Split Across the Continents Part 9

McGee had been standing in the arrivals hall for just over half an hour when he caught sight of Sam Jones and what looked like a fairly small ten year old coming down the escalator to meet him. Sam looked the same as he had done over the MTAC feed with his balding head and faded jeans but this time he was met with a tired smile. Sam was taller in person than he had appeared in MTAC and despite the faded jeans, he clearly was someone who knew a lot about undercover work. McGee wasn't so sure he could say the same for the ten year old next to him. The first thing McGee noticed was how small she seemed to be for her age but her curly hair seemed to add an inch or two to her height. The girl's hair appeared to be a dark brown, not unlike Ziva's he noted. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of bright pink (and McGee was sure they were fake) Reybans and she carried a large duffel bag over her shoulder.

"Had a good flight?"McGee asked them as he lead the way through the arrivals hall towards the parkade.

"Not bad." Sam started before the girl interrupted him.

"It was great. The guy at the first class business lounge was a bit snooty but he let me in, then on the plane, there was about fifty films that I had missed seeing so really it was a difficult choice to make between Fantastic Beasts or the new Star Wars movie. I was tempted to go with the new Star Wars movie but Benjamin said that Fantastic Beasts was…" the girl continued.

"By the way, Tim," Sam started motioning towards the girl, "this is Sophie." McGee shook hands with Sophie opened her mouth to continue on about the flight when Sam interrupted her.

"You can tell Tim about the difficult decision you had to make later but just before we go, I wouldn't mind using the bathroom." Sam motioned towards the mens room as Sophie disappeared into the ladies. McGee followed Sam into the men's room feeling that he should probably go too.

"Sophie can be quite chatty." Sam said in undertone to McGee. "By the time we get to your Agent Gibbs's she will probably not only have gone into some detail of the films she was watching but talk about everything and anything under the sun." McGee laughed at that remembering the hours spent on stakeout with Tony who could also discuss films until the day he died. Everyone had had a good laugh at him reprising his role as a film professor.

"She will probably get along really well with Tony then. He too, loves films." McGee added as he washed his hands and the headed outside to catch up with Sophie. As they strolled into the chilly January air, Sophie pulled her hoodie around herself as she surveyed the parking lot. McGee clicked the keys and Sophie marched towards the car in such a way that McGee was strongly reminded of Ziva when she was on a mission to get somewhere. Really, they couldn't have picked a better agent to play Tony and Ziva's pretend daughter, McGee thought to himself as he crossed around to get into the drivers seat.

Tony, Ziva, and Gibbs were all waiting in Gibb's basement for McGee to get back with Sam and Sophie. They would be staying here for the next few days before the mission started properly as there had been a backlog in getting a house for Tony, Ziva, and Sophie to move into. Both had agreed that staying in one of their two apartments was too risky and it was safer to stay all together. Ziva stood with some sand paper sanding down the current boat residing in Gibb's basement. They had all long since stopped asking how he got the boat out.

"How are you handling everything, Ziver?" Gibbs questioned her as he started sanding alongside her.

"Fine. I am fine Gibbs." Ziva said stretching a smile over her face. Gibbs gave her a knowing look. "I will be. I have accepted that my Sophie isn't coming back and that this one, the one who is staying with us, is not going to be her and I should not expect her to be. I am also trying to reconcile myself with the idea of sending a child in undercover. I know that she has been trained as well as any adult but still. A ten year old…"

"It will be okay Ziva." Tony piped up from his corner and Ziva shot him a smile and continued sanding.

"Don't try to replace her, Ziva. God knows I have tried to do that with Shannon and Kelly. Remember her, don't replace her." Gibbs imparted his words of wisdom before going upstairs presumably to find some more bourbon.

"I don't think I ever could forget her." Ziva smiled at Tony.

"Neither." Tony murmured back as he pulled Ziva in for a kiss. Ziva leant into the kiss and revelled in the feeling of being so loved just until she heard the distinctive sound of the car pulling up outside.

"Time to go meet her." Ziva smiled as she lead the way upstairs.

Sophie had decided that she liked Agent Gibbs just from walking inside the front door. With the TV that looked older than she was and a couch that had seen better days, Sophie appreciated his minimalist look. Sophie dumped her duffel bag on the floor and went to have a look around to see if she could find any other ancient relics inside this Agent Gibbs's house. Just as she was leaving, Sam turned to Gibbs and muttered:

"She has just gone to case the joint, sorry about her not asking first. She'll be back in a minute." As the tip of Sophie's ponytail disappeared around the upstairs staircase, Sam noticed the two other agents, Tony and Ziva, emerge from the basement. Even Sam did a double take. He had seen pictures of them when he was looking to fit the right agent in but he wasn't aware of how closely Sophie resembled them. She looked scarily like them, he thought as he watched Ziva look around for Sophie.

"Loving the minimalist look, Agent Gibbs." Sophie said as she came down the stair case. "I'm Sophie." She said as she caught sight of Tony and Ziva looking around for her. Tony and Ziva just stared at her. "Have you never seen a ten year old before?" She questioned as they continued to stare. Tony was the first to recover and offered to shake her hand which Sophie took.

"You just weren't exactly what we were expecting." Tony said carefully as Sophie smiled awkwardly.

"S'not so bad. On my last mission, the guy damn near refused to work with me. Caused a whole load of problems…" She trailed off as she caught Ziva's eye. "Is she okay?" Sophie asked Tony indicating Ziva's slightly bug-eyed expression.

"Yeah, she's fine." Tony replied as he nudged Ziva which seemed to bring Ziva out of her trance. She shook her head and excused herself to go to the bathroom. Sophie ignored this in favour of asking Gibb's where she was going to sleep.

"Upstairs, first door on the left." Gibbs responded to her question as Sam pondered this Agent Ziva's strange response. Sam watched as Sophie heaved her duffel bag up the staircase presumably to the room that Gibb's had described.

"What was that about? She was told that Sophie was a ten year old, right?" Sam demanded as saw the exchange of glances between Gibbs and Tony.

"Yes. She was just taken off guard, that's all. I guess it didn't really hit her until now that we were really doing this." Tony added as Ziva came back from the bathroom looking more like herself.

"I will go check on Sophie. We are just going to go through some last minute details about the mission." Sam said, sensing the need for the agents to be on their own. He turned and continued up the sparse staircase that led up to Sophie's room.

"Well, she looks the part." Tony said breaking the awkwardness that had fallen upon the three agents. He caught Ziva's eye and they both burst out laughing. For some unknown reason to them both, they both were laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. Ziva was laughing so hard that she had to grab the bannister for support whilst Tony had fallen onto the couch whilst Gibb's just stared between the two of them bewildered at this sudden turn of events. He had been expecting tears but not this hysterical laughter. He shook his head and went down to the basement to continue working on the boat.

"What the hell are we going to do with her?" Tony asked once he was fully able to control his laughter.

"Well, I suppose she has a job to do and we just help her with it as much as possible. In the mean time, I think we should probably try to get to know her, as you know, we are supposed to be her parents." Ziva said as the seriousness in her voice returned.

"Yeah, we should probably not stare at her like she has three heads though." Tony said as he pulled himself to his feet and indicated for them to go upstairs.

"After you…' He said as they started the journey up to Sophie's room.