"We've got a lot of dark haired girls here," the desk clerk said snootily.

"One that was brought here by a police officer about a day ago," McGee elaborated.

"Nope. Not limiting it much."

"Look closer," growled Gibbs, coming dangerously close as he leaned over the counter.

"There was only a retarded one. Surely you won't be looking for that one."

Gibbs grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck, "Where is this girl now!"

"The mentally disabled children are held in the basement," the clerk croaked out.

"Basement? What are you thinking! No person and especially children are to be held in freaking basements!" McGee exploded.

"They aren't noticing their surroundings anyway!" the desk clerk gasped for air, having been let go by Gibbs as the agent stormed off further into the old building.

"You're the one who is retarded here," McGee breathed angrily before he hurried after his boss.

(A few minutes and some scared custodians later)

"Ziva," Gibbs breathed a sign of relief as he saw her huddled in a corner of the not so well stocked playroom.

Before the custodian at the door could response, the team leader was across the room and knelt in front of the little girl.

She momentarily shrank away from his outstretched hand. Her eyes not really focused.

"What happened to you," he wondered silently as he stroked her cheek anyway.

The gentle touch seemed to snap her out of her state of trance and she finally looked at the gray-haired agent.

Gibbs smiled at her, 'We were worried,' he signed.

Her bottom lip started to tremble dangerously as she recognized his familiar features. And all Gibbs wanted to do was to get her out of that place. So he gently picked her up, noticing that her ears were looking sickly red.

Not sparing the staff another glance or let alone word, he went to the front door. Too worried about the little girl in his arms to let his anger get the better of him.

"You can't take her just like that," the woman in charge exclaimed, having hurried after the agents.

"The hell we can," growled McGee as he spun around, daring the older woman to challenge him.

"This will have consequences!"

"Fine," McGee exclaimed, letting the door fall close behind his friends and himself.

(Ziva's point of view - a few minutes before)

The uproar, caused by the small girl from breakfast, had set the custodians on edge. After one of them had carried the girl into the bedroom, the other men and woman had yelled and pushed the children from one place to another. Not one child seemed to act as the custodians wanted them to.

Suddenly one of the mean men was standing right in front of Mini-Ziva, his eyes looking angrily down at her.

The little girl closed her eyes, wishing herself to be at the beach of Haifa, enjoying the warm sun and cool water, playing tag in the water with Ari, before they teamed up against their daddy, as their mommy looked on with her baby sister in her lap.

However Mini-Ziva was soon brought back out of her fantasy as she felt a stabbing pain ran through her small frame. Large hands grabbed her upper arms, before the man shook her roughly. Ziva would have cried out if her daddy would approve of emotions, but since he hated them, she kept her mouth firmly shut.

Ziva looked fearfully up into the man's eyes. His grip on her upper arms was starting to hurt her, bad...

"You drive," Gibbs told McGee and got into the passenger's seat with Mini-Ziva firmly held in his lap.

"Boss, shouldn't she be buckled?" McGee asked carefully.

"Just drive slowly," Gibbs dismissed his agent's concern.

The team leader was well aware that they should put a seat-belt on the little girl and that driving with her in his lap was highly risky, but the way the small girl clung to him since he had picked her up, made him decide otherwise. Her little body was shaking and it was becoming even more pronounced by the second as the situation finally seemed to caught up with her and the stress slowly left her body.

The fact that the custodians of the orphanage had decided that Mini-Ziva was mentally retarded just because she spoke another language and couldn't understand them, made Gibbs blood run cold.

He barely dared to imagine what she had gone through in the past few days.

"McGee turn around. Bethesda. We should have let her get checked out." Gibbs ordered quietly, gently stroking Mini-Ziva's unkempt hair out of her face.

"Okay." responded the agent, momentarily gazing at his small friend, who seemed to want to melt into Gibbs' solid frame.

"I wonder where her shoes are," the agent thought absent minded, noticing the lack of her favorite shoes and how the soles of her bare feet were covered in dirt now.

"McGee! Where are you? Tony just came back from the..."

'Abby! If you would stop for a second I could explain.' The agent interrupted quietly but in a harsh tone. He didn't wanted to scare the little girl in Gibbs' arms further as they walked into the ER.

"Shoot," Abby and Tony said at the same time, the phone on speaker now.

'We found Ziva and she seems fine...'

"Seems?" The Goth exclaimed, causing McGee to halt in his sentence.

'She's very frightened. Gibbs wanted to make sure that there's no lasting damage.'

"We'll be there, soon," Abby and Tony hastily said, already on their way out of the lab.

'No!' exclaimed McGee, earning a few disapproving looks from the people around him, 'We'll be back as soon as the doctors have cleared her.'

"But..." The goth looked helplessly at Tony.

'Abby.' McGee sighed, 'Listen, Gibbs and Ziva are already with a doctor and the nurses here look as if they want to kill me cause I'm using my cellphone, so...'

This time they interrupted him, "Fine, we will wait, here. But call us when you know!"

'I will call you guys soon, promise.'

"Boss?" McGee asked alarmed as Gibbs entered the waiting room alone, "Where is Ziva?"

"Relax Tim," Gibbs stated quietly, sitting down next to his agent.

"Tim? What the hell..." McGee thought, panic tightening his chest.

"She wouldn't let them near her without screaming murder. They were forced to sedate her in the end."

"What did they do to her."

Gibbs knew that his agent wasn't talking about the doctors but about the custodians.

"They're doing some x-rays at the moment and will also take a closer look at her ears."

"Oh."

"She has bruises on her arms," Gibbs said softly, the little girl's screams still ringing in his ears.

Tim felt the air leave his lungs and tightened his knuckles. The team leader could feel how McGee tensed up even more next to him.

"Just talked to Vance. He told me that someone will give Local PD an anonymous tip. They will investigate that orphanage soon. Those kids will be helped. We need to concentrate on Ziva."

"Okay," mumbled Tim, trying to get his pulse back to normal.

Both men lapsed into silence after that. Worried about their friend, they didn't noticed a doctor approaching them.

"Mister Gibbs?"

"Yeah, what did you found out?"

"We might should talk in private," the doctor stated quietly, indicating the men to follow him.

(Doctor's office)

"As you know, Ziva's ear drums were cracked."

Both men nodded.

"Our examination showed that her drums have nearly healed. We are pretty sure that she can hear again. Not quite hundred percent and not with her left ear yet, but she should be able to hear sounds."

"Why not with her left ear?" Gibbs asked concerned.

"We found signs of inflammation and decided to puncture the drum again, in order to release the pressure which was building behind the tympanum."

"Tympanum?" A confused McGee inquired.

"Ear-drum."

"Oh."

"We have given her antibiotics to counter the inflammation. You'll need to continue to give her those for the next week."

"Will do," Gibbs stated as he tried to keep calm.

"There also must have been some trauma inflicted to her right conch. Resulting in a swelling of the conch and the first millimeters of her ear canal. Which is the reason why she won't hear fully yet."

"What kind of trauma," Tim asked.

"Slap," Gibbs stated bitterly, his mind flashing back to the redness he saw.

"Yes." The doctor agreed, "And not a mild one..."

"Bastards," McGee muttered under his breath.

"I would suggest to keep her inside for the next few days. Keep her away from loud sounds too. The unbalance of the hearing can be very confusing. Especially to a small child. Maybe soften the unbalance with putting a bit of wad into her ear once the swelling has gone down," The physician explained.

"The good news is that the x-rays didn't showed any injuries. And while the bruises on her arms showed an abuse of charges they are the only bruises we've found."

"At least something," growled Gibbs.

"Do you want us to fill a report or ..."

"No," Gibbs interrupted the doctor, "In fact we need her whole file. She only arrived in the US a few days ago," he trailed off.

"I understand."

"Local PD will take care of the orphanage, though."

"Good, I hate people who mistreat children or any other defenseless persons." The doctor rose.

"As do we," stated Gibbs, standing up also, "Can we take her home?"

"I would like to keep her here till the anesthetics wears off, then she's free to leave. By now she'll be settled in a room, you're free to wait there till we can release her."

(Two hours later)

"Boss." McGee brought Gibbs' attention to the little girl in the bed.

As Gibbs looked up from his newspaper, brown orbs greeted him sleepily.

"Hey," the agent said softly, stroking Mini-Ziva's head.

-"Oi,"- she sniffed weakly.

Gibbs smiled sadly at her.

"Tim, could you get a nurse or doctor so we can leave this place?"

The softness in his boss' voice stunned McGee and he could only nod.

(Ziva's point of view)

It wasn't a dream. This was Ziva's first thought as she opened her eyes and found the gray haired man looking at her. Despite the pain she felt right now, she was more than relieved

As she forced her eyes to comply with her to stay open, she found herself mesmerized by the ice blue eyes of the man next to her. Unexpectedly they didn't held any anger towards her.

What she saw was - concern? Ziva would have frowned if she wouldn't be feeling so dozily and lightheaded at the moment.

The gray-haired man really had come and got her out of the horrible place. She was safe. Wasn't she? Mini-Ziva wondered if she would see her daddy now. She really missed him, also the people she was supposed to stay with seemed really nice, too.

After all, the man signed that they were worried. And something told her that they weren't worried about her daddy finding out that she got into trouble and they would get the blame for it. No, they were worried about HER, Ziva, and not Eli David the Mossad Officer.

She may not know what Mossad was, but her daddy always tells her how important it is to their country and that no one should mess with them. Mini-Ziva had just nodded in agreement and tried not to mix up the big word again, cause her daddy wasn't happy at all when she did it once.

The longer she was awake, the more she noticed how exhausted she was. She couldn't even hold the cry of pain in. Very bad, Ziva decided. If those people would tell her daddy?

But then she noticed that the gray-haired man was speaking in this strange language, too. A wave of sadness swept over her.

Gibbs, having watched the little girl in front of him closely, saw her eyes shift.

"First confused then relieved and now sad?" he thought.

'I'm sorry that your father isn't here,' he signed, hoping to hit the bull's eye with his assumption.

Mini-Ziva just nodded and shifted uncomfortably around in the big bed.

'We'll go home soon,' Gibbs promised.

The little girl's eyes lit up at the mention of her home but then remembered that she would most likely not go home to her family.

'Yours?'

Again Gibbs smiled sadly at her and nodded. He could see that Mini-Ziva's eyes were starting to fill with tears. The sight broke his heart. While her older self might have let go of her father for good, her younger self still adored him and probably loved him to pieces.

Gibbs sighed, he needed to cheer her up somehow. The agent was brought out of his thoughts as a man entered the room with McGee closely following.

"I heard someone's awake," the man smiled in direction of Ziva, who looked suspicious at him.

"You're one of the doctors who tried to examine her." Gibbs realized, having seen the younger man in the ER.

"Yes," the doctor smiled, "I thought I would try it without lab coat for her this time."

The team leader nodded in approval of the man's thoughtfulness.

The doctor then turned to Mini-Ziva, taking a penlight out of his shirt pocket, "Let's see if you're focused, little one."

However, the small girl wasn't ready for strangers to touch her and tried to get off the bed. Only Gibbs' quick reflexes prevented her from escaping, leaving Ziva to sit at the edge of the bed, her bare feet already dangling in the air, ready to hop of the bed.

Gibbs gently shook his head at the frowning girl.

'No harm,' he signed before ordering the doctor to use the penlight on him first.

Afterward Mini-Ziva wordlessly pointed to McGee, her little face showing that she was paying close attention.

"Alright," sighed the agent and gave her a quick smile before letting the doctor control his eyes' reaction, too.

'Now you,' signed the team leader and broke into a grin when Ziva pulled a face. But to his relief she let the doctor do his job without further fight.

"It's safe to say that the anesthetics wore off. She's just tired." pronounced the man before he pulled three lollipops out of his trouser pocket, first giving Gibbs and then McGee one lollipop, before he held one out to Mini-Ziva, who took it after seeing that the others took it too.

The doctor grinned, "Another happy patient. A nurse will be in with her discharge papers in a moment and the clothes she came here with," the man frowned slightly at the memory of the girl's more or less clean clothes.

"Nah, don't think she needs that reminder," Gibbs dismissed with a wave of his hand, "We got a warm blanket in our car." He lightly tugged on Ziva's hospital gown, making her swat his hand away and frown at him.

"That's so Ziva-like," commented McGee grinning.

(One car ride later)

"Can you bring Tony home?" Gibbs asked as they entered his house.

"Sure boss."

"And..."

"Tell Abby, without telling her about the bruises," finished McGee the order, giving Ziva a small smile as she sleepily looked up from where she had hit her face in Gibbs' shoulder.

"Yeah."

"Will do, boss." He said and turned to leave.

"McGee," Gibbs called out to his junior agent, "Thanks."

"No problem." He gave another tiny wave to Ziva before closing the door behind himself.

"Time for a bath," whispered Gibbs, looking down at the brown unkempt curls of his half asleep mini agent.

As Tony got out of McGee's car and then entered the semi lighted house, Gibbs was walking up and down the living room, an asleep Ziva in his arms. With her head once again pillowed on his shoulder, she was now clad in her PJ's. Her still slightly damp hair pulled into a lose ponytail.

"Hey Gibbs," the teenager greeted quietly, his eyes scanning thoroughly over his shrunk partner.

"She's beat," the team leader explained, not losing his grip on the small girl.

"She okay, though?"

"A few problems with her ears, I'll explain later."

"kay," whispered Tony.

"Wanna order pizza?" Gibbs smirked, fully knowing that the younger man wouldn't be able to resist the offer.

"Really?"

"Yeah, two big pizzas," Gibbs decided, before remembering how Ziva had disliked Tony's choice of pizza when he had offered her a slice and quickly ate her own plain slice instead, obviously famished, "Make sure to order one with a half plain."

"Got it."

"Card's in the kitchen." He nodded towards the other room.

Once the pizzas had arrived, they had decided to exchange the kitchen table in favor of couch and coffee table for the evening.

"This tastes good," Tony munched loudly.

"You haven't exactly eaten much the last few days." Gibbs observed.

"You neither," Tony shot back with a small grin.

Meanwhile Ziva only stared at her plate as she sat close to the gray-haired agent. Her hand gripping into the right side of the agent's sweater.

Her dislike to leave his side, started to worry Gibbs. After her bath she had become rather quiet, even though he had tried to talk and explain everything to her at all times, in hope that she would pick up a few English words now that she began to hear again.

After a few bites of his own slice of pizza, Gibbs decided to bait the little girl into eating.

Changing his pizza slice from his right to his left hand, he laid his arm around Ziva's small shoulder. Afterward he took the slice back into his right hand, which now lay close to Mini-Ziva.

Practically dangling the slice in front of her face, he looked down at her to find her looking at him questionably.

"One bite," Gibbs said as he held a finger up and opened and closed his mouth, copying a bite.

-"Achat,"- Ziva spoke quietly, frowning at the older man.

-"Achat, one"- Gibbs repeated after a moment, taking Ziva's hand and urging her to hold a finger up.

From the single arm chair Tony watched with amusement, "You trying to teach her English, now?"

"No better time than today," smirked Gibbs, not knowing that his efforts, to speak as much English as possible around the little girl would soon backfire.

~ Fin ~

Oi = Denotes disgust, pain, astonishment or rapture

Achat = One

A/N: I really hope that there's no place like this orphanage out there...