Rifiuto: Non Miriena
Ebony looked up; Tim stood on the other side of the counter, tears in his eyes. She quickly set down the glass she'd been cleaning and rushed out from behind the counter. "Tim, what happened?"
He met her gaze, and it was then that Ebony realized he was shaking, badly. "He killed her. My father killed my mother..." Without a word, she threw her arms around his shoulders, holding him close. Normally, a drink and some sibling-like banter would fix the wounds left by that long ago secret day, but tonight, all the bartender did was hold tight to her best friend and refuse to let go.
She sighed, dumping her gear by the door. Today had been emotionally draining for everyone, but especially for Tim and Sarah. The sudden realization that their father had murdered their mother and then covered it up left scars that would forever damage both of Emily's remaining children; scars that night never heal. After a moment, she wandered back into the bedroom, shimmying out of her jeans and shirt, and tossing them in the hamper. In only her underwear, she pulled Tim's grey shirt off the dresser and pulled it on, needing to feel close to him, especially if he didn't come by tonight. Just wearing it calmed her down, and after a moment, she went to her nightstand and picked up the doll, heading back into the front of the apartment.
After pouring a glass of wine, she settled on the sofa and silently worked on the doll. Nicholas and Alexandra watched in silence as she slowly revealed Tatiana hiding within Olga; her short hair flipped back and held with a pink headband. Maria soon followed, long curls tumbling over her shoulder, and after a moment, Ziva sat back, studying the third daughter of the Tsar.
Said to be the most beautiful of the grand duchesses, the portrait didn't really do her justice. Though Ziva had seen photographs of the nineteen-year-old murdered princess, and she had to agree, Maria was quite the beauty. After a moment, she twisted Maria apart, to find Anastasia waiting to be revealed. Once Maria was once again together, Ziva turned her gaze to Anastasia.
This was the daughter everyone knew about, that movies and books and plays had been written about. This fourth daughter of the Tsar, one of the original three daughters found with their parents at the Four Brothers Mine back in ninety-one. In reality, it had been Alexei and Maria missing, not Anastasia. And Ziva, long since fascinated with the murdered Russian royals, always felt that Anastasia unjustly deserved the attention that rightly belonged to her older sister. She sighed. It wasn't Anastasia's fault that since the massacre, everyone latched onto her in the hopes that the Russian monarchy still survived.
Just as it wasn't Tim's fault for his mother's death.
She bit her lip and slowly opened Anastasia; Alexei stared up at her with big blue eyes. Once she put Anastasia back together and set her beside her sisters. Her gaze moved back to Alexei, and she sighed.
Alexei, the heir apparent of the Romanov dynasty. The one who carried a deadly secret.
Just as Alexei's hemophilia could bring about the downfall of the Romanov line if discovered, so had Tim's secret nearly destroyed him. She'd watched as the man she had grown so close to fell apart today, relieving a memory he'd buried so deep, it had taken months of digging to reach. And like the royal family, finally discovered in July of ninety-one and released from the mystery that had surrounded their deaths for seventy-three years, so had Tim's revelation finally released him. The mystery that had nearly eaten him alive had been solved, setting both him and Sarah free. After a moment, she set Alexei down, between his parents and sisters; Olga and Tatiana on the left, Maria and Anastasia on the right, a family, finally free of their torment, allowed to live contentedly among the angels.
A soft knock soon sounded, breaking her thoughts up into a thousand pieces, and after a moment, she got up, going to the door. She quickly unlocked it, pulling it open slightly and slipping between the doorframe and the door. A small smile tugged at her lips. "Hey, I-"
But his lips crashed onto hers, as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close. She tugged him back into her apartment and shut the door, pressing him against it. She held him close, allowing herself to taste the salt of his tears, and the sadness that still coated him like a second skin. When they finally broke for air, he rested his forehead against hers. One small hand came down to rest on his chest and she smiled. "I'm glad you came tonight." He nodded, catching her lips once more in his. They walked back towards the sofa, collapsing on it and sharing soft kisses and caresses. He pulled her onto his lap, deepening the kiss as her fingers worked on the buttons of his jacket. As it came off, she pulled away, searching his gaze momentarily before returning to the kiss.
She pulled away suddenly, remembering the wine. "Want some wine?" He thought a moment, before nodding silently. "I'll go get a glass." And she got up, leaving Tim to catch his breath. His gaze landed on the dolls sitting on the table, and after several minutes, he got up, following. Those were the dolls he'd gotten in Russia when he and Sarah went with Penny that week. So how had she-
Ziva stood with her back to him, humming a soft tune that she had to have invented. He watched her, noticing how the shirt she wore came to her mid-thigh, leaving those beautiful, shapely legs of hers exposed. As he moved closer, he realized that the black marks on her skin weren't marks at all, but bites. Dozens- no, hundreds- of bites, all in various stages of healing. A slight fever rushed to his head as he realized that he must have left those on her the night before. If there were that many on her legs, then how many were on her arms, and her chest and her shoulders? Or her neck?
He'd unintentionally marked her as his.
After letting himself absorb the realization that, according to social convention, Ziva was his now, he skulked up behind her, sliding his strong arms around her waist from behind, even though he was completely unsure of how to act around her now.