Yay! I am finally back with another chapter! I am on March break so there should be some new material now that I actually have time to write and edit it!

Thanks so much to those who have patiently waited for me to update. I appreciate each and every one of you, even if I have been bad at responding to individual comments lately! I have not and do not plan on abandoning this story. There is so much more to come and I hope that you will stick around for the rest of it! We are moving into some more intense sections so I think that you will enjoy reading about it - at least I hope so!

Thank you to fiftyshadeswritergal who helped edit this chapter. You do such a great job helping me fix up these chapters, finding ways to connect and improve the overall plot line that I would not think of even if I edited the same chapter multiple times. I am so grateful to have you as such an invaluable resource!

Now, please enjoy!

...

"Ziva Leigh, come help me with this!" Jenny called from the kitchen. She had just gotten back from a conference that had caused her to be away from the Saturday after the movie night until early that Monday morning.

"That is not my name," Ziva corrected, looking up from her work a little confused. "I do not have a middle name." She went back to cleaning her already-immaculate weapons as she sat on the sofa.

"I know. That's why I'm giving you one," Jenny said lightly as she came over, took the knife from Ziva and replaced it with a carrot peeler. "Middle names can be helpful for getting people's attention when they aren't listening the first time they're asked to do something."

Ziva frowned but nonetheless got up and followed Jenny to the kitchen.

"I do not want carrots, though. Gibbs and I already decided what we were going to order for supper. There is this really good healthy place and ..."

"You wanted to finish trying everything on the menu?" Jenny finished crisply. "Not on my watch, young lady. You and Jethro are NOT going to order Chinese for the third night in a row. Yes, I spotted the receipts on the counter. Eating junk food all the time is bad for you - you know that!"

"Gibbs does it and he is fine," Ziva argued, adding under her breath as she searched for carrots in the fridge, "and he is the active agent, not you!"

SWAT!

"Ouch!" she yelped, jerking around to glare at Jenny while rubbing her bottom despite the swat having been so light that it had not actually hurt in the least. "What was that for?!"

"I can hear you just fine," Jenny remarked with an amused smile. "And I dare say that Jethro is an exception, not a rule."

"She's right," Gibbs said, coming in to the kitchen. "Never refuse to let someone cook for you, Ziver. We can always get take-out tomorrow."

"Jethro!"

"Good!"

Gibbs winked at Ziva and dodged the tea towel that Jenny tossed at him with a half-hearted frown.

"You really need to make sure that the two of you are eating properly, Jethro. I blame you more because you're the one who doesn't have any decent groceries. How can I have been away for three days and you already are out of food?"

"I guess that we ate all the healthy stuff in a salad the day that you left," Gibbs replied jokingly as he refilled his coffee cup.

"Oh...!"

"But the Chinese place is good. It's done traditionally so the food is healthy. It's not all sugar and salt."

"Really?" Jenny asked, interested. "Well, that's better than I had thought."

"Told you so!" Ziva insisted, earning herself a "look" from both parental figures

"Be respectful, Ziva Jennifer," Gibbs said.

"Why are you calling me all these names? Leigh and Jennifer? I am just Ziva David."

Jenny walked past, dropping a kiss on Ziva's head before she opened the fridge and took out the steaks that Gibbs had been defrosting for tomorrow's lunch.

"People give special names to those they love - and we love you."

Ziva did not know how to directly respond to that - far too sentimental according to her tastes. She focused on another aspect. "But why Leigh and Jennifer?"

"You were acting like Jethro - ignoring me - and that is a rather difficult name to feminize, so I took 'Leigh' from 'Leroy'," Jenny explained with a special smile for Ziva and a teasing one for Gibbs.

"Actually, you're much more like Jen than me, so that's why I changed it to 'Jennifer'," Gibbs explained, returning the look to Jenny. He patted Ziva's shoulder as he stepped past to take the package of meat. "I'll take care of preparing that."

Ziva was finding this discussion interesting. Although she had grown to resent being compared to Eli over the last year as distance had revealed his imperfections all the more starkly as she had compared him to her strict but loving and supportive leadership figures at NCIS, she did not mind this little debate of whether she was more like Gibbs or Jenny. In fact, she liked it.

"Jethro! She's just like you!"

"She is most definitely not! And if it was true, that'd be an insult, not a compliment."

"I mean that she has all your good traits," Jenny argued.

"Well, I still think that she is more like you than me. She has your temper ..."

"...Something that you share in common with us as well," Jenny interrupted.

"...And she has spunk and determination and a strong mind about what she will and won't do."

"Are you trying to call me stubborn in a way that won't offend me?" Jenny asked teasingly.

"Yep."

Jenny burst into laughter. "Well, I'm flattered." She turned to Ziva who had finished rinsing the carrots under the faucet before peeling them. "How did you day, Ziva? What have you been up to while I was gone?"

"Well," Ziva pondered, thinking over anything eventful. She smiled as she remembered something. "I am a little less grounded!"

"Lovely! So you got some privileges back?"

"Gibbs finally let me get my weapons back and I can go outside as long as I stay on his property." Ziva made a face. It still felt too restrictive, although it was basically back to what it had been before she was grounded.

"Hey, if you don't like it, I can always change it back to you having to stay inside unless I'm with you," Gibbs said warningly.

"No. I am grateful," Ziva amended quickly. "And you said that if I continue to behave that I can get the darts back tomorrow evening."

"Yes, I did say that."

"Then we could have a competition tomorrow night?" she offered.

"Sounds good."

Ziva smiled. If Gibbs was looking forward to it too, then her chances of getting the darts back were very high indeed. She was not really minding the grounding quite as much anymore that her attitude was better. She understood why Gibbs had done it, even if she not like being grounded. Jenny's puzzle book had helped reduce boredom. The movie night had been a boost to her spirits, as well as being out in the sunshine earlier and spending some calming time reflecting as she cleaned her weapons. She was feeling so much better about life.

And with Gibbs and Jenny both busy teasing each other and preparing supper, then maybe she could sneak off and finish cleaning that knife. She was halfway to the sofa before ...

"Ziva Jennifer Leigh!" Gibbs and Jenny chorused. She turned around guiltily.

"At least we can compromise," Gibbs said as an aside to Jenny, who just rolled her eyes to the ceiling before transferring all of her attention to Ziva.

"Back to peeling those carrots," Jenny scolded lightly. Gibbs just shook his head with amusement.

"Nice try, kid. Nice try."

Ziva smiled away her embarrassment and returned to peeling her carrots. The small SWAT! from Gibbs as she passed him was not entirely unexpected.

"You must both be in such a good mood - creating two middle names to scold me with and giving me swats for everything!" she dramatized.

"Is it better than having your grounding extended?" Gibbs asked.

"Yes!" she yelped as the smile faded from her face. "Wait - you would not do that to me, would you?"

"Maybe," Gibbs said. "Oh, you nicked yourself with the peeler. Are you okay?"

"Yes," Ziva said, sucking at the small blood spot. "I am fine."

"Go put a band aid on that. It looks like you are getting out of peeling carrots after all," Jenny said, pushing Ziva gently in the direction of the stairs.

"There are band aids in the bathroom cupboard," Gibbs directed. Even if he and Ziva did not think that the tiny scratch was deserving of first aid - evidenced by Ziva in how she was rolling her eyes behind Jenny's back - they could humour Jenny. "I'll take over the carrots," he told her. Ziva's eyes twinkled at that information and she dashed off, happy to be rid of an undesired chore.

"You wouldn't really extend her grounding, would you?" Jenny queried as soon as Ziva was upstairs.

"No!" Gibbs chuckled. "The second Ducky says that she's free, her grounding is over! Not going to punish myself too!"

"Not going as smoothly as you thought it would?"

Gibbs responded reflectively, "In this case it was necessary. I think that the loss of freedom was important for her to come to terms with. But I think that I'd be more careful about doing it next time. It was her first time so maybe she'd settle easier if I have to do it again, but restricting what she can do is hard on her. Abby's a social butterfly but can amuse herself when needed. She modifies, creates new things to distract her. Same with the boys on the handful of occasions I've needed to do it with them. Ziva ... well, you're right that she's like me in this sense - we both need a task to work at while upset over something. When I took away her active amusements and the only thing that she was really doing was chores, I didn't really provide an outlet for those emotions and that doesn't seem to have worked out the greatest for either of us. She just ended up trying to push me and there were times that I was close to cracking and dealing with her in a way that would not have been good or helpful to modifying her behaviour."

"That sounds about right," Jenny said, remembering multiple times when she had been frustrated by Ziva acting out over the years. "She is an expert at pushing buttons!"

"I guess that I'd give her a few restrictions but perhaps a project that she had to work on or complete to end her discipline session next time. Also, she seems to learn from spankings. She doesn't just up and forget them in twenty seconds - which I could swear Abby does sometimes! I don't know. I just think maybe I'd do it different with Ziva in the future."

Jenny nodded thoughtfully. "I would agree that it was necessary in this context due to her injuring herself and needing to be reminded that if she won't take care of herself than others will and she probably won't like it. I think that she had already felt restricted, however, so grounding on top of that might not have been ideal. I think that maybe one or two restrictions for a short time period combined with a spanking or a few spankings would be more effective and less stressful to everyone."

"Agreed."

"And I think you're right - spankings go deep with Ziva. She does learn from them and I think that the reminder that she isn't quite beyond correction and also love is important."

"Parenting's hard, isn't it?" Gibbs commented. "Especially anything involving discipline. I don't want to screw up her life anymore than it's already been."

"I think she knows that we're trying our best," Jenny said gently.

"Not that she'd ever want to admit it!"

...

Up in the bathroom Ziva was unaware of the discussion about discipline methods to be used on her. She rinsed off her finger and applied the band aid. She had considered ignoring those directions from Jenny - after all, she did NOT need a band aid! - but she remembered the last time that she had ignored medical advice rather clearly.

"I am not going to do that again," she murmured to herself as she hurriedly added the sticky tab to her finger. Then, not quite ready to return to peeling carrots, she strayed to her room and walked over to the window to look outside as the sun was setting. She was rather busy thinking.

Ziva Jennifer Leigh.

Ziva Jennifer Leigh.

I like it.

Suddenly, just as she was about to listen to her present as her truth, the echoes came crashing in on her once again. There were voices that would only ever acknowledge her as Ziva David - the director of Mossad's daughter, spy, handler, assassin, unstable asset. They denied her the positions of agent, cherished friend, beloved daughter figure. She would never be Ziva Jennifer Leigh to them.

But ...

Face it, Ziva - you are becoming soft. You are not being the strong person that you are supposed to be. And these people will not be here forever. You do not need to be loved - you need to be strong! After all, they have not seen the worst of you. You need to stop being so content with life and see the facts - they only love you for who they think that you are. They do not love the real you.

And it is about time that they meet her before this gets harder.

...

So, get ready to meet a Ziva trying to prove herself as unworthy of love. The next few chapter will be filled with one very confused ninja trying to push her new family away - there will be quite a few spanking scenes, so I am putting a warning here for those who like to skip those sections.