A/N: Here is chapter three and let me apologize for how long it took to post it! I wrote this chapter eleven times, and here is the final product. I really wanted to post it before I leave for vacation so here it is! Thank you so much to all those who reviewed, story alerted, favorited, and simply read.
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, but I am saving my pennies to buy it! (…like that will ever happen)
Chapter Three:
Ziva had fallen asleep sanding the boat last night. She continued long after her father went to bed, and ended up asleep her face against the newly sanded wood. She woke up groggily her back aching from the unnatural sleeping position she was in last night. She walked up the stairs groggily and misplaced a foot, causing her to tumble down the stairs. She huffed and stayed laying down for a few moments before standing once again. She walked up carefully and walked into the kitchen to find pancakes waiting for her along with two cans of Ready Whip whip cream. In other words, her favorite. She picked up the whip cream and made a perfect swirl upon her stack of pancakes. She heard a voice say from behind her,
"I make delicious pancakes don't I."
Ziva simply smirked knowing simply from the fragrance that Kate had dropped them by, but decided to play along.
"Tony, you make them much like Kate."
"Well, I did share the recipe with her."
As Ziva was about to respond she caught sight of a little note,
Dear Ziva,
Enjoy the pancakes, you're going to need the energy if you are planning on making it through the day without killing Tony! Though, hitting or even injuring him is fine by me! Good luck, you're going to need it!
Love,
Kate
Ziva smiled and quickly grabbed a whip cream can and sprayed some of the foamy substance on his face. Watching his facial expression change made her chuckle some,
"Next time make sure Kate doesn't leave a note. How did you become the Senior field agent?"
He simply looked at her in shock and grabbed the other whip cream can starting a battle that raged on until both cans were empty, and both of them were covered with whip cream. Not only were they covered in it, so was the house the walls caked with hardening whip cream. As Ziva turned around assessing the damage she heard her father's voice boom throughout the kitchen,
"What the hell happened in here?"
Ziva met her father's stare and couldn't help but stumble backwards. She finally was able to say,
"Eating pancakes with whip cream turned into a mess."
He shook his head,
"DiNozzo, clean it up. Ziva go clean it out of your hair and stay off your leg, tonight we are talking about this."
Ziva cringed at the last part. She remembered being spanked by Gibbs when she was younger and shuddered at the memories. Though with the spankings, she remembered the things she did to deserve them and honestly, they were so worth it. She never snuck out to go meet up with a guy, or go to some wild party. She would wander off sometimes, if she could go into the woods. It made her feel at home, it brought back happy memories that had been suppressed for all too long. It brought back the feeling of Israel, even though it was a much different landscape.
*Flashback*
It had not been a good day at all for fourteen year old Ziva David. The day had been the worst in long time. She had been nicknamed 'terrorist' simply because she was from Israel. That day, she was exposed to the first dose of prejudice against her. Also to make matters worse, her few 'friends' decided to drop her since her new status as the 'terrorist'. At lunch Ziva walked out of the building without being scene and ran for the woods. Miles of running later she found herself nearing them and began to walk. When she entered the forest her thoughts cleared and she was at peace, though she was also alone. Alone, like she had been when she was still an average Israeli girl. At the young age of five her biological father placed her in the desert to survive for three days. She had learned that only the strongest survive. She had to be the strongest. While in the forest, she remembered the law of nature, only the strongest survive. She was strong, she could survive tormenting. Though she still hid in the woods for another two days while at home her whole family was in panic. When she arrived home and said where she was Gibbs was simply livid. She earned a spanking then, but she never had shared her motive for running away from the world, she left them to draw their on conclusions.
*End of Flashback*
The wild simply had that effect on her, it brought her serenity. Serenity was one thing that she so badly needed now, in the hospital she remembered crying herself to sleep, or being awoke by a nurse because of her nightmares, and her subconscious screams in the clutches of nightmares disrupting the other patients sleep. Thoughts of Somalia began to whirl around in her head as she continued to go up the stairs. Her grip on the hand rail was ever increasing, as she was fighting to stay in reality. As she walked into her room and picked up her old hair brush. She ran her hands over its bristles and was once again in the past. She remembered when she was no older than ten, Kelly braiding her hair. She shook her head making some of the whip cream fly off her hair. As Ziva brushed the thick drying whip cream she couldn't help but think to herself, I will probably never be able to hold a whip cream bottle again…though, it was well worth it.
"You are pretty handy with a bottle of whip cream Ziva, skill gained from experience?"
"In Mossad you are trained in improvisation, and your trained to improv with anything…including a whip cream can."
"So you went through ninja training?"
Ziva laughed at the phrase 'ninja training'.
"That's how you were able to tail me, your ninja training."
"No, you are just horrendous at shaking off a tail, but I was trained by the best."
He smirked,
"That's what I love about Mossad."
"What their training?"
"No their modesty."
Ziva chuckled and plopped down taking her usual spot on the couch. She, out of old habit reached upon the old coffee table, only to find no reading materials sprawled out on it. At this she sighed. Seriously? We have nothing on the coffee table to read? She shook her head and reluctantly picked up the TV remote flipping through the channels. She sighed nothing.. She stalked over into the kitchen and thought to herself, I could make some dinner I suppose. She began to scribble onto a yellow lined piece of notebook paper what she would need to find around the house to create the wonderful traditional Israeli dish she had in mind. She was missing three pounds of chicken, dried apricots, and pitted black olives for the main dish which would be chicken marvelosa. She had made it for her father multiple times in Israel before she learned his true ways, that she was only a pawn in his game. She shook the thought out of her head and continued to look for ingredients for her side dish, garlic roasted carrots. At the end when she had taken out all the spices she needed, all she was missing was garlic and almost two pounds of carrots. There was only one thing left, desert. Her favorite part of a meal. She pondered for a moment what she should make for desert and settled on apple pear strudel. She opened the crisper to find no pears, and not even a single apple. She sighed scribbling down the two vital items on her list. As she continued to hunt around the house she found they did not have brown sugar, lemons, phyllo dough, and granola. Knowing the Kelley usually didn't work today she called her up,
"Kelly Gibbs speaking."
"Shalom."
Instantaneously she knew it was Ziva and smiled,
"What's up Zi? Are you doing alright?"
"I'm fine. You are not working today correct?"
"Nope. Why?"
"Could you go to the grocery store and pick me up some ingredients for dinner? Nothing on TV is interesting and there is nothing to read so cooking was the only thing I could do."
"Did dad ground you?"
"Yes."
She said with an exasperated tone.
"I can pick some things up what do you need?"
"Three pounds of chicken, dried apricots, pitted black olives, garlic, two pounds of carrots, eight large apples, four large pears, brown sugar, about eight lemons, phyllo dough, and granola. You are welcome to stay for dinner."
"Since I'm buying most of the meal, I might as well."
She said jokingly.
"Shalom, see you soon."
"See you later Zi."
With that she hung up and began to prepare the materials she began to sort all the materials she would need for each dish. As she was rummaging through cabinets looking for bowls Tony walked in,
"What is the Ninja doing?"
"Preparing to cook dinner, and do not call me ninja."
"All I see are spices."
"I know, Kelly is picking up other ingredients."
"Did Mossad also hire chefs of the highest culinary status to teach you how to cook?"
"No, this I learned on my own."
"So you are a ninja chef?"
"I suppose."
As she was standing up she shot him a sly smile and said,
"Now I wait, and hope Kelly finds all the ingredients."
The clock ticked by and was fast approaching 7p.m. Ziva was almost finished with the desert and the whole first floor was filled with the aromas of home-style cooking. The chicken was divine, and she had to continuously slap away DiNozzo's hand from it.
"Stop it. I will cut you off a piece in a minute. Go try the carrots."
Obliging he stole a carrot and said with his mouthful,
"Why did carrots never taste like this when I was a kid?"
Ziva simply smirked and Kelly responded for her,
"Because you didn't have Ziva as a cook. When we were young Ziva was given an easy bake oven, and hers always tasted the best out of ours. You never told me why."
Ziva simply smirked,
"Cinnamon."
A few seconds later the timer dinged and she rushed to her desert. She took it out ever so cautiously and placed it on the counter. She let it cool, and turned to cut portions for the chicken. She cut a piece and put it on a paper plate handing it to Tony,
"Enjoy."
He smiled and began to eat. While setting the table Jenny and Gibbs both arrived. Jenny smiled,
"I'm glad I see no whip cream on my walls."
Gibbs looked at Ziva and asked questioningly,
"Where did you get all the ingredients from?"
Kelly walked out from the living room and said,
"I bought them."
Ziva smiled proudly,
"Who wants to eat?"
Tony walked out the door excusing himself, and the four of them began to serve themselves taking their respective places at the dinner table. Everyone dug in and Jenny remarked,
"You haven't lost your touch."
She smiled at her mother's approval.
"Thank you. I made a apple and pear strudel for desert if anyone is interested."
Ziva stood and picked up the dish containing the desert setting it on the table for everyone to serve themselves. After everyone else she took some and frowned she thought to herself, not as good as usual. She shook her head and walked into the kitchen listening to the chit chat while cleaning the dishes. She felt her father's presence behind her and said frustrated,
"Yes?"
"What's on your mind Ziver."
"Nothing. Just. Nothing."
She shook her head and gripped the kitchen counter tightly. She was not able to do anything as well as she use to it felt. Even small things such as dessert frustrated her. Why am I so weak? Was the thought that kept making circles in her head. Gibbs saw his daughter is distress and laid a kiss to her temple,
"You can tell me you know."
She though stood mute, not trusting herself with her own feelings. Feelings, made her weak. Emotions exploited her flaws. She was afraid is she revealed her reason behind her silence, she would reveal the pain that was inflicted upon her. That burden was one that she thought she was destined to carry alone.
She sat on her bed looking at the ceiling, tonight afraid to sleep. She kept dreaming of her cell, reliving the terrors that she faced, and feeling the pain all over night after night. She would awake trembling, sometimes in the comfort of her father's arms. She knew she was yelling in her sleep again, she was relapsing into the old habit. She was afraid to sleep, rather to be deprived of sleep rather than facing Saleem once again. She thought about how Gibbs had not spoken to her about the whip cream incident, and she wondered whether he was. As the clock continued to tick by she could no longer keeping her drooping eyelids up, she drifted to sleep afraid of what might await in the realm of unconsciousness.
Please Review!
And I just wanted to let all readers know about this writing thing (excuse my lack of a better word) called NaNoWrMo. People who partake in it basically write a novel the word count goal being 50,000 words (it averages out to less than 2,000 words a day if my friend did the math right). There are two sessions during the summer one in June and one in August. Just wanted to let you guys know about because it is a really good motivator for writing! Enjoy your summer!