"Aba?" Ziva asked from the door of her father's study.
"Ken Ziva?" She stayed at the door, her father did not let her in the study.
"What happened to the Shelby family?" she asked softly, looking at her shoes.
"Miguel Shelby was... stopped... from selling illegal arms to the Iranians. Why?"
"Just something Nimrod said." Her father laughed cruelly to himself.
"You may leave." He prompted, eager to have his daughter disappear. Ziva turned and was about to walk away when...
"I have a dance recital tomorrow night, will you watch me?" she asked earnestly, but knowing she would be disappointed.
"Ken Ziva... I promise." She suddenly didn't care that she had been beaten up because of her father, he had promised he would watch her dance, and Eli David didn't break promises.
"Laila Tov, Aba."
"Laila Tov Ziva."
She was standing in the wings, her wavy hair slicked back into a tight bun, dressed in her light green leotard and wrap-around skirt. Ari had driven her to the centre, even though he wasn't supposed to drive without adult supervision, and she could see him sitting in the audience... but she couldn't see her father yet.
He is coming. She assured herself, he promised.
The curtain closed on the dancer and she nearly ran off stage. It was her turn now; she walked confidently to her place on stage and took her position. The stage was the one place where the people didn't know her name, the one place where people couldn't point and say 'that's the daughter of the deputy director'. Instead they could point and say 'look at that child dance, isn't she good?'
The music started, the curtain was raised and Ziva David started to dance like she had never danced before because this time her father was here to watch.
She danced move after move, position after position, she dominated the stage with grace and elegance that seemed too great to belong to a twelve year old girl. While she danced her eyes never left the audience, scanning the crowd, in search of her father's face. She finished her dance with en point at the exact time that the music stopped. The audience cheered and clapped and Ziva took the last few moments before the curtain closed to scan the crowd again, she couldn't see her father but she could see Ari; he was looking around for Eli David too.
Ziva did run off the stage and she did cry. She had never run off stage before, not because she was scared, but she ran off the stage like the scared little girl before her.
Ari caught her before she could flee to the dressing room.
"Ziva! Ziva listen to me. You go back to that stage, and you stand back up with the other dancers and you get first place do you hear me?"
"Ari... he didn't come. He promised he would and he didn't."
"Ziva don't cry you will ruin your make up. Tali is still out there, Ziva. She is waiting for her big sister to get back on stage and get an award for dancing. Aba may have let you down Ziva, but don't do the same to Tali."
"Alright ... thank you for bringing me Ari. I know you will get in trouble for driving with Aba."
"Anything for my little sister." Those were the days when it didn't matter if they didn't have the same mother, they had the same father and that was all that mattered; even if he wasn't much of a father. " Now get back on that stage."
"First prize is awarded to... contestant... 7." The crowd cheered but no one cheered louder than Ari Haswari and Tali David. Right now, in her moment of fame , they were family enough.