Ziva sat down in a café in Tel Aviv, a café she had known most of her life and the man that owned it had been so pleased to see her again she got a free cup of coffee. The strange thing was when she was a teenager her friends and her managed to get themselves barred for six months. Ziva shook her head; it is amazing how many uses there are for a pool table…
"Laugh, run, cry…"
Jeanne cooked Tony dinner again; he had to admit she was an excellent cook. Being Italian he didn't give that title out very often. Jeanne put down two steaming plates of Chinese onto the table and encouraged him to take a bite. It was heaven, and he shut his eyes. Next thing he knew was he felt her lips against his.
"Cry, run, laugh…"
Ziva got out her mobile, and pressed number five on the speed dial. Her father was always number 5 on her speed dial always, though it seemed pointless now she didn't speak to him. She heard the line connect and the crackle of someone picking up the phone.
"David" Ziva choked back tears to hear his voice again, after so long and so much his voice sounded so different.
"Ziva?" came the voice a from the other end, he couldn't almost see him frowning down the telephone.
"Aba…" Ziva said breathlessly choking back her tears.
"My God, Ziva are you alright?" he said hastily, there was the sound of crashing from the other end.
"I'm fine, I just need to tell you something…" she trailed of again, trying to work out the best way to deal with this.
"You know you can tell me anything my dear." replied her father's voice.
"Meet me at the bar we always used to go to, the one by the beach in half an hour." She said
"Wait a moment, Ziva are you in Tel Aviv?" replied a now shocked voice.
Ziva put the phone down without answering,
"Now he has to come she "
"Back to the place where I held your hand…"
Ziva has hovering round the entrance it had been forty minutes and her father hadn't arrived. He must be caught up at work… again. She thought. She turned round to leave and walked straight into her father.
Her mind blanked, what am I going to say? How am I going to say it?
A hundred questions filled her mind
"Might as well start with Tony," she thought.
"I need to tell you something can we please sit down." Ziva said after a lengthy pause.
"Of course, I am guessing a private table will be required?" her father replied, getting more suspicious by the minute.
Ziva replied with a weak smile as they sat down.
"This is very difficult for me." Ziva began
"Start at the beginning Ziva" her father said
"That's the point; I do not know what the start is…" she sighed. "During my time at NCIS and in America I began to see someone, normally this wouldn't be difficult but…"
"They don't like it when you date your partner do they?" her father replied casually
Ziva's mouth dropped open, and she stared at him in shock
"How did you know?" she said, amazed.
"Ziva I have a confession to make. For the past six months I have had a couple of my most trusted men keep an eye on you…"
"Spy on me you mean" she spat.
Ziva's father raised a hand to silence her.
"Ziva look at it from my position I have lost two out of three children by unnatural means." He placed his hand on hers "I was not about to lose a third."
"I can look after myself." she muttered
"I don't deny that, but you weren't phoning and I needed to know how you were. Believe it or not but I care about you, whatever you think." He finished
"You had some strange ways to show it." She replied
Her father didn't say anything.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" he said
"Tony, went on an undercover mission…" her father raised a quizzical eyebrow. "He got romantically involved with the women he was supposed to be infiltrating for information her father was a drug lord. It took him three months to inform me about this. He didn't even do it in person." She finished and looked out of the window.
"Why do I think there is more?" he said
"Normally I wouldn't take it so personally but after everything that has happened it was to much and it made me realise we can not keep secrets. You know the report you received concerning Ari…" she bit her lip and looked up.
"Ziva I am not stupid, why would you go and work for the man who killed your brother?"
"Simply because he didn't kill Ari… I did." She winced and shut her eyes tight.
Nothing happened and she opened her eyes, her father looked at her with a mixture of disgust and betrayal. He stood up without a word and left, Ziva ran after him into the busy street. She saw him walk across the road; she sprinted through the rush hour traffic dodging the cars in the street.
She grabbed his shoulder quickly before he could get away.
"Father, but…" she began.
"But what Ziva?" he shouted at her, his voice raised above acceptable level causing a few people to frown at him.
He dragged her by the elbow into a deserted alley, and trapped her against a wall.
"I'm sorry…" Ziva said squirming around trying to break free.
"So I am to understand my daughter shoots my son and then asks for it to be covered up? I am ashamed of you Ziva. Are you really that scared of me?" he asked.
"Please, I'm sorry. I didn't…" she muttered
"Didn't what, didn't think? To right, you didn't think and because of it my son is dead. And you have the nerve to come crawling back to say your sorry?" He roared
"Why was it always Ari? He was always your favourite…" she snarled.
"Lets not get childish Ziva." He father retorted.
"Who is calling who childish? You are the one complaining because I did my job, but unfortunately your ego has got in the way. I came here to ask forgiveness, now I can see I will never get it. I am sorry father, sorry I ever came here." She marched away but turned around.
"And I hope I never see you again." She hissed
"Come back here now." He shouted, finally loosing his temper.
"Make me…" Ziva said as she walked into a crowd.
"And then at last you take of your mask…"
Ziva stopped at the pavement.
"Now I know there is no going back…"
She stared up at the CCTV camera above her, stopping for a second. Then she carried on without a thought.
And at a busy junction in downtown Tel Aviv a lonely camera quietly surveyed its surroundings; little did it know that it had just taken the last ever picture of Ziva David.