Sunday 9:00am:

"Morning," Ziva said as she walked into the kitchen.

"Morning, you look like you're feeling better," Jenny said, noticing her peppiness.

"Sure, I guess," Ziva said, sitting on a stool at their counter top.

"Can you make sure Jethro and Tony are awake? Breakfast is almost ready," Jenny said.

"Okay," Ziva said. She went back upstairs and to the master bedroom.

She knocked on the door. "Gibbs?"

"Yeah?" a sleepy voice asked.

"Jen wants you up. Breakfast is almost ready," Ziva said through the door.

"Coffee?"

"Is waiting for you when you get down stairs," Ziva finished for him. She saw the door open and Gibbs walked out in a tee shirt and shorts.

"Meet you down there," he said, walking past her. He needed his coffee in the morning the way alcoholics needed their drinks.

"YOU BETTER NOT EAT ALL THE FOOD!" she yelled as he went down the steps.

She listened for his reply, only to hear laughter.

She walked over to Abby's room and knocked on the door. The room was silent.

She knocked again.

"Tony?" Ziva called.

No answer.

She opened the door and saw in lying in bed. The sheets were tangled around him and the comforter was on the floor. She chuckled and walked over to him.

"Tony," she said gently, tapping his shoulder. He shifted but didn't reply.

"TONY," she said a little louder.

"Ughhh," he said, reaching down and pulling the sheet over his head. The sheet got tangled in his feet and wouldn't come up that far and fell back down to his shoulders.

Ziva sighed. She looked around the room and saw a cup of water. She smiled walking over to it.

She brought the cup close to Tony and poured a little on his head. He jumped up.

"Whatever it was, I didn't do it!" Tony yelled.

Ziva placed the cup down and continued to laugh.

"Hey," he said, running his hand through his now wet hair.

"You would not get up," Ziva said. "Breakfast is probably ready," she said, walking out the door.

Tony followed behind her. His hair still messy and his eye was still throbbing. They walked into the kitchen.

"Ah. There you are," Jen said, placing two cups on the table. "Sit."

Tony and Ziva sat down next to each other. Jen sat on one end of the table and Gibbs on the other. Tony sat next to Jen.

"Turn and face me," Jen told Tony. "I want to see your eye."

Tony turned to look at her. He saw the smile in her face. "It looks better. The swelling has gone down and I see you can open it. By tomorrow it should just be a bruise," she told him.

Tony smiled then went back to eating the French toast that was on his plate. They finished breakfast without any fights. Ziva and Jenny cleaned up while Gibbs brought Tony into the living room.

"I thought you guys were just friends," Gibbs said to Tony.

"We are," Tony said.

"I don't think my friends look at me the way you look at her," Gibbs said, studying Tony.

"Well," Tony said. "I-"

"Surprisingly, I trust you with her," Gibbs said. "You really helped her last night and you didn't say a word when you got beat down. You acted like it didn't hurt you, but I know how much it hurt. I saw it in your face when you thought no one was looking."

"So does it make me weak?"

"No, instead of acting like a baby and making it about you, you made sure she was okay and didn't care about your safety. You knew what would happen as soon as you walked through that door and you still came in. I don't know whether to call you brave or just really stupid." Gibbs said.

"A bit of both I guess." Tony said.

"Has she told you about her father?" Gibbs asked him.

"Yes."

"So you know that he can take her at any time then," Gibbs said.

"Yes," Tony said. "Is there anything we could do? How can she become a citizen of the US?"

"We've looked at everything," Gibbs said sounding defeated. "She's studying to take the test, but it is months away. She is an Israeli citizen and he father lives there. She doesn't have any biological family here."

"What about marriage?" Tony asked.

Gibbs looked at him funny.

"Not that I want to marry her," Tony said. Gibbs stared at him. "Not that I wouldn't, but… I'm just going to stop talking now. I just know because my cousin married a girl from Russia and she became an American citizen by marriage."

"So what do you think we should do? Have her get married at seventeen?" Gibbs asked.

"No, find someone who is willing to marry her and stayed married until she become a citizen from the test. Then once she is a citizen regardless of the test or the marriage, she can get a divorce," Tony said.

"That is some plan," Gibbs said.

"Yeah, I guess. I kinda just made it up right now," Tony said, smiling, no longer completely afraid of Gibbs.

"Made what up?" Ziva asked, walking into the living room.

"Joke," Gibbs said.

"Was it funny?" she asked, sitting on the coffee table in front of Tony.

"Nope." Gibbs said.

"Can I hear it?"

Tony sighed and says, "A girl asks her boyfriend to come over Friday night and have dinner with her parents. Since this is such a big event, the girl announces to her boyfriend that after dinner, she would like to go out and make love for the first time. Well, the boy is ecstatic, but he has never had sex before, so he takes a trip to the pharmacist to get some condoms. The pharmacist helps the boy for about an hour. He tells the boy everything there is to know about condoms and sex. At the register, the pharmacist asks the boy how many condoms he'd like to buy, a 3-pack, 10-pack, or family pack. The boy insists on the family pack because he thinks he will be rather busy, it being his first time and all. That night, the boy shows up at the girl's parents' house and meets his girlfriend at the door. "Oh, I'm so excited for you to meet my parents, come on in!" she saysThe boy goes inside and is taken to the dinner table where the girl's parents are seated. The boy quickly offers to say grace and bows his head. A minute passes, and the boy is still deep in prayer, with his head down. Ten minutes pass, and still no movement from the boy. Finally, after twenty minutes with his head down, the girlfriend leans over and whispers to the boyfriend, "I had no idea you were this religious." The boy turns, and whispers back, "I had no idea your father was a pharmacist."

"That is so funny!" Ziva laughed. "Gibbs, how could you think that is not funny?"

"I'm a father. I understand perfectly why that boy kept his head down," he said, then got up and walked out of the room.

"So, did you sleep well?" Ziva asked Tony.

"Yeah, I thought that I would wake up and get scared, but instead I saw your pretty face." Tony smiled.

Ziva blushed and smiled.

Tony noticed. "Are you blushing?"

"No," Ziva said, turning her head away. Tony smiled and put his hand on her cheek and turned her head back to face him.

"I think you are," Tony whispered.

"I think I am too," Ziva smiled biting her lip. Her cheeks turned a deeper red.

"You're on fire," Tony joked.

Ziva swatted his hand. "When are you leaving?" she asked.

"You're kicking me out?" Tony replied.

"NO," Ziva replied a little too quickly. "I mean, can you drive with your eye like that?" she said placing her hand on his eye gently.

"I can see just fine. It probably looks worst than it feels," Tony said.

"Oh," Ziva said removing her hand from his face. "What are you going to tell everyone at school?"

"The truth," Tony said.

"Why would you say that? Why would you tell them you were protecting the terrorist!" Ziva asked.

"You not a terrorist," Tony said. "And nobody thinks you are. It is really only half of my lunch table. They are just pissed you won't sleep with them."

"You're telling me that only five people in school think I am a terrorist?" Ziva asked. "Everyone avoids me!" she yelled.

"Shhhh," Tony said. "People are influenced by what Jason and Bobby say. They don't believe it, but no one will stand up to them and tell them to stop. They just ignore you. Pretend you're not there."

"That is stupid." Ziva huffed, folding her arms across her chest.

Tony smiled. "That's high school."

Ziva looked at Tony. She knew it would be a rough week, he had to turn against all his friends. She couldn't make him do that.

"I will not let you say that." Ziva said. "You are not telling people how you got that."

"And why not?" Tony asked, getting frustrated.

"Tony, you have sacrificed enough for me. I am sure your friends will forgive you about the punch. You can go back to normal and forget about me," Ziva said.

"What if I don't want to be normal anymore?" Tony asked, taking her hand in his.

"I would say you are stupid," Ziva said.

"Well, I did walk into your house last night and expect to come out without this," Tony said pointing to his eye. "I think I've already earned stupid. And, being normal is not all it's cracked up to be."

"Tony," Ziva said trying to get him to stop talking.

"No, listen, I mean, I'm far from normal. I have friends who are jackasses, I have no mother, practically no father, I really never fit in with my friends, I was always smarter than them," Tony said. "They don't understand me. No one ever understands me. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm in some ways just like you. Running from my past, but I'm stuck here, trying to ignore everything till I find something better."

"Tony," Ziva said but was interrupted by fingers on her lips.

"If you say anything about me forgetting you and moving on, I'm going to sic a angry Gibbs on you. Got it?" Tony asked, waiting for her to not her head yes. "Because, even if I wanted to forget you, I don't think I could."

"Tony, but you could be normal again and-"

"GIBBS!" Tony yelled.

Ziva's eyes got wide. Gibbs walked into the living room looking at the teenagers. "You called?" he asked.

"Ziva has something she needs to tell you," Tony said not taking his eyes off of her.

"Ziva?" Gibbs asked, looking at her.

Ziva glared at Tony then turned to Gibbs. "I have been being bullied at school and Tony here thinks you should know."

"Damn right, I should." Gibbs said, walking closer to them. "What are their names? Did they hurt you?"

"They have pushed me into lockers," Ziva said, lifting up the back of her shirt to show him the bruise on her back.

"Ziva…" he mumbled, coming closer and placing a gentle hand on her battered skin, wishing he could take the punches for her, but knowing he couldn't. "Names. I need names."

"Gibbs, they are not bothering me anymore," Ziva lied.

"These kids, are they the ones who followed you yesterday?" Gibbs asked.

Ziva nodded.

Gibbs focused on breathing and not killing the closest thing he saw. "Did they touch you?"

"No," Ziva said.

"How long has this been going on?" Gibbs asked, trying to get her attention away from the floor.

"It just started last week."

"Ziva, you've only been going to school for one week," Gibbs said.

Ziva didn't say anything.

"Ziva, please go in and see Jenny. Tell her about the bruise. She will make sure that it is healing." Gibbs said gently.

Ziva nodded and walked out of the living room.

"How long have you known?" Gibbs asked Tony, letting his anger show now that Ziva was out of the room.

"About the bruise, since Wednesday. I told the guys to stop and I thought they did. But then she called me last night," Tony said. "I thought you knew she was bullied. I didn't know she didn't tell you. I started to wonder because after I met you, I thought that the boys would have stopped instantly if you'd said something to them. Then last night, I found out she never told you. She said she would tell you, but I didn't believe her. I haven't known her very long, but one thing I noticed was she didn't do anything she didn't want to. The pain was mental, the only physical thing that happened was her getting pushed into the lockers. Other than that, they didn't touch her. I'm not trying to downplay it, just explain it as best I can."

Gibbs nodded. "Do you know the guys who did it?" he asked.

"Yeah," Tony said. "Jason Whiller and Bobby Grundy are the "leaders", if you would say. Then there is Eric, big, tough guy. He's one of the ones who pushed Ziva. I got him to admit it. Eric MacMen."

"You threatened them?" Gibbs asked out of curiosity.

Tony chuckled. "I threatened to shove my fist so far up their ass that they wouldn't remember why they bothered her in the first place."

"Thanks," Gibbs said placing one hand on Tony shoulder before standing up. He started to walk away then said over his shoulder, "I am really regretting punching you in the face."

Tony smiled and followed him into the kitchen.

Tony saw Ziva sitting on a stool leaning forward holding an icepack on her back. He thought she was mad at him. He would be.

"Ziver," Gibbs said. "How are you?"

"Perfectly fine," Ziva said. "I feel the same way I felt ten minutes ago."

"Good," Gibbs said.

"You can tell Tony he can go home. He has done enough already." Ziva said. It came out a little harsher than she meant it to.

"I don't have to," Gibbs said.

Ziva realized what that meant. She turned around and saw Tony standing in the doorway. His face looked like it had been slapped really hard and it wasn't his eye that cause it. He looked as if someone just punched him in the stomach.

"Tony," Ziva said shocked that he was behind her. "I-"

Tony held up his hand. "Ziva. Jenny. Gibbs," he said, forcing a smile on his face. "Thank you for letting me stay the night. I'll show myself out." He turned around and walked to the door. He grabbed his keys off the table next to the door and walked out. He didn't care that he left his phone or clothes there.

"Tony," Ziva said, dropping the ice pack and running towards the door. She was too late, his car was gone from the curb. Ziva brought her hands to her face and let silent tears fall as she leaned against the door frame.

"Let's go clean up," Jenny said gently and for the second time, Jenny brought her upstairs and helped her calm down.

A/N: Please dont hate me! Review, even if you do hate me. LEAVE ALL PITCHFORKS AT HOME!