CHAPTER 4

The next few days at work passed slowly. Jimmy and Ziva did not speak of what they had found out to anyone and it seemed as if the world just kept turning like it always had. That was until Thursday when Ziva got a call while at the crime scene they were called to.

"David," she answered.

"Hello, is this the mother of Ariella and Miriam?"

"Yes, is something wrong?" Ziva asked as she turned so that no one could hear her.

"Both girls have come down with a fever. Could you come and pick them up?"

'Shit, shit, shit,' Ziva thought, knowing Gibbs would never let her go. "Wait for a minute, please." She put the school nurse on hold.

"Gibbs," she called as she walked to where he was standing. "May I go home?"

"Stupid question, David. No"

"But.."

"Why is it that you need to go in the middle of a crime scene?"

"Well, my neighbor…"

"Neighbors can wait, Ziva. Now back to work."

She was almost ready to tell Gibbs the truth when Jimmy noticed Ziva's lost face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, assured that everyone was in another room.

"Miriam and Ariella are sick, fever, and my nanny is out of town until at least 7pm and Gibbs won't let me go and pick them up from school."

"Wait, let me talk to Doctor Mallard." He walked over to the doctor and came back only a minute later. "I told Doctor Mallard that I needed some personal time for an emergency. I can go and pick them up, if you want me to, of course. I'll take them to my house and you can pick them up there when you do get off."

"You really want to do that?"

Jimmy nodded, then Ziva realized she still had the nurse on hold. "Yes, sorry," she spoke to the nurse. "I cannot pick them up right now but a friend, James Palmer, will pick them up. Is that alright?"

"That's fine, I'll be waiting for him," the nurse replied then hung up.

Ziva turned to Jimmy to thank him but saw he was already driving away.

Finally at eight thirty Ziva was allowed to go home. She drove to Palmer's place, walked up the stairs and knocked. Jimmy, now dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt, opened the door.

"Hey, Ziva, come on in."

His apartment was rather large and Ziva discovered they had quit the same taste. The difference was though that in Jimmy's apartment there were dinosaurs and knight's clothes everywhere instead of the fairy princess and lizard stuff at her own home.

"At least I was able to get them to eat some soup. They're sleeping in my bed now." Jimmy pointed to his room and Ziva quietly took a look. They had kicked their blankets away, and their hair was everywhere.

"Was it hard to get them to go with you?" Ziva asked when she was back with Jimmy in the living room.

"At first they did not trust me, but after I reminded them about the ice cream and that I was friends with you, I guess they were too sick to care. Anyway they slept a lot, other than being cranky from the fever they behaved like little angels. Miriam even listened to Drew's speech about what he had done today."

Ziva's stomach made a rumbling sound. "Hungry?" Jimmy asked.

"Yes. As a matter of fact I am. Gibbs could not let us go any earlier, so the last time I ate was about one o'clock."

Jimmy went into his kitchen and came back a few minutes later with a bowl of hothomemade vegetable soup which he sat on the dining table. "Here, I had some left."

"Thank you." Ziva picked up the spoon and started eating. As she ate, Jimmy asked if they knew any more about the victim. Ziva told Jimmy everything they knew. The man had died from blood loss. His neck had been cut by a piece of mirror, but except for the piece that stuck out from the man's neck there was not a single mirror in the house, which in itself was strange. When Ziva finished her soup she commented as to how good it was and asked Jimmy if he had made it himself.

"Um, yes," Jimmy said and began to blush. "When I was little my mom used to let me help with cooking; it was our bonding time together."

"I had the same thing with my mother. You may not believe it but up until I was like seven, I think, I wanted nothing more than to dress in pink, though I always preferred stuffed animals to dolls. After I stopped liking pink and playing with my stuffed animals the only thing my mom and I did together was cooking. "

"What changed?"

"I met a boy, and it was not that I despised pink or anything, with my little sister I could play all day if she asked me to. But I just discovered a whole other world of fun, which I preferred."

"I didn't know you had a sister."

Ziva laughed, but it was a sad laugh. "There are a lot of things no one knows about me."

'I would like to know those things about you,'Jimmy thought. "Like Ariella and Miriam."

"And like Drew for you," she said back. "What were you like when you were little?"

"Different than most people think. Everyone I meet thinks I am, and was, a geek. I guess part of me may be but that is not all of who I am. I liked to play outside, even built tree houses. From the age of six I played soccer. Our neighbors were from England and they started it so that the children could play. Then when I was in high school I played baseball for a while." He smiled at the memory, and for maybe the first time ever Ziva began to see the other side of Jimmy Palmer. It was true, she could not deny it, she had thought the same as Tony that Jimmy was kind of a geek. Butshe liked that he surprised her. In a way they were just the same, people of whom others did not know anything about. A whole other person than those on the outside could see.

Jimmy took Ziva's soup bowl to the kitchen and came back with two glasses and a bottle of wine. "Can I pour you a glass?"

"Sorry, Jimmy," she protested. "I think I should go, and I need to be able to drive."

"If you want, you can stay here. When you came the girls had just fallen asleep. If they are awakened now, I somehow think that they will not get back to sleep again."

"I do not want to put you to any trouble."

"No trouble at all if you don't have a problem with sleeping on the couch. My guest room is now Drew's room."

"Well, then, okay, I will stay."

Jimmy filled the glasses with wine and gave one to Ziva. Ziva raised her glass as Jimmy sat down.

"L'Chaim," she said. "That means 'to lives'."

"And that we are different than most people think, " Jimmy finished.

They drank and talked a bit about work and the children. It was after te n o'clock when Ziva checked on her girls, glad to see that they were still sleeping. When she came back, Jimmy had put in a movie. By the end they had fallen asleep, leaning against each other on the sofa .