By the time I arrive home, it's gone 11.30. Ooops, oh well. Ever the gentleman, Dan walks me to my apartment door. He kisses me on the cheek and says he'll call me soon.
I enter the apartment on a high, I don't care what my father has to say about my lateness I expect him to be waiting for me but instead I see a sight I'd never see, not in a million years.
My father, is fast asleep with his arms around Ziva and she is leaning on his chest, she too, sound asleep.
Look at them I think to myself. The TV is still on so I creep over to turn it off. I'm just about to leg it to my room when I'm caught out.
"What time do you call this?" he asks, sternly.
"I, er…got distracted and sort of forgot the time" I say, my dad gets the wrong end of the stick. The look on his face proves this to me.
"Not like that!" I say, I wait for him to respond with some wisecrack but he doesn't. He waits for my explanation and I'm gald to give it to him.
"I got offered a job, if you must know. When my arm is all better, they want me to play every Wednesday night from 7-11. I'll get paid $100 a night, isn't it great?" I say.
"That's fantastic!" he says quietly as not to wake Ziva up. "But get to bed now!" he says sternly. I raise my eyebrows.
"You can talk…look you stay there, I'll get you a blanket and some pillows" I say slipping off my shoes as I go into his room. I pass him some pillows and a duvet and head to my own room.
They should do this more often.
***
The next morning, I awoke to here a door slam shut. I jumped out of bed and wondered into the lounge. Ziva is gone.
"What's going on?" I ask sleepily. My father scratches his head equally confused.
"I think I just messed it up" he said sorrowfully.
Already? I thought.
"She thinks she's interfering between us" he began. I frowned, Ziva has every right to be happy and I would be over the moon if her happiness was found with him. I run into my room and get dresses. It's a Saturday so there's no school and I'm determined to set Ziva straight. She shouldn't be sacrificing her own happiness for mine…she's been part of my life for so long now.
I rush back into my room and throw on some clothes as quickly as I can manage on handed and go to leave the apartment. My father is still standing in the same place when I left, looking severely confused.
"Where are you going?" he shouts quickly just before I reach the door.
"Out" I say
"You're not my fairy godmother, you know that…I'd appreciate it if you stayed out of my business, please!" he says. Like hell I'm going to keep out of this. I ignore him and grab a set of door keys.
"Don't forget your hospital appointment is at 11" he says, I just catch watch he says before I slam the door shut. I'm hardly going to forget when I have the big,
heavy cast on my arm to remind me.
I power walk to NCIS, it's only 6.30 and no one will be there yet…accept Ziva of course, I know her better than she thinks I do.
The elevator dings as it reaches the floor and I step out of it into the quiet office. I turn the corner to see Ziva seated at her desk staring at Tony's desk opposite her.
"You left before I had a chance to say good morning!" I say hands on hips. She doesn't look up.
"Did you have a good evening last night?" I ask. She ignores me again.
"Hello?" I slam my free hand down on her desk.
"What?" she says irritably.
"You just left…why? Dad is confused as hell, is his snoring really that bad because I've been telling him to see a doctor about it" I say, trying to lighten the conversation-anything to get her to talk. Seeing her and my father unhappy like this is unbearable.
"It was wrong of me to stay" she said bluntly. I frown, not satisfied with her answer.
"What?" I say, not quite understanding what she's getting at.
"It's not fair on you…you've been through so much lately, you need your father and I'm getting in the way of that!" she said, her voice breaking slightly.
"What I need…is my father to be happy, You have no idea how happy he is when he is with you, please don't you this to yourself, I know you love him…every body knows it. What are people going at say when they notice you're in the same clothes as yesterday? There are rumours starting to circulate, you know" I finish, slightly out of breath.
"Bethy D, where's your father?" Gibbs whirls around the corner. Thank goodness he wasn't a few minutes earlier.
"Er, he's on his way" I respond quickly. Gibbs looks at me and frowns.
"What are you doing here? And a nearly 7 in the morning?" he asks.
"Erm…I have a…hospital appointment, just dropped in to say hi to Ziva coz I might not see her today, I got rehearsals at school…" I finish but Gibbs is too quick.
"Bethany it's a Saturday, you cannot rehearse…your arm is in plaster" Busted!
"I just needed to talk to Ziva about something important" I say.
"What?" he asks
"Girl stuff!" I say, Gibbs immediately backs off. That always works like a charm.
"Oh, I see…can I see you up in MTAC after?" he asks, shuffling through some papers.
"Yeah sure, I've pretty much said all I needed to say anyway…bye Ziva" I say, she looks at me and smiles weakly…this whole thing is killing her.
I follow Gibbs up to MTAC, he lets me in and shuts the door behind me.
"What's going on between Ziva and your father?" he asks. I've been wondering how long it would be before we could have this conversation.
"I honestly don't know…I'm feeling very confused about it" I answer quite honestly. Gibbs sighs.
"You know how I feel about rule 12" he begins.
"I know and so do they which is why they…" opps, Gibbs is very good at getting me to spill the beans, he always has.
"They wouldn't do anything, they're too afraid of each other and your rule 12...it's actually very irritating" I conclude, Gibbs frowns.
"What is? my rule 12 or them being afraid of each other?" I laugh nervously.
"Not that latter, obviously" Gibbs relaxes a little.
"When are they going to knock their head together then?" he asks. I'm dumb stuck.
"Excuse me?" I say, I certainly wasn't expecting that.
"I'm not going to be able to stop it what it happens am I? I just need to be aware of it that's all. Rule 12 is there for a reason you know" he says,
"It's there because of your own experience, because of what happened between you and Jenny…" the words come out of my mouth before they can stop them.
"Exactly, I don't want that to happen to them" he says calmly. I was expecting his reaction to be a lot worse.
"Me either" I say. I wait for a short while before I make my next move.
"It's a shame what happened between you and Jenny, I mean, I love you both, you're both like family to me and I hate to see you dance around each other" I say. Gibbs' eyes look sad, I sense that he understands completely.
"I've got to go, otherwise I'll be late, dad should be here by now" I say turning to leave. He touches my shoulder gently, turning me to face him.
"Thank you" he says, I'm taken aback.
"What for?" I ask, I have no idea what I've said but he appears to be grateful that I've said it.
"For saying that I'm like family to you" he says. Aww, Gibbs can be adorable at times. I turn around fully and give him a hug which he reciprocates.
"You are family to me…uncle Gibbs!" I say jokingly.
"Not grandpa Gibbs then?" he laughs letting go of me.
Before I leave I say another goodbye to Ziva and my father. They seemed to have recovered from their mishap this morning because they are openly flirting again. McGee raises his eye brows at me and I give him a high five.
I briefly nip into the bathroom and as soon as I enter I hear someone wrenching in one of the stalls.
"Hello?" I call, "are you alright?" I ask. I suddenly hear the flushing of the toilet and the sharp bolt of the lock of the door turning. I'm shocked to see who it is.
"Jenny?" I say rushing to her. She looks pale and exhausted.
"Bethany? You ok?" she asks me. I look at her incredulously.
"Me? I'm fine…you don't sound ok" I say sounded genuinely concerned…it's not like Director Sheppard to get ill.
"I'm fine, Bethany really…just something I ate" She says feigning a weak smile. I get the feeling that no matter what, she's never going to tell me what's really going on.
"ok, as long as you're sure…I can get Ziva for you, or Gibbs?" I say
"No, not Gibbs, not Ziva…I'm fine, Thank you Bethany" she says. It's only because I have to get my ass to the hospital that I let our encounter go…for now.
"You should really go home if you're sick!" I try one more time, just for good luck.
"Bethany! I'm fine" she says, splashing a little water on her face.
"No if you excuse me, I have somewhere to be!" she said, exiting the bathroom.
Now I'm really confused.
***