"Did you hear about that explosion in Libya? The bar?"

"Was it Libya? Was it not Morocco? Or Egypt?"

"Those countries aren't even next to each other."

"And?"

"How can you mistake Morocco for Egypt?"

"Oh, does it even matter?" Liu asked impatiently. "Something is always exploding in the Middle East."

"Liu!" she got scolded by three different people at once.

"What?"

"You can't just say things like that," Amelia remonstrated, giving Fakhir am apologetic look.

"But it's true!"

"It is all we hear about," Lucas agreed. "That is what the news reports on."

"Thank you," Liu said, happy that someone was agreeing with her.

"The Middle East isn't just bombs and explosions, you know," Fakhir said irritably.

"But it does happen."

Fakhir glared at them. "Yes. But that is not all that happens. Your news just doesn't like reporting on anything else except bombs."

None of them could deny that.

"Is there anything else going on over there?" Liu asked.

"Liu!" they all went again.

Amelia sighed and tried to ignore the bickering. They got like this sometimes. Normally, she would be joining in - trying to coral people somewhat or giving as good as she got - but the mention of the Middle East made her think of Ziva. How was she getting on? Was she safe? She never spoke much about her job but Amelia knew it could get dangerous.

It was just so weird how she left like that. Sure, you could never say that Ziva was the most open person in the world but, well, Amelia thought that she would have said that she was returning to Israel. Even a text or a phone call but neither of those happened and she had heard nothing from her since. She couldn't even initiate any contact with her because she never had Ziva's email address or anything and she didn't want to be texting to halfway around the world - those charges would be horrendous. And would Ziva even want to hear from her? The Israeli women hadn't exactly reached out either. Or maybe she was just busy. Or injured. Or-

'Ding!'

Who on earth could that be? Amelia pulled out her phone, fully expecting it to be her husband or one of her siblings.

Huh. An unknown number. What on earth? Did someone get a new number? The only people who texted her were people she knew.

'Hi, Amelia. This is Ziva. I have returned to the US. Ziva.'

Amelia stared at the message in shock and then looked at the number it came from again. A local area code. Did that mean?

"Amelia!" Fakhir complained. "Come and tell them off! I need someone on my side!"

She shook her head and turned her attention back to her friends.

"Huh? What did I miss?"

It sounded like Fakhir was fed up with all of them.

"Weren't you paying any attention?"

"Last I heard you were bickering about the portrayal of the Middle East."

Fakhir frowned. "Well, we did not move on from that."

"Sounds like I didn't miss much then."

"Can we please just play the game?" Lucas pleaded. "This is Scrabble Night, not Political Interest in the Middle East Night."

"That would be a very depressing night," Liu interjected.

Fakhir opened his mouth to argue again and Amelia decided that it was definitely a good idea to get involved again.

"Yes, let's start playing before the night is over," she said, putting her phone away, though not before making sure the message alert was removed from her notifications bar.

She wouldn't bring up the text with them just yet. Not until she talked to her. If she even got a chance to talk to her. Though, the fact that Ziva even contacted her was a good thing, wasn't it?

"Right!" Amelia clapped her hands together to get everyone's attention. "Who's going first?"

[xxxxxx]

"Yes! I win!" Liu cheered as the rest of them grumbled good-naturedly.

Well, not all of them Amelia absentmindedly congratulated the younger girl, her mind very much on other things. Something she thought she had done a fairly good job of hiding but apparently not.

"You were not in that game," Fakhir observed.

"My heart wasn't, you mean," she automatically corrected.

"Yes," he replied impatiently. "You were not thinking about it."

"At least I spelled all my words correctly."

He gave her a knowing look. "But you played all easy words."

"Well, maybe that's the only words I could make from the letters I had."

He made a disbelieving noise. Why did he have to be so observant? Thankfully, he wasn't like Raphael and Francisca, who would have insisted that she tell them what was wrong. No, he just let it drop, even changing the subject for her.

"If Ziva were here I would not have been outnumbered earlier," he said, obviously still sore over the jabs to the Middle East earlier.

Why did he have to bring up Ziva? Amelia hoped that nothing showed on her face.

"Hey, I was on your side." she said lightly.

"You just distracted them."

"To stop them picking on you."

"Ziva would have had better arguments than me, she has been all over the Middle East," Fakhir said stubbornly.

Yes, fighting people from what Amelia had gathered. Surely that wasn't the best way to get a good opinion of a particular country?

"Yes, well Ziva is not here," she said briskly.

Fakhir just sighed. Which was odd because Amelia didn't think he had been particularly close to her. He always seemed to keep Ziva at arm's length.

Time for another subject change.

"Does anyone want a coffee or anything before you all go?" she offered.

"Is this to make up for your awful playing?" Lucas teased.

"Oh, ha, ha."

"You did not play well at all," Liu agreed. "You are not normally that bad."

"Thanks, Liu." Amelia said drily.

"You know what I mean."

"I'm just not on top of my game today," she tried to persuade them. "I'll beat you all at the next game."

That got them distracted just like she knew it would.

"Oh no you won't!"

"You've never won!"

"I am much better."