Writing a one-shot when you are also trying to complete 2 multi-chapter stories is never a good idea…but I wanted to get this idea down before it completely disappeared. The italics are like the black and white shots in the actual episodes –and the credit for that idea goes completely to the electric phantom, author of "Abby and Gibbs" .I was going to use that idea in a multi-chapter story, but I thought it might work in this story too.
Speaking of multi-chapters, this fits in to the timeline of the NCIS multichapter story I am tentatively planning (check my profile for more info on that.)The title will be "Family Life". However, you don't need to wait for that story to start before reading this one.
Anyway , This is my third NCIS one-shot. Please enjoy.
She looks at the book in her hand and smiles.
"Tony."
Tiredly, Tony turned his head to the voice.
"Oh, hey, Zee-vah. Still missing me? "He smiled as Ziva went and sat on the chair besides his hospital bed.
Ziva smiled back "Well, as you can imagine, it's real peaceful in the squadroom. Abby, however, is missing you like crazy .She's got that hideous picture of you up on the wall in her lab again."
Tony nodded; half smiling at the memory of that photo .He wasn't really surprised. "How are Milo and Lynnie?"
"Staying at Gibbs place. They love it. Lynnie spends most of her spare time helping Gibbs with the boat. Of course, they miss you. They want to go home. "
Ziva watched Tony's face carefully .A shadow of sadness and something unidentifiable passed over his face and lingered, before it disappeared.
"Oh great, she's turning into a mini -Gibbs." Tony rolled his eyes, and then glanced at Ziva and smiled. She smiled back, and then noticed the large pile of DVDs on the bedside table.
"These movies are…not to your liking?" She asked.
The shadow, more noticeable this time, returned to Tony's face.
"I don't really feel like watching them. " For the first time during that visit, his façade of being the joker slipped a bit. It made Ziva's heart crack a little more, to see him like that, but she didn't show it.
"You, not watching movies?! Do you not get bored?"
Tony shrugged half-heartedly.
Ziva sighed, then got up .
"I need to go now. Gibbs will come later with the twins , OK? "
"See you later, Ziva."
…
At home, Ziva paced .This was driving her mad. Tony could have got better almost a week ago, but he was too depressed, and had no motivation to do anything. The reasons for this were not even clear. Then Ziva remembered a time from long ago, she was about 9, and Talia nearly 5. She had come down with the flu and hadn't been able to go anywhere .Her little sister had found a book, one that had been given to her by a random friend of her father's, and attempted to read it to Ziva. Being so young, the task had been long and difficult, but despite that, hearing the words being read to her by Tali had somehow made the idea of being in bed not so bad. Soon after the book had finished, she recovered speedily.
With this memory in mind, she went straight to her bookshelf, and scanned the many titles there. It took her a while, but eventually, she found it hidden on the bottom shelf. She pulled it out.
'Giovanni, you know what it is, don't you?'' Ziva quoted quietly. She knew. If anything would lift his spirits, it would be this.
She looks at the book in her hand and smiles.
Ziva closes the book and leaves the room, looking satisfied.
The next time she visited, he was lying down and his eyes were closed as though he was sleeping. She knew he wasn't really.
"Tony, you don't need to open your eyes or anything, but I want you to listen, OK? I don't think that will be too hard for you."
Tony's response was to open his eyes and pull a face. The shadow over his face was still there, but Ziva made a point of ignoring it as she sat down and pulled out the book.
"I'm going to read to you. "
Tony started to protest, not very vehemently, but it was a protest. "I don't…"
"I know you don't read books, but that's irrelevant. You are listening to me read to you. All you need to do is listening. The book is called 'Night on the Galactic Railroad'. You comfy?"
By way of reply, Tony closed his eyes. Ziva began.
"'So you see, boys and girls, that is why some have called it a river, while others see a giant trace left by a stream of milk. But does anyone know what really makes up this hazy-white region in the sky?'
The teacher pointed up and down the smoky white zone of the Milky Way that ran across a huge black star map suspended from the top of the blackboard. He was asking everybody in the class.
Campanella raised his hand, and at that, four or five others also volunteered. Giovanni was about to raise his hand, but suddenly changed his mind…."
She continued reading up until the start of the third chapter "Home." When she stopped , Tony opened his eyes again and sat up.
"What did you say the book was called?"
"Night on the Galactic Railroad."
"Oh." He replied, as if he was not sure what to say next.
After a few minutes, Ziva said.
"I'm going now. I'll come again on Sunday, that way I can read more to you. The final chapters are slightly longer than the others, you see. "
Tony shrugged and smiled "I'll mark the date in my diary then. " He said in a half-joking manner.
She nodded." You better."
Ziva closes the book and leaves the room, looking satisfied.
Tony moves over to make room for Ziva and smiles at her.
"'No, he's out there all right. Dad couldn't have done anything bad enough that they had to send him to prison or something for. It wasn't all that long ago that he came to our school and donated all those things like that huge crab shell and those reindeer horns. They're still keeping them in the specimen room. All the sixth graders get to see them when the teacher brings them one at a time to the classroom. Year before last, on a school excursion...'"
"But no matter how hard he looked at the sky, he just couldn't see the cold barren place that the teacher had described in class. On the contrary, the more deeply he stared into it, the more he saw a field with little groves of trees and pastures. Then he noticed the blue stars of Lira, the Harp, multiplying, twinkling all the while, and the Harp itself stretching out its legs then pulling them in until it looked like a long flat mushroom. As for the town just below, it took on the appearance of a blurry cluster of countless stars or a single, enormous puff of smoke..."
"Giovanni pointed to a place directly north of a sign that read Swan Station.
'Right. Oh, good heavens! I wonder if that dry river bed is moonlight.'
When the two of them looked they saw the pale bank of the Milky Way glisten with pampas grass growing all along it, rustling and swishing, rolling in the wind into billows of waves in a silver sky.
'That's not moonlight,' said Giovanni. 'It's shining because it's the Milky Way!' "
Over the next few days, Ziva came in and read to Tony. At first, he would just lie there, eyes shut and listening, as though he didn't care either way. Then, eventually, he'd begin to engage. Although he seemed to like nothing better than to just close his eyes and listen, he became more engaged in the book, and often asked Ziva to go back and re-read some parts. So, one day, when she came in and saw Tony was sitting up and looking as though he was actively waiting for her, she decided to try something else.
"Do you remember where we stopped yesterday?"
"Stopped?"
"The book, Tony. "
"Yeah."
"Ok, show me. " Ziva flicked to the relevant pages, and then after she'd sat down, held it out to Tony.
"Read the first sentence from that point. "
Tony pulled a face as though he didn't want to, but the silliness of that face was normal compared to the near lethargic state he'd been in for a while. He looked anyway , then he started.
"'I wonder if my mum will ever forgive me,' said Campanella suddenly, stammering and flurried, but nonetheless resolute.
Giovanni was lost in his thoughts..." Ziva reached over to get the book and continue , but Tony carried on.
"Sure, that's it! My mum is far down there by the orange-coloured sign that looks like a speck of dust. She's thinking about me this instant.
'I'd go to the ends of the earth to make my mum happy,' said Campanella, doing his best to hold back the tears. 'But I just can't figure out what would make her happiest.'
'At least there's nothing at all wrong with your mum,' exclaimed Giovanni, somewhat surprised himself.
'Oh, I dunno. It's just that, I mean, a person creates happiness around him when he does something good. That's why I'm sure my mum will forgive me.'
Campanella looked like he had really made up his mind about something."
Then he paused and looked up.
"Ziva."
Hearing her name, she looked up "What is it, Tony?"
"Come. Let's do this together."
Tony moves over to make room for Ziva and smiles at her.
A twin on either side of him, Tony opens the book and begins to read.
Eventually, they finished it, and both were disappointed when it did.
"You'll have to read that to me, Milo and Lynnie another day. "
"Why can't you do it?" Ziva wanted to know.
"I like hearing your voice." He replied simply.
"Oh." Ziva didn't really know what else to say.
"As it happens, I may get out of hospital tomorrow. The cute nurse said so."
Ziva snorted.
"Which one are you referring to? The one with the two childish ponytails or the blond one?"
"The blond, obviously. "
Ziva rolled her eyes and smiled knowingly. Typical Tony.
"Is there a movie for "Night on the Galactic Railroad? In English, perhaps?"
"There is a movie , with an English-Dubbed version. However, it is animated. And as it happens, Giovanni and Campanella are depicted as cats."
"Cool. Me-ow. That will be interesting." Even more typical Tony. But Ziva was glad. Despite the annoyingness of these traits, she would not have it any other way.
"You can keep it." She heard herself say.
"What?"
"Night on the Galactic Railroad. You can keep it. I have a copy in Hebrew at home. "
"For real?"
"An old contact of mine translated it for me recently."
"One of your contacts is still breathing?"
"…..."
…
True to the "cute" nurse's word, Tony left hospital the next day. After a long shower, a bite to eat, a quick nap and a change of clothes, he went back to work that afternoon.
"Morning, McDonalds, Ziva, Boss." He said.
McGee did no more than raise an eyebrow at the nickname then replied "And good afternoon to you, Tony."
Tony glanced at his watch.
"Oh, right." Looking suitably sheepish, he sat at his desk.
Gibbs rolled his eyes.
"Clearly you're perfectly fine now. Ziva can tell you details on the ca-"
"Finally! A case, I'm actually on a case ….! …Oh, right. Shutting up now, boss."
Again, Gibbs rolled his eyes and announced that he was getting a coffee.
As Ziva and McGee filled Tony in on the past few days, and Abby ran up to hug most of the breath out of him, things slowly began to feel right again.
…
Tony listened to Lynnie's humming closely as he washed dishes and handed them over for her to dry. The tune, whatever it was, was happy and catchy. He soon found himself humming along too , even though he didn't know the song.
Lynnie stopped humming.
"Daddy, do you know that all the time you were in hospital, Milo didn't do ANY chores. Uncle Gibbs tried to make him , but he always went to play basketball with the creepies." The little girl's hazel eyes stared defiantly at him.
Tony laughed. "They're not creepies, Lyns, they're just teenagers. And tell you what, you go upstairs and get ready for bed, I'll do the rest. It's Milo's turn tomorrow anyway."
"Yay!" Lynnie ran straight upstairs .Tony laughed, and finished the dishes.
20 minutes later, when he was in pyjamas too, he called for both of them to come to his room. They did, Lynnie bursting in, all twin tails and lollipop pyjamas , and Milo more calmer in blue-t-shirt and shorts, waiting at the doorway
"What is it, daddy?" Lynnie asked, stopping next to the bed.
"Before you go to bed, I want to read to you."
Milo pulled a face, "Da-ddy! I know how to read. Lynnie knows how to read."
Tony grinned. "I know how to read. But I have been read to before."
"When?"
"Ziva read to me while I was at hospital. "
"Aunty Ziva did?"
"Yep."
Milo considered this, and then asked "What book?"
Tony picked up Night on the Galactic Railroad and held it up.
"Was it good?" Both twins wanted to know.
"Yes. Its Ziva's favourite."
Milo walked into the room, up until he was standing next to his sister, and the twins exchanged a look, communicating something silently.
Then, Lynnie grinned.
"We decided. Please read to us, Daddy."
"Yeah, read to us."
Tony moved up so he was roughly in the middle of the bed. Lynnie scrambled over to the opposite side, and Milo climbed in almost as eagerly. Tony waited for them to get comfy and then asked.
"Ready?"
The twins nodded happily, full of expectation.
A twin on either side of him, Tony opens the book and begins to read.
The book used in this fanfic was Night on The Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa. The extracts I used I found via a link from an anime blog-if anyone wants to know how to find the link please PM me or leave the message in a review .I can't give you the actual link but I can direct you to it.
-The disclaimer that should have been at the top of the page: I DO NOT OWN Night on the Galactic Railroad, NCIS or anything related. I do, however, own Milo and Lynnie , and I do own this plot.
I hope you enjoyed this ^^Please do leave some feedback!It is appreciated a lot :.)