Ziva was alive. Mentally well, not quite, but alive nethertheless.
"You need to see Dabi, before you do anything else," Tim said firmly, as they sat in the little dinner.
"I am not sure-" Ziva began, but Tim cut her off.
"No, you need to see Dabi. You need to meet her boys and her husband," Tim said firmly, his tone booking no argument.
"Dabi has children?" Ziva repeated, confused.
"Two twin boys," Tim said, nodding. "Dabi's hair, Gibbs' eyes. Born in the morgue. Long story."
Ziva swallowed hard. "And the bakery?"
"It expanded. Sharee retired about a year before Dabi married Leo, and Dabi took on a new business partner by the name of Owen, who is also married, and has two children of his own." Tim smiled reassuringly at her. "Dabi misses you. You can't leave without seeing her again. She'll kill us if you don't, and trust me, she's gotten real good with the beatings. She gives Torres a run for his money in the gym."
Ziva couldn't help but laugh, and she soon found herself back at the familiar Kranz Bakery, following Tim through the bustling building, which had indeed gotten much bigger, but still had the same delightful smells and comforting hustle and bustle.
Then she saw her, and Ziva froze, not sure what to do. Dabi's hair was back to its beautiful natural red and in a ponytail, and she had filled out more. A gold wedding band was now on her left hand, but she was still the pretty young woman that Ziva remembered.
Then, when Tim got her attention and signed something, her eyes went wide, and she gestured sharply. They went wider when she saw Ziva, and suddenly Ziva swore her ribs were about to be broken, or at the very least, cracked.
"I don't understand and I don't care," Dabi said, touching her hair and her face almost reverently. "But don't you ever do that again! You have to meet my kids and Leo." Before Ziva could say anything, she was dragging Ziva through the bakery and yelling for someone. "Owen! Find Nana and Leo and get them down here, yesterday! And grab Mary!" she yelled, dragging Ziva to an area she didn't recognize but looked like a brightly colored daycare center that was walled off from the rest of the bakery by huge glass walls, Tim following them, grinning widely. "Sara, I need the boys, please, and your brother," she called to a young girl of about five, with curly black hair tumbling wildly around her face and shoulders, her skin suggesting Spanish or Mexican paternity.
The little girl quickly brought over two identical toddler boys, both with red hair and Gibbs' eyes, who just as quickly went to their mother and into her comforting arms as she kneeled down on the padded floor.
"These are my sons, Donald and Jethro Benson," Dabi explained, as Ziva knelt down beside them, eyes wide in wonder. "This is Sara Rivens, and her brother, Michael, my godchildren. Their dad is Owen, my business partner," she continued, as Sara patiently brought over a younger toddler boy with black hair, his fist stuffed in his mouth, as he tried to keep up with his sister. "Sara, this is Ziva David. She was a very good friend many years ago, and I haven't seen her in several years."
"You're pretty," Sara said, patting Ziva's hair. Michael stared at Ziva with wide eyes, going to Dabi, whom he clearly knew well.
Ziva smiled at her. "Thank you. You're very pretty too."
"Ziva?" a female voice asked, quivering.
Ziva looked up; it was Sharee, who was standing next to a young man with dirty blonde hair and a muscular form under his shirt and sweatpants. Rapidly joining them was a well-built woman in jeans and shirt, her hands showing the rough nature of her job, and the man with the cane and bakery shirt uniform, that Dabi had yelled at seconds ago. The woman picked up Michael when he went over to her, calling her "Mumma!"
Then Ziva was being hugged tightly, again, by Sharee, and introduced to Leonard Benson, Dabi's husband and a physical therapist, and Owen and Mary Rivens, Owen's wife, who owned her own construction company, hence her hands. The adults, including Tim, all sat on the floor of the bakery's special daycare area, children climbing and playing around them, and quickly caught Ziva up on what had happened since Ziva had last seen Dabi, including two marriages, Sara's adoption, Fran's move to Alaska, and the children.
"With the number of staff who have children, and the struggle to find affordable daycare, we realized we needed to dedicate an area of the bakery for them, so their parents could do their jobs and not worry about their kids," Owen explained. "Misha is great with the kids, and the kids are comforted by the fact that we aren't that far away."
"We're in the process of hiring a second child care worker," Dabi explained, "because one of our staff members is getting custody of his little girl and another one just found out she's pregnant with her first child. On top of that, we just got a visit from the commandant of the Marines, and we've been handed the contract for the Marine birthday ball. Again."
"And when the current Secretary of the Navy found out, he demanded we do the Navy birthday ball. And then the Secretary of the Army got in on the act, even though all three branches answer to the Secretary of Defense," Owen said. "At this rate, we are not going to have any problems paying off our building loans."
"You have done very, very well for yourself," Ziva said, beaming proudly at Dabi.
"Thank you," Dabi said, blushing. Then she cut to the chase and asked the question everyone had been wanting to ask. "Ziva, what happened? Tony introduced us to Tali before he left for Paris, and his dad showed us pictures of Tali and Tony, so we know they're okay, but what happened to you?" she demanded.
Ziva hesitated.
"Look, Dabi told us all about you," Owen said. "We know you were NCIS and Mossad, and we've hung around Gibbs often enough to know things can get pretty ugly. Heck, I'm former Navy, myself. If we can help you, we will."
Ziva looked at Tim, who nodded. "It is a long story, but I had a brother, Ari, who was part of some terrorist groups, undercover, of course. He, umm, he was killed, and…" And here she hesitated again.
"Because of how deep Ari was, the groups fell apart and blamed Ziva for his death because they thought she was connected to his death," Tim quickly explained.
"And if terrorist groups do what they do best, which is seek revenge, then someone is after you, which is why you went into hiding and let us think you were dead," Dabi said. "And if you're here, then that's because you think that the person who went after you over there, might be over here."
Ziva binked, then nodded. "Yes," she said, not sure what else to say.
"Good thing we upgraded the security system recently," Owen said, to which Dabi nodded.
"When was the last time we had an active shooter drill?" Dabi asked.
"It's been a while," Owen admitted.
"Is there a way we can do it without scaring the kids?" Mary asked, Michael in her lap.
"Make it like a game," Ziva suggested. "Hide and seek with you."
"And we come seek," Tim suggested.
"That would work," Sharee said, thoughtfully.
"Did that door get fixed, the one that got busted when Ariel's ex went stupid last week?" Owen asked.
"Fixed and reinforced," Mary said, nodding. "Next idiot who tries it will get a busted foot. Only the best for our babies."
"And the storefront windows?" Leo asked. He was clearly involved in the bakery business enough to know exactly what was going on, even though he was a licensed and practicing physical therapist. He was also a hands-on father, cuddling with his sons, and wrestling with one of the other daycare boys. A brief family description said he came from a large family that had made the last Thanksgiving gathering very rowdy, to say the least.
"The Engineering squad is coming in tomorrow morning, and should be done within a few hours," Owen said. "These guys know what they're doing. The only problem we might have is convincing the Front crew not to feed them before the job's done."
"Now where's the fun in that?" Sharee shot back, causing a round of laughter.
"Because the last time that happened, the platoon wound up owing us money, instead of the other way around!" Owen fired back, causing more laughter.
Ziva was confused, until Tim explained. "Vance pulled a favor with the Engineering Corps to help restructure the building. We've been known to hide witnesses here, and Vance and Gibbs wanted to make sure the building was up to military-grade standards."
"And the platoon ate more than they built?" Ziva asked.
"By the time they were done, we had fine-tuned several recipes, had four birthday and wedding cake orders, and a very large catering order," Dabi said.
"Plus, the platoon had to double up on their laps just to lose the weight they'd put on," Owen said, smirking. "And I think one of the guys just proposed to one of our girls."
"Annabella," Sharee said, nodding. "Very shy, but a good baker, and she was wearing dog tags that I know she wasn't wearing before!"
"That explains her question about if the staff can make or design their own cakes," Dabi said thoughtfully.
"I wanna de-si my own birfday cake!" Sara piped up.
"Let me guess; chocolate, cherries, and more chocolate?" Owen asked, grinning at her.
"Yup!" Sara said happily.
"That sounds delicious!" Ziva said, smiling at the little girl, while her heart broke.
Afterwards, with Ziva promising to come back, she and Tim finally left.
"She has grown," Ziva said.
"She has," Tim said, nodding. "Leo's a good guy, and he loves her and the boys. They'll be safe."
"Good," Ziva said. "Good."
Much later:
Sahar was dead. Phineas was safe and headed for his aunt and uncle in Philadelphia. It was time to go home.
As Ziva said her good-byes to everyone, Dabi emerged from the elevator.
"Perfect timing," Dabi said, hugging Ziva tightly. "Dad, we need to go wood hunting again."
"Why?" Ziva asked, while everyone else looked on in confusion.
"Because I just confirmed I'm pregnant again, and the ultrasound says I have a girl," Dabi said, taking out a picture of an ultrasound and showing it to Ziva, before handing it to Gibbs, who started grinning. "Leo and I talked. Her name will be Ziva Sharee-Ann Benson."
Ziva felt her jaw drop. "I, I am honored," she finally stammered out.
"Yeah? Well, when the time comes, you'd better put your ass on a plane and get here," Dabi said, looking dead serious. "You should have been here for the boys. You will be here for my daughter."
"I," Ziva swallowed hard. "I will do that," she said. "I will be here."
"Good. Good," Dabi said.
As Palmer drove Ziva to the airport, she asked him a question.
"McGee said Dabi's boys were born in the morgue?"
Palmer grinned. "That was fun. We got hit with the first spring storm of the year…."
The End. For now.