Gibbs made his way down to the bullpen just as his team arrived back from lunch.

"DiNozzo, take McGee, take Pennie, go collect some things for them. Harrod's just left." Tony nodded, knowing better than to question it, and walked back to the elevator with Pennie and McGee in tow. Gibbs crouched beside Ziva's desk the moment the doors closed. "Ziver."

"Yes Gibbs?" She asked softly, watching her computer rather than him. He smiled.

"Pennie's taking the kids to a movie this evening." Ziva smiled gently. "My treat."

"Am I to presume she does not know that yet?" She saw him smirk in her peripherals and couldn't help the answering smile. "Tony will be going with them?" He nodded. "You will have the house to yourself for a few hours then hmm?" He nodded again and very briefly let himself squeeze her thigh, taking a certain level of satisfaction when she closed her eyes and inhaled her next breath slightly more sharply. He stood and leant against his own desk, waiting another moment for her to open her eyes before speaking.

"How was lunch?" Ziva sighed, leaning her elbow on her desk and cupping her cheek in her hand as she turned to face him.

"Lauren has been having nightmares. A lot. I keep trying to get her to talk but…"

"Look how stubborn you were." He finished with a smirk that held just a little too much quiet concern to be truly affective. She smiled quickly.

"Yes, well. I told her she could come and wake me if she had a nightmare; she's far too protective of Pennie to go to her with them." Gibbs nodded.

"Noticed." Ziva nodded.

"I may have been less than careful." She told him softly, more than a hint of guilt in her tone. "Around Abby. Concerning my being at yours last night." She elaborated. He sighed.

"She say anything?" Ziva shook her head.

"I think she was preoccupied by Lauren at the time but…" Gibbs nodded.

"It's okay." Ziva's eyes widened just a touch. "It's okay."

"But…?" Gibbs shook his head with a warm smile.

"Trust me." She nodded.

"I do." They exchanged smiles before Gibbs rounded his desk and got on with paperwork, leaving Ziva to plan what to wear that evening.

Pennie moved around her bedroom, backpack in hand, packing the essentials for at least a week under Tony's specifications. McGee stood watch at the front of the house while Tony stood in the door way of Pennie's room, watching her.

"Lauren will need reading material, not to mention clothes and shoes and pyjamas." She sat on the corner of the bed and put her head in her hands. "I'm sorry; I should not be this tearful." Tony crossed the room and took both of her hands in his.

"You listen to me alright? You're more than allowed to be tearful Pen. So stop apologising for it okay?" He asked gently. She nodded. "Good, now, would you like me to pack for the kids?" Pennie smiled.

"That would actually be really useful." Tony kissed her knuckles before making his way to the next room where Ethan's name was emblazoned on a plaque hanging from the middle of the door. Tony smiled before gently pushing open the door.

His eyes were first and foremost drawn to the blow up mattress beside the toddler bed against the far wall, a half read, well loved, copy of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' sat beside the pillow. He shook his head with a sigh, wondering just how many nights of the week LJ would sleep in her baby brother's room just to keep him safe and as unaware as possible of the fights. He quickly located the toddler's clothes and packed several outfits into the duffle bag Pennie had given him. He then threw in the several cuddly toys that stood guard on the bed before grabbing LJ's book.

He went into her room next. The simple-ness of it struck him first. The only things in the entire room were a bed, a wardrobe, one fit to burst bookcase and a clearly very frequently played acoustic guitar, with one missing string. Tony shook his head before carefully folding dresses that Abby would probably fight even their twelve year old owner for, and several other items into the duffle bag. The guitar was definitely coming with him; music was a very good healer. He then stood in front of the extensive book collection. He whistled lowly and started grabbing a few from every shelf, each alphabetically sorted by author and then by title. Once he was satisfied he had packed enough to keep them both clothed and entertained for a while, he went back to the master bedroom in search of Pennie.

Ziva came back into the bullpen to find Tony putting a new string onto a guitar that was not only cherry red but covered in cherry motifs. She chuckled, coming to lean against the edge of his desk.

"I never took you for a cherry kind of guy Tony." He chuckled, securing the string before holding the guitar properly and starting to tune it.

"It's LJ's. Music's a good healer, thought she might want it." Ziva nodded, watching him tune the instrument for a moment.

"Where is Pennie?" Tony looked up only momentarily before getting back to the task at hand.

"She's down in the day-care reacquainting Ethan with his cuddly toys. Apparently I did well to bring them." Ziva smiled. "How's LJ?"

"She is okay. Abby is keeping her entertained." Tony, now satisfied the guitar was tuned properly, set it down leaning against the filling cabinet and leant back in his chair facing his partner.

"Pennie says she wakes up crying. Nightmares?" Ziva nodded slowly. "Getting too close?"

"No. I can handle it." She smiled softly as Tony squeezed her hand. "She has yet to open up and talk about them though."

"Yeah, well it took you a while too Zi." She chuckled, shaking her head. "What?"

"Gibbs said the same thing." She sighed. "We are very alike, LJ and I." Tony nodded.

"Yeah, I've noticed."

"I hope she knows she can tell me. I hope she does not think it is weak to be able to tell me what her nightmares are about." Tony smiled softly.

"Give her time. How long did I have to bug you for before you told me?" She smiled.

"A few months. I just hope…" She paused with a shake of her head that had Tony grabbing her hand again.

"Ziva?"

"I just hope her dreams are not as bad as mine, Tony. I hope she is only dreaming of yelling. I hope no one has given her worse things to dream of." Tony sighed.

"Me too, me too."

After a rather boring day of paperwork, and re-tracing Shaun after they had lost him for about an hour, Ziva, Tony and Pennie left the squad room to collect the children while McGee said goodnight to everyone, making a speedy exit, furiously blushing at whatever was being said at the other end of his phone call, and Gibbs packed up for the night.

"Abby? Lauren?" Ziva called over the reasonably quiet music. LJ appeared behind the glass office door and waved before motioning for her to join them. Ziva was quick to do so. "What is going on?" She asked, her jaw dropping when she saw the canvass painting on the desk in the middle of the room.

"Do you like it? We got rather bored of chess so we decided to do something different. Abby said we should 'help nurture my naturally creative spirit so she broke out the paints." LJ smiled enthusiastically letting Abby help her out of her spare lab coat, obviously a protective cover for her clothes, not that she spilt a drop on it. Abby chuckled at the completely awestruck look on her colleagues' face. "Do you not like it?" Ziva broke out of her slight trance and opened her arms so the twelve year old could come and be hugged. Ziva squeezed her gently.

"It is beautiful LJ. I had no idea you were such an amazing artist." Abby beamed at the pair. "May I ask why you decided to paint all of us when you could have drawn anything?" LJ shrugged.

"I just kind of let the image flow; there wasn't any rhyme or reason to it. Before I knew it I had drawn you all." Abby carefully lifted the painting up so Ziva could see it in more detail. Each member of the team, including Jimmy, Ducky and Jenny were all drawn and then painted with such an eye for detail it could have been a photo. Because Abby had had the brilliant idea to lay it under a heat lamp it was already dry and ready to go.

"You've got a gift kid. You're super talented." Abby gushed, kissing the top of her head as Ziva let her go. "Maybe you should think about doing that long term." LJ smiled.

"Perhaps. Are we going?" Ziva nodded her head.

"Yup, Tony and your mom are just getting Ethan and then they're going to take you to see a movie. Gibbs' treat." Ziva winked at her making her giggle. "Would you like to take your painting?" LJ turned to face it before looking at Abby.

"I think I'd like you to have it Abby." The scientist's hand went to her chest subconsciously at the gesture. "As a thank you for letting me stay with you." She dropped her voice slightly. "Plus, whenever they are out in the field, you can look at that and have them all with you until they come home safe and sound." Abby pulled her into a tight hug as tears welled in her eyes. It was a moment before Abby could speak.

"Thank you. I will treasure it. I promise." Ziva smiled as Abby released her hold on her. Ziva took LJ's hand and Abby followed them through to the main lab where she took down the picture next to her fridge and replaced it with LJ's portrait. "Pride of place, see?" LJ giggled self-consciously.

"I'm glad you like it." All three smiled before Abby started shutting down her machines and Ziva and LJ made their way to the parking lot to meet up with the others.