Tony Dinozzo Gibbs – 10 years old

Tim McGee Gibbs – 8 years old

Abigail (Abby) Scutio Gibbs – 7 years old

Ziva David- 9 years old

ASL: Italics

Chinese: underline

CHAPTER 3: A New Environment

I didn't know what these people wanted from me exactly. I was used to being on my own that's how I like things. Ziva thought as she started un-packing her suitcase. She hid a knife in her clothes drawer, and then tucked one under her pillow, in her desk and up high on the top shelf of her closet, she then looked around and surveyed her room. Her window was above the roof of the patio which pleased her because it meant she could sneak up onto the roof at night. She sat on her bed and stared at the wall across from her lost in thought when Jenny poked her head in.

"Hey Ziva wanna come check out the back yard"

Ziva jumped and then looked sternly at Jenny and then back at the spot she had been staring at for the past few minutes.

"Come on. You may like it." She said coaxingly

Ziva rolled her eyes at this and knew she Jenny wasn't going to go away. After feeling the familiarity of the knife hidden at her belt she made her way back down the stairs and out into the backyard. Tony and Tim were playing football and Abby was swinging on their swing set, while Gibbs was grilling some hotdogs on the barbeque

Ziva surreptitiously made her way over to a big tree and started to climb it when no one was looking. She wanted to get a better idea of where she was, and the neighborhood she was in.

"Dad! Look at Ziva" Tony yelled. Ziva was 50 feet off of the ground sitting one of the tree branches.

"Ziva! Come down here" Gibbs yelled.

Ziva sighed and signed back… why?

"Because I said so and you could get hurt"

Ziva rolled her eyes at this and signed I'm not going to get hurt…

"I don't care get down here" he said …. She sighed and then made her way back down the tree. At the last ten feet she jumped. Jenny screamed and started running towards her but Ziva landed gracefully, and walked passed her and made her way over to Gibbs smirking.

"Hey Ziva…" he said…"come here". Ziva walked over to her and he raised his hand to gesture something…but then Gibbs noticed her eyes flare. Gibbs stared at her for a minute wondering why she looked apprehensive and then understood "I'm not going to hit you Ziver I just want to explain something to you..."

My name is not Ziver. She signed

"I know that but it's my nickname for you…don't you like it?"

No. she answered "Alright Ziva enough. From now on you have to talk. Okay? No more sign language. Speak, use your words." Gibbs said

Ziva, again rolled her eyes and stalked into the house annoyed. "ZIVA! Come back here!" he yelled. She ignored him and continued into the house. Her father, Director David would be proud no one says that kind of crap to a David. She decided to go down to the basement to see what Gibbs did down there and she found a boat. It was almost done, and she could easily hide in there for as long as she wanted.

Then she heard Gibbs walk through the house "ZIVA" he yelled… she heard him walk upstairs and head into her room. She heard him run back downstairs and check all the rooms. Finally, she heard him walk back outside.

Then it was silent, thank god she thought as she stared up at the finished upper part of the boat. She wasn't trying to be too much of a hassle. Things were so different here then they were in Israel. She didn't trust any of them and she wanted to watch them for a while before she started talking in English. Ziva knew that Gibbs seemed to care about her a lot, but her father, Eli David, also cared about her a lot even though he did stuff to her from time to time. She didn't know if she wanted to communicate them, because she was afraid that they would abandon her, or leave her like other people did. She decided in the basement that she would go for a different language, because she didn't know if they knew what languages she spoke. She decided on Chinese because she knew not very many people knew Chinese.

~~~Gibbs POV~~~

Where the hell could that girl have gone, I thought to myself as I made my way through the house looking in all of the hiding places. I sighed, and went back out to Jenny.

"Hey Jen did you see which way Ziva ran off?"

"No Jethro, why can't you find her?" she said worried

"Nope she ran off, but she didn't leave the house she's somewhere I just can't find her…"

"Where have you looked?" she asked

"Bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, dining room, kitchen all the normal places Jen"

"What about the basement? Did you even tell her it was off limits?"

I swore under my breath, head slapping myself in my mind and made my way down to the basement. After swiftly looking around I didn't see her and then I looked inside the boat. I found her there, just laying down looking at the ceiling, eyes shut. I hesitated; I didn't want to startle her if she had fallen asleep.

It's alright Gibbs I know you're here, I heard you coming she signed, eyes still shut.

"hmmm remember what I said Ziva? You gotta talk and apparently I got some rules I need to teach you."

"Why must I talk when I clearly don't want to?" Ziva asked in Chinese

"umm what?" I said utterly confused

"Haha finally a language" Ziva said more to herself than to anyone knowing Gibbs wouldn't understand.

"Look Ziva, I know you're mad…" No response. Gibbs tried again "But this isn't going to work if you don't give this a try, and who knows you may even like it and us if you try talking to them in English"

English isn't my first language or my second or my third. Ziva signed

"How many languages DO you know?"

10

"Wow that many already?" I asked…she's so young; she never even had a life I thought sadly to myself.

"Look Ziver, I care about you a lot, I don't know what you went through in Israel, but I would never hurt you. Will you please try just for me...? If not me then for your mother, Rivka, I know she wanted the best for you so do it for her?" I asked

"Fine" Ziva said (in English)

Authors Note:

I know I made some grammar errors, grammar isn't my best subject in school I tried fixing it up a bit and I will make sure to read through them before I post. I won't be posting every day, hopefully every couple of days .Thanks for the reviews and please review more! Thanks!