The next couple of months seemed to fly by. Both Shannon and Kelly had started to have their own friend groups in the area, although still keeping in touch with quite a few people from when they were living in Philadelphia. He was glad as he knew that the abrupt move back to Arlington had isolated them a bit, Shannon more than Kelly, and, as a result, both women were much happier.
Kelly's twenty-seventh birthday had also come and gone mid-August, and they'd done a few things together as a family for her, Jethro's father coming down from Stillwater to visit for several days. Joann and Mac saw Kelly and Shannon frequently, both living nearby, but it was, unfortunately, harder for Jethro's father to spent time with them as the man lived quite a bit farther away.
He had yet to meet Kelly's friend Mike, though. He figured that Kelly was a bit nervous as to how that meeting was going to play out.
Work was going well for everyone, although, some big changes had happened lately in regards to Ziva. Some things had come out about her ex-boyfriend Michael Rivkin and her father, pushing Ziva to a bit of a breaking point when it came to her poor excuse of a father which lead to a rather interesting conversation between Ziva and himself.
He was doing paperwork at his desk, towards the end of his shift, when Ziva walked up to him and got his attention. "Being a visitor here is wrong."
He immediately gave her his undivided attention. "What does that mean, Ziver?"
"I need your signature on this," she said, placing a set of documents down on the desk in front of him. "I want to be an NCIS agent."
"I don't even know if that's possible," he told the young woman honestly. "You would have to resign from Mossad, Ziver." Jethro knew Eli still had this hold over Ziva and wasn't sure if she had it in her to walk away from the completely corrupt man.
"Already have," Ziva stated, genuinely surprising him. "Sent my father an e-mail."
"What's he think about that?" he asked. If he knew the man, which he did, Eli wasn't about to let his daughter out from under his control without a fight.
"Does not matter," she told him. "Eli is all but dead to me. You're the closest thing I have... to a father... And, well, it is your blessing I want."
He'd always hated how Eli did nothing but use and discard his children, so he was glad that Ziva had realized that before it was too late. Jethro leaned in, giving Ziva a gentle kiss on the cheek. "You've got it, Kid."
She looked up at him with a watery smile and he'd immediately set to work on getting the ball rolling for the young woman to become a U.S citizen.
The next afternoon, well, he had the joy of watching Eli and Vance share a few words. His and Vance's relationship had improved, and the situation with Ziva was something that they could both agree on.
"I'm not happy about it either, Eli!" Vance said.
Jethro smirked at the look on the man's face. Vance's tone of voice said empathetic but his facial expressions made it clear that the man was enjoying this conversation nearly as much as he was.
He could make out Eli's voice over the phone. "Self-serving, manipulative..."
"Gibbs is an awful son of a bitch," the director commented, causing Jethro to bite back a laugh. Vance was definitely enjoying this little discussion. "Y-you might think he's a thorn in your side. He's a pain in my ass."
"He is a thief," Eli scoffed, "stealing my daughter."
Jethro raised an eyebrow. If the man cared so much about his family he wouldn't have killed his own wife in a retaliatory strike, proceed to send his only son into Hamas as a mole and train his youngest daughter to be an assassin. Eli didn't care about them. He cared about how he could use them.
Vance quickly gave Jethro a look of understanding before responding to Eli. "I know. I know you're upset, I know she's your daughter, -"
"My flesh and blood..." Eli started.
"I will continue to deal with it," Vance said, "but you have to... you have to believe I am your ally here."
"Then show me," the Mossad Director fired back.
"I will deal with Gibbs," Vance said, "but she has chosen to deal with him, too."
"We'll let the issue rest for the moment," Eli said. "This is not the last conversation we will have on the subject."
The NCIS director looked slightly relieved. "Shalom, Eli."
The line instantly disconnected.
"Not bad," Jethro said, quite pleased.
"Not bad at all," Vance said smugly. The director then signed the documents that were needed for Ziva to officially become an NCIS agent, passing them to Jethro to sign and then personally give to Ziva.
DiNozzo was giving the other two agents a bit of a hard time when Jethro walked into the squad room, but Ziva immediately started to grin when he gently tossed the newly signed papers onto her desk.
Taking a seat at his own desk, he smiled over at her. "Get to work, Probie."
Even if Jethro had to go toe-to-toe with Eli later, the look on Ziva's face as it hit her just what those documents meant for her was more than worth it.
Walking through the doors of his home little after 1830, Ziva following close behind him, his daughter immediately walked up and asked Ziva how she was doing given everything that was going on in her life.
She and Kelly were only a couple of months apart, Ziva being born in November, so he was quite pleased to find out that after the young Israeli coming over for dinner at their place several times, the two girls had formed a friendship of sorts. Especially now as he knew that the young woman who'd become like a daughter to him could really use the support.
Kelly swallowed a bite of her roasted chicken and looked over at Ziva. "So, you have to take the citizenship test?"
"Yes," Ziva replied, "but that will not be for a few months yet."
"I'm sure you'll do fine," Shannon said in between bites of potato.
"You'll have to do some studying, Ziver," he stated matter-of-factly, "but it's not like you're not stubborn enough to pull it off." There was little that the young woman could not do if she put her mind to it.
Ziva looked rather proud of the assertion. "Thank you." She then turned to Kelly. "So, are you still up for our girls' day?"
"Definitely," Kelly replied with a grin. "Wouldn't miss it." Ziva had invited Kelly to the pilates thing that she and Abby did. His daughter had accepted the invitation and then the three girls had decided to make a day out of it.
"It's Abby you're going with, right?" Shannon asked.
"Yes," their daughter confirmed. Kelly then turned to face him as she spoke. "And who knows, maybe we can even get Dad to try it sometime."
Ziva gave him a mock-serious look. "You really should try it, Gibbs."
He quirked an eyebrow. "In both your dreams."
"We're kidding, Dad!" Kelly said with a chuckle.
Ziva's eyes were sparkling with mirth. "Well, partially."
"I think it'd be fun," Shannon chimed in with a cheeky smile. She enjoyed egging him on altogether too much. "Come on, Hun."
Jethro looked between all three of the girls and shook his head in fond exasperation. "Women. Honestly." He then shoved a forkful of the roasted chicken into his mouth. These ladies were going to be the death of him.
