As you can see with my other recent stories, I may have been side tracked. I didn't want to force out a chapter I wasn't fully committed to.
But here you are, chapter 20.
As always, thanks to ALL of your responses, comments, favorites, and alerts - I'm always overwhelmed with every update how much you enjoy this story.
Let me know your thoughts, I love to hear what you think.
jae
Twenty
Though she wanted to leave all thoughts encompassing her estranged father at the wedding reception the previous night, Eli David continues to linger in the shadows of her thoughts for the days to come.
The dark clouds that laid in waiting over the nation's Capitol the day before, swirling and menacing and promising nothing less than a torrential downpour, finally surrendered and relinquished the impending rainfall in the midst of the night. The family of three had fallen asleep easily, worn out from the evening's activities; all but Ziva. The rain began as she tossed and turned fitfully next to Tony, who slept on, peaceful. She laid awake much of the night, exasperated; Storms had never quite kept her up like this before - from what she was able to recall in her memory. Rainfall used to be a peaceful sight and sound for her, but she doesn't spend long allowing her thoughts to stray, wondering what could have happened to change that during the years her mind had lost.
From what she's learned about her current self in recent weeks, she has a general idea.
She's drowsy and on the brink of a comatose state when the alarm wails to rouse her significantly more well rested partner. Thankfully, he shuts it off quickly as always, in consideration to her sleeping state. She's aware of him stretching and yawning beside her, feeling him shift. Automatically, he rolls to face her, as he does every morning since the first time he had ever woke up beside her. It's his first instinct upon waking to see her; to make sure she's there and here and whole and alive beside himself.
And so he turns over, only to find her staring back at him, with a small and sleepy smile on her face. He smiles back at her, and while he's not all that surprised to find her awake, he is curious to see the dark shadows that linger under her eyes.
Just as he's about to inquire how she slept, he hears, then feels, the soft rumble and vibration of thunder in the distance. Once aware of the storm raging outside, awareness clicks.
Ziva turns to kiss the hand he reaches out to tuck an errant curl behind her ear.
"Boker Tov," she murmurs softly against his palm. Grinning, because there is nothing in his life that's quite like waking up to Ziva David, especially when she's this sleepy and intimate, and when she's only donned in one of his old t-shirts, he trails his arm down to spread around her waist to pull her closer.
"Morning, sleepy." He chuckles, pressing a chaste kiss to her lips. "Rough night, huh?"
She hums in confirmation, snuggling her head under his chin and pressing her face into his neck.
"Mmmhm. How did you know? You slept like a block."
Not bothering to correct her this early in the morning, he runs his hand up her back to weave his fingers into her messy curls.
"You've always had trouble sleeping during storms," Tony mumbles, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "As long as we've been together, anyway." He adds as an afterthought. Sighing, he pulls back, resigning himself to getting out of bed.
"I wish I was staying home in bed with you today."
Ziva smiles as she slides her bare leg between his.
'I would quite like that," She murmurs, leaning forward to press a soft kiss to his neck. She laughs at his groan of frustration as he untangles himself from her to leave the bed, before temptation makes him late for work.
"Try to get some sleep before munchkin wakes up," He tells her while he collects his clothes for the day. "She's inherited your internal clock, but she's usually pretty patient if she wakes up before us. "
She throws a pillow half-heartedly in response, and Tony grins as he closes the bathroom door before it can make contact with him.
oOo
She had finally succumbed to sleep before Tony emerged from the bathroom to leave for NCIS. When she awakes again, it's suddenly, as if her brain suddenly flipped from asleep to awake instantly. Her eyes snap open and she jolts, and her first thought is that surely she'd only been asleep for no more than fifteen minutes, for it felt that way. Ziva's eyes search until they focus on the alarm clock across on Tony's side of the bed, and is shocked to see it's nearly noon. The rain is still coming down hard outside, and a crack of thunder sounds, resonating from far off in the distance. Now effectively awake, she becomes aware of the visitor that's crawled into her bed, and she glances down to see Piper curled beside her, smiling sleepily over the thumb in her mouth.
Ziva grins, reaching out to tap her nose lightly.
"Good morning, my little one." She says softly, her voice still rough from sleep.
Piper pulls her thumb out of her mouth to press her small palm on her mother's face.
"Mornin' momma," She chirps, and runs her tiny fingers under Ziva's eyes. "You 'kay?"
Ziva takes her hand, pressing a kiss to the back of it.
"I am fine, just a little sleepy, yes?" Piper nods, then moves to sit up and crawl closer, so she leans against Ziva's abdomen.
"Uh huh. You don't like da storms."
Ziva gives the three year old a curious glance, but doesn't disagree.
"I suppose I do not, hmm?"
Piper shakes her head and rubs her hand up and down Ziva's arm in what she supposed was a comforting gesture.
"No, dey make you sad sometimes. And have da bad dreams."
Were three year olds usually this perceptive?
Nonplussed, Ziva watches the little girl as she continues to rub her arm, her attention not on her mother's face. Before she can formulate a response, Piper speaks again.
"Sometimes I have da bad dreams too. But den daddy and me watch da special movie and da bad dreams go away." She looks up and smiles at her. "We can watch special movie?" She continues, asking brightly.
Ziva chuckles and nods in confirmation.
"That sounds like a good idea. We have the whole day to ourselves.''
Piper's inherited grin spreads wide as she scrambles over Ziva to drop off the bed and onto the floor with a soft thump.
"Kay!" She exclaims, before trying to tug the comforter off Ziva and effectively onto the floor. "But breakfast first, momma."
Ziva laughs, watching her struggle to pull the heavy comforter off, until she discreetly helps her pull them to the floor, and Piper grins in victory.
"Of course," Ziva tells her, swinging her legs off the bed and reaching for her, anchoring the little girl onto her hip effortlessly. "We cannot forget breakfast."
oOo
Although it's past noon when they've finally wandered into the kitchen, mother and daughter still opt for a late breakfast rather than lunch. Once breakfast is eaten, cleared, and cleaned up, and bath time and shower time are had respectively, the two settle in the living room, amongst many piles of blankets and stuffed animals; a perfect remedy for the rainy day. As promised, Piper dashes across the room while Ziva settles on the couch, her small feet catching on her too-long sweatpants and she almost tumbles.
"Careful, tatehleh," Ziva chastises, but Piper has already found her movie and is rushing back to her mother.
"Daddy's special movie," She announces with a flourish, and hands it to Ziva to put into the DVD player. Ziva gets up to turn it on, and as she returns back to the couch she finds Piper already snuggled under several blankets. She crawls into Ziva's lap as the previews begin to filter across the screen, and Ziva runs her fingers automatically through her daughter's still damp hair, parting it and weaving it into a braid. J. M. Barrie's classic rendition of Peter Pan begins to fill the room with it's opening music when Piper rubs her knee comfortingly.
"Feel better?" she asks Ziva quietly.
"Much better," Ziva acquiesces, finishing her braid. Piper snuggles further into her lap, and Ziva brings the blanket up to cover them.
"Momma?" She says again, eyes watching the screen.
"Hmm?"
"You have special movie too wif Grampa, cuz he's your daddy, like me and my daddy?"
Ziva's hand stills where it was rubbing her tiny arm. There he is again; Eli cropping up in her memories, in her life . And with no recollection of how Tony and herself have handled the situation of her father up to this point with Piper, she's unsure of how to proceed.
But there's something that pangs insider her that wants desperately to share with this little girl, her daughter, about the father that was in her life long before Gibbs came into hers. Eli had been on her mind much since the accident, and especially in recent days. So with after a few seconds of indecision, she finally settles somewhere between the truth and omission.
"Well, tatehleh, your grandfather was not always my daddy. I have another daddy, from when I was little like yourself."
Piper's gaze tears away from the movie, her attention curious as she regards her mother.
"You haved another daddy?" She questions, frowning, then holds up two small fingers. "Two daddies?"
Ziva shifts uncomfortably, but presses on.
"Yes, but he lives far away from here, in my c-" She stops, correcting herself, "in my old country." Ziva smiles sadly, then regards Piper's still inquisitive face. "Do you know where? It is also your country too, in a way."
Piper nods her head, giggling.
"Yes, Momma," she says emphatically, "Iz-real." She sobers once Ziva nods in confirmation, and regards her curiously. "Is dat where your other daddy livin'?"
Ziva shrugs, because though she's not entirely certain, she's confident her father has not left Israel since the last her mind can recall.
"Yes. He has an important job there and it keeps him there, and very busy."
Piper stares thoughtfully at her for a few moments before snuggling closer.
"Oh. Maybe he come here one day and I sees him? And he sees you and I can have two Gampas?"
Ziva smiles wistfully, wrapping the blanket tighter around the both of them as her attention returns back to the movie.
"Perhaps," she mumbles quietly, as she traces Pipers' little hand that she brought to her mouth, where her thumb has now disappeared.
oOo
When Tony walks through the front door that evening, his first instinct is to tread quietly, for the apartment is dark and quiet. Shutting the door softly and discarding his keys and his shoes, he treads carefully, past the kitchen and down the hall, until he comes to the family room where a low glow emanates from the small lamp besides the couch, and the DVD menu for, he realizes with a smile, is the movie he always puts on for Piper to calm her down. His gaze falls to the couch then, and he finds Ziva smiling back at him, waving her fingers quietly in hello.
"Where's munchkin?" He whispers quietly.
She frowns, and then her mouth forms a soft o, and she moves carefully to lift the blanket on her to reveal Piper, very much asleep, lightly snoring over the thumb resting in her mouth.
"Aha," Tony says, coming around the couch to stand above the pair.
Ziva gives him a tired smile.
"A little help?"
Grinning, he reaches down to gently untangle their daughter from blankets and couch and Ziva.
"As you wish," he smirks, once he's bent down and closer to her. Ziva gets up then to follow him down the hall, extracting herself from their cocoon of the past several hours with a suppressed groan. She makes it to Piper's door just as Tony is tucking her into her bed, and leans against the frame, watching with a smile as he brushes back her braid and kisses her lightly. Straightening up, he treads quietly to the door, cracking it softly before moving back down the hall.
"I guess we can let her nap for a little - wake her up for dinner so she sleeps some tonight." They walk past the family room and down the hall into the kitchen.
She turns on the light behind him, and comes to lean against the island as he opens the fridge and searches for a beer.
"So did you guys spend all day sleeping?" He turns around to look at her teasingly, twisting the top off his bottle.
Ziva smiles for him, but is quiet as she looks down at her feet.
Regarding her seriously, he tries again.
"I noticed the movie you had on. Were you guys okay today?" Tony moves to lean against the counter next to her, their shoulders touching. "I figured the storm would keep you awake..."
Ziva turns her head to look at him.
"You told me some time ago that we would talk about...my father." Ziva begins hesitantly, and Tony's face morphs into one of surprise.
"Does he know about us? About my daughter - our daughter?"
He takes a long sip of his beer, then sets it roughly down on the counter's surface.
"Your dad...knows," he began, "But you've never really shared him with Piper. I left that decision up to you, Ziva. It's not really my place, given your history with him..." Tony trails off, distracted, and considers her expression more carefully.
"Did he come up today with Piper?"
Relieved that she hadn't done or said anything against his wishes, she exhaled and visibly relaxed.
"Yes," Ziva replied. "It just sort of, I suppose, came out naturally. He has been on my mind a lot...recently," and Tony nods in understanding, because yeah, naturally he would be. Given the accident and the previous night.
"I have been thinking about him a lot, and it makes me think that perhaps I should...reach out." Ziva looks to her partner for reassurance, and Tony's face is one of understanding. Taking his hand, she continues. "I just, if something worse had happened... I do not want to regret not ever speaking to him, or sharing Piper with him, if he wishes to know her. If Eli would like to have his granddaughter in his life, who am I to keep him from that small happiness, to not let him know how perfect she is." Ziva chokes out the last words, eyes glistening with confliction and emotion, and so Tony pulls her to him then, soothing her.
"Hey, hey," Tony shushes her quietly, rubbing a calming hand up and down her back. "If you want him to know Piper, then I do too. We're a team, even if you don't remember." He teases her, and he feels Ziva's responding laughter reverberate against him.
He smiles, pulling away to look at her.
"And I think it would be good for you, Ziva." He tells her seriously, wiping at the last tear that mars her face. "I think you need that. And I think you've been ready for that for a while now. You've been doing well with all of us, and adjusting to being an American, and becoming a mother; You had moved on from it."
She smiles back at him, and he leans into her, pressing their foreheads together.
"I've got your back, sweetcheeks," he says softly, pressing a kiss to her lips then.
Ziva returns his kiss, closing her eyes as she calms.
"I know you do."