Work Text:
Subterfuge
Tony watched Ziva carefully. He didn’t want to reveal his suspicions, so he used to his undercover skills to make it so that she didn’t realize how close he was watching her. He’d known from the time Ziva joined the team that Ziva was playing a dangerous game. Seeing her subterfuge regarding Rivkin, only reinforced Tony’s belief that she didn’t know what she was getting into.
The real reason that he let Vance feed him to the wolf named Eli David wasn’t for NCIS, but for his inherent compassion. He didn’t love Ziva. He never had, but her naivete reminded him of his childhood self when dealing with his father before he realized just how little his father cared. He wanted to show Ziva the truth. He hoped that if her eyes were opened that she would be able to make better decisions and not screw herself up over her father like he had for many years.
