Chapter 4: A Brief Respite - January and February

January started with Ziva and Tali returning to the farm house. Whatever Mossad had done to or inspected at the property was not obvious, for which Ziva was grateful. She did not want to know of any more of Eli's secrets and lies. If only she could convince others that she wanted nothing more to do with the man or his legacy. All Ziva wanted was to be left alone to raise her daughter free from fear.

She had to admit to herself that also included bringing Tali to meet her Abba, so that he could be a part of her life. Ziva still had her doubts that Tony could ever forgive her for not informing him about their child. She hoped that the three of them could someday be a family, but her greatest fear was the hurt that she had caused Tony would be unforgivable.

Her inner demons still reared their ugly heads, but it was becoming less and less frequent that she would have the nightmares or the serious bouts of self-doubt and self-loathing. Tali was her focus; she had to be whole for her daughter to thrive and to live free from the horrors and hurts that Ziva had seen way too much of in her life.

Orli came by once a week, presumably to check on Ziva and Tali. Ziva knew that Orli had ulterior motives, but let it pass. She was cordial and civil to the Mossad director. It never hurt to have a 'friend' at Mossad, especially if your last name was David. Ziva actually started to look forward to her weekly visits with Orli.

Adam and his family came for dinner about every other week. Tali followed the two older children gleefully each time they came to visit. Zevi and Adam briefed Ziva on any new intel while the kids played out of earshot. Since the beginning of the year, very little chatter or activity had come up.

Ziva tried to keep life as normal as possible for Tali; she was determined that her daughter would not live a life filled with fear and always watching over her shoulder. She and Tali spent time at both the Haifa beach house and the farm house. They visited with Doda Nettie, both at home and at Nettie's house.

Despite the apparent lack of activity or threats, Ziva was constantly on alert. She carried at least one weapon when she and Tali were out of the house and had readily accessible (to her) arms in both houses. Tali, in her nearly two-year-old world, was blissfully unaware of her mother's vigilance. For that, her Ima was grateful.

At Valentine's Day, Ziva sent a text message to Tony, 'Happy V-day. Ani ohevet otcha. Soon, very soon I hope.' She didn't expect to hear back from him, but when her phone chimed with the incoming text alert while she was preparing dinner, she quickly moved to check her messages.

'Should I count to a million? Ani ohev otach.'

Ziva smiled; memories of their Valentine's Days together bubbling to the surface. The last Valentine's Day that the pair had been together was especially in the forefront of her memories. That Thursday, they had done paperwork all day at the Navy Yard, but Tony had managed to sneak out to get their favorite take-out from the sandwich shop across from the Yard. He set up a table in the break room with a tablecloth, flowers, and a candle. He had texted Ziva to come meet him in the break area and surprised her with the lunch. Gibbs had let the team go home for the day before 1800. Ziva planned a special meal at home and cooked lasagna for Tony. Dessert was supposed to be tiramisu, but they got distracted by each other. Dessert had been a multiple course helping of each other. Both had barely kept awake at work on Friday due to their lovemaking and lack of sleep the night before, but neither regretted any of it. Ziva sighed at the memories, and realized just how much she missed the physical relationship with her soul mate. Tali would get a G-rated version of the stories from her mother for bedtime stories.

Ziva started checking into flights to the US, specifically to one of the DC area airports, from Tel Aviv. Her target date for going back to her family in DC was 20 May, a Friday. She purchased tickets for herself and Tali, one way from Tel Aviv to Dulles, via New York. As she printed the e-tickets, she smiled. 'Home' was not so far away anymore. Israel was once her home, but she had come to realize that a physical location was not truly home unless the people she loved were also there.

The last day of February dawned with bright sunny skies and unusual warmth for that time of year. Daytime highs were predicted to be around twenty two degrees Celsius (seventy one Fahrenheit); above normal for February in Tel Aviv. Ziva dropped Tali at Doda Nettie's house and went grocery shopping. After making her purchases, she headed back to the farmhouse to put the groceries away before picking up her daughter.

As she drove up to the house, her ninja senses tingled. Something was off. She reached under the driver's seat for her handgun, placing it in her lap as she slowly approached the house. She surveilled the area around the house, the front porch, and the yard. Nothing seemed out of place or out of the ordinary. Still, her senses were telling her otherwise.

She parked the car and shut the engine off, listening and watching. She slipped the weapon into the pocket of her jeans as she stepped out of the car. She grabbed several bags of groceries in her left hand; her right hand ready to grab her gun as she stepped onto the porch. Still nothing unusual…

She unlocked the front door and opened it slowly, gun ready if needed. She pushed the door further open with her foot and canvassed the room. Still nothing, so she carried the bags of groceries to the kitchen, placing them on the counter. She turned to go back out for the remaining bags of groceries. She swore she heard a floorboard creak and turned with her gun drawn in the direction of the sound.

"Show yourself, or I will shoot first and ask questions later," she called out. One of the farm cats ran out from the hallway to Tali's bedroom. It ran towards the kitchen door, which Ziva quickly opened to let the frightened animal outside. She tucked her gun back into her pocket after relocking the back door and went back to the car to retrieve the remainder of the groceries.

Her mind was whirling with emotions and questions. What if Tali had been with her? How did the cat get into the house? Why were her senses still on high alert?