Chapter 4: Quiet children equal trouble; investigate immediately.

Ziva was taking a test for one of her classes on campus and Tony was home with the three youngest kids. Tali and Anthony were at school and would be home around the same time as Ziva. Three year old Rivka and Beth, and almost two year old LJ were playing a learning game on the Xbox in the family room. With the kids occupied, Tony figured he had a few minutes to check his work e-mail on his office computer.

Among the e-mails was a protocol question from his second in command. Tony listened and heard the video game still playing. He clicked reply to respond to his SIC. Every ten minutes he stopped typing and listened for the kids; each time he heard the video game and figured all was okay. After about thirty five minutes, he finished the reply and hit send.

He listened again for the kids, and realized he had been hearing the same sequence in the game for at least the past twenty minutes. There was no sound of kids at all. 'Uh-oh; too quiet!' He gave himself a mental head-slap. He KNEW from Tali and Anthony that no sound from kids usually meant trouble.

Tony quickly walked to the family room; no kids, just the video game in a repetitive cycle. He looked in the playroom, both LJ's and the twins' bedrooms, and in Tali's and Anthony's rooms. Still not a sign of the three youngest DiNozzos. After checking the master bedroom, it hit him that none of the pets were anywhere to be seen. Usually at least one of the cats was on a bed: Callie on his own pillow, Simba on Tali's bed, or Lightning and Patches in the twins' room.

Neither dog was anywhere in sight. Tony figured Asher would be wherever LJ was, so he started calling the dog. Not a peep. He went into the kitchen and shook the cats' treat jar and then the dogs' treat canister. Still no animals. 'NOT good.'

He walked back towards the family room and Lightning came running through the pet door. He looked out on the deck. "Oh my god," Tony grabbed his phone out of his pocket and started the camera app in video mode. He opened the door and all three kids looked at him. He held up the phone, "What are you doing?"

"Hi, Abba," LJ grinned at his father and held up a red marker.

"We are painting the dogs," Beth explained as she held up a blue marker in one hand and a pink one in the other.

Rivka grinned, "We are making them look pretty, Abba!" She had a green marker and an orange marker.

Both dogs' white fur was no longer white. For Asher, that meant his white chest was now a rainbow of colors and several of his white toes were now purple. Poor Daisy got the worst of it, since she had more white fur. She had splotches of color all over her white fur and stripes on her sides.

"Where are the cats?" Tony was almost afraid to ask.

"We tried to paint them, but they ran inside," Beth explained.

"How did you get outside?"

LJ pointed to the pet door, "Like Asher and Daisy."

Tony was still washing marker off kids and dogs when Ziva came home. She gave him a look and he sighed, "Long story; I'll show you the video later."