Don't ask why I have not written for so long, sheer laziness is my only – pitiful – excuse...
Tony walked through the door of the hospital ward shiver. The silver outline of his person glistened in rain which dripped onto the bright white floor as he made his way to Ziva's room.
The soft padding of his feet was dispersed every so often by the screeching of his wet shoes on the floor. The droplets followed him like a fading snails trail the door of Ziva's room. He paused outside for a moment and heard the soft voice of the Director talking. He hesitated, his hand frozen on the door. Ear pressed into the wood.
"You know Siva if you could speak you would be telling me "I am fine", but you know what you aren't. I don't think you have ever been fine. Ecstatic, depressed, confused, euphoric maybe. You are ...were...not fine. Ziva please accept that you don't always have to be. Come back, for me. I need you."
"I need you... I think a lot of people do. Be strong, be brave but do what's right. Come back please. I have to repay you... please." Something cracked in Jenny's voice. Tony backed off from the door.
A couple of seconds the door rattled open and Jenny stood tall in the door. her cheeks a little pink and swollen but composed. Her lips pursed together tightly.
"Go in. I need to go." She said quietly
NCISNCISNCISNCIS
Gibbs pressed the bridge of his nose as he walked out of MTAC.
"Well this will be awkward." He thought to himself.
It was clear that David believed his daughter had simply come back to America. If this was the case and he really had not tracked his daughter back to Washington he would believe that she simply got injured on a case.
This day was not going to end well.
He looked at his watch.
12 hours until he got here.
Gibbs looked down on the bullpen and tried to calm his breathing and his emotions. He looked on the long shadows that covered Ziva's desk. He kicked himself. He should have got a new agent, he was stupid. Ziva was no better than Kate so why did he replace her not Ziva.
Perhaps things would have been easier for them all if they had.
His mind wandered back to David. He was a cunning bastard when he wanted to be. He could not believe he would not make any attempt to find out where she was.
His eyes flicked onto the Directors office. Unless...
NCISNCISNCISNCIS
Jenny came out of the elevator, her nose still slightly red from crying and the cold air and turned her cheeks a rough pink colour. She looked at herself in the chrome plating and groaned. She pressed her skin to try and make it even again. This failed and she rolled her eyes and walked towards her office.
She pulled down the handle. Still sniffing every so often, pausing she looked around the room. She walked slowly up to her drinks cabinet and began to pour herself a dram of whiskey. Her fingers hovered over her gun.
"You always were prettier when you were crying Jen." A voice said softly.
Jenny spun and grabbed her gun and pointed it at the speakers head.
Gibbs blue eyes looked at her plainly. Narrowed slightly. Almost as if he was daring her to shoot.
"What do you want" she hissed, grabbing the glass.
"Just to chat Jen," Gibbs said softly.
He was sitting at her desk, the dark light outside turning him into a bedraggled silhouette.
"I am guessing you already have a conversation topic." She said dryly.
Gibbs smiled gently.
"Have you contacted or been contacted by director David in the past two years?" he said simply.
Jen looked slightly taken aback and sat down in the chair opposite him without a word.
She looked at him.
"No."
"No I have not or no I have been caught?" Gibbs pressed.
Jen scoffed.
"I can't believe you asked me all this. No I have not; he has made no efforts to contact me so why would I contact him."
"Careful Jen you sound like a jealous ex girlfriend."
Jen scowled and set the glass down heavily.
"I think you ought to go special Agent Gibbs."
Gibbs paused, now very interested.
"Exactly how do you know Director David?"
Jenny finished her drink and stood up to refill and began talking to the sound of the pouring liquid.
I knew him long before I met Ziva; I did not know she was his daughter to begin with.
I met him when he was still an officer shortly after Paris. He was a Mossad operative undercover going after the same terrorist I was. He was a very charming and good looking man, so me being the reckless women I was then began to offer myself to him. At first he refused, I did not know why. The mission dragged on and on and we began to see each other more."Jen turned around.
She looked at the raised eyebrow.
"Strictly professional I assure you."
She sat again.
"He was a very intelligent man but had Ziva's temper which often got him into trouble. One such time was when we ended up in Italy; he ended up getting into a fight with a local gang. Totally irrelevant to our mission, because of this he refused to admit he was injured. We carried on but his wound got infected and we had to stop in a small hotel for a night or two. I tried to help him but we both knew if we contacted our agencies we would be fired. We decided to drop of Radar, go alone until he was better. Make up some story of us finding a lead and we had not the means to contact people."
Jenny sighed ignoring Gibbs horrified face.
"We spent a week in that room but we found out our terrorist was nearby in a local cave network. So as he was getting better we decided to go for it."
"Anything happen in this hotel room Jenny?" Gibbs accused.
Jenny glared.
"We went to the cave networks. We chased down the terrorist through the tunnels, we got deeper and deeper. We killed quite a few but we lost all communication with our control officers. The last thing I remember hearing was about a storm on the way and to get out of there. We decided to get the guy anyway he was trapped. He fired at me and David shot him four times. I was lucky, I only got a flesh wound the terrorist however was not so lucky. We decided to head to the surface. We were lost. We spent hours wandering in circles listening to water rushing below us, the caves were flooding. Exhausted and thirsty we stopped on a high ledge and thinking we were going to die. One thing led to another. I woke up in a hospital bed four days later after the best sex of my life. I never saw him again, he did not contact me and I did not contact him."
Jenny finished her glass for a second time. Waiting for Gibbs to say something.
"Ziva know this?" he said.
Jenny laughed.
"Of course not, why should she, it was meaningless. I just thought you should know" she finished.
"Director David is on the next flight from Tel Aviv." Gibbs said.
Jenny looked at Gibbs and nodded.
"I am not surprised. He can be a total bastard and has done some horrible things in his time but he does love her. Even if he does not know how to show it."Jenny smirked.
"Now agent Gibbs unless you want my job I recommend you get out of my seat." She said sharply.
Gibbs stood and walked towards the door. He stopped at the entrance.
"Any other directors you have slept with Jen?" he said smiling.
"Goodbye Jethro." She said.
NCISNCISNCIS
Gibbs stood in his basement, sanding his boat. Looking every five minutes at the old clock propped up against the brick wall.
His NIS T shirt clung to his back as he ran the sander up and down his nearly finished boat.
He heard footsteps on his stairs and looked up and saw the bottom of trousers wet with rain. The figure reached the bottom and Gibbs and the stranger looked at each other.
"It is a pleasure to meet you Agent Gibbs." The stranger extended his hands.
Gibbs looked at it only briefly and smiled and accepted the shake.
"I am glad you came David, I think we should talk."
"As do I Mr Gibbs." David said walking to the bench.
He noticed the bottle of dusty bourbon on the shelf and smiled.
"Here I was thinking I was the only man who ever drunk this stuff." Gibbs looked surprised as David poured himself a glassful.
"Well there aren't many real men left." Gibbs said lightly.
David chuckled.
"No there aren't just us grouchy old bastards." David's smile left his face.
"What has happened to my little girl?"
Gibbs stopped sanding but did not put the sander down. He turned to face David and looked towards the door. He walked next to him and sat down.
"Your daughter has been in a coma for two years..." Gibbs could not continue as David yelled out.
"It has taken two years to inform me, I may not be a good father but I am still am one." He rose to his feet. Gibbs could see the temper Jenny had talked about rise behind his eyes.
Gibbs stood up as well. So they were eye to eye.
"It has taken us two years because we only found out yesterday. She did not return to us. We thought you had sent her on some suicide mission because Daddy did not like what she did." Gibbs voice matched David's yell.
"She left; he told me she never wanted to hear from me again and walked away." David lowered his tone.
"I do not know wear she went or who to. I presumed she had come back to Washington."
David sat with his head in his hands.
"I lost her; all I wanted was for her to be happy."
Gibbs looked down at him.
"You expect me to believe that you have not even tried to find out where she was."
David laughed deep in his throat.
"I tried that once before, she did not like it. Was one of the reasons she left. I learn from my mistakes Agent Gibbs."
Gibbs sat again.
"We believe she was attacked by Eli Lissack or someone he knows. He said she was in debt. Do you know why that is?" Gibbs wondered.
David frowned and shook his head slowly.
"I do not know. It would be better if we knew more about Eli and his little friends first."
Gibbs nodded in agreement.
"One of my team members is doing that now,"
"Good, good. Eli is a slippery character with a life of fast cars and women. You might get him that way."
David turned to Gibbs.
"Please, you are a good man, what is happening to my child? What happened?" David asked a shake in his voice. Gibbs was not able to tell if it was anger of distress.
"She has been in a coma for two years, serious internal bleeding, she nearly drowned. We... um... we are not sure if she will wake up."
David nodded his head.
"My baby?"
Gibbs nodded back at him.
"Listen to me agent Gibbs I know you hate me but I think I have the right to see her." David stood.
"David, let me ask you this. If you loved her so much why did you let her join Mossad?"
David laughed again.
"I thought I was doing the best." David let the comment hang.
He noticed Gibbs looking shocked.
"I will tell you the story when I see my daughter."
NCISNCISNCISNCIS
Gibbs and David made their way in silence to the hospital. The silence was not all together uncomfortable. There was simply nothing to say to break it. In the past hour both of their opinions of each other had shattered and they were trying to understand each other. And themselves.
They reached the hospital doors and they opened with a soft swoosh and they walked into the warm corridors. Gibbs lead the way quickly. Both of their feet walked in sink. Heads held high and looking straight ahead.
They reached the ward.
Gibbs opened the door to Ziva's room and saw Tony half dozing in the chair. His hand on Ziva's.
"Tony..." he said softly.
No response. Gibbs rolled his eyes.
"Wake up Sleeping Beauty." He shouted.
Tony snorted and woke up quickly.
"On your six bosses" he muttered.
"Ziva's father is here."
Tony looked surprised.
"here as in American here..." Tony began as David walked in.
"Oh, here." He said coldly.
David was not taken aback by the cold response. He was expecting it after all. Hell, he though he deserved it.
"So you are the man who was sleeping with my daughter, no?" he said calmly.
Tony stopped.
"How do you know?" he repeated shocked.
"I know a lot of things Mr DiNozzo." David's eyes surveyed him up and down. "A lot of things about you."
Tony shifted uncomfortably
Tony went quiet for a couple of seconds but suddenly looked up at Gibbs and David. There was a fire in his eyes Gibbs knew all too well.
"I hope you know what you are doing" he thought.
"How dare you show up here? After all you did to her? You don't deserve to call yourself her father. She needed you and you turned her away. Time and time again. When she was little you never really loved her." Tons face was puce with anger.
David looked calmly at him.
"I know I have done many things to regret. Though I always thought I was doing the right thing."
"Sure..." Tony said.
"Let me finish." David said with such resounding authority that Tony sat.
"When Ziva was born she was my pride and joy. I loved her more than anything; I would give her anything in the world she wanted. "He chuckled. "I really did spoil her, too much really. Then when she was two years old my friend's daughter was kidnapped by an overzealous HAMAS officer. He adored her and everyone knew he she was his most treasured being. No one knew where she went. Together we spent an entire year looking for her. We did everything we could; he did not sleep or eat. He was a man possessed. Then after an entire year's work and searching we discovered she was in Jordan. We sent in a team to get her out. I went with them but I would not let my friend come and I am glad. She had been turned into what all I can describe as a private whore for this officer. She lived in a dark room; she had barely seen sunlight for a year. She was scared, very scared of everything. Any noise she heard made her jump. We watched her for a couple of days before we could storm the place and I saw some of the worse things ever. I watched him repeatable rape her until she was screaming in pain. He beat her and used him as his little toy. Doing what he wanted. Then I heard something more horrific the sound of a baby crying. She had had his child."
He looked around at the shocked faces.
"That's when I knew we had to go in. We stormed the building and killed him. Arresting several others. We finally reached her room. I went in. I saw her nursing a small child begging for it to go to sleep. It was a perfect little boy and she was sobbing desperate for it to sleep. She saw me and went hysteric. She thought it was him coming back. I did everything to try and calm her down. In the end I had to sedate her and carried her and the baby out."
"We got her back to Israel but she was mentally scarred. Did not trust anyone, I told her father what had happened and watched a grown man, Tipped to be the next director sob in my arms. I took him to visit her and his grandchild. He found it hard to cope as did she. She needed nearly constant sedation and even worse we found she was pregnant again, three months pregnant. She had to have the baby. It was a girl. This sent her over the edge. She had to look into the eyes of her rapist every day. She managed for a couple of years but she was not right. Finally she killed her children and then herself on the third anniversary of her abduction. She was 14 years old. I decided then that I would never let anything like that happen to Ziva. They go after the people you love. Perhaps it was wrong, if I could raise her again I would show a little more love."
"I realised this when she was 16 by then it was too late. All she wanted to do to make me proud of her."
He looked down at her on the bed.
"She was adamant that she would join Mossad. I was not happy but I let her. It was what she wanted."
He looked at Tony.
"I have made many mistakes raising Ziva but at least I never tore her heart out and threw it in her faced."
"Now," he hissed. "I want a couple of minutes with my daughter."
NCISNCISNCISNCIS
Tony and Gibbs left.
David sat down next to her and placed his hand on hers.
"Oh my baby girl, oh my precious little girl. I am so sorry. Please come back to me. I have lost so much. Tell me you know that, tell me you understand."
David placed his head next to her and listened to the machines,
Suddenly, he felt something squeeze his hand back...
End of chappie. Please read and review