Love or lust? || 365 days

~30~

(Cordelia's POV)

Like I predicted Ziva came with us and like that wasn't bad enough, Laura had gotten the flu so she stayed home so she could rest.

Both Diego and Ziva were silent and not talking much. It looked like they had been fighting. So the only person I could talk to was Matteo.

We all arrived at the yacht and got on board. I left my bag in the small living room part of the yacht and went on the deck to lay in the sun and read my book.

The weather was great so apart from having to be in the same boat with Massimo and Ziva, everything was good.

After a minute I heard steps coming closer and saw Ziva. 'Great' I sighed and continued reading.

She sat a bit further from me and placed her sunglasses on her head and a cup of tea beside her. She didn't say anything and neither did I. I was fine having to sit next to her as long as she wasn't being a bitch again.

We don't always get what we wish for.

"Why are you even here?" Ziva muttered under her breath, breaking the silence.

"Excuse me?" I asked placing my book beside me. "You're asking why am I here. This is a family day. My family day."

"You're just being a bitch to me and hating the fact that Diego is with me."

"I'm being a bitch? Do you even remember how you have been speaking to me? When we first met and when you invited yourself to wait for Diego. No, I'm not the bitch here honey."

Pure anger flashed in Ziva's eyes and before I could even do anything she reached her hand towards her just made tea, took the cup in her hands and threw the insides of the cup on me.

I felt how the boiling tea splashed on me, on my chest, stomach and thighs.

It hurt so much that at first I couldn't even scream. But that didn't last long. The pain hit me and I can say that I have never felt anything like this before.

I screamed in pure pain. I think that even people back on land heard my scream. I stood up and just screamed and cried in pain. It hurt so much that I can't even explain it. I could barely even move because it hurt too much. Tears started to run down my cheeks.

Running steps were heard and in a few seconds Massimo, Matteo and Diego were on the deck with us.

Massimo and Matteo ran straight to me and Diego went to Ziva.

"What the hell happened?" Massimo asked and came to stand beside my trembling and sobbing body. I had my eyes closed tightly because of the pain.

"She was taking a sip of my tea. She wanted to taste it so I let her and then the yacht tilted slightly and in the same second the tea spilled on her." Ziva stuttered from Diego's arms.

"It hurts, it hurts so, so much!" I cried. Massimo wanted to touch me and to see how bad the burns were but he was afraid that he would accidentally hurt me even more. Plus he knew I didn't want to talk to him and didn't want anything to do with him.

"We need to help her quickly!" Massimo said very sternly. I could hear from his voice that he wanted to shout but was trying to be calm so as not to freak me out more.

"Let's get you to the bathroom to treat those burns. Okay?" Matteo said to me calmly.

I couldn't stop crying but I nodded.

"You need to tell me now all the places where the tea touched you. Can you do that?"

"M-my stomach, thighs a-and chest." I whispered, my voice trembling.

"Okay you need to come with us now and we need to get your burns under cool running water." Matteo said.

After a few minutes Massimo and Matteo got me to the bathroom and I was now sitting in the bathtub and Matteo was running cool water on my burns from the showerhead.

I had finally stopped crying but the burns still hurted like hell.

"Are you feeling better?" Massimo asked while pacing around the room. "How did that even happen?"

"Yes. You don't even drink tea. You hate it. And the yacht definitely wasn't tilting around." Matteo spoke up.

"Ziva." Was all I said.

"I'm going to throw her off of this damn boat." Matteo muttered under his breath. "Fun fact. She can't swim."

"Diego can't seem to see what she's doing and how she's acting."

"In his head he loves her. Love can blind a person." Matteo nodded in agreement. "Okay, I think we are ready." He turned off the shower and started to gently tap my skin dry with a soft white towel.

"Can you apply the lotion yourself or do you want Matteo to do it?" Massimo handed me a tube of lotion from the mirror cabinet over the sink.

"I can do it " I took the lotion and waited for Matteo to be done with the towel. After he put the towel away I started to apply the lotion carefully. I hissed in pain when the cool lotion touched the burns. "Where's Diego?"

"With her." Matteo rolled his eyes. "Didn't even come and see if you were okay."

"Do you want to stay or go home?" Massimo asked me. "We all totally understand if you don't want to stay."

"I want to go home."

~

(Third person's POV)

"Why is the yacht turning around?" Ziva asked walking up to Massimo who just gave an order to turn the yacht around.

"We are going back. 'Lia doesn't want to stay after what happened. It's better that she gets to rest and not be in the sun."

Ziva rolled her eyes not even trying to cover up her anger and annoyance. "So because of her none of us can have fun."

"It's not fun when one of us is hurt." Massimo said.

"She probably fakes it. I bet it didn't even hurt that much." Ziva muttered under her breath quietly, almost so quietly that Massimo wouldn't be able to hear. But he did.

"Do you want to try? Let's pour boiling water all over you and you can tell if it hurts. Oh but in the end you would like the attention it would get to you, wouldn't you? So you could go and cry to Diego." Massimo spat angrily. "Get out of my sight."

Ziva huffed angrily and walked away.

Massimo sat on the white leather couch and lit a cigarette. He didn't smoke much, only when he was stressed or angry. To calm him a bit. And he really does need to calm down now.

"Care to explain why did Ziva came to me crying telling that you threatened her of pouring fucking boiling water over her?" Diego bursted in the room.

"I didn't threaten her. She was being a bitch belittling 'Lia's burns so I just asked her how she would feel if I poured boiling water over her."

"What are you trying to say?"

"It wasn't an accident. Ziva threw the tea over Cordelia."

Diego scoffed. "She didn't. The yacht tilted like she said."

"Open your fucking eyes Diego. Look at the water, is it windy in here? No it's not. The yacht couldn't have tilted. Plus it's a yacht not a small boat so a small wave doesn't affect it."

"She didn't do it. Didn't you see how frightened she was when that happened?"

"I did but you didn't even glance at your own sister when she was burned badly."

"'Lia took a sip from the tea and it splashed. End of the story."

"Tell me Diego, does 'Lia like tea?"

"No she doesn't, she hates-... she hates it." Diego grew silent.

"Exactly." Massimo nodded.

"Fuck." Diego muttered under his breath. Everything starts to make sense. The pink lenses that he has been watching Ziva through are crumbling apart.