Title: Once upon a summer time

Disclaimer. I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story

CHAPTER 4

Tony DiNozzo's POV:

The noise from the engines faded more and more and when I looked back I noticed the plane had now turned away from us and was coming in on the runway next to ours. That was one of the biggest sense of relief I had ever felt. I looked at the girl, she seemed tired. I was tired too. I took hold of her arm and we made an abrupt stop. We just stood for a moment, catching our breath and clasping our knees.

"I guess we managed to lose the airplane too." I joked while panting. However I was surprised it had suddenly changed direction like that. Airplanes weren't usually in the habit of doing so, I knew.

Suddenly she spoke up. "We need to get out of here. Before another airplane comes in and this time squishes us." She looked around anxiously. "And we have to make sure we do not run into that man again."

I agreed. We spotted an entrance and made an attempt at running towards it. After only a few steps we both noticed we were too tired to run, so we slowed down and started walking instead.

I took a moment to look at her. She was not an American, that much was obvious. She had long, dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, the color of dark chocolate. She was not as tall as me, but about to my eyebrows. She could be my age but I wasn't sure, perhaps a year or two younger. She wore a yellow sundress and brown sandals and was kind of petite. I wondered why she had been wandering around the airport by herself. Where were her parents? It wasn't normal for a kid her age to be on her own like that. Then I remembered that I myself had been wandering around just the same way. But that was different. I was a guy.

We pushed the door open to one of the entrances passengers used after getting off their airplane and entered. When we were at last safe inside I decided it was about time so I extended my hand to her. She looked down at it with a surprised look. Almost as if she didn't know how to respond. Then the thought came to me. What if she was from a country very far away where they didn't shake hands. Then maybe she didn't understand what I was trying to do.

"I'm saying hello." I explained.

Her mouth formed a small o, and she took my hand. "I am sorry. I forgot we had not already introduced ourselves, Tony. My name is Ziva Elisenda David." She said and shook my hand. She had quite the grip I noticed. My hand almost went numb.

"You know my name?" I asked, unable to hide my surprise. Who was this girl?

"Yes."

"How?" I asked, excited. Was she some sort of secret agent? It was impossible for her to know my name before I had told her. We had never even met before, and that I was one hundred percent sure of, even though I sucked at calculating percent, and I never forgot a face.

She frowned, "It's on your sweatshirt."

Shoot, I thought. I looked down at my chest and grinned awkwardly. "Good point." I said blushing slightly, "I was just testing your ability to observe under pressure."

"Sure you were." She said, obviously not buying what I said. "We should go up so you can find your parents and I can find…"

A big hand on her shoulder made her stop talking and her eyes grow big. I hadn't seen him coming because he had emerged from behind the stairs where he had stood hidden, just waiting for the right moment to jump out at us. It was the dirty man. He looked even angrier now than before.

Before I had time to react he had grabbed my collar and pulled us close together in front of him. Now, in better light and being much closer to him than before, I noticed his intense yellow eyes. He looked almost like a beast from some story. A werewolf perhaps. His teeth even looked extra sharp and for a moment I thought he might want to have us for lunch.

I awoke from my reverie by Ziva's loud scream.

"I got you now, little rats." He hissed between clenched teeth.

I wanted to scream too but my throat refused to obey me and make any sounds what so ever. Just when I was about to actually start praying, I heard four blessed words.

"Federal Agents! Hold it!"

I looked up at the head of the stairs and saw a silver haired man and a red haired woman. I had an idea who they were. But figuring there would be time for hellos later I focused on the problem at hand and used my right leg to kick the dirty man in the shin, hard. Ziva was evidently eager to be set free as well as she spun around and gripped his hand, sinking her teeth deep into his skin.

The dirty man howled and pulled his hand back. He had teeth marks set deep in his skin. Recovering quickly he released me and pulled his right hand back to strike Ziva, who quickly ducked and jumped out of the way, pulling me with her. We landed on the floor. He didn't give up so easily though. He followed ready to pound his fist to Ziva's back but was stopped by the silver haired man who had now descended the stairs and was at our side. He blocked the dirty man's hand and then quickly got around him in one quick move, securing both his arms around his back. The red haired woman handed him a pair of hand cuffs and then got to her knees next to us.

"Are you alright?" she asked, placing a warm hand on my shoulder. I nodded and sat up, cross-legged on the floor. Ziva did the same. The red haired woman put her hand under Ziva's chin and lifted it to take a look at her face. There were no tears, just a perplexed look accompanied by relief.

"You alright too?" she asked Ziva who nodded. The red haired woman got to her feet and offered one hand to Ziva and her other hand to me and helped us get up from the floor. We stood side by side and watched as a security guard came running down the stairs. The dirty man was handed to him on a silver platter from the silver haired man who had captured him. The security guard looked very grateful and also a little proud as he took the dirty man away. The dirty man glared at us as they passed but the woman put a protective hand on each of our shoulders and made us take a step back.

When they were half way up the stairs the silver haired man called to the security guard. "Good job capturing him, George. Let your boss know it wasn't an easy job for one man but you had no problems solving the situation." He winked and then joined the red haired woman's side. He wiped some sweat from his forehead and then focused his eyes on the two of us. He looked at us for a moment and I felt nervous. By then I was sure I knew who they were and I was sure how this might look to them. They probably saw it as I had gotten myself into trouble intentionally. And not just myself, but that I had also dragged this girl into it.

I glanced at my shoes, a bit uncomfortable being scrutinized by the man's piercing blue eyes. He certainly knew the art of staring a man to death. Then a hand appeared in my visual. I looked up and saw that he had extended his hand to me and was now looking…kind. I grinned and shook his hand.

"Special Agent Gibbs."

"Anthony Santo DiNozzo."

"Nice to meet you, Anthony."

"Tony." I corrected him at once. My father had taught me to always introduce myself with my full name, even though I preferred my nick name.

He smiled at me, kindly with warm eyes. "Tony." He agreed. He pointed at the red haired woman. "This here is Special Agent Jenny Shepard."

He turned to Ziva, standing by my side. "And you must be Ziva." He said.

I turned to Ziva, stunned. Okay so Ziva was no secret Agent with secret info of people at an airport but this guy certainly was. He already knew her name. That was amazingly impressive.

Ziva looked at the Agents and everything was quiet. She then gave a nod to each of them and stated. "You are Special Agents Gibbs and Shepard."

Gibbs and Jenny confirmed by nodding and Jenny took a step forward. "Yes, we are, honey." She shook Ziva's hand gently but firmly. "I haven't seen you since you were just a baby."

I spun around and faced Ziva, "You know these two?" I exclaimed. "Why didn't you say something?"

She raised a brow at me. "Because I did not realize until just now who they were."

Gibbs put his hand on the back of my head and grinned at how lost I was. "Tony, this is Ziva. We've been waiting for you both." He explained.

Of course! I was such an idiot. "You're one of the kids who are going to be living with the Federal Agents? We're gonna be living together?" I could not believe it. I had had no idea who this girl was half an hour ago when I had seen her get pulled behind the escalator by the dirty man. And now all of a sudden we were going to spend the summer together?

She just shrugged. "I guess."

I shook my head in disbelief. This was going to be one tough summer, keeping track of this girl. She certainly had a way of finding trouble. But then again… so did I. Although I never really knew how it happened.

To be continued

A/N: I'd like to say thanks for the reviews I've received and the tags as favorite story etc. I would also like to make a request though for some more people to let me know what you think of the story so I can continue it more easily. It's always so much easier with feedback. Is it too slow? Moving too fast? Are the characters right? Please let me know your thoughts.