Title: Memories
Fandom: NCIS
Author: Alidiabin
Words: 1,941
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Warnings/ Spoilers: 8x08/8x09
Parings: none
Summary: What Eli and McGee really talked about in the safe house.
Memories
Eli David coughed at the sight of Timothy McGee. He could here Amit scoff in the background. Agent McGee would not have even gotten past the guards at mossad to ask for a volunteer form. As he stood before Amit and Eli, he showed the two men exactly what he was thinking and feeling, though the boys' nerves could be detected by anyone walking past him.
"You remind me of the boyfriends my younger daughter Tali used to bring up to see me when Rivka let them visit me," Eli uttered as Amit rolled a cigarette in the cramped safe house.
"I find it hard to believe Ziva never had boyfriends," Amit uttered as he put the cigarette to his lips.
"She did I am sure of that" Eli said half turning toward the other man. "I was just never introduced to any" Eli turned back to face McGee. "You see Agent McGee, my elder daughter was always very good at sneaking boys in and out as her mother claimed,"
"Yeah Ziva likes to keep her personal life private," McGee, said. Eli pulled out his wallet.
"Hadar, can you buy me some cigars" he said. McGee noticed the photograph in the plastic pocket it was over twenty-five years old, it had two girls aged maybe two and seven and a woman with the same olive features, the picture next to it had a boy with a hijab-covered woman.
"Is that Ziva?" McGee asked. Eli chuckled as Amit walked out of the safe house. He shook in head.
"No that is Tali," Eli said looking at the younger girl. He pointed to the older girl "This is Ziva, she is about seven in the photograph" McGee smiled at the photograph; seven-year old Ziva had a massive smile on her face a smile completely unlike a smile he had seen from Ziva in the last five years, a smile of innocence.
"She doesn't have many photos," McGee said. He had once when he had gone to diner at Ziva's home; he was looking for the bathroom when he noticed a photo frame of three children next to her bed, the side with the boy turned away. He had not pried back then, as Ziva was so new and exotic to them. He probably would not pry now either.
"You want dirt on my daughter," Eli said after a few minutes of silence, "Things you can black mail her with, so she'll do your paper work, yes?"
"No" McGee said, he honestly did not. He just wanted to get out of this duty alive and meet Eli David the man who had supposedly molded Ziva and Ari to be killers from the moments their zygotes implanted in their mothers' wombs.
"Then my daughter was right about you" Eli said as he set up the backgammon board. McGee looked at the elder man; he could not imagine Ziva having conversations with Eli about him. "She said you were a kind man and a good friend to her" McGee nodded.
"She also told me about your writing," Eli said with a scoff. "Though my late sister was always much more interested in Tommy and Lisa than I was" McGee begun to wonder if the Aunt Nettie Ziva had mentioned a few years ago and asked McGee to sign a copy of his book for, was the same 'late sister' that Eli was referencing.
"Ziva doesn't talk about her family," McGee said as he gulped.
"That does not surprise me," Eli said quietly, he again paused. McGee wondered what the older man was thinking about, his deceased children or his lone living one.
"Now, Agent McGee have you ever played" Eli looked at the Backgammon board, his sons favorite game.
"Backgammon" McGee uttered. "Not since I was a kid, though Ziva and I played Battleship a few Christmases ago, she beat me" Eli smirked.
"That was her game," Eli said. "All my children had a game I would play with them whenever I saw them, Ziva played Battleship which seems fitting now that she works for a Navy." Eli paused and looked away. "And Tali always liked the one that stands up with the holes that you put the disks in" McGee caught the sadness in his voice, on the few occasions Ziva had talked of Tali there was always that hint of sadness even when she recalled happy memories. When Ziva spoke of Ari, which was a very rare occurrence there was always guilt in her voice.
"Connect four" McGee offered as a suggestion. A eureka look crossed Eli's face.
"That's it," Eli said as he set up the board.
"What was Ziva like as a child?" McGee asked. Eli looked up.
"I did not see much of my children when they were children" Eli said, "But Ziva, Ziva was always a Jim boy"
"Tom boy" McGee nervously corrected Eli, unsure how the man would take such a correction.
"Ah" Eli said, "You must forgive my mistakes. I speak five languages and was taught English on the Kibbutz I spent my childhood in by a woman who claimed she worked as a maid for the British Ambassador when Israel was Palestine a British Mandate"
"Ziva does it too," McGee said.
"Of course she does, she knows far too many languages like her mother" Eli said. "Arguments were always fun. I would start screaming in Arabic, Rivka in Polish and then we would both turn to each other and shout speak Hebrew for God's sake" McGee smirked. "Anyway Ziva as a child" McGee nodded. "She hated dolls to the point where she beheaded one of them with her Aunts sewing scissors, Rivka was furious and my sister found it hilarious."
Eli walked into his sister's house in Haifa, she was babysitting his daughters while Rivka was out shopping. She was humming away in the kitchen. Baby Tali was down for a nap and Ziva was in the den with the dolls Ziva had insisted she bring on the trip. Eli peaked through the door and found five-year-old Ziva with sharp scissors in her hand.
"Ziva" he said stepping in before she cut herself or worse Nettie's furniture. He found Barbie's blonde head separate from her out of proportion body. He chuckled. He heard his wife walk in to the house.
"Ziva" she called as she walked into the den with a pink dress in her hand and Nettie trailing behind. "Look what Ima got you" Rivka noticed decapitated Barbie. "What did you do?" Rivka shouted. Nettie bent down, picked the scissors off the floor, and laughed. "Ziva doll are not to be massacred" Rivka shouted. "I need a drink" she cried before walking out of the den. "She's your daughter Elihu" Rivka shouted before raiding Nettie's liquor cabinet.
McGee let out a laugh. Eli smiled.
"Did she tell you about her first fight?"
"With Shmuel Rubenstein" McGee said remembering the story at one dinner party. Eli nodded.
"That was her first fight where her mother found out. When she was seven I took her and my other children to see my brother, he was dating a widow with two sons. One of them was about a year older than Ziva and he disturbed Ziva and Tali's game so Ziva smacked his face."
Eli took a puff of his cigarette while he watched his brother steal kisses from his new girlfriend.
"Uriel" Eli muttered shaking his head, as his younger brother ran his hand up widow Gillah's floral dress. Eli peaked in the window to the lounge room where his three children and Gillahs two sons were playing. Thirteen-year-old Ari had disappeared with Gillahs twelve year old son Uzi. Ziva and Tali were playing together and Gillahs eight year old son Amos was exploring the bookshelf that lined Uriels lounge.
"Hey let me play" Amos uttered as Ziva helped Tali build a block fort.
"No" Ziva said. Amos stamped his feet and walked closer to the girls. He knocked over the block fort. Tali begun to cry. Ziva stood up and swung her fist. Amos face met Ziva's small but strong fist and blood spouted from his nose. He stood silently. Not only was his face injured but his pride, he had been hit by a girl a full year younger than him.
"Ima" he screamed calling for Gillah.
Gillah heard her sons call and pulled herself away from Uriel and rushed inside with her hair messy and buttons not done up. Eli and Uriel followed. Gillah noticed Amos bleeding and Ziva rubbing her sore fist.
"Come Amos let's get you cleaned up then we're going home. Where is your brother?" Gillah said. Amos ran up the stairs toward the bathroom just as Ari and Uzi returned. Gillah did her buttons up and put her hair back into the bun it had been in when she arrived. "It's over Uri," she said in an angry voice before rushing after her children.
"Ziva was upset too" Eli uttered.
"Why?" McGee asked.
"My brother punished her by not letting her ride one of his horses," Eli said. "A few years later just before Rivka and I divorced he wanted to buy her a pony. She got all excited and even picked out a name and I said no." McGee looked at the bored.
"Did she throw a temper tantrum?" McGee asked, remembering his own sister Sarah when she did not get what she wanted.
"I'm going to buy Ziva a pony," Uriel announced at the dinner table while his latest girlfriend served salad on the children's plates and received annoyed looks from the children who did not eat vegetables.
"No" Eli said bluntly. "No you will not" Uriel looked at his brother.
"Why can't I spoil my nieces and nephew? I'll buy Ari a motorcycle when he's old enough and Tali a pony when she's Ziva's age," Uriel uttered.
"I said no," Eli uttered.
"I hate you," Ziva uttered quietly. He looked at Ziva. She was completely silent. She ate her food silently as if Eli was not even there.
"Ziva would you like to play Battleship after dinner," Eli asked. Ziva shook her head.
"I think she's giving you the silent treatment" Uriel's girlfriend Dina uttered.
"She did not speak to me for the rest of the trip," Eli said. Amit let himself in with supplies their conversation ended.
"Do you know what we call this in Israel?" Eli said pointing to the backgammon board. McGee shook his head. McGee quietly listened as Eli told him. Amit begun to talk about his exploits as a young junior officer.
"What else did my father tell you?" Ziva asked McGee when they were alone in the squad room.
"He showed me a photo of you," McGee said "When you were like seven" Ziva smiled.
"I remember that photo," Ziva said, "In his wallet, yes"
"He told me that Battleship was your game when you were a kid" McGee said. "And that you decapitated Barbie" Ziva smirked.
"And my mother went crazy" Ziva said.
"He told me about your first fight too with your Uncles' girlfriend's kid," McGee said. Ziva smiled.
"I am surprised he remembered all of that," Ziva uttered. "He always seemed rather disinterested when we were children"
"I think he cares about you," McGee said softly, Ziva looked away of course McGee would believe such a thing, he came from a loving family where everyone cared. Ziva had come to believe she did not.
"Maybe" Ziva uttered as she returned to her computer work, her mind spinning as she realized what McGee had told her might have been true.
A/N: I would like to think Eli and McGee had a conversation such as this when McGee babysat Eli.