Grab Your Gear By Jeanne Luz :Romance/General PG13 TIVA Spoilers for HeadCase & Kill Ari. Ziva's past comes back to haunt her

I absolutely do not own any of this at all. These characters are the sole property of Bellasarius prod. & I Know it.

She was an adrenaline junkie. She knew it. She loved the way her body hummed when it was in motion. She loved the pulse of adrenaline in her veins. She felt invincible, powerful. It was with this sense strength that she leveled a spinning side kick into her opponents' solar plexus.

Hannah, her sister-in-law, grunted as she stumbled back. It was all the opening Ziva needed. In a flash she had Hannah pinned face down on the carpet, hands behind her back. "I mean it Hannah," she panted. "It's the truth and there's nothing you can do but accept it. Ari lied to us. To all of us."

"Am I interrupting something?" Both women's attention snapped in the direction of one slightly confused Tony DiNozzo. He stood framed in Ziva's living room doorway casually surveying the damage. She knew that while he appeared to be looking at nothing, he was in fact seeing everything.

"No Hannah was just leaving." Ziva released her grip on her fallen foe and helped her to her feet. Hannah rose shakily. Stifling sob she kissed Ziva on each cheek. "I know. But I still love him. Some one needs to pay for what happened to him." Wordlessly she brushed by Tony and hurried out the door.

Ziva and Tony stared at each other for a handful of heart beats. He, in dumbfounded awe of the best catfight he'd ever seen. Between Mossad agents even! She, in the pissed off annoyance of someone whose life has just taken a sudden and unwelcome turn.

"I didn't hear you come in."

"Try English. You're still speaking Hebrew."

"I didn't hear you."

He gestured to her front door. "It was unlocked. Besides, it sounded like you were in trouble. What was that all about?"

She didn't answer him. Instead, she moved silently around her wrecked living room, cleaning. She was furious with herself for letting Tony sneak up on her. Had he been another Mossad agent she'd be dead instead of cleaning her apartment. She righted an overturned armchair, coffee table, books and magazines in multiple languages, pictures and several varying cacti. She was a fan of any plant that did not need much nurturing.

When Ziva reached her overturned piano she spoke. "Help me?" The slackening tide of adrenaline was making her weak. Normally in a fight she strove to take out her opponent quickly. She just couldn't bring herself to hurt Hannah. Now she was left feeling shaky. Together she and Tony lifted the piano and set it back against the wall.

"Guess you'll have to hold another dinner party so you can get Palmer back here to tune this thing." Tony joked, uncertain of the situation.

She laughed. " I promise to invited you this time. If you don't make me mad in the meantime."

"I'll try. I'm not promising anything."

Ziva set the last errant cactus on top of the piano. She dusted her hands off on her pants. "I could use a shower." She strode past him down the hall to the bathroom. "Coming?"

He smiled. This was almost to good to be true. Apparently some weird aspect of the space/time continuum in this building allowed one to view no holds barred chick fighting between spies and shower with a beautiful woman. Maybe he needed to consider changing apartments. "Yes!" He rushed to join her.

Her bathroom was a 1920's affair. Cavernous. Simple. Sanitized. Very much what he had expected. What he did not expect was that she was neither naked nor wet. How disappointing. Instead, she sat with her back against the wall, head tipped up and legs stretched out in front of her. The shower pumped out steaming water with geyser like pressure. Above, the heat lamp rumbled.

Tony sat down beside her and gave her that look. The one that told her that underneath it all lurked a sensitive being. She cracked. One hot, fat tear rolled down her cheek. She scrubbed it away with the back of her hand. "Some one once told me to think twice before burdening a friend with a secret. How much do you really want to know?"

"Spill your guts sweet cheeks." He said with a smile.

"Seriously. If anyone finds out about this you could die." She stared him straight in the eyes. What he had witnessed was more than a simple girl fight. Something large was at stake.

"Seriously. Tell me. I think you're in over your head here."

Ziva drew a long deep breath and exhaled slowly, willing herself to be calm. "First tell me why you came here tonight."

"I was worried about you. This past week you've been…." His voice trailed off.

"Distracted?"

"You could call it that."

She rested her head on his shoulder. "That woman was my sister in law."

"I thought she was Mossad. I recognized her from the night I followed you, when you slipped a fake passport to her for Ari." He said, not at all bothered by the way she'd quietly pressed her body to his.

Ziva nodded in acknowledgement. "She was married to him." She spoke softly. She had not been able to entirely compartmentalize the emotion of that night.

Realization hit Tony between the eyes like a punch from a jilted lover. When he spoke his voice was cold and stony. "Ari was your brother." Suddenly he was transported. He found himself back on the roof top feeling the spray of Kate's blood on his face. How could he have been working so closely with this woman and not have known? To think he'd almost slept with her! Angry, he rose to leave.

Ziva was faster. She pounced, pinning him to the door with a solid thud. "Wait."

He could have fought her off. Maybe. Well, probably not. He'd seen her fight and she held him with a strength that belied her slender body.

"Before you judge me, wait." She spoke in the same deliberate manner he'd heard her use when they'd found the severed head in the car trunk, pausing every few words to keep her emotions in check. "He was my half brother. I shot and killed him to save Gibbs. To save all of you. Now, I think I've been found out. I don't think I have to tell you that that's bad."

He felt his anger dissolve as quickly as it had set upon him. She was amazing. So many people he knew would simply not be strong enough to cope with such a burden. He hugged her hard, cradling her head to his chest. To his surprise she clung fiercely to him.

"You can cry."

"I don't cry." She might choke up. Her eyes might well up. She did not cry. To her crying was a waste of time in what she had long expected to be a short life.

They lost track of how long they'd stood there. Long enough for the humidity to turn her normally curly hair wild. Normally it would have been a turn on to Tony. But this was serious. She was in trouble. When Ziva finally broke away he noted with some satisfaction that his shirt was damp where her head had lain.

Ziva looked at herself in the mirror. She was not a narcissus. She did not dwell too much on her appearance- but these red puffy eyes would not do. She washed her face with cold water before she spoke. "About a week ago I came home and the place just felt…unusual."

"Unusual?"

"I smelled something in my bedroom. It reminded me of some one I used to know. Another agent." She was not yet ready to tell him who that agent was. Not until she knew for certain. "I investigated. My whole apartment is bugged. Except the bathroom."

"Is? As in still?" His voice rose in disbelief.

"Well I didn't pick the bathroom for its' romantic possibilities." She said sarcastically. She began to pace. "They play me I play them. They won't hear anything I don't want them to hear."

"Good girl." Ziva rolled her eyes at him. "…Uh good agent." He countered. "Well Officer David there's just one thing left to do."

"And that is?"

"Grab your gear. You're staying with me."

She smiled. "I thought you'd never ask.