(Ziva POV)
I have never known Tony to be at a loss for words, he's always the one with the snappy comebacks and the witty commentary. But when our daughter invited us to live in her house together he was utterly silent. We both were. What do you say when your teenage daughter asks you and her father to live under the same roof?
Rose was anxiously glancing between Tony and me, waiting for a response. Finally, Tony spoke, and it was not at all the answer I was expecting.
"Sure," he answered. I really wanted to severely injure him for telling her that.
"Great!" She exclaimed, and then rushed up the stairs, down the hallway and out of sight.
I whipped my head around to Tony's direction.
"What were you thinking?" I asked him angrily.
"I was thinking," he said defensively, "that she's ourdaughter, not yours or mine, ours. I mean, how hard can it be? We work together all the time as is, and, according to her, we're going to be living on separate wings. Besides, am I really that hard to live with?"
"Well, genius, did you think to consider Gibbs? And rule 12?" I countered.
"Wings, Ziva, wings. We're not going to be seeing that much of each other and it's not like we're sneaking off in the middle of the night to sleep together," he said in response.
I made a 'humph' sound and crossed my arms, waiting for Rose to come back downstairs. We stood in silence for a few minutes before she came back stairs.
"So which one of you guys wants which wing? The west wing is closer to the in-home entertainment theater but the east wing has a bigger bedroom," She told us.
"He will take the west and I will take the east," I said.
"How do you know I didn't want the east, Ziva? It's not nice to make decisions for other people, you know," Tony commented, semi-sarcastically.
"Because if you are not near a collection of movies I will never hear the end of it," I said.
He smirked in response and then the two of us set about rearranging our living arrangements. We were on the phone for hours while Rose sat on one of the plush couches in the next room, headphones tucked snugly into her ears and book in hand.
~*~
Over the past week, we transported all of our stuff into Rose's huge mansion and settled in. Things with our previous residences were evened out and new tenants have moved in.
Today, we were driving Rose to school before reporting back to NCIS Headquarters for work. We had to file some sort of form saying that she changed guardians and what not. Apparently, she went to some high school that neither Tony nor I had ever heard of because it was in the suburbs of DC.
When I asked her why she did not go to a school in Georgetown, she answered, "Two school districts overlap in my neighborhood: one for a fancy Georgetown Prep School and the one I go to. Judi thought that going to the Georgetown one would make me stuck-up and bratty, so I go the school in the area that no one has ever heard of. It's a nice school though and no one's a snob, so I'm happy."
We rode in silence for five minutes after that, with Rose fixing her lip gloss in a hand-held mirror. We were, of course, driving Tony's car because, I quote, 'it's so much cooler'. I then asked why he cared so much about a teenager's opinion and that shut him up.
"So, since it's like 6:45 in the morning, I'm going to fall asleep if I don't get some music to listen to," Rose stated.
"Don't you have an iTouch?" Tony asked her as he maneuvered around a Volvo that was going less than 10 miles per hour.
She shrugged. "It's not loud enough."
"Fine," I said, leaning over to fiddle with the radio buttons.
She gave me the number for the local radio station that played her favorites and I turned the knob to get it set there. Some song with a hip-hop beat blared through the car's speakers and out into the air because the Mustang's roof was pulled back into a convertible.
Rose started singing along with the radio, her voice meshing with the singer's. (The song's Down by Jay Sean)
"So baby don't worry, you are my only,
You won't be lonely, even if the sky is falling down,
You'll be my only, no need to worry,
Baby are you down down down down down,
Down, Down,
Baby are you down down down down down,
Down, Down,
Even if the sky is falling down,
Even if the sky is falling down like she supposed to be,
Down like her temperature, 'cause to me she zero degree,
She cold, over freeze,
I got that girl from overseas,
Now she my miss America,
now can I be her soldier please,
I'm fighting for this girl,
I'm a battlefield of love,
Don't it look like baby cupid sent his arrows from above,
Don't you ever leave the side of me,
Indefinitely, not probably,
and honestly I'm down like the economy"
By the time we had reached the school, the song had ended and some female singer came on with a pop song. Rose jumped out of the car and straightened her outfit. Today she wore a dark blue and white button-up shirt with jean short-shorts and white flip-flops to coincide with the warm springtime weather. The hair that she had inherited from me was pulled into a side ponytail, curls falling over her right shoulder. She had on the same rosebud earrings as before and toted a dark blue bag with neon pink writing. She waved bye to us and hurried towards a group of people who I guessed were her friends.
Tony and I opened the car doors and got out, walking towards the school entrance. Unfortunately, in order to reach the double doors at the front of the school we had to walk past a bunch of high school boys.
"Now there's a hot MILF," a tall, dark haired boy said.
I assumed they were talking about me if my definition of 'MILF' is correct. Before I could turn around and strangle them or pull out my gun, Tony was nearing them. I followed him, curious to see what he would do.
"Hey, buddy," Tony said, talking to the guy that had called me a MILF.
When the teenager did not say anything in return, Tony grabbed him by the shoulders and made the guy look at him. It was a good thing Tony towered over the guy by about 5 inches.
"Dude, what the hell?" the guy said, obviously pissed.
Tony did his fake-laugh, the one he usually reserves for suspects, and dropped his hold on the guy's shoulders.
"Here's, 'the hell' as you so quaintly put it," Tony started, "You ever heard of sexual harassment, wise guy?"
The guy continued giving Tony a blank stare, but I saw recognition flash across his eyes. The guys behind him fell silent.
When Tony got no reply, he continued. "Cause, you see, it's illegal. You're what? 18?"
The guy nodded, a little fearful. I considered intervening at this point but it was just too amusing to interfere.
"18, huh? You're lookin' at being tried as an adult. I'm sure they'd just love you in prison…who knows, you might even make it out alive."
The guy was flat-out frightened now.
"Or, you know, I could just hand you over to her," Tony said, indicating me with a nod of his head.
The guy made the mistake of looking at me with lustful eyes, so I pulled out my gun.
"One. Wrong. Move," I told him.
"D-d-d-d-dude, we're, like, really sorry, and it'll, like, never happen again," the guy said.
He rushed off with all his friends trailing behind him in fear. I chuckled and re-holstered my gun.
"Gotta love high school," Tony commented, smiling his signature grin.