Defensive Wounds {Chapter 5}
Aug. 23rd, 2011 09:32 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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ncisficathonTitle: Defensive Wounds
Prompt: Something/Someone returns from Ziva's past to haunt her. How do the team help her through? Pairing isn't neccesary but Ziva/Gibbs if one is to exist.
Genre: Gen.
Pairings: None, but lots of team love, if that counts.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: When the team discovers that a suspect on a case has a history with Ziva, she's forced to confront a few things she's buried. A massive hurt/comfort Ziva-centric teamfic.
( Chapter 1: The Suspect ) ( Chapter 2: Breaking Point ) (Chapter 3: The Translation ) ( Chapter 4: The Touchstone )
Chapter 5
Test Results
Gibbs sends Tony and Ziva back to the house to find the gun, then makes his way down to Abby's lab, with the blood sample that he got from Tamir in interrogation. Tamir was so damn willing to give him a blood sample, so eager to tell him where to find the gun that had killed Corporal Ericson. So... cooperative. It was frustrating as hell.
They know that Ericson struggled with his attacker before he was killed. Ducky found defensive wounds on the body, and blood that wasn't his. Gibbs's gut is already telling him that Tamir isn't the killer - Ericson wouldn't have lost a struggle with someone so thin - but still, he takes his blood sample to Abby's lab, to see if it matches the blood found on Ericson.
It doesn't. A frustrated sigh escapes his lips before he purses them together and looks away from Abby's sad puppy-dog eyes. One of the guys must have told her who Tamir is, and she wishes that they could nail him for murder almost as much as Gibbs does. But Abby does glean some other information from her analysis of Tamir's blood sample. It's not what he expected to hear, and when she tells him, it makes his heart skip a beat and propels him out of her lab and down the hall to autopsy. He doesn't even kiss Abby's cheek before he leaves.
He enters autopsy at a fast, panicked pace and practically plows down Palmer, who's on his way out. "Oh, Agent Gibbs, excuse me," Palmer squeaks, ducking his head apologetically. Ericson's cold, pale body is still stretched out on the autopsy table. Ducky is examining the gunshot wound, a pair of tweezers shiny in his hand under the bright lights.
"We got a suspect for his murder," he tells Ducky, jerking his head towards Ericson's body. Then he pauses and rocks back on his heels. He has to tell Ducky how Ziva knows Tamir, but it isn't as simple as explaining it to the guys. Ducky knows things that nobody else does about what happened to Ziva in Somalia. It freezes Gibbs's breath to think that Ducky might already know what Abby just told him in her lab. If Ducky's known all this time and never told him...
But before he can go on, Ducky sighs and turns away to the little table where his instruments are laid out. He puts down the tweezers and picks up something else. "I know. Timothy told Abigail, and she told me. She was just here. She was very concerned for Ziva, and - "
Gibbs grabs the opportunity. It's still a hard thing to say, but it's a little easier to say it to Ducky's back instead of his face. "Yeah, I just brought her a sample of his blood," Gibbs interrupts. A deep breath - as deep as he can manage with that weight in his chest - then, "He's HIV positive, Duck."
Ducky knows him well enough that he doesn't have to ask the question. And thank God for that, because he isn't sure if he has the words for it. As soon as he finishes speaking, Ducky turns to him, shaking his head, his face grave. For a split-second, Gibbs suddenly feels drenched in a cold sweat.
"She doesn't have it, Jethro."
"You're sure?" He talks over Ducky with the question, but he can't help it.
"Quite sure. I ran the test on her myself, when I examined her." Ducky pauses and leans on the edge of the table, the autopsy on Ericson momentarily forgotten. "Honestly, I don't know when I've ever been so scared to look at test results," Ducky goes on, and Gibbs can hear the fear in his voice, still fresh and strong, even after all this time. "But it was negative. I wanted to weep with relief. But then I thought... after three months held captive in such a place... I ran the test on her twice more, just to be absolutely certain. But they came back negative, all three of them. She doesn't have it, Jethro."
She doesn't have it. No, of course she doesn't. Gibbs closes his eyes briefly as his breathing starts to go back to normal. It was God-awful, those few minutes when he honestly thought that Ziva might... but she doesn't have it. Ducky tested her three times. If Ziva had contracted HIV in Somalia, Ducky would've found out right away and told him.
Gibbs hadn't wanted to take the slightest chances with her health, not after what she'd been through. So he had asked her, after she first came back, to let Ducky examine her. Ziva was reluctant - repeating that she was fine, reminding him that her injuries had already been treated - but Gibbs insisted. Ducky was more observant, and he knew her better than the hospital doctors. If there was anything wrong with her that they had missed, Ducky would find it.
She argued with him, like he knew she would, but Gibbs just said quietly, "It's not up for debate, Ziver." It made it a little easier to channel Mike Franks, who had never cut him any slack a day in his life, but he still felt like a bastard for it.
Ziva narrowed her eyes, and Gibbs readied for more objections. He was caught off-guard when the fight suddenly went out of her. Her shoulders slackened, and she looked away from him and said, "Take me to autopsy, then." Of course she would want to get it over with right away, but for her to submit to it with barely a fight - that wasn't their Ziva. His gut whispered to him that maybe there was something still wrong with her.
Gibbs took her down to autopsy himself, because she hadn't yet been accepted as a probationary agent and wasn't allowed in the building unaccompanied. Ducky slid the doors shut behind her, and Gibbs was surprised when he heard the click of the lock. Ducky locked the autopsy doors so rarely that he had forgotten what it sounded like.
He waited in the hall outside autopsy for them. He hadn't told Ducky anything specific when they discussed it beforehand, just asked him to look at Ziva. But it took longer than he had expected, until his gut started working overtime. There must be something wrong, some injury that the hospital doctors had missed, something serious. His nerves were a wreck by the time the doors finally slid open again.
Ducky had never said a word about that exam, except to tell him that Ziva was fine, she was clear for field work. Gibbs just assumed that he had been very thorough, and that's why it took so long. Now he knows that behind those doors, Ducky was testing Ziva for HIV - once, twice, three times, and wanting to weep with relief when they each came back negative.
"Has Ziva said anything to you?" Ducky asks him now. He's bent over Ericson's body on the table, stitching his chest back up. "About this suspect?"
Gibbs sighs and runs a hand across his mouth, one of the uncomfortable tells that he only lets Ducky see. "Nope. Just told me who he was and where she knew him from. That was all." He remembers standing next to Ziva on the lawn in the bright spring sunlight. She hadn't even said no when he asked if she wanted to talk about Tamir, just shaken her head.
"She learned it from me."
Ducky pauses in stitching up their corporal and looks at him, but neither of them speak for a moment. Gibbs wonders if they're both thinking the same thing - that he's an old pro at not talking about unpleasant things, even to those closest to him. Ducky was his friend for almost fifteen years, and in that time, Gibbs had never once told him about Shannon and Kelly.
At least Ducky has the decency not to deny what he's just said. "Well, you and Ziva do have somewhat similar methods of coping," he answers slowly. He studies Gibbs hard across Ericson's body. "But she would open up to you, Jethro. If you asked her about it."
He starts shaking his head before Ducky finishes. No, he made up his mind back at the house, when he saw how uncomfortable it made Ziva. And afterwards, as soon as he had a minute alone with the guys, he explained, told them how this strange man knew Ziva's name. Then, he read them the riot act. "No one is going to try to make her talk about it if she doesn't want to. Got it?" And DiNozzo and McGee had nodded, very solemnly.
He meant that. He wasn't going to press her. No one was, but...
Ducky can sense his reluctance. "You know that you aren't doing Ziva any favors if you let her avoid this," he says firmly. Gibbs hates that he won't let this go. "She needs to get it out, Jethro."
Gibbs tries to ignore how much sense it makes. He shakes his head again, but his voice doesn't sound half as firm as Ducky's when he says, "Ziva doesn't want to talk about it."
Ducky's response is smooth and immediate. "Ziva didn't want to let me to examine her when she first came back, either. But you made her do it because you knew she needed it. This is no different."
"I..." Gibbs starts, but then he stops because - dammit. He makes a mental note to never get into an argument with Ducky again. What does the man do, rehearse these things beforehand? He drops his eyes, suddenly exhausted from the effort of holding Ducky's, and finishes at last, "I don't want to reopen any wounds, Duck."
Ducky's face shows sadness and surprise and disbelief, all at once. He says gently, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world and Gibbs must be blind to not see it, "They never really healed, Jethro. This is the only way that they're going to."
Prompt: Something/Someone returns from Ziva's past to haunt her. How do the team help her through? Pairing isn't neccesary but Ziva/Gibbs if one is to exist.
Genre: Gen.
Pairings: None, but lots of team love, if that counts.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: When the team discovers that a suspect on a case has a history with Ziva, she's forced to confront a few things she's buried. A massive hurt/comfort Ziva-centric teamfic.
( Chapter 1: The Suspect ) ( Chapter 2: Breaking Point ) (Chapter 3: The Translation ) ( Chapter 4: The Touchstone )
Chapter 5
Test Results
Gibbs sends Tony and Ziva back to the house to find the gun, then makes his way down to Abby's lab, with the blood sample that he got from Tamir in interrogation. Tamir was so damn willing to give him a blood sample, so eager to tell him where to find the gun that had killed Corporal Ericson. So... cooperative. It was frustrating as hell.
They know that Ericson struggled with his attacker before he was killed. Ducky found defensive wounds on the body, and blood that wasn't his. Gibbs's gut is already telling him that Tamir isn't the killer - Ericson wouldn't have lost a struggle with someone so thin - but still, he takes his blood sample to Abby's lab, to see if it matches the blood found on Ericson.
It doesn't. A frustrated sigh escapes his lips before he purses them together and looks away from Abby's sad puppy-dog eyes. One of the guys must have told her who Tamir is, and she wishes that they could nail him for murder almost as much as Gibbs does. But Abby does glean some other information from her analysis of Tamir's blood sample. It's not what he expected to hear, and when she tells him, it makes his heart skip a beat and propels him out of her lab and down the hall to autopsy. He doesn't even kiss Abby's cheek before he leaves.
He enters autopsy at a fast, panicked pace and practically plows down Palmer, who's on his way out. "Oh, Agent Gibbs, excuse me," Palmer squeaks, ducking his head apologetically. Ericson's cold, pale body is still stretched out on the autopsy table. Ducky is examining the gunshot wound, a pair of tweezers shiny in his hand under the bright lights.
"We got a suspect for his murder," he tells Ducky, jerking his head towards Ericson's body. Then he pauses and rocks back on his heels. He has to tell Ducky how Ziva knows Tamir, but it isn't as simple as explaining it to the guys. Ducky knows things that nobody else does about what happened to Ziva in Somalia. It freezes Gibbs's breath to think that Ducky might already know what Abby just told him in her lab. If Ducky's known all this time and never told him...
But before he can go on, Ducky sighs and turns away to the little table where his instruments are laid out. He puts down the tweezers and picks up something else. "I know. Timothy told Abigail, and she told me. She was just here. She was very concerned for Ziva, and - "
Gibbs grabs the opportunity. It's still a hard thing to say, but it's a little easier to say it to Ducky's back instead of his face. "Yeah, I just brought her a sample of his blood," Gibbs interrupts. A deep breath - as deep as he can manage with that weight in his chest - then, "He's HIV positive, Duck."
Ducky knows him well enough that he doesn't have to ask the question. And thank God for that, because he isn't sure if he has the words for it. As soon as he finishes speaking, Ducky turns to him, shaking his head, his face grave. For a split-second, Gibbs suddenly feels drenched in a cold sweat.
"She doesn't have it, Jethro."
"You're sure?" He talks over Ducky with the question, but he can't help it.
"Quite sure. I ran the test on her myself, when I examined her." Ducky pauses and leans on the edge of the table, the autopsy on Ericson momentarily forgotten. "Honestly, I don't know when I've ever been so scared to look at test results," Ducky goes on, and Gibbs can hear the fear in his voice, still fresh and strong, even after all this time. "But it was negative. I wanted to weep with relief. But then I thought... after three months held captive in such a place... I ran the test on her twice more, just to be absolutely certain. But they came back negative, all three of them. She doesn't have it, Jethro."
She doesn't have it. No, of course she doesn't. Gibbs closes his eyes briefly as his breathing starts to go back to normal. It was God-awful, those few minutes when he honestly thought that Ziva might... but she doesn't have it. Ducky tested her three times. If Ziva had contracted HIV in Somalia, Ducky would've found out right away and told him.
Gibbs hadn't wanted to take the slightest chances with her health, not after what she'd been through. So he had asked her, after she first came back, to let Ducky examine her. Ziva was reluctant - repeating that she was fine, reminding him that her injuries had already been treated - but Gibbs insisted. Ducky was more observant, and he knew her better than the hospital doctors. If there was anything wrong with her that they had missed, Ducky would find it.
She argued with him, like he knew she would, but Gibbs just said quietly, "It's not up for debate, Ziver." It made it a little easier to channel Mike Franks, who had never cut him any slack a day in his life, but he still felt like a bastard for it.
Ziva narrowed her eyes, and Gibbs readied for more objections. He was caught off-guard when the fight suddenly went out of her. Her shoulders slackened, and she looked away from him and said, "Take me to autopsy, then." Of course she would want to get it over with right away, but for her to submit to it with barely a fight - that wasn't their Ziva. His gut whispered to him that maybe there was something still wrong with her.
Gibbs took her down to autopsy himself, because she hadn't yet been accepted as a probationary agent and wasn't allowed in the building unaccompanied. Ducky slid the doors shut behind her, and Gibbs was surprised when he heard the click of the lock. Ducky locked the autopsy doors so rarely that he had forgotten what it sounded like.
He waited in the hall outside autopsy for them. He hadn't told Ducky anything specific when they discussed it beforehand, just asked him to look at Ziva. But it took longer than he had expected, until his gut started working overtime. There must be something wrong, some injury that the hospital doctors had missed, something serious. His nerves were a wreck by the time the doors finally slid open again.
Ducky had never said a word about that exam, except to tell him that Ziva was fine, she was clear for field work. Gibbs just assumed that he had been very thorough, and that's why it took so long. Now he knows that behind those doors, Ducky was testing Ziva for HIV - once, twice, three times, and wanting to weep with relief when they each came back negative.
"Has Ziva said anything to you?" Ducky asks him now. He's bent over Ericson's body on the table, stitching his chest back up. "About this suspect?"
Gibbs sighs and runs a hand across his mouth, one of the uncomfortable tells that he only lets Ducky see. "Nope. Just told me who he was and where she knew him from. That was all." He remembers standing next to Ziva on the lawn in the bright spring sunlight. She hadn't even said no when he asked if she wanted to talk about Tamir, just shaken her head.
"She learned it from me."
Ducky pauses in stitching up their corporal and looks at him, but neither of them speak for a moment. Gibbs wonders if they're both thinking the same thing - that he's an old pro at not talking about unpleasant things, even to those closest to him. Ducky was his friend for almost fifteen years, and in that time, Gibbs had never once told him about Shannon and Kelly.
At least Ducky has the decency not to deny what he's just said. "Well, you and Ziva do have somewhat similar methods of coping," he answers slowly. He studies Gibbs hard across Ericson's body. "But she would open up to you, Jethro. If you asked her about it."
He starts shaking his head before Ducky finishes. No, he made up his mind back at the house, when he saw how uncomfortable it made Ziva. And afterwards, as soon as he had a minute alone with the guys, he explained, told them how this strange man knew Ziva's name. Then, he read them the riot act. "No one is going to try to make her talk about it if she doesn't want to. Got it?" And DiNozzo and McGee had nodded, very solemnly.
He meant that. He wasn't going to press her. No one was, but...
Ducky can sense his reluctance. "You know that you aren't doing Ziva any favors if you let her avoid this," he says firmly. Gibbs hates that he won't let this go. "She needs to get it out, Jethro."
Gibbs tries to ignore how much sense it makes. He shakes his head again, but his voice doesn't sound half as firm as Ducky's when he says, "Ziva doesn't want to talk about it."
Ducky's response is smooth and immediate. "Ziva didn't want to let me to examine her when she first came back, either. But you made her do it because you knew she needed it. This is no different."
"I..." Gibbs starts, but then he stops because - dammit. He makes a mental note to never get into an argument with Ducky again. What does the man do, rehearse these things beforehand? He drops his eyes, suddenly exhausted from the effort of holding Ducky's, and finishes at last, "I don't want to reopen any wounds, Duck."
Ducky's face shows sadness and surprise and disbelief, all at once. He says gently, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world and Gibbs must be blind to not see it, "They never really healed, Jethro. This is the only way that they're going to."
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