Disclaimers disclaimed.

This is filler because I just had to get this scene out!

Chapter XXXIII - Burn


He stormed in to her bedroom on a mission, "Tali get up ... NOW!"

"Ugh, what", she grunted.

"Get up Tali!" He was yelling harshly. In no mood to treat her nicely after her deplorable behavior towards Ziva.

"Abba it's late and I'm still jet lagged", the teen rolled over and rubbed her eyes, trying to adjust to the brightness of the lights her father cut on.

Tony didn't care about the lateness of the hour. He was pissed. Beyond pissed. "Dammit, I said get up!"

"Why are you yelling at me!? I'm up", Tali whined in frustration.

"No, I mean get your ass out that bed and follow me, let's go!" His voice shifted to an unusual tone. It was dangerously low and somewhat threatening. Tali wasn't used to it at all. It kind of scared her but, he was her abba so, she felt safe enough to follow him ... even if he looked more than a little angry at her. After she jumped out of bed, they walked to the office. Tony slammed the door behind them once Tali entered completely. She flinched at the sound. He pointed to a couch positioned in the corner of the room, "Sit!"

Tali reluctantly did as she was told and watched as Tony walked over to a hidden compartment in the room that was covered by a large picture of her parents on the day they got engaged. After a few moments a sifting through what looked like a small duffel bag, she looked at him more curiously when he pulled out a very old, very dirty, set of clothing and handed it to her. "What is this?"

"Take a guess."

"I have no clue", she shrugged, "something that seriously needs to go in the laundry. Is this even sanitary for me to be holding with my bare hands? Seriously abba, what is all this stuff on here?"

He looked her with a stone cold face and started pointing at various spots on the clothing to identify them. "Dirt, from the floor she slept on for four months. Sweat stains, from the heat of the dessert sun that made the inside of her cell feel twenty times hotter. Burn holes, from when she was used as an ashtray. Shoe prints, from when they used her as a soccer ball. Tears, from when they ripped those articles off her body to violate her. And her blood, accumulated in pools of stains from the everyday torture she received."

Tali gasped but nothing further could come from her. Speechless, that's what she was. Her heart was pounding in her chest, feeling almost as if she couldn't breathe as she came to the realization of what she was actually holding.

"Those are the clothes your mother was wearing on the day I rescued her from Somalia. After we returned, they were turned over as evidence and locked up at the Navy Yard. However, years later, after we got engaged, I got permission to take them. Your mother wanted to burn them, but I convinced her that we should keep them and lock them up here. She didn't understand why I would want to but after I explained it she didn't protest anymore."

He paused as he took a seat in the chair across from the couch then continued in his explanation. "The events that led up to me rescuing her were life altering, to say the least. I killed her boyfriend, she hated me for it and moved back to Israel. Went back to Mossad and went on a mission. Then I got news that she died in on ship during a storm. Word then came that a terrorist named Saleem was behind her death so I decided to get revenge. I went across the world to kill the man that killed the woman that I still refused to admit I had fallen madly in love with at the time. Little did I know, she was alive and had been locked up in Saleem's camp. It was in that moment that we were facing our possible deaths together that I truly realized I couldn't live without her. And so some years after that, when I finally proposed and she said 'yes', my mind went back to that moment that I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I needed to have her by my side forever. For most men, it's the mental image of some bombshell babe in a tight dress, makeup, and high heels. For me, it was when Saleem took that hood off her head and I saw this fragile woman who looked a mess ... but because I had thought she died, and she was sitting before me alive, I found her to be the most beautiful she had ever been. Even in those clothes. It wasn't disgusting to me. I didn't care what was on them. All I cared about was who was in them ... your mother. So, I keep them here in the house where we had our honeymoon, hidden behind the picture of our engagement, as a reminder of what was, what eventually could be, and finally what is."

"I know you probably have nothing to say to me with all of this, and that's really okay for me. But, you need to find some words to say to your mother Tali. She does not deserve the treatment, the utter lack of respect, you gave her. You had no right to discredit what she went through. I know that the last two weeks have been hell for you, but you cannot even begin to understand how much those four months from 22 years ago still affect her. And now, she's trying to help her daughter who just went through the same kind of situation but all you want to do is treat her just like Saleem and his men did. Just like Lucifer and his men did to you. There's always gong to be a mental torment, even after the injuries heal and the scars fade. While she's been trying to save you from yours, you've been pushing her back into hers. Fix it, before you push too far. I need you both to heal. But healing at the moment, starts with you getting your act together and recognizing who the enemy is. Newsflash kid, it's not your Ima."

All Tali could do was nod as silent tears fell from her eyes; while she placed the tattered clothes gently on the couch. She stood up slowly and walked to the door, glancing back one more time at her mother's blood stained clothes before exiting. While she headed back to her room, she thought about what Tony said, and she thought about the right words to say to her mother in the morning. She'd been horrible and completely out of her character. She needed to get over herself asap so she could put out the fire on the bridge between mother and daughter that she had set to burn.


See! Told ya I'd fix it ... well it's kinda fixed. LoL!

I'm going to try to have the next chapter up tonight... maaybeee...

Anyhoo, we've got 7 chapters left! Oh, and REVIEW!

.

Later peeps!