A/N: Longest chapter so far. Enjoy.

Dinner was a success. Sam talked through most of it, telling Tony stories of what she and Ziva did on Ziva's days off, what Sam liked to do with Naomi when Ziva was at work, what she wanted to do when she was older and so on.

--

"Time for bed Silly Sammy." Ziva said after they had all finished eating.

"Five more minutes. Please Mommy." She pouted.

"Yeah, five more minutes, please Ziva?" Tony pouted.

"Unless you want to be the one who get's her up in the morning, I suggest you keep your mouth shut, Tony." She said in a joking tone of voice, but her face was serious.

Tony broke his pout. "Sorry Sam, I'm more afraid of your mom."

Sam sighed and stood up off of the floor. "Ok Mommy."
"Go get your pajamas on and I'll come and read you a quick story."

A smile lit up the young girl's face, "Ok Mommy!" And she ran into her room.

Tony and Ziva both chuckled.

"She's a great kid. You must be proud."

"Varies from day to day."
Tony looked a her, "Care to elaborate on that?"

"Well some days I just want to strangle her, but other days, I just want to hold her and never let go." She sighed, "If you ever have kids, you'll understand."

He stared at her for a moment, God she was beautiful.

"Mommy?" Sam's voice came from her room.

"Coming Sam!" And Ziva got up off the floor and went to join her daughter in her room.

--

Tony sat and waited for Ziva to finish up with Sam when he heard giggling coming from the little girls room. Cautiously, he got up and walked over to the slightly open door. Ziva was sitting in the rocking chair with Sam in her lap, reading a book and acting out the different voices. Tony smiled at the interaction between mother and child. It was heartwarming seeing his partner, the Mossad Officer turned NCIS Agent, so comfortable with a child.

He snapped himself out of his reverie and walked back into the kitchen.

--

Tony was standing at the sink doing the dishes when Ziva came out of Sam's room.

"Tony DiNozzo doing dishes?" She asked, causing Tony to jump. "Let me get my camera!"

"Very funny Zee-vah. You scared the hell out of me!"

She laughed, "I'm sorry Tony." She went to stand next to him to help him.

"So, I didn't think 'Samantha' was a Hebrew name."

"Technically it's Aramaic. It means 'Listener.' I really wish she'd do that more often."
Tony smiled.

"What about 'Ziva' what's that mean?"
"Ziva is Hebrew for 'Splendor.'"

Well that's fitting. Tony thought.

"What about you? What does 'Tony' mean?"

"There isn't a meaning for 'Tony,' or 'Anthony' for that matter." He said smugly.

"How convenient."

"Why's that Ziva?" He asked, turning his head to look at her.

"It's just, I don't know, fitting, I suppose. That there isn't a meaning that goes with your name. Like I guess if they had to put a meaning next to 'Anthony' or 'Tony' on any website or book, it'd say 'Unique' would probably be the best way to describe you."

"Unique?"

"In the good way."

"Good way?"

"There isn't one word that I can use to describe you, Tony. I can say, 'childish' and 'kind' and 'caring' and 'intelligent' and 'funny' and 'attractive.' I can't just use one word to sum you up. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, I get what you're saying Zee-vah."

"So what about me?"

"What about you what?"

"How would you describe me?"

"Well let's see," Tony sighed and looked over at Ziva, their eyes locking. "I'd say that you are 'strong,' 'smart,' exotic,' 'sexy,' 'understanding,'" She looked at him curiously. "Distant. You are defiantly distant."

"How am I 'understanding'?"

"You understood when you found out where I was when I was working the 'La Grenouille' case. And why I couldn't tell you where I was and what I was doing."

"I didn't understand though." She finished drying the plate that she had been holding and went to sit on the couch.

He quickly dried his hands and went to sit next to her.

"What?"

"You could have told me. About the assignment. You should have told me."

"Jen said…"
"Jen would have understood. If she's as good of a friend as I consider her, she would have understood."

Tony looked at her face; her eyes expressed the most sadness he had ever seen any person ever show. "I'm sorry, you're right. But you kept a kid hidden."

"Yes, but I wasn't running in and out of the office every few minutes, leaving my co-workers to do my work for me! And I hid Sam to keep her safe and because if Gibbs knew about her, he wouldn't let me do some of the things I do now!" She stood up and started pacing.

"Sit down. Please?" He asked in desperation.

She sighed, but did as he asked.

"I see your point. You're right. I'm sorry Ziva."

She sighed. "I could never stay mad at you."

"Thank you."

"I have to trust that you have my back in the field."

"I'll always have your back Ziva. You know that right?"

"Yeah, Tony. I do."

They sat in silence for a few moments before Tony asked, "What was he like?"

"Hmm?"

"Ari. What was he like?"

Ziva instantly paled at the mention of her dead half-brother.

"You don't want to talk about him do you?"

"I do. He obviously meant a lot to you."

She sighed, "Stay here," And then walked down the hallway.

A few minutes she returned with a book. Her face was pale and full of sorrow and anger. She sat down next to Tony on the couch and opened it to a page near the middle.

"The Ari you knew, that was not the same Ari I knew. The Ari I knew was my hero. My big brother. When he had the gun fixed on Gibbs, I saw a look in his eyes that I had never seen before and it scared the hell out of me. And I knew then that you and Gibbs and everyone else were right about him. I was too naïve to see that he was a monster. I saw what I wanted to see. What I needed to see. I didn't want to loose another sibling, so I trusted my instincts and they were wrong. And because of my error in judgment, a young woman died."

They both looked down at the picture on the page. It was of Ari, Ziva and another young girl who Tony assumed was Tali all with their arms around each other, smiling at the camera.

"I trusted him with my life, Tali did too. Part of me is glad that she died before she got to see what her big brother did and part of me wonders that if she was still alive, maybe Ari wouldn't have done it."

She turned the page to a picture of a younger Ziva on Ari's shoulders.

"He promised us both that he'd always keep us safe, that he'd always be there for us, no matter what. And he kept that promise. To me at least. And what do I do to repay him? I put a bullet through his head!"

She took a deep breath to try to regain at least some of her composure before adding, "I know that you won't understand how I could ever love such a monster, and I understand that. I loved Ari. I don't anymore."

"He made a mistake, that shouldn't ruin the relationship you had with him before…" He trailed off.

"He murdered a woman in cold blood?" Ziva asked. "Yes, you're right. That doesn't make a difference in the slightest!" They both took a deep breath and sat in silence for a few moments.

"I'm sorry. That was out of line."

"It's ok. I have no idea what you felt when you killed him and I never will."

She turned to face him and smiled weakly.

"Lucky you."

Ziva turned the page once more and they saw a picture of Ari holding Ziva upside down. Her two front teeth were missing.

Tony chuckled at the sight of the toothless Ziva.

"What?"

"You were a cute kid."

"Sam looked exactly like me and Tali did when we were babies."

"You got any pictures of them?"

"Yeah, do you want to see?"

"Sure." Tony said sitting up a little more.

Ziva walked over to the bookshelf that was next to the piano and took out another book. She had a smile on her face this time.

She sat down next to Tony and opened the book.

"She's really cute."
"She looked just like Tali did."

Pictures of a younger Sam were on the pages of this book. Ziva turned the page to a picture of two baby girls in a crib.

"I wonder what she'd be like now." Ziva whispered.

"She'd be just like he sister."

"A handful?"
Tony chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so."

Ziva smiled. "She has her moments where's she's pure evil, other times, she's an angel."

"Just like her mother."

Ziva punched Tony on the arm.

"Hey! No need for violence!" He said as he rubbed his arm.

"Yeah? Tell that to Banks."

"Oh yeah, how's the gun shot?"

"Still hurts some." She looked at Tony's concerned face. "It's not terrible! It's nothing compared to child birth."

He winced, and she turned the page.

A picture of a one year old glaring Sam looked back at them. She had a birthday hat on and a cupcake with a candle was in front of her. Ziva and Jen were standing behind her, smiling.

"She looks thrilled." Tony remarked sarcastically.

"She wanted to open presents first." Ziva explained.

"Ah. I see. I was the same way."

"No kidding!" She replied sarcastically.

"Sarcasm is the refuge of a shallow mind!"

"You do know that you are calling yourself shallow, right?"

Tony contemplated this for a moment before changing the subject. "Do you have any of your baby pictures?"

"Yeah," she flipped towards the back of the book and stopped at a picture of a small girl in a white dress. She had long dark brown hair and had the same facial expression that Sam had in the previous picture.

"You look thrilled too."

"I know. I never liked wearing dresses as a kid. You can't climb trees in a dress and you can't run in those shoes."

He chuckled. "I'll bet."

--

They stayed up for most of the night talking; Ziva shared stories about Sam's childhood and even some from her own.

"It's late, tomorrow's Sunday, you should just stay here."

"Miss David, is that begging I hear in your voice?"

"I'm not 'begging.' You can stay here if you want, otherwise, you can go home."

She stood up and put Sam's baby album back on the shelf and took the other one back into her bed room.
"There's a pullout couch in the study. It's more comfortable than the couch."