She turned around walking back the way she had come until she entered the street where she had broken in, her phone was still lying on the floor. She picked it up not bothering to check the number of missed calls.
Ziva started walking again this time heading back to NCIS passing through a park she had barely registered on her flight. She sat on one of the benches looking out across the playing field, empty apart from a dog walker. She flipped the phone open and pressed speed dial one.
"Where are you?" the only greeting she got. She had known Gibbs would be angry but he sounded apoplectic.
"I do not know, a park somewhere, get Abby or McGee to do a trace, I am not going any where."
"You had better not David" Gibbs growled down the phone. Seconds later the call was disconnected without another word being spoken.
He would be on his way, she did not move, she sat waiting, she was good at waiting when she had to be. She did think of what was coming that only made it worse, she knew that. Instead she focused on the lady walking her dog, on the wind, on the sunlight. Small things that mattered not at all to most and yet she would never forget the dark stuffy rooms. She heard a car horn blast and looked across to see Gibbs pulling into the car park. She did not move. He got out slammed the door, stalked over to her.
"First we deal with work, then we deal with you" he stated staring down at her. It was not the way he wanted to do things but Vance was beyond furious and Ziva's already tenuous hold on her job had gotten considerably smaller.
He held out his hand, Ziva reached down and unbuckled the sheath from her calf handed the whole thing to Gibbs, next she reached to the small of her back and withdrew the small back up weapon hidden there placing that in his hand as well. He turned away, not looking back to see if she was following. He had not tried to touch her once, he knew that she hated it whenever anyone touched even by accident these days.
Ziva followed, what else could she do? She slide into the back when Gibbs opened the door for her to find Tony waiting on the other seat. He climbed in the front. The streets flowed passed and Ziva was surprised at just how far she had got before she had stopped running, it looked like she would have to make her morning run longer.
They said not a word on the way back, Ziva caught Gibbs' occasional glance in the rear-view mirror looking at her and she could feel Tony's eyes on her constantly. In the window she saw her own blurry reflection, she could not see the eyes so she did not look for them concentrating instead on the other features; the deep almost purple circles under her eyes, the hollow cheeks, the track the tears had taken down her face, the red blotches standing out against her abnormally pale skin. She rested her forehead against the cool glass.