Hey, everyone! Finally, another chapter. :)

Thanks to fiftyshadeswritergal for helping with a proofread. :D You rock!

Thanks to everyone who read the last chapter - I appreciate that you are all continuing to read. I love this story so much and I'm glad that others seem to love it too! Thanks to all the reviewers - Troubled-Angel-26, Sarai, Loads of Randomness, Queenofwheels, DS2010, S, Tamara, Fan, JessicaRae95, Guest, and NaughtyAngelBrat (who was catching up and left me many wonderful reviews - thank you so much!).

I hope that you all enjoy!

If you have ideas for what you'd like to see through the rest of the story, let me know. I can't promise anything but I might be able to include some other ideas into it. :)

Now, have fun reading!

...

"Hey, Ziver," Gibbs said calmly. "What are you doing back here tonight?"

Ziva swung around and glared at him, although he could sense her anger was being directed elsewhere. There was no blood on the knife so he was fairly confident that she had not killed anyone. She snapped it closed and put it back in her pocket, confirming to him that she was not bringing him a murder weapon but was instead playing with it to "self-soothe", albeit in a unique manner.

"You would not believe it!" she fumed, pacing a little more. Obviously she was high on adrenaline.

She's annoyed at Jenny for something.

Gibbs smiled grimly, sensing a long and dramatic night ahead. "Try me," he said drily. "I have a feeling that I would."

"I do not want to talk about it."

"Ziver, you are here instead of at Jen's and you're obviously in the middle of a temper ..."

"Am not!"

He ignored her protest and continued, "I think you owe me a few answers at the very least. Now sit down and we'll talk."

"No!"

He quickly looked at her expression. Yep, there was more to that refusal than simply being too agitated to sit. He rolled his eyes back for a second of reflection on how life would be without kids, before remembering that there was apparently some reason that made it all worth it. Then he got up and placed his hands on Ziva's shoulders.

"What'd you do?" he asked.

"Nothing!"

"That seemed a little too quick. Want to think it over again?" Gibbs asked.

"Nooo." That time the answer was slightly less sure and Ziva did not appear to want to make eye contact.

How interesting.

He simply waited. Gibbs could always tell when someone was stalling - he had worked with Tony and Abby for far longer than he had known that Ziva even existed and those two were notorious for stalling when the truth was uncomfortable ... or about to be.

But he also had a lot of patience and knew that if he just waited long enough Ziva would want to get it over with and just tell him.

Although ... Ziva was far more stubborn than Tony or Abby. She folded her arms and glared at Gibbs.

"I do not want to talk!" she growled under her breath.

Gibbs waited. Two minutes passed.

"I will not talk!" she protested.

He was silent. He was just as stubborn as she was and had practiced the art of being immovable for a decade or two before Ziva would have even been conceived.

After five minutes it paid off when Ziva huffed in frustration before admitting, "I got in an argument with Jenny and I could not stand being around her anymore so ... I came back here."

Gibbs felt a warmth in his chest as he registered the detail that of all the places Ziva could have gone, she chose his house despite the fact that she would know that it would result in some sort of confrontation over her actions. She was feeling safe there. Somehow something was working at reaching through to her.

But then, part of being a secure place for Ziva meant being consistent. And running away from Jenny would need to be seen as consistently wrong, no matter the argument. But he would work up to that with her. For now he had to try to understand the situation a little bit better before he started to scold.

"What'd you argue about?" he asked, stepping back and checking something before refocusing on Ziva.

...

Ziva paced a little, channeling her frustration into her movements. When Gibbs asked what she had argued about with Jenny she focused a little more on pacing in a circle, hoping that the exertion would explain the colour in her cheeks as she mumbled, "Nothing important."

Gibbs stopped her pacing with a gentle hand on her shoulder and she keep her head lowered just enough that she would not have to make eye contact.

"Tell me, Ziva."

No "Ziver", so he was getting more and more serious. Both he and Jenny were so serious tonight! She did not like it, not one little bit.

"I ... I tried to ..."

Ziva suddenly realized that what she was going to have to admit was going to make Gibbs a little annoyed. She stepped backward to make some space between them in case what she said made him want to head slap her.

"Ziva David!"

Yes, his patience is gone.

"I tried to convince her to let me go back to work on Monday."

...

Gibbs had to fight back a smile when Ziva finally admitted that the "not important" argument had been about returning to work. He had suspected that she would put in some sort of plea when she got Jenny on her own. He was glad that the two of them had a relationship that had spanned over the years. Although it seemed natural lately for him to take on a father role for Ziva, he knew that Jenny as a mother figure was something that had been introduced several years previously and was thus easier for Ziva to accept now. It was clear that she did not like some aspects of Jenny's increased involvement, such as rules and consequences being regularly enforced, but she seemed to accept it with less of a fight than she did with Gibbs. But he could tell from Ziva's body language and reactions that she viewed Jenny as the "nice parent". Of course she was going to try to convince Jenny to convince him that the ninja could return to the field immediately.

But of course, as he expected, Jenny had said "no". And apparently that had not gone over well with the hopeful agent.

"We had already told you that you would not be going back right away," he reminded her calmly. "Why did you think that the answer was going to change?"

...

Because you are the mean one and I thought Jenny might be nice if I could just convince her that I was all better! But that did not work!

Ziva recrossed her arms and tilted her chin a little.

"I wanted to go back on Monday," she said simply but with a stubborn undertone.

"Well, that's not happening. I'm guessing Jen told you that too."

Ziva reluctantly nodded.

"And I'm guessing you didn't like that."

Ziva felt her jaw stiffen. She sure had not! She had allowed herself to get a little too hopeful and she had been disappointed.

"We ended up arguing a lot about it," Ziva admitted again.

"How did that go?"

Ziva lowered her head a little. "Jenny got upset."

And when she gets upset then she is the mean parent!

...

Gibbs could see that Ziva was calming down and was more upset and disappointed than angry now.

"I'm guessing neither of you were too calm about it."

"No," she mumbled.

"Were you disrespectful?" Gibbs asked perceptively.

Ziva shrugged a bit, uncomfortable. "Maybe."

"Ziva?" he said warningly.

"Yes," she grumbled.

"And then what happened?"

"Jenny ... swatted me."

No surprise.

"And let me guess - that's why you got mad and ran away."

Ziva frowned. "There was more to it than that!" Her face fell a little. "Can I stay here tonight like normal? I do not want to have to go back to Jenny's."

Gibbs took a moment to consider - and quietly rejoice in the fact that she saw staying at his house as normal and a place of refuge now - then he carefully answered, "You're not fixing anything here. Go talk to Jenny and then if you still want, you can stay here tonight."

"What do you mean, talk to her?" Ziva asked nervously. "You are not going to take me back to her house, are you?"

"Nope," Gibbs said calmly, opening the door and pointing to the driveway. There was Jenny's car. Unfortunately, Jenny was inside. "Go. Talk," Gibbs ordered with a gently pressure on her back.

"I do not want to!" Ziva pleaded in the form of a protest. She had not interest in discussing her actions with Jenny, but Gibbs gently pushed her.

"Go on. It won't be as bad as you think," he said reassuringly.

Ziva gave him a disbelieving look as she found herself on the porch step.

"You want to bet?!"

Gibbs gave her what she assumed what meant to be a reassuring smile before closing the door, forcing her to face the problem. She took a deep breath, trying to regain her bravado, and then went over to Jenny's car and grumpily opened the door and glared at Jenny.

"What are you doing here?"

There was the tiniest of uncertain squeaks at the very end of her question.

Jenny gave her a steely look. "Get in. We need to have a talk."

...

Thank you so much for reading! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Any guesses/suggestions for the next chapter? Let me know!