"My name is Sophie Hayes. I am ten years old and my birthday is on the 23rd May. I attended Chestomere Prep School for two years before I was expelled for persistent disobedience. My parents are Tony and Ziva Hayes. My father is a professor of film and my mother is a languages teacher." Sophie recited to Sam as she settled on the small twin bed. The room was the only brightly lit one in the house, painted a sunny yellow and sporting a faded picture of a ballerina. It looked like it had once been a child's room but that nobody had stayed in it for quite some time. The large window opened to show a picture of the back yard with an ancient old swing still hanging from a dilapidated old tree.
"What accent are you using?" Sam asked her.
"My normal British one." Sophie replied.
"Why?"
"Because it's hard to keep an accent going for a long period of time especially if you're stressed." Sam smiled at Sophie's response.
"No, you misunderstood. Why do you have an accent that is different to your parents?" He pressed again.
"Because, before we moved to Washington DC, we all lived in Britain together. Because I was so young, I picked up the accent but my parents didn't. My father was doing some research into some classical movies that were done by British film makers." Sophie added as an afterthought. "I also speak Hebrew, which I actually do because my mother is Israeli." She continued as she saw Tony and Ziva open the door into her room. Remembering the awkwardness from earlier she turned away from them. She wasn't usually so uncomfortable with new people but these guys set her on edge.
"I am sorry about earlier. You look the exact picture of somebody who I used to know." Sophie could hear the Israeli undertones to her voice that she had spent the past few months listening to.
"It's okay. Have you read the mission briefing yet?" Sophie asked indicating the leaflet of information on the bed.
"Yes. You are going to be infiltrating AHG through the use of the school network, yes?" Ziva asked.
"Uh huh. They like using kids for the same reason that Unit J does. Nobody suspects us. I know that I start school in two weeks time and I will be attending James Pike Middle School aka JPMS which shares a campus with James Pike High School, or JPHS, which has already been identified as the hotbed of drug activity. According to Sara King's testimony, she was offered the chance to make money through the mentoring program they have there. Since Sara won't be at JPMS anymore, I have been paired with her old mentor: Kendra Ottomere. She has been suspended for drug possession once in her Sophomore year but hasn't since. Why do you call your Year 11 students sophomores? It's such a stupid name." Sophie muttered. "I will be going into Grade 6 which is apparently the prime age for picking up couriers." She added as she watched Ziva staring at her. It really was unnerving how much she was staring at her. Sophie felt like she was staring right into her soul and resisted the urge to shift away from them.
"Good job, Sophie. I will leave you guys to get to know each other a bit." Sam said as he stood up, stretched, and left the room. Sophie almost called out for him to stop before mentally berating herself for doing so. She was ten years old, a fully fledged agent and didn't need someone to hold her hand just because somebody's stare was unnerving. That was talk of a tiny junior agent who hadn't passed training. She had put up with far worse than a stare before no matter how unnerving this stare was. Tony was the first to break the silence that had fallen on the room by asking her a few more questions about her undercover identity. Sophie answered them as best she could before she was caught off guard.
"How much of this is made up and how much of this is really you? Is your name really Sophie?" Tony suddenly asked her. Sophie was torn in her answer; on the one hand, undercover agents are supposed to keep of much of their identities secret so as to prevent confusion later on but at the same time, minor details are kept the same so as to make it more believable.
"My name really is Sophie." Sophie decided to answer the easy question first. "They try to keep details like that the same because it prevents confusion. What about you?"
"My name really is Tony and but Ziva's name really is Terminator but she doesn't want anyone to know that." Tony added as Sophie laughed.
"My name really is Ziva no matter what Tony will try to tell you." Ziva added smiling for the first time that sophie had seen. Sophie decided then that Ziva wasn't as unnerving as she seemed.
"In my mission briefing, it says that you speak Hebrew?" Sophie asked Ziva addressing her directly for the first time since she introduced herself.
"Yes. Do you?" Ziva asked her in Hebrew which made Sophie flash back a few months to her previous mission where she had barely spoken English at all. It was a nice reminder. Sophie remembered something Elaine had told her a few years ago about her grandfather being Israeli and wondered if she really had spoken Hebrew when she was a little girl.
"Yes. I was on a mission in Israel a few months ago and I barely spoke any English at all." Sophie replied in Hebrew. Tony just stared between the two of them obviously completely lost. "I guess that Tony doesn't speak any Hebrew at all." She nodded towards Tony's confused expression.
"He knows a few phrases but his understanding is next to nothing." Ziva replied relishing in using her native language for the first time in a few years.
"Can we go back to English now?" Tony interrupted their little conversation. "Kind of irritating not being able to understand a word you are saying. Anyways, I think I can smell steak cooking downstairs." Sophie automatically sniffed at this and was fairly sure that he was right. Tony led the way downstairs to where Gibbs was cooking his famous steak on the open fire whilst an old western movie played on the TV. McGee, who had picked them up from the airport was on the phone talking quickly to someone.
"Who's he talking to?" Sophie asked Ziva whilst Tony rolled his eyes as the Hebrew came out again.
"Delilah, his fiancé to be if he ever gets round to buying a ring." Ziva replied opting to switch back to English for Tony's benefit. Sophie picked that moment to look at Ziva's hands. No wedding band or ring. Tony wasn't wearing one either and the thought of that made Sophie feel inexplicably sad for a moment. It was stupid, but just for a moment, she had thought that she might be coming into a normal family with married parents and just for a moment, she might be able to live the white picket fence dream. Once again she mentally shook herself, she had a great life at Unit J and this whole thing was pretend anyway so why should her fake parents be really married? It wouldn't really change anything.
"Are you and Tony married in real life too?" Sophie couldn't stop herself from asking as she settled on the couch next to Ziva.
"It's a bit complicated." Ziva said quietly as she accepted the steak that Gibbs offered her.
"Are you divorced then?" She questioned again. McGee heard this and chuckled.
"Feels like it sometimes, Sophie." McGee interjected into their conversation.
"No. We are a married couple for the purposes of this mission but real life is a heck of a lot more complicated than that. Are we a couple though? I would say so yes." Ziva answered Sophie's question.
"You don't sound sure." Sophie commented as she tucked into her steak. It really was very good, cooked just to perfection. She looked around and saw that the other agents were frozen, listening hard in on their conversation.
"We are a couple Sophie." Tony said in such a way that Sophie realized that he had closed that topic. She chewed down a couple more bites wondering about their weird reaction to her question. Surely it was simple: you either were a couple or you were not. She looked between them again. Tony had his arm round the back of Ziva as they sat close together on the couch. She, herself, was sitting next to Ziva, squished in-between her and the edge of the couch. Gibbs was in an armchair opposite them with McGee standing up near the door still on the phone to his girlfriend. Sam had dragged a chair from the kitchen into the living room and was sitting with his laptop balanced on his knees. The conversation soon resumed to questions pertaining to the mission which Sophie allowed to wash over her head. She knew the document back to front and was exhausted. She checked her watch which told her it was almost three in the morning back home. She wondered whether anyone would mind if she had a shower and went to bed. She wasn't normally one to ditch out on the conversation but the jet lag combined with Gibbs's steak was enough for her to want to fall into bed.
Gibbs, noticing Sophie's quite prominent yawn, quietly informed her of where the bathroom was and allowed her to excuse herself to go to bed. Sam stayed up for a further half an hour going over mission documents when he decided to call it a day and go to bed. McGee left soon after claiming that he needed to go and see Delilah if he stood any chance of being in a relationship the next morning. Tony, Ziva, and Gibbs were soon the only ones left awake in the otherwise silent house.
"Well, she is quite something, boss." Tony said to Gibbs. "Smart and understood my movie references so I think we will get along just fine."
"And you, Ziva?" Gibbs asked looking at Ziva's thoughtful face.
"She doesn't exactly hold back on the questions." Ziva responded quietly looking at the floor.
"Yeah Ziva, what exactly was that all about earlier about us not being a couple in real life? I was pretty sure we had made that leap by now." Tony asked trying to keep the indignation out of his voice.
"We are but not in the way that Sophie was asking about. She wanted to know if we were married and the answer to that is no. I wasn't going to tell a ten year old who I have just met the reason why so I picked the least complicated but honest way out." Ziva defended herself.
"I don't think that was what she was really asking Ziva. She wanted to know if we were together which we are, aren't we?" Tony asked her, the indigence showing on his face.
"Yes we are and I told Sophie that." Ziva reminded him, feeling pleased with herself for not yelling.
"If you too are planning on staying the night then bedrooms are upstairs, I will be in the basement." Gibbs said as he left them to it.
"We should probably go to bed." Ziva said to Tony. He nodded and they both went upstairs stepping lightly so as not to disturb the sleeping houseguests. As Tony headed into their shared room in Gibb's house, Ziva peeped into where Sophie was sleeping. Her body was tucked in under the sheets keeping her warm in winter, but her sleeping face on the pillow was what stood out the most. She looked so peaceful with her hair splayed outwards with her eyes closed and mouth open slightly. Ziva stayed for a minute just watching. Maybe this was what her own daughter would have been like if only she could have been around to see it.