Next Chapter coming up
"On the road to Mandalay…"
Ziva shuddered as the plane made its finial approach into Tel Aviv. The woman next to her smiled, Ziva took comfort in that. It is amazing how you can sit next to some one for only twelve hours of your life but connect to them and act like you have known them forever. She felt slightly better but the dread of facing her father loomed. She screamed at herself, she had been a coward running back. She would see this through, however he took it.
"Where the flying fishes play…"
Ziva fiddled with her necklace, was coming "home" a personal thing. Was she only coming home so the guilt and shame of running wouldn't sink in? Well, if that was the reason it wasn't working. She had loved NCIS but she couldn't stay, she wanted to but she couldn't. The thump of wheels hitting tarmac juddered the plane, this was it she thought. No chances, no excuses, she was here.
"And the sun comes up…"
Three months had past, three whole months since the day Ziva had seemed to disappear of the face of the earth. She had contacted them, not a note a phone call or anything. Even though Tony was certain she had e-mailed Gibbs. Though a slap on the back of the head and a no answered that, Gibbs hadn't hit him out of anger. He had hit him out of worry. Tony hoped she was alive, if she wasn't he didn't think he could live with himself.
"Like thunder…"
Gibbs banged away at his keyboard, three months! Three months of nothing, she said she wanted help one day. This silence either meant she was dead or on a mission that she would never come back alive from, or she hadn't told him. Gibbs money was on she hadn't told him. Though the thing was Ziva had guts, he knew she was beating herself up over leaving. He didn't think she would not tell him. Gibbs frowned expecting the worse.
"From China…"
It was eleven at night and Tony and Gibbs were the only two left in the building. Gibbs was resisting the urge to go and slap Tony across the face as hard as he could. He had been working late every night since Ziva left. They all had extra work; Gibbs couldn't bear to hire another agent. Agent Lee helped; she understood what Ziva meant to them. Gibbs growled low in his throat. He shouted across the bull pen to Tony, saying that he had through neglect he had lost one woman, and he wouldn't have a job to come back to if he lost her…
"Across the Bay…"
Tony jumped a foot; he was totally unaware that Gibbs was there. He supposed he was right; he had lost Ziva and the team now only referred to Jeanne as "her". If he lost Jeanne Gibbs would make sure his death was very painful. He switched of his computer and walked out without a word. Jeanne smiled at him when he came back to their apartment. "Their" apartment, it didn't sound right, Jeanne was everything he could ask for. She even stayed when he told her who he really was. She was more distressed over who her father turned out to be. Jeanne took that really hard, Tony couldn't help wondering how on Earth Ziva managed to stay so controlled after the drama of her brother… Stop it! He told himself, he would not let his mind wander back to her. She ran, she was nowhere to be seen. He didn't need her; she didn't need him he thought bitterly.
Slow chapter, it will speed up soon…