DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT AND WILL NOT OWN NCIS.
A/N: Im sorry for the lack of updates. As anyone who reads my profile knows I live in New Jersey, mainly the Jersey Shore and Hurricane Sandy is hitting in full swing; its kind of freaky now. Trees are down and people have died...so i dont know when ill get my internet back after later tonight so to anyone else in Sandy's path...stay safe!
After sitting on the floor for a good 20 minutes Ziva realized there were things she needed to do and sitting there on the floor was not exactly practical right now. She moved from her spot on the floor, silently apologizing to her mother; where ever she may be, for all the trouble she put her through as a child. She thought that she would be the only one awake after everybody's adventures last night, or this morning rather so she almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Gibbs sipping coffee at her breakfast bar. Ziva moved to grab the biggest cup she could find and filled it with hot coffee before sitting down next to her boss. It remained silent for a few minutes, but silence when Gibbs had something on his mind never lasted long.
"He loves her you know." The statement was the normal length for the functional mute but it packed more of a punch than his regular ones
"What?" She looked genuinly confused when she asked him this
"I said, he loves her"
"I got that part Gibbs, but who?"
Gibbs made his way to the coffee part, this was going to be a long conversation.
"DiNozzo. He loves her, Kristiana, more than I've ever seen him love anyone."
Ziva just sat in silence and looked at Gibbs wide eyed, completely out of things to say; it was safe to say Gibbs saying any of this surprised her. Sure, she knew this; but she didn't want or need Gibbs to know this.
"Of course he does Gibbs, you all do. You have all been the Grandpa's and Aunts and Uncles she never had, if you all did not love her we would not be standing in my kitchen right now."
It was not taking much to agitate the older man now, he had not had enough sleep and not nearly the amount of coffee he would have liked in order to have this conversation.
"Stop kidding yourself David. You know what i'm saying to you. She calls him Dad when she doesn't think enough to stop herself from saying it, and he's upstairs at her request right now holding her hand so she does not have nightmares; and he wasn't exactly complaining about doing it."
She got this hard look in her eyes that Gibbs has only seen a few times in her duration at NCIS, she hated talking about things like this; all of these years and that hasn't changed at all.
"Gibbs.."
His tone quickly switched when he saw her expression
"Ziver, how long?"
"How long what Gibbs?" The ice in her tone still prominent, making this come out as more of a snappy statement than the simple question it was.
"How long were the three of you playing house behind everybody's back, behind my back?"
Her eyes met his, but she couldn't read them. She couldn't distinguish if the look in his eyes were anger or hurt, though the more she thought about it he was probably feeling both.
"The night I disapeared with Kristiana would have been a month."
Gibbs shifted himself to face her directly.
"Did you love him?"
It was the exact same question Tony had asked her that day years ago in Tel Aviv.
" I don't know." And it was almost the exact same answer.
"Well you better figure it out soon David."
"And why is that Gibbs? Why must I do that?" Though in her mind she already knew her answer. She went to move off the her bar stool to get herself another cup of coffee, but doing a double take as she heard his answer
"Because he loves you."
She stood there for what felt like hours but in reality was only a few seconds, opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water
"How would you possibly know that Gibbs?"
"After you left he was a mess, worse than when Somalia happened. I didn't get it until he was drunk in my basement saying he loved the both of you."
Ziva was about to reply but she heard feet on the stairs, and in her experience when there were foot steps you stopped talking. It was Tony. When he came into the room he could sense the tension, it could be cut with a knife.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Ziva finsished rising from her chair she previously sat in and he could swear he could see her eyes tear up. Very Un-Ziva like, but she continued to surprise him everyday.
"No Tony, what is wrong?"
He shit Gibbs a weird look before answering her
"Uh, nothing; atleast nothing she wants to talk to me about. It's just Kristiana woke up and was asking for you. I told her to try and go back to sleep and it could wait until later but she really was very insistant..."
Ziva looked at the clock, and ran a hand through her hair
"She has only been asleep for two hours. You are positive she was not going to go back to sleep?"
Tony put his hands up in a mock surrender
"Hey, don't shoot the messenger Zi, she's your daughter. Meaning, she's every bit as stubborn as you are."
She smiled, turned her head to face Gibbs only to find he was making another cup of coffee. She walked up to Tony with a grin on her face, when she reached him she stood on her tippy toes and whispered the words she knew he would love to hear,
"She's our daughter Tony." and as she was pulling back she left a gentle kiss on his cheek; it was subtle but between the two of them it was a very important meaning that probably nobody else would understand. Leaving him smiling like an idiot unable to move, and her moving towards their awaiting daughters room with Gibbs smirking to himself with a fresh cup of coffee in hand.
Tony replayed what just happened for what seemed like hours and was only brought out of it when he felt the all to familiar palm connect with the back of his head.
"Thank you Boss."
With that he went out the door to find a bagel place, completely forgetting he was still in his sweatpants and Ohio State sweatshirt.
When Ziva got to her daughters room she saw her still in her leotard, but her normally prestine bun all messed up on her head. She moved towards the white shelf hung perfectly on the purple walls and picked up one of the many trophies that had found a home there over the years. It wasn't the biggest at all, but rather the first one she got after being here. When she looked up from the trophy, Kristiana was staring at her with only a look that she could give
"I'm sorry..."
She gave a half hearted smily, placed the trophy back on the shelf and sat next to her daughter.
"For what tataleh?"
"For sneaking out of Kelleigh's and for everything else, for calling Tony instead of you. And uh for yelling at you.."
Ziva blew out a breath of air she had been holding and looked up at the ceiling as if it was going to guide her through this conversation.
"Answer me something tataleh?"
"Anything Mom"
"Do you love dancing?"
"Yes?" She was completely confused as to where this was going.
"Then do not apologize for doing it."
"Okay..?"
"But the Tony thing we are going to have to talk about."
Kristiana shifted uncomfortably in her spot on the bed.
"Uh..what Tony thing?"
"Tataleh, do you not think a mother notices when her daughter starts calling a new man Dad?"
"Oh, that Tony thing..."
Ziva squeezed up against the head board of the teenagers bed and held an arm around her daughter; an act so motherly that anybody that did not know she had a child would think she was incapable of doing anything so like this.
"I know you never had a Dad Kristiana, and I am sorry for that, but if this is just a phase then do not put Tony through it. He loves you Tataleh."
"Mom, just stop. In every way that matters Tony DiNozzo is my Dad. That's why I call him that. Not because of what happened the other day with my bio dad."
Ziva pressed a kiss on her daughters forehead before getting up to leave the room,
"Mom?"
"Yes tataleh?"
"Do you love him?"
What was with everybody asking that question today? Ziva moved back over to the bed where Kristiana was now laying down facing her and as she tucked her daughter in for what felt like the first time in forever. She put into words what she had been thinking forever.
"To the moon and back."
A grin split through Kristiana's face, that saying bringing back many parts of her childhood.
"Now get some sleep tataleh, you have had a long night."
Her light was shut off and her door was closed but she could still feel her daughter smiling through the wall. As she walked down the hall towards her own bedroom she realized one thing, she has always had her family. Maybe it wasn't the standard functional one but it was her's and she had people that loved her and she was finally ready to admit she loved them.
A/N: Dont forget to review! and most importantly stay safe! Tell me how/ if this storm is effecting you!
p.s im sorry for all the mistakes in this chapter, im rushing to get it up for you guys...