Previously

"Tony, come on!" He snapped, throwing his agent's jacket at Tony before he helped Mini-Ziva into hers and lifting her gently off the table, before he walked out of the lab with the little girl, leaving Tony to follow the pair.

"Poor Jethro, he'll have one grumpy and tired girl once the caffeine wears off," Ducky shook his head at Abby who looked remorseful after the team.

(Shopping mall)

After having spent the better part of the afternoon in some furniture stores and getting everything that the shrunken agents would need to make their rooms more suitable for their ages, the three of them now stood at the entrance of the mall.

"Here," Gibbs gave Tony a mobile phone, having come to the decision that he needed to show his trust towards the younger man, "That's yours. My number is programmed. I'll let you go by yourself. If you find clothes you want to buy, call me. I'll be there in five. Clothes only! Shoes too, but no other stuff. We'll take care of it once we regroup. Got it?"

Stunned Tony could only nod.

"That's if you want to go by yourself," Gibbs checked.

"No, no," Tony hastily sputtered out, "That's cool."

"Good," smirked the agent and went with Mini-Ziva into the direction of a kids store.

(Evening – Gibbs House)

"Hey Gibbs!"

"Hey."

"I'm really sorry about the .." She was interrupted as Gibbs held a finger to her lips.

"Never apologize," he sternly told her, continuing more cheerfully afterward, "Besides she's your problem for the evening."

"Right," Abby grimaced.

Yesterday they made the decision to avoid any complications for the moment. So Abby would come by every evening to get Mini-Ziva ready for bed. At least till the little girl would finally ask the dreaded question about where her parents where and why she was taken care of by strangers - who didn't even spoke her language.

Gibbs already knew from Ziva's file, which Vance had provided, that the situation surely wasn't new to the little girl but he didn't wanted to lie to her by telling her they were ordered to do so.

"Where is she?"

"Couch."

"Heyaaaaaa," the goth called out loud and happily, even though she knew that Mini-Ziva wouldn't hear her.

As she walked to the couch, she was met by a worn out little girl, who could barely hold her eyes open.

Grinning Abby squatted next to the beat girl, "Bathtime," she signed smiling.

To her surprise Mini-Ziva crawled quickly off the couch and then ran as fast as her little legs would carry her towards the entrance of the kitchen.

"Hey!" Abby narrowed her eyebrows in irritation and slowly walked to the little girl.

Mini-Ziva gave her a disapproving look, shaking her head widely and making her curls fly.

"What's going on? Can't you keep it down?" Tony yawned from the bottom of the stairs, dressed only in boxers since he already had went to bed.

"Little disagreement over taking a bath," smirked Gibbs, having come to rest against the door frame of his living room.

Meanwhile Mini-Ziva kept running away from Abby as the goth tried to come near her.

"Gibbs!" Abby called, finally to frustrated to continue.

"Yes?"

"Help?" She meekly asked.

While the scientist had turned around to speak to Gibbs, Mini-Ziva had made her way over, closer to Tony. Her brown eyes scanning over his posture before she ultimately stood on the same step on where the teenager sat.

"Guess you don't like to take a bath right now, huh?" He whispered, tugging playfully on her shirt sleeve in order to make her sit next to him.

As she did so, the little girl laid her hand on Tony's tight, cowering close to him. As if someone had flipped a switch all energy seemed to leave her small frame, leaving her bare to enormous yawns while her eyes started to blink heavily.

Gibbs watched Mini-Ziva's actions as Abby had started a speech about taking better care of what she would give the little girl to eat or drink next time.

"Abs," he interrupted her ramblings, "Maybe we should forget about the bath tonight."

He grinned at her and pointed to the stairs.

When Abby turned around she saw Mini-Ziva seemingly resting comfortably against Tony, her head and most of her upper body lying across his lap.

Even Tony somehow had managed to fall asleep, his head resting on the stair railing.

"Aww," whispered Abby, "You got a camera nearby?"

"Kitchen counter," smirked Gibbs, looking on as Abby fetched the camera.

"Wow, I didn't thought you had such a modern one."

Gibbs glared at her, "Bought it today," he grumbled, a small smile on his face. "More like grabbed it on the way out of the store, without really looking at its functions or the price tag."

"There are already a lot of pictures on it, for buying it today."

"Most of them were made by Tony. He's in love with the 'new' technology." The agent rolled his eyes.

"Explains the pictures of teenage girls," laughed Abby quietly as she flipped through the photos before taking a few from the pair on the steps.

"Let's get them to bed," commented Gibbs and picked Mini-Ziva up, careful not to wake her.

Once he had carried her upstairs and was shooed out of the girls' room by Abby, he went to get his agent.

"Tony?" Gibbs shook the shoulder of the teenager.

"Hm?"

"Come on, go back to bed."

"Oh." Tony rubbed his eyes before he dragged himself back upstairs.

"How did it end?" He asked as he got back under his bed covers.

"Both of you fell asleep." Gibbs smirked, having followed Tony to his room, "Abby's changing the kid into PJ's. No bath tonight."

"Lucky girl," yawned the teenager, slowly drifting off again.

The team leader was nearly out of the room when Tony called him.

"Yeah, Tony?"

"It's weekend, right?"

"Yes." Gibbs raised an eyebrow.

"So... We can sleep in?" Tony asked hopeful.

"Sure. Don't see why not."

"Good. Thought you might live military-like? Up at 5 am, no matter which day," the teenager admitted.

"You're not at a military academy here. Get some sleep, DiNozzo," Gibbs laughed and shut the door behind him.

Outside in the hallway he was met by Abby.

"She's sleeping."

"Makes two of them."

"Was it bad?" Abby asked, referring to the caffeinated girl.

"You know how it feels to be high on caffeine and then fall deep once it wears off, Abs," Gibbs gently led her downstairs.

"That bad," commented Abby smitten.

By now they had reached the front door.

"Tony said he was a terror teen but his younger self is behaving quite good," inquired the scientist as she shrugged her coat back on.

"Give him some time and that will change once he has settled in more," smirked Gibbs, returning Abby's initiated hug.

TBC...