WARNING! This chapter contains the kind of consensual spanking of an adult. If this isn't your thing, stop reading. If it is, enjoy!

"Gibbs?"

Gibbs put down the sanding block he was holding and looked up. Ziva was standing at the top of the stairs, her head bowed slightly and her hair hiding her face. She looked more like a nervous child than the defiant assassin he'd been dealing with a few minutes previously.

"You've made your choice?"

She nodded.

"You're completely sure?"

Another nod and Gibbs pulled the stool from under the nearby workbench.

"Then come here."

Ziva's resolve faltered slightly and she didn't move.

"Now Ziva." His voice didn't raise but there was something in his tone that made Ziva hurry down the stairs as fast as she could without falling, gripping the bannister as she went. This didn't escape Gibbs' notice and when she reached him he placed the back of his hand gently on her forehead.

"Are you feeling alright Ziva?"

"Yes Gibbs, I am fine."

Gibbs wasn't convinced but she didn't look to bad so he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Okay," he sat on the stool. "Come here."

"Gibbs, don't you think you're being a bit over dramatic? I mean, this is ridiculous, it's not like I did anything that bad!"

Gibbs stared at her incredulously. "Not like you did anything that bad? Ziva, you disobeyed a direct order and in doing so got yourself severely injured and almost killed!"

"Okay, so it sounds bad when you put it like that but. . ."

"It was bad, however I put it," he interrupted, getting up off the stool to come and stand in front of her. "Ziva, can you honestly tell me that you don't deserve this?"

"Okay! So I will admit that maybe it was not my best decision and I should have listened to you but this. . . this is barbaric! We are not living in the dark ages Gibbs!"

"So have you changed your mind? Would you rather return to Israel?"

"NO! I never said that! But surely there must be another way to. . ."

"Okay, so you would prefer for me to write you up then Ziva? I will if that's what you really want but I'm warning you, a black mark in your record for disobeying orders in the field is not going to look good."

"No, I do not want that either."

"We're running out of options here Ziva, what do you propose we do?"

"I do not know!" She yelled.

Gibbs glared at her warningly and tears came into her eyes.

"I do not know," she repeated quietly. "But I do not want. . . I can not. . . I have never. . ."

Suddenly Gibbs realised what the problem might be.

"Ziva?"

"Yes Gibbs."

"If you had disobeyed your. . . your father and it had got you hurt, what do you think he would have done?"

"I did once," Ziva said with a sigh. "I was twelve and Ari was sixteen. Ari had been out in the woods near our home with his friends all summer and I had been stuck at home desperate to go with him, but my father would not allow it because they were climbing the really tall trees and he said that I was too little to do that yet.

"After a week, I could not take it any longer and when my father went to a meeting I begged Ari to take me with him. He was reluctant at first, he was worried about me too, but he was still young enough to know what it was like to be left out of things and eventually he took pity on me and brought me to the woods. It was brilliant at first but then Ari and his friends started swinging from one tree to the next. Ari told me not to because I was too small but I did not listen to him.

"I almost made it, but my fingers slipped at the last second and I fell. Ari was distraught. He kept blaming himself but I told him it was not his fault, he had told me not to try and swing but I had ignored him. The problem was that my father agreed with Ari. When we got back from the hospital, Abba took Ari into his study. He told him that he was the oldest and the boy and that he should have stopped me. He beat Ari with his belt, so hard that he could not sit down for a week and he had red marks on his back for ages after that.

"But even though he had punished Ari so severely and even though I was the one who had disobeyed both my father and my brother, Abba never even told me off. I did not want to get whipped per se, but I wished that my father had punished me somehow because I felt horribly guilty that Ari had got in trouble for something I had done, but also, I felt that Abba did not care that I had been hurt. I have never forgiven myself for disobeying Ari that day and getting him so badly beaten."

She looked close to tears at the end of this story and Gibbs' heart was breaking at this revelation from the childhood she never talked about.

"Did your father ever punish you for doing something wrong?"

Ziva shook her head.

"Ziva, what your father did. . . it's not right. But that is his fault, not yours. I can understand why you would feel guilty for what happened to Ar. . .your brother, but it was not your fault that your father was a barbaric bastard who didn't care enough to show you right from wrong or to punish your brother with even an ounce of humanity. But Ziva, you need to put the past behind you and move on. Accept that you were just a little girl and that there was nothing you could have done to change what happened, and know that, even if you lacked parental guidance as a child, you have me and Jenny and Ducky now who all care more than enough about you to put you on the right path and not let you get away with reckless behaviour like swinging through trees, because trust me baby girl, if you ever think about doing that your backside will be just as sore as your brothers was!"

Ziva giggled slightly and Gibbs smiled.

"But, notice that it will only be your backside that hurts. I promise that I will never smack you anywhere else. There's a line between discipline and abuse and I will not cross it, I promise. You can trust me Ziva. This will hurt for a while but there will be no lasting damage and when we're done here it's all over and you have no need to feel guilty any more. Okay?" He held his hand out to her.

Nervously, she put her small hand into his large one and nodded. "Okay."

He sat down on the stool and pulled Ziva down over his knee and, before either of them could get cold feet, he raised his hand and brought it down sharply on her backside.

That first swat hurt more than Ziva had anticipated but she didn't make a sound, due to the fact that she'd put her fist up to her mouth and was biting down on her knuckle.

After the first few smacks Gibbs asked. "Do you understand why you're getting this spanking?"

Ziva nodded.

"Not good enough Ziva," he said swatting her again. "Use your words."

"Wesh Gibsh."

"Ziva? What on earth?"

Seeing her fist in her mouth he sighed.

"Ziva, get your hand out of your mouth. For the millionth time, you don't have to be scared to cry in front of me."

"Shorry Gibsh."

"Hand."

Reluctantly she removed her hand and Gibbs took her wrist and pulled her hand up behind her back, holding it in place with one of his hands whilst continuing to smack her with the other.

With her hand gone, Ziva found it much harder to remain stoic and within five more swat she was beginning to yelp. Soon the yelps turned to pleading and squirming as the tears began to fall down her cheeks.

Eventually, exhausted, she stopped squirming and lay across Gibbs' lap sobbing. Gibbs stopped smacking and rubbed circles onto her back.

Ziva didn't understand how the hand that just moments before had inflicted so much pain into her tender posterior could now be comforting her so gently. It was strange but nice.

Gibbs picked her up and sat her on his lap holding her as she cried. When she regained enough composure to be aware of anything except the pain she found that Gibbs was right. She no longer felt guilty for disobeying him at the storage unit, she had well and truly had her comeuppance for that. Unfortunately, after he had been so nice to her it had been replaced by guilt for lying and deceiving him.

"Ziva?"

"Yes Gibbs?"

"This cut on your neck, it hasn't been stitched up."

"Oh, that. Well, they said at the hospital that it was in too awkward a place to stitch up and that it wasn't too bad and should just heal itself up." Not guilty enough, it seemed to take the anger she was sure Gibbs would emit if he found out about her lies.

"Okay," he didn't sound convinced but he was trusting her word. That just made her feel so much worse.

He kissed the top of her head gently. "You know you're forgiven now, don't you?"

"Yes Gibbs."

He nodded. "I love you sweetheart."

"I love you too."

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