Title: Promises
Fandom: NCIS
Author: Alidiabin
Words: 500
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Warnings/Spoilers/Rating: mentions of torture || Engaged Part 2 || Teen
Parings: none.
Summary: Ziva spends some time with the little girls Flores saved.

Promises

There were very few things that could amaze Ziva David, Kina and Lala were two of those things. The girls, mere children had been sadistically tortured and Kina had lost her sight, yet they still smiled and laughed. She remembered how she was when she came back from Somalia. She had been so numb, it had been weeks before she smiled or laughed.

She watched as Lala described the room to Kina and told her that everything was going to be all right. Ziva hoped it would be, she hoped that they would have the best future they could. Kina would probably never see again, but Ziva hoped she could adapt.

The room had fallen silent. Ziva looked across at the little girls Lala was rubbing her bandages. Her sweet smile had faded. Ziva saw her vulnerability.

"Will they go away?" she asked in Pasthu.

"They will fade," Ziva assured her. Lala shook her head not believing Ziva. "They will,"

"How do you know?" Lala asked. Ziva bit her lip; she did not want to discuss her own trauma with the children. They did not need to carry the burden on her pain as well as their own.

"I have similar scars," Ziva told her. Lala scrunched up her face not believing the woman she saw as some sort of super hero.

"You lie," Lala declared. Ziva shook her head, though she wished she was indeed lying.

"I will show you, if you like," Ziva declared, before the gravity of her words set in.

She did not readily show off her scars from Somalia. Ray, who had been her only lover since Somalia, had learnt to work around the scars as he had never been allowed to touch them or truly look at them.

"Show me," Lala urged, still not believing Ziva. Ziva saw a determined spirit it the little girl, she smiled for just a second, as she realised Lala's spirit would get her through.

Ziva took off her jacket and her shirt, leaving her exposed in only her bra. Lala noticed the markings similar to her own on Ziva's stomach. Little cigarette burns blemished Ziva's flat olive stomach. Lala gasped.

"It is ok, little one," Ziva assured the girl, as she put her top back on, "they no longer hurt,"

"But, but," Lala stammered. Ziva took Lala's hand.

"You will never forget what happened, as much as you try" Ziva told her, deciding not to sugar coat the truth from the child, as she had already been through much more than a child should have. "But one day it will just be. The nightmares will become less frequent and less vivid. The scars will just be and you won't want to hide them and you won't think people can see them through your clothes. It gets easier, I promise"

"You promise," Lala asked.

"Do you promise," a seemingly forgotten Kina added, as she reached out her arm. Ziva took her hand.

"I promise," Ziva told them. "I promise."