A/N: I know I promised more updates and have failed to do so. That being said I do have a reason and it is once again rather sad. My cousin who is only 17 was in a car accident. Because of the pandemic we couldn't visit him so it was very stressful. Thankfully he is in recovery now and is doing very well. Anyway, I will try to update at least once a week but with school make no promises. So for characters I have decided to make Gibbs and Jenny have two kids. Twins named Caleb Jasper and Sarah Ann.
When Tony pulled into the driveway, he saw that his wife's car was already parked. He figured that after her day she would be looking forward to coming home and not working late but he didn't expect her to beat him home. Putting the car into park, Tony gathered his things as the children jumped out. He noticed how Tali lingered behind a bit but didn't think much of it since she was usually the slowest at pretty much everything. She just didn't seem to see life as a competition unlike her siblings who always wanted to be first at stuff.
Tony got out of the car with his briefcase before making his way through the opened front door. He went straight to the kitchen where he saw his wife doing previous dishes while listening to their daughters day and Alex eating some cut up carrot sticks. Ziva always tried to have a snack waiting for the kids after school but since she wasn't usually home it was often something quick she had done that morning then stuffed in the fridge. What Tony did notice was that his middle child was no where to be found. He looked up to his wife's questioning eyes and shrugged unhelpfully, not knowing where Tali went.
Ziva turned to the other children, "Where did your sister wonder off to, Alex?"
The boy didn't look up from his phone before mumbling "how should I know?"
Letting a frustrated sigh at the teens attitude, Ziva turned to the youngest, "Ellie, baby, where's T?"
"Mama, I think I saw her go to our room but I don't know. Besides I haven't finished my story!" whined the young one. Ellie always got mad when the attention wasn't on her.
"I know sweetie but I need to go find your sister. Why don't you tell your daddy about your day?"
Ellie gave her mother the most 'are you dumb' look she could muster, "Mama he pickeded us up! He already knows allllll about my day." Ziva could swear she heard a quiet duh at the end of the sentence but ignored it as it would only lead to trouble.
Turning to Tony, Ziva indicated to there daughter. And once he got her distracted, the mother made her way upstairs.
Arriving at the pink rooms door she peaked in to see her daughter sitting on a bean bag hugging her Pua doll. Ziva made her way over before picking the small girl up and settling her on her lap on the bean bag. The nine year old immediately curled into her mamas chest. It was moments like these that Ziva sometimes wished her kids where still little and snuggly.
"What's wrong, my sweet? You went straight upstairs without even greeting me?" Ziva asked concerned.
The girl sniffles and it was then that the mother realized she had been crying. "I just am tired and wanted to go to bed, Mama. I'm sorry I didn't say hi."
"Oh darling, I understand being tired as I have had a rough day too, but I feel though that you have a different reason for looking like you are crying. Please just tell me so I can help you." Ziva knew her children pretty well so she could always tell when something was going on and to her, Tali looked more upset then tired. Her accusation was confirmed when her daughter finally looked into her mamas eyes and Ziva saw them red and filled with tears.
"Why are people so unhappy, Mama? I just don't get how someone can be so mad that they hurt someone else!" cried the little girl. She was confused and sad all at once.
Her mamas eyes softened as if she knew what was going on. Ziva had an inkling that Tali still trusted her words about being mean when unhappy and now understood that her daughter didn't understand fully what she had meant.
"Sometimes people's life's are difficult and they don't like their situation. This can lead to them being angry or sad which sometimes results in them lashing out. Other times people have no good reason for being mean other then they need to make themselves feel better. Has someone been being mean or hurting you?"
Tali nodded, "A girl in my class named Marrissa. It started out as just her being mean but now she pulls my hair and sometimes pinches me. It really hurts my feelings and I didn't do nothing to her!"
Ziva sighed. She knew she had to stay composed for her daughter no matter how angry she was. How could a girl bully her daughter!? It was all so messed up.
"Talia, look at me please," she waited until eye contact, "I know how you feel. When I was a little older than you, I too was made fun of. A boy named Mikel used to push me around. And while I knew I could beat him, I didn't want to. So you know what I did?" Talk shook her head," I told my brother, your uncle Ari, and he helped me."
The little girl listened interested. Her mama barely talked about her uncle and her father never did. All the kids knew was that he died and little stories about childhood. "How did Uncle Ari help you?"
"Well the next day, Mikel tripped me so Ari went up to us and stood between us. He told Mikel that next time hurt me, he would pay and then walked away dragging me behind," Ziva smiled at the memory. "Since Ari was much older than us, Mikel left me alone after."
"Do you think Alex would help me? I really don't wanna do it by myself." Tali muttered the last part slightly quieter.
The mother smiled. She loves the fact that her children were allowed to admit fear unlike she was, "He definitely will. You just have to ask him."
"I'm gonna do that right now!" She jumped up and ran down the stairs shouting for her brother.
Once down in the kitchen, Ziva listened as her daughter told her brother what was happening and at the end Alex told Tali, "I know her brother. Tomorrow we will have a chat and if I have to I will talk to her too."
The only thing Ziva said was, "Make sure Tali gets an apology" which was answered with a short nod.
—
At the McAbby house:
RJ sat quietly on the couch not really paying attention to the TV. On the floor Penny was doing her reading homework but also being quiet. Glancing down at his sister, RJ made sure she was focused before letting himself drift into thought. The boy was nervous and didn't know what to do. At school, he overheard something that had stayed with him all day. Tomorrow the popular boys were gonna skip school. This news wasn't very surprising but what was worry some was that his cousin might be joining them. Alex was sitting with them at lunch and all the boys were whispering to him about something. RJ knew that that meant Alex was probably apart of the plan but he still wasn't sure. Alex was pretty smart and knew what would happen if he cut class.
This whole situation made RJ uneasy. On one hand, RJ thought it was really cool that Alex could hang out with them but on the other hand he didn't want his cousin to get in trouble. It was no secret that RJ looked up to the thirteen year old.
The second hand made RJ really think. Maybe if he told his mom than Auntie Ziva would stop Alex from skipping school and no one would get in trouble or more specifically spanked. But there was also a chance that Alex would get spanked just for considering it. Both out comes seemed to suck. Alex would hate RJ if he told but would get a less severe punishment. Then RJ thought of something.
"Hey, Penny?"
The girl scowled at her brother, "What do you want?"
"Well I was just wondering if you wanted to know a secret but since you obviously don't ..." the 12 year old boy smirked knowing that his sister would now be interested.
"I do! Please tell me bubba!" RJ frowned at the nickname but kept going on.
"Well," he dragged out the word, "I don't know if you can handle the big cool secret."
Penny began jumping up and down, "I can! I can!"
"Shhh! Do you want Nicki to hear?" RJ looked in the direction of the babysitter and saw her still doing dishes. This shut his sister up. "Well okay, I'll tell you. Alex got to sit with the popular boys today and now he's friends with them. But, that's not even the best part! They invited him to skip school tomorrow." Now RJ did feel bad about ratting out his cousin but since he didn't tell his parents he figured he wasn't a snitch. He couldn't help it if Penny blabbered to everyone. It was not his fault.
The eight year old gasped. "Really? That's so cool wait until Mommy knows!"
Still trying to help out his cousin a little bit, all RJ said was, "You didn't hear it from me." Before turning back to the TV.
