Ducky had arrived twenty minutes later and within the hour, breakfast was over and everyone recongregated in the living room with Fornell slipping out to go to work. A nervous tension filled the air as everyone was waiting for what they knew was going to be bad news coming from Gibbs.
Ziva sat in the middle of the couch flanked on either side by Ducky and Tony. Abby and McGee were sitting side by side on the love seat and E.J. was sitting in the lone living room chair with Liat preferring to stand, not liking to sit when bad news was coming as she felt trapped.
Gibbs grabbed a chair from the kitchen and slowly brought it into the living room with the file held tightly in his hand, placing his chair directly in front of where Ziva was sitting and everyone gulped, especially Ziva.
"Just tell me." Ziva looked at him as he sat down slowly, taking a moment to look into her eyes with a sad expression she knew wasn't good. "I have been waiting for the other foot to drop."
"It's waiting for the other shoe to drop, Ziva." Tony corrected her quietly as per her wishes and received some stern looks that now was not the time.
Ziva picked up on those looks and defended him, "I have asked Tony to always correct me when I say things incorrectly. It is the only way I will learn to say them right and I need to be able to trust he will always be honest with me." She gave him a small smile and took his hand, giving it a squeeze and then not letting go as she shifted her focus back to Gibbs sitting directly in front of her, "Just as I can trust that you will always be honest with me, Gibbs. So please, just tell me."
"Ziver, are you sure you don't want to talk about this privately first?" Gibbs asked again, having already quietly spoken about this earlier with her, making sure she hadn't changed her mind.
"Everyone in this room has already seen me at my most vulnerable and exposed in the past two months, Gibbs. None of you have ever left my side during that time. You have all put your lives in danger to protect mine. Some of you," Her eyes flashed first with Tony and then Liat, "have not left my side both night and day for nearly the entire two months of my recovery. My life has already been completely exposed. I have nothing to hide anymore. Honestly, I feel safer…" her eyes met with Tony remembering this same feeling and conversation last night after her nightmare about joining the others, "somehow surrounded by people I know love me and that I can trust. My family," she smiled softly at him, "and friends." She smiled at E.J. and Liat both, having become much closer with them in the past two months through endless hours of every day contact, long conversations and fun times together as a group. "The people in this room… have been through the some of the most difficult experiences of my life with me… that have only brought me closer with all of you." She gave them all a soft smile, nervous about whatever he was going to tell her but also relieved not to be facing it alone. She'd come to rely on them in the past few months; had been forced to with her own body's limitations and now found herself feeling safer and more at peace with those she knew held no judgement. "I am tired of secrets, Gibbs." She looked deeply into his eyes and nodded, "Please, just tell me whatever it is."
Gibbs nodded and took a breath, "Considering everything we've been learning about The Hashshanshini Project and its close ties to the American Operation Frankenstein…" Gibbs began telling them all but looking only at Ziva as if she were the only one he was really speaking to, "I decided last night that it was time to go straight to the source. To the one man we know who had a part in Operation Frankenstein."
"Director Vance." Ziva added quietly remembering that is where he'd gone last night and the man's involvement in developing the Elite Assassin Training Program.
"Yes," Gibbs nodded holding tightly to the folder in his hands as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, "I asked him directly what he knew about The Hashshanshini Project. He gave me this folder," Gibbs looked down at the folder in his hands and then back up at Ziva, "And told me the truth." He handed the folder slowly over to Ziva who forced her hands not to shake taking it. "Go ahead."
Ziva flipped open the folder and was greeted with the same group shot of men. Her eyes scanning the faces and she felt her breath stolen from her body.
Gibbs knew she wouldn't be able to speak and explain what she saw to the others so he explained quietly with finger reaching over the top of the photo to point out and say their names outloud, "Saleem Ulaman…Ari Haswari…Illan Bodnar…Roland Ames…Kia Kazmi…Michael Rivkin…Ray Cruz…Trent Kort," He paused and swallowed hard watching a large tear fall down Ziva's cheek in utter silence, "Eli David." He heard the others gasp softly around him but ignored them focusing only on Ziva, "Do you know who this man is, Ziva?" He asked pointing to the one face he didn't know amongst the men.
She nodded and another tear fell unchecked and then another, "Haider…" She answered in a shaking voice and her hand started to tremble causing the photo to as well.
"Haider…the cigarette guy?" Tony asked breathlessly afraid to speak until this moment with tears in his own eyes, unsure what this meant exactly but something terrible to have Saleem in a photo with her father.
Ziva only nodded in response and another tear fell.
"Who is that, Ziva?" Gibbs could see that clearly Tony was aware of who the man was from just the name but he needed to know.
"Haider was one of the men in Saleem's camp. The one who used to watch the others…smoking while he did," She swallowed hard staring at this face and more tears slid down her face as she barely breathed, "When it was his turn he would always put them out on the same spot on my skin before he would begin." She answered quietly in barely above a whisper, transfixed on the faces in the photo. "He was also the one…who would set my bones after they would break them."
"Okay," Gibbs answered softly with a small nod, "Ziver, there is no easy way to tell you this…it was not a terrorist camp your father sent you into." Gibbs paused willing his own emotions to stay in check when her eyes flashed up to his immediately with question, "It was a Hashshanshini Training Camp. He sent you there to be broken." He paused and watched as her eyes filled with disbelief and tears, slowly starting to shake her head 'no.' "His intent was to break you down and rebuild you as one of the Elite Assassins in his group. He was grooming you to take over Mossad, in the way he wanted." He paused tilting his head to the side trying desperately to hold back his own tears at seeing the devastation in her own eyes, "Ziva, this is the file that Mossad kept on you during that Training Session…their methods and progress in breaking you."
Ziva furiously blinked her eyes unable to see through the tears and looked back down, flipping to the next page of the file and gasping when she saw the image of her hanging from the ceiling, naked and in chains unconscious after being electrocuted. Her heart started to pound and chest was visibly heaving as she struggled to breathe and keep her emotions in check, resisting the urge to scream and cry as she flipped to the next and the next, images of her torture and 'breaking' documented in grisly fashion.
The others were all crying silently as well, struggling to hold back their own cries watching her and seeing the photos flip by, the first real evidence they'd ever seen of what had been done to Ziva during her time as prisoner.
"My father…" She began and stopped taking several large breaths, "Is the one who had me captured? He ordered them to rape and torture me? All that time?" She asked with eyes penetrating deeply into Gibbs searching for the truth and needing confirmation. "He sent me to that hell?" She inhaled a sob, "On purpose?"
"Yes." Gibbs answered her honestly and watched her face contort into a held back sob as she looked back down at an image of her unconscious and badly beaten naked body lying on a dirt floor, bound and staked unmoving as a prisoner in that hell.
"He knew what was happening to me?" She had to clarify everything that was being implied.
"Yes." Gibbs nodded speaking softly and felt the tears welling in his eyes though he willed them to stay in. "He gave Bodnar control over how they broke you…but your father knew," Gibbs nodded towards the file in her hands, "He was receiving progress reports." He paused watching more tears rain down her cheeks in silence.
Ziva closed her eyes looking down and more tears squeezed out form her long dark lashes as she slowly shook her head, the real pieces falling into place of this horrendous puzzle that was her life, "And Michael," She spoke his name and looked up to Gibbs, "My father had him seduce me in order to bring me back to Israel for this, training?" She said the word with such venom it stung, and more tears came forth from them all, that such a simple word could ever be used to describe the autrocities commited against Ziva. "Michael knew my father's intentions for me?"
"Yes." Gibbs answered honestly to both questions.
"That explains his drinking." Ziva scoffed through tear stained face with a sick smile remembering how much Michael had been consuming in those days before his death and why Tony was able to not get killed himself in fighting the man, "He knew he was luring me into hell."
There was nothing to say to that so Gibbs remained silent, waiting for her to speak as she was putting the pieces together herself.
"And with his death, my father was able to keep me in Israel." She shook her head at how well she'd been played, replaying her father's guilt trip and conversation over in her head now, "Sever my ties with all of you and send me exactly where he wanted me into that camp." She sighed looking back up at Gibbs, "Did Malachi know this truth? What I was walking into?" She asked wondering who else she had trusted had betrayed her. Malachi had been part of the team that was bound for this 'camp.'
"I don't know." Gibbs answered honestly, asking and dreading the same question and answer. "He wasn't mentioned at all in this file or by Vance, I don't know if he knew or played a part in getting you there."
Liat could barely breath, tears raining unchecked down her cheeks in front of them for the first time, standing off to the side and in disbelief at what she was hearing and that Malachi could have some how participated in this. She couldn't believe that he would knowingly, but then again, she would never, ever have believed that Mossad would be capable of doing this to one of their own and especially for Director David to do this to his own daughter…it was unfathomable.
"We interrupted that breaking process…your training, unknowingly, when we came to avenge your death." Gibbs went on to explain, "Brought you home. Director Vance knew you were alive in the camp." He knew that would bring all eyes back sharply to his in surprise, "He said he didn't learn the truth of what your father had done until you were already a prisoner inside and that he knew you were the female being reported to Dunham as held captive. Said that is why he ok'd DiNozzo, McGee and I to 'avenge' your death, because he wanted us to find you and bring you home. Your father had no idea that Vance was aware of the truth. Not until recently anyway."
"My father sent Malachi to try and frame me for the Damocles murder." Ziva spoke in a quiet voice as her tears began to slow and she regained composure, though the others were still trying hard to blink back their tears. A quiet resolve was setting over her features: acceptance. "He was trying to find a way to bring me back to Israel. To force me by having me sent back for murder. To go back into his program."
"Yes." Gibbs nodded, knowing that she was clicking all the pieces of realization together in her head now. Going over every event of her life involving her father and how it all was meant toward his end game, of training her to be his Final Project and then passing the 'torch' onto her as the next Leader of Mossad.
"And the Iranians before that?" She asked remembering the first time she'd been framed and Gibbs nodded, "And Ray?"
"I don't know how exactly on that one, but yes." Gibbs answered and she nodded, chewing now on the inside of her lower lip as she nodded. Her tears had ceased completely and a far off look came over her eyes. "Vance said that your father abolished the program shortly after his first trip to D.C. for the summit meetings. That he'd had a sudden change of heart and decided instead to seek your forgiveness for his sins and find a way to keep you in his life."
"So he was, what?" Ziva narrowed her dark intense eyes with an incredulous tone, not at Gibbs but at her father, "Making arrangements to find me what he thought was a suitable husband with Ray? Once again manipulating every aspect of my life." She shook her head, "So predictable. I was foolish to ever believe he could possibly change." The same resolve she'd had the night he died, before he was shot to death after learning that he'd killed another innocent for his own purposes came back; his sins were too grotesque in nature to ever, ever be forgiven. "A snake never changes its spots, Ziva, it just finds a better place to hide." She spoke in Hebrew quoting what he'd said to her and in a deeper tone and then scoffed again, repeating it in English so the others understood. "He always told me that as a child. He never changed his spots. He just found a better place to hide." Her eyes flashed to Gibbs realizing how her father had changed tactics with her, "Instead of the forceful authoritative approach he had used with me before Somalia, he used love and affection after… my forgiveness in these last years to manipulate me." She closed her eyes sighing and then smiling, shaking her head that she really was played and her reaction of being so calm was unsettling to the others who were still crying for her betrayal.
"Ziva, there is more." Gibbs sighed folding his hands in front of his lips, "Ari was right in his assumptions about your father purposefully killing his mother in that Israeli airstrike. He wanted to have sole control over him for his training into this program." He added softly only feeling more sorry for the man who tried to kill him in the basement because of his obsession with Gibbs stemming from his relationship with his father.
"And let me guess," Ziva's eyes turned coal black as her tone dropped and sounded like steel. "He was also responsible for the attack that killed my mother? So he could have the same access to me. For this program."
Gibbs nodded softly and the others had a new surge of tears though Ziva remained staring into Gibbs eyes with no emotion.
She passed the file over to Tony, not caring who read or saw what was in it anymore. "I'm done." Ziva nodded at first slowly and then with resolve, "With all of it."
"Ziva," Gibbs spoke her name quietly not sure what she meant with his own anxiety building unsure of her reaction to all of this.
"I'm done with them taking. They get no more of me." She repeated his words back to him. The words he'd spoken to her yesterday in the elevator and gave him a small smile to acknowledge she'd heard what he'd said. "It's over. I buried him in Israel and it is done. I owe him nothing else." She released herself from the obligation to get revenge on her father's killer in Bodnar, her duty long ago fulfilled. "I finish this with Illan, for myself." She continued to nod softly agreeing unconsciously with her thoughts with the gesture, "For my life. For my future." She gave a small smile and her eyes welled with tears again with one escaping as she smiled softly when Gibbs did. "You are my family." She looked at Gibbs with the same soft smile and another tear fell, as she looked around at the people surrounding her with nothing but love and support for her, "You have always had my back. You are my family." She repeated fully embracing them and her life now and in the future. "I have nothing left in Israel. This is home. You," she paused looking at them and her smile grew with silent happy tears falling, "Are home. I love all of you…and I know, that you all love me…no hidden agendas. No manipulations. Your love does not come with a price." She exhaled a long breath wiping at her tear tracks stinging her cheeks, "Thank you."
"Ziva, are you really okay?" Gibbs asked quietly, happy to see her smiling but worried she was suddenly so calm and at peace as this was not the reaction he was expecting and wondered if she wasn't partially in shock or denial.
"Yes, actually. I am surprised myself." She shrugged with slight smile not expecting this reaction either, "But somehow…I feel… free." She answered with that being the only word she could find and then another, "Liberated." She smiled softly wiping at another fallen tear, "I do not have to feel badly ever again for the choices I have made or make now. My life is my own." She smiled and reached for Gibbs hand, holding and squeezing it, "Thank you, for telling me the truth. For always, telling me the truth. Even when it is hard." She smiled as more tears began to well in her eyes, "I love you."
"I love you, too." He answered in a near whisper with a smile, reaching out to cup her face with one hand feeling relief wash over him. His belief in her was right. Ziva was stronger then Vance had given her credit for and once again, she had proven that she would rise again from the ashes of her life stronger then before. Her entire life she had struggled to survive; fought for everything she had. To know so much of it had been a contrivance by her father had liberated her from the guilt she felt at his manipulations. She was free, for the first time in her life. The last of her bloodline. Where she went from here, was now her choice.
"What about Bodnar?" Tony asked finally speaking and trying to slow his own emotions seeing her reaction and that she had accepted all of it, as it was. Letting all the hurt and anger, sadness and guilt just wash away with the tears she'd cried and trying to do the same. He had no right to feel enraged if she didn't. If she wanted to let it go, he would try to as well, for their future. But in order to have that future, they still had a major complication. The man intent on killing her. Bodnar.
"I do not care how… or why… or what his connection is to who anymore." Ziva shrugged with no emotion having surpassed the threshold of betrayals into acceptance, "I really don't. And honestly, it does not matter. He will keep going until he kills me, it does not matter how. What matters is that we beat him at this game, and I kill him instead."
"But how do we do that?" Tony asked liking the return of her fierce resolve but unsure how to accomplish such a terrifying prospect. "How do we beat him at this game?" Especially if Bodnar was Eli's protégé and part of his Elite Group of Assassins.
"I always beat Illan in chess. He never thought as many moves ahead as I did." Ziva smiled finding her fire thinking about their childhood, "His arrogance will be his downfall. And there is one move from me that he will never expect. Not with how we have grown up. Not with our training."
"What is that?" Liat asked wondering the same, having been one of those trained just like Ziva and Illan.
"That I will not be doing this alone." Ziva smiled softly looking around at their faces, "He will expect me to eventually come after him by myself when I am healed. Believing that I will handle this on my own, as in the past. It is our way, a singular Mossad assassin. But I am not that anymore. I am part of a team. And we work together. That," She smiled softly looking intently into Gibbs eyes, "Will be his downfall. Our Rules of Engagement in how we proceed with this mission, are the same as you have given to us," She gestured towards herself and Tony and then between McGee and Abby, "That we do not waste good…and we take nothing for granted." She smiled realizing how those two rules were the only ones in life that really mattered when you cut down to it. "We are a good team. And each of us is willing to die for the other. We take nothing for granted. Not anymore." She smiled realizing how far they'd come through all of this to become that much closer to each other. Bonded to each other through bullets and blood, death and grief, pain and sorrow, elation and thanks, laughter and tears, love and loyalty. "He will be expecting only me. He will be getting all of us." Ziva smiled with a renewed sparkle in her eyes.
"Hoo-rah." Gibbs responded quietly with a smile to hear her say that. His team finally solidified and thinking as one.
"And in the meantime," Ziva turned her smile to Tony, "we are going to enjoy life. Not be afraid." She reached for his hand knowing how much time had already been wasted with things put on hold always waiting for a better time, "Together." She smiled knowing he held the same fears.
"Together." Tony repeated softly with a smile and kissed her hand, setting it back down on Ziva's knee.
"Together." Abby smiled reaching her hand in to close over Tony and Ziva's with tears in her eyes.
"Together." McGee echoed with a smile, laying his over Abby's and earning a large smile in turn from all three of them.
The Four Musketeers, Gibbs thought with a smile. Remembering when Vance had originally broken up his team and Abby demanded the return of her Musketeers. The ridiculous photos of them making faces she'd hung on her wall in their absence that made him miss them more too.
"I'm in to the end. I already promised that." E.J. smiled blinking back her own tears and laid her hand on McGee's. The past two months working so closely with them all again and on something so personal had only solidified her commitment to her surrogate team and the people she'd come to care for so deeply outside of work as well. These were her friends. They had been there for her and she would be there for them.
"Not sure what help I could be, but I am in as well." Ducky smiled and lay his hand over theirs, looking at Gibbs to do the same.
"I'm always in. It's my Team." Gibbs smiled widely putting his hand in, and then shifted his gaze to Liat standing off to the side with arms folded over her chest, looking unsure about where she now belonged given she was the Mossad Liason, and suddenly they seemed to be part of the enemy. "What do you say, kid?" Gibbs looked at her with an intent gaze and lopsided smile, "Are you in?" It was an invite and one he hoped she would accept, at least for this mission.
Liat hesitated as all eyes fell to hers, waiting, watching and wondering. Her eyes locked with Ziva's and a silent message was sent and received. Ziva nodded ever so slightly with her head to the side, calling her over and Liat moved. "I'm in." She smiled softly laying her hand over theirs. "I will see this through to the end with you, Ziva." She promised Ziva, looking her in the eyes, "This is my Aliyah."
Ziva blinked back tears with such a serious promise. That Liat was vowing her Aliyah, her higher purpose in life, to avenging Ziva's life and all the wrongs in it done by those they'd sworn to protect. To ensure that she had a future, and one she deserved. This was no small thing, obvious even to those who were not Jewish; who were not Mossad. "We will end this, together." Liat spoke in Hebrew looking only at Ziva, "You have my vow, I will not betray you. I will not betray you." She repeated staring into her eyes intently show her that it was the truth.
Ziva blinked back her tears, too moved to speak and reached for Liat's free hand, squeezing it and then releasing only to reach up and cup the side of her face to kiss her cheek in great appreciation. "Thank you." Ziva spoke in English when she pulled back and the others knew something had transpired between the two that was fairly momentous, though they couldn't understand the words, the actions spoke loudly enough.
"All for one!" Abby chanted with a smile, having always called them her Musketeers, and Tony, McGee and Ziva responded with, "And one for all!" Making them all laugh and Gibbs shake his head with a smile, his previous thought solidified of his Musketeers.
Somehow, the combined hands fell away and into individual hugs, without any words spoken to each other, none were needed. Their vows to each other and this mission were clear. They would work together and end this part of Ziva's life, once and for all.
"I hope you all do not mind, but I need to shower." Ziva scrubbed her hand over her arm just wanting to wash it all off of her and they nodded in understanding. To wash away the tear tracks and hurt and start fresh. To have some time alone to process what had just happened. She started walking towards the stairs and heard Tony yell, 'Dibbs, I get the next one.' Already arguing with McGee and E.J. over who was in line for the shower after her. She smiled shaking her head as she walked slowly up the steps. She loved her family and they loved her. And nothing else mattered anymore.
The others meandered into the kitchen with Ducky calling for tea and Tony and Gibbs in the hunt for coffee leaving Liat alone in the living room, now staring at the file left on the couch. She picked it up and flipped through it, reading various remarks about the progress of breaking Ziva and the condition she was in. The photos… the physical proof of what her own agency, and her own country had done to one of their own and claiming it to be for the 'greater good of the nation.' It literally made her sick to her stomach and she had to put the file down quickly and get some fresh air. She bolted for the door and nearly as soon as she was outside, vomited over the balcony at the thought of what was done to Ziva by her own father, her own people and possibly even Malachi were just too much for her to take. She felt ashamed and somehow dirty now to be the only one in the room that was linked to such treachery being Mossad. How in one morning, they had turned everything she loved and believed in upside down and revealed it to be something disgusting that shamed her. The actions of a few had tainted the entire thing for her now and she felt her former pride in belonging to Mossad quickly slipping away each time she heaved and vomit.
Ziva had come down the stairs, freshly showered and changed and immediately took note of Liat through the window on the porch, physically ill as the others had suddenly stopped what they were doing to watch in surprise from the kitchen, with everything happening so quickly after seeing Liat bolt through the front door and immediately sick.
Ziva looked from them to Liat and moved towards the door. She understood Liat's reaction better then any of them. What betrayal felt like from something you were once willing to give your life for. She knew that Liat was feeling that now.
She grabbed the blanket off the back of the sofa on her way by and wrapped it around her shoulders as she stepped onto the porch closing the open door behind her.
"Being my father's perfect daughter no longer seems so appealing, does it?" Ziva spoke quietly remembering one of the first conversations she'd ever had with Liat years ago, when Liat had been so eager to please Ziva's father.
Liat remained hunched over the railing resting her body weight on her forearms and shook her head slowly, honestly, and finally admitting to herself and to Ziva in that one move that she had coveted Ziva's life then, her father's attention and affections. Seeing them now for what they were and absolutely mortified that she was ever envious.
Ziva leaned against the railing next to Liat, snaking her hand out of the blankets and into the cold air to brush Liat's long hair back and over her shoulder out of her face as she heaved in sickness. It was a very loving gesture that didn't go unnoticed by either woman and one that Liat had first done for Ziva after being poisoned weeks ago. This was something sisters would do for each other; give one another a hard time about their mistakes and beliefs and help them in a loving way at the same time, to be there for them.
"Don't give your life to them, Liat." Ziva spoke quietly not wanting her to make the same mistakes she had, "The sacrifice you make is never worth it in the end. If you are going to die for something, make sure it is worth dying for. I was willing to give my life for the good of my country and Mossad…and for my father when I walked into that camp believing I was getting rid of one another evil man in the world…I was lied to and my life and my Aliyah were for nothing then. I knew when I left that camp, even without knowing my father and Mossad were behind my stay there…that I could never trust them again. They did not have my back. I had been manipulated and used and it was all for nothing. I had forgotten whom I could really trust. Those who really loved me. I was reminded when they came for me. Not for any other reason," she sighed with a slow smile spreading across her lips, "other then they loved me enough to care that I was gone." She thought about what they'd done just to avenge her death.
Liat took a deep breath and stood, the wave of nausea passed and used the back of her hand to wipe her mouth, turning to face Ziva with tears in her eyes.
"I know you have a lot to think about." Ziva wrapped the blanket more tightly around her, feeling the chill especially having wet hair. "But I want you to know…to see," She nodded back towards those still inside the house, "That there is life outside of Mossad. And whether you stay or leave, you are always welcome here. As Tony has said to me," She smiled softly, "We have sort of adopted you along the way…all of our little sister." She added just as softly and saw a new surge of tears in Liat's eyes, before she quickly looked away with a disbelieving headshake that they could feel this way and be so kind and generous. "Gibbs has Rules as you know by now, and as I stated earlier, the two most important are turning out to be #5 and #8… you do not waste good and you take nothing for granted. You are good, Liat. And please know, we do not take you for granted." She reached out grabbing her hand and forcing Liat to look at her, "I… do not take you for granted." She gave her a small smile, "You have hardly left my side since I was shot, both night and day… and I cannot thank you enough for all that you have done…and given up…for me. Thank you." Ziva blinked back her tears truly caring for the young woman who had taken such good care of her for the past two months in every way. Going so far even as to cover her from a sniper and get shot herself.
"You're welcome." Liat acknowledged her quietly with a smile and exhaling a long breath. "I don't know what I'm going to do, Ziva." She admitted with a hint of fear in her tone at the unknown when for so much of her life, the only thing that made sense was her commitment to Mossad and how far she wanted her career to go.
"You do not have to make up your mind right now. It is a big decision. Think about it. For now," Ziva wrapped her arm around Liat's shoulder and leaned her head into her giving her a sideways hug, "Come inside and have some fun. Tony is always very good for a laugh." She smiled thinking of the man she loved who drove her crazy and made her laugh all in one. "Today we are appreciating the good in our lives and taking nothing for granted. Today we are family." She added softly with a small smile. "Come inside." She reached for Liat's hand, tugging her along and giving it a soft squeeze until the woman began to move. They held hands until they stepped through the door.
For the first time in a long time, Liat thought perhaps surrounded by these people who were once strangers only months ago and now growing so dear to her, that maybe she did have a place where she could belong. On the Island of Misfit Toys, she smiled looking over at Tony who greeted her across the room with a small smile and head nod. She wasn't certain what the future held for her but for now, she knew this was exactly where she belonged.
Ziva had told her that if she were going die for something, make sure it was worth dying for. She wasn't sure what that meant anymore with her commitment to Mossad, but she was sure that this battle ahead of them was worth it. These people surrounding her, especially Ziva whom she found herself looking more and more too as a sister, were worth it. They were 'good' and as Gibbs Rules had stated, you do not waste good. As long as she was a part of this team, she wouldn't be wasting that good… and she certainly wouldn't be taking them or their kindness towards her, for granted.