To Die Standing
Chapter 10
" That went easily," Ziva said happily as she unlocked the door to her apartment. " Were that all real missions were easy."
" Maybe you should direct instead." Yilen joked. " Then again, we were not jumping in on them at a critical moment, even for them. Had they been importing or exporting weapons, I imagine it would have been much more difficult."
" That's true." Ziva laughed, as she took a hanger and gestured to hang Yilen's coat. Yilen shrugged off her coat and handed it to her, before stiffening a little bit. Not noticing, Ziva went on, " I'm glad that is over with. Those two were the ones I was most afraid of, once I'm gone…Tony?!"
" Hey hey hey!" Tony was sitting on the couch like he owned the place. " Who's your friend there, eh? Beautiful lady." He winked at Yilen, who was not impressed.
" You know him?" She asked, while stepping in front of Ziva to block his view of her, but Ziva tapped her shoulder lightly.
" Yeah, he's my partner at NCIS—Tony what the hell are you doing in my apartment?"
" Where the hell have you been all day?"
" I'm asking the questions here, mister!" Ziva began stomping angrily towards him. " You don't just barge into my home without—"
Her words were cut off as, for seemingly no reason, her ankle gave out. She collapsed to the side, hitting her head against the wall.
" Whoa!" Tony exclaimed, jumping up from his seat. Yilen hurried to her friend. Ziva sat up, relatively unhurt, but stunned.
" Are you alright?" Tony asked, with real concern, shocked that something like this could happen to someone like Ziva again. " You're okay, right? How's your head? God, Ziva, you should be more careful!" He started helping her up, but Ziva knocked his hand away and relied on Yilen instead, who supported her as she made her way to the couch to sit down. For a moment Ziva sat, a long wavering moment, trying to restrain her tears.
" It's alright." Yilen said soothingly, holding Ziva's hand tightly. " It's alright." She smoothed out some locks of hair that had fallen out of place due to the fall and rubbed Ziva's back. " It's okay."
Tony knelt in front of where Ziva sat, watching her.
Finally the battle was over. Ziva lost.
" Are you satisfied?" She cried, as she broke into tears. " Are you? You just had to see me like this, didn't you?"
Tony had no clue what she was talking about, but he certainly did not come here to see her cry. The vision shocked him into complete silence for a moment.
" Hey," He leaned forward, bracing his hands on Ziva's knees, " No, I didn't come here to see anything. I was just worried, that's all."
" Oh sure." Ziva laughed contemptuously. " That was all you wanted, sure. You couldn't respect my privacy, you couldn't respect my dignity! Damn you Tony," She shot up and nearly fell again, but Yilen was there to support her—" You want to know what's going on? You want it? I have SMA, that's what's going on! Spinal Muscular Atrophy! You want Ducky to tell you what that is? Why don't you go and ask Ducky now?"
She was wobbling, and Yilen forced her to sit down before she could hurt herself.
Tony was speechless. " No." He said quietly. " I don't need to ask Ducky."
The name itself was a clue enough.
Ziva buried her face in her hands as she started sobbing in earnest, her previous good mood entirely ruined. Yilen pulled her close, making comforting hushing noises.
Tony took a long moment to absorb the information. Whatever he had been dreading, this went along the lines of it, he realized.
" There's no cure?" He guessed.
Yilen shook her head silently.
Ziva wiped her eyes harshly, then stood again. She nearly toppled, but righted herself, then stepped past Tony, into the bedroom. The door closed.
Yilen sat there, staring at the door for a moment, before turning her attention towards Tony.
" She hasn't told you?" Yilen asked.
" No." Tony replied quietly.
Yilen looked at the door. " Stubborn." She remarked.
" Yeah." Tony agreed, for the first time feeling truly hurt. " What did she think I'd do, make fun of her for this?"
" You seem the type." Yilen replied bluntly. " But I think it had less to do with how you'll react, and more to do with how she'd face you."
Tony sat down on the rug.
" I was only trying to look out for her." He found himself admitting. " Was…was worried." He finished lamely.
Yilen looked at him. " I didn't say you did anything wrong." She pointed out. " She needed to tell as much as you needed to hear."
Tony rubbed his temples. Why did things get so complicated? " What should I tell the others?" He asked sadly.
Yilen remembered the girl with pigtails and the guy in the car with Tony.
" That's up to you." Yilen replied. She stood and headed to the kitchen to make some tea for herself, leaving Tony sitting in front of the couch.
oO
Ziva came out half an hour later. She was washing her face with a wet towel. She stopped when she saw Tony sitting near the table.
" You're still here." She remarked, in a much more subdued manner.
" Yeah." Tony tried to come up with something to break the silence that fell again. " Where'd you meet your friend?"
" Three years before I came to NCIS." Ziva replied. Strange how easy it is to act like everything was normal again. No grudges, no anger, nothing. She had not expected that, and neither, apparently, did Tony, but it was a pleasant enough surprise. " We were on the same mission and didn't know it. I saw her first. She sensed me, knew I was there, just didn't know who I was or where I was. We had a little bit of a war of skills for about three hours."
Yilen came by, with three bowls of hot porridge.
" She is very skilled." Yilen smiled a little. " Forced me to wander around in circles for three more hours than I had to."
The two women shared a grin.
" Wander around in circles?" Tony blinked. " Why?"
" Ah yes, you are a police officer, of sorts." Yilen nodded. " That requires different skills. Ziva and I were both in targetting the same person at the time. Ziva was sent to assassinate someone, I was sent to retrieve information and kill the same person if necessary. I knew there was someone watching me, I didn't know who or where, so in order to distract whoever it was I made many detours and stopped to do many things. She always kept up with me though."
" Wanted to see what she was up to." Ziva shrugged.
" Finally it became clear that neither of us was going to make a mistake." Yilen went on. " So I called a truce."
" How?"
" By going to a restaurant and ordering for two people." Ziva replied. " I was following her all along, knew she wasn't meeting anyone. I knew the second seat was for me."
" An offer to meet face to face, peacefully." Yilen nodded. " Neither of us could wage war on the other in such public places. I wanted to see if whoeer it was would step out."
" And I did."
" We found out our goals complemented one another. Our superiors approved the alliance."
" Remained friends ever since."
" Where was this? Who were you hunting?" Tony asked.
The two women smiled.
" That would be telling, wouldn't it?" Yilen looked over at Ziva.
Tony leaned back. " That explains why you called her. Although," He frowned as he thought for a while, the depth of what is happening now truly sinking in. Ziva had once been incredible, so incredible she could outsmart other spies and form alliances from respect alone, and now all of that is slowly but surely disappearing. One day Ziva would be reduced to a motionless husk, and nothing can be done to avoid that.
" You could have told us too, you know. I wouldn't have made fun of you for that." He said finally.
" I know." Ziva's eyes looked far away. She looked so absolutely beautiful. " I know Tony."
oO
" He loves you."
Ziva smiled a little. It was funny how much faith she had in her friend's judgment. Yilen's skills at reading faces exceeded even her own. She had no doubt Yilen was right, especially as Yilen had said it out loud. The Chinese have a way of being very reserved; in fact, Yilen was being unusually open about her observations now. She was also warmer, friendlier, more understanding that she used to be. Perhaps it was because she knew how much Ziva needed honesty these days.
" He doesn't seem to know himself." Yilen continued. " You don't seem to know your own feelings either."
" Tony's a bit of a player." Ziva dropped the knife in the sink. She pretended she meant to do that. " It's hard to trust him, especially as he doesn't quite trust himself."
" He is very hurt by your rejection."
" What rejection?"
" You didn't tell him." Yilen pointed out.
Ziva was silent.
" Why didn't you?"
" I didn't want him to view me differently." Ziva smiled wistfully. " Would have worked too, if he weren't so pushy." She looked at Yilen.
Yilen considered her. " Give him a little credit." She said.
Ziva found herself laughing at that.
" He certainly behaved himself today." Yilen pointed out. " He may help you through this better than I can. You've worked together for years."
" Yeah." Ziva nodded, sighing.
Yilen stood. " I'll cook us something."
" I can cook."
" You're upset." Yilen replied.
Ziva sighed again. She was.