Prologue (Late March 2020)
After a lengthy delay, the Gulfstream plane arrived at Dulles and after landing, taxied to a secluded hangar, where it parked in front of it. After the engines wound down to a stop, the air door opened and the steps descended to the ground. Gibbs stepped off the plane, followed by Tony, Ziva, the McGees and the Palmers. The children all followed behind, with Ellie bringing up the rear. The Palmers and Delilah got onto one van with the children while Tony, Ziva, Tali, McGee, Ellie hopped onto another van with Gibbs, with Gibbs getting into the front passenger seat. Tony, McGee and Ziva did some good-natured ribbing with each other; Ellie tried her best to join in but was distracted by Tali's 6-year-old ramblings about whatever was on her mind at the moment, being in the moment, the words coming out almost non-stop.
Tony reached around Ziva's back and flicked McGee's ear. "Hey Elf Lord, you look like you did not sleep good. Your head is rocking around like a pendulum" Tony ribbed Tim, breaking into a giggle as Tim started from the ear-flick.
"Ah, it was a long flight, and you know how my kids are, they like to keep me and Delilah on our toes. I am fine, really" McGee replied to Tony as he looked at Tony.
"Well, those eyes of yours look like they got bags packed and ready for Dreamland. Maybe you can use toothpicks to keep your eyes open, since our day is not over" Tony said, then guffawed at Tim.
McGee giggled, looking at Tony, "Ha, what, and get stuck like when I had the toothpick stuck up in the roof of my mouth? Yeah, no thanks."
"Ouch! That must have hurt," Ziva looked at McGee with a pained expression.
"Oh, nah, it wasn't that bad. Okay, yes, it did hurt. A lot." McGee looked at Ziva.
"Ah that explains why you are a little paranoid about toothpicks. You hide them in your drawer and make sure nobody else knows where they are." Tony laughed at McGee, patting his shoulder behind Ziva's back. Ziva poked Tony in his arm.
"Oh Tony, you and ribbing rounds with McGee, you guys are wracking your minds again. Do I need to show you what I can do with a paperclip? This will easily wrack your mind, and leave you asking for more," Ziva looked at Tony and McGee with a smile and raised eyebrow.
Ellie burst out in a short laughter. "So that makes sense why I found all those paperclips hidden in the drawer not too long ago, Ziva," Ellie said, trying to join in the conversation.
McGee and Tony both gasped at the sudden remembrance of the box of paperclips that Ziva always had in her drawer.
Ziva shrugged and smiled. "It is good that you found it. You can keep it just in case you need my help with wracking their minds." Ziva nodded at the two men, then looked back at Ellie, continuing to smile.
Tali moved closer to where Ziva was sitting, then whispered in Ziva's ear, "Ima, what is 'wracking their minds'?"
"Oh my sweet Tali, your Abba, Uncle Tim, and I are being funny. One day you can wrack their minds with jokes, I will help you with that when time is right," Ziva spoke gently looking at Tali, stroked her hair away from her face.
Once the vans arrived at the NCIS building, everyone was guided into the NCIS building, and up into the NCIS work area. As soon as the Elevator doors opened, the color orange greeted Ziva. As she walked into the bullpen, she surveyed the orange room, holding Tali's hand as Tony walked by Ziva while everyone else followed them.
"Yup, the one thing you can count on is the color being the exact same," Tony spun his, now Tim's, chair around, reminiscing about the times he worked there.
Ziva was doing some of her own reminiscing, looking at her old spot, the same desk that Ellie now occupied. Tali took in the sights around the orange room, and as she walked backwards, looking up at the skylight above, she bumped into Gibbs.
"Whoa there, Tali! Gotta keep your balance, right?" Gibbs chuckled.
"Oh, hi, Papa Gibbs!" Tali beamed at Gibbs.
Gibbs opened a drawer and grabbed two things from the drawer before closing it back up. He then knelt down in front of Tali. "Tali, I have a surprise for you. Wanna color while I talk with your Ima and Abba?" Gibbs held up a coloring book and a box of crayons.
"Yeah! Thanks, Papa Gibbs, I like to color." Tali perked up and took the coloring book and crayons, then wandered to the chair that was next to Ziva's old desk.
"This is where I used to work, Tali," Ziva patted her old desk and smiled.
Tali was thrilled to sit at Ellie's desk, now that she understood that Ziva used to work there, to do some coloring. Then the team members, with Ziva and Tony, huddled together for the "campfire meeting" in front of the large-screen monitor.
Gibbs looked around at his team, then said, "Alright, found this folder on my desk. Looks like Vance is out of the building for the day. I need to have you people finish up the reports for tomorrow. Big debrief tomorrow with Vance. Count on the debrief being done first thing tomorrow morning." Gibbs handed out the paperwork to the team members.
McGee went to his old desk, Nick's current desk, to do some paperwork as Tony went to his old desk, Ziva joining him.
"Abba, can I sit by you?" Tali asked.
"Sure, you can sit on the floor by me, color in your book." Tony patted the floor, indicating where Tali would sit.
Ellie smiled, then went to her desk, as everyone wanted to get the reports going. After some time, it became apparent that the only person having fun was Tali, who was exploring her Abba's old desk. Ziva sat on a chair in middle of Tony and Tim's desk, rocking back and forth in it. As she looked at the boys filling out the reports, her favorite boys, she reminisced about the times they spend ribbing each other and tripping up their minds, wracking their minds, as she liked to call it.
"Just like old times..." Ziva said.
"Hmm?" Tony looked up at her.
Ziva continued to rock her chair, looking at Tony and McGee, smiling at them, "This brings back some of those best moments where I would be in the middle of you both, just like old times when I just wrack you boys mind up," Ziva giggled.
"Oh yeah, those paperclips and toothpicks... trying to make my mind not know which way it's going? And I thought it was hard enough wracking Elflord's mind with this toothpick thing," Tony joshed back at Ziva. McGee's eyebrow shot up, causing Ziva to laugh.
"Ah here we go again with the toothpicks. If you think it's hard enough wracking my mind, you may want to observe your little Elflet getting in your backpack over there." McGee looked at Tony, then at Tali.
Tony looked down and let out a small yelp when he noticed that the backpack was not in its rightful place, but more like a good three feet away. He turned and saw Tali exploring one of the backpack pockets. He stooped down and stopped Tali, zipping up the pocket and then putting the backpack back in its rightful location.
"Tali, my backpack is a no-no. That is for work, not to play with," Tony gently spoke to Tali as he sat her down on his lap.
"Abba, I am sorry, I am bored, and I wanna go home" Tali spoke softly looking at her Abba, then went to Ziva to hug her.
Tony swallowed hard, as he sat there realizing what just happened. Her words hit him hard. As Ziva held Tali, she let out a small giggle, for she had seen Tony's facial expression change as if the very words had hit him like a ton of bricks.
"Home, huh?" Tony asked Tali.
"Yes, home." Tali went back to her coloring book.
McGee raised an eyebrow at Tony as he noticed that lost-puppy look creep across Tony's face. The look on McGee's face underscored the undeniable fact that as of right now, Tony, Ziva, and Tali didn't have a place to call home.
"Tali's accomplishment level Mind Wrack: accomplished. She just wracked your mind, didn't she, Ziva?" McGee laughed at Tony, looking at Ziva and patting Tali's shoulder.
Ziva laughed. "Yes, she did wrack Tony's mind, and maybe got him to think?"
"So Tony, Tali got a good point, she wants to go home, but where?" McGee said.
"Our farmhouse is gone and we are basically homeless at this moment. But I think we can figure things out. We could always go to New York to stay with your father?" Ziva said in a questing tone. Worth trying one option that was in her mind, on the back burner.
The look on Tony's face when she brought up his father told her that might not have been the best idea. "With him? No way. We are not going there. Yes, he can be charming, but I would rather not get caught up in one of his financial troubles, and I don't want him to be a bad influence on Tali. He is welcome to see us when we have a place, not before, Ziva," Tony replied to Ziva in a decided tone.
"Maybe we could go to a hotel and stay there until we figure things out..." Ziva responded.
"Nope, you stay at my place." Gibbs walked to his desk and sat down and looked at Ziva and Tony. "You are family to me, you guys know that. Door's always open for you three. Go home to my house, I will be there soon," Gibbs got up and leaned over to kiss Ziva on the top of her head.
This should have put Ziva at ease, but an undercurrent of anxiety started to bubble up to the surface. "Gibbs, did you make sure everything is safe around your house since we got Sahar?" Ziva asked.
"Ziver, I made sure of it. No one will bother you or Tali or us for a while. Just put in an alarm system not too long ago," Gibbs patted her shoulder and smiled.
"Alright this is settled, Tali is getting restless right here, so Ziva, we shall go to Gibbs house, then we go from there, how it sounds?" Tony grabbed his backpack to pack things, putting it away for the day, as he looked at Ziva while Tali gets all restless and wanting to go home,
"i think it is good idea, we shall go over there, and get Tali all settled in, we shall get ready to go, but one more thing, Tali need to know" Ziva gets up to gather her things, looking at Tony as she winked at him.
"Ah yeah, hey Tali, we will be going to Papa Gibbs's house, we will stay there for a while, and it will be fun, sounds good?" Tony asked Tali as he looked down at Tali smiling when she realize where they will be going, so Tali took off excitedly. Ziva and Tony caught up to Tali as they left the room to head out.
When Tony and Ziva arrived at Gibbs's house with Tali in tow, Ziva did a quick scan of the area. The familiarity of the area, the routine that she remembered of the neighborhood put her at ease, because there was no sense of danger or harm lurking about nearby. She guided Tali into the house and got her all settled in, then Tony came in into house with few bags of groceries. They then set about to make some roasted potatoes and some veggies for dinner. As they started cooking, Gibbs arrived home and got steaks going on the rack over the fireplace. All the food reached completion at roughly the same time, so Ziva and Tony brought the potatoes and veggies to the table at the same time Gibbs brought the steak. Everyone gathered to sit at the table to say their blessings, and then enjoy the dinner. As Tali happily ate her food, which had been cut into small pieces so it was easy for her to eat, Tony, Ziva, and Gibbs started having some conversation while having dinner.
"Gibbs, what do you think of the potatoes and veggies that we did?" Ziva asked Gibbs as she was digging her fork into roasted potatoes,
"They are really good, I think you did good job. The steak done good?" Gibbs pointed his fork at her steak, then jabbed his and started cutting it. Tony was tending to Tali with her food, with one ear cocked to the conversation.
Ziva smiled at Gibbs, "It's very delish."
"Ziva, Gibbs makes the best steaks, period. Usually with good spices, but this time Gibbs did not put much. Tali, you know," Tony smiled at Ziva, taking note that Ziva was savoring the taste of the steak.
"One of the things I eat every day." Gibbs took a bite. "Happy that you guys are here again. I think I'm confident we can figure out something for you. You guys are welcome here all you guys want, stay all you want, and this is your home." Gibbs spoke to Tony and Ziva while he was finishing up his meal.
"Thank you, Abba Gibbs, I really appreciate you inviting us to stay with you and helping us. We will figure things out in the meantime, and will see what we can do," Ziva replied with a sigh of relief knowing that Gibbs always had her and Tony's back.
"Even though it might take some time, we will do our best, right?" Tony added.
"Ziva, I think Kelly would not have minded if Tali had her old bedroom. I think she would have liked that." Gibbs showed the soft side of himself, giving up the bedroom to Tali. "We'll get it ready for you, so you can sleep here."
"Oh yeah I think so, thank you, and I think Tali will like it there, what you think, Tony?"
"Ah, I think so too, I will help get that room cleaned and get it ready for Tali. But where do we sleep?" Tony asked as he finished his meal.
"Not the boat, right?" Ziva laughed at Gibbs.
Gibbs burst out in laughter. "No, not the boat. You both have the other bedroom. I'll help you both to get that room cleaned up too. Couch's fine for me, I had been sleeping there for many years."
After dinner was done, the bedrooms got a quick dust and refresh, clean sheets put on the beds, and the windows opened a crack for ventilation. As soon as Tali got ready for bed, Ziva got Tali tucked in for bed, she and Tony read her a bedtime story, then prayed with her in Hebrew, a nightly tradition that Ziva was striving to instill into Tali. Once they said their good nights, they went back to the living room.
"So, alarm system? You said you had one put in," Tony said.
Gibbs showed them the keypad on the wall. "Your old passcode. I put it in there." Gibbs looked at Ziva.
"Oh?" She pressed the ARM button, then keyed in her old NCIS passcode. The alarm system status turned to ARMED. "Nice."
Tony raised his eyebrow. "Mine too?"
Gibbs said, "Of course. Then I know who's home." He chuckled at Tony. "Let's hit the rack. Long day for us."
Everybody gave their assents, then headed off to bed, safe in the knowledge that there was truly no place like home.