A/N: I'm back :) after a few stressful and super hectic months and a horible bout of writers block i've been able to bang out a chapter for you guys :) so without further adue, chapter 13 enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT AND SADLY WILL NEVER OWN NCIS. ANYTHING UNRECOGNIZEABLE IS PROBABLY MINE...AND I DON'T OWN ANY OF THE SONGS USED.
Nobody felt the need to be in a rush during anything that day, except around 4pm when everyone received a text from Tony, simply saying:
"Boss said campfire. Kitchen. ASAP"
Ziva came from her room just as Kristiana was emerging from hers,
"Mom, what is this about?" She was still rubbing her eyes, removing the sleep
"No idea tataleh. We will find out though, yes?"
They walked silently to the kitchen where they were met with Gibbs sitting at the head of the dining table; a full cup of coffee in front of him. While Tony was still at the counter juggling 3 cups of coffee in his hands following the girls to the table. Placing the cups of coffee in front of their rightful owners. Kissing Kristiana on the head as he walked by her and sat in his own seat as he watched the teenager grab a bagel; smiling in pure joy when she found her favorite kind. Finally after a few more minutes McGee and Abby walked in and joined sat in silence for a few moments, eating and drinking what was in front of them. Gibbs finally broke the silence, shedding some light as to why he called the meeting.
"I got a call from the Director about an hour ago."
He took another moment to look at everyone before he continued "The court date for Demetri Polzin is set for 2 weeks from now. We've been ordered to return to DC, immediately. The back-up MCRT team is being hit hard. We'll be back here for the court date."
The team looked around at eachother, Abby looked torn, she didn't want to leave but she wanted to get back to Labby. McGee as usual went with the flow, but Tony and Ziva were rotating between looking at eachother and then looking at Kristiana, Ziva then looked at Gibbs.
"No."
"What do you mean 'no'?"
"I mean no. I'm not going back to DC. I'm not an agent anymore Gibbs. I don't need to keep switching Kristiana back and forth when being here is helping her. We'll come back after the trial is over."
"You can't stay here. You have a lot of people not happy with either of you. Demetri's whole family. Not to mention whoever Kristiana was messed up in. You need protection."
Ziva and Gibbs had gotten into a staring match that was about to get really bad, with everybody else staring at them enthralled before Tony spoke up.
"I'll stay with her"
McGee choked on his health drink and Abby almost popped the cap off her Caf-Pow because of how excited that made her and Ziva and Kristiana were staring at Tony in shock, Kristiana smiling from ear to ear
"Then it is solved"
Gibbs looked at all of them, a flare of anger in his eyes
"No it's not solved DiNozzo, this doesn't involve you. They'll be in protective custody at my house in DC"
DiNozzo almost laughed at Gibbs "Because that worked so well the last time. Kristiana was 8 and the organization that was suspected of the Petty Officer murder threatened her and that's the first place they looked."
Gibbs had to admit, Tony was right his house had been comprimised a lot lately
"Seperate rooms"
Ziva got red and everyone else was slack jawed. She eventuallly recovered enough to answer
"Of course. You can track our phones at any time. We'll be fine"
Gibbs eventually agreed, realizing his senior agent wasn't backing down anytime soon.
"We leave at 20:00"
Everybody got up from the table, one by one; leaving Ziva, Tony and Kristiana sitting there
"Thank you Tony"
A smile dawned his face "Anytime Zi" After staring at eachother for a few minutes while dinking their coffee, Ziva looked at Kristiana,"Why don't you go and call Kelleigh upstairs, see how she's doing."
In one swift motion Kristiana was up off her chair, bagel in one hand, coffee in the other heading towards the stairs proclaiming
"Oh, you don't have to tell me twice"
Once she was out of the room and up the stairs Ziva looked towards DiNozzo
"Tony, we need to talk"
Tony sighed, looked at Ziva and held up a finger, giving her a 'one minute' sign. He grabbed her cup with his own and refilled them both, returning to his seat placing her cup in front of her
"Okay, now we can talk"
Both of them looked at eachother, not knowing what to say or where to start
"I know what you're thinking Ziva and you're wrong"
She was taken aback to say the least
"What do you think I am thinking Tony?"
"You're thinking that this isn't going to last. That once we finally get back to DC i'm going to hookup with some blonde girl and forget about Krsitiana, dissapointing her just like her father."
Ziva went to cut in but Tony looked at her and cut her off before she could bother speaking
"Tell me that i'm wrong Ziva, tell me that's not what's going through your head"
"I cannot lie to you Tony, it has crossed my mind many times. It worries me that you will go to DC and forget about the girl who calls you her father because of a few one night stands. Why am I so wrong to think that Tony? It has happened before."
Tony was starting to get a little frustrated, why couldn't she just see the bigger picture here?
"Because Ziva, as you said I am in every way her father. Oh! and because I can promise you the only woman I plan on or want to be with is you. No one night stands, just you, me and our daughter. Just like before you left."
Ziva stared at Tony in shock, her eyes had a glassy look to them
"Do not promise things you cannot come through on Tony. Especially about things like this."
Their conversation ended when Kristiana came running into the room, her cellphone to her ear; talking excitedly to who they presumed was Kelleigh
"Mom? Dad?"
"Yes tateleh?" Hesitant to answer her teenage daughter
"Can I go to dance with Kelleigh tomorrow? It's bring a friend day..."
Ziva looked surprised and Tony looked delighted, he loved watching her recitals when she was little, he could only imagine how well she danced now.
"Sure tateleh, if you want to go, you can go"
A moment passed with Kristiana looking kind of uncomfortable
"Uh..Mom?"
Realization hit Ziva like a ton of bricks, understanding what exactly was happening
"You need new leotards's and shoes"
"Uh..yeah.."
"Because all of yours accidentally burned in that mysterious trash can fire a year ago"
Kristiana sheepishly smiled and Tony's mouth dropped in astonishment while Ziva waited for him to recover. Tony eventually did and surprised all of them with what he says next.
"I uh..I can take her. To uhm..to get new dance costume things.."
Kristiana had her mouth slightly open and Ziva had her eyebrow arched in amusement.
"Did you just offer to take a teenage girl shopping for leotards, tights and ballet shoes?"
"I mean, uh, that's what dad's do right?"
Ton was barely sure of himsef when he offered; now that they were both looking at him like they were he wasn't so sure at all
"Sure Dad, that's be great"
She went upstairs, presumably to get ready when Ziva looked at Tony
"Don't let her talk you into anything crazy, 2 leo's and one pair of ballet shoes. That's it."
An hour passed and Kristiana came down the stairs with her hair newly curled with an off the shoulder top and skinny jeans and toms, even though it was summer it still was chilly enough at night for skinny jeans.
"Ready?"
Tony looked from Ziva to Kristiana with a nod he grabbed the keys to one of the cars, walking out to the driveway with his daughter. The ride to the dance store was quiet with the exception of Kristiana giving Tony directions, she's known the route by heart since a month after they moved here, it was her favorite place to be and she loved the owner.
"Are you sure you want to do this Dad? I mean, you don't have to come in..see? There's a Blockbuster right next door."
Tony laughed at her last ditch effort of selling him off to Blockbuster.
"Kristiana, it can't be that bad"
With that they made their way into Mischel's body wear, where all of the fun started. As soon as the door opened the bells above it rang signaling somebody had arrived. She looked around, it looked different; but she hadn't been here for nearly a year; that was to be expected. What neither of them expected was a flamboyant french man power walking towards them, Kristiana's face broke into a wide grin as the man came to a halt in front of her; where as Tony just looked confused.
"Ah! Do my eyes deceive me?! Is this the great Kristiana David in my store once again?"
Kristiana chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck "Oh Mischel, it's been too long"
"Spin, Spin for me child!"
She did as she was told and spun in a circle for him
"Still as perfect as ever, but that metal in your face, mhm not a good decision. But it works! Who is this with you now? Where is your mom?"
"She's at home Mischel, we're only back for a few weeks and this Mischel, is my Dad; Tony DiNozzo"
Tony smiled, he could get used to that. He looked at the man whose face was glowing, so this was the guy responsible for his daughters many dance costumes
"Oh! Mr. DiNozzo, welcome I am Mischel. I own this store. Now I assume the two of you are here for new leo's?"
A slight nod from Tony made him go off on another rant, gosh this man could rival Abby.
"Good, good. Now you sir sit right there, and let me take care of your daughter for you"
Tony did as he was told and Mischel put his arm around Kristiana, this must have been what it was like before Demetri turned their lives upside down
As the duo walked through the store some of the employee's heads began to turn. His daughter was quite the little dancer in this upstate New York town.
Mischel looked at the girl at his side, she looked different, older, tired, her eyes though are what got him...he could tell what she had been through in the year she took offf from dance was traumatic but he was drawn from his study by her voice
"Mischel, what about this one?"
He turned to face her and instantly smiled, truth is when it came in he instantly thought about her
"Perfect. Now I have a pair of shoes that go perfect with that"
Mischel and Kristiana walked over to where the shoe display was he proceedded to pull out a pair of black ballet shoes, different from everybodies pink ones. Her eyes lit up, they were perfect for her.
"I love them."
An hour later and Tony's slight hesitation they left the dance store with 6 new leo's and 2 new pairs of dance shoes, the traditional pink ones and her prized black ones.
"Your mother is going to kill me."
She stopped writing in her song book long enough to look up and meet his gaze;
"No she won't. She'd be a hypocrite if she did. Now, can you do me a favor?"
Tony stopped at the red light before turning to gace his daughter with an arched eyebrow
"Uh, sure.. anything"
"Can you tell me if what i'm writing is any good?"
She barely gave him time to respond before she started singing,
"Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street
Faster than the wind, passionate as sin ending so suddenly
Loving him is like trying to change your mind once you're already flying through the free fall
Like the colors in autumn, so bright just before they lose it all"
He took her pause as that was all she had and took a deep breath
"So was it okay? I know it's just a part of it but I think it's promising"
Tony smiled at her, his mind somewhere else
"Who would have thought that little 8 year old girl sitting in the back seat of my mustang singing her heart out to Hillary Duff would end up being here, singing like that. Writing like that. It was amazing kid."
They drove a few more minutes in silence before reaching their street
"Hey, Kristiana?"
Her head snapped up from her notebook
"Yes Dad?"
"That song, where'd it come from? There's no way you get a song like that from nowhere...Whose relationship was that?"
He pulled the car into the driveway just as he was done asking his question. She just locked eyes with him and smirked
"As if you don't already know"
She got out of the car with her bags and as she passed her mother on the front step she turned back to Tony in the car and gave him another smirk leaving Ziva very confused Tony looked up from the steering wheel to see Ziva in front of him giving him a weird look, he realized what Kristiana was saying. He knew because the sing inspiration was standing right in front of him.
"I told you not to buy her a lot Tony"
"Yeah, uh I remember. But she told me to tell you that you're being a hypocrite"
Her mouth opened and he turned off the car, got out and led her inside the house
A/N: I can promise you all that the next chapter will be up by monday...tuesday at the latest. I've got it all written in my head and i'm sick so i'll be in all weekend to write it. If it's not i will personally supply the pitch forks for you all. So please, do not forget to review, it means a lot :) Once I get to 80 or a planned chapter I have a surpise for you guys!
-Cia