Other People's Sandboxes

Title: Speak with the Dead
Fandom: NCIS
Characters: Ziva
Word Count: 247
Rating: G
Spoilers/Warnings: er, I guess technically I should warn for canon death...
Notes: Written for shogunsquirrel's 2010 fandom_stocking.
----

It is strange, she realizes, to consider a dead woman a friend. Especially a dead woman whom she never met in life.

And yet, she does.

Perhaps it is guilt, a way to assuage the familial responsibility she bears. Perhaps it is it is a way to fit in. For the first six months after she arrives, she learns more about this dead woman than she does about her living team mates. Perhaps it is an automatic affinity to another woman in this man's world.

Perhaps it is all of that. Perhaps it is none. Whatever it is, it drives her, twice a year, to take a half day off of work.

As she packs her bag at her desk, Tony saunters over. "Hey, where are you running off to?"

"To catch a plane," she replies, although she doesn't really expect that answer to satisfy.

"Where to?"

"Indiana."

"Didn't know you had friends in Indiana," Tony says, obviously fishing for more information.

"Just one," she replies with a small smile.

Three hours later, there are flowers on the grave, and Ziva feels unburdened. It's not much, she knows, but somehow keeping Kate up to date on the team's exploits brings Ziva a sense of peace.

She touches the grave lightly. "I'll be back in a few months, Kate. Sooner if anything else happens. Be good. And keep watch over Tony, will you? I can use all the help I can get."