A/N: I have the basic structure of the story worked out and it should be a total of no more than four or five chapters (one for Ziva, Abby, Tony, Gibbs and maybe one more), depending on where my fingers take me…all mistakes are mine, as it has not been beta read.

Dark themes are implied…please take the rating into consideration before reading further.

Spoilers for up to and including NCIS Season 7

Oh, and just in case you didn't know…I do NOT own NCIS…

Broken

-2-

She has often dreamt about her time in Africa and wakes up in cold sweats.

More recently she has had dreams about Tony, McGee and Gibbs finding her… or even sometimes just sitting at their desks talking. Only in her dreams there is a language barrier. She cannot speak or understand whatever language they are speaking, which does not seem to her to be English, and they cannot understand what she is saying in any language she attempts.

She wants to break down and cry when she has that dream. She has thought maybe it is her way of reminding herself that no one understands and that even with all the good people surrounding her she is alone. This thought always depresses her.

When she wakes up from one of her dreams her head feels like it has been beaten with a bowling ball and like her neck and shoulders have been trying to support its weight all night. It is at times like this that she reaches over and grabs her painkillers. She used to pride herself in being tough enough to take the pain but now the less she feels the better…

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For the first month or so after she had been rescued she worried herself to the brim. Since she had gotten back she had not had her period. She could not bring herself to purchase a pregnancy test and so each day she waited and each day the oppressive air around her grew more suffocating. Until one day several weeks after she had been due for her cycle. When she realized that she had only skipped it because of stress or weight loss or a combination of the two she crumbled to the floor in a sobbing heap.

"Ziva?" a confused voice called out to her.

Ziva's eyes fell on the platform shoes peeking out from the adjoining stall.

"Ziva, I know that's you. Are you okay?"

"I am fine, Abby" She sniffled.

"No you're not" Abby dismissed the idea off hand leaving the stall she had only just entered to stand in front of Ziva's stall door "If you're fine, then why are you crying on the floor of the bathroom?"

"It is nothing…I-I only…"

"You only what?" Abby was majorly concerned, this was not like Ziva. She wondered if she should go get Gibbs…Gibbs knew how to fix things.

"I simply started my period, Abby, I am fine"

Oh, so no Gibbs then, she decided with a bit of humor. "Yeah, that can be kind of an emotional time for me, too. Are you sure you're okay?" Ziva opened her stall door.

"Yes, Abby, only emotional because of my period" She smiled a small smile.

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Back in her lab Abby was trying to cajole Major Mass Spec. into working properly, the incident with Ziva gnawing at the back of her mind. Eventually the concern worked its way through to the front of her mind and wouldn't allow her to think of anything else… even Plastic Death's new song couldn't take her mind off her worry.

The more she thought about it the more she was inclined to think that Ziva had broken Abby's rule number one or was that rule number two? One concerned birthdays and the other concerned falsehoods. Whichever rule it was Abby was sure that Ziva had broken it by lying to her. Ziva was not fine and as much as Abby had tried to make herself believe that the more she was sure that something was majorly wrong.

Ziva had a difficult time displaying emotion and at first Abby had a hard time reconciling that with, her now good friend, actually having the capacity to feel anything emotionally. Abby had come to realize that she and Ziva were fundamentally the same only they had different methods of expression – in that Abby did and Ziva, usually, did not. Abby wore her emotions on her sleeve while Ziva built bunkers and barricaded her emotions. Slowly but surely Ziva had been letting people in but since Ziva had returned from Africa Abby felt like they were starting off from square one only on a totally different game in which no one knew the rules.

Abby had never seen Ziva emotional enough to cry in a place where, although it afforded some privacy, almost anyone could walk in and find her – even due to hormones. She had worked with Ziva for four years and been a friend for about three-and-a- half years… in all that time Abby could not recall Ziva making complaint due to her cycle or even being a bit emotional because of it… It didn't make sense… what had happened? When she closed her eyes she could see Ziva's face still so sad but also a look of relief covering her features… She was relieved about her period…

Abby wandered back to Major Mass Spec. to apply the band-aid she had taken out of its wrapper, tears beginning to pool in her eyes.

Ziva had been captured and imprisoned for three months…

She had been tortured by men who would stop at nothing to further their terrorist agenda… who wouldn't think twice about breaking her friend on the inside when breaking her on the outside had failed to work…

"Abby?" McGee stood just inside the lab, Caf-Pow in one hand, a somewhat bewildered expression on his face.

"Oh, Timmy!" She rushed toward him and pressed him to her as she cried.

"Abby, what's wrong?"

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Her earlier relief caused a torrent of emotions to flood her system which put her body on overload and consequently caused her current exhaustion. As she readied for bed that night she heard a knock on the door. On the other side stood Abby, eyes red and puffy as though she had been crying.

"Abby, what is wrong?" She asked concern lacing her voice as Abby entered.

"I was thinking" Abby sniffled, holding Bert to her chest in an attempt to comfort herself "and I wanted you to have Bert for a while" she stretched her hand out to Ziva, offering her Bert.

"Why, Abby?" She asked deeply puzzled, taking the stuffed hippo.

"Because, I was thinking about it and remembering earlier and trying to remember before that" Abby babbled leaving Ziva thoroughly confused.

"What?"

"I think I know why you were so upset earlier" Abby whispered on the verge of tears. Her arms hugging herself in an attempt to resist crushing Ziva to her.

Ziva tensed "I do not know what you think you know, Abby" she warned.

"I know you, Ziva. I wanted you to be okay and so I pretended you were… and then you were crying on the floor and I wanted to believe you were just hormonal so I did... But I also know you were captured by evil men who hurt you. I know you never want to talk to me or Tony or Gibbs or Ducky or McGee about what happened and you never want to hang out anymore"

"So?" She replied somewhat tersely.

"So…I wanted you to know that I'm here for you. And when I'm not.. Bert's here. That's all"

"You do not know what you are talking about, Abby" Ziva shook her head, in denial.

"You think I don't know? You think I live in a bubble where nothing bad in the world can touch me?" Abby asked tears streaking down her cheeks "Hmm? Well, then you don't know what you're talking about, either."

"Abby" Ziva sighed "I did not mean to imply…" She trailed off leaving the sentence hanging midair, her voice unable to continue.

After Abby had left Ziva did find comfort in holding Bert to her chest and allowing herself to cry as Bert comforted her.

A/N: Thanks to Frutti for reviewing! I appreciate it. I don't know that I'll continue but I wanted to post part 2 since it was done and because you were kind enough to review.