(no subject)
"Hey, Ziver."
Maybe the way she'd been raised - to instantly mistrust - was the reason she reacted to Gibbs's voice like she did, with nervousness coiling up in her belly as if something bad was about to happen. Maybe it was just the tone of his voice, though. So very soft, with a hint of rare emotion simmering somewhere deep inside.
She said his name then, making it sound like a question, and he sighed and shoved his hand into the pocket of his jacket.
"Cleaned out a few boxes last night. Found this," he said quietly, and the lump in her stomach tightened even more. "Thought you might want to have it."
She stared at the photograph he handed her, blinking hard all of a sudden. Cairo. That first night after she had run into Jenny and ended up saving her life. And then the older woman had completely baffled her and dragged her away on a trip through half a dozen night clubs. Her way of saying thank you.
"Where... did you get this?" Her own voice surprised her. Ragged, hard to control.
He shrugged, surprising her. She had never seen him look awkward before. "That night Jenn's house burned down," he replied quietly. "We took a few personal things. Wanted to give it to you back then, but you were gone so fast. And I just forgot."
She nodded, slowly, then lowered her eyes and stared at the picture again. Blinking suddenly didn't help anymore. A tear made its way down her cheek, and part of her thought she should wipe it away and hide the turmoil inside her, like she had been taught to do from early youth. Like she had done for the better part of her life.
She ran her thumb across the photograph instead, and for a moment she imagined feeling her friend's arm around her shoulders again. Felt the unexpected laughter Jenny had drawn out of her that first night. How good it had been to forget about her assignment for a few hours. To just relax.
Good times.
She sighed and tucked the photograph between her pencils in their plastic holder on her desk.
"I miss you," she told the photograph, and Jenn smiled back at her, good-naturedly, as if she'd known that all along.
(click for much bigger version)
Truthfully, I know I could have done much better on this one, especially on the clothes, but I was beginning to feel frustrated with it and just wanted to see it finished. And in the end, I'm pretty satisfied with it, even though there's still something slightly off about Ziva. I blame it on the long night of partying she did with Jenny. :)
Done with only a few different pencils (4H, 2H, HB, 2B and 8B for the really dark blacks, plus a mechanical pencil for very fine details and hair) and some minor cleanup work in Photoshop. Original size is about 15 by 15 cm (about 6 by 6 inches).
Linking is fine, but don't repost this elsewhere and don't claim it as yours. Thank you very much. *is very tired now*