NCIS One Shots

Nightmare; Fears and Tears (Part 3)

Pairing: Z/G (Father-daughter Relationship)

TW: Verbal/ Emotional/ Psychological Abuse, Past Childhood Trauma, C-PTSD, Daddy Issues

Ziva David/ Leroy Jethro Gibbs POV (Third Person Omniscient)

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Summary:

Sequal to Shaking, Quaking, Terrified and Anger, Rage, Fury

Violent nightmare about Ziva's abusive father

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Ziva was forcefully and violently startled awake in the middle of the night, her eyes were not even fully opened. But then it hit her and a turbulent of tears tempestuously rushed out from fear and frustration, but mostly fear. She realized that it was only a dream but it felt so real and her emotions were definitely real as she was literally shaking in fear from the nightmare.

And when she thought back to the events of the nightmare, she started wrenching in sharp pain stemming from the bottom of her heart. She was sobbing ever so quietly yet so violently, it was the kind where she was holding back her wails in the darkness as she screamed silently because she didn't want Gibbs to hear her cry.

But Gibbs was already awoken by the sudden movement of Ziva jerking awake beside him on the couch and sleepily, he registered the shaking form of Ziva and heard short jagged intakes of breath. Under the dim light of the midnight, he sat up and turned to see the trained assassin with her hands over her face as her body curled inward into a ball.

Ziva was sweating a lot as fear was consuming her from the inside out. She was so glad she was ripped away from that horrible dream, she didn't want to relive her trauma in her dream. She was abused enough in the real world, she didn't need more in her dreams, it was a never-ending nightmare.

Gibbs for a second didn't understand what was happening to Ziva but then he realized, she must have had a nightmare. Laying beside him, the trained assassin was breaking down into a sobbing mess that no doubt was going to take hours to soothe.

"Ziver, did you have a nightmare?" Gibbs asked in a kind, soft voice, he gently moved her hands away from her face and saw tears falling down her face and onto the pillow. Knowing that she had had a rough day and was extra gentle with her.

But Ziva was unable to say anything, it seemed like her vocal cords decided not to work so she nodded as tears continued to spring from her eyes. She looked at him in a plea for him to help her from the terror, almost begging with her eyes.

"Want to tell me about it?" He asked again as he came up from behind to hug her and pull her into his chest then she shifted to lay fully on his chest and grabbed onto his shirt tightly and wouldn't let go as she suffered through the gut-wrenching pain. She wanted to tell him so badly but she couldn't voice anything, it was just too terrifying and traumatizing to even think about.

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Flashback Nightmare:

Ziva was seven, sitting in her childhood study room with her nice chair and adjacent to her was her father sitting in his chair similar to hers. In front of her was a desk and on it was paper and a pen. The clock ticked in the stillness of the midnight, second by second, the hands almost pointing at 3 am in the morning. The only thing illuminating the room was a lamp glowing a warm amber light at the corner of the desk.

"Write Ziva," She could hear her father's voice in Hebrew booming loudly in her ear as she felt her eyes droop so heavily and her head lolled from the exhaustion of spending hours and hours at that desk for a long period of time, not being permitted to go anywhere, not to eat, drink or sleep, not even to go to the washroom. She fought so hard to keep her eyes open so her father would not yell at her, she was so tired.

She spent her days at this desk learning her vocabulary supervised by her father. He had been testing her on her dictation today but for the life of her, she couldn't remember how to write the words her father commanded her to write.

Wet splotches formed on the paper as tears dropped on the pages while the pen she was holding ghosted over the paper, as she racked her brain for something, anything to come up but nothing ever did. "I said write Ziva." He ordered sharply again, his tone was not kind or gentle, there was no concern for her at all like he didn't care about her in the slightest bit.

But this time was different, this time he did what he had never done to her before, this time he was getting aggressive and forceful. He grabbed her arm hard, almost crushing her bones with his hand. He was scaring her so badly. Her heart was racing and she could feel her blood pumping through her veins. She tried to pull away but the grip on her arm just got tighter and tighter. He was physically hurting her.

"Let go of me!" She yelled at him, a thing she would never dare to do in real life but no one heard her cries and no one came to rescue her. She started screaming and crying in frustration at not being able to escape his control.

"Such a useless child, can not even remember a few simple words." His voice boomed in anger again. And before she knew it, his free hand raised and then was coming down hard, and she knew a slap was coming to connect with her face but before it could hit her, she jerked awake from the nightmare.

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Ziva was still shaking furiously from fear as Gibbs held her tightly in his arms on the couch. Her defenses were triggered subconsciously and now she was afraid of everything. There was nothing anyone could do to dissipate the fear. She buried her face into his chest and clung onto him, not daring to let go. She gasped for breath, crying as tears soaked the front of his shirt. She still wasn't saying a word and if she didn't want to talk about it then he was not going to push her.

Gibbs held her close as he gently swiped the tear-stained piece of hair out of her face. "Ziver, don't be scared, it's just me, no one can hurt you here." He said tenderly as if he was talking to a small child. "Please trust me." He cooed softly as he looked at the clock on the coffee table which said 2 am in the morning.

Gradually, the shaking subsided and she quieted down as her eyes drooped but she didn't dare to close her eyes and fall back asleep again, she was scared that she was going to encounter her abusive father in her dreams.

He watched her getting more sleepy by the minute and he spoke softly. "Ziver, go back to sleep." He tried to lull her back to sleep, no doubt she was tired from the exhausting day. But instead, Ziva shook her head furiously at his request.

"What's wrong?" He asked confused, "You scared?" At this, she nodded against his chest. "Oh, Ziver." He sighed, Eli David really did a number on her to make her this terrified of him. "I'll hold you and I'll make sure that you are safe. Okay?"

She nodded again so he shifted to spoon her with his chest pressed against her back as he gently stroked her hair with one hand and carassed her face tenderly with his other. The battle was not even close to being over but just for tonight, this was going to have to be enough because he was there for her and he will always be there for her.

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AN:

Based on personal experience- I swear this is what happened, at least the hurt part

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