Tim watched his sister give Kayleigh a hug before leaving. He held a hand out to his daughter. "Shall I show you the homestead then? I promise my friends may have seemed scary today, but they really are nice people." Tim assured her, hoping none had left a bad impression on her. Especially not Ziva
She smiled and nodded as she took her dad's hand. "I'm sure they are," she said as she pulled on his arm trying to get him to move faster she wanted to see where she was going to be living
Tim smiled as he was dragged along. Someone was excited to see her new home. He unlocked the car's electric locks and challenged her "If we don't get to it in 30 seconds it will relock itself. I bet you can't make it" Tim challenged his daughter, knowing running in a parking lot could be dangerous, but it was just a bit of fun.
Kayleigh looked up and smiled before taking off without another word she made it to the car and got in before it locked. She giggled and waited for her dad.
Tim chuckled softly as she took his challenge and actually did it. "Well you sure showed me didn't you? Looks like you're the fastest little girl in the world" He said softly to her as he caught up and ruffled her hair.
She giggled and nodded. "Not the fastest though." she said "I ran in a track competition when I was six and came in 17 out of 30" she said
Tim smiled down at his girl. "Well that isn't too bad. I bet if you stuck with it and trained then you would be able to do better next time" He said to the girl as he opened the door for her. It was one of those 'you can do anything you set your mind to' moments
She shrugged. "I didn't really like it anyways. I only did it because mom wanted me to try it. That's why I didn't do it this year," she told her father.
Tim nodded to her comment. Sometimes parents could do that to kids, but he understood a bit. "Well you would never have known you didn't like it until you tried." Tim said as he went around to the other side of the car and hopped in. "Next stop home," he announced
She smiled and nodded excitedly. "I can't wait." she said as she buckled up her seatbelt
Tim started down the road, pointing out a few interesting locations to her along the way. Parks and fun stuff like that. He pulled into his parking slot and he could swear he heard the whining from his apartment already. Jethro must know what his car sounded like. "Ready?" he asked the little girl.
She nodded smiling as she undid her seatbelt and got out of the car. "You said you have a dog?" she asked kind of scared about it
Tim nodded, but watched her expression change from excited to a bit scared. "Yeah, I have a dog, but I can make sure that he is away if you want. He really is just a friendly guy though." Tim assured her, remembering he wasn't so friendly with him at first.
She nodded. "I lied to you before," looking down at the ground "I'm scared of dogs," she added mumbling.
Tim ran a hand through her hair as she looked down at the ground. He would have to figure out something if the fear didn't go away. Maybe Ziva or Tony would like to look after Jethro? The two had gotten off to a rocky start, but Tim really cared for the dog now. "You wait here ok? I will go and make sure to put him in the washroom," Tim said as he started off.
She nodded and stayed where he told her she felt bad for lying to him. She waited for him to come back to get her she kept her eyes on the ground. She knew she always felt this way when she lied but she still did it anyways.
Tim opened the door to his apartment and Jethro was dancing excitedly to see him. He smiled and petted the dog's head gently, leading him to the washroom where he would have to stay for a bit while he figured out what to do. Closing the washroom door he heard his friend begin to whimper. He tried to ignore it, going back to where Kayleigh was waiting and taking her hand. "It's ready" He said softly.
She took his hand and looked up at him. "I'm sorry I lied to you, daddy," she said biting her lip.
Tim knelt by his daughter and lifted her chin with his finger until they were eye to eye. "Don't worry about it. It was just a little one. The one that I told my friends was much more serious. We will find a way around this," Tim said softly.
She nodded slightly and smiles a little. "Okay," she said as she took his hand again.
Tim took his daughter's hand and led her up and into his small apartment. He really needed a bigger place. "Well this is it. You have the kitchen area on the left here, the computer's space takes up a lot of the right wall, and back here we have a writing area where my two books came to life" Tim shows her, ignoring the whining coming from the washroom.
Kayleigh looked around and smiled. It was a little small but she could survive here. She looked up at him and smiled. "It's not that small," she said it wasn't as small as he made it seem.
Tim smiled at her complement to his place and the tour went on. He pushed open the door to the only bedroom, which was where the TV that he barely watched was. "I guess this is where you will be sleeping. You'll have lots of room because the bed is like 10 times your size" Tim said with a laugh.
She looked up at him a bit confused. "But isn't this your room? I don't want to take your room," she said.
Tim nodded a bit at her question. "Well yes and no. It was my room, but I just gave it to you, so now it's your room. Don't you worry about me; I can just sleep on the couch. That's what Aunt Sarah usually does when she comes to visit and she hasn't complained about it" Tim assured her.
She didn't feel right taking his room even if he said it was okay. She shook her head. "No. I'll take the couch," she said she bit her lip she didn't want to argue with him but she really didn't want to take his room.
Tim figured this was a debate he wasn't about to win. "Alright then you can have the couch. But only until we get a proper bed for you. I will let you pick out sheets and everything." Tim agreed, wondering if it would end up as princess sheets.
Kayleigh smiled and nodded. "Alright. She agreed," glad he didn't push it. She was happy again
Tim smiled as they reached an agreement. "Well that's the whole place, other than the washroom. I think we can make this work" Tim said, picking his daughter up and putting her on his bed. He picked up his remote and handed turned on his not often used TV. "Any requests?" he asked.
She nodded when he told her about the bathroom when she knew the dog was. She smiled when he put her on his bed and shrugged. "Depends on what's on," she said
Tim channel surfed until he came to a cartoon show that looked almost like a walking talking sponge. What happened to the good old cartoons when he was growing up? Maybe Kayleigh liked this one, though so he left it until she requested otherwise.
"Spongebob!" she said with excitement. "I love this show," she said giggling as she watched it
Tim looked over at his daughter's excitement with the show. Guess it was a good one of a bad lot. He decided he should take care of something while she was watching. "I'll be back in a minute." He promised and tightly closed the bedroom door before opening the washroom door and almost being bowled over by Jethro. "Hey bud. You probably need to pee huh? Sorry about that, but you know I wouldn't do it unless it was necessary right?" Tim asked, giving the dog a rub behind the ears.
Kayleigh nodded barley hearing him she was too much into the show. This was her favorite show. She was fine on her own for a few minutes anyways.
Tim took Jethro out to do his business and came back in, letting the dog off his leash. Jethro decided this would be a good time for a nap so galloped towards Tim's room, where his dog bed was. The dog ran nose first into the closed door and whimpered. Tim gave the dog another rub behind the ears. "I'll get it for you, but you have to go back in the washroom for me," Tim requested, and the dog just tilted his head confused.
Kayleigh jump a little when she heard a bang on the door she didn't hear anything else so she jumped off the bed and went to open the door and jumped when she saw the dog. She just froze she was scared it didn't help that Jethro jump her and started licking her. He was just trying to be friendly but Kayleigh was so small that she fell over.
Tim watched in horror as the door opened and Jethro pounced the little girl, licking her face. She fell over just as he had when the dog attacked him. He darted over and grabbed hold of Jethro's collar, trying to pull him off the girl. Both the man and dog ended up falling over backwards, Jethro on top of Tim.
Kayleigh got up and ran to the closet and hid in there she realized that there was a lock from the inside of the closet door and she locked it before she fell to the floor crying softly. She was scared.