Disclaimer: I still do not own NCIS. If I did, I'd be paying Cote a shitload of money to stay and Ziva and Gibbs would have been a couple years ago! And they'd have cute little boat-building ninja-babies :D

A Moment of Weakness.

A loud scream could be heard from her car as she desperately tried to open her car door from the inside. She failed, however, fumbling and fidgeting – not at all like the controlled Ex-Mossad officer he knew.

The door was unlocked. Opening it should have been the easiest thing for her to do. He couldn't think of anything that might unsettle her enough to become this unfocused – this panicked – all of a sudden.

Tony might have been frozen in place, had he been the one to see her like this. He would have been too surprised to see this new side of her and he wouldn't have been able to react as fast as Gibbs did.

Running towards her car, Jethro let out a loud 'Ziver!' before opening her car door and helping her out.

She almost fell into his arms as she stumbled out of the vehicle as fast as she could, slamming the door shut behind her.

Jethro looked down at the women in his arms wondering what had gotten into her.

Completely out of breath, Ziva looked up at her boss and hissed: 'Spider...'

As his brows furrowed it dawned on her that he must have been imagining way worse things that might lead her to fall into his arms. His arms. She was still in his arms.

Straightening up and pushing herself away from him in a swift yet gentle motion, she blinked a few times and tried to regain her usual posture.

'There was a spider in your car.', stated Gibbs, trying to connect her unusual behavior to her words, 'There was a spider in your car and you got scared.'

His statement did not have a ridiculing ring to it, as she would have expected from Tony or even McGee. Hell, Abby would have laughed about this for weeks. Jethro however seemed to understand how even the toughest of people sometimes have a weakness they can't quite explain.

'Want me to get rid of it?'

She just nodded, still slightly shaken, even though she would never admit that to anyone.

Jethro opened the car door. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his agent taking a step back as if she expected the spider to jump her at any moment. He had crawled halfway inside as he finally noticed the spider. It must have called shotgun, he smirked, taking the spider into his hands and slowly taking it out of the car.

Ziva backed away from him, when he walked past her. Had she been any other woman, he would probably have shown her the spider to scare her some more – or at least that's what the little boy in him did to all of his ex-wives. But he knew that it took a lot for Ziva to be scared, so spiders must be her breaking point. He slowly walked away from his favorite Israeli and her car, looking back at her every now and then, to check if the distance was okay for her. When he finally saw her relax a little, he sat the spider down on a bit of grass and watched it run away from the parking lot.

Jethro then turned to Ziva, who was still standing next to her car, arms wrapped around herself – shielding herself from her surroundings. He walked back to her with a worried look on his face. His Ziver was not supposed to be scared of anything – especially not when he was around.

'You okay?', he asked as he came to stand a few inches away from her.

She nodded, but did not change her position.

'Ziver. The spider is gone now. You don't have to worry anymore.'

'But what if there are more?'

Jethro looked at the car for a second, 'Well, I could go check.'

She looked at him with unreadable eyes. He should not go out of his way for her, especially not for a stupid fear like this. However, she was not sure how to get home without being able to enter her car.

The look in her eyes worried him more and more, so he simply turned to her car, looked it over inch by inch, making sure there were no spiders whatsoever.

'All clear. Then again, I could drive you home in my car and pick you up tomorrow, if you want. The fear might linger for a while.'

Home. Her neighbor had bought a huge carton of bananas a few days ago and ever since then, the whole apartment complex was crawling with spiders of all sizes. At least it felt that way. She had seen three spiders on the stairs in the last two days. It was only a matter of time until one of those creatures would find its way into her apartment.

Jethro saw her torment and decided on a different course of action, even though he wasn't quite sure why she was hesitant about going home at all.

'Or you could spend the night at my place. Abby made me get a guest room after the whole New Years disaster last year. Trust me, there are no spiders there. Some people down the street own some kind of reptile and every spider I find ends up as reptile food after I catch it. Those things know my house is not save.', he said jokingly, trying to get her to lighten up.

'That would be nice.', she couldn't imagine anything better than her own personal protector against any and all spiders she might encounter.

Gibbs smiled and, with a hand lightly on her lower back, he guided her to his car, locking her Mini as they walked away.

Zibbs Zibbs Zibbs

'I have always been scared of spiders, Gibbs. They are always there when I least expect it. Somehow I never really found a way to deal with this fear. I just tried hide it... Mossad did not give me much of a choice otherwise. If the other officers had known about this fear, my career would have been over long ago.'

Ziva had slowly started to open up, curled up on the couch in his living room, next to the warm fire in the fireplace. Leroy Jethro Gibbs sure knew how to make a woman feel comfortable. He was sitting on the couch with her, just a few inches between them, listening carefully and giving her all the space she needed.

'It started when I was a kid. My father was barely home, so whenever my mother and I would get scared of a spider, Ari would catch it and make sure that it ended up in my way at least ten more times. He loved to tease me with it. Tali was too young to be scared of spiders. She still found them funny. And Ari respected my mother too much, well, he was too scared of her to try anything.'

For a moment Gibbs wondered how Ziva and Ari had ever gotten the kind of close relationship he had always imagined them to have, but between Tali and their mother's deaths they must have bonded on a deeper level.

'Some of my friends back then had brothers who would do the same to them, but they ended up being less scared of the little beasts, while I ended up, well, screaming and kicking in my car – completely unable to function.'

She took a zip of her bourbon, as she thought back to her moment of weakness in her car.

'I do not know what I would have done, if you had not come to my rescue, Gibbs.', she added, meeting his eyes for just a second before lowering them back to her glass.

'That's what I'm here for.', he returned, reaching out his hand to take her glass and put it on the table in front of them. 'Maybe you should get some sleep. Must be very exhausted after that whole encounter today.'

She nodded at him and slid under the blankets he had brought her. She had insisted on sleeping on the couch, while he wanted her to take the bed. Not wanting to be a burden, Ziva had not given in, however she had accepted the oversized USMC shirt and boxers he had offered her to sleep in. Both pieces smelled uniquely like him and she just had not been able to refuse that opportunity.

He was her knight in shining armor. He had saved her from her enemies – foreign, domestic, eight-legged. He had protected her and stood by her whenever she needed him. He was everything to her and damn did he smell good. Sawdust, coffee, whiskey. No other man would ever live up to him. It was actually quite scary for her. He was her boss, her friend, her rock. She did not want to loose him over a crush, but then again, she was not sure if it was just that. Maybe, just maybe, it was more than that. However, even if it was, his rules were the barrier that would keep her from trying anything. He would have to make a move, if he felt it, too. All she could do was give him the opportunity to make a move every now and again.

Zibbs Zibbs Zibbs

Halfway through the night, Jethro was still awake and nowhere near falling asleep. Worried about the woman downstairs, he realized he had never seen her as scared as she had been today. He couldn't handle her like that. She wasn't supposed to be scared. The whole situation made him uncomfortable. He just wanted to take her in his arms and hold her forever, protecting her from every spider that might cross their way.

Of course she was half as young as him and his best agent, but other than that, she would have been perfect for him. No, no matter what, she was perfect for him, however, he couldn't think of a way where he could be perfect for her.

She was young, beautiful, intelligent and incredibly strong, both physically and mentally. Of course there was no way that she would ever be interested in an old man like him. Despite that, how bad could it be to at least be there for her as much as she needs.

TBC

A/N: As you might have guessed, there was a spider in my room tonight... now I can't sleep because I fear there might be more... ugh... at least those moments always result in fanfiction :D

Hope you liked it – if yes: Please, tell me what you thought! - if no: Please, tell me what you thought! :D