Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS.

A/N: The title of this piece refers both to the al biyur chametz blessing and a verse from the Tanakh.

Her need for vengeance does not decrease, so Ziva nurtures it instead; slowly, patiently. Carefully. If she must wait years to properly avenge her father's death, she will do so.

In the meantime, she gathers intelligence, reestablishes her old contacts, and waits.

Time passes. Tevet turns to Shevat, and Shevat to Adar.

Remembering the Purims of her childhood – the noisy Megillah readings; clinging to her father's hand at the colorful, crowded Adloyadas; the Fazuelos, sugared and crispy in her mouth – only crystallizes her desire for revenge. Those days are gone forever. There can be no reconciliation with a dead man.

By the time it is Nisan, Ziva is neck-deep in her plottings.

If she were religiously observant, she would use this time to rid her apartment and her person of all chametz. As she is not, she uses her anger as leavening. She lets it sit and ferment, ballooning in volume as it rises.

When the time is right, she will be ready to strike. Ilan Bodnar and those responsible for the death of Eli David will not be passed over.

When the time is right, her father will be avenged.

"Then did I pulverize them small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the streets, and did tread them down." —2 Samuel, 22:43