Author notes: it has been a ridiculous amount of time and I don't think there are any words I could say to make you hate me less; that is if they are any of you left but, here it goes I'm sorry and you know how life goes ;) I have had half of this written for ages but never finished it, it took a good old nagging and telling off from left my heart in Paris to update it (There is one catch though; this is only half of what I have written so there should be another update soonish, but no promises), so enjoy and thank her she is awesome, Jibbs fans go see her she rules! :D TFA
Disclaimer: I own nothing! ( :'0)
Ziva woke up at half past five in the morning to the sound of her alarm clock. She got up and was showered and dressed in half an hour. Ari was the first one downstairs; Tali then joined him a few minutes later and Ziva after that.
Ziva walked into the kitchen and saw Ari and Tali sitting at the table looking slightly annoyed. Ziva dared to ask what the matter was. "Is something wrong?"
"Father thought to get the house supplied with only a hand full of food supplies; there is nothing for breakfast"
"What do you mean nothing? Surely there is something" Ziva didn't believe her brother and sister.
"Nothing" Tali mumbled from where she rested her head on the kitchen table on her arms "Not even coffee"
"Are you sure?" Ziva couldn't believe that they hadn't checked the cupboards and fridge yesterday.
"Yes Ziva, there is no cereal, eggs or even bread; There is only Cola, and tinned spaghetti" Ari was become impatient.
Ziva conceded and sat down at the table "What time are the movers getting here?"
Ari looked towards the wall clock; it was about quarter past six "fifteen, twenty minutes, Hadar rang earlier; he will not be here until noon"
"Do you think anyone will be awake next door?" Ziva had an idea.
"Possibly, I saw a man come out of the house with the blue garage door five minutes ago" Ari replied, not understanding where she was going with this.
"I will be back in a minute" she grabbed her front door keys and some money out of Ari's wallet and slipped on some shoes.
Ziva walked over to the house with the blue garage door and knocked. The door was opened a few seconds later by a woman in her mid-forties dressed in blue jeans and a dark blue top. Tali and Ari where watching inconspicuously from the lounge window.
"Can I help you" she greeted with a confused look on her face.
"I am hoping so, hello, my name is Ziva David; I have just moved here across the street with my brother and sister and you see, we can't go out to the shop and buy anything for breakfast because our moving truck is going to be here at any moment, so I was wondering if I could buy some bread and coffee from you?" Ziva finally stopped and gave the woman a moment to think.
"Yes, or course, but I will not let you pay me, think of it as a welcome gift" the woman smiled.
"Oh thank you so much, you are very kind"
"It's okay, just give me a minute and I'll be right back" the woman disappeared and Ziva turned back and looked to where she knew Tali and Ari were watching.
The woman returned with a sandwich bag full of instant coffee, another filled with some slices of bread and one with three eggs in. "Here you go, welcome to Washington Ziva I'm Helen" she said whilst handing over the items.
"Thank you so much, I hope to see you again soon, of course under different circumstances, good bye" and with that Ziva turned and walked back to her house and the woman closed the door.
Ziva walked through the front door. "Why did you do that?" Ari asked in disbelief at his sisters actions.
"I was hungry, plus don't they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day?" she quipped whilst slipping off the shoes. "Who wants dippy egg and soldiers before the movers get here?" Ziva called as she went into the kitchen.
Ari took the coffee and made everyone a mug of coffee whilst Ziva put the eggs on the hob to boil and Tali made some toast.
Five minutes later they were sat at the table eating their breakfast.
"I can't believe you did that Ziva" Tali stated after sipping her coffee.
"Oh yeah Ari before I forget here is your money back" Ziva took out the money she had grabbed from Ari's wallet. Ari looked puzzled. "Well I wasn't just going to ask for food, I was willing to pay for it, but she was very kind and would not except the money, by the way I took it out of your wallet" she continued when his confusion didn't go away.
A few minutes later after their breakfast was finished and everything was washed up they all went and put some shoes on for when the movers get there.
Ziva was the first person back downstairs and saw through the pane of glass in the door the truck pulled up.
"The truck is here" she called back up the stairs and in no time Ari was opening the door. "Tali are you ready yet? Don't you want to get your stereo?" at that she heard Tali's bedroom door fly open and then saw an excited looking Tali made their way down the stairs.
As Ziva emerged from the house she saw Ari wheel his pride and joy out of the back of the small truck that had arrived with all of their possessions that they had shipped before they left. The sight made Ziva smile; she always liked to see her family happy.
She saw Tali disappear into the back of the truck. Ziva made her way over. In the back of the truck were Tali and a man; who was obviously the truck owner. Ziva smiled as he helped Tali with a box of her possessions. He then passed a box to Ziva; she took it to the front door and left it in the hallway of the house.
In no time the hallway and part of the lounge was full with sealed boxes and the back of the truck was empty. The three Israelis thanked the truck owner and he went on his way.
"Ari, where did you put your motor bike?" Ziva questioned as they made their way back up to the front door of their house.
"Did you tuck it in for bed?" Tali teased over her shoulder as she went through the front door.
"It is in the garage, and yes it is sleeping" he had that same slight smirk on his face.
"Okay where shall we start?" Ziva enquired as Ari closed the front door behind them and they took in the sight of all the boxes.
"Just take what you know is yours up to your room and unpack it, then come and get another box, agreed?" Ari took charge.
"Agreed" Tali and Ziva stated at the same time.
They all each took a box that had their own name on it.
When Ziva got into her bedroom she placed the box on her bed and sat down next to it. She pulled out a knife from her bed side table and broke the seal of tape on the box. Once the box was opened Ziva realised that this was the box that was filled with all her books. Her, Ari and Tali all had a box each all full of reading books; Eli had always thought it important for his children to read and to be well educated and reading just seemed to stick to all three on his children.
Ziva one by one placed each and every book on the book shelf that her father had ordered his people who were getting the house ready for the three Israelis, to install into each bedroom.
In ten minutes Ziva was making her way back down stairs and grabbing another box, this time it had no one's name on it. She repeated the process of opening it as last time, only this time the box contained some extra clothes that would not fit into their suitcases. Ziva sorted each item of clothing into three separate piles; Hers, Tali's and Ari's. She walked in through the open door of Tali's room and found her plugging in her stereo on top of her dresser. Ziva placed the clothes she was carrying on her sister's bed. "Do you need any help?" Ziva didn't want her sister to hurt herself.
"No, thank you, I am okay. Thank you for that" she replied, gesturing to the pile of clothes.
Ziva smiled and walked back into her room, to collect the pile of Ari's clothes. She made her way down the hall way passed the bathroom and towards her brother's room. The door was open so she walked in. He was placing all of his books on the book shelf.
"Have you seen my motor cycle helmet yet? I thought it would have been with the bike, but it was not" Ari wondered out loud to his sister.
"No, sorry, but I do have these clothes; which include a set of leathers" she replied, placing the clothes on his dresser.
It took the three Israelis around three hours to be all unpacked. They were all sat in the lounge. "I think I will phone Kate and verify our plans for later" Tali and Ari both nodded at Ziva as she walked out of the room. She made her way upstairs and grabbed the phone from its cradle and sat on her bed after she shut the door. She dialled the number of one of her closes friends from what felt like a life time ago, she had remembered the number.
"Hello?" a deep male voice answered on the other end of the line.
"Hello, my name is Ziva David; may I please speak with Kate?"
"Just a minute" the man replied and then there was a moment of silence.
"Hey Ziva"
"Hello Kate, how are you?"
"Great thanks, I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to say goodbye yesterday"
"Yes, sorry about that, something came up" Ziva stayed vague, but Kate knew what she meant, everyone had seen her become upset after talking with Tony. "I was wondering if Jimmy had spoken to you about our plans for today."
"Yeah, he rang me earlier; we will see you at my house at two. Is that okay?" Kate informed.
"Yes that is perfect. I have something at noon so I may be a bit late" Ziva reported
"That's okay, Jimmy isn't really great with his punctuality" Kate laughed and Ziva joined in. "It is really good to speak to you again Ziva.
Ziva and Kate spent an hour catching up on the phone.
Once Ziva was finished she got out one of her favourite books 'Exciting Escape Stories Action-Filled Adventures and Death-Defying Stunts' and started to read it. She always found it ironic that she was interested in this book.
Before she knew it Hadar was on their door step.
"Ziva, Hadar is here, put the book down" Tali teased. She and Ari always teased Ziva about her choice of book.
Ziva could hear Tali mocking her with a smile. She closed the book and made her way downstairs as Ari opened the front door.
"Shalom" Ari greeted. "Please do come in" Ari gestured for Hadar to enter with his hand.
"Shalom, toda" Hadar made his way in. He turned to Tali and Ziva "Shalom" the two girls just nodded. They weren't too sure if they could trust him, he reminded Ziva of their father, which was not a good thing in her eyes. "Right shall get started? If you don't mind I think we should start outside" the three Israelis just nodded again and Ari open the door he had just closed.
Hadar led them over to the car he had arrived in. It was a red mini which had; a black top and black sports stripes. Ziva didn't think that she would have put Admit Hadar and this car together, but she rather liked it; the car that is, not the man.
She was shocked when Hadar turned to her and held the keys dangling in front of her face. She looked towards him with a questioned look. He just chuckled. "Take them Ziva, this is your car; a gift from your father" he suggested and carried on once she still hadn't taken them "I will drive the other car you arrived in back to the embassy" he jingled the keys one last time and Ziva slowly grabbed them.
"Good. Now let's carry on with this tour" Hadar declared and marched back towards the house.
Ziva looked at Ari and Tali confused; they just shrugged and smiled before going to follow Hadar into the house.
Ziva stood for a short while and admired her new car.
As she entered the house Hadar was standing in the kitchen next to the ironing board that folded out of a cupboard off the wall. As she approached her family and Hadar; Ari stood back to allow Ziva to stand in front of him "you are going to love this" he whispered in her ear.
This must be what he had found and wanted it to remain a secret Tali and Ziva both concluded.
"Now. To anyone this looks like a normal ironing board, however, if you pull here" Hadar demonstrated by pulling a concealed leaver "it is now not just an ironing board" he looked like a small child in a sweet shop this was because once he had pulled the leaver a doorway opened to reveal a spiral staircase going down.
They made their way down the stairs.
It was illuminated by blue and white LED lights. The walls were thickly padded in a black spongy material. There was not one ounce of natural light; there were no windows. It was a long room of some kind.
"Welcome to the shadow gallery" Hadar announced once the two female Israeli's had taken in the sight before them. "Yet there is more" Hadar motioned over to a wall with a small control panel on it.
"Tali would you care to press the button which says; weapons?" Hadar graciously offered.
She did.
A small rumble could be heard further down the wall, a gap then opened and was again illuminated with blue and white LED lights.
The four Israeli's moved towards the now open gap in the wall.
Ziva couldn't believe her eyes and she suspected neither did Tali.
Guns.
Knives.
No words were spoken between anyone. Ari had found the room but could only imagine what equipment and weapons was down there.
Hadar carried on his tour in silence. He proceeded to select all the options at once on the control panel.
A punch bag came from the ceiling.
Targets for them to shot guns and throw knives at.
Padded mats for hand to hand combat.
Another wall opened to reveal all the equipment they would need for that room.
Even though his children were no longer Mossad, he knew that his eldest children and possibly Tali could never leave their whole life behind in Israel; they would appreciate the means to carry on their 'self-defence' training.
He was correct.
The three siblings spent around half an hour looking around the shadow gallery. Hadar just stood patiently near the stairs.
Once everyone had made their way back into the kitchen Hadar spoke "I trust you found everything else in the house, bedrooms, bathrooms, giant TV?" Hadar mocked the three Israelis didn't fine his mockery humorous "Well I am afraid that I must be going Shalom, I will tell your father that you are all well" he reported and made his way to the front door.
Ari opened the door to let Hadar out "Shalom" Hadar nodded and left.
Author note: if anyone can tell me where I got the name "the shadow gallery" from I will let you choose the colour of the puppy that Ziva will be getting in an upcoming chapter :D (::) And here is a virtual cookie for everyone! TFA