Slightly different style today.
Tony placed the first disc in the reader and moved to sit in the tiered seating. He smiled as Ziva's face appeared on the screen.
"This is a very good camera Ziva, my dear." Shmeil's voice said. "How could you afford it?"
"I bought it with the last pay-check I received. I wanted to get you something good for your birthday." She laughed. "So you like it?"
"It is excellent." Ziva grinned at Shmeil and the camera.
"Shmeil, I need to talk to you about something." Her smiled faded. "Without the camera."
"No, I don't want to hear anything that can't be on record, because then I must worry that you are going to be in trouble again and I am getting too old for that." Shmeil said, his smile audible in his voice.
"It is nothing like that, I just don't want to have to talk about it with a camera pointed at me." She said and Shmeil zoomed in on her face. "I really should have given you the camera after I told you." She sighed.
"Oh, my Ziva, what is the problem?"
"Shmeil, I am pregnant." She rubbed her forehead and leaned back on the sofa she was sat on.
"My Ziva is getting married!" Shmeil jumped up and danced around, the camera bouncing up and down in his hand.
"No, Shmeil. There isn't going to be a marriage." She hated having to tell Shmeil this. "The father is in America, he doesn't know."
"Who is it, Ziva." Shmeil sighed. "Is it Tony?"
"Wha...? How did you know?!" She cried.
"I saw the way you looked at him the first time I visited you in your American life."
"I didn't look at him in any way..." She pouted.
"Ziva, of you and your siblings, you were the one who was most passionate." He said.
"No, Tali was more passionate than all of us." Ziva sighed.
"Talia was compassionate, she fell in love every day with everybody. You, my dear, are passionate. You don't fall in love regularly but when you do you fall hard." Shmeil laughed. "I knew from the day you were born you would struggle with something like this."
"How did you know?" She smiled.
"I saw it in your eyes." Shmeil said.
"I do not believe in being able to see things in someone's eyes."
"But I do." They both laughed slightly. "You will be staying here Ziva. I have spare rooms."
"Shmeil, I can look after myself."
"I do not doubt that, I have seen the proof, but I want to look after you." The old man sighed behind the camera. "I have no children, this is the closest I will ever get to helping a daughter in need."
Ziva sighed. "Alright, but if you insist on filming every second of my life I am going to leave."
He smiled as the video cut to Ziva, stood in pyjamas, cooking. He always did like her cooking.
"Omelettes?" Shmeil asked as he zoomed in on the frying pan.
She smiled at him. "Would you like some?"
"I don't eat until 5 am. You know that." Shmeil sat down, the camera bouncing slightly in his hand.
"Well, in Adelaide it is lunchtime, is that satisfactory?" Ziva smiled.
"I suppose it will be okay just this once. Are you working tonight?"
"Yes, the restaurant has been busy recently." She smiled, serving the first of the eggs up and passing it over to Shmeil.
"That's your beautiful playing." He grinned.
"No, I don't think so." She chuckled. "Yossi has created a new menu."
"I told you he was a good chef." Shmeil said as he ate the omelette.
"And I believe you." She smiled, moving from behind the central island counter with the hob in order to sit next to Shmeil and revealing a small bump. They sat in silence, eating, for a while until Shmeil put his knife and fork down. "Did I not cook it well?" Ziva asked, frowning.
"You cooked it perfectly." He said.
"Then why have you not finished it?" She asked, the hurt evident on her face.
"Because we need to talk." He sighed. "You must phone Tony."
"Shmeil..." She placed her cutlery down too and rested her head in her hands.
"Ziva, it is going to hurt more if you keep this from him. What are you going to tell the baby when it asks who their father is?"
"I will think about that when the time comes." She sighed. "What if Tony does not want to know."
"I think he will." Shmeil placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I hurt him. Anyway, Tony is good at moving on," She smiled weakly. "I am not so important that he will not have moved on by now. I am sure he has forgotten all about me." She stood up, carrying her more-or-less empty plate to the sink where she ate the last forkful and washed it.
"Ziva, you know that is not true." He sighed again, considering whether to bring up the letter he had received from the NCIS agent the other week concerning Ziva's safety. "He sent me a letter." He finally decided.
"What?" She whipped around from where she had been standing facing the basin.
"He wants to know that you are safe. He cares for you." Shmeil stood up and walked over to her, leaving the camera on the table. "Do not cry." He wiped away her tears. "Why don't you phone him? Or write a letter? E-mail?"
"Because as soon as I tell him he will jump on a plane here and try to find me. I want to move on from that life, I cannot be around death and destruction and pain any more."
"Ziva, they are all parts of life. They cannot help their existence in our lives."
"But they can be avoided. I can play happy pieces on the piano and bring my baby up to be kind and polite and joyful. I can stop grieving and wear colourful clothes."
"Ziva, you have never worn bright, colourful clothes." Shmeil laughed and Ziva chuckled. "Those actions are good steps to being happy, but they cannot erase the sad."
"I just don't want to get hurt anymore." She looked him in the eyes before he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her.
"I know, my dear Ziva."
Tony tried to dried his eyes as short clips of Ziva and Shmeil flickered by, Ziva's bump growing slightly bigger in each one. He wasn't sure what it was that had made him cry in the first place but once he started he couldn't stop. He had yelled at her so much and he knew that she had been through a lot. He could see how few times she genuinely smiled without Shmeil prompting her. He could see the things that caused her pain, the trip she and Shmeil took to Berlin, the Italian restaurant Shmeil took her to on her birthday. Her expression made his heart shatter. It was like he was watching someone act Ziva's life out in a film, but the performance wasn't great and the actress had not studied the character particularly well. There were errors and mistakes, the way she wore her hair, the way she drank her tea.
"Ziva, you are restless." Shmeil stated as they sat in the restaurant where Ziva played piano. She had started her maternity leave a month ago and would not stop fidgeting.
"The baby is sat uncomfortably." She said plainly, wincing slightly as she shifted in her chair. "Why did you say we had to come out for dinner tonight?" She asked, resisting the urge to make a comment upon the dress that she had been asked to wear. It was blue and itchy and not very practical.
"My cousin's friend wants to talk to me about a book that I wrote a long time ago for a report he is writing." Shmeil smiled, adjusting the way the video camera sat so it could capture the two of them.
"But why do I have to be here?" She sighed, squirming like a bored child.
"Because I am old and when the time comes that I will not be capable of meeting people like this for interviews away from the home, you will need to learn to deal with my friends effectively."
"So you are grooming me to be your own personal assistant." She feigned shock and smiled slightly, wincing again.
"Ziva, are you sure you are alright?" Shmeil frowned. "You look like you are in pain."
"I am...fine." She smiled and nodded. "I just feel slightly...dizzy..." She cradled her head in her hands as she rested her elbows on the table.
"Ziva...Ziva..." Shmeil said as his friend's eyes began to unfocus.
The camera screen went black as it was knocked off of the table. Tony jumped up as if he could do something to help. The screen flickered back on to point at a hospital bed with Ziva sleeping in it.
"Mmmn...Tony..." Ziva murmured, her eyes flickering.
"Ziva, my dear." Shmeil said, his hand appearing on the screen when he placed it on her shoulder. "Would you like me to call a nurse?"
"No." She said quietly and shook her head.
"Would you like to see your daughter?" He asked softly.
"I have a daughter?" She smiled, trying to sit up and failing.
"A little baby girl. She reminds me of you when you were born. She has a lot of fight in her." Shmeil placed the camera on the table by the bed.
"How did you get the camera in here?" She asked.
"I snuck it in in my dinner jacket. I told them that I was a respectable man and a respectable man should not have to be searched when his closest friend has gone into labour." He smiled, cradling the tiny infant in his arms as he carried her over. "She is beautiful."
"Of course she is." Ziva smiled, managing to sit up and cradling the small infant in her arms. "She is perfect."
"Have you considered names?" He asked, stroking the child's head.
"Yes, but you will not like them." She didn't remove her eyes from her daughter.
"I will like what ever you chose, she is your daughter." He smiled.
"If Ari had not killed Kate, I would not have gone to America and met Tony, and if I had not been friends with Jenny then she would not have let me back to NCIS and I would never have stayed with Tony."
"So you are going to call her Kate Jenny David. I like it."
"No, Caitlin Jennifer." Ziva smiled.
"Ziva, it's a lovely name, but I don't think it will help you move on if you name her after Americans." He bit his lip.
"Shmeil, my mind is made up. This is what I want to call her."
"Ok. I understand, even if I do not agree." Shmeil sighed. "Once your mind is set, there is no changing it."
"She is beautiful." Ziva smiled, kissing the top of her head. "My beautiful baby girl."
Tony sat and cried. She was so small, so tiny. He laughed at himself. He was a grown man crying like a baby. Only Ziva could make him cry like this. He sat in silence as the first disc ended.