She had placed make-up over the bruises John had given her, that now covered her face, occasionally wincing in pain. She wore a long sleeved shirt to cover up the marks that had appeared when John had grabbed her arms to stop her from blocking the punches that had been delivered to her stomach. Hopefully, no one would notice. She took her time driving to work when she arrived at NCIS, she made her way through the building praying that no one would notice, but of course they did. Some people stopped walking, staring at her as she walked past or some, who knew her history in torture, glanced up quickly and then turned to move in the opposite direction. Gibbs was the first to take her aside and actually ask questions.
"David, conference room now!" he barked, standing quickly and motioning for her to make her way over to the elevator. She was too tired to argue and he followed her as she moved slowly towards the metal box, dragging her feet, while making a quick plan on what she was going to say.
"Where the hell did you get those bruises Ziver?" he asked as soon as they entered the small space, slamming his fist into the switch, causing the elevator to shudder to a stop. He moved his hand up and brushed away part of the make- up that covered her face, noticing her wince, as he revealed a purple bruise below her eye.
"I was mugged," she said meekly, shrugging her shoulders and not meeting his piercing blue gaze.
Gibbs scoffed and rolled his eyes, before turning serious once again, "C'mon Ziva. There's no way anyone could cause this much damage to you, unless you allowed it or had no way to fight back. Now tell me the truth." He placed a hand on her shoulder, but she quickly pulled away, and backed herself up to the other side of the elevator, crossing her arms across her chest protectively and making Gibbs raise both eyebrows in suprise.
"I was mugged alright," she hissed defensively, knowing that if she told Gibbs the truth, he would look at her with pity. He would think she was too weak, and she'd have to go to a shrink, and she wouldn't be able to take that.
The older man raised both his hands, palms facing her, "Alright, alright. I can't help you if you don't want to help yourself. But you head home and rest up. I'm sure you are still exhausted after being mugged," he put air-quotation marks around the word "mugged", while rolling his eyes once again.
"Gibbs I am fine!" Ziva hissed, raising her head, straightening her body, and glaring at him defiantly.
"I'm ordering you to go home. I don't want to see you for the rest of the day," Gibbs stated, staring back at her with piercing blue eyes, daring her to defy him or argue again. When she remained silent, he turned the elevator on, and they returned to the bullpen, where Ziva grabbed her stuff, glared once again at Gibbs, huffed, and left. Gibbs approached Tony.
"Follow her. Keep an eye on her. I have a bad feeling about this."
Sorry that this was so short and that I haven't updated in forever. I had lost all interest in writing this story, but I refuse to just leave you guys hanging, so I'm going to continue it!
Review! Inspire me!