A/N: Thanks for all the favorites and thank you MindFullofStories for the review.
Thought I would throw Tony into the mix in this next chapter. And be ready, because I am seeing some Tiva in the chapter after this.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to NCIS. I DO own Kinsey, though(:
Enjoy!
"How well would you say that you know Ziva David?"
"Um…pretty well." Tony was starting to get a little creeped out by this Ziva mini-me in front of him. The minute Ziva had headed to the bathroom, Kinsey had jumped up and walked over to Tony and immediately started interrogating him like she held conversations with forty year old strangers every day. Although, being Ziva's cousin…she may very well.
"HOW well? Like…on a scale of 1 to 10."
"Eight? I don't know…"
"Well, you should! She is your partner!" She exclaimed as she blew a few dark brown hairs out of her face.
"Is eight not a good number? Fine, fine. If I say ten will you leave me alone?" The Italian whined.
"No." Just like that.
"What do you mean 'no'? I have work to do. You are just distracting me." He had never had a kid tell him outright no.
"Well, I have work to do, too, Agent DiNozzo. And I need your help with it. SO, please will you just stop all your complaining and answer my questions already?" What was with this kid? Definitely related to Ziva.
"If I help you, you have to help me with my work later."
"Deal. Now hurry up and answer before she gets back!" She snapped, quickly. "How well do you know Ziva?" She spoke slowly and deliberately as if she was speaking to a child.
"I know her pretty well. She's more than just a partner to me." Kinsey's ears perked up at this.
"Oh?" She asked innocently.
"Yeah. I mean…we've been through a lot together. We definitely don't always see eye to eye." He stopped as he saw the confusion on her face. "It means we don't always agree." Kinsey nodded as she understood, prompting him to continue. "But, at the end-"
"Sh!" And with that Kinsey had retreated back to Ziva's desk acting as if nothing had happened. And just in time, too. There was Ziva, coming out of the bathroom, rounding the corner of the bull pen.
"McGee got a suspect. Gibbs found him this morning and he is in interrogation, now. It's my turn to question, so I have to go." She then directed her words to Kinsey. "You are welcome to stand in observation if you like or you can stay here. Just always be with an adult." She turned back to both Tony and her cousin. "And try not to get in trouble." Then, she was gone. Retreating to the elevator.
"I am headed to observation. You can come if you want or stay here or whatever, like Ziva said." Tony offered to the young Israeli.
"I guess I will come with you. I still have questions to ask you and I want to see what American interrogation is like. I somehow doubt it is the same as Mossad."
"You're Mossad?" Tony was shocked a fifteen year old would be allowed in.
She realized what she had said too late. "Kind of. I am in training. That is, until I came here. My training has been suspended until I can return to Israel." She felt like she could trust this guy. "Oh, and please don't tell Ziva. She doesn't know yet." She added quickly at the end.
"Your own cousin doesn't know that you are working with her father? The father who basically sent her to die in the Somalia? The father who treats Ziva as a soldier instead of a daughter? The father who basically has no emotions and would send his own daughter on a mission to kill another of his kids? The father who was never a father? Psh, she wouldn't be mad about that!"
"Wait. ELI was the one that told her to kill Ari?" Kinsey had not heard this part of the story yet.
"Yeah, as far as I know. But she didn't do it. Gibbs did before she got the chance. Probably a good thing too, because I don't know someone could actually kill her own sibling."
"What? She didn't kill him? She told me she did!"
Tony was surprised, to say the least. "Maybe she just said that to avoid a long explanation. That was when she first got here to NCIS and nobody really like her, then. But, don't tell her! She thinks that she's everyone's favorite." He winked at her and walked to the elevator.
The whole ride down to interrogation, Kinsey and Tony were both thinking about the same thing…but from a different perspective. Ziva had obviously lied to one of them. But which?
"Anyways, Agent DiNozzo-"
"You can call me Tony."
She played around with the word in her mouth, eventually deciding that it felt okay. "Okay, then, TONY, if you could pick one word to describe Ziva, what would you use?"
"Oh gosh, that's a hard one. Killer? No, no. Guarded? Maybe. Oh! I got it. Icy."
"Icy?"
"Yeah. Like her remarks and just her all around way of doing things. She does not take shortcuts and she is extremely defensive. Icy."
"So, she never really goofs around? Like, for example, speaks in funny accents, acts dramatic, or oh, I do not know…skips?"
"Ziva?" He laughed out loud at this. "No way. She comes in, gets the job done, and leaves. Definitely no dramatics."
"You are sure?"
"You're."
"Huh?"
"The word is you're. Not 'you are.' You're."
"I do not understand."
"And right there? Instead of saying do not, you say don't."
"What is the point?"
"'What's'. And it just makes speaking more casual. At least while you are here in America. No one talks in full sentences."
"English is so weird."
"You're just like her, ya' know that?"
"What do you mean? Who?"
"Ziva. When she first came to America, she never spoke in contractions-those little word combination things. You are extremely curious. You look just like her except for your freckles. She never had any of those. But your build-petite yet strong-your long dark brown hair, your caramel colored eyes, even the way you dress! No other fifteen year old girl would ever choose to wear camo cargo pants and a tank top. You don't wear a lot of make up like most girls your age, and neither did Ziva when she first got here. Your personality is a lot alike, too. You are extremy comfortable around people. You are not easily intimidated and you seem kind of guarded about some of your feelings. Oh, and lastly…you obviously have no idea how to have fun!"
She scoffed at his last remark. "I do, too!"
"Oh yeah? Prove it. What do you do on an average Friday night?"
"Well, it…it just depends." She stuttered.
Tony looked smug. "Do you have any friends come over? Go out with a boyfriend?"
"I do not…DON'T…have a boyfriend. And somet-"
"You're fifteen and you don't have a boyfriend? What is wrong with you?"
"There is nothing wrong with me! I just do not see a need."
"A need? A NEED? You're fifteen! You don't have to have a 'need.' Live a little! Okay, that settles it. My mission is now to get you to have fun. Before you leave here, you will be blending in with every other fifteen year old girl. When do you go back to Tel Aviv?"
She got quiet. "I do not really know."
"What do you mean? You have to known when your plane will be here. What are you doing here anyways?"
"Well, I kind of tried to explain to Ziva that my parents are both dead and everything and I think she understands that. But she is not putting two and two together. The only other living relative that I know of is Eli. And you and I both know that perhaps he is not in the best time to raise another kid. So, in my dad's will, he had said I should live with Tali, who was Ziva's little sister. Not sure if you have heard of her."
"Yes, Ziva mentioned her once before. I thought she died in a Hamas bombing, though." He remembered one of their first conversations outside the hotel that rainy night with coffee and pizza in hand.
"Exactly, which is why I can not live with her. Well, my mom wrote that I could decide for myself who to live with as long as they are related by blood or I could go into a foster program or an orphanage. I looked up everyone I could and the only two living relatives are Ziva and Eli. If I do not live with one of them, I will have to become a ward of the State of Israel."
"Wait. So this isn't just some spontaneous vacation where you visit your long-lost cousin?" Tony was finally catching on.
"No. I came here to live with her."
"Does she know that?"
"Based on some of her conversations with me, I am beginning to think no."
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~Avigaill