Just minutes into New Year's Day a few months after Ziva returns to Tony and Tali in Paris.
Ziva pulls back from the kiss and with that connection between them broken steps away from Tony. She starts to scan the gardens unaware of the fear now apparent in her eyes and the anxious concern on his face.
The noise. The cheering people. Thunder in the distance. Lights. Laughter. Bodies. Blood. Her sister in a suicide bombing. Her Ima. Eli dead on Vance's floor. Ari in Gibbs' basement. Tony smiling. Tali eating an ice cream with more on her face and dress than made it in her mouth. McGee's uncharacteristic bluntness in the diner. "Come home Ziva." Opera in the squad room. A bone crushing Abby hug. Ducky starting a story. Jimmy's uncomplicated pleasure at her return.
"Ziva. Ziva." His voice is gentle but she in another world and simply can't hear him. "Ziva."
Gun shots. Explosions. Whirling sand. Pain. Fighting with Gibbs "Why didn't you look for me?" Adam dead. Dead because he loved her even though he must have known she didn't feel like that for him and never would. Tali automatically turning to Tony when she fell off the swing. Tony being careful not to upset her. Watching what he said, watching her with Tali, watching her. Treating her like some fragile princess not the warrior, the survivor she's been all her life.
Who is she now? Tali's Ima. Tony's soul mate? Who else? What is real? The rain on her face. These memories? The voices she sometimes hears in the night and occasionally the day too? The scars she'll always have to remind her of everything she's been through.
"Ziva."
Suddenly she is back in the moment, the now. She shakes her head as if she's been daydreaming not trapped in a nightmare she fears will never end. Tony is staring at her with a mixture of love, compassion and worry.
"You deserve so much better than me."
"No." He takes a step towards her.
"No?" In her confused state she's unsure of what he's trying to say. "Tony I'm too broken, too damaged. I'm not sure I will ever recover. I will try. I will be a mother to Tali. I know you will help me with that."
"Of course" he replies.
"But I know now...I think now...you've done so much...you deserve to be happy..."
"I am." Tony steps forward and wraps her in his arms again.
"How can you be?"
"I have you. I have Tali. I have good friends and a good life. Not one without problems but one with the people I love." He smiles at her.
"I have too many challenges..."
"We do but we will get through them. We will do it together."
She smiles at him. "Together." She gently kisses him.
"Shall we go home my ninja?"
"I'd like that my little hairy butt."
Tony laughs as they walk through the park arm in arm.
That night after she wakes they talk through her latest nightmare. Snuggled against him she falls asleep quicker than she has for weeks, maybe months. She does not know Tony lies awake beside her for hours before drifting into an uneasy sleep prior to waking and jumping out of bed to make breakfast for the three of them.
The End.