Disclaimer: If I owned NCIS, Jenny and Kate would still be alive, "CI-Ray" would never have existed and EJ Barrett would have stayed in Europe.

Gibbs sat down in the chair by the table and held his hand out to Ziva.

Ziva took it gingerly. "Gibbs, is this really necass. . ."

He glared at her and she sighed. "I'll take that as a yes."

He pulled her closer to him. "Do you understand what you are receiving this spanking for?"

"Yes Gibbs."

"Why?"

"You know why."

"I want you to tell me why."

"But. . .I. . .you. . .you're the one who told me in the first place!"

Gibbs was beginning to lose his temper when he realised that Ziva did not look or sound defiant as she had before, rather the prospect of telling Gibbs why she was about to be spanked seemed to be making her distressed, scared even.

"Ziva? What's wrong? Why can't tell me what you've done wrong?"

"Because. . .because. . .because it's like confessing my crimes and my father told me that I should never confess. No matter what happened, or what pain I was put through, I should never admit to anything. It was after I broke my Ima's favourite vase when I was about four and I went to him and told him what I'd done."

Gibbs raised his eyebrows, clearly Ziva's father had screwed her up more completely than he'd thought. "Your father told his four year old daughter to lie to him?"

"No, just not to admit that I'd had any involvement in anything."

"That's a lie of omission Ziva, it's just as bad."

Ziva didn't reply. She was feeling very conflicted at the moment, on one hand she thought that Gibbs might be right, but on the other it was hard to go against things that had been drummed into you constantly for twenty years.

"Ziva, what made you confess to your father after you broke the vase?"

"I felt guilty," she replied without hesitation.

"Did you feel a little better after you told him?"

This required a little more thought, but eventually she nodded.

"And when he said you shouldn't have told him?"

"I still felt guilty."

"Do you feel guilty about what you've done now?"

She nodded again.

"I am not your father Ziva. When you do something wrong, I want you to tell me. Think about it, if you'd told me you didn't go to the hospital, yes I would have been cross, but not half as much as I am now that you've lied to me as well. Do you see?"

Ziva nodded. "I guess."

"You're not in Israel anymore Ziver, you don't have to worry about what you think your father would expect. Just do what you think is right."

Tears began to form in her eyes as she whispered, "I was rude to you and Ducky and Jenny and the doctor."

Gibbs nodded and smiled. His newest team member clearly had a lot of issues, but he was confident that he was starting to get through to her.

"Come on then."

And, to his surprise, bent herself over his lap without protest, cajoling or arguments. He smiled again as he placed his hand on her lower back, as much to comfort as to restrain. Yes, he was definitely getting through to her.

Ziva was just as surprised as Gibbs at how willingly she'd gone across his lap this time, it went completely against the grain to allow him to do this to her, but she was tired of fighting him. She knew that he had her best interests at heart and that he would never truly hurt her. Plus, he'd hit the nail on the head in his assessment of why she was behaving the way she was and how she was feeling, and once again she found herself wondering if Gibbs cared for her more than her father.

She didn't have much to wonder this though, before she felt a sharp pain in her backside. At first, she automatically tried to remain strong but then she remembered Gibbs' words.

"You don't have to worry what your father would expect."

And so she stopped trying to be emotionless, she allowed herself to gasp at a particularly hard swat and allowed a tear to fall when he focused a number of smacks in one spot turning her bottom into a fiery inferno.

Suddenly Ziva became aware that the spanking had stopped, but that she had not been lifted up. Shifting position slightly and turning her head round to look at Gibbs, she gasped as she saw him pulling a thick mahogany hairbrush from an inside pocket of his jacket.

"Gibbs!" She exclaimed in alarm as she began to wriggle around in an attempt to get off of his lap. "You cannot hit me with that!"

"I am not going to hit you, I'm going to paddle you. There's a big difference. Now, stay still.

Ziva's earlier compliance had gone out of the window as soon as she saw the brush and she continued to thrash around.

"Ziva!" He snapped finally, smacking her again with his hand. The smack was hard and his raised voice surprised her and made her stop squirming and protesting.

"I need to to stop moving because it you're squirming around I might miss your bottom and hurt you."

"It's going to hurt if it hits my bottom too!"

"I know," he chuckled at her indignation. "That's the point, but it won't cause you any lasting damage. We're nearly done here, you just have to promise me you'll try and stay still."

Ziva glared at him but then turned back around. "Fine, I promise. I'll stay still."

"Good girl," he said, before raising the brush and bringing it down on her backside.

Ziva let out a cry. If she'd thought the spanking before had hurt, this was unbelievably painful. It felt like sitting on hot coals.

"Gibbs! Gibbs! Stop it! No more!" She cried out.

As she felt herself being tipped forward slightly and Gibbs starting to focus the paddling on her sit spots, the dam broke and she began to sob.

"Giiiiiiiibbs!" She wailed. "I'm sorrrrry! I'm sorry! Please! It hurts!"

Gibbs smacked the brush down twice more, then put it down of the table and began to rub Ziva's lower back as she cried.

He'd never believed his father when the man told him that it "this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you", but as he listened to Ziva sob, knowing that it was him who had caused her so much pain he realised that truer words had never been spoken.

"Shh, Ziva. It's okay, it's over," he consoled her gently, his stomach turning as he remembered that he was going to have to do this twice more before they could completely put the situation behind them.

Slowly but surely, her sobs began to lessen and her breathing evened out. He helped her up and was startled when Ziva, who was not usually one to initiate a hug, threw her arms around him.

"I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry! I will not be rude again!"

"I'm glad to hear it," he replied, hugging her tightly.

She pulled back from him and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Do we really have to do this twice more?"

Gibbs nodded and Ziva sighed.

"Are you going to use that thing again?" she asked, shooting a filthy look at the hairbrush on the table.

"We'll see."

Ziva picked up the offending item and looked at it. "Why do you have this anyway? It's not as if you have that much hair." She glanced up and smirked at him. "You bought it to brush your moustache, yes? There was more hair there than on your head."

"Hey!" he protested, tickling her sides."I have plenty of hair."

Ziva laughed and squirmed. "Gibbs! Stop it! That tickles! Okay, you have lots of hair!"

Gibbs shook his head and laughed. "Thank you, but I didn't buy it. I borrowed it from Jenny."

Ziva flushed bright red. "So she know that you. . .with this. . .?"

"Ziva, given what you did, I think everybody will have guessed."

Ziva sighed. "Tony will be insufferable."

"I think you may be pleasantly surprised on that front actually Ziva. No one likes getting a spanking and everyone seems to have a tendency to rally round everyone else when spankings have been dished out. I have a feeling you'll receive more sympathy than teasing."

Ziva nodded and stood up. "Okay, so I will go and clean up and go back to work now."

"Ziva," Gibbs called as she turned away.

"Yes Gibbs?"

"You can go and wash you're face but afterwards I think you need to pay a visit to autopsy."

Ziva groaned. "I forgot about that. Do I have to?"

"What do you think?"

"That that was a pretty stupid question."

Gibbs laughed. "Correct. Oh, and take Abby with you, she owes Ducky an apology too."

"Yes Gibbs," Ziva called over her shoulder as she left.

Gibbs smiled contentedly, it seemed he had, finally, got through to her.

Sorry it took a while to update, this was a hard chapter to write, but I hope you enjoyed it!