Ari listened to Tali playing Welcome To My Life on full blast for 45 minutes, trying every 5 to get her to tell him what was wrong. He was about to give up when Ziva walked through the front door.
"Something's wrong with Tali," he said as soon as the door opened.
"What is wrong with her?" Ziva asked.
"She won't tell me. But she has a black eye and maybe a broken nose."
Ziva bolted to the stairs and took them three at a time, and when she hit Tali's door, she was almost deafened by the music.
"Tali, open this door!" Ziva yelled, pounding on the door. Nothing. "Talia Caitlin DiNozzo, OPEN THIS DOOR!" Still nothing. Ziva sighed with exasperation and pulled her old lock-picking kit out of her pocket and used it.
Tali was face-down, sobbing into her pillow, and she didn't notice when Ziva yanked the power cord for the stereo out of the wall.
"Tali, what happened?" Ziva asked gently, walking over to Tali's bed and sitting down.
"I don't want to talk about it," Tali said.
"It will not get better if you do not talk about it."
"I don't want to." Tali sniffled and wiped a tear out of her eye before turning to look at the wall.
"Tali, let me see your face."
Tali reluctantly turned and looked at Ziva, whose facial expression was somewhere between shock and anger. Whatever story that Tali had for this bruise was sure to be a lie, and the fist-shaped imprint and dried blood seemed to solidify these suspicions: Tali was beaten up.
"Tali, clean your face and come downstairs. I am about to start dinner."
"I'm not hungry," Tali answered.
"Since when?"
"I'm just not hungry. I get not hungry!" Tali threw her knife at the wall out of frustration. "Please leave me alone."
"Clean the blood off of your face, Tali. And then you WILL tell me what happened." Ziva looked Tali over, noticing the fresh cut on her arm as well. "Then you are coming downstairs so I can patch up your arm."
Tali rolled her eyes into her pillow before reluctantly leaving her room and walking to the bathroom (Under Ziva's watchful eye) in order to wash the blood off of her face and forearm. After about 5 minutes, the blood was washed off and Tali allowed Ziva to wrap the wound on her arm.
"Are you going to eat something?" Ziva asked.
"Maybe later," Tali said. "Right now, I just want to be left alone."
As it turned out, 'later' meant midnight. Tali snuck down from her room to raid the fridge for a bite to eat. She sat down to eat her monster sandwich when another voice made her jump.
"Did you eat dinner, Tali?" Tony asked.
"Yeah," Tali lied. "Why are you asking?"
"That sandwich would make Dagwood Bumstead proud. I used to do the same thing if I missed dinner."
"Why don't you do it anymore?"
"I married your mom. So what happened? Why'd you miss dinner?"
"Abba, what makes you think something happened?"
"You've never missed dinner. And I already know about your injuries, so save 'gym class' for someone else."
"There was a fight at school today," Tali invented on the spot. "One of the punches went wild and hit me in the face."
Tony nodded suspiciously, assembling his own Dagwood. Tali shook her head in disbelief as Tony sat down to eat.
"What?" He asked.
"I thought you didn't do that anymore," Tali joked.
"I had a late night; don't judge me. Finish that and get to bed. You have school tomorrow."
Tali nodded and wolfed down the rest of her food (plus two cans of soda) before giving Tony a good-night hug. Maybe, she thought, just maybe, this thing with Kennedy was a one-time deal and would blow over.
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