Chapter Twenty Two: It's Not That Hard
Abby had been forced into taking a week off to rest after her near miss with the baby. It was only when McGee had joined in Gibbs and Jenny's argument that she'd started to listen. Of course, she'd already insisted that she didn't want people telling her how to bring up her child, because she knew from watching her old friends from college with their children how irritating it could be, but it was different with McGee because this was his child as well. So, when he insisted, actually pleaded with her to take the time off, she started to realise that it may well be for the best. Luckily for her temporary replacement, however, they didn't have any major cases.
This was how, mid-morning and mid-week, the team ended up having lunch together. Or at least, as together as they could be as a team without Gibbs. He'd gone for coffee and hour ago, suspiciously ten minutes after Director Shepherd had, so the others were gathered around Ziva's desk. She sat in her chair, leaning back casually against it with her lunch on her lap. Tony sat sideways, with his feet up against the front of her desk. Penny had joined them for lunch as they weren't busy so she was sitting in Tony's lap with hers, while Tony balanced his around her. McGee sat on the other corner of Ziva's desk, only without his feet up. They were all talking about nothing when Penny decided to just steer the conversation to her favourite conversation topic: when Ziva was next coming over.
"Daddy, you should ask Ziva if you can cook dinner for her at our house," she ordered him.
Tony looked at Ziva, who mirrored his confusion. "Should I?"
"Yeah," Penny decided.
"Ad why's that?" he asked, when he realised that he had no idea whatsoever as to where this was going.
Penny almost, almost, tried to roll her eyes at him. "Because I like her and she's my friend and you like her too and she likes you and she's your friend and because her boyfriend was a dick!"
Tony frowned, watching his daughter's 'see, it's obvious' look and trying to figure out what she'd just told him. Something about friends and dinner. "And that means I have to cook her dinner?" he checked.
"Yeah."
"Penny," he said slowly. "You do realise that Ziva has dinner with us nearly every single night?"
"This has gotta be nice and special," she told him.
"It does?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Because she needs someone to be nice to her and it should be you," she told him simply."
"Why me?" he asked.
In response, he got another long winded answer. "Because you're her friend and you look after each other lots so you should make her a nice special dinner and you should both look nice as well."
Tony scrunched up his eyes, almost dreading the thought of his already-confusing little girl becoming an even more confusing teenager one day. "I'll never understand how your mind works," he realised.
"Ask her!" she told him, shaking his arm so that he nearly dropped his sandwich.
He rolled his eyes, both Ziva and McGee watching him with amused expression because they'd heard every word said between father and daughter. "Ziva," he said in a bored tone, "would you like to come and have dinner with us sometime?"
"Tonight," Penny prompted.
"Tonight," he repeated obediently.
"Say please."
He looked like he had swallowed something nasty. "Please," he said in a very forced voice.
McGee laughed. "I wish I'd filmed that," he said, poking his pasta pot with his fork. "Tony DiNozzo taking orders from a three-year-old girl. How can you refuse that?" he asked Ziva.
She laughed, and turned back to Penny. "Penny, I would love to have dinner with you and your father tonight," she answered.
Penny looked at Tony. "See, it's not THAT hard."
--
When the door knocked that evening, Tony wasn't surprised when Penny ran towards the door at top speed. She seemed to know when Ziva was at the door, and loved to answer it herself - something Tony was less fond of thanks to the time she'd had a three minute conversation with a window salesman because he'd been in the bathroom. He'd had a child lock installed on the door the next morning. This time, however, he was prepared, and caught her in the hall, grabbing her and setting her back down on the floor before him.
"Wait," he told her. "How do I look?"
She smiled at him. "You look pretty," she told him.
"I'm a man, Penny," he told her. "Men don't look pretty, they look handsome."
"You look handsome, Daddy," she smiled.
He caught a look at himself in the mirror. "You don't think I look too much like Brad Pitt?"
Penny giggled. "Shut up, Daddy."
They laughed, and he moved to answer the door. "Go put your pyjamas on, okay?" he told her, watching as she disappeared into her bedroom. Penny had already had her dinner for the evening, under the insistence that it would be a 'special dinner for Ziva and Daddy', and had promised to go to bed without a fuss.
He opened the door, immediately appreciating his daughter's determination for the two of them to dress up nicely. Ziva was dressed in a cerulean blue strap top and white trousers, which contrasted to his black trousers and back. He was too busy taking her in to notice the approving look she gave him after the quick once over. They both thought that one another looked gorgeous, but neither of them would admit it aloud. To be honest, Tony was pleased that Penny had given him an excuse to invite Ziva over in a way that would make her think about her beauty and enhance it just a little, just enough for her to appreciate how beautiful she was to him. Ever since she had stayed over because of 'that bastard', as Adam was now known to them all, even Penny, Tony couldn't stop thinking about how it had felt to fall asleep beside her, feeling her breath against his neck as she gained the comfort she needed from his embrace.
"Hey, come in," he told her, trying to clear his throat as he said this.
"Thank you," she said, moving in the apartment.
She entered, and he shut the door behind her. Of course, when she put her bag down on the ground and hung her jacket up on the coat pegs beside the door, it revealed just how much of her back was on show from her top. She ran her fingers through her hair, combing it after the wind had knocked it into a mild frizz, and when it swept to the side Tony was given a full view of her back. Thankfully, he was saved from being caught gawking by Penny running down the hall and throwing herself at Ziva's legs. She was so excited that he didn't even bother to point out that she was clearly not wearing her pyjamas like he'd told her.
"Ziva, you're here!" she grinned.
"Shalom, Penny," she replied, trying to regain her balance by steadying herself against a doorframe.
"You look really pretty."
"Thank you very much."
"Go in and sit down if you want," Tony offered. "I'm just finishing up dinner."
"Okay," she smiled, before turning to Penny. "Are you coming with me, Penny?"
She nodded, tugging on Ziva's hand. "Yeah, Daddy can cook well on his own," she assured her.
Ziva laughed at this, allowing herself to be lead away by the young girl. "I am sure he can."
They went into the living room, and she instantly noticed the dining room end of the large room, which was definitely decorated nicely. The table was set for two, a bottle of wine already set out with two glasses between a pair of red candles.
"Your father has certainly made the table look nice," she observed, as her and Penny sat down on the couch. She stared at the table, unable to believe that Tony had done this for her.
"I made him do it," Penny told her proudly.
"You did?"
"Yeah, to make sure that you smile lots tonight."
This alone brought a smile to her lips. "You have already made me smile, Penny,"
"Daddy said your boyfriend was a dick," she said, emphasising the word that she knew she wasn't allowed to say.
"He is," she agreed, "but he is not my boyfriend anymore."
"Good," Penny smiled. "He's not a very nice boyfriend if he's not nice to you."
"No, he isn't," Ziva smiled lightly.
"Are you sad because of him?" she asked quietly.
"No," she replied honestly. "Not so much anymore, but I was."
"Is that why you stayed at our house?" she asked.
"Yes," she nodded.
"Did Daddy help you not be sad?"
"He did, yes."
"He helps me not be sad as well," Penny agreed. "He looks after us lots."
"He is good at it," Ziva smiled.
"I'm happy you came over for dinner," she told her brightly. "That means Daddy can look after you more and make you even more not sad!"
"I am sure he will."
"Yeah, Daddy said he likes making his girls smile."
Ziva smiled curiously, about to question the 'his girls' comment when Tony entered the room. "I hope you like Fettuccine Alfredo," he told her.
"I have not had that in years," Ziva said appreciatively.
"Good," he smiled, with the same decisiveness as Penny. "It's my specialty."
She looked at him in disbelief. "I have been your partner at work for two years, Tony. You have cooked for me several times now and I have yet to taste your specialty?"
He shrugged simply. "I haven't been forced into this by a little girl before."
Her eyes fell on the table again. "The table looks wonderful."
Again, he shrugged. "I thought I'd use all this stuff seeing as I never had," he explained.
"Then why did you buy it to begin with?" she asked.
Another shrug. "I thought it might have impressed a date."
"But this is not a date," she pointed out.
"Yeah, it is," Penny said brightly.
"No, it's not," Tony told her.
"But you said a date was when two people have dinner together," she told him.
"It's not a date, Penny," he told her.
Penny was about to protest when there was another knock at the door. However, the person on the other side of it was not who he expected. Penny suddenly disappeared down the hall, and Ziva followed Tony to the door.
"Boss?" he questioned, when he saw who was there.
Gibbs simply looked over his shoulder. "Is Penny ready?"
"Ready?" he asked. "Ready for what?"
"She didn't tell you?"
At that moment, Penny appeared at Tony's side, clutching her backpack before her. "I'm ready, Uncle Gibbs," she smiled.
"And where do you think you're going?" Tony asked her.
"I'm gonna sleep in Uncle Gibbs' house tonight," she told him.
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. I said 'please'," she assured him.
"Don't you think you should have told me?" he pointed out.
"I wanted it to be a surprise," she told him. "So you and Ziva can have your date."
Gibbs nodded his head a little. "You gotta admit, she's as sneaky as her father."
"I'm not sneaky," Tony denied instantly.
"You didn't tell me you had a date with Ziva tonight," he pointed out.
"It's not a date," Ziva explained.
"He didn't tell me you were 'visiting', then," Gibbs corrected. "He usually brags about these things."
Tony looked down at the ground. "Well…if I told you…you'd…hurt me."
Gibbs stared him down, secretly enjoying the fact that he could render Tony as ashamed as a scolded child. "Penny will be fine at mine. I'll bring her in to work with me in the morning." Tony stared to protest, but he stopped him. "She'll be fine. A night off will do you good." He held out his hand to Penny. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah. Bye, Daddy. Bye, Ziva."
"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute!" Tony exclaimed, crouching down to her level. "You be good for him, okay?"
She nodded. "Okay."
"And if you want to call me and say goodnight you can," he assured her.
"Okay. Bye, Daddy."
He hugged her, realising that this was the first night since she'd arrived that he'd spend without her. "Bye, Princess."
Penny moved next to hug Ziva's legs, and then beckoned her down to her level. Ziva leaned down and Penny started to whisper loudly to her. "I hope Daddy makes you smile more. He wants to make you feel better and make you smile because your boyfriend was a dick and Daddy said that he never 'aserved you anyway. He said you need a nice man who knows you prop'ly. He said so. I heard him."
"Did you now?" Ziva half-laughed curiously.
"Yeah, but I think he doesn't want you to know that."
Ziva whispered back. "It will be our secret then," she assured her.
Penny giggled, "Bye!"
And with that she was gone. Tony was stunned for a moment, as he realised that she was already down the hall with Gibbs. "Is something wrong?" Ziva asked him.
"I didn't think she'd be going to her first sleepover when she was three years old," he admitted.
"I hardly think they will be staying up all night to paint one another's toe-nails," she assured him.
"I really hope not, it might give her some kind of mental trauma," he said, as they closed the front door and went back to the kitchen. This time, Ziva followed him, sitting at the breakfast bar and watching him tend to the dinner. "Nah, she'll come back tomorrow with a tool kit announcing she wants to build a boat," he assured himself.
"Luckily you do not have a basement," she pointed out.
"Yeah," he nodded. "What were you two giggling about anyway?" he asked her.
"It is a secret," she smirked.
He sighed. "Great, she's already keeping secrets from me. I didn't realise she was a teenager already."
"Do not worry," she told him. "It is not a bad secret."
"Good, the last thing I need is you two ganging up on me."
"Worried?" she teased him.
"Wouldn't you be?"
She smiled. "Dinner smells wonderful, Tony," she complimented.
"Of course it does," he bragged. "I'm making it." He smiled for a moment, watching her out of the corner of his eye. "You know, it's weird watching you with Penny," he said, knowing that now was the perfect time to bring up his suspicions now that Penny wasn't around.
"Strange?" she asked, looking suspiciously.
"No…it looks…I don't know…natural," he realised.
She smiled softly. "It is nice to see the innocence in the world for a change."
"You like kids, don't you?"
"Penny is a wonderful child, Tony. Anybody would find it a treasure to be around her." Tony nodded slowly, paying close attention to the dinner. "Do you like children?" she asked him.
He shrugged. "I never really thought about it before Penny came along. Not seriously, anyway."
"I suppose that having somebody you can love and call your own has to be special, yes?"
He smirked at her. "You, on the other hand, clearly have thought about this before."
"Every young girl wishes to grow up and be a mother, Tony," she said, her voice distant. "There was a time when I wanted nothing more than that dream."
"You never thought about going for it?" he asked.
The distance in her voice faded, and she scoffed at the idea. "I am a Mossad officer, Tony. The majority of my family members were either so deeply involved that they would never be able to leave, or they were killed as acts as revenge because of this. It was not a safe environment to bring a child into and it still is not."
Tony was silent for a moment, noticing the strange expression on her face. It was like she was forcing herself to believe what she had just told him. He didn't know what the expression meant, but he knew enough to know that he wanted to make it disappear. Instead of questioning her, however, he held up two plates. "Dinner is served."