Half an hour later Zafirah is sleeping on the couch. Tony and Ziva stand in her kitchen. She sits on the counter sipping tea. He leans against the counter, just looking at her. She sits down her cup.
"I am supposed to be at work," she begins.
"I spoke to Gibbs."
"What did you tell him?"
"That's not important."
"I don't understand what happened."
"Neither do I, really."
"Why are you so calm? You should be freaking out. I am freaking out. I don't know..."
"I am freaking out."
"You haven't said a word. Which is completely out of character, for you."
"I don't want to freak her out. I'm just trying to make sure that she is taken care of. That is all I can do right now. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to do this. You know I am not good with change," he admits.
"No, you're not. Neither am I. I can't even begin to wrap my head around this. Last night you show up on my doorstep, with a baby. My daughter. I don't know how to react to that. How am I supposed to feel about that? Happy? Scared? Afraid? I do not know the first thing about taking care of a child. She's a baby. I don't know how to take care of a baby. Neither do you. I mean... what are we supposed to do?"
He shrugs, "I don't know. How do we figure this out? What are we supposed to tell her? What if she asks questions that we can't answer? What if we're both terrible at this. How is this supposed to work? We have a job to do. We have criminals to catch. We put ourselves in danger every single day, and I don't know how to do anything else. Are we supposed to give that up, for her? What are we supposed to do?"
"Why are you asking me? I don't know," she reveals.
"You are the calm, level headed one."
"I am not calm, or level headed," she argues.
"I have seen you diffuse bombs, without breaking a sweat."
"That is different. It's just our lives we're dealing with, not anyone else's. This changes everything. What are we supposed to tell Gibbs? I mean..."
"I have no idea."
"What do you know?"
"That we have a baby, a daughter. We have to figure out some way, to take care of her. I don't know how, I just know that we do."
"How did you find her? How did you... why did you..."
"I hate unanswered questions, as much as you hate lies. My gut told me something wasn't right, and I knew I wouldn't rest until I had all of the facts, whatever those were."
"You can't ignore your gut. You always get indigestion, when you do," she adds.
"I know. That's why I took the time off. I knew I had to find out exactly what happened."
"But how?"
"I tracked down the midwife."
"Tracked her down?"
"I found her working in an orphanage in Yemen."
"And..."
"I asked her about what happened. And she smiled. I couldn't figure out why she was smiling. I thought that maybe she had spent so many years with terrorists that she was smiling because of the terrible thing that happened. I should have understood, but I just, I couldn't wrap my head around what she was trying to tell me. I was too much in shock to be able to think straight."
"But?"
"She said, 'You don't know?'. I had no clue what she was talking about. She told me that none of what Saleem told you was true. I didn't understand. She told me that it was a girl, that she didn't bury her, that she didn't die. I thought that she meant she didn't die right away, but... no. Zafirah was sitting on the floor. She pointed to her, and told me that was her."
"How? I saw her. She wasn't breathing she..."
"Elise resuscitated her. She got her to a hospital. Ziva, she's like you, she wasn't willing to give up without a fight."
"Why did she take her with her to Yemen?"
"She thought you were dead. She thought Zafirah would be safe as long as she was with her."
"I don't know what to say."
"You can tell me what the name Zafirah means."
"It is Arabic. It means..." she trails off.
"You don't know?"
"Actually, no."
"Why not?"
"I don't know," she shrugs.
He grabs a book, off her table. He hands it to her.
"Where did you get this?"
"The store," he reveals.
"What do you want me to do with it?"
"Look it up."
"Why can't you?"
"Please," he begs.
She flips through the book. She reads the text aloud, "Triumphant."
"Oh..."
"Tony? This is where you pinch me, and tell me that this is all a dream."
"Ok." he pinches her.
"Ow."
"This isn't a dream. It's real."
"So, now what?"
He looks past her, into the other room. His eyes fall on the body sleeping on the couch.
"We can talk about how amazing she is," he suggests.
"She talks so much."
"They thought something was wrong with her."
"Because she talks so much?"
"No."
"Because she speaks such clear English?"
"Because she didn't talk at all. Not one word."
"What?"
"Elise introduced me, and she started talking, right away."
"What are you saying?"
"Until the other day she never said a word." He answers. She allows a moment for what he's telling her to sink in. As she processes it, her heart sinks. Her mind starts spinning circles, but she keeps her eyes locked on him, trying to maintain her composure.
