Recap: Before Gibbs took the kids shopping, Tony and Ziva were in Abby's lab where the goth provided Ziva with a Caf-POW. So there's a hyper Mini-Ziva in this story.

~ Shopping ~

"So, where to first?" Tony asked as they entered the large furniture store which was situated a few minutes outside of the actual city.

"What type of furniture do you want in your room?" Gibbs counter questioned.

"Don't know. Can we just take a look around first?"

"Alright. Let's go." Gibbs agreed, using his second hand to keep Ziva from falling out of his arms as she looked around wide eyed, leaning every so often too far forward to get a better look at her surroundings.

"The Caf-POW really did a number on her," commented the teenager, throwing a look sideways at the little girl.

"Wait till she enters the grumpy and full moody stage, cause the caffeine has worn off."

"Living room, kitchen, who set this store up," grumbled Tony impatiently.

Beside him, Gibbs chuckled, "Next should be bedrooms."

"Oh great." The teenager rolled his eyes.

"Don't want to have a bed?" smirked Gibbs as he tried to keep a hold on a still hyper active Ziva, who kept wriggling, giving him a hard time concentrating on his own steps.

"I thought you would give me the one from the spare room."

"Only if you want it."

"I would like this one," Tony suddenly walked away from the main path to a king sized bed. Unceremoniously dropping onto it, he thoroughly tested the softness of the mattress.

"You sure its not too small for you?" Gibbs raised his eyebrow, finally setting Ziva down on her own two feet.

The little girl momentarily looked around and then up to him before she grinned and climbed on the bed, where Tony already lay.

"Hey there, you like that, too?" the teenager asked grinning.

Although she heard none of what he had said, she nodded her head anyway, mimicking Tony's own nod.

"Keep her in sight," Gibbs sighed and pointed at Ziva, "I'll get a sales clerk."

Once the older man was out of sight Tony cheered, bouncing himself of the bed a bit in the process. The prospect of having a large and very comfortable bed to call his own, after having spent years on small bunks in a stupid Military Academy, excited him.

Unluckily for him, his small companion picked up his actions and soon copied him. Only that she actually stood on the bed and jumped around on it.

"Ziva!" Tony tried helplessly to make her stop.

Whenever he came near her and tried to grab her, she made sure to relocate herself to the other side of the mattress.

"Oh, come on, please! Gibbs won't be happy."

"Ya think, Tony?"

"Hey Gibbs," he smiled forcefully.

Knowing that shouting wouldn't stop Ziva's movements at all, Gibbs just rounded the bed, coming up on her end of the mattress where he easily grabbed her of the mattress.

Due to the fact that her back was turned to the team leader, the small girl wasn't prepared for the sudden intrusion of her playing and tensed, before she noticed first the now familiar smell and then the person itself. With wide eyes she turned her head to his.

Gibbs just shook his head at her, before setting her back onto the mattress. Mini-Ziva furrowed her brows at him but seemed to understood that she wasn't supposed to bounce on the bed. Instead she now laid down on it, watching as the other people around her talked.

"Someone gave her a caffeine drink," Gibbs explained apologetic to the saleswoman.

"Oh, poor thing," she replied with a smile, before she bluntly batted her eyelashes at him, "Or should I say poor you?"

Behind her, Tony acted as if he was about to vomit any moment at the sight of the flirting saleswoman.

"Let's keep it by poor thing," Gibbs said as friendly as possible, keeping a straight face.

"The 'thing' has a name," Gibbs and Tony thought simultaneous.

"We would like to have this bed," the gray-haired agent went back to business.

"Okey-dokey." The woman replied still cheerfully, in a false British accent, "What type of mattress would you like, sir?"

"Tony?"

"This one."

"This one," repeated Gibbs, thinking that the saleswoman in front of him would go away sooner if he did the talking. He soon would realize how wrong he was with his assumption.

"I'll just note this down and then I'll be back with your order slip."

"Hopefully she'll go afterward," grunted Tony as the woman was gone.

"Doubt it."

As Gibbs sat on the bed also, Ziva came up behind him and hugged him around his neck.

"We should head to the kids section next. Once her energy wears off we won't stand a chance to get her to choose her furniture," remarked Gibbs, taking Ziva's hand and leading her around himself in order to place the little girl on his lap.

"We could choose for her."

"And have a pouting and grumpy kid, cause she doesn't liked what we got her? Not gonna happen," laughed the older agent.

"Oh great, here she comes again," mumbled Tony as he caught sight of the flirty clerk.

"Mister …" The woman started but was soon interrupted by the teenager.

"Dad, we should hurry. Mom wants us back in two hours and we haven't picked out half the stuff we need."

Gibbs nearly chocked on his own breath upon Tony's words but got himself under control soon enough to prevent anyone from noticing. However the saleswoman wasn't as used to hide her emotions and they could easily see as her face froze into a grimace.

"Miss?" The gray-haired agent asked sweetly.

"Ehm, here's your slip. Have a nice day."

With this she hurried off, probably as far away from them as she could.

"Tony," scolded Gibbs halfheartedly.

"I still got it," beamed the teenager, "Kid section, now?"

The team leader shook his head in amusement, silently wondering how many potential step-mothers his agent drove back with this.

Since Ziva had stubbornly refused to be carried any longer, Gibbs and Tony had taken the small girl in between them. Both holding one of her hands, as they made their way to the child furniture. They only stopped once when Tony saw a closet he insisted to must have.

"We could swing her."

"Not good for kids," Gibbs denied the request immediately, "Though they enjoy it." he added with a grin to the teenager.

Walking with Ziva in their middle proved to be a difficult task. The little girl wanted to explore her surroundings and would more than once try to steer them into a different direction they were walking to.

In the end they finally reached their destination and Gibbs gave Tony a slight nod that he could release Ziva's hand.

The little girl immediately used the opportunity and disappeared inside of a play tent.

"That a good idea, Gibbs?"

"Probably not," smiled the agent.

"She's really lively at the moment. You think that's only the caffeine?"

"Not sure, but if it helps her to open up and not to fear her surroundings, then I can live with it."

"You got one bright little girl there, sir." The clerk, in charge of the child furniture, approached them, "May I help you?"

"Yes, we need basically everything a kid needs in its room."

"Oh, okay." The clerk responded, slightly surprised, "Let's start with a bed then, shall we?"

Gibbs nodded in agreement, before he turned to Tony, "Go get Ziva."

"Sure, be right back."

"Ziva, that's a not so common name," the salesman tried to do small talk.

"She's from Israel. Doesn't speak any English yet." Gibbs told him, not giving any further explanation.

The clerk noticed his shopper's dislike of small talk and went down to business again, "I would suggest a cot bed, it's lower than normal beds and can easily be converted into a practical first bed."

Meanwhile Tony and Ziva had rejoined them.

"We've got a large collection over here," the clerk lead them over to long rows of cot beds.

Stopping at the first bed, Gibbs squat down in front of Ziva.

'We are looking for a new bed for you. Choose one that you like,' he signed, while speaking the words out aloud for Tony and the clerk.

The little girl nodded enthusiastically and was soon running up and down the row of beds. Some times dismissing the bed immediately, other times climbing in between the bars to have a better view.

Eventually she stopped in front of a pine wood bed, with an unicorn engraved in its headboard.

As the rest of the group joined her, the clerk explained the finer details to Gibbs, "A very good choice. This is one of the best beds we have in the area of cots. It can be lowered to three different levels, has two protective teething rails, and will do until she is seven."

Gibbs nodded and rechecked if Ziva really wanted the bed. Eagerly she confirmed her choice and held her arms up for Gibbs to pick her up, which he did willingly.

"Guess it's sold then," he told the clerk, who noted the id of the bed.

"We've got a matching closet for this bed. If you follow me, please."

The clerk led them to a semi-high closet, which consisted of two drawers at the bottom and a set of doors at the top half.

"The two sets of handles on the doors, one low and one high, makes it comfortable for parent and child to open. As you can see the drawers and top moldings are arched. And the unicorn theme is found again on the doors." The clerk pointed to the engraved unicorn heads.

"Can she open the drawers herself?" Tony asked, knowing how independent Ziva liked to be.

"It has a side glided drawer system. She shouldn't have any problems."

Experimentally Gibbs – with Ziva on his arm - crouched down in front of the closet and pulled the top drawer open, just to close it again. As expected Mini-Ziva mirrored his actions. Not having the slightest problems with the task. Even as the drawer seemed to nearly squish her little fingers as it slide shut with her fingers still between drawer and closet, she only blinked and then grinned at Gibbs.

"We'll take it," the team leader said.

"Noted. Next maybe a bookcase?"

"Let me guess, you got one that matches," Tony said sarcastically, earning himself a glare from Gibbs.

Unperturbed the salesman confirmed the teenagers suspicion.

"A bookcase would be good. I don't think we need to see it though," Gibbs abbreviated their amount of running around to look at furniture.

"Very well." the clerk agreed willingly, noting down the bookcase id out of his catalog, which he carried around, "I would suggest a small table with one to three chairs, where she can play on, if her room is big enough."

"Plenty of space."

By the time they had chosen a small pine table with matching chairs which had a soft seating, Ziva had run off back to the play tent. Bored out of her mind after she had confirmed her liking of yet another piece of furniture for her room.

"Put one of the play tents on the list too," Gibbs told the clerk, having followed Ziva's movements with his eyes.

"Will do," the clerk smiled.

"Also add two of the beanie bags. White and dark purple," Gibbs ordered, dismissing all other colors as he saw that Ziva had first dragged a purple and then a white beanie bag away from the others and inside the tent.

"We also have those in a bigger version," the salesman mentioned as he saw Tony looking at the collection of beanie bags for the third time within a few minutes.

"Huh?"

"You want one of those too, Tony?" Gibbs grinned at his agent, who only shrugged and muttered something what both, Gibbs and the clerk assistant, understood as yes, two and black.

Chuckling Gibbs motioned for the salesman to write them on the list also.

"Anything else I can help you with?"

"Nope, we're good."

"Alright, I'll fill out the order slip then. Do you want it delivered and assembled?" The clerk asked as he went to a nearby computer.

"Would be good." Gibbs cast a glance towards Tony who had joined Ziva in the tent, "In one or two weeks from now."

"Let me look," the clerk clicked around, "Our crew has a free spot in calendar week 41 / 2009. The furniture will be ready to be delivered then, too."

"Okay."

"All I need now," the man started but was interrupted as Gibbs held his id card out, "Thank you, sir. The money for the joiners will need to be paid once all furniture is assembled."

A few minutes and a long line on the checkout later they were finally back at Gibbs' car.

"Caffeine is wearing off," commented Tony as he looked at the half asleep girl, who rested her head just a few inches under Gibbs' chin, one of her hands curled near her own head as the other hand rested lazily over the agent's shoulder.

"With any luck she'll be awake by the time we reach the mall," replied Gibbs as he strapped Ziva into her child seat, a NCIS agent had provided them with. Making sure that the seat itself was still safely strapped to the car, he got into the driver's seat and accelerated out of the large parking area.

"What about paint and stuff like that?" Tony asked suddenly, watching the scenery pass by at an alarming speed. A look at the speedometer confirmed his fear that the man behind the wheel was driving way too fast, for his liking anyway.

"We'll talk about those things when the constructing workers take a first look at the attic."

"Ok, uhm... Aren't you driving way too fast. With kids on board?" Tony asked uncertainly.

"You got your seat belt on?"

"Yes."

"Then you're safe."

xx

(Outtake 'Machine of Evil')

(Shopping mall)

After having spent the better part of the afternoon in some furniture stores and getting everything that the kids would need to make their rooms more suitable for their ages, the three of them now stood at the entrance of the mall.

"Here," Gibbs gave Tony a mobile phone, having come to the decision that he needed to show his trust towards the younger man, "That's yours. My number is programmed. I'll let you go by yourself. If you find clothes you want to buy, call me. I'll be there in five. Clothes only! Shoes too, but no other stuff. We'll take care of it once we regroup. Got it?"

Stunned Tony could only nod.

"That's if you want to go by yourself," Gibbs checked.

"No, no," Tony hastily sputtered out, "That's cool."

"Good," smirked the agent and went with Mini-Ziva into the direction of a kids store.

xx

"Winter's coming soon, so we better outfit you with some proper clothes," Gibbs said to no one in particular as Ziva couldn't hear, yet. He carefully settled her into the kid seat of the shopping chart, which he got at the entrance of the kids store.

Ziva's eyes were closing every now and then as she fought against sleep. The ride from the furniture store not being long enough to recharge her energy.

"Hey, I need you awake," Gibbs gently stroke some hair out of Ziva's face, making her look at him sleepily.

"There goes nothing," he thought wryly.

'Clothes,' he signed, 'What is your favorite color? I will pick something out for you.'

Gibbs knew it was a shot into the blue, but when Ziva shook her head and raised her little arms instead, in order to get out of the chart, he was once again surprised by her strong will. Even though she must have been still tired, she wasn't going to let him decide. If this was a good or bad thing, he didn't knew yet.

"I should have woken her after I got at least some basics, like underwear." He thought in the back of his mind as Ziva strode along the isles of clothes. Stopping a few times to orientate herself and to look if he was still following her.

The agent suppressed a grin as she finally stopped in front of a rack with PJ's on.

"Your mind is still thinking of sleep," he smirked, earning a confused look from a mother standing nearby.

Meanwhile Ziva was standing on the tip of her toes, one hand gripping a pole for support as she tried to fetch a particular PJ out of the shelve above her.

At this moment Gibbs knew he was in a lot of trouble. Not only was the little girl in front of him bound to be a freelancer, who liked to make her own decisions, but she also seemed to be thinking that she didn't needed any help with getting the things she liked.

Slightly frustrated Gibbs made a show of sitting right next to where she stood. Looking first everywhere but at her, he finally glanced at his small agent and found her looking right back at him. Her eyebrows knitted together in frustration as she looked down at him.

'Need any help,' he signed smiling.

Mini-Ziva looked from him to the shelve and back again before she finally nodded, her eyes dropping to the floor as he reached above himself and got the desired item out for her.

Gibbs lightly tipped her nose, which made her look at him again. The uncertain look in her eyes causing him to wonder what her childhood looked like.

'You can decide. And I get the clothes and the right size,' he signed, grinning widely as she nodded in agreement and a smile stole back onto her face.

'Two more,' he signed and held two fingers up before he pointed to the white PJ she had picked out.

Nodding Ziva scanned the shelves anew. When she couldn't find anything she liked she held her arms up, signaling Gibbs to pick her up again. As he had done so she found herself having a much better overview as from the floor. Slinging one arm around Gibbs' neck she pointed to a staple of clothes a few meters away.

Obeying her demands grinning, Gibbs carried her over till she could grasp the item with her little hands. Holding it up, it caused the bottom half, which was folded in the top, to drop to the floor.

The little girl looked sheepishly at Gibbs as she noticed her mishap but he only rewarded her with a grin and put her back into the chart before he picked up the bottom half.

'You want this?' he asked signing.

-"Ken,"- she croaked, bobbing her head.

Not about to argue with the small girl, Gibbs searched for the right size before he dropped the purple PJ into the shopping chart.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a white nightgown, with a teddy bear on its front. Having a theory about Ziva since he first met her, he slowly took the item from the rack, not wanting to alert Ziva, who was looking around the shop from her place in the chart.

Obviously he wasn't slow enough, cause the little girl had caught his movement and was now downright glaring at him.

'No?'

Mini-Ziva shook her head vehemently. 'No dresses,' she sighed, protruding her bottom lip in a pout.

Gibbs hung the nightgown back and held his hands up in a pacifying gesture.

'No more dresses, promise.'

The action soothed Ziva and she relaxed again. Gibbs was pretty sure that she would have called him 'silly' that moment, if she would know the word.

"Sir? Can I help you?"

"Not sure, she's insist on picking out her own clothes."

The saleswoman laughed, "We got this a lot, but most parents don't take the time to care what their children want."

"I'm not most parent," replied Gibbs smirking, looking around the store himself and finding several eyes resting on them.

"I noticed, and so has any mother in this store," the woman said still smiling.

"That bad?" Gibbs grimaced, it had been a while since he went shopping with a small girl.

"Well there are those who think you two are a lovely pair, then those who enjoy watching you because of your obvious bound."

"And?" Gibbs raised his eyebrow.

"The parents who don't take the time," she didn't elaborated further but gave him another smile, "So, need help?"

"She needs basically everything. From underwear to outdoor clothes."

"I see. That's a lot."

"Yeah, especially when she insist on picking them out herself." Gibbs smirked, stroking Ziva's head gently.

"I see you got the pajamas already covered?"

"I thought about buying three pairs, only found two so far."

"Easiest thing, just pick the same model, you already have, again."

Gibbs felt like Gibbs-slapping himself, "Didn't thought about that."

"That's why I'm here, sir."

The gray-haired agent momentarily looked at the woman's ring finger, relieved when he found a wedding band there. At least she wouldn't start flirting with him, like the clerk in the furniture store.

"Underwear and socks are easy, too. Most parents just go for the white panties and dark socks." The woman explained as she held a pack of underwear from a rack just beside the PJs, out to him.

He was positive surprised when he noticed that the shop assistant had picked the right size.

"I'm working here for some years already. I can guess the size by just looking at the child. Helped a lot of fathers out of their misery," she winked at him and gave him three other packs.

Gibbs was about to reply when he felt Ziva tuck on his sleeve. As he turned to her he was met by a questioning frown.

'She's helping us. Don't worry. You pick. Those is underwear,' he signed and pointed to the packs, glad that she smiled again.

"She's deaf?" The woman interrupted their moment, sounding worried.

"Cracked ear drums. She'll be fine in a few days." Gibbs gave her a small smile, "You said something about socks?"

"Yes," she said after a moment, "I would advise buying non slip socks or also known as gripper socks. With them you can be sure that she won't slip when she runs around the house or flat. You should also buy some normal socks, for when she's wearing her shoes a lot. Non slip socks have the characteristic to feel strange in shoes and affect the kid's walk this way."

While she explained, the saleswoman held different colored socks out to Ziva, who first looked at Gibbs for affirmation before she pointed at the socks she liked.

"Well that was easy," Gibbs muttered as they had managed to get a wide collection of socks into the chart.

"Show and pick," smiled the clerk as she was asked to come to the front desk over the intercom.

"That's me," she apologized, "I need to check this, but I'll be back," she promised.

"The socks give you a good base to know what kind of color the clothes can have. Just follow your gut."

"Follow my gut," he shook his head at the retreating woman, "If she knew."

He was brought back to the actual task when Ziva grasp his wrist, demanding his attention.

'You want up?' he signed but she shook her head.

'Where to?'

The little girl peered around him, causing him to turn around.

"Of course," Gibbs laughed and moved them to the desired racks.

Once they were right in front of them, he gently made Ziva stand in the chart. Keeping a hand on her back for support, he held one of the cargo pants to her front, checking the length of the pants.

Mini-Ziva grinned widely and grasped the material. Happily she nodded her head and tried to grab another pair from the rack.

"Not so fast, kid," Gibbs said laughing and repeated the process another few times till the cart contained three pairs of dark colored cargo pants, two dark jeans and another few pants, who against Gibbs' expectation weren't all dark colored. They even managed to find all-weather and snow pants with suspenders, which she actually had to try on.

Gibbs sighed in relief when he crossed off another article of clothing from his mental shopping list.

"I see you made progress," said the sale assistant from earlier.

"Yeah. We started with her favorites, the rest was easily done."

"Cargo pants," the woman laughed, having taken notice of the little girl's current wardrobe, "Make sure you control them after she was outside. You never know what she might put in there."

"Come to think of it, I think I need to reconsider the content of the chart." Gibbs answered playfully. "We were just about to switch to sweaters and tops."

"Mind if I help you find something different than plain tops?" The woman's eyes held a certain twinkle of amusement in them.

"Try your luck," he dismissed grinning, signing to Ziva what the woman planned to do.

The little girl cocked her head to the side and peered to where the woman has disappeared to. Eventually she just shrugged and looked back at the hooded sweater Gibbs held out. She shook her head, converting her little face into a grimace and pointed to another one, without Mickey Mouse on its arm.

"No Mickey, got it," mumbled the gray-haired agent, silently wondering if she would continue to boss him around once she was a grown up again.

"How about Disney's Ariel?" He held a blue hooded sweater up which had Ariel on it, who sat on a rock surrounded by the wavy sea.

Mini-Ziva's eyes widened before she nodded hastily.

"One down, much more to go," thought Gibbs and tried to sell her several other Disney characters before he gave up and went for plain ones and those with numbers on them.

In the mean time the sales assistant came back with her arms full of various shirts. Dropping them on a low table she grinned at Ziva, who shyly smiled back at her.

The shy smile soon turned into a full blown, toothy one as the woman showed her more and more shirts which all passed Ziva's scrutiny. Gibbs could only look on in amazement as the chart was filled with different crinkled tops, zigzag ruffled tops, shrugs, vests, embroidered halter tops, camisoles, soft looking sweat jackets and other clothes of which Gibbs had already forgotten the name of.

"I wouldn't know half of the names if the assistant hadn't said them, while showing," the agent thought numbly.

Only the tops with pink in them remained outside of the chart. And the majority of Gibbs' collection of plain t-shirts, which he didn't dared to show Ziva anymore.

"Already has enough outerwear," explained Gibbs as the saleswoman looked questionably at the stack next to him.

"I'm sorry I didn't..."

"No," he stopped her apology with a grin, "She'll look better with the stuff you picked. It's quite," he searched for the right word.

"Fashionably?"

"That will work."

The woman laughed, "Do you need anything else?"

"Jacket for winter and autumn/spring, but we might need to do that another time," he watched as another yawn escaped Ziva and she blinked heavily.

"How about a black wind breaker and a green winter jacket? They'll go fine with what is in the chart. I'll just get them and you can let her try them on later. If they won't fit correctly, you can bring them back." She offered.

"Sounds good to me," Gibbs agreed, thankful that the shopping trip seemed to end soon.

"Why don't you go to the checkout. I'll be right there."

Agreeing Gibbs went to pay, holding his arm on the handle the whole time as Ziva had fallen asleep, leaning heavily on it.

The cashier was about to announce the final amount of money as the saleswoman reappeared.

"Last ones in her size," she explained with a smile as she handed the jackets to her colleague, "I also picked out a few hairband, if you don't mind."

"Nope," Gibbs grinned, giving the cashier the credit card, "Thanks for your help."

"Anytime, have a good day."

"You too."

While he enjoyed the company of the saleswoman he was glad to finally be out of the store. Now his only problem was, that he had a sleeping child AND about six bags of clothes to carry.

Seeing no other option he gently shook Ziva awake, who greeted him with another yawn and a very sleepy expression on her face.

'Let's go to the car,' he signed to her after lifting her out of the chart and letting her stand.

He slowly shook his head and gently smiled at her as she raised her arms to be picked up to be carried.

'Look,' he signed and pointed to the bags, 'Need to carry those.'

Ziva furrowed her eyebrows and for a moment he thought she would throw a tantrum till she grasped the handle of a shopping bag he had just picked up. Effectively attaching herself to him so that she wouldn't get lost in the amount of people, who roamed the halls of the mall.

"Smart girl," Gibbs thought smirking as they headed for the car in order to get rid of the bags.

~ TBC ~

Ken = Yes

-"..."- = always foreign langage