A/N: MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Okay, I am really, really sorry for the delay in the story. I had the beginning of this for a while, but I never could turn it into anything. I have more after this that I've written out, so updates should be more often now! YAY!! Thanks for your patience! (I apologize for any mistakes in this story, I don't usually have anyone beta, and I'm not the best typer in the world.)
It was a clear evening, with good traffic, Tony was thankful for that, and also thankful for the fact that Kazia David was over her caffeine high and not talking non-stop anymore.
He glanced in his rear-view mirror, expecting to see a pair of alert green eyes looking back at him. Instead he saw that the little girl was slumped over in the backseat with her head resting on his jacket, sound asleep.
Tony smiled, he'd always liked kids, but never saw himself taking care of one–it was kind of cool, he decided, pulling into parking space in front of his apartment building.
Kazia sat up immediately.
"Have a nice nap?" Tony asked, turning off the car and getting out.
The girl gave him a haughty look. "I wasn't asleep." She hopped out of the car and slung her bag onto her back.
"Heh," Tony chuckled as they strolled up the sidewalk, "Coulda fooled me, Kaz."
As soon as they were inside the apartment, the girl plunked her backpack on the floor, threw her jacket on the couch, and flopped down on top of it.
Tony hung his own coat up, and tugged the girl's from underneath of her with a grunt. "This is what this peg by the door is for." he hung the smaller jacket on top.
Kazia rolled her eyes and sat up, watching him expectantly. "Sooo," she asked, tapping her feet impatiently, "what do you wanna do?"
Tony shrugged. "I dunno. I don't have much that would interest you around here."
There was a bit of an awkward silence, until Kazia piped up, eyeing the large television across the room, "Can I watch TV?"
Checking his watch to make sure it wasn't too late, "Sure," he replied, but as he had a better idea, asked, "you like movies?"
She shrugged, looking a little lost in the unfamiliar apartment. "What do you have?"
Tony walked to a large cabinet on the far wall and opened it. "The question is," he announced with a flourish, "what don't I have?"
The girl hopped up from the couch to investigate. Obviously impressed by the magnitude of his movie library, she ran her finger along the spines of several DVD's. She turned to Tony. "Dracula?" she suggested.
Tony raised an eyebrow. "Allowed?" he asked, imitating her tone.
She made a face."Seen it. Three times." she replied, then spying another film, she pulled Sleepy Hollow from the shelf.
"Seen that one?"
She shook her head. "No, never mind, it's rated R."
Tony frowned and read over the many titles. "Well...have you seen...this one?" he proudly slid Monty Python and the Holy Grail from its place and handed it to Kazia.
She turned it over a few times, reading the back and looking at the pictures. "Okay." she finally consented.
He grinned and set up the DVD player. God it's been forever since someone watched a movie with me–that's sad.
Apparently it had been a while since he'd seen this particular movie, and he'd almost forgotten it wasn't completely appropriate for a nine-year-old kid. As one of the characters in the movie cursed, Tony put his hands over the girl's ears.
Kazia slapped at him, annoyed. "Agent DiNozzo, please, just let me watch the movie." she sighed.
Tony put up his hands. "Okay, but if you slip up and repeat anything you just heard, you weren't with me when you heard it, got it?"
"Got it."
When the movie had ended, Kazia could barely keep her eyes open.
"Bedtime." Tony told her pointedly.
She yawned and made a face, unable to argue the fact that she was tired.
Tony got an extra pillow and blanket out of the closet and put them on the couch for her, wondering if Ziva was awake by now–but of course she was. She was probably already asking when she could go home, he thought with a smile. Miss David never could do as she was told.
As if she had known what Tony was thinking about, Kazia came out of the bathroom in her pajamas and sunk down on the couch, looking dejected. "When do you think Ziva will be out of the hospital?" she asked, pulling her knees up to her chin.
Tony was taken aback a little at the seemingly cold term of calling her mother by her first name, but he answered. "She'll be back in a few weeks. Depends on what the doctors tell us tomorrow." He watched her nod, pull the covers up and settle in before he finally voiced his question. "Why don't you call Ziva 'Mom', or 'Mommy', or..."Mummy"? Or I dunno, something."
Kazia gave a half-smile. "I asked her once when I was little, why the other kids in my school call their parents stuff like 'Mommy' and 'Daddy'. She said she didn't know why she never told me to call her anything other than her name. She said she just felt being on a 'first name basis' with me, but I think it must have scared her." the girl said wisely.
"'Scared her'?"
"You know, being a mom? When I came around, I think she didn't want to feel like she wasn't a tough Mossad officer anymore." she observed.
Tony chuckled. "Well, if that ever comes up again, tell her that she probably has to be made of tougher stuff to be a parent than a Mossad officer."
Kazia stuck her tongue out and laughed. "I was easy on you today DiNozzo."
