Muffins

This is my delicious cyberspace muffin for Zivacentric. :-D I promised her muffins because she was helping me so much with my story, "Summer in New York", and I wanted to give her something as a thank-you-gift. Seeing that I can't actually give her muffins, I came up with this little story. It takes place about a year after "Fighting the Darkness" ended. And again, you don't have to know that story for enjoying this one, so go ahead!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything connecting to the show. I'm proud to say, though, that I own the kids!

Summery: Gibbs and Avigail want to surprise Ziva so they decide on baking muffins for her. After all it can't be that difficult to bake some cookies, yes? And Ziva has a surprise of her own, too. (established Zibbs)

Gibbs pulled up into the parking lot of the supermarket and after finding a parking place, he killed the engine. He let out a deep sigh, already dreading what was to come, then looked into the rear view mirror. In spite of his not-so-enthusiastic mood, he couldn't help the grin that appeared on his face as his eyes met with a pair of sparkling deep brown.

"Alright, kiddos. Let's do this." He got out of the car and hardly had he opened the door for her daughter to get out, too, Avigail was running for a cart. Gibbs just shook his head with a little smile as he went around the car and opened the other door to get Josh out of his seat. The one-year-old was giggling happily as his father took him into his arms. "Great," he mumbled to himself. "It seems that I'm the only one who's not so thrilled about this idea, right?" He chuckled ruefully and tickled Josh's stomach who was now laughing whole-heartedly. Gibbs laughed with his son, revelling in his sincere joy.

"I've got it." Avigail got back struggling with the cart. The little girl was so excited about their little mission that she reminded her father of Abby after having drunk too much Caf-Pow. She was practiccally vibrating.

After Gibbs had put Josh into the seat in the cart, they started towards the entrance. Gibbs stopped, though, as soon as they stepped into the large building which seemed to be going on without end in all directions. He suddenly felt trapped. He always hated those places. Too much people for his liking and too much time spent in waste. He quickly reminded himself that they were doing this because of Ziva and if there was a thing he knew for sure, it was that he was willing to do anything for his wife. And now she was in some serious need of some cheering-up. In the last couple of days, Ziva seemed exhausted, even sick and Avigail noticed that, too. That was why he had ended up in the supermarket with the kids. At Avigail's suggestion, they were about to make some muffins for Ziva. Never mind the fact that Gibbs had no idea how to bake. He figured that he'd cross that bridge when he got there. But first, he had to get out of the supermarket without going insane.

"You have the paper?" Gibbs looked down at his daughter who quickly nodded and fished out a crumbled piece of paper out of her bag. "Good. Let's go then. What's the first item?"

"Uh… flour."

"Then flour it is." The little group made its way towards the flour section but Gibbs once again found himself stopping abruptly in the middle of the aisle. "You're just kidding me, right?" he groaned to himself and looked down at Josh who began to chuckle. "You think it's funny?" The little boy kept chuckling and Gibbs looked up with a pained look. "That's definitely not funny."

He ran his eyes over the long row of different types of flour. He looked at his daughter clueless but Avigail just shrugged. She began wandering the aisle while Gibbs walked behind her completely at loss. Buckwheat flour, corn flour, potato starch flour – ha, he had already heard about that one! – rice flour, rye flour, almond flour. Okay, that was it for Gibbs. It was really bordering on ridiculous and it wasn't over yet. Whole-wheat flour, cake flour, pastry flour, all-purpose flour, bread flour – wait! He backed up and looked at the all-purpose flour section suspiciously then with a shrug, he reached for one. It must be as good as any and its name sounded vague enough to be used for anything.

"Avigail," he called for her wandering daughter who immediately bounced back to him. "I got it," he declared then added a silent "at least I guess so" before asking for the next item on the list.

Not long after that, they found themselves in the sugar section and Gibbs had a strong case of déjà vu.

Caster sugar, powdered sugar, coarse sugar, fruit sugar, granulated sugar, sugar cubes, Demerara sugar, Barbados sugar – what the hell! – brown sugar. Gibbs scratched his head in confusion. Why the hell is the sugar brown? He looked down at Josh as if the boy could tell him which one was the right one but finally it was Avigail who came up with a solution. After running through the aisle, she returned with a packet of some kind of sugar, claiming that it was the one they needed. Gibbs believed her.

After leaving the horrid sugars behind, he looked down at Avigail, who quickly informed him that they needed salt, too.

"Salt?" Gibbs looked at Avigail incredulously. "No way," he shook his head. He would not go through this torment for a third time. And anyway, they must have some salt at home. "What's the next one?"

"Baking powder."

To Gibbs' utmost relief, getting baking powder proved to be a relatively easy task so he started towards the oil section with renewed confidence. He had to be sorely disappointed, though. Then and there, he was sure that if he hadn't got two kids with him, he would have said a couple of colourful things. Just how many kinds of oil does humanity need?

After the incident with the oil, Gibbs quickly decided that it was high time to leave that goddamn horrid place. But unfortunately, there were still a couple of items that had to be purchased.

"Alright, Avigail," he looked down at his daughter. "We change tactics. From now on, we grab the first thing that we can reach. We'll be like the Marine Core. Fast and effective."

"Yes, Sir," with a huge grin, Avigail saluted to her father, who laughed at his little girl's antics and Josh giggled with him.

As a result of Gibbs' new approach to grocery shopping, the little group was able to leave the supermarket within the next twenty minutes which was quite impressive in Gibbs' opinion if the smug smirk on his face was anything to go by. He really couldn't understand why people complicate their lives with totally unnecessary things like a thousand types of sugar.

It seemed that crossing that figurative bridge of baking was a much more difficult task than Gibbs had anticipated. Standing in the middle of the kitchen with the kids looking at him with great expectations – well, after their little adventure in the supermarket Josh looked more sleepy than expectant –, he felt totally at loss. He seriously considered that facing the enemy in a warzone was easier than tackle the task at hand.

"Any idea how to do this?" he looked at Avigail, who was standing by the kitchen bay, her head propped up on her hands.

"You don't know how to make muffins?" The little girl sounded incredulous and at that moment she distinctly reminded Gibbs of her mother. "But you can make pancakes," Avigail stated, clearly not understanding what her dad's problem was.

"Guess I can, huh?" Gibbs smirked at her. "So…" he looked over the items that were spread in front of him and at that moment he really wished that he had copied the directions from that recipe book, too, not just the ingredients… or at least that he hadn't forgotten from which book he had copied it in the first place.

"It's flour then," He declared confidently.

"May I do it?" Avigail's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Of course, Kiddo," Gibbs smiled at her. "But I have the paper then." Avigail handed him the paper then ran out of the kitchen to get a chair from which she can reach the counter properly. Gibbs began to study the paper in his hand but unfortunately his arm wasn't long enough for him to be able to actually see the letters on it. He was so absorbed in his attempt at reading that he didn't hear Avigail returning to the kitchen. Her little giggles made him look up with a raised eyebrow. Avigail ran out again then came back with his glasses.

"Right, rub it in to your father what an old man he is," Gibbs shook his head then popped the glasses on his nose.

"You're old," Avigail stated, still grinning. "Like Mom. She's old, too." Suddenly Gibbs didn't know whether he should feel hurt by that sincere statement or take it as a compliment that he was put into the same class as Ziva where age was concerned. Finally he settled for a bark of laughter which was followed by a confused look from Avigail and a huge yawn on Josh's part.

"Alright, we need 1 and a half cups of flour," Gibbs read and a frown appeared on his face. "Cups?" he looked at Avigail. "What kind if measure is that?"

"That's what the book says."

"That's quite vague, don't you think?" he raised an eyebrow questioningly, feeling rather annoyed at the lack of precision. He had been a marine after all; he was used to clear, unquestionable orders. "How should I know what kind of cup is required for this?" Gibbs felt really out of his comfort zone and this whole thing was damn frustrating for him. Once again he had to remind himself that they were doing it for Ziva and Avigail was clearly excited about baking with him. He took a deep sigh, trying very hard to convince himself that he was able to do that, then he looked at his daughter. "Sorry."

"Don't worry, Dad." Avigail stepped up to her dad and put her tiny hand on his arm, looking at him with a serious expression. "I know which cup Mom uses," she declared then walked up to one of the counters and produced a plastic cup out of it.

Gibbs looked at the object incredulously. On the upper part of it, with big glaring blue letters it was written: 1 CUP. He rolled his eyes and took it from Avigail.

"Oh, oh..." He was pulled out of his disturbing thoughts about plastic cups by Avigail's voice. He looked up and groaned.

"Josh..." Gibbs quickly abandoned pouring the flour into the cup and all but jumped to his baby boy's side.

It seemed that the blueberries – because they were making blueberry muffins – grabbed the little boy's interest and instead of going to sleep, he decided on smashing them all around the table, his cloths and his face. The boy looked at his father and gave him a cute little purple smile while he was waving his little purple hands in front of himself.

"Yeah," Gibbs rolled his eyes as Avigail pulled the rest of the blueberries out of his brother's reach. "Easy for you, Buddy. It's me who has to clean you out of it." With a sigh, he gathered the little boy into his arms, blueberry smudges and all, then made his way out of the kitchen. "I'll be right back, Kiddo," he called back to Avigail.

After the initial difficulties, the muffins were relatively easy to make. Well, except for that phase where Gibbs didn't really know whether he should just toss that whole thing into the bin and go out for some cookies. But within an hour deliciously smelling muffins were sitting on the table while Gibbs and Avigail looked at each other, clearly proud of their handiwork. Josh was bowing his head while he was somewhere between awareness and sleep.

When some time later Ziva got home, the smell of freshly baked muffins greeted her. Her first reaction was to stop in her tracks. Why did the house smell like vanilla and cinnamon? She slowly made her way to the living room and her clearly confused expression turned into sheer amusement. Gibbs was lying on the couch with Josh on his chest. It seemed that both father and son were out like a log. After taking a couple a steps into the room, she realized that Avigail was in the same condition, sprawled out on her beanbag.

She silently walked to the couch and crouched down, reaching out to gently stroke her baby boy's head. The boy didn't even stir at the contact, unlike his father, who slowly opened his eyes.

"Hey," Ziva greeted her husband in a low voice then leant closer to put a little kiss on his lips.

"Hey," Gibbs croaked sleepily. "You're home."

Ziva nodded with a smile while Gibbs started to sit up slowly not to disturb Josh's sleep. When he was sitting, Ziva settled next to him on the couch.

"You had a busy afternoon as I can see," she noted, indicating to the sleeping kids.

"We made muffins for you."

"Really? For me?"

"Yes," Gibbs shrugged nonchalantly. "You didn't look quite yourself in the last few days so Avigail suggested that we made muffins."

"You are very thoughtful." She kissed him then a huge grin appeared on her face.

"What?"

"I would have liked to see what you were doing in my kitchen."

"You can, actually. Everything's as we left it. You can do the dishes." He arched an eyebrow.

"Oh, how very thoughtful of you," Ziva repeated herself but this time the sarcasm couldn't be missed in her voice.

"You look all right now," Gibbs noted after regarding her for a while. "Everything's fine?"

"Actually, yes..." Ziva wrinkled her nose. "I think."

"You think?"

"Well, I have just come from my doctor," Ziva informed him at which genuine concern appeared on her husband's face.

"What? Why?" Gibbs stammered. "Are you sick?"

"No, my love," Ziva put a calming hand on his cheek and gave him a gentle smile.

"Then why did you go to see your doctor?"

"Well, I have not felt that good recently and I just wanted to make sure…" Ziva trailed off, looking a little uncertain, which only made Gibbs even more worked up.

"Make sure of what?"

"That we have another little one on the way."

"A little one of what?" Ziva didn't answer that, she just looked down at Josh and stroked his head. She could literally hear when it downed on Gibbs. "You're pregnant." She looked back at him shyly.

"Are you happy?"

"Ziver..." Suddenly he didn't know what to say. He certainly didn't see that coming. "Of course, I'm happy… well, more than happy." And that was the truth. "It's just that we didn't exactly talk about it, not to mention that you are on the pills, yes?"

"I am, but you know that nothing is foolproof."

"Well, this is a case when I'm really happy about it," Gibbs told Ziva with a happy grin as he leant closer to her. "I love you, Ziver."

"I love you, too." Ziva met him halfway as she snuggled closer to him, putting her hand on Josh's back as their lips met.

"Yuk." After a little while they could hear a clearly disapproving voice, coming from the direction of the coffee table behind which Avigail's head was popping out while the little girl covered her eyes. Gibbs and Ziva parted with a huge grin on their faces and looked at their daughter.

"Hey, come here, Angel," Ziva called for her and Avigail quickly jumped up and all but threw herself on her mother's lap. "Hey there," she greeted her daughter, laughing, while the girl was hanging around her neck. "I heard you did good in the kitchen with Dad."

"We did," Avigail beamed proudly then leant back to retrieve the bowl with the muffins from the coffee table while Ziva held onto her waist. "We baked them for you." She offered the cookies to her mother, who took one.

"Hmm… That is really good," Ziva complimented and Avigail quickly grabbed one, too, hugging the bowl to herself. "Are you sure you did this?" Ziva asked playfully.

"Hey…" Gibbs protested, adjusting his hold on Josh, who began to squirm a little in his sleep, while Avigail was nodding furiously, stuffing her second muffin into her mouth.

"Sorry," Ziva thought that it was the time for a little ego-brushing so she leant closer to Gibbs and placed a kiss on his cheek. "It is really delicious," she murmured appreciatively.

"Of course, it is," Gibbs scoffed indignantly and he reached for one, too, eating it with two bites.

"You know, Jethro," Ziva looked at her husband bemused. "If you are so sensitive about your accomplishment in the kitchen, you can do the dishes, too. I am sure Avigail will help you with that." The face that the little girl was making, with her mouth full of muffin, was comical while Gibbs looked absolutely scared.

"So, Kiddo," he looked at Avigail, eager to change the subject. "How about another little brother or sister?" He asked conversationally.

Avigail's eyes lit up as she swallowed the last piece of her cookie.

"Can I have a sister this time?"

THE END

Thanks for reading!