He heard the front door open, and smiled to himself. It had taken her long enough to show up.
He heard her hesitate by the basement door. Eventually, she opened it. He didn't even look up from his work.
"You're late, Ziver." he said as she made her way down the stairs. He handed her a glass of bourbon he had poured for her an hour ago. She looked at him, puzzled.
"I wasn't aware I had an appointment Gibbs," she said, her statement sounding somewhat like a question. She took a sip of the bourbon and asked, "How did you know I was coming? I didn't even know I was coming until about twenty minutes ago." Gibbs smirked his infamous half-smile, and replied,
"My gut," He handed her a piece of sandpaper as she sat down the jar that held her bourbon. Ziva smiled a little. He knew her better than she knew herself. With each passing second, she became more and more confident that coming here wasn't a mistake. She did feel as though she owed him an explanation, even though she knew he knew her reasons for coming. Somehow just saying it makes her feel better. She is explaining it to herself more than she is to him.
"I... Did not want to be alone. I have missed the company of... My family. My real family. You, Tony, McGee, Abby, Ducky, even Palmer."
"Why not go to them, then?" Gibbs countered. He knew exactly why, but she needed to say this out loud, admit that she needed him, she needed to hear her own reasoning, so she could be completely confident that coming to him wasn't a mistake.
"My biological father left me for dead. My biological family, and Mossad, have all given up on me. They don't want me. I just want... Assurance... That I am wanted here, by my real family."
"We will always love you, Ziva. You will ALWAYS be wanted by us. We trust you.
But you need to trust us, Ziver. Let us in. Talk to us. Emotions are not a sign of weakness." At this, Ziva averted her eyes.
That was the problem. Her father had raised her on an set of rules quite different from Gibbs'.
1) trust NO ONE
2) emotions are weakness: you must never let them show
3) love does not exist. It is an illusion, an illusion that gets in the way of what is important. The Work
These rules continued on, all of the same idea. These rules contradicted everything Gibbs had just said. "We TRUST you." and "EMOTIONS are not a sign of weakness," and "Let us in," and, most importantly, "We will always LOVE you."
The Ziva David before Somalia would have left right then and there.
The new Ziva, the changed Ziva, was ready to give trust, emotion, and love a chance.
Gibbs used two fingers to bring her head up to look at him.
"You can open up, Ziva. You can tell me everything and anything, and I promise it will not leave this room."
That was not the problem. She couldn't tell Gibbs what had happened, she could not have him see her as the victim.
"I won't judge ya, Ziver," he added, his face sincere. He seemed to have read her mind, "I know you. Whatever you tell me, it will not change how see you."
"And how do you see me, Gibbs?" she asked.
"As my resilient daughter. As my funny, kick-ass field agent who teases and playfully flirts with my senior fiend agent. As my little girl." he states. His eyes are full of sincerity, love, compassion, and, well, Gibbs-ness. It is Ziva's melting point.
And all of her walls and emotional barriers melt away.
A/N: Sorry for any OOC's; I try my best to avoid them because they make stories unbelievable, but some are necessary to make this story work. I also apologize (I know, I breached rule #6 lol) for shortness, but i like the way this chapter ended. This will most likely be a 4 chapter story FYI.