than that, so I don't know if it will work," he said.
She pulled back a bit and looked at him like he was crazy, "You speak to the dead? I thought only Ducky did that," she said confused. Before he had a chance to answer she spoke again, "I know that talking to the dead might be okay in America, but here..." she left the sentence hanging.
"No, I didn't talk to her, I wrote her a letter. I'm pretty sure that if I started taking to my self I would have gone to the mad house instead of boarding school," he laughed a little. She laughed with him quietly.
She removed her hands from him and wiped her face. Her eyes were no longer red and puffy; she didn't look like she had been crying now. She looked as if she had just woken up.
She moved away from him, so he let his arms fall from around her as well. She go off the bed and grabbed her towel from her bag, when she stood again she said, "I am going to take a shower," he nodded. She left the room.
See, all better :D
I need to ask favour. I'm suffering a bit of writers block in the chapter that I'm up to writing, I know where I am and want to go with this, but I need another underlying theme for the chapters, so please tell me if there is anything that you want to see and I will see if it fits and use it. I will acknowledge you.
Thanks for reading, I am still amazed.
I'm still not sure about this chapter, so please tell me what you think.
Thank you to mentalagent13 who pointed out my spelling mistake. I have corrected it and was the reason for re-upload.