Haha, I wrote most of this in Maths because I can.

Disclaimer: Tiva! So definitely not mine. Although Christmas is in a month...

Inevitable Truths

Tony stared at Ziva’s retreating figure in stunned silence, he had worked with her for over three years and he still hadn’t seen her cry. He’s seen her hurting inside but she has always been in control of her emotions; cold even.

After a moment’s hesitation, he followed her in the direction of the women’s bathroom.

Stupid! She berated herself, how can you let him see you cry?

Brushing the tears from her eyes, she collected a handful of cold water and splashed it on her face, hoping that her eyes weren’t going puffy and red. She stared up at the mirror, letting the water run down her face.

“Ziva!” Eight year old Tali jumped happily on her sister’s lap, “Ziva! When’s mama coming home?”

Ziva stared at her little sister, so naive and innocent without a care in the world.

“Mama isn’t coming back Tateleh.”

“Why?” Tali’s face fell and her bottom lip started quivering, “Doesn’t mama love me anymore?”

Ziva gave her sister a hug, feeling the tears well up, “Mama still loves you but she can’t come back.”

“Why?” tears started running down Tali’s face, “Where is she?”

Ziva took a deep breath, “She’s in heaven with the angels.” Ziva personally didn’t really believe in an afterlife but she thought it would be more comforting to Tali than her ‘I don’t know’ answer.

“And she’ll be there looking down on you Tateleh, watching you grow up and smiling at your antics.”

“Why can’t she do that from here?”

“Because that’s not how the world works Tateleh.”

Tony stood in front of the women’s bathrooms, contemplating the pros and cons of going in, and also drawing strange looks from the people passing by.

Pro; he was sure Ziva was in there.

Con; someone else could be in there.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door before entering just in case.

“Tony!” Ziva turned around to look at her partner, droplets of water flying everywhere.

Tony shut the door behind him and snapped the lock shut.

“You want to tell me what’s wrong Zee-Vah?”

“What makes you think something is wrong?” she feigned indifference.

He took slow deliberate steps towards her, “Let me rephrase, want to tell me why you’re crying?”

Her shoulders sagged and she let more tears leak down her face, “Do you know how hard it is to tell a little girl that their mother is not coming back?”

Tony looked solemn, “No.”

“When my mother died, my father recoiled from everything, buried himself in his work,” Ziva took in huge gulps of air, “I was the one who told Tali that mama was not coming back and Amanda, Amanda just reminded me so much of Tali.”

“Aww, Zee.” On impulse, he wrapped his arms around her.

Instead of stiffening or even kicking his ass for hugging her, she simply wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in the crook of his neck. He could feel the tears still running down her face and he moved one hand to play with her hair.

He felt her smile and they stood there like that until she calmed down and pulled pack.

“Thank you Tony.” She wiped her eyes and sniffed like a little girl.

“Anytime Zee-Vah.”

And Yes, I know that Ziva doesn't use contractions but she does in the flashback because she's speaking in Hebrew.

But because most of the Hebrew I know is from the show and fanfiction, I'm not fluent enough so just...imagine!