Chapter twelve! I can't believe I'm this far already! Thank you for reading this story! I'm trying to remember if there was anything specific I needed to say for this chapter, and I don't think there was anything for this one. The only thing I can think of is that I have Ziva make a big decision, and if any of you have a problem with that decision, PM me and I will explain why I had her do it.

-owl

Kate and Jimmy walked away from the gardens and back into the castle. As soon as they were inside, Kate missed the warmth of the sun. She and Jimmy followed the same hallways through the castle.

"Where are you meeting up with Ducky?" Kate asked as they climbed a staircase.

He never really said where, so I'm thinking I will just wait for him in his office off of his room."

Kate nodded. "I guess I'll see you around, then," she said as she turned into a different hallway, away from Jimmy.

"I wish you a good day, Kate," he said, waving.

From there Kate made it to her room quickly. A few guards were out in the hallways, but there wasn't an overwhelming amount of them. Most of them bowed to her and wished her a good day.

Upon entering her room, Kate saw that Serena had been in and had made the bed and tidied up her desk. Waiting on her desk was the stack of reports that she had been looking over for her father. Laying her sword down in place of them, she returned to the hallway and began making her way to her father's office.

Kate knocked on her father's office door and waited. From inside, she heard rustling and low voices. After a minute the door opened and Ducky opened the door for Kate.

"Caitlin," he greeted her, stepping aside to let him into the office as he exited. "Did you see where Mr. Palmer has gone? I told him I needed him here to help me look over a document your father wants me to review."

Kate nodded. "We left the gardens together. He told me that he was going to meet you in your office. He didn't know where else to find you."

Ducky nodded. "I will go there, then. Thank you, Caitlin," he said as he began walking down the hall.

Kate closed the door as she approached her father's desk. Gibbs was sitting there, reading the letter that Tony had given him last week. Setting it down, he looked up when Kate sat down in the chair opposite him.

"I hope I'm not late," Kate said, shifting a pile of papers away from the edge of the desk, and putting her own stack in front of her. "I was sparring with Ziva, Tony, and Timothy."

"How'd that go?"

"I held my own against Ziva better than I have ever before. Oh, and Ziva tried to teach Abby how to shoot a bow."

Her father laughed softly. "Did it work?"

Kate shrugged. "She knows how to hold the bow, and draw back the string. But, her aim is abysmal."

Gibbs nodded. "I'm not too surprised. Anyway, I was going to ask you what you think about the treaty with DiNozzo. You had said that you were going to continue looking into our agricultural reports."

Kate pulled out a few of the bundles of parchment from her stack she had brought from her room. "Looking at the last year alone, and assuming the pattern will hold, we could benefit from a treaty with DiNozzo. We need more wheat, which they are having an abundance of."

"So it looks like it would be a good treaty to accept," Gibbs stated. "Which brings us back to the question of what we will be doing to show Investigatii that we are united."

"The letter from King Anthony did suggest an arranged marriage," Kate pointed out.

"Who are you suggesting I marry off to Tony?" Gibbs asked, standing up and starting to pace. "Abby doesn't want to be queen, and Ziva is fiercely independent and will likely fight being married for a long time. That leaves you. Do you really want to be queen of both countries? It is hard enough ruling one."

"To be fair, Ziva and Tony are together more often than they are apart," Kate said, watching her father as he moved through the room. "I could maybe suggest it to her, see what she thinks."

Gibbs was silent for a while. "By tomorrow, either get Ziva to even consider getting married, or figure out a different solution," he finally said. "The rest of the day is yours."

With the dismissal, Kate stood up and left the room, her mind racing. Could she convince Ziva that this wasn't a bad idea? If not, what else could they do to show Investigatii that Meadth and DiNozzo were united. There was the option of having a big ceremony when the treaty was signed, but there was no way of making sure the Investigatii knew that it was going to be honored.

Kate, on her way back to her room, stopped at the window that looked out into the gardens. Abby, Ziva, Tony and Timothy were all still outside, eating lunch in the sunshine. She had said she would return if they were still outside, so Kate changed her course and went back out to the gardens.

As soon as she stepped outside, the warm sunlight washed over her and it was a nice change from the coolness of the castle. The little bit of a breeze from earlier had picked up and became a steady wind. The flower stems were bouncing in the turbulence, but only the smallest of the twigs on the trees were moving.

Kate followed the stone path to the middle of the gardens where her sisters and the boys were eating. In the time that she had been inside the castle, servants had brought out a basket of food. From what Kate could tell, it had been packed with bread and cheese.

Abby must have also had a servant grab the red and black checked blanket from her room, as that was what they were sitting on. Abby and Timothy were sitting next to each other, and across the blanket Ziva and Tony were mirroring them.

"Hi, Kate!" Abby called, the first to see her walking up. "How was your meeting with Dad?"

Kate sat down, between the two pairs, grabbing a bun and chunk of cheese. She smiled at Abby. "Hi," she said. "I think the meeting went well. Father had me working on the details of the treaty from DiNozzo."

Tony looked up from his food at the mention of his home country. "How's that going so far?" he asked.

Kate shook her head. "I can't talk about it, sorry, Tony."

He shrugged and whispered something in Ziva's ear, causing her to pull away as she giggled.

Kate had been watching her sisters and the boys in the week since they had arrived. Ziva and Tony had been doing who knows what at who knows when, almost since they had met. Kate had never seen Ziva open up to someone so quickly.

Abby and Timothy, meanwhile, were more conscious of the social taboo of being on their own together. They could often be seen riding horses together, or reading in the library. Sometimes Timothy helped Abby with her experiments in her room, with the door wide open, of course.

"Do you want to spar again after we eat, Kate?" Ziva asked, setting the bun she had on the blanket beneath her.

"I can't, I left my sword in my room," Kate answered between bites of food.

"You can use mine," Tony offered, nodding his head towards his sword that was leaned against a nearby rock.

"Thanks, Tony," Kate said, smiling. She was sure to beat Ziva this time.

Later, after dinner, Kate followed Ziva to her room. The sisters didn't speak as they walked, but Kate was sure Ziva knew she needed to talk to her. Abby had run off before most of the family was done with dinner, and therefore could not be jealous of missing Kate and Ziva's impromptu meeting.

Ziva led the way into her room, closing the door behind Kate. She turned to look at Kate. Her arms were crossed, but her face was devoid of anger.

"What do you need to talk to me about?" Ziva asked.

Kate sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "Do you remember, the day after the ball, when I told you that King Anthony had suggested an arranged marriage?"

Ziva nodded.

"Father is thinking about a different way to seal the treaty, so Investigatii knows that we are allied with DiNozzo, other than an arranged marriage."

"Where do I come in?" Ziva asked.

Kate shifted her feet and looked past Ziva, to the balcony. "First of all, Father says that he will not forcibly have one of us married to Tony. We both know Abby would never accept an arranged marriage, especially one that would make her a queen. If I were to be the one married off, we would be in charge of two countries, which is quite a lot."

"Which leaves me," Ziva said, figuring out where Kate was going.

"Yup."

"Why would I even want to do it?"

Kate had thought up a few reasons throughout the day, and she started counting them out on her fingers. "You have wanted to be in power. If you stay here, you will only ever be able to get so much. You have also been getting along with Tony quite well in the last week. Out of the three of us, you have been around him the most. Finally, you can command your own knights and army."

Ziva raised her eyebrows. "I will think about it."

"Father needs an answer by tomorrow. He needs to send a letter back to King Anthony."

"Alright."

"Well, I'm going to go to bed. Good night," Kate said, walking towards the door. She had just reached the door when she turned back to Ziva. "When we sparred, after lunch, I won."

Ziva nodded. "Yes, you did."

"I've never won. Did you let me win?" Kate accused.

"Maybe I did, or maybe I was distracted by something Tony had said to me. I am not telling you, though."

Kate sighed and rolled her eyes as she left the room, closing the door behind her. The night guard had just arrived in the hallway, and he bowed to Kate as she passed into her own room. Serena had pulled back the corner of her bedclothes, and laid out the night dress Kate normally wore on the bed.

Kate wasn't ready to go to bed yet, so she picked up her sketch pad and sat on her couch. It didn't take long for her to figure out what to draw. Pretty quickly the general forms of a boy and a girl took shape on the page. Then they became Tony and Ziva, sitting the way they had been at lunch. Entirely too close, but also further than they seemed to want.

Just as she was grabbing her colored chalks, the opening of the servant's passageways opened and Ziva stepped into Kate's room.

"I have thought about it," she said, approaching Kate. "If it will make Father's life easier, I guess I can agree to a marriage to Tony."

Kate smiled as Ziva came to sit beside her. "What made you make the decision so soon?" she asked.

"Tony came to my room again, and we were talking, and while I have never thought about love or anything, I could see myself happy to be with him," Ziva confessed, looking at her hands in her lap. Kate didn't say anything, and when Ziva looked up, she saw the sketch.

"I forget how realistic your drawings are, Kate," she said.

Kate looked at the drawing, scrutinizing it before grabbing her regular charcoal pencil and adding a few lines to Ziva's hair. "Thank you," she answered. "This was what the pair of you looked like during lunch, when I first got there. I will give it to you when I am done with it."

Ziva nodded. "I am sure you are tired, though, so I am going to return to my own room and let you sleep."

"Alright. Good night, Ziva," Kate said as she got up from the couch, put her sketch pad on her desk and let herself flop into bed, not bothering to change into her night dress.

"Good night, Kate," Ziva responded as she returned to the passageways.