They had lapsed into silence, both of them having something to think about over their drinks. Ziva couldn't help but let her mind drift back to the reason she had been unreachable. Good thing Amelia did not know of Gibbs' rules or she would never hear the end of it.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Ziva's eyes snapped back to Amelia.

"Talking helps," her friend added, taking a sip of her drink. Then she added a pointed, "Especially with people who care about each other."

Ziva gave her a doubtful look. She wasn't really convinced of that. It was far safer to keep things close to the chest. You could trust nobody but yourself after all. And maybe your team. She was learning that.

She didn't know what to think, or say, so she took another sip of her tea. What was it with these Americans and talking? They always wanted to. Well, what if she didn't want to? But Amelia was giving her that expectant look. The one she gave her children when she wanted them to confess their wrongdoings. It was a very effective look.

"I don't think I can tell you what happened," Ziva finally said.

Too many agencies involved. Too many countries. She did not want to get into more trouble any time soon.

Amelia gave her a long look that actually had her squirming before slowly nodding.

"Is there anything that you can tell me?"

Ziva thought for a moment and was about to give her friend a negative answer when she remembered something.

"Gibbs is back," she said happily.

"Didn't he retire? To Mexico."

"Yes."

"But now he's back in DC? Working?" Amelia spluttered out. "How? Why?"

Ziva shifted in her seat.

"I might have asked him for help while I was on the run. And then we needed his help again... and then he sort of stayed..."

In hindsight, that did sound a little bit ridiculous. But only if you didn't know Gibbs. Of course he would stay to help his family.

Amelia's eyes bugged out in shock and coffee got sprayed across the table.

"Amelia!"

That was just disgusting. Amelia didn't even take any notice of it as she gaped at Ziva.

"What?" Ziva asked defensively.

"You were on the run?"

Ah, did she say that? She was not supposed to say that. Uh, oops.

"Um..."

"You were!" Amelia said loudly, garnering the attention of the other patrons of the coffee shop.

"Shh!" Ziva scolded, not wanting any attention on them. "That is something I should not have said. Cannot talk about."

Amelia narrowed her eyes at her, obviously wanting more details but inwardly debating if she should ask. Ziva gave her a warning look. She was not going to budge on this. She was not going to say anything. Thankfully, Amelia seemed to understand (or at least knew better than to press) and relaxed her stance.

"Okay, then can you at least explain how Gibbs want from being retired in Mexico to working for the federal government again?" Her friend demanded.

Ziva shrugged but relieved, this was something she could answer. "He just came back."

"But how does that work? You can't just reverse a retirement."

Ziva shrugged, she did not understand how it worked herself, nor did she care. Gibbs was back! Yes, Tony was more than a competent team lead (no matter how much she and McGee teased him) but he wasn't Gibbs.

"I do not think the paperwork was done properly."

Or at all, if she knew Jenny. Personally, she was still confused about the concept of retirement paperwork. People didn't exactly retire in Mossad. You died before you got past a certain age. Or got into the politics of a job. Which was a kind of death in Ziva's opinion.

Amelia just shook her head at that but thankfully didn't ask any more questions. Gibbs leaving was still a bit of a sore spot with everyone and they were only just getting back into a rhythm.

"Huh."

Amelia didn't seem to have anything more to say than that.

"So, on a lighter note, what have you been up to?" Amelia asked, absent-mindedly stirring her coffee.

"Oh, you know, undercover work, preventing Russian espionage," Ziva said dismissively, a grin flashing across her face.

Amelia spluttered into her coffee. Again. It was quite a distasteful habit of hers.

"What?" then she gave Ziva a suspicious look. "You're having me on!"

"I assure you; I do not have you on anything," Ziva said in confusion.

"No, that's not what I meant," Amelia said to Ziva's increasing confusion. "Oh, never mind."

Okay then. Why did English have to be so confusing?

"Espionage?" Amelia repeated in shock. "You were dealing with espionage?"

"Well, more like arms dealers."

Amelia blinked at her, unable to process what she just heard.

"Is your life always like one of those old spy movies?"

Ziva laughed, "You sound like Tony."

"Was your undercover work to do with the Russians?" Amelia asked.

"No, it was a different case." Ziva scrunched up her nose in remembrance. "I had to do a dating game."

"And how was that?"

"It was incredibly awkward," Ziva confided in her. "I have never done something like this fast dating before. It was very, how did Tony say it, crunchy?"

"Cringey," Amelia guessed. "Embarrassing. Awkward."

"Exactly," Ziva said. "I do not want to do something like that again."

"Did you get your guy."

"Oh yes," Ziva replied with a nod.

Amelia gave her a teasing look. "Would you do speed dating again?"

"No," Ziva said vehemently.

It had been a horrible experience that she never wanted to repeat. Why was it even a thing? "But I would like to take part in a scrabble game again."

OK, yes, she was blatantly hinting but she didn't know if she was welcome anymore.

"Well, you have some grovelling to do with all of us," Amelia informed her teasingly.

"I'm hosting the next game to make up for it," Ziva complained.

She had even got everyone's favourite snacks so there would be no cause to complain. It was going to be a perfect game. It really was.

"What would really make up for it would be inviting one of those friends of yours," Amelia told her. "We all want to meet them."

Ziva cocked her head to one side.

"Which one? I have many."

Well, some. A few. But Amelia could be referring to any of them.

"Any of them," Amelia replied unhelpfully.

"I will see what I can do," Ziva told her ambiguously.

Ducky had actually agreed to come this time (McGee apparently already booked for a convention of sorts -she would get him at some point) but Ziva wanted him to be a surprise.

"Well, I have to go," Ziva said after checking her watch. "Lunch is over."

Amelia raised her coffee cup, "The advantage of being a stay at home mom."

Ziva shook her head and gathered her things. As much as she would like to chat with Amelia more, she couldn't. Duty calls as Tony would say.

"Don't forget that the next game is supposed to be Hallowe'en themed!" Amelia called after her.

AN: Can anyone guess which episodes I've mentioned in this chapter? Whoever does gets a promo of the sort of prequel one-shot I'm writing for this showing how Ziva manged to get involved in these scrabble games.