It was 3 am in the morning and Tony watched Ziva being peacefully asleep in his arms. But when he had come into their bedroom that evening, she had been tossing and turning in her nightmare. It took him an hour to calm her until she finally fell back asleep. Now she had a soft smile on her face but Tony grew angry. Not at her, no he was angry with Gibbs.
The case they had just closed involved a man who had captured women to torture and rape them. They had only caught him because one of his victims was a Navy Officer.
After that it was no surprise that Ziva had a nightmare about her time in Somalia. But Tony was not prepared for the anger he would feel.
When they had freed the Navy Officer, she had asked them to kill her, to make the humiliation and pain go away and suddenly Tony was back in Saleem's camp, looking at Ziva, hearing her say: 'I am ready to die.' No, he realized she had not been ready she had wished for it. He remembered the look in her eyes when he had told her about the escape plan. Hope and he saw this hope fading when he said how long it would take until it would be over. Over in any way.
The thought of the look on her face broke his heart and he pulled her even closer. She mumbled something he could not understand and turned her head so it was lying on his chest.
Usually that would have made him smile but in this night…
Rule #51: Sometimes you are wrong!
No, Tony was right about being angry with Gibbs and Ziva was wrong in saying Gibbs was right. She had stayed in Israel with Eli because of Gibbs. Of course she had asked Gibbs to choose her or Tony for his team but Tony was not mad at that. He would have done the same if it was the other way around. If Ziva would have killed his girlfriend he would have never ever talked to her again. No matter about the circumstances. And Gibbs? He had gone and killed the murderer of his family! And he left Ziva behind only because she asked him to transfer Tony to another team! He had left her with the monster, he knew Eli was. He had driven her deeper into this crazy self-destructing mood that made her go alone to Saleem without backup. First Tony had killed her love and then Gibbs, who had been a father to her, had abandoned her. He should have told her to get into the plane to come home with them and that they would discuss it all back in the USA. Safe from terrorists. He should have tried to find a way that worked for all of them. He was Gibbs. The mighty Gibbs!
Rule #51 Sometimes you are wrong!
Ziva seemed to feel his bad mood in her sleep and turned around and away from him. He reached out to caresses one of the long scars on her back and then pulled her back to his chest and held her. "You are not leaving me alone with this dark thoughts." He whispered.
He had never understood why Ziva finally thought that Gibbs was right about leaving her in Israel. Even the fact that she had orders to kill her brother to gain Gibbs trust would have been discussed safely in Washington. How could she think she deserved what Saleem and his men did to her and did Gibbs even know how that still affected her life after so many years? She still believed that she had done something bad. Of course, in her daily life, those events were far away. She was close with Gibbs and now even closer with Tony. For a moment he thought about that he would not be holding her now if he got transferred to another team or maybe he would. Who would have known what would have happened? Maybe they would have overcome the situation and became friends again and even lovers like now only that she would not have been hunted by Saleem at night. Well those nightmares were rare and the case had caused this one but it had scared Tony to see her like that. To hear her calling out for him and McGee and Gibbs begging for forgiveness, begging to be allowed to come back begging for death.
Without realizing it he pulled her closer. "Stop that." She suddenly said.
Tony looked at her: "What?"
"You are thinking too loud." She answered. Tony knew she could not tell what he was thinking about but maybe the tension in his body woke her up. She turned around and looked at him.
"You all right?"
"Yeah…." He said and then: "Do you think rule 51 is for Gibbs too?"
"Never go anywhere without your knife?" she asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"No. Sometimes you are wrong."
She nodded: "Yes. It is for everyone in this world except Abby."
Tony thought about this for a second. Of course, Abby would never be wrong. There was no way she could ever be. But suddenly he understood. Gibbs was just a man. He had made a mistake, so he was wrong and just because he did not admit it to anyone else did not mean he was always right.
Ziva still looked at him. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes." He said, kissing her forehead and burying his nose in her hair: "Go back to sleep. I promise not to think so loudly."
When Ziva had fallen back asleep Tony was sure that rule #51 was, just like she said, for everyone. And knowing this he could forgive Gibbs for his failure.
Well, I always wondered about Gibbs just leaving Ziva in Israel at the end of season six. Being Gibbs he would have so many other options to figure out this problem. So why did Ziva thank him in the end that he left her there? Maybe I'm the only one who doesn't understand but I hope you'll understand the meaning of this little… dark…OS. Thanks for reading. Next one will be about Ziva's rule number one ;)