Chapter ten already? This has gone by fast! I hope you guys have been liking the story. I have updated my profile, but I also want to let you readers know that next Tuesday I will be posting the epilogue for this story. If any of you were hoping for anything in particular to be in this story, PM me and I will maybe do a one shot with your idea.

-owl

Kate ran from her room to get to the banquet hall in time for her family's entrance. She had been taking too long with her hair, and had gotten behind. This evening her dress was green with long sleeves, nothing particularly interesting. Her hair, though, had been done special for the feast. It was braided into a bun on the back of her head, and she was late because it wouldn't stay where it was supposed to.

Kate nearly ran into her father as she rounded the corner into the hall the banquet hall was off of. Gibbs, Jenny, and Abby were already waiting, looking their best. Like normal, Kate's father was in a suit. Her mother, though, was in a new dress that was a deep minty color with off the shoulder straps. It had an overlay of dark gray that spread mostly down from her hips, but partly up from there as well. Abby had her hair in her pigtails — Kate was unsure if Abby would ever not have pigtails. Her dress was deep red and puffy with black lace along the bottom hemline.

Gibbs stopped her from falling over, and she smiled at him in thanks. She didn't get a chance to say anything before the doors opened and they were announced.

The people rose from their seats as the page announced them. Kate followed her mother, father, and sister into the banquet hall. Ziva would be attending the feast as the winner of the joust and not as the third princess. Everyone she passed bowed as she did so.

When she and her family, other than her father, had taken their seats, the people attending sat down as well. Gibbs spread his arms wide in a welcoming gesture.

"We are excited to welcome you to this feast in celebration of the jousters who competed today. First, please welcome the participants," he said as the twenty-three jousters entered the banquet hall. Then, when they had all sat down, he continued. "Now, without further ado, I present the winner of today's tournament: Princess Ziva, who competed under the name of David."

Ziva then entered the room to the cheers of the crowd. She smiled softly as she walked to her seat, at the head of the table the other jousters were at. She was wearing a light tan dress that hung just above her ankles, she was wearing her riding boots, and she had her sword on the thick, black, belt she wore around her waist. She had no crown on her head, though her hair was braided into a mockery of one.

Once Ziva was sitting as well, Gibbs sat down and the feast started. Immediately the noise level in the room doubled. Glasses clinked and clattered against the edges of plates or from being set down hard on the tables. Cutlery scraped on the plates as well, and the people spoke to whoever they were sitting next to.

It wasn't that Kate had issues with noise. She didn't even have a problem with it, other than it made it hard to talk to Abby, who was sitting right next to her. Gibbs and Abby were able to talk though, as he had taught Abby sign language when she was little. Kate was never taught, as she hadn't really cared at the time, and now she was too busy to learn another language.

Kate looked down to the jousters' table. The knights had tankards of ale, and were drinking and talking jovially. Ziva was at the head of the table, talking to Tony who was sitting to her left. Unlike the older knights, neither of them had tankards of ale at their seats.

Every once in a while, Ziva would turn to see Kate watching her. She would smile at her, and raise her glass, but never tried to say anything. Though that may have been because of the noise in the room.

Kate was overall happy with her day, even if she had been unable to do much of her drawing throughout the day. One of her sisters had won the joust, and both of her sisters had had a date of some sort. Now all that was left to do was talk about the dates and what Ziva and Abby thought.

The feast in celebration of the joust had long since passed, and now it was nearly midnight. Kate and Abby had snuck into Ziva's room through the servants' passages nearly as soon as their lady's maids had been dismissed. There was only one lit candle in Ziva's room when they got there.

Ziva herself was standing on her balcony, talking quietly to a dark figure. When Kate cleared her throat, Ziva and her visitor turned to see Abby and Kate standing there, by the entrance of the passageway.

Tony's face of shock was briefly illuminated before he turned and started scaling down the balcony. Ziva's own face fell from a look of mild amusement to a mix of annoyance and resignation.

Kate spoke first. "Does Dad know that Tony has been in your room at night?" she asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

Ziva crossed her own arms. "He had to have figured it out when Tony saved me from that assassin. He did not say anything to me about him."

"We're not here to argue about Tony being in your room after dark, Ziva," Abby interrupted, raising her hands in a placating gesture, before pulling her sisters to the couch. "We were hoping to get details about your and Tony's date!"

Kate nodded. "That, and we wanted to congratulate you for winning the tournament. I thought for sure Tony would have beaten you, or at least given you a run for your money."

Ziva shook her head. "His moves were by-the-book. There was no sense of style to his matches. It was almost too easy to beat him."

"What about your date?" Abby asked.

"He made the mistake of letting me choose what we would be doing. I must say, it was quite funny when he realized we were going to be in the tournament instead of watching. I had fun, but that was most likely because I was jousting. In between our matches, we watched the other knights together and talked."

"What did you talk about?" Kate asked, sounding almost as excited as Abby.

"Not much. Mostly we just commented on the other knights' quirks, ways to more easily unseat them," Ziva answered. "There really is not much to talk about from Tony and my date. Would it not be more interesting to ask Abby about her day with Timothy?"

Kate smiled, not seeming too annoyed at the quick change of conversation. "I guess you're right, Abby probably did do a lot more than you."

In unison, Kate and Ziva turned to look at Abby.

Kate raised her eyebrows. "Well?" she prompted Abby.

Abby held out against Kate's look for barely ten seconds. "I had just been leaving my room when he showed up. He asked if I was going to the village, and I said that, yes, I was. He offered to accompany me. I was planning on stocking my stall today, and Timothy helped me carry the baskets I was bringing. After I set up the stall, we sort of watched the jousting together."

"Sort of?" Kate asked, interrupting Abby.

She nodded. "Sort of. In other words, he was in the regular stands and I was in the royal box, but we were watching the same matches. Anyway, after the opening ceremony and your first match, Ziva, I went to check on the stall, and Timothy asked to come with me."

"I am glad you stayed to see at least my first match, Abby," Ziva said. "I know it does not interest you in any way."

Abby shrugged. "I may not particularly like jousting, but I need to support my baby sister."

Ziva glared at her. "I am not a baby, Abby. I could beat you in any type of contest you can think of."

"You know I only say that because you are my youngest sister," Abby said, rolling her eyes at Ziva's outburst.

"What you get called, Ziva, doesn't matter. I want to hear more about Abby and Timothy!" Kate said, stopping their little spat. "How did the stall do today, Abby?"

She smiled. "It went really well, I doubled what I normally take down and there was none left by the time the joust was done. In the time that Timothy and I were at the stall, we helped so many people."

"Did anyone stand out?" Kate asked. "Either good or bad."

"There were three kids," Abby started, a smile growing on her face. "There were only two at first, and they were covered in dirt. They were fighting over something in the older one's hands. I helped them get bread and fabric, then they started to fight again. It was apparent;y something for me, and they both wanted to be the one to give it to me. Then the third one came up and snatched it out of both the older siblings' hands and handed me a flower crown."

"I think I have seen those three kids in the village before. They are always fighting with each other and are constantly covered in dirt," Ziva said. "They normally run across the road when I go to the arena."

Abby continued her story about her and Timothy's date, taking back the control of the conversation. "We were back to the joust in time to watch Ziva knock Tony off his horse. From there we watched until the end of the tournament." Abby then turned to Ziva. "You should have seen Kate's face when you beat Tony."

Ziva snorted in laughter, no doubt imagining what Kate's face would have looked like. "I will bet that it was terribly unlady-like," she said, saying her last three words in an excessively posh tone.

"I don't know what else you expected, Abby. I thought he was going to beat her," Kate said, defending herself. "Where did you and Timothy go after the tournament, when Mom, Dad, and I returned to the castle?"

"We rode our horses through the forest around the castle. Did you know that he named his horse Sargent?"

"And here we thought you were the only one to have named your horse." Ziva said, glancing towards Kate.

Abby rolled her eyes at her sisters and continued talking as though they hadn't said anything. "We didn't talk about anything big when we were riding. Just little stuff, like what he likes about being a knight, or what I like about being princess. He thought you were older than me, Kate."

Kate's eyebrows rose. "Really?" she asked, confusion thick in her voice.

"I think it is because you are the heir to the throne," Abby said, nodding. "That was about it. Right after that, we came back to the castle for the feast."

"Speaking about me being the heir," Kate said once Abby was finished speaking. "I have decided what my first order as queen will be."

"What will it be?" Abby asked, excitement in her voice as she leaned towards Kate as though to hear her better.

"Getting a cushion for the throne. I don't know if you guys noticed, but Dad's throne is the only one that has no cushion on it. His throne is really uncomfortable." Kate spoke with a confident tone of voice. She had been thinking about that for a while.

"When do you think you'll become queen?" Abby asked.

"I'm hoping not for a while yet. Mostly because I don't know what I — or any of us — would do without Dad. But also, partly, I don't know all that I need to know to be able to be queen."

"Father could just abdicate the throne to you when he gets older," Ziva pointed out. "He does not need to die for Kate to become queen. Then again, I can see him not giving it up until he has to," Ziva pointed out.

"Those are two very good points, Ziva," Kate said. "Either way, I will become queen at the time I was always meant to."