I am back! I didn't get a lot of writing done while I was away. Most of this chapter and around half of a few other chapters.
As promised, the mystery conversation from chapter 27 is in this. And, the 'next big thing' isn't all that big considering some people have either hit the nail on the head with this or were very close. It is the worst kept secret of this story.
After the first page break; the italics are kind of setting the scene again and has been taken from the end of chapter 27.
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
Ziva looked up from her work to see a NCIS escort, Danyyeil, and an almost teenage girl looking at her. This was the young girl that Ziva recognised as Amali.
"Shalom," Ziva said as she stood from behind the desk. The eyes of her colleagues on her. Amali murmured her greeting. She wrapped her arms around Ziva's neck and held her tight while Ziva enclosed her in a hug too.
"I have missed you Ima," She said in almost perfect English, loud enough for the rest of the team to hear and then look at each other before shooting Ziva a questioning look.
"Your English is very good Amali," Ziva praised.
She turned to Gibbs' questioning glare, "Can I have my lunch break now?" She asked. Gibbs nodded once. Ziva grabbed her bag and walked to the elevator with Danyyeil and Amali.
Once they stepped into the elevator Gibbs and McGee's gazes turned to Tony who went back to exaggerated work.
"'Ima'?" McGee asked, "Doesn't that mean mother in Hebrew? That's what Ziva called her mother," He stated.
"Did you know DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked Tony. He didn't look up from his work as he answered.
"Yeah, she told me," He said as he recalled what she had told him that night in Israel.
Ziva was now right next to him, her head on his shoulder, she was beginning to get tired, but she had one last thing to tell him. She reached out and paused the movie again - effectively gaining Tony's attention.
"I have to tell you something, but you cannot tell anyone else," she said answering his questioning gaze.
She was to planning on telling him, but if she planned on staying with him without scaring him off later - which she did - she had to give him enough warning.
"I won't," he replied.
"I have told you a bit about this; when my sister was sixteen she was killed in a bombing," Ziva explained.
"Is this about your first kill?" Tony asked in return.
"No... Well, I guess it has something to do with that," she said.
"Tali went to the mall, but she wasn't meant to still be there. I was meant to be picking her up. My mother rang me and told me to go, I was about to leave. But as I was getting ready to leave the director of Mossad at the time call me to his office. I was there fifteen minutes more than I should have been. The thing about Tali was that she was laid back. In all honesty, I do not think she would have cared if she was there for another hour. I out that five minutes after I rang her to tell her that I would be late, the bomb detonated. I was ten minutes away," Ziva said as her voice slightly cracking with sadness. Tony watched as she struggled with the still raw memory. He had never seen Ziva as emotional as he had in the past week, and bringing this up wouldn't have been helping - the memory of her sister's death.
"When night came I drove with no real destination," she said stopping to take a breath.
"No one was injured while you were driving?" Tony asked, trying to lighten the mood and subconsciously trying to get the sadness out of her voice.
"No one was hurt while I drove," Ziva replied, "I ended up at a friend's place. He let me in and let me pour my heart out to him about all things I regret and all things I did not regret. I was drinking, and I had no defences. I wanted comfort and he gave it to me even though I never asked for it. We slept together, and I stayed at his house for a few weeks. I had just started at Mossad a few weeks before she died and had not been on any real missions, I had been on a few but nothing too important. When I was told by my father that there was mission that he requested to kill the person that killed Tali; Ari and I were the first to put our names down. Malachi did as well, alone with one other person, who I cannot remember the name of. I have also told you about that, yes?" She said. Tony nodded.
"Two weeks later I found out that I was pregnant-" Ziva was cut off.
"You've had a baby?" Tony exclaimed, almost yelling.
"Shh, shh. No one else knows. I want it to stay that way,"
"Why? That is... How? Why...? How did you...? Why did you keep it a secret?" Tony said.
"If you let me finished I would have told you," Ziva said, "I ran away, I did not tell anyone. I just left. I went to his house and I stayed there until she was one. They were getting too close to finding me. We made a deal; he - at the time was twenty one and when I found out I was pregnant I was seventeen and by the time I had her I was eighteen. He told me that he would care for her until she was almost a teenager, by then - he said that I must have a more stable life and one where I would not put her in danger. That is why when I saw how your team was bonded together, the support, and I thought, 'that is where my life has to be,' so I requested the liaison position. Surprisingly, Eli let me. I suspected that Jenny had something to do with that. I told her - no, she guessed that I had been pregnant, I did not deny it. She told me she would help me if I needed help, that was when I asked if it were possible for me to see if the liaison position was an option with my father, she said that if I was serious about it then she would also talk to Eli,"
"Your question; why haven't I told anyone else? Every person has contacts within the agency. I tell you, you let it slip by accident, McGee finds out, McGee cannot keep a secret from Abby for half a day, he would act strange then he would snap, Abby would tell Gibbs, and he would question me about it. Vance would want to know why we were being sneaky and secretive, someone would tell him, and then the news gets to my father. He knows he finds me, wonders why I did not tell him, he finds her and then he tries to teach her to kill. I did not want that to happen," She said.
"And who is the father of you child?" Tony then asked.
"Danyyeil," She replied.
"His daughter is your daughter?"
"That is usually how it works. When Ima told me he rang, I panicked for a second, I did not know what had been said," She replied, "Ima still does not seem to know,"
A silence engulfed the two for a few minutes. Until Ziva spoke again, "Do you want to see her?" She asked her face lighting up.
"Okay," He replied unsure.
Ziva moved away from him and walked over to her suitcase where she pulled a small book from what looked to be a toiletries bag, he thought back to the other days - her toiletry bag was on the shelf near the mirror. It was a good hiding place; no one would think to find a book in it, let alone what he suspected to be photos. She sat back down next to him and opened it.
"In all honesty, I am surprised Eli did not find me, I was in hospital for ultrasounds, and when I gave birth, he could have tracked my medical records... It makes me wonder why now," she said, "These first few are pictures of me when I was pregnant and ultrasound pictures of Amali. Then after she was born, at her first birthday and every year since then Danyyeil has been sending me photos of her. I send photos of myself to her as well,"
Tony looked at the girl; she looked like a mixture of both her parents, Ziva's eyes and her skin tone was slightly lighter than Ziva's, Tony noticed that Danyyeil's skin was lighter than Ziva's when they met.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Yes,"
"Why are you telling me this?"
"I do not want to scare you when I gain custody of her; I want your help with this. I just thought I would give you some warning," Ziva replied.
Tony realised that she trusted him deeply, that she genuinely wanted to be with him in the long run. This scared Tony, but she was his partner; he would help her if they weren't together or attempting to begin a relationship. Why should this be any different.
He was never going to let her go now, not that he knew that she trusted him - possibly - more than Gibbs did. Well, with one aspect of her life more than Gibbs.
Ziva had taken Amali and Danyyeil to a small bakery a few blocks away from Tony and Her apartment.
Amali spoke about how well she was doing at school, about how she was now a teenager now, about her birthday, and all about what Ziva had missed while she was in America.
While she went into a shop to have a look at a few things, Ziva began to talk to Danyyeil, "Does she know?" Ziva asked.
"She knows that I'm going back to the IDF and that she is going to be staying with her mother and I will visit when I can. This would have been a lot harder - in ways of packing and all if she didn't know you. But since I have been talking to her about you and showing pictures while you weren't there and you came over and rung when you could. Are you ready for this?" He asked in return.
"I am nervous. But I have told Tony. I told him while we were in Israel. I am in a stable relationship with him - I have moved in with him. I told him to be ready and he seems ready. Tony's apartment has two rooms - she can move into that," She replied.
"Yes, but are YOU ready?" He asked. Ziva looked up at him. She had been preparing for this ever since Amali had been born.
"Yes, I am ready. Levi said he and his wife would help me if I needed it, and Gibbs had a child and I am sure he will help me whenever I need it,"
"When we get back to NCIS or your house you can sign the papers to allow you custody," He told her as Amali walked out asking for money.
When Ziva returned to NCIS, she was alone but her co-workers were sending her curious glances - waiting for her to explain what happened even though Tony had already told them what she had told him.
"Amali your daughter?" Gibbs asked.
"Yes," Ziva replied.
"You could have told us you know, if you didn't want anyone else to know we would have kept it a secret," He said.
"And what happens if someone overheard or you were discussing it among yourselves? I could not take the risk of Vance hearing a rumour and telling Eli," Ziva replied.
"Do you need any help getting her moved in?" Gibbs asked.
"We should be okay. He is coming over to Tony's house later tonight for me to sign for custody. I would not want to overwhelm her; but if you would like you can come over and meet her," She suggested.
Told you worst kept secret... Some of you might not have pieced it together and that is fine - I just know of a few people who guessed :P
Review please :D