Hiya! Thank you all so much for your responses to the Tiva reunion, I'm so glad that you liked it. That was one of the toughest chapters to write, but one that I enjoyed writing very much :) I guess this is a bit of a filler chapter, but I needed to bridge the reunion with the start of problems being discussed and solved. Thank you to the guest reviewer who asked about Tali's name. I debated for ages whether to call her DiNozzo or David-DiNozzo as it wasn't confirmed in the ep. I have got an idea about her being DiNozzo, but I've put a poll up under my profile or you guys can leave your preference as a comment and I will let you decide. I will change it in my earlier chapter if you guys want her to be David-DiNozzo :)
To anyone who has been affected by what happened recently in Orlando, I am so sorry. I know that this won't take away the pain or make much of a difference. I am totally devastated and shocked by Christina Grimmie's death. She was the first musician I ever watched on YouTube 6 years ago and she was the first person that I subscribed to. A beautiful voice and a beautiful person. Sending love to her family and those closest to her. The tributes to her are beautiful: her gofundme page, Selena's tribute, Doddleoddle, Sam Tsui, Connie Talbot and Emma Blackery (all on YouTube), the amazing gesture by Adam Levine, the list goes on. Thank you, Christina. To the 49 beautiful people who sadly had their lives cut short in the nightclub, to everyone who was there, who was injured, who knows anyone who was there. These people were sadly targeted because of their sexual orientation. But they are defined by more than that. They were somebody's family, with their whole lives ahead of them. May you all live on in the lives that you touched. xxxxx
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Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Please see the end of this chapter for additional thanks to you all and replies to guest reviews. Your comments were so lovely and detailed that I want to reply to them fully. I hope that's ok with you guys :)
Wednesday 25th May 2016, Parisian Apartment, France, 6pm
Ziva moaned quietly and shifted slightly, beginning to stir awake, yet keeping her eyes squeezed tightly shut, wanting to stay wrapped up in the blanket-like cocoon of the darkness for a little while longer. Urgh, what happened? She was so comfy wherever she was, she didn't want to move anytime soon. But as she was laying there, Ziva slowly began to remember what was going on. She'd gone out earlier on to get some groceries from the little convenience store down the road… she'd got back to the apartment… where she'd been surprised by –
"Tali!" Ziva's eyes flew wide open as she cried out while she bolted upright, her head and eyes darting rapidly around the room, desperately searching for her daughter. Maybe it was just a dream, just my imagination trying to play games with me. I did just fall asleep on the floor; I must be trying to wish her here with me.
However, her actions and cry had caused the other two sleepy, jet-lagged people to wake up. As the tired pair stretched themselves out, both father and daughter gave a tired groan simultaneously. Ziva jumped at the sound and gasped, locating the source of the noise to her left. Her eyes quickly filled with tears again. They're here, they're really here!
As soon as Tali had rolled over onto her right side and seen Ziva again, seen her Ima again, she immediately shot up into a seated position and wrapped her arms around her mother, clinging on for dear life. "IMA!" This little girl was determined not to be parted from her mother ever again. Ziva hugged her daughter, with some silent tears beginning to fall and trickle down her cheeks.
This is not how things were supposed to happen.
Tony slowly sat up beside them and looked over to the pair, running his right hand through his now scruffy hair while his left hand kept him balanced against the cool floor. His hair was sticking up all over the place, reminding Ziva of her first day as a member of the team almost 11 years ago now…
"You might want to do something about your hair. It's sticking up like a porcu-swine. No, wrong word. Like a porcu-pig? The little animal with the little spikies, yes. The –"
"Porcupine."
"- Porcupine! Thank you, Special Agent McGee."
Breaking that memory and the silence of the room, Tali's stomach suddenly made a loud growl. Ziva glanced down at her and chuckled, "My my motek, are you hungry? It is only… 6 o'clock!" she exclaimed after checking her wristwatch. "No wonder why you are hungry, it's past somebody's dinner time, is it not?"
Tali giggled loudly as Ziva started to tickle her tummy, burying her small face into her Ima's shoulder. Tony couldn't help but smile at the loving scene in front of his eyes. But he knew that this would not last. He and Ziva were going to need some serious talks. And soon. The question was when, especially when you add a near two-year-old into the equation?
While Tony was thinking loudly to himself, Ziva also had a thought and looked at him. "Would you like to feed her?" Tony looked a little shocked at her question, mouth slightly agape. Maybe she did want him to be a part of Tali's life. He really wanted to feed his daughter, he'd been doing so well with her over the last week. But this was definitely not the time. Tali needed to be with her mum. Besides, she was their precious daughter, not a trophy to be fought over. "It's ok, you go. I don't think that she's keen on letting you go anywhere anytime soon."
With that, Tony used both his hands to push himself off of the living room floor to stand up, groaning a little as he stretched out his sore muscles. Remind me to never sleep on a cobbled floor ever again. Or any floor for that matter! With one last glance towards the cuddling pair, he made his way over to the fallen bags and began to pick up the forgotten groceries from the floor.
Ziva watched his actions apprehensively and sighed quietly to herself, softly stroking Tali's gentle curls. But she wasn't going to sit there feeling sorry for herself. She knew she had to face the consequences of her actions. And she had a very hungry daughter to take of too.
"Come, little one. We need to get you some dinner, don't we now?"
Gently, Ziva maneuvered Tali so that she balanced on her left hip and was almost hugging her sideways, like a baby koala bear, and managed to stand up with her daughter safely in her arms. As they left for the kitchen and for food, Ziva looked behind her at Tony the whole way. Why are you here? You're not safe here. Neither of you are.
Tony kept his sights on the parcels on the floor, not quite able to look at Ziva again just yet, although he could feel her gaze on him. While he was left alone in the living room, Tony used this time to try and clear some of his thoughts in his spinning mind while gathering up the food items (luckily nothing had broken or spilt). There was just so much to take in, a lot to process. He didn't know how to feel right now. Should he be happy, elated, angry, upset? Was there even a proper way to react to a situation like this? No. And there shouldn't be either. But above all, he had one burning question, which he still couldn't wrap his head around the answer to.
Did that really just happen?
He let out a big sigh and put his now throbbing head into his hands, feeling the start of a headache coming on. Us together. The three of us. That's how it should have been right from the start. We've lost almost 2, 3 years that we could have spent as a family. I've missed out on so much. Ziva needs to know how I feel. We have got to talk. He could hear giggling beginning to emulate from the kitchen and he was growing curious as to what was going on in there. Not yet. Not in front of Tali. I won't have her listening to us argue, her parents arguing. While I may not trust Ziva very much right now, I won't let Tali get hurt because of us anymore. She will not grow up the way that we did.
Decision made for now, he made his way to a standing position, collected the shopping and made his way towards the source of the laughter...
Things were very quiet at the dinner table. Only the sound of cutlery scrapping against the plates could be heard echoing around the wide room. The antique, wooden piece of furniture was now a witness to the awkward silence between the adults in the room. Tony and Ziva sat opposite each other, both looking down at their plates with their daughter seated in a high chair in between them. Neither one was really eating though, with Tony choosing instead to pick around at the poached chicken, mash and veg on his plates and Ziva running her fork through the mash over and over again. Both choosing to remain in their own little bubbles for now.
They hadn't really spoken much in the kitchen. Just a few words here and there: What did you both eat for lunch? Anything I can do to help with dinner? Thank you for picking up the groceries, you did not have to do that. They'd just quietly got on with sorting out some food and keeping Tali entertained and encouraging her to have a go at mashing some potatoes, eliciting some laughs from all three of them. There wasn't much to say to each other at this moment in time.
Tali, who was seemingly oblivious to the increasing tension within the room, was beginning to get a bit restless as Ziva had become fixated on her own plate while all she wanted another mouthful of food. Tali was starting to eye-up what was on her Ima's plate. She started to babble in Hebrew and tried to bang her left hand against the top of the high chair. Ziva jumped a bit and looked over to her, smiling widely. She took Tali's spoon from her dish and scooped up some of the creamy mash and veg from her own plate. After placing the spoon in her mouth and making yummy sounds, she then scooped up some more veg and mash and reached over to feed Tali. Laughing at her mother's antics and seeing that she had both eaten and enjoyed the food, Tali quickly took the spoon and ate the food. Ziva laughed, "Good job, Tali! You are such a clever girl, are you not?"
As Ziva continued to feed Tali, Tony finally peered up from his plate of food which had done wonders to capture his attention for the past 10 minutes, watching with slight awe at the scene in front of him. Ziva had obviously learnt the tricks that Jimmy had taught him the previous week (had it really been a week already?) about encouraging their daughter to eat. Orli had been right, Ziva was a natural. Who would have thought so all those years ago? This was the first time that he had witnessed Ziva as a mother. Maternal Ziva. It took his breath away. And part of him couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous at their bond. At what he had missed out on.
Now exhausted after an emotional reunion and full-up from her dinner, Tali's eyes began to flutter and droop. Wanting her to get some proper sleep, Ziva carefully lifted the little girl from the high chair and into her arms, carrying her through to the child's bedroom which adjoined onto the master bedroom. Walking over to the little bed, Ziva gently placed Tali under the covers, still holding onto her slightly. The little girl in question gently grasped onto the front of her mother's jumper, needing the comfort. Ziva wanted nothing more at that moment than to crawl into the bed, curl up beside her daughter, hum to her and fall asleep together. As they had done many times before. But she couldn't avoid this anymore. She wouldn't run away again. She had to talk to Tony.
Slowly, she untangled herself from Tali's grasp, desperately trying not to wake her up, and made her way to stand up again, once again bringing out those ninja skills. The little girl gave a slight moan about the movement but she just rolled over onto her left side and snuggled further into the covers; a small smile appearing on her face. This made Ziva want to start crying again and she had to give herself a few seconds to compose herself. There was no way that she could begin to talk to Tony if she was in tears.
"Ani Ohevet Otach, Tali." Kissing her little girl softly on her forehead, Ziva gently tucked some of the short, unruly curls from her daughter's face behind her ear, turned to exit the master bedroom and looked back over her shoulder to watch her sleepy girl before she left. However, as she entered the living room to make her way back towards the kitchen where she had last seen Tony, Ziva was surprised to see that he was currently pacing back and forth in the middle of the living room, hands loosely in the pockets of his jeans.
As he turned back to face her, Tony spotted Ziva exiting the bedroom and ceased his pacing. Tony stood there in the middle of the living room, just a short distance away from the bedroom door. He had his arms folded across his chest. He needed answers.
"We need to talk."
A/N: Thank you so much for reading this, you super amazing people! Oh yeah, they most definitely need to talk. Hopefully they will start to sort things out in the next chapter. Thank you to all of you who reviewed, you guys give me a lot of ideas and positivity which I can't thank you all enough for. I hope that all those with FF accounts got my replies alright, here are the Guest comments replies (again I've put the 1st few words of Guest reviews in brackets so you know who I'm replying to). Thank you :)
Debbie: Thank you so much for your review! Wow, thank you I'm really glad you liked the little reunion! Oh yes they defo still need to talk, you're right they need that in order to go forward. There will certainly be a lot to discuss before they even think about being in a relationship. :)
Guest (Deena Bashan): Thank you so much for your review! Ooh, do you know what, that is a very interesting idea! She may definitely pop up within this fic, if this is alright with you, as it's your great idea? Yeah, I could definitely still see her being angry and upset with Ziva. I don't think they would have repaired and rebuilt their bridges. Hmm, yeah sadly I don't think she'd think twice about harming Tali. Thank you again :)
Guest (Yesterday is history): Thank you so much for your review! Wow, I absolutely love both of those quotes. I would love to use both of those as chapter endings, if this is alright. They both really made me think :)
Guest (Things I'd Like to Say): Thank you so much for your review!
1. Thank you, yeah I'm thinking of adding that ep into the mix in chapter 11 or 12. Think Tony will have a lot to say about their "presumed death" situations…!
2. Ahh, you have a great imagination! Thank you, I'm really glad that you are finding this story interesting, it really does reassure me as a writer. Yes, I'm really glad that you do comment your ideas, I love reading each and every review. If someone does make a suggestion, I love to ask their permission to include this within this FF. It feels weird as I do have my own ideas and I don't want readers to feel like I'm pinching the ideas of others, but I want to write this FF for the fans of the show and the Tony, Ziva and Tali characters. I totally get reviewing as a guest reviewer, I did that for many years before setting up this account. I hope that it's alright that I reply to you guys, I just want to take the time to thank you all individually, you don't have to review so I just like to say thanks and talk. I love FF's that build a community between the writer and the readers :)
3. The "Second Chances Given & Not Wasted" type is a very interesting idea, one that I will definitely keep noted down. It's one to look at once I have finished with this FF. If I can write it well, I may well publish it.
4. Yeah I don't think I've seen that either, which is a good thing, you're right it's cruel. It would be a very interesting storyline! Ooh yes she does look like young Kelly, she would be great in that role.
5. Yes, the more I think over that ep, the more it does feel like a challenge. Also, why did Ziva re-join Mossad? That wasn't covered in the last ep. Did she re-join, was it a typo? Yeah we all responded in our own ways to that ep, for some that was initial anger, denial and then pulling the ep apart. Hehe yeah I had to take it take one step further, the idea wouldn't disappear from my head until I wrote it down! I think that would be a great challenge for GG, I hope that the writers do read all of the finale FF's out there. Wow, thank you! I don't know what to say! I'm so glad you like this little FF. That's really nice. There are so many amazing FF's out there and I'm trying to write this one well for all you guys :)
6. It was really nice and heart-breaking when Ziva said she wanted something permanent. I am glad that she and Tony finally had a daughter. Yes, I love that Tiva babysat together twice! That will defo be mentioned in this story somewhere. Ooh, I forgot that Tony said that. It's nice that the love for dogs and animals was passed down to Tali.
7. Hehe, yes! Maybe they could get a puppy when things settle down and when Tali is slightly older. Ziva loves dogs and Tony as you said thought about getting one. Now to choose a breed…!
8. Thank you, yeah I know I played around with the speech in that chapter for days (just ask Lipush!)! We did come up with some lines like that, but we decided that they would fit better into chapter 12, when Tali has a nightmare. I hope that this is okay. Hehe, think you were right, they all cried themselves to sleep. :)
Guest (IT BEGAN...): Thank you for your review! Hehe I absolutely love that scene, it was so clever! Who would have though, huh! It's so strange to think about ep's like that now as we know that something finally did happen! I'm defo gonna bring that up in a later scene with the Morph Pro! The lovechild is real. Maybe they printed a copy of their lovechild out, maybe one of them still has the photo, ooh so many ideas now, THANK YOU! Hehe, it's all good, I love dramatic writing! :)
Guest (Some of Gibbs' rules…): Thank you for your review! Oh yes, the rules will be very relevant to the rest of this story, especially the next few chapters. With Ziva's memory, I defo agree that she would know every rule. Don't worry about the link, does that! The infamous Rule 12 will be the biggest one there. And Rule 5. And 8. Quite a few! Yes, the rules had and still have a huge impact on Tony and Ziva, even though they are no longer on the team, they will still follow them. They both wanted to make Gibb's proud of them :)
Guest (I personally suspect...) Thank you for your review! That would have been really lovely, we never heard anything about Rivka. What happened to her, how old Ziva was when she died, we didn't see or hear much about her. I think that I'm gonna bring her up in a later chapter, think I might have Tony and Ziva discuss their mother's and how Tali almost grew up like they did. It would have been nice to have learnt more about her :)
Guest (If this were…): Thank you for your review! OOOOHH! I love it! That's great! Actually can't stop thinking of that now haha! I wonder, if it's alright with you, I'm thinking that could be an interesting way to end this whole FF, would that be alright with you? I'll write it in my FF notepad so I don't forget (you're more than welcome to keep bugging me about it!) :)
Guest (After watching Batman V Superman): Thank you for your review! Ooh, yeah I reckon that Tony or Ziva will say something similar at some point during this lil FF… :)
Guest (By all means…): Thank you for your review!
1. Yeah their private talks will begin in the next chapter. Oh yes Ziva is definitely prepared like you said near enough all the time. The BYD ep fits well and makes a lot of sense, thank you :)
2. Yeah I think Kelly would work for a relatively unknown agency or one that doesn't feature often. Would be interesting if she and Gibbs ended up working a case together? :)
Guest (Now I remember!): Thank you for our review! Ooh yes I loved that piece of music, Brian Kirk just composes some beautiful scores! I can't read chapter 9 without 'Aliyah' in my head now, it's beautiful, thank you :)
Guest (Even though it is inevitable…): Thank you for your review! Yes I think that the trust between them has been broken, especially Tony's trust for Ziva. Oh yeah, they will both definitely say things that they don't mean and also truths that need to be told. Their anger will die down after a while. Ooh Arrow, great show! Think I'll go find that FF now, it sounds good! I really like that, they defo need to regain their trust in each other. They will be able to talk and work through their issues :)
Guest (Shouldn't the name…): Thank you for your review! Yeah, I debated for so long about her full name, going back and forth over last name. It was a very good point for you to raise. I am happy to go with whatever the readers of this FF want her to be called, I hope that this is okay with you? Thank you :)
Guest (The following below…): Thank you for your review!
1. Yeah definitely, Tali's nightmares aren't just going to disappear. She may have a fear now of being suddenly separated from her mum again. Yes, being in her own room will also heighten her fear, she may end up in the master bedroom or having someone sleep in her room.
2. Yeah I like that, I think that she knows a few basic words, maybe Ziva or Tony have taught her, but Tony will really help her to pick up the language. She could be a whizz, just like her mother.
3. It will be very interesting to see what Ziva did and went through over the last 3 years. Yes I completely agree, while Ziva may have wanted to start again, I think that Orli would have kept her updated about Tony and the team. Maybe that convinced her to stay in Israel to keep Tali safe? I think she would feel really guilty about Diane and those hurt by Sergei.
4. That's very interesting. I am so torn between whether they will tell the team or not about Ziva, I've sadly actually got a table with why they should and shouldn't tell them!
5. I like the whole blocked communication situation. It's something that's in my table, as it may give away that Ziva is alive to the mercenaries. I think that they would hopefully try to find a way to inform Nettie, Shmeil and Sr at least.
6. Ooh, the We Will list, that's very intriguing, I like it! Think that could work very well, if it's okay with you to use that :)
I love the chapter title ideas that you came up with, they're really clever. I'm really debating between naming the chapters now and as I go along, or naming the chapters once this story is finished. I also a bit torn, as I'm starting to feel like I'm pinching ideas from comments but I also want you guys to feel a part of this story. So would it be alright if your chapter headings are used, you would be credited in this FF as this. :)