Thank you for continuing to read, for the reviews and the follows, Sorry this took a while to post, and also i apologies as its a pretty long chapter
Hope you enjoy
Ziva woke up suddenly, she'd been having a nightmare again. As she opened her eyes it took her a moment to realise where she was. She rolled over to see Tony still asleep. For a moment she just stared at him. She thought back to the day in the orchard, when they has last seen each other. She thought she had been making the right choice, as hard as it had been for her, she had never felt for anyone what she felt for Tony, and it had scared her. She had lost herself as a person and she was being swept away by Tony, it had been too much. But now lying here, feeling safe and loved, she regretted every moment of the last year. Now she had put them both in danger by coming here, but she had nowhere else to turn, everyone she knew in Tel Aviv had either been killed or possibly compromised.
As she watched him, Tony stirred and rolled toward her, he smiled at the sight of her and gently touched her face. He was still scared that this wasn't real, that he would wake up and Ziva would be gone and he'd be left alone in his thoughts again.
Ziva smiled back at Tony.
"Morning" she said
"Morning" Tony replied as he put his arms around her and pulled her towards him
Ziva rested her head on Tony's chest and just laid there while Tony gently ran his hands through her hair.
"I missed you" Tony said, in barley more than a whisper.
Ziva proper herself up on her elbows and lent down and kissed Tony softly and slowly.
"I missed you too" she said smiling.
After a moment, Tony realised he was hungry, he hadn't eat that much the day before and it was starting to catch up with him.
"Do you want to get something to eat?" He asked
Ziva thought for a moment, she was hungry, she couldn't remember when she last ate. But she didn't know if it would be safe for her to leave the building
"Tony, I am hungry, but I'm worried about being seen, for all I know this person has eyes on the apartment,"
"What makes you think that Zee? How would that happen all the way from Israel?" Tony asked
Ziva stood up from the bed and walk over to the window, careful to not stand in front of it but still able to see out it.
"I supposed I had better finish my story then." She said as she folded her arms around herself.
Tony got up and stood behind her, wrapping his arms tight around her and gently placing a kiss on her cheek.
Ziva took a deep breath before she started.
"After they killed Eliana they grabbed in and put me into a van. I couldn't see out the windows so I didn't know where we were going, but it felt like we were driving for hours. Eventually we stopped and they pulled me out of the van and dragged me into this big warehouse. They just left me there on the floor, I tried to find a way out but everything was locked tight. Then after a while this man comes in, he looked familiar to me but I couldn't place him. He came up to me and pulled me to my feet. He started yelling at me, saying it was all my father's fault that his mother had died, and seeing as Eli wasn't alive to pay for it that I would have to by association. He just kept yelling, I stopped listening after a while but he so angry Tony." Ziva paused as tears fell from her eyes. She wiped them away quickly
"I'm sorry Tony" she said "I hate crying, I hate how this is making me feel"
Tony reached over and wrapped his arms around her tightly and kissed the top of her head
"It's ok Zee, I won't tell anyone you've been crying" Tony winked at her
Ziva laughed a little and pressed herself tighter into Tony and continued
"When he was done yelling, he left and another man came in, he just started kicking me, I could feel my ribs cracking under his feet, but he didn't stop, I thought I was dying, he eventually stopped but I couldn't move every part of my body was aching. A few hours passed before anyone came back, I wasn't feeling great but I knew I had to get out, the person they sent was easier enough for me to take on, even with broken ribs. It seemed too simple to me but I didn't let it bother me, I just wanted to get out of there. So I ran, I just kept going, I hurt and I was tired but I knew I had to put as much distance between me and that place as a I could. I found a place that looked abandoned and I went inside, there was food and water so I stayed, there was a bed in one of the rooms and I just laid there, I wasn't sure how much time had passed but no one came, and I started to feel as if my body was healing. I began to think about the man who had told me that my father had killed his mother. In all his yelling he hadn't given me a single detail to go off.
I found my way back to Tel Aviv and went to find people who had known my father. Many of them weren't were they used to be. They had either moved or died. Eventually I tracked down an old friend of my fathers, it was difficult as I was trying to everything without being seen anywhere in the city. But I had found him, his name was Jed. He had worked with my father in Mossad, even before he had become the director. I got to his house, and everything seemed fine. He invited me and asked me to sit down and talk. I asked him if he had known if my father had killed another women, he said no he didn't know anything about my father killing anyone. I told him what had happened and that this person looked familiar to me. Jed listened to my story, and when I was done he said he thought he knew who this person was." Ziva paused for a moment and breathed in deeply, as though the rest of the story was going to be difficult to say
Tony squeezed her arm encouragingly, but didn't interrupt.
"Jed told me this person was my brother" Ziva said in a little whisper "My mother had, had another child, while she was married to my father, but it wasn't my father's child. Apparently my mother has met another man and they had, had an affair I supposed. When my father found out he made my mother give the baby up for adoption, and it was never spoken off again." Ziva let out a sob
Tony pulled her tighter to him, if that was even possible
"It's ok Zee, you don't have to keep going if you don't want to" he said to her gently.
Ziva shook her head
"No Tony I need to finish telling you" She said
"So I have a brother, whom I didn't know about and he blames my father for my mother's death. You know Tony even though my father didn't kill my mother, her relationship to him was what got her killed. If she had never had met him then she wouldn't have been put in such danger in the first place. So I supposed I can't say that I disagree with that man, my brother, but that was my father's doing not mine, I don't know why he feels I need to pay, I don't even know if he has realised I'm his sister, but he must. If he knows who Eli is and who his mother is he must.
"Anyway, I thought I was going to be safe there with Jed, but I was wrong. Jed went out a few hours later saying he had business to attend to but I was welcome to stay as long as I wanted. I was sitting on the couch when all of a sudden it started raining bullets through the apartment. I wasn't quick enough to get out of the way and one hit my arm" Ziva paused to point to her arm.
Tony could see a scar that looked it had been made by a deep wound. He rubbed he thumb along her arm, he was suddenly overcome by a deep sadness in his heart. Ziva was in real danger, he should have been there, to protect her, to help her.
Ziva saw the sadness in Tony's eyes, she reached up a touched his face
"I can see you blaming yourself Tony, you weren't to know something like this would happen, neither of us could have seen that" she said to him gently
"So I laid low and hidden away for as long as I could, I need time for my arm to heal, but I knew I couldn't stay, everywhere I turned, he seemed to have been one step ahead." Eventually I was able to move, and so I got on a plane and came back here. I wasn't going to come here Tony, I was going to go to Gibbs, but I didn't want you caught up in all this, it wouldn't have been safe. But it turned out I didn't have a choice. I checked into a hotel near the navy yard, but when I did the girl behind the counter said she has been waiting for me, and she handed me a note. On that note it said, you can keep running Ziva, but I am going to catch up to you, and no one you know will be safe, not even that NCIS boyfriend of yours"
Ziva stopped she couldn't hold back the tears anymore.
Tony tried his best to calm her but it wasn't working. Eventually he cupped her head in his hands and said to her
"Zee, listen to me, no one is going to hurt you or me, I won't let them. But we will find a way to stop them, you hear me, together"
Ziva nodded in acknowledgement,
"Tony, I owe you an apology"
Tony looked at her puzzled "For what he said?"
Ziva looked down at her feet
"I never should have left. I thought that it would be better for both us, but I regret it more than I can ever tell you and now because of me, we are both in danger"
Tony sighed and lifted her head so he could look into her eyes.
"Ziva you did what you thought you had to, you never need to apologies for that, no matter how hard it was for me, I knew you had to what was right for you."
He lent in a kissed her gently on the lips, they were salty from all her tears.
When he pulled away he smiled her
"Ziva, I love you, more than I can ever express to you, I missed you, but right now we are in this together no matter what"
Ziva lent her head against Tony's chest
"I Love you too Tony, with all my heart"
The two of them stayed that way, for a long time. They both knew they had a battled ahead of them, but for that moment, they felt complete and safe.