Not even bothering with excuses. It has been too long, and I'm sorry. So, here is yet another chapter that is not the end of this story.
~ Allie
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Gibbs paced the cold floor of the interrogation room. He had paced this way a million times before, but this time was different. He wasn't trying to intimidate the only other occupant of the room- he simply was looking for the right words. He glanced at Ziva, who was staring through the mirror on the opposite wall. There was nobody in the observation room for once, and nobody watching through the security camera. No words had been said about the complete and total aloneness that they were privileged to. Vance had stepped back long ago. There were lines not to be crossed at NCIS, and as obtrusive as he could be, Vance knew his place.
….
Turning back to Ziva, Gibbs studied her as he wracked his mind for something- anything to say. It was easy to interrogate people- he even enjoyed it. But Ziva wasn't a suspect, she was a friend, as close to being his own daughter as Abby was. "Rule 10 exists for a reason," he thought, and almost smiled as he realized just how many of his rules had been broken throughout the case. His mind quickly returned to the issue at hand- talking to Ziva. He didn't know how to go about intruding on someone's deepest secrets. Looking at her face, though, he saw that the past days had broken all of her walls. She was too tired to be tired. For once, Ziva had no secrets. She just wanted to be done. Finishing this case would be the ultimate closure to her hellish experience in Somalia, and she was ready to do anything just to move on.
….
Ziva's voice broke the nearly unbearable silence, surprising Gibbs, who was still deep in thought. "It is a game." He turned with a puzzled look on his face, prompting her to explain. "This whole— The letter. He said that he would make the team go through what I did, one by one. We are all game pieces to him. My happiness here… he takes it as a challenge, I believe. In Somalia.. he does not believe I was sufficiently broken. My game is not over." Gibbs took the information in and let silence settle over them before further addressing the elephant in the room. "Zi, we need to know how this man works. That's going to help us know who he will target next and how we can catch him. That also means-" he paused before nearly whispering his next words. "-that I need to know everything you know about him. How he acted, how he treated different people, anything." "I know," Ziva said. Her walls may have crumbled, but that didn't make putting her horrific memories into words any easier. "He was… the first, the last… and the worst. He laughed when I screamed. I stopped screaming so I would not hear his laugh. That is where the scars on my arms came from," she said, pushing back a sleeve to show the crescent shaped marks that dotted her forearm. "My own fingernails." "Ziva, do you remember any other prisoners?" Gibbs asked softly. "Gibbs, I cannot forget. There were six other women besides myself. Just citizens who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, I believe. I was the only one who had any idea where I was," she said. "How did he treat them?" Gibbs pushed. "They… were first. I tried to help them, but it was difficult. They spoke a dialect of Arabic that I could not understand, and I was kept separately. I… think that once he had taken away everything he could from them, he was no longer entertained… and they were disposed of." A tear fell and drifted down her cheek. "He knew everything about me, but nothing of you. They had all of my Mossad information. He hated me… for never telling. He took away everything else I had, but I held onto you because you were all that I had left. He said things.. "It is sad that you do not tell me of your team. They'll never know what happened to you." Gibbs, I thought we had both lost his game. I was broken, and he was dead, but I suppose neither of us has lost yet." Tears were running freely down her face, yet she made no move to wipe them away. Gibbs kissed her head and moved towards the door. "Gibbs, what are we going to do now?" she asked, sounding close to desperation. "We're going to beat him at his own game, Zi." And with that, Gibbs was gone— down the hall and off to plan the next move in the game that seemed never ending.
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Left to sort out what had happened, Ziva was surprised that she didn't seem to have anything to sort out. The guilt, dread, and terror had been replaced by relief. For the first time since her return from Somalia, Ziva David felt free. The horrid secrets that she had kept hidden for so long were gone. She had hidden them so deep inside herself and protected them fiercely to protect her team, she had told herself. It wasn't until now that she realized how tired of pretending she really was.
