Tony carefully lifted Ziva's head onto his lap and stroked the hair off her unconscious face. He had felt her pulse to check that she was still alive and so could only patiently wait for her to regain her senses. Her eyes fluttered open minutes after she had collapsed and she smiled weakly as she stared up into Tony's face. She pushed herself out of his grasp and stood up on shaky legs. She turned towards the door into the warehouse and bit her lip. She had gnawed on it so often that day that it had been chewed into a bloody pulp. She winced as her teeth sank into the sensitive skin and instead ran her tongue lightly over the mess. Tony watched the motion with lusty eyes before reminding himself that Ziva was not in a position to be sexually frustrated as he obviously made her. He chuckled softly to himself at this lie and shook his head sadly. Mossad officers began to stream through the doors and piled themselves into the various cars.

Ziva waited for Gidon to appear, walking ahead of the girl who was laughing animatedly with a couple of officers. Ziva was struck by her daughter's beauty and felt proud of the girl she had jointly produced. Gidon passed her with a caring nod and the officers left the Miriam when they noticed Ziva. Eli was following her close behind and he prodded her back to suggest that she go and talk to her estranged mother. Ziva took a confident step forward and held out her hand. Her daughter ignored the gesture and swung around to return to the privacy of the warehouse. Ziva followed obediently into the room where her daughter had been held. She winced when she saw the chains now hanging loosely on the ground and was reminded of her own experience in Somalia.

'Why are you here?' her daughter asked in English.

'I wanted to see you again,' Ziva replied.

'Why?' Miriam asked again, this time in Hebrew.

Ziva hesitated before she answered her in Hebrew. 'I missed you.'

'Why?' Miriam repeated.

'You're my daughter.' It was stated plainly.

'I made sure that you were horrified with me. Why did you come back?' The words were spat out in a mixture of languages.

'What?' Ziva gasped. It had never occurred to her that her daughter had been trying to instil those feelings of disgust and terror in her. 'Why?'

'I did not need a mother. I needed no distractions. Most of it was the truth, just slightly embellished.' The statement had no emotion in it. 'I need you to hate me. I don't want to hurt you.' Some anguish was creeping into her voice but it remained level.

'You won't hurt me and I won't hurt you. I love you,' Ziva soothed. Her daughter shook her head stubbornly before walking outside. Ziva leant against the wall, all her energy gone. She stayed there motionless for no time at all before the door opened and two sets of feet returned. Ziva pushed herself off the wall with her foot and waited to see who it would be. She was expecting either some nondescript Mossad officers or her friends at NCIS but she was met with both. Miriam stood there, illuminated by the orange light shining through the doorway and Gibbs, standing stiffly by her side. Miriam took a step forward and Gibbs moved past her towards Ziva, noticing the tears in her eyes. As he stepped in front of Miriam, she thrust out a fist and knocked him to the ground. He lay there sprawled as she kicked him in the stomach. Ziva rushed over to stop the attack but was greeted by a fast moving fist in her face, throwing her onto her back. She leapt up and hurried back over to lend her assistance to her helpless boss but stopped short when Miriam pulled out a gun and pointed it at Gibbs's forehead.

Ziva dropped to her knees and pleaded desperately with her daughter for her boss's life. She had felt the force of the blow and knew that her daughter was exceptionally strong and she would not be overpowered by her relatively weak mother. Miriam shook her head, ignoring her mother's pleas and cocked the gun.

Ziva screamed as a gunshot went off and her tightly squeezed eyes opened. She gasped. There was no pool of blood around Gibbs and his eyes were still moving. Instead, it was Miriam that was lying on the floor, surrounded by deep red blood. And it was Tony holding the smoking gun by the door. Ziva let out a wail, unsure how she felt about this turn of events. The gun fell out of Tony's hand and he stared at them, shocked by his reactions. Ziva crawled across the floor to her bleeding, dying child to cradle her in her arms for the first time in fifteen years and the last time of her whole life. Gibbs sat up and frowned.

'She's...' he started but was interrupted by Miriam's calm voice.

'Not dead,' she finished companionably for Gibbs, the man she had been preparing to kill a few seconds earlier, before turning to Tony. 'You need to practise your aim. You missed my heart by several inches.' She twisted round to place her hands over the gaping hole in the right side of her chest.

Ziva stared into the abyss of red that was pooled on the floor. It reminded her of Ari after she had ploughed the bullet through his head. Her eyes slowly ascended until they fixed on Miriam's face. She was rewarded for her momentary burst of grief with a curt smile which, although it didn't show for very long on her face, stayed in her eyes for much longer as she heaved herself onto her feet, with blood dripping from the hole. She nodded at both Gibbs and Tony, stared at Ziva for a prolonged second before striding towards the door. Ziva returned the stare and kept her eyes fixed on her daughter as she left through the open door. She stood motionless as she listened to the roar of the engine disappearing and carrying her daughter away from her.

Her feelings were still conflicted and confused when it came to her daughter but she had resealable closure now. If she ever met her daughter again, which was likely now that she was on better terms with Gidon and Eli, she would be able to survive the encounter and possibly enjoy it. Miriam would no longer be a skeleton buried right at the back of the closet, behind all the other secrets that were still to come out.

Would you like Tiva in a next chapter or will that do as the ending?