NOTE: I have had a few people question me about Thalia/Tali's name. I originally believed that 'Tali' was simply the shortened version of 'Thalia' but having done some further research, I have discovered that this is incorrect! I apologize for any confusion.
Tali smiled, listening for the tell-tale signs of where her brother and James were hiding. She could hear them giggling from somewhere behind her, although she wasn't entirely sure where. It was surprisingly easy to play hide and seek with two five year old boys, especially when the boys in question seemed to find it very difficult to be quiet. The giggling stopped. The giggling suddenly got quieter and Tali frowned. Apparently they were getting better at this game. Beside her, Kennedy had almost reached 40.
"Coming! Ready or not!" They called out, removing their hands and scanning the bullpen for a hand or foot that would give away where the boys were hiding. There weren't any obvious signs, however, and Tali realised that the giggling had stopped altogether. She wasn't worried though- they all knew the rules about only playing in the Bullpen or the break room.
It took five minutes for Kennedy and Tali to search the entire room. They had practically grown up here and had memorised every nook and cranny, to the point that they had to actually pretend to search for the boys, since it was always far too easy to find them. Today, however, neither boy had made an appearance. Tali bit her lip. It had never been this hard to find the two younger children and Tali had no idea where they could have gone, which worried her. It was unlikely, she told herself, that two five year old boys would have been allowed to just leave the building, although the receptionist on duty was not 100% reliable, which limited their options slightly, but not by much.
She glanced over to Kennedy, who had a slightly queasy expression on her face. She got it when she knew she was going to get into trouble, although as far as Tali knew, she had never actually thrown up.
"Let's check the break room" Tali suggested. She doubted they were in there since there was nowhere to hide but it was worth checking.
Several minutes later and the girls sat in the break room, trying to think of the one place they might be that they'd forgotten to check. There wasn't one.
"We have to tell the adults" Kennedy pointed out finally. Tali just nodded, feeling her mouth go dry and her stomach tighten. She could still remember the exact words that she had said to her mother before they'd left to follow that lead…
Yes Ima…ken…I can look after them…we'll be fine ima…
Except that they weren't fine, and apparently Tali couldn't even look after her own brother and James for just two hours. Tali sighed. Her mother was going to kill her
It didn't take long before Ziva and Abby entered full blown panicked mother mode; with Ziva switching between scolding Tali in angry fast-paced Hebrew to asking anybody who would listen if they had seen two young boys walk past, and Abby talking very quickly and bashing herself for leaving her son with an eight year old and nine year old girl. It had taken a long time before someone pointed out that no one had checked Abby's lab, and Ziva and Abby had both gone down to investigate.
Tali sat at her mother's desk in a terrified silence, watching her father pace up and down the bullpen. Every time something moved he would jump and whirl around to face whatever it was, as if it would be the boys come back from the toilet. McGee was sat at his desk, but Tali knew he wasn't working. He looked just as agitated as Tony, his hands hovering over the keyboard as if he meant to type something but couldn't find the words. Tali supposed that it was a good thing their lead had been useless and all they could do was look over old evidence and hope their BOLO brought in some results, otherwise Gibbs would have been on their case. The older man didn't look particularly happy either though. He kept biting his lip, something Tali had never seen him do, and his precious coffee had long since gone cold without him ever having taken a single sip.
Tali bit her tongue and tried to stop the tears that threatened to tumble down her face. She hadn't meant to lose James and her brother. They weren't supposed to leave. It had just been a game. Tali vowed that she would never play that game again- not unless every viable escape route was locked and they had at least ten adults monitoring their every move. A single tear trickled down her cheek and she wiped it away, hoping no one had noticed her moment of weakness.
Ziva heard the laughter almost as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs and she immediately released a breath she hadn't even realised she'd been holding. Beside her Abby did the same. As they approached the door, Ziva realised something and stole back the breath she had released, her stomach tightening in fear. She had no idea what kind of dangerous chemicals might be easily accessible to the boys in the lab. For all she knew, they could be playing with a deadly poison. She looked through the window and bit back a cry.
Her son and James were sat on the floor in the centre of the room watching as a white substance trickled through their fingers and onto the floor.
"What is it?" Ziva managed to ask
"Sodium chloride" Abby responded. She remembered spilling it on the floor before she had come upstairs to talk to the Director. Ziva turned to Abby, her eyes filled with an unimaginable anguish that Abby had never expected to see in the former assassin. She would have laughed if she hadn't felt the exact same thing just moments earlier
"Sodium chloride is table salt, Ziva. They are fine" She clarified opening the door and stepping inside. Ziva stared after her in shock for a moment before following her.
She immediately launched into a torrent of Hebrew at her son, only switching to English when she remembered that unlike his sister, her son was not fluent in Hebrew and often struggled to follow along.
"Todd Shepherd David-Dinozzo. We have told you a hundred times that you are not to come down here unsupervised. There could be toxic chemicals that could make you sick, or kill you. We have tried to keep you safe and you have disobeyed us yet again, so from now on, whenever you are at NCIS, at least for now, you are not to go anywhere without telling an adult, is that clear? Not even the toilet." She ranted. Todd stared up at her with the large grey-blue eyes he had inherited from his father and nodded slowly, his bottom lip wobbling.
"Same goes to you, James" Abby clarified. James just nodded. He had expected that.
"I-ima…" Todd suddenly managed to stutter, "M-me ad James ditn-t know we were being w-wrong…we fought Aunty Abby was down here and w-we wanted to make sploshions…" The little boy promptly burst into tears and snuggled into his mother's welcoming arms with a small sob.
"He's obsessed with Abby's lab" Ziva commented as they watched Tali and Todd play quietly together in the living room. They were laughing easily, and any signs of the upset little oy from an hour earlier had vanished
"And science in general" Tony agreed. Once Todd had calmed down enough, he had eagerly asked Abby what they had been playing with, and when she had given him both names, he had made her explain why there were two. Abby had talked for ages, perfectly distracting the five year old from his earlier wobble. They smiled; apparently they had a little scientist on their hands.
If you would like to see a particular flashback, such as pregnancy announcements or how they first fell in love/admitted their feelings, then please tell me! I have a vague plan, and will tell you now that this is not the entire David-Dinozzo family, so there is a lot more to write, but am happy to take suggestions and fit them in somehow!