Oh dear, I think Tali had a bad day yesterday hmm? *pats her head* And gee, I sure did swear a bit in that last! Sorry about that, you'll just have to get over it, I just watch too much Jersey Shore ;) Please don't judge me for watching it, I'm originally from Jersey; I just like watching the train wreck!
Winter I Paris was the most unpleasant thing I ever experienced. I awoke to blistering cold every morning and some days I feared my bones would crack or my toes would turn blue and fall off. I was captivated by the romance of the city despite the cold. I made some great friends and we had some good times.
Perhaps it was fitting that Ziva would first recount my story to a woman who would eventually become her most trusted confidant. They would sit in a car on a street with a fantastic view of the Eiffel tower. It was one of the same streets that I had traveled on while stumbling back from a New Year's party.
Ziva will never know how many times our paths crossed in the parallel universes of past and present.
I suffered from insomnia while in Paris. I was temporarily free of my normal life which allowed me too much time to think and too many memories to come rushing back. My mother's death, the explosions, the shootings, my brother's distance both literally and figuratively, my sister who was too busy to be with me for long periods, I even had a father who didn't treat me like his daughter because he thought I worked for him.
I never burdened the Champaveres with this information, they were good friends and I did not want them involved. They had a beautiful authentic manor in the Le Marais district. It was always drafty and I dearly missed the heat of the Mediterranean.
A few hours before class, I got up and left the guest room. Staring up at the blank ceiling in the cold waiting for something that will not come is a torture worse than the ones I had to endure. I close my eyes and I remember. Swollen and bruised fingers, my toenails covered in blood- lying on the floor, burn marks trailing up my inner arms and welts on my back, blood crusted onto my face… there was, after all, only one way to prepare for potential capture.
Maybe the cold wasn't that bad.
I heard an odd tapping noise and a loud banging sound. I went to investigate and found one of those antique iron radiators sitting under a window. I went and crouched on the floor beside it, trying to retain some warmth. Because that's all we ever really need- a little warmth to melt the ice around us.
*ahem* that was Jenny^ did you see her? She was barely there…
Explanation for that gory scene will be up later.