At exactly 7:00 am, Tony stopped in front of Ziva's apartment. He had considered being slightly late on purpose simply to annoy her (honestly, one minute had never killed anyone.) but considering her recent behavior, he decided against it. Once he arrived, he parked as close to the front of the building as he could, ran up the steps and buzzed her apartment. The few other time's he had visited her, she had simply let him in. This time she asked who it was.
"Well who the hell else would it be at seven freaking o'clock on a Sunday morning." He received no answer but heard a buzzing, and opened the door. By the time he made it to her apartment, she was already standing in the door. Ziva glared at him from underneath the hem of the camouflaged bandana tied over her hair. She wore black cargo pants and a long sleeved green turtleneck. She looked like she had slept in the clothes, and just woken up. She had her backpack on, and a slim sleeping bag strapped to it. Behind her was some large piece of furniture that had been completely dismantled. She looked like she hadn't slept in a month.
"What is that?" He couldn't figure it out. She didn't even answer.
"I need to get it to my new apartment."
"You're moving?" Hadn't seen that one coming.
"I didn't ask you what you're doing. Although I was curious. I asked what that was." He pointed at the wooden pile of furniture.
"A bed." Tony smirked. Before he could make any comments, Ziva spoke.
"I had rented the smallest moving van they had, and the bed would not fit. I am not renting the van for another whole day simply to move the bed." Tony peered over her shoulder. The apartment was totally empty. Nothing in the kitchen, entry hall, or what he could see of the living room.
"Where's all your stuff? Don't tell me it's all gone." She rolled her eyes.
"As I said, everything was dismantled and packed yesterday." Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Where'd you sleep? Not on the floor in…that." He pointed at the sleeping bag.
"Why not? It is not that different from a bed."
"All your floors are wood!" She glared at him like he was an idiot.
"Really? I did not know that." Ziva was trying to look exasperated, but her lack of sleep made it hard for her to look like anything other than exhausted. He decided to take pity on her and not say anything in response to the sarcastic comment.
"Look, why don't you go get in the car and I'll carry this down." She managed to affectively glare at him this time.
"Because I can carry it." Tony walked past her into the apartment, grabbed the smallest amount of wood he thought she would accept, and shoved it her direction.
"Take this." She accepted the pieces of wood, making a quick face when it touched her skin. "What's wrong?" Before she could react, he had grabbed her wrist and pulled the sleeve back, revealing ring of bruises around her wrist. No doubt if she had been expecting him to do anything like that she would have snapped his arm long before he even touched her, but her lack of sleep and underestimating Tony's ability to read her let him get her arm. She yanked her arm back, and pulled her sleeve back down.
"I accidently pulled a bracelet to tight." Tony couldn't help but laugh a bit. She gripped his wrist tightly and he stopped.
"Ziva, you don't wear bracelets. Ever." She continued to glare at him."Okay, maybe sometimes. Not the point." Tony gripped her by her shoulders lightly, ignored her flinch and turned her around before pushing her out the door. "Go to the car. Oh, wait. One moment." He pulled the neck of her turtleneck down a bit, so he could see her shoulder. And then he gasped. Ziva had frozen in place. He could see down her shoulder a bit, bruises covered all the skin he could see on her back. Around her neck was a bruise that was still forming. Someone had tried to choke her, it looked like. And recently, since the bruise was still forming. He let go of the cloth, and the collar snapped back into place. "Okay, you can go now." She didn't acknowledge him, just walked into the elevator and closed the door. She didn't even look at him. Once she had left, tony walked into the apartment and past what was left of the bed. He wandered through the apartment. It was all empty, every room perfectly clean, totally immaculate. He checked the closets just to make sure she had gotten everything. Of course Ziva had gotten everything. He didn't doubt that. But he needed time to think. He was so confused. H couldn't think of anybody who would hurt Ziva, but it had to be someone very close to her. She wouldn't allow anyone whom she didn't care about to so much as lay a hand on her. He opened the last door he hadn't looked in, an out of the way closet at the back of her apartment. He stopped cold at what he saw there.