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Fandom: NCIS
Characters: Ziva David, Abby Sciuto, L.J. Gibbs, Jenny Sheppard, Tony DiNozzo, Timothy McGee, Eli David
Category: Drama, Action, Romance
Genre: Slash
Prompt: #1 Beginnings
Word Count: (Total) 15,148
Spoilers: Very mild ones for 3.17 "Ravenous" but it veers off from the episode very quickly.
Summary: Ziva invites Abby over for dinner. Romance and complications ensue.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: These characters belong to DPB, CBS, Paramount, et al. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: Heh. What to say? This author's note might get to be longer than the entire fic. :p First up, a big thanks to
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ncruuk. Her comments not only pointed out some stylistic choices I hadn't thought about before, but also kept me laughing through the whole thing. I actually enjoyed the whole editing process. I don't think that's every happened to me before. Second of all, if you think you've read this fic before, you would be right. I started this fic in March of '06 and wrote the first three parts before I got stuck and stopped writing it. I always meant to come back to it, but it just never quite worked out. When I realized it was the last fic I had to complete to finish fanfic100 I decided it was really time to buckle down. Plus I rather like the symmetry of this being the first fic I started for fanfic100 and the last I finished.
In case you were just waiting to tune in until the old stuff had all been re-posted, this is the first new part! Enjoy!
My Little Damn Table
Part One || Part Two || Part Three
Part Four
Tony shot up out of his seat as Gibbs walked past his desk.
"What do you have for me, DiNozzo?"
"Ducky has the dead guy down in autopsy. We're still working on an ID. McGee's taking the car down to Abby's lab. I paged her; still haven't seen her actually." Tony looked puzzled. "I should probably call-"
"Don't call her, DiNozzo," Gibbs cut him off.
"Ooookay." Tony drawled out the word. Sometimes asking questions was not a good idea. This seemed to be one of those times. "Oh, Boss, the Director wanted to see you in her office." Tony grimaced. "She didn't seem too happy."
Gibbs took a last sip of his coffee and then dropped the cup into the trash before he walked back around his desk and headed toward the Director's office. "Well, I'm not very happy either, DiNozzo."
Tony sat back down and began the process of gathering the information Gibbs would want when he was done speaking with the Director. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ziva step off of the elevator and smirked.
"You're late," he taunted her. "Didn't make the scene and you didn't get here before Gibbs."
Ziva glared, but did not respond. She threw her bag down on her chair and sighed. Tony glanced up and then took another look. For a change, his partner was not her usual well put together self. Her clothes were disheveled and unmatched. Her hair was unkempt and there was a laceration on her hand.
"No, Tony," she said with mock-sweetness, "I did not make the scene. I was the scene." She grimaced and tossed something at him. He caught it out of reflex and glanced down to see her keys. "You will need those, yes? To look at my apartment." She leaned against her desk and closed her eyes.
"They must have bugged it somehow," she said quietly. "I got a phone call right before..."
Tony half-rose from his seat. He hadn't been expecting this. It was no wonder that Gibbs and the Director were pissed, if Ziva was the target. "Before what?" He prompted, quickly marshaling his thoughts. There was never a good time with Gibbs to give less than a hundred percent to the job, but there were always certain cases that were more important than others. Ari had become one of those cases the moment that he had taken Kate, Ducky and Gerald hostage down in the morgue. This was another.
Ziva eyes snapped up to his face. "Nothing," she said with a quick shake of her head. "It was nothing, Tony."
Tony stepped out from behind his desk and walked over to hers, putting his palms down on her desk and leaning over her. "See, that's where you're wrong. In cases like this, everything is important."
Ziva stood and leaned closer still, not looking the least bit intimidated by his pose. "Gibbs will determine what is and is not important, Tony. Not you."
He straightened and folded his arms over his chest in frustration. "Stop playing games, Ziva. Now isn't the time to go all clandestine Mossad Officer on me. I'm not going to let your stubborn secretiveness get in the way of me doing my job. I saw that intersection, Ziva! You got lucky. They almost had you."
"I am aware of that, Tony." Ziva almost yelled. "You do not need to remind me."
"Then why aren't you helping me out here?" He demanded.
Her jaw clenched and she looked down.
"What?" Tony pushed again. "What aren't you telling us, Ziva?"
"DiNozzo!" Gibbs' voice cracked across the bullpen like a whip.
Tony pivoted quickly. "Yes, Boss?"
"Stop interrogating your partner."
"Boss..."
Gibbs simply shook his head at Tony. Then his gaze shifted to Ziva. "You're with me."
Without a word, Ziva slipped out from behind her to desk to follow him, brushing past Tony as she went.
*** *** ***
Ziva wasn't surprised when Gibbs headed up the stairs toward the Director's office or when he opened the door and gestured for her to enter first. Cynthia's desk was still empty. It was still early and the usual office personnel weren't even in yet; neither of them hesitated at the door to the inner office. Jenny was waiting for them when they entered, standing in front of her desk, leaning back against the edge.
When they stopped in front of her, she carefully looked Ziva up and down taking in the bandage on her hand and the other bruises that she'd received.
"Agent Gibbs has filled me in on what happened this morning. On a personal note, I'm glad that neither you or Ms. Sciuto were more seriously injured. However, as the Director of this agency, it's my first priority to ensure that no one thinks that they can attack or harass my agents or other personnel in their own homes and come away from it unscathed." She turned her attention to Ziva. "Your actions this morning have given us a definite place to start with our investigation, but..." she qualified her statement. "I am aware that there's more going on than either of you are telling me and I want to know what it is."
The silence was heavy with tension. Ziva's eyes flicked briefly toward Gibbs. Their eyes locked and a moment of understanding past between them before Gibbs gave a minute nod and turned back to face Jenny.
"I didn't kill Ari Haswari."
One elegant eyebrow arched high on Jenny's forehead. "Are you telling me that Haswari is still alive and behind this operation?"
"No." Ziva spoke the single syllable blunty. "Ari is dead. I killed him."
Jenny's gaze flicked back and forth between Gibbs and Ziva as her mind jumped through the implications of her statement. It only took a moment to draw her conclusions.
"You falsified the reports." Her attention drifted back to Ziva. "Why? You had no reason to trust her."
"I had every reason," Gibbs snapped back just as quickly. "She realized he was a traitor and she stopped him to save my life. She could have pretended she didn't hear what he said. She could have let him kill me and then brought him back to Israel to be dealt with internally. She didn't. She made the decision to save my life at great personal cost. If it had been known, it would have put her in a very precarious position, especially since her father is a Mossad Deputy Director. He would have been forced to take action, and because she was his daughter it would have been excessive to prove that he wasn't biased. She would have been under suspicion for the rest of her career - if she'd even still had a career. There wasn't evidence that we could use, except for what he said down in my basement. It would have been my word and hers against a dead body and not a whole lot of evidence. She saved my life. I owed her."
Jenny resisted the urge to sigh. It made sense actually, knowing Gibbs. Something in that moment had made Gibbs claim Ziva as one of his own and his loyalty to those he claimed never faltered.
"So you think that someone found out what really happened that night and is coming after Ziva now because of it." Jenny clarified.
"It's possible," Gibbs conceded. "I modified the report to match what had really happened as best as possible, but if someone really examined the crime scene photos and began asking questions, I'm not sure how long it would hold up."
Jenny resisted the urge to pinch to the bridge of her nose between her fingers and rub her forehead. She could already feel her headache growing.
"There is one other possibility," Ziva spoke slowly. "My father called me. There was something...wrong with the conversation. He did not seem himself and it made me nervous." She straightened. "I told him. Only him. Not in a report, but as a daughter to a father."
Jenny froze. She had a feeling her headache was about to get much, much worse.
"And what did he say when you told him?"
Ziva swallowed. "He was very angry and he did not believe me that Ari was a traitor. He thought that I had been set up by Gibbs' team, but he did not make what he knew official. When you asked that I be sent here as liaison, he said that I could make up for my failure by coming here."
"He wanted you to report on what we were doing," Gibbs practically growled.
"And gather any information that could be found that you had gone rogue, and sought personal vengeance against Ari, yes," Ziva agreed. "He wanted to see you dead for manipulating me into killing one of his best assets."
"Have you, Officer David?" Jenny asked, her voice chilly with disapproval.
"No," Ziva said firmly, looking her in the eye as she did so. "Even if my father does not know the truth of Ari's actions, I do. His loyalty was no longer to Mossad when he died. He was a traitor, and he earned a traitor's death. I will not betray Gibbs."
"Does your father knows that?"
"I...am not certain," Ziva admitted slowly. "But he is aware that I have not reported anything to him about Gibbs."
"He knows," Gibbs said decisively.
"Then it seems we have quite a situation on our hands," Jenny concluded.
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I really can't wait to se how this is gonna continue...
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Heh. I figured I made my readers wait three years for an update, I might as well give them the last five parts on a nightly basis. :p
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