Xxxxxxxx

Ziva sat down at her desk, pretending that she was working on the cold cases, when in reality she was figuring out new meal plans, to speed up her weight loss. She decided that the only foods she would allow herself to eat would be baby corn, berries, soup, diet jelly, apples, diet drinks, and tea. The quantities and exact calorie counts she could figure out later. What mattered to her at the moment was that she was starting to gain control again, and she wasn't about to let that go. Not for anyone.

Tim watched Ziva intently, from her tranced state Ziva hadn't even noticed that he was watching her. Unusual behaviour from the woman who slept with a gun under her pillow, and didn't go anywhere unless she was heavily armed. He knew she never let her guard down usually, but he was seeing it happen more and more often.

"You ok little ninja? You're very quiet today" Tim asked

"Well Timmmy, the little ninjas been quiet all week, and we don't appreciate being lied to" Tony said standing up and walking over to Ziva's desk.

"Ziva. . ." Tony asked, punctuating every syllable with a tone of voice that Ziva had not yet heard, from the usually joking agent.

She looked up with a determined glint in her eye and said:

"Tony it is not my problem if you think I am lying to you, and maybe I am quiet because I am DOING MY WORK!" shouting the last three words and standing eye to eye with Tony.

She was beyond angry with everyone and couldn't understand why they could just not LEAVE HER ALONE.

"Well then what is this?" Tony shouted equally as angry, pointing to her list of safe foods that she now had typed onto her computer.

Ziva stood up and for the second time that day, ran out of the bullpen tears of anger, streaming down her face as she left.

Xxxxxxxx

Tony watched her run, before starting to pace up and down, trying to figure out exactly what was wrong and wondering what the hell safe foods were.

Tim had walked over to Ziva's desk as soon as Tony had started pacing. He frowned at the computer screen when he saw her list of "safe foods." Not usually one to pry, it took someone to seriously worry him before he started snooping. And yet he still couldn't help but feel seriously guilty about what he was doing.

"Um Tony, you might want to have a look at this" he said whilst handing to Tony a paper that was titled: Rules

Rules:

Maximum of 800 calories a day, 500 is better, fasting is best

Minimum of .4 pounds to be lost a day

Exercise everything off

Lose weight NO MATTER WHAT!

Tony stared at the paper shocked by what was in front of him. He had heard of girls doing this to themselves, but he would never have thought Ziva would be so stupid. He knew they needed to tell Gibbs and fast.

"Something you want to share DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, as Tony nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Boss maybe you need to see this" Tim said taking the paper from a shell shocked Tony and handing it to Gibbs.

Gibbs read through the paper quickly, easily recognising Ziva's writing. He made his way to the elevator shouting

"Autopsy" before the doors shut. He needed to speak to Ducky about this, and fast.

Xxxxxxxx

Meanwhile Ziva was pacing up and down the stairs, breathless and exhausted. She knew she must have run up those stairs at least 9 or 10 times already, and yet it didn't seem enough.

Of course it's not enough, you should run more. Being tired is for the weak. You are supposed to be stronger than this.

Ziva stood up, and started running up and down the stairs again.

She ran to escape the thoughts in her head, the anger she felt at everyone else. But more than anything she ran, because all she wanted to do was escape herself.

Xxxxxxxx

"Ducky we have a problem" Gibbs said to Ducky worriedly as he walked through autopsy.

"Why yes, my dear Jethro I know, but why do you think so all of a sudden?" the ME asked, thinking back to the many times in the last week that he had tried to explain this, but got nowhere.

"This" was all Gibbs answered thrusting the piece of paper with Ziva's rules into the older man's hand.

"Oh my" was the reaction he received.

Ducky was silent as he read the piece of paper, twice through whilst trying to analyse exactly what was going on in her head. This was not normal behaviour for her, in fact it was not normal behaviour for anyone. Ducky had seen this type of thing before, he had treated a few marines with eating disorders whilst serving in the US Navy, but he hoped that maybe with early intervention Ziva could stop these thoughts quickly. He had no idea, she had been battling with her illness for years, and as medical records were confidential, Ziva had made sure that NCIS did not know about her medical history.

"This is serious Gibbs, we need to get Ziva to talk to someone immediately if we have any hope of stopping this, before it turns into a full blown eating disorder" Ducky explained to Gibbs

"Ducky an eating disorder? You think Ziva might have one?" Gibbs was confused at the doctor's reaction to the paper. He knew that there was definitely something wrong with Ziva's behaviour, but at the same time it couldn't be an eating disorder could it? He saw Ziva eat every day, and whilst the Israeli had never been overweight, she was not stick thin either. Gibbs had always liked her because she was an average bodyweight, which to him was refreshing to see when there were so many wafer thin girls out there.

"I know what you're thinking Jethro, and yes Ziva may not be underweight, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have some serious problems going on up here" Ducky explained whilst tapping his head, he knew the younger man loved Ziva as a daughter, and it was often harder for the patients family to accept that there wrong than the patient.

"Well what do you propose we do Duck?" asked Gibbs a determined look in his eye, he would do anything to make her ok again, he had to.

"First things first Gibbs, bring her down here and let me see if she opens up to me. Maybe talking to a familiar face will help her open up a bit." Said the older man.

"No probs Duck, I'll go get her right now" Gibbs said as he turned on his heel and exited autopsy, intent on going straight up to the bullpen and sending Ziva to autopsy. He would drag her there if he had to.

He was mulling these thoughts over when he stepped back into the bullpen and saw no sign of the female agent.

"McGee, DiNozzo where the hell is she?" He half asked, half shouted annoyed that she couldn't even stay put for 5 minutes these days

"Uh boss we haven't seen her for the last half hour" McGee explained nervously

"Well go FIND HER" Gibbs shouted exasperated by this point.

Watching the two agents scramble out of the room, he sighed as he sat down rubbing the temples in his head.

That girl, he thought, is going to be the death of me.