Author's Note: So, I got lots of follows and favorites pretty much instantly. That was certainly an awesome welcome back to the world of fanfiction. Now if I could get a few reviews with this one... :D
Also, I have never flown internationally, so I know nothing about it. I did some research and loosely based this on a British Airways flight, but ahh...all I know about this topic is what I've read online.
Last note, I have been watching an anime called Aishiteruze Baby that has probably influenced my writing, especially when it comes to writing children. It is a great show and Annie will probably end up being heavily influenced by Yuzuyu.
Disclaimer: Didn't own it last time, don't own it this time.
A child born abroad to an American mother is an American citizen and guaranteed all the rights and privilages of a citizen born on American soil.
When Ziva learned that, she made sure that she met every requirement to the letter. While she was born in the same city, her daughter had a much simpler path to becoming an American.
However, holding an American passport was the closest the five year old had ever been to setting foot on the nation to which she belonged. In her young life, she had lived in six countries on two continents; none of those countries was the United States.
But all of that was about to change.
The young girl had grown increasingly curious about her nationality over the course of the year.
Ziva could not blame her. They had never lived in any one place for more than a year, so of course she was looking for one place to call her home. No matter where they went, they were American citizens, so perhaps she thought that America would be a point of stability for her.
Bearing this in mind, when Annie asked to go on a vacation over the summer, Ziva knew it was a perfect opportunity to take the young girl to the States.
For a while, she kicked around the idea of taking Annie to Disney World or another touristy place that all the kids knew about the United States. Then, she realized, going to a place like that would not be a real taste of America. If Annie was to experience the America that her mother had fallen in love with, she needed to go to one of the places that Ziva loved.
But where?
D.C. was the obvious answer, but the thought made her nervous. Everything in D.C. was so embedded with memories of Tony and McGee and Abby and Gibbs and all the others. It would be emotional torture.
She was definitely not going back to D.C..
After digging through the corners of her mind, searching for a place that would be somewhat sentimental without being too painful to enjoy.
Finally, she remembered the beach at Cape May, New Jersey.
Annie loved the beach every time they had visited and Ziva remembered very much enjoying her visits to the beach at Cape May.
It would be perfect. She could tell Annie about her friends and the things that they enjoyed and the good times they had on the beach and around town.
"How much longer, mama?" Annie's little voice shook Ziva from her thoughts.
"Uh," she stammered, touching the screen in front of her to show the flight map, "three more hours, metuka."
The little girl nodded, pulling some headphones back over her ears.
Ziva leaned over and combed her fingers through Annie's dark curls, "What are you watching?"
"Cartoons," she replied, staring blankly at the screen.
"I'm very proud of you. You've been a very well-behaved girl on the plane," Ziva smiled.
Annie looked up at her and blinked.
"Is something wrong?"
Annie grimaced, "I'm hungry."
"They'll serve sandwiches in an hour or two."
Annie looked deep in thought before shaking her head, "I don't think I can last that long."
Ziva chuckled, "Can you find the galley?"
Annie raised an eyebrow, "What's a galley?"
Ziva grinned, "I'll take you."
The little girl shook her head insistantly, "I can do it myself."
For several seconds, mother and daughter locked eyes in a battle of two stubborn wills. Ziva turned and looked down the aisle back toward the galley before sighing. "Fine. Go down the aisle back toward the bathroom, when you get there, ask the lady in the uniform if she can help you get what you want. Then you come straight back, got it?"
Annie grinned triumphantly, "Yeah!" Then she climbed over Ziva's lap and bobbed down the aisle of the plane.
Within moments, Annie had returned with several items in her arms.
Now it was Ziva's turn to raise her eyebrows, "What do you have?"
Annie took her seat, pulled down her tray table, and began arranging her haul.
"Food," she said simply, carefully standing an apple on the table.
"I see that," Ziva laughed, "What kind of food?"
"I got biscuits and choc'lates and a apple and and milk," Annie said, pointing at everything as she listed them.
Ziva pointed at the package of chocolate cookies, "You know they don't call those 'biscuits' in the United States, right?"
Annie looked confused, "They don't? But that's English!"
Ziva laughed, "Yes, but English is very confusing, metuka."
"What do they call them?"
"Cookies."
"I've heard that word!" Annie grinned broadly.
Ziva smiled at her daughter.
Annie picked up the cookie and studied it, "So cookies and biscuits are the same thing."
Ziva opened her mouth to tell the girl that the Americans had a completely different item that they called a biscuit, but decided that it was best to let that lesson wait for another time.
Annie opened her container of milk and proceeded to dip her cookie into it, singing, "Cookie, cookie, cookie. Yummy, yummy, yummy, Nom, nom, nom."
Ziva wondered if Annie had the same knotted feeling in her stomach that Ziva had in her own. Probably not, she told herself. Annie was not the one who had ran away from America. Annie did not even know that there was anything in America from which to run away.
Though, to be fair, that was not entirely true. Annie did know that her father lived in the United States. Ziva had shown her pictures and told her about him. Annie knew that her father lived in Washington, D.C. and a few other things about him. Ziva knew that her daughter kept a picture of her father in the front pocket of her backpack so that he would always be with her.
That was part of the reason why Ziva could not risk going back to D.C. with Annie. If, no matter how unlikely the chance, they were to happen upon him, there would be no way for Ziva to restrain Annie from launching herself at her father.
A father who did not know Annie existed.
