"Antonia?" the little girl barely acknowledged Ziva. Ziva understood and pulled a picture frame out of the bag she brought with her. Ziva looked at the picture of Tony holding a pregnant Kate. Ziva asked softly, "Do you have any stories about her?" Antonia looked up to see Ziva holding the picture of her parents. She pointed to the small brunette, "That's mommy. She worked for the President once. Daddy said that she was afraid of mice but that she liked Stuart Little. That's silly because Stuart is a mouse."
Ziva chuckled with the little girl, "That is kind of silly. Your mother was very beautiful and so are you." Antonia murmured out a thank you, "Where's daddy?" Ziva tried her very best to come up with a child friendly explanation. She moved closer to the little girl and sat on the edge of the bed, "Your daddy got hurt but the doctors are really good and they are making sure that your daddy will be okay." Antonia looked at Ziva, "Are they really good or will daddy go to heaven with Mommy? I'm not ready for him to be with mommy. I still need him." Ziva felt herself suddenly welling up with emotions. She took her Star of David necklace off and put it on Antonia. "This necklace has brought me a lot of luck. I bet it will bring you some too. Your daddy isn't ready to leave you for heaven just yet."
"But he misses mommy a lot" Antonia said with tears running. Ziva wiped away some of her tears, "But he loves you even more." Antonia surprised Ziva with a tight hug before sitting back on the bed and balling up to cry. She didn't look at Ziva but said, "You don't have to stay, I'm a big girl." Ziva laid on her side in bed next to Antonia and said, "You are a big girl. And a brave one, but I want to stay." Gibbs watched silently from the doorway, smirking to himself. And she doesn't think that she has a maternal bone in her body.
Ziva and Antonia had fallen asleep. McGee snapped a photo and left the room as quietly as he came in. He made it back to Tony's hospital room just as the man started to argue with a nurse. "Dammit, I said I'm fine. I want to see my damn daughter." McGee put a firm hand on Tony's shoulder, "You have a bad concussion, stitches in your head, some swelling in your neck, and memory loss. Antonia is okay. She's with Ziva."
"Ziva!" he shrieked. McGee chuckled and pulled out his cell phone. Tony calmed down considerably, "I didn't know that Ziva was good with kids." "Neither did I."
Three long weeks later, Tony was released after the infection around his stiches cleared up. Ziva had slyly given Tony a list of homes for sale when he came to pick up Antonia. Antonia only stayed with Ziva on the rare occasion that no one else was available to watch her while Tony was at doctor's appointments. Tony noticed how helpful Ziva had been even when she pretended not to be. He knew that Ziva often looked forward to spending time with Antonia; he also knew that she didn't mind that Antonia still had her necklace.
Tony finally decided on a house—to finally put down roots somewhere for his family—about 20 minutes from Gibbs and McGee. He couldn't and didn't want to go back to his apartment. He laughed to himself knowing that Kate would head slap him for waiting this long to actually buy a house. Antonia liked the house and was over the moon when Tony loaded up most of the house with some of Kate's things in storage. Everything started to go back to normal until Antonia's pre-school had an upcoming Muffins for Moms event scheduled. Antonia was sitting on Gibbs desk as he worked on a file in front of him. She was usually chatty, so he knew something was up. Without looking at her, he asked, "What happened at school? Beat somebody up?"
Antonia shook her head no and mumbled, "My class is having muffins for mom and I don't have a mom." Gibbs heard every word she said, "Did you tell your dad?" she shook her head no and said, "I don't want to make him sad."
Ziva bit her lip and worked up the courage to say, "I'll go. I know I'm not your mom, but I like muffins." Antonia gave a wide smile, "Really? You'll go to my school with me?" Ziva's smile matched hers, "I would love to."
Gibbs had gotten up, as they started to talk about outfits, to get on the elevator. When the doors opened, Tony and McGee walked out with lunch in their hands for the team. They looked over at the two giggling females. McGee asked, "What did we miss?" while Tony asked, "Since when does Ziva giggle?"
Gibbs simply smirked and said, "Since she volunteered to escort Tonia to Muffins for Mom at school." Tony was speechless and slowly starting to reignite his attraction to Ziva…but on an entirely different level.