Thank you so much for your reviews on the first chapter. I really hope I'm not disappointing anyone's expectations with this. Also, triggered by an anonymous review, feel free to point out "weird" instances in your reviews, especially when it comes to word choice and/or grammar. I take no offense by it, on the contrary, I'm partly writing to improve my English, which will only work if someone points out my mistakes.

And a reminder: With the next chapter, this story goes up to the M-rating!

Staring at her reflection in the mirror, Ziva replayed the scene in the alley for what felt like the hundredth time. The moment that she came face to face with the other woman had pierced her heart and knocked all breath out of her. She looked older, more mature than she remembered her to be. But then that was to be expected, after all it had been three years since she had last seen her. Her dark eyes had been such a contrast to the sparkling warm brown that she had seen in them when they had first met when Ziva was fourteen. She had been five, so young and innocent. And immediately, Ziva had fallen for her. Two years younger than Tali was back then, and Ziva had felt a deep affection for the little girl that was not even her sister, not related to her by blood in any way. She was not only not related to her, she was also Palestinian. Born in the Gaza strip. To Ari's mother and her husband.

Ziva had not thought that the shot at the square they had been at had been meant for her. She had not even considered the possibility that it had been directed to anyone of Team Gibbs. But in hindsight, she knew how foolish that had been. She should have known that sooner or later, her Mossad past would catch up with her, and that there would be hell to pay. She had endangered her team, Tony, McGee, and Gibbs. And she had helped a terrorist that had tried to kill her escape.

When the younger woman had turned around, Ziva had reacted on instinct. She had lunged at Tony whose finger curled around the trigger of his gun. Not willing to let the last person that had loved Ari die, she had knocked him over and tumbled to the ground on top of him. When she looked up again, their suspect had disappeared.

Turning on the water, Ziva wet her face and dried it off again. She could not hide in here forever, even if she wanted to do just that. Sooner or later, Gibbs would get impatient, and either send Jenny after her, or come for her herself. So Ziva pulled herself up, squared her shoulders and left the restrooms.

In the bullpen, Ducky was looking at Tony's shoulder, while McGee stared at security camera shots of the two women Tony and Ziva had run after. Seeing one of the faces up close caused a chill to run down Ziva's spine. She had been sent to execute her, that she was sure of. But she had had the time to do it, why had she hesitated? Perhaps she had felt the same things Ziva had, the same unnamed feeling that had instantly cursed through her, and that she was now able to identify as a potent mix of love, pity and regret, something so strong she had only felt once, three years ago in the basement of one Leroy Jethro Gibbs. When she had been the murderer of her own brother.

"You wanna tell me something?" Gibbs asked her, his blue eyes boring into her. Ziva swallowed dry, hesitating. Her own death sentence was signed. She did not want to sign that of her, too. Then again, she had done it countless times before, had sold the people that had gotten too close, had executed Palestinians and terrorists before. Why was this any different? Because she had not known them personally most of the time. They had been just names and faces, people that deserved to die for their crimes. But she was someone that had a past, she was a young girl with sparkling eyes, she was a laughing child and Ari's arms, she was a stubborn teenager that spat with Ziva's father. She was a person in every sense of the word, a human being that was capable of emotions, and Ziva had seen it, had witnessed how much compassion she had in her heart, how complex her understand of her situation and life was.

"I can make this official, Officer David. If you protect someone, I will take your badge and gun and put you on desk duty. Or on a plane back to Israel. You decide." Gibbs threatened, getting closer in her face. Ziva tried to hold his stare, but she couldn't. She couldn't betray them, too. She had already betrayed her family, Ari, her father... She could not do this to the people she had come to love and think of as her family. So she broke the gaze and grabbed the pointer device from McGee, enlarging the picture of the woman she had protected.

"Her name is Kadira Esfiri." she began, her voice shaking slightly. She took a deep breath and focused on the facts. She could do that, give them the facts, concentrate on the figures and not the person behind them. Not see the small girl that was petrified and clutching at the legs of her brother tightly, not see the young woman stand at a fresh grave, gaze unblinking and unseeing, lost in her grief.

"Twenty-two years old, born in the Gaza strip, raised in Gaza City. Her native language is Arabic, she's perfectly fluent in Hebrew as well as Pashto. Married to Farook Esfiri. Met him when she was sixteen, engaged shortly before her brother died, I do not know how long they have been married, though. No children or living relatives, at least not as far as I know. Parents are dead, the only brother, an older half brother was killed three years ago." Ziva told them, looking into a face that once held so much compassion and love but now was hard as stone.

*Oh Kadi, what have you become?* Ziva muttered softly in Hebrew without thinking.

"And you know her how?" Tony asked and got up from his chair. Ziva did not even glance at him. She did not want to answer that question, and she would not do it.

"GODDAMMIT, ZIVA!" he yelled at her, getting in her face. "You pushed me! I want to know who that person is to you. What does she mean to you if you betray me, your partner, to safe her?! She escaped with the girl that shot at you, for God's sake!"

Ziva stared into his green eyes, and felt tears spring to hers. She saw Tali in front of her, in the yard, playing tag with Kadi. The three of them together, laughing in the rain. Kadira softly talking to her, her Arabic accent making her Hebrew sound so much different from her own, the occasional Arabic word replacing one she did not know. Her accusing eyes at Ari's grave. Her silent question why he was dead when she had been his control officer. Why she had let her brother die but survived herself. Ziva had never been as close to tell anyone that it had been her that had fired the fatal shot as she had been at that moment when the rain had started to pour down on them. It had been the last time she had seen Kadira until today.

"Her maiden name was Haswari." Ziva softly whispered. The first tear escaped and made its way down her cheek. Tony stared at her in confusion when she broke the gaze before looking back into his eyes, not bothering with wiping away the first tear because she already knew there would be many more to follow. "She is Ari's half-sister." At that, her voice broke, and Ziva started to cry in front of her team, her partner and her boss. Her knees gave out under her, and Tony barely caught her before she hit the floor. Burying her face in his shoulder, Ziva cried for the innocent girl that had become a terrorist, a monster. In killing her brother, in ending Ari's life, in shooting the monster he had become, she had created another one. And this time, there was no making it right again. Just like the last time, someone would die for a mistake her family had made. It was only open who that person would be. Kadira or Ziva.

I know that Ziva breaking down is a tiny bit OOC for her. But she cried in front of Gibbs during Hiatus. And came very close to crying in front of Tony at the end of Dagger. And I kind of wanted to finally let the others see what losing Ari had really done to her.

Reviews? Pretty please?