I must admit, I was an avid NCIS fan, which I have my late father to thank. He was the one who first introduced me to the MCRT team lead by the taciturn, standoffish "functional mute" Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I enjoyed the first two series, I still do from time to time, but really started fangirling in Season 3.

I loved the energy Ziva brought to the team and I loved her chemistry with every single one of them, through the years they truly became one big (often dysfunctional) family. But most of all, I loved Ziva's chemistry with DiNozzo. There was that spark, that zing of something special in the making that made me sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
Yes, I'm the first one to admit, I was a "Tiva" fan. Not at first, mind you, at first the two were like bickering siblings, but in time, somewhere along the way, also thanks to the superb performances by both Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, I saw it.

I'm also the first one to admit, I stopped watching after Ziva left. Not so much because there was no "Tiva" anymore, but because the show became a little stale for me, a little too repetitive. There are just so many cases and mysteries you can solve before it starts to reek of recycling.
I would probably continued watching the series if Ziva stayed, but my heart wouldn't be in it. Her goodbye only expedited things.

I'll also be the first one to admit, I didn't like her departure (hence the fanfiction I wrote depicting how it might've ended on the shipping front), but I still held hope (even if only in my head canon) that not all was lost, because they kept Ziva alive. In Israel and away from her "family", but alive.
My shipper heart gave a little hiccup of hope when I read that Michael Weatherly was saying goodbye at the end of Season 13. How will they pull that one off, I wondered? Will they kill him? Will they let him ride into the sunset with a woman? And could that woman be Ziva?
I know many objected to the theories of Ziva having anything to do with Tony's exit storyline...That she treated him badly, that "Tiva" was forced, that she didn't deserve him (especially after Cote de Pablo's actions that lead to Ziva's departure) etc.
Well, in my opinion, Ziva made the only sense if they were keeping Tony alive. They'd been partners for eight years, they knew each other the most (I firmly believe that), they trusted each other, they had each other's backs...Sheesh, the longest relationship Tony had with a woman (that we know of) was with Ziva (call it slow burn, call it will they/won't they, call it partnership, call it friendship...in the end it was a relationship), so it made sense.

So, after three years, I decided I'd watch a new episode of NCIS, starting with the penultimate one and ending with the season finale.
Imagine my surprise (and not in a good sense) and heartache (yes, I'm woman enough to admit it) when it turned out not only that they killed Ziva (and off-screen, to boot), but took away all her agency by turning her into a mere vessel of Tony's sperm, while also giving the people who didn't like Ziva more fodder to demean her character, because she didn't tell him about their child.

Yes, Tony and Ziva had a child. And while I'd love to see that episode (oh, my shipper heart), the secret love-child is a cheesy cliché belonging on the pages of a Harlequin romance novel and not on the most watched primetime TV series.
I'm sorry, but couldn't the writers come up with an original idea? Was a love-child the only reason Tony would leave the team? I'd rather they killed him, if you ask me, than subject him, Ziva and the viewers to the farce we witnessed?
And it obviously was a farce, since the show's head honcho quickly turned to the (on-line) media with a theory that maybe Ziva survived (of course she did, and Tony will find her, as he always does). Well, we're still stuck with the love-child, although the little Tali (or the two girls playing here) was absolutely adorable.

I'd never would've written Tony and Ziva a love-child. Never. But I can work with that. And repair the character assassination of Ziva David. At least in my next story.