So part 2 of the birthday chapter. The kids' Halloween costumes are on my profile. It is seriously better if you look at them, especially Eden's.
They only waited ten minutes before going to the security desk. When Azaleigha was little they had gone to the zoo with Abby, Tim, Jimmy, Sabrina and Gibbs, she and Lily had disappeared. They had gone to one of the staff who had directed them to the security desk. The two had been found through security cameras up a tree looking over the penguins. He had been certain she was going to fall in. Fortunately neither of them had. The security guard was flipping through a newspaper on front of the fifty odd screens. When he heard the door close he turned to them.
"Yes, how can I help you?" He asked, putting the newspaper down.
"Our daughter's gone missing. She is almost four. She's wearing bunches, a purple coat, black legging thingies and purple boots." Tony spluttered.
The guard, used to this, turned back to the screens as he searched for a girl of that description. "That her?"
Ziva shook her head. "No she had dark brown hair."
"What about her?" He pointed to another screen. Once again they shook their heads. This happened a few more times.
"There, there she is," Tony jumped to a screen.
"That's the lion enclosure, at the far end of the park," He informed them. "I can get a car to drive you up there, be there in a couple of minutes."
Both nodded. Within five minutes they were at the far end of the park. They scanned the area before Ziva suddenly noticed Eden sitting on the brick wall along one of the sides. However she got up there she'd never know. She ran through her mind the chances of her falling in. They wouldn't design a zoo that an almost four year old could get into a lion enclosure, would they? Then again, there was always that one chance. Ziva came up slowly behind her, not wanting to scare her. If she scared her she could fall. The second she was behind her, she snatched Eden, pulling her back and stepping away from the wall. The girl laughed, pulling back to look Ziva in the face.
"Mama!" She giggled, "Did you see the lions?"
Tony ran up to meet them, hugging his wife and daughter. Ziva shook her head, dropping it as Tony stroked Eden's back. He certainly was lucky, great family and kids that disappeared on every occasion. Just his luck.
"Where Azz-Azz, Noah and Isaac?" Eden questioned with a childish smile.
"Come on baby, we'll go find them," Tony sighed, taking her from Ziva and putting her on the ground, taking her hand as Ziva took the other.
To their complete surprise when they returned to the bench all three children were still sitting there. Azaleigha was sitting cross-legged on the table engrossed in telling a story to her brothers. Both of them were leaning in. They waited for her to apparently finish before approaching. She jumped forward, grabbing their arms. Both screamed as she burst in laughter. Eden skipped over, jumping onto the bench and climbing onto the table. Azaleigha stood her on the table before hugging her.
"Mama!" Noah shouted, "Aza was trying to scare us."
Azaleigha shrugged. "It's Halloween, isn't it?
"Come on," Ziva began as she lifted Noah up, "We will finish seeing the animals then we are going home."
"Daddy promised we could go to the gift shop," Eden told Ziva as she skipped on ahead.
Tony, thinking he had been found out, shied away from Ziva immediately as she turned to him. He was surprised however when all she said was, "Take her hand, will you. I cannot afford to lose her again."
He sighed in relief as he ran up behind her, lifting her up and spinning her around. She let out an array of giggles while he cringed at his aching back. I'm too old for this.
On the way out, as promised, they stopped at the gift shop. Tony tried to get Ziva to wait outside for them so that he wouldn't be found out about his bribe with Eden however she would have none of it. Instead he settled for following Eden around the shop as she stopped at every single toy she passed. When she stopped at a large red panda cuddly toy her eyes glittered. She reached out, pulled it towards her and turned to Tony.
"Want this one," She smiled innocently as she tried to hide the price tag.
He did a fake laugh before taking it from her and looking at the tag. "Baby, this is almost forty dollars. We can't afford that."
"But daddy, you promised."
"I said twenty five."
"It's only ten more."
She looked at him with wide endearing eyes, her bottom lip pouted out a little bit. Usually it would have worked however today he was not going to succumb to it. He picked up the same teddy that was slightly smaller.
"This one," He said firmly. "This one is twenty five, just like we promise. Ok?"
She nodded. "Kk, daddy."
Eden trotted over to Ziva who was standing in line. Noah had a lion plush while Isaac was clutching Tiger. The two of them were making the toys snap at each over, making low growling noises as they did so. Azaleigha, the almost seventeen year old was joining in with the wolf plush she was holding. Tony just smiled.
All of the NCIS team had gathered in the David-Dinozzo living room. Azaleigha and Lily had agreed to take the kids trick-or-treating. Phillip had come round with Tim and Abby and Jimmy and Sabrina had come with Jack to keep him company. Ziva brought the twins into the living room first. Noah was wearing a very creepy Jack Frost costume with his hair sprayed with wash out white hair dye while Isaac was dressed as if he was carrying his head in his hands. Everyone praised their costumes and wished them a happy birthday. When she brought in Eden everyone gasped in the sheer cuteness of the little girl. She had been dressed as red riding hood, the skirt pushed out by a frilly tutu underneath. Abby was insistent they got hundreds of photos of the kids before they went out.
"That house gives out buckets of sweets every year," Azaleigha pointed to the house across the street. She took Eden's hand as they crossed the road. Every other little kiddie in the neighbourhood was out as well. Noah rang the doorbell.
"Trick-or-treat!" The three kiddies cheered.
The young woman bend down she was at their level. "Have any of you got jokes for me? Or maybe a song?"
"Why is it always alright to judge a book by its cover?" Noah began. He waited for the woman to answer. "Because sometimes the name of the book could be Justin Bieber and his book would be rubbish."
She did the fake laugh that adults have to have mastered at Halloween as she dished out a large portion of sweets and chocolate.
"Why did the girl smear peanut butter on the road?" Isaac waited for a moment. "To go with the traffic jam."
She did her laugh again. "What about you, honey? You are the prettiest little girl I have ever seen. What have you got for me?"
Eden looked at Azaleigha then back at the woman before she began to cry. Azaleigha knelt down beside her immediate. "She's a little shy,"-She turned and whispered in Eden's ear-"You did your song really well for mama and daddy. Don't you want to do it for this lady?"-Eden shook her head-"Don't you want chocolate?"-Eden nodded-"How about if I do it with you?"-Eden nodded again.
Azaleigha started singing which pried Eden to do it with her. It was 'I just can't wait to be king' from the Lion king. It was one of Eden's favourites. By the time they got to 'I've never seen a king or beast with quite so little hair' Eden was almost singing it herself. She had one of those cute little kid voices that people can't help but smile at. When she realised she was singing alone she began crying again and turned to her sister.
"That was really good, honey," The woman praised. "You have a very pretty voice. Here you go, have whatever you want."
She put the bowl on front of Eden who only took out a Twix bar. The woman wouldn't take it and spooned out a handful to her, some more to the boys and a chocolate bar for Azaleigha and Lily. Most of the houses went very similarly to that one, Eden almost managed to finish the song once. When they got home they had three bags each and Azaleigha and Lily had filled a bag each that they were given at a house.
"How were my boys?" Tony asked as he looked at what they had collected. "Wow, you did well this year."
"You are not eating all of that tonight," Ziva warned, take out a few and put the rest away.
Eden ran up to Gibbs and onto his lap where she rested her head on his chest. "Did you have fun?"
She nodded, yawning. "I got lots and lots."
He smiled, hugging her. She was asleep in seconds, the boys dozed off before they managed to eat even three bars. It was a full house as everyone stayed over that night. Gibbs slept on the settee down the stairs. He was awoken by Eden at three in the morning.
"I didn't want to sing." She mumbled. "They were all lookin' at me and I didn't want to."
"That's alright," He rolled over, lifting her onto his lap again.
"Can I sing it to you?"
He smiled and nodded as she began to recite the song. They were family, all of them and he couldn't love them more.
Thank you everyone for your lovely reviews. I particularly want to thank TivaFan-Girl16. You absolutely made my day. I was having one of the worst days and you seriously don't know how much that review meant to me. Thank you so much.
Now, before Ziva left (I have watched it now, thanks for the PM telling me where to find it) the Tiva fanfics were flooding in and now it takes me at least a week to get to the second page. I used to update a chapter almost every time I went to the second page which only took two days, two and a half. Please, I urge everyone to write at least one Tiva fanfic and post it between now (1st of Feb) and the 5th. Please, let's keep Tiva alive.
Thanks for reading and review!
