Ziva's apartment seemed foreign to her plus quite a few of her things were still at Tony's. She found that some things had been moved since the last time she had been here but that was most likely because, as she was sure they did, Tony, McGee and Gibbs probably moved stuff around when they came here searching for her or a clue as to where she may be. Michael was in a hotel only a couple miles from her apartment and she knew that wherever she went he would be close behind, watching her every move, observing her every action. It disgusted her or, more accurately, he disgusted her.
Ziva's mind was still reeling with questions. She knew exactly how her father was doing this, but she still didn't know why. She wanted to know his reason and to hear an explanation. It wouldn't change the outcome nor would her feelings towards him and his actions shift, but a reason, logical or not, might answer some of the questions. Her thoughts seemed to be on repeat, like when the same part of a song just keeps running through your head because you only know that small portion of the song. The same questions were asked and then they would just start again. Because she had no answers, no next part of the song, and she had no one to supply them to her.
A nap sounded good right about now but she was hungry. Perhaps she could make herself something to eat. She enjoyed cooking; it calmed her and when she made certain dishes if she closed her eyes and just breathed in the scent she could be brought back to when she was young. It felt like a time warp back to a time where she would run into the kitchen, as a young girl, and find her mother cooking. The feeling was familiar and it would give her an ease of mind. Yes, Ziva decided, she would cook tonight. One of her mother's favorite recipes, Kusneyeya Rice, very fragrant and very delicious. Obviously she didn't just have garlic and spring onions lying around so she would need to go to the grocery store. Quickly she scribbled down the ingredients and went to get her keys. Just as she was slipping her arms into her coat a loud rapping sound came from the other side of her door. She turned the knob and pulled the door back coming face to face with her partner. The one who she had been wanting, no needing, to see for a week. Seven long days of feeling alone, feeling empty. She whispered his name saying it as she exhaled so it mixed with her breath. For a moment she was completely lost as of what to say or what to do. Her mind and heart were sending conflicting messages. Her mind telling her to send him away and to put up her guard, her heart saying to invite him in and talk to him, about everything that had happened, everything she had told him. But as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other she felt the small GPS tracker that was in her shoe. She knew what she had to do, how she had to protect him.
"Were you gonna tell me you were back in town?" Tony asked laughing a little. Though he didn't know why he was laughing.
"I would see you at work on Monday, yes?" Ziva replied. She didn't want to shut him out, but for the moment she would have to. If he said something to lead on to the fact that he knew about her father's intentions...Ziva did not even want to think of the consequences.
Tony looked at her strangely but remembered what Gibbs had told him about the fact that someone may be able to hear, or even see, her. "Yeah, you would," he said and she looks down at the floor before meeting him in the eye again. Her look was filled with desperation, sadness, fear. The same look she had a few weeks ago when she was hiding the truth of her father and all the other problems of that time. She had things to tell him but for some reason, right now, he couldn't ask. She didn't want him to and where as that usually didn't keep him from asking, in fact it made want to ask more, he felt it would be better to refrain. "You going out?" he asks as he sees her keys in hand and coat on.
"Yes, I need food," she tells him and, now more than ever, is thankful that he can almost always tell what she's thinking by staring into her eyes. If she allowed him that is, and sometimes even if she didn't.
"Wong's has some great new Kung-Pow Chicken and Pizza Hut has these really good new deep pan pizzas," Tony suggests and Ziva realizes that to him take-out is the only option there is when it comes to eating.
"I was actually going to cook. An old Jewish recipe my mother used to make."
"Why yes, I forgot that Ziva David knew how to cook," Tony says flashing her a smile. Only not his usual one, one more genuine.
"It has been a while since I last made this particular dish could you possibly be a judge for me?" Ziva asks and wishes that Gibbs had been here to head-slap her before she invited him to dinner. It wouldn't have been so bad if her father wasn't listening to every word or if her ex partner wasn't around the corner ready come barge in to her apartment and shoot everyone. Actually it would be wonderful if you removed those factors but she couldn't. So when you were to add it all up it was a very poor decision to invite him over.
"Well I don't know. Will I get more than the tiny portions the judges usually get?" Tony asked and she smiled at him. God she didn't realize just how much she missed him. Even though he was the one person she had longed for the most. With him right there standing in touching distance, kissing distance, she wanted release all of the sadness and fear she had; all of the pain she had felt through this whole experience, the one that still was yet to end. He was the one she had confided in, trusted her secrets to. She needed him next to her, not just wanted, she more than missed him while she was gone because without him she's alone.
"Only if you like it, which I am sure you will," she tells him and he smiles. Never had he been so happy to see one person in his life. When she was kidnapped, taken right outside of his apartment, he wasn't sure if he would ever see her again and as of right now he wasn't of exactly what would happen next. All he knew was that she was here. Right there in front of him and he was going to savor every moment of it, hold on to all her words and remember each touch. Whether he had sixty minutes with her or if he was fortunate enough to have sixty years he was going to make it all count.
"I love everything of yours," Tony said hinting his best at the words of "I love you" towards her. Ziva smiled at him, at his words, his honesty.
Ziva felt weak for letting her desires, her heart, be put above her common sense. The things she grew up learning and, up until a few years ago, only knew of that one way to live. Up until she met them all and they put so much effort in breaking her guard down. She still had a hard time comprehending why someone would take such an interest in her. Someone who cared enough to desperately try to break down the walls that were surrounding her. Someone who cared enough that they would stay no matter how much she tried to push them away. Ziva never knew that someone could care that much, at least not about her. No one had ever bothered to ask and she was glad, she liked her barriers, felt that they protected her. She could protect herself against being physically injured, but she needed those barriers to block out being emotionally hurt. As Tony worked so hard to break her barriers down she felt she was hurting both her and him by not letting him in and so she did. She let him in, and now as she stood there, his eyes penetrating to her deepest thoughts no words being necessary, she did not regret it. No matter the outcome.
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
Hannah had been staying with Ducky at night and she had grown to trust the medical examiner and forensic scientist. The three of them had gathered at NCIS as Gibbs had requested of them and Ducky was hoping he would say that Hannah would be going back home. Not that he did not enjoy having her around the house and she loved the dogs and even his mother, but Ducky feared she was getting to accustomed to staying there. Both Ducky and Abby knew she would have to go home and it would be better for her if it was sooner rather than later.
The three stood there waiting. Hannah stood tall, head held high. She wasn't your average five year old, not even slightly intimidated by the people or the giant guns for that matter. Abby had grown to love the small, yet strong, little girl. She reminded her very much of Ziva and she even had Ziva's, and Ari's, deep brown eyes. Abby wasn't ready for her to go. Especially after some of the things Hannah had told her, about her mother and grandmother, about her life in Israel. It wasn't right. Abby remembered what it was like to be a child, half of the time she still acted like a child. Because being a kid was fun, laughing and playing games, dancing like no one is watching or finally learning to do the perfect cart wheel. Believing in Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy, going trick or treating, dressing up in crazy costumes or playing jump rope and hopscotch. Abby loved being a kid and Hannah was being deprived of being one, of having fun.
Gibbs walked through the elevator doors already tired even though the day had just begun. The mixture of jet lag and trying to deal with a terrorist attack threat had kind of had its toll on him. Of course he knew that everything was not just a' OK with Ziva now perhaps she was in even more danger than she was before. Having to be a suicide bomber against your will for your father was probably enough danger for one person but Ziva could always manage to dig herself in deep. He remembered when she had been framed, back when Gibbs was "retired", and she had been put onto the most wanted list for all agencies with acronyms and then some. Obviously Ziva could take care of herself and did, most of the time. Everyone needs help though and he was glad that she eventually broke down and asked for it, glad that she finally realized that he was always there when she needed assistance. A lot of this could have been avoided had she come to him at the beginning of it all however what was done was and now they would just have to deal with what they were left with.
Gibbs approached Hannah and she stared up at him, her face stone set, her eyes determined. The kind of look that Gibbs admired, the kind he never expected to see on such a small child. He crouched down to her level noting how much better she looked then when they had found her. Her curly hair was now combed and pulled into two low pig tails, her clothes were clean and her face washed. She also didn't look quite so scrawny. Gibbs assumed that they had been feeding her well, probably the most scheduled meal times she had had her entire short life. "Can you go sit over there while I talk to Doctor Mallard and Abby?" Gibbs asked gesturing to the seat at Tony's desk. Hannah nodded her head and Abby gave her hand one more squeeze before dropping it and following Gibbs over to the other side of the room. "did she tell you anything about her mother and grandmother?" Gibbs asks and Ducky is the first one to respond.
"Ah yes, she mentioned their names but I told you of those when you were still in Israel."
"Yeah, Duck anything else?"
"No, but she does not seem very fond of them," Ducky tells him. In fact the doctor could make a rather accurate assumption that she was abused. "I could almost hear the fear in her voice whenever she would speak of them. I do not think they treated her properly."
"I checked her mother and grandma out and she's not related to them."
"Well obviously. If her father was Ari then her grandmother would have been dead before she was even born. Are you sure that the woman is not her mother?" Ducky questioned.
"I'm sure. If you ask the right people they'll tell you anything," Gibbs says remembering the two older women who he had found while checking out of the hotel. They said her mother was someone named Rachel Nuresh and was shot when Hannah was only a year old. Then, somehow she ended up with Ailish or Delilah or whatever she calls her. "Where she is now it's scuttle butt that she's being used for some covert operation."
"Like they're using her as bait? Abby asked hating just the sound of it.
"Maybe, maybe not."
"Well then why was she brought here?"
"This might be where they need their bait," Gibbs says and turns to see the little girl only a few feet away from them, her big browns eyes filled with curiosity.
"Like they use for fishies?" are the words out of her mouth and Gibbs smiled remembering a related conversation he had with Kelly.
She shrieked as Gibbs placed the worm close to her face. "Fish actually eat those?" she asks and intently watches as Gibbs hooks the fish's dinner on to his pole.
"They don't just eat them, they like it too."
"But then we eat the fishes?" Kelly says as a question feeling suddenly guilty.
"Yep, but they get to eat the bait first."
"Is that what you call the worms?"
"That's what we use the worms as. Anything can be bait. Even you," he says and she stares at him in shock.
"You wouldn't actually feed me to the fish would you?" The innocence of her four years questions.
"Well if I ran out of worms I might have to. So maybe you should go dig up some more," Gibbs teases her and watches as she crinkles her nose.
"I think I'd rather have the fishies eat me," she tells him and he laughs.
"Only you Kelly. Only you," Gibbs tells her.
"No," Gibbs tells her and her frown fades from her face. "They only use the bad stuff for bait. They wouldn't use you since you're so good."
"Savta says I am bad. She says I am tipesh," Hannah says sadly.
"Sometimes adults are wrong," Gibbs explains. "And I think that your savta is wrong."
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
Hmm I really don't like the apartment scene...Let me know what you think and maybe I'll rewrite it. I am leaving to go on vacation on Sunday so I'm not sure if I'll be able to update. I will most definitely have the time but I can't get internet access on my laptop down there so I don't know how I'll post. I will be gone for two weeks and hopefully will be able to update once before I leave and if I can't update when I'm down there I will as soon as I get home. Thanks to all my reviewers I really appreciate it! Have a good day/night :)