A/N More Fluff, but more case I promise. I am trying to keep the balance. Does anyone know how to separate the paragraphs? It is Driving me batty. Thanks for all the reviews. Disclaimer: not mine.

McGee flicked on the living room lights as Ziva locked the apartment behind them. Chelsea ran into the kitchen and managed to climb on to one of the island stools.

"You hungry Chels?" McGee asked, her actions causing him to smile.

"Uh-huh!" she said, nodding her head.

Turning on the lights, Ziva went into the kitchen and began to clunk around without a word.

"Do you need any help Ziva?" McGee asked, sitting beside Chelsea.

"No, thank you." Ziva said smiling, "I do enjoy cooking."

McGee watched her move around the kitchen, the little smile still upon her face. He realized that, even with her workaholic mentality, she had to have some outlet. Just as he did with writing, Tony with his movies, Gibbs with his boat, and Abby with her bowling. Suddenly he felt a tug on his sleeve, interrupting his thoughts.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"I have to go to the bathroom."

"Go ahead."

Ziva and McGee chuckled as Chelsea scrambled down the hall. Chelsea felt that it was important to announce every visit to the bathroom.

"What are you making?" McGee asked, trying to fill the awkward silence.

"Spaghetti." Ziva answered happily, "My favorite."

"Spaghetti is your favorite?" McGee said.

"What is wrong with that?" she said, sending a glare his way.

"Nothing!" he assured her, "I just thought it would've been more exotic than that."

"Hmm." she murmured, stirring, "What is it Gibbs says about assuming anything?"

"It make an ass outta you and me."

Both adults looked up at the source of the response in surprise. Chelsea stood there with a triumphant smile.

"Is that wight?" Chelsea said, climbing onto the stool again.

"Uh, yes." McGee said, "but let's not say that again, ok Chels? It is actually not a very nice thing to say."

"Ok!" Chelsea said with a giggle, a happily compliant girl.

That caused Ziva to let out her own giggle, surprising McGee. He had never heard Ziva actually giggle.

"Did Gibbs say that?" Ziva asked Chelsea, straining the noodles.

"Yes." Chelsea answered, nodding, "To DiNo."

McGee smiled at Chelsea's attempt at Tony's name. She was just so darn adorable.

"Aren't you just darling." Ziva said, voicing McGee's thoughts.

"Yep!" Chelsea agreed, causing the both of them to laugh.

"It is almost time to eat." Ziva told them, pouring sauce on the noodles.

"Yay!"

"Yay!" McGee echoed Chelsea, picking her up to move into the dining room.

"Can I set the table for you?" McGee asked Ziva after settling Chelsea on a stack of phonebooks.

"Sure," Ziva told him pointing to a cupboard then a drawer, "in there are the plates, and then there are the silverware in the drawer."

Soon the three were seated and eating dinner.

"This spaghetti is great." McGee said, a noodle hanging from his mouth.

"You have a noodle right," Ziva leaned forward with a smile, "there."

McGee froze as Ziva's thumb ran across the corner of his mouth. He swallowed visibly.

"Thank you." he said as Chelsea giggled.

Dinner was a little awkward, but Chelsea was a chatty little girl. She told them about what she did with Jenny.

"I col'rd an' I singed to Cyntia!" she told them proudly.

"So you had fun?" McGee asked her.

"Yeah! An' Abby gave me a drink!"

McGee and Ziva exchanged a look. McGee made a mental note to talk to Abby about giving a two year old a Calf-POW!

"An' Gibbs gave me a sticker!"

Ziva smiled. Gibbs would deny that up and down.

"An' DiNo gived me a movie!"

"What movie Chels?" McGee asked suspiciously.

"Da Lion King." Chelsea said seriously.

"That is a good one." Ziva said.

"You sawed it too?" Chelsea said, wide-eyed.

Ziva nodded, wiping sauce from the little girl's smiling face. Chelsea didn't really like that, but she allowed it.

"Do you want to watch it with your daddy and I?" she asked the little girl, "After I do the dishes of course."

"Weally!" Chelsea said earnestly.

"Weally!" McGee said back just as earnestly.

Chelsea clapped her hands together.

Twenty minutes later, the Lion King was in the DVD player. They all sat on Ziva's couch, the adults at each in with a wiggly Chelsea in between. She clutched a small bowl of popcorn entranced by the singing lion cub on the screen. Ziva was truly enjoying herself. She was able to genuinely laugh along with Chelsea's small giggles and McGee's husky barks of laughter. She never would have felt any of this if she was still under her father's thumb.

By the time the credits rolled, Chelsea was snoring lightly, leaning against Ziva. McGee smiled and took Chelsea to her room. After changing the snoozing girl and tucking her in, McGee returned to the couch where Ziva was staring at a blue screen.

"You ok Ziva?" he asked quietly.

Breaking her gaze from the TV, she snapped it off and turned to look at McGee.

"I am fine McGee," she said, "I was just deep in thought."

"I could tell." McGee said, relaxing into the couch.

There was a moment of silence, which McGee couldn't stand.

"Thank you again." he said.

"For what?" she asked, cradling her head in her palm on the arm of the couch.

"For letting Chelsea and I stay here."

"It is my pleasure." she said, looking him in the eyes.

Chocolate brown met crystal blue for a split moment.

After some more silence, Ziva spoke up abruptly.

"I was thinking about how different my life would be if I were still under my father's command."

McGee's blood always boiled at any mention of Eli David. He saw first hand how the man treated his own flesh and blood.

"He would always keep tabs on me, I would not be able to relax, enjoy a movie."

McGee watched several emotions dance across her face.

"But now you can." McGee said, "You are your own person."

Ziva smiled at McGee. He hated when a woman was upset, and was always so gentlemanly.

"Yes." she said, rising, "I will see you in the morning McGee."

"Good night." McGee said, watching her disappear down the hall into her room.

As he got ready for bed, he thought hard. He vowed to help Ziva in everyway he could.

Shutting out his light, McGee did something he hadn't done in years. He prayed.

Lord. I know it's been awhile. But I really need your help. Lord, I love Chelsea and I plan to keep her. Please let it happen. And I pray for Ziva and the demons of her past that haunt her. Amen.

With that, McGee's eyes closed.

Across the hall, Ziva tossed and turned. She was concerned. She was sharing her feelings. That was something she was trained against. And her heart had been captured, by an abandoned little girl. Ziva threw her hairbrush across her room.

"I have lost it."

"Ziva."

Ziva sat up in alarm, but relaxed when she saw Chelsea at the foot of her bed.

"What is the matter Tetelah?" she asked her.

"Tetelah?" Chelsea questioned, pronouncing the word slowly.

"It means darling." Ziva told her, drawing the girl onto her bed.

"I am hungry."

Ziva looked to her clock just as the alarm went off.

"We will wake your daddy."

Chelsea ran out of her room. Ziva laughed when she heard Chelsea telling McGee to get up.

They met up in the kitchen. Ziva laughed again at McGee's disgruntled appearance.

"How on earth can you get up this early?" McGee grumbled at her as she grabbed some toast.

"I run at five every morning." she said, purposely bragging.

"Five!" Chelsea exclaimed, holding her hand out to symbolize five.

"Good." Ziva said, "I'll be back."

McGee just grumbled something about an 'ungodly hour' or something.

"Ok," McGee said, "How about scrambled eggs?"

"Yeah!"

"Great." McGee said, relieved.

He actually was a horrible cook.

Half hour later, Ziva returned. They all went through the motions of getting ready and left soon after. They took the same car, it was just easier. As McGee started out he had a strange thought.

This is freakishly family-like.

PHOOMPH!