Let these walls talk

"How long are you planning to just stand there?"

Not disconcerted in the slightest by his flippant response, Ziva continued to observe the senior field agent. She'd seen this look before, he was seething. A crease tugged at the sides of his lips in an almost frown. With eyes never leaving their position trained on the documents, his jaw muscles tightened with every file he placed in the box before him. Curious, she pushed herself off the door's frame and made her way into the room, noting as she did its chaotic state. Everything seemed to have been uprooted from where they belonged, with cardboard boxes haphazardly positioned throughout. Further in the room, she noticed the walls were now stripped bare of the maps used to track the supply routes of the terrorists.

"Where are the others?" She asked casually as she made her way over to sort through the mess of folders that had been placed on her desk.

"Getting ready." She paused, as her eyes instinctively squinted.

"For what?" Abandoning the folders, she turned to fully face him. A heavy silence hung about him. Something was obviously weighing heavily on the usually animated agent, but what? She wasn't completely sure pushing him for an answer was for the best, Amir had certainly never gotten far with her whenever he did. Ziva was two seconds from simply retreating for now, when in that moment he lifted his eyes to meet hers, his eyes smoldering with an intensity she wouldn't have imagined. He stayed silent for no more than a few more moments before finally speaking.

"Do you have any idea just how stupid it was what you did?"

Her shoulders squared as her spine reflexively straightened. She chose however not to respond. Regardless of whatever he thought of it, what happened the other night had nothing to do with him.

"She could have killed you."

"Then I would have died." She countered easily.

"And what would that have accomplished?" He challenged just as easily.

A tense silence filled the air as they held the others gaze, refusing in their stubborn pride to be the one to look away first.

"Yeah, I thought so." When it was obvious she wasn't going to respond, he went back to his packing, settling for simply having the final word.

Within the same breath, both McGee and Kate rounded the corner of the hallway to enter the room. Their faces surprised at finding someone else in the room was quickly replaced by genuine relief, at the sight of their temporary teammate. They had been denied entry in her room to check on her and were worried they wouldn't be able to say goodbye. However, before either could ask if she was really ok, they both sensed the tension that seemed to be enveloping the room with each growing second.

"Where's Gibbs?" Sensing they had walked in on something, Kate cautiously turned to address Tony.

"With the director."

After exchanging a 'don't look at me I don't know either' look with Kate, McGee settled for simply shrugging his shoulder and taking his shot with Ziva instead.

"It's good to see you back on your feet, did you come to see us off?"

"You're leaving?"

"Yep, with what we found, the director was able to send in another team, they found our last missing officer."

Oh…Logically Ziva knew they were bound to close the case at some point, she had been more than prepared to say goodbye.

Why then was there such a heavy feeling in her stomach?

"What will you do now?" Kate interjected.

"… I'm not sure." Hesitating, what would she do? Her reinstatement at this point seemed more of a wish than an eventuality.

"If your available why not come back to washington with us as our guest?" Kate quickly offered, after the fight it became harder for her not to think about it, Ziva needed time to recover away from everything and coming with them seemed the best. "Abby's already dying to meet you." She tried to further sway the woman, knowing that a part of her simply did not want to leave the Mossad agent behind.

"That is not necessary."

"It'd be fun; besides, you deserve a break." McGee kindly pointed out.

"It's your choice but I think it would be good to get away for a while." Kate coaxed.

"Thank you for the offer…I think I'll leave you to finish." With that, Ziva made for a tactical retreat, not wanting to further disappoint them. She had already resolved to stay.

"What was that about?" McGee begun, turning now to his abnormally silent teammate. Who seemed to have little interest with anything outside of his eyes purview.

"Did you get the evidence tape?" McGee and Kate shared a knowing look. Tony had been in what they decided was his version 2 state.

"Did you?" With obvious impatience, Tony reluctantly left his 'precious' files to finally regard the two before him.

"We did." Her tone just as incensed as his own Kate answered, before reaching over to take the container with the tape from McGee and then march over to her increasingly exasperating partner.

"Just so we're on the same page, who exactly are you so angry at?" She demanded as she passed one of the tapes to his already waiting hand. When he didn't respond and simply continued packing, she knew she already had her answer.

"Use your head Dinozzo, you and I both know she couldn't say no even if she wanted to, or are you forgetting once we leave, she has to go back to them?"

His only response seemed to be a rather sharp tick of his jaw.

"I know you're worried about her too, but this…" She vaguely waved her hands about as she referred to his general disposition "…isn't helping, we leave in a few hours so make it right."

For a small fleeting moment Kate had believed she had somehow gotten through to her pigheaded friend, that moment however was gone just as quickly as it had arrived.

"We're out of boxes, I'm going to get some more." He hoisted the box he'd been working on to the adjacent table, before then making his own exit.

…

"My men and I want to thank you agent Gibbs, your information proved invaluable to us." The director, as he rose to his feet in acknowledgement of the agent's presence, extended his hand in gratitude.

"No problem." Gibbs supplied as he too made an effort to reach out and give the director a quick but firm shake in return.

After just over a month in Israel, Gibbs had had his fill and was more than ready to go home and make a strategic retreat to his basement.

"Your driver has been instructed to take you and your team to any restaurant in the city, It's the least I can do before you leave." Eli said, before reclaiming his seat and reaching for a folder that had been neatly placed upon his desk.

"Appreciate it."

"I'm sorry I can't join you, there's still so much to do." Said the director as he motioned to the pile of reports before him.

"Hmmm." Gibbs responded half-heartedly as he continued to level the director with an expectant stare. The man had buried his head in whatever report was before him. Gibbs however was a patient man.

" ... ... Is there something else?" Clearly sensing the special agent had something else in mind to discuss with him, Eli allowed his eyes to depart from the words before him and instead settle on the agent present in his office.

"How long are you planning to keep this from her? That fight the other night, could've ended a lot differently."

"Perhaps, however I've already dealt with my agents and Ziva." Eli dismissively reassured, as he questioned whether or not he should have told Agent Gibbs. However, he had wanted to ensure she would be monitored appropriately and kept away from anything that might put too much of a strain on her already taxed system.

"At least if she knew why she's been sick all this time, she might have chosen differently."

"Thank you for your concern Agent Gibbs, I'll take what you have said under consideration." Refusing to be further questioned by the special agent, Eli delivered a dismissive response before returning once more to his report.

This is why he left the politics to Jenny. Not seeing the point in pushing the conversation. Gibbs decided to leave sleeping dogs where they lied, Ziva was a damn good agent and she would figure it out sooner rather than later.

….

"There's still time to change your mind." McGee decided to speak up, as he secured his bag's strap on his shoulder. They were at the Mossad hanger, moments away from leaving the country for what would most likely be for good. Gibbs and Kate were with him, tony was somewhere in the back office finalizing some case transfer files that had somehow been missed.

She hadn't responded to McGee's offer, instead she gave the junior agent an almost apologetic smile.

"Visit us anytime." Without hesitation, Kate brought Ziva in for a firm 'Abby' hug, that she knew the goth would kill her for if she didn't.

Surprised, but though caught off guard by the unexpected gesture, Ziva had done her best to recover quickly and place a short light hold on Kate's back in response. Reluctantly however, she let go of the Israeli and provided a polite but reassuring smile to the woman's companion, whom she was fairly sure was more than just that, by the way he had been hovering protectively by her side.

"Take care of yourself David." Gibbs offered up with a rare smile and handshake for the woman before him.

"Thank you, I will do my best."

For the last few weeks, he had seen her struggle to overcome her newfound disability because of her illness and though she didn't know it yet, her pregnancy, which had not come easy for her.

He admired the young agents drive and how she refused, despite the circumstances to not pull her weight in the investigation. She pushed past the fatigue, migraines, muscle pains and nausea, with a courage and strength most lacked. She was the definition of a soldier on a mission and hell would freeze over before anything got in the way of that.

He had been skeptical at first but the more time he and his team had spent with her, the more her frigid exterior had diminished, giving them the chance to see who she really was, behind the mask of a Mossad operative. Gibbs had little doubt the woman they had met would be a good mother.

So with that, the lead agent said his goodbye to both Mossad agents before making his way to the awaiting plane, his two other agents closely following suit.

Ziva for all she had believed had never imagine it would be so…difficult to say goodbye to people she had barely known for little more than a month. If she were being honest with herself, she was happy Amir had decided to accompany her to see them off.

From the corner of her eye she saw as Tony made his way down the ramp to the landing where they were. Instinctively, Amir placed his hand to rest on the small of Ziva's back. Questioningly she glanced at him for only a moment before once more returning to focus on the approaching agent.

He stopped just short of 3 feet before her. They still hadn't resolved whatever that earlier conversation had even been about; she was honestly unsure what to expect from him, but a silent weight of relief fluttered in her stomach as his lips tilted in a small reassuring smile.

"Just in case, hold onto this." She looked down and saw that it was a small folded piece of paper. " If you need anything we're on the first flight out." Taking it from the agent, it was all she could do to resist rolling her eyes, as she opened it to find a list of their numbers written down, with his name capitalized and circled in red.

Meeting his eyes, she offered him a grateful smile. "Thank you."

"Keep her safe for us." Tony turned with an outstretched hand in request, to now acknowledge the other man's presence.

Pausing for only a breath, Amir, with his hand still unmoving from Ziva's back, used his free hand to shake Tony's. An inexplicable moment, driven by unseen forces passed between the two, as their hands met in a firm grasp. Amir his expression unreadable.

"With my life."

Tony, returning his attention to Ziva, "I guess that's Shalom then." With a smile not quite reaching his eyes and one last lingering look, he resolutely, turned and made his way to the waiting plane, ignoring the weight that seemed to be pressing down on his insides with every step.

A/n: Hey guys, I know its been awhile but I wanted to let you all know, I will never give up on this story because it means so much to me and I want to thank you for still sticking around!