Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS

A/N: This is AU. It takes place in 2005, so around the time of Season 3. Ziva does not work for Mossad and has never worked at NCIS, however Tony is an NCIS agent. I will try to explain more throughout the story, so hopefully it won't be too confusing. Enjoy!

Forever, I Am Yours

Chapter 1 – Ziva

She was so tired of the same old thing. You meet someone. You go out with that someone. You develop feelings for them and then they make you feel like every part of you has been abused. Your mind, body and soul, but your heart takes the hardest punches of them all. Ziva David was not someone to break easily, but after her last failed attempt at a relationship she decided she was done with them all together.

Her last boyfriend, James, was a thirty year old orthodontist who she met on her way to work one morning. She should have known it wouldn't last when he said the first thing he noticed about her was her perfect teeth. The "relationship", if you could even call it that, lasted almost a month. Turns out her teeth just weren't perfect enough for him; he shacked up with one of the hygienists at his office. Nice, real nice.

"I am done with relationships. I have decided to just stop looking for someone to be with all together," Ziva stated, poking at her sandwich.

"Good for you, Honey. In this world you learn that most men are pigs. I don't trust any of them." The woman sitting across from her, Helen commented. Ziva had known Helen since she started working at the theater. Helen was a cellist in the orchestra. She had been performing there since she was seventeen; that was forty-one years ago.

"So, are you like…becoming a lesbian?" That was Hilary, a twenty- two year old singer who just moved to DC from Florida. Hilary could be your stereotypical blonde bimbo sometimes.

"No, I am just saying that I think I would be much more content to be on my own then be with someone who will only hurt me in the end." Ziva gave up at playing with her sandwich and stood from her seat. "I need to go rehearse. If I do not get those dance steps down by Friday, Charlie will have a calf," and with that she was off.

"Shouldn't she have said cow?" Hilary asked confused.

Helen just shook her head. "Here have a cookie. Soon I won't be able to tell the difference between you and the bow for my cello."

Ziva wasn't going to rehearse. She just needed to get out of that stuffy old theater and go home. Her life had become so confusing since she moved to America. It had been a year ago yesterday since she left her home of Tel Aviv, Israel. The twenty-three year old had left so much behind, but she wanted so desperately to be free; free from the watchful eyes of her father. What better way to do that then to come to America, the land of opportunity, but for Ziva it had become the land of regrets, and broken trust, and clouded judgment. It was times like these she almost wished she never came here.

Approaching her apartment she could hear her married neighbors across the hall, they were fighting again. It was always over something utterly ridiculous, like last week. Last week when Mrs. Harbo had to run to the store she told Mr. Harbo to make sure to take her quiche out of the oven while she was gone. When he forgot she said it was because he was busy staring at the woman across the street in the bikini.

They fought over pointless things like that all the time, yet they've been together for thirty-nine years. Ziva was not one to waste her time on dreams. She would not allow herself to think about the possibilities. The whole American dream thing seemed all too clean for her, too unrealistic. She came here to start over, even if that meant leaving pieces of herself behind.

The Harbo's were definitely not a good example of the happily married couple, making decent money and supporting the family while living in a quaint little house with a white picket fence. No, they screamed at each other from morning till night, they could hardly put a crumb on the table, and they lived in a little apartment that had a broken air conditioner and a moldy ceiling from the time Mrs. Henderson from upstairs waterbed exploded. Yet somehow they were happy together. They always made up after a fight, (Ziva still wasn't quite sure how that all went about, but she would never ask), and most of all they still loved each other just as much as they did the day they were married. Ziva couldn't help but want something like that too.

Ziva opened her door and took off her coat hanging it up on the hanger. Flipping on the light she noticed something seemed off. "Marni", she called, "where could you be?" Walking over to the kitchen she opened up the cabinets then closed them again, and made her way to the bathroom then proceeded to walk back out; still no luck. Her brows furrowed at the sound coming from inside her bedroom. The door was cracked. Slowly she pushed it open, not wanting to startle her friend. "There you are Marni." Marni's black ears that were sticking up from under the comforter gave him away. At the sound of his name his head popped up, his green eyes wide with excitement. "I have a surprise for you." Ziva held out her hand and the cat slowly walked towards her, first sniffing the treat in her palm and then dipping its tongue out to retrieve the snack. Satisfied, he purred happily and stretched out laying back down on the bed.

"It's just you and me, Marni." She let out a sigh and peered down at the now sleeping Marni. "You're all I've got." Giving him one last scratch behind his ears, she got up from her kneeling position on the floor and walked into the bathroom. She turned on the water for the bathtub letting it fill up, and then stripped down and eased herself into the hot water. Leaning back her eyes closed. She tried not to think about how her life had ended up like this. Tried not to ask herself the same questions like, "Will I be alone for the rest of my life, and will I ever truly be happy?" For the first time in her life Ziva David had given up. She had decided there was no one out there for her, so she would stop looking for them. Even if that meant having her only companion be a cat.

Let me know what you think! The next chapter we will learn a bit about Tony. That sounds fun right? Of course it does, it's Tony…(dreamy sigh)…