Recap: Plays directly after the last chapter.

~ Strange people and new adventures ~

As Gibbs opened the door the next morning, he was greeted by two men who couldn't be more different.

"Hello Mister Gibbs, I'm Clyde Heyes, your personal interior designer and this is Jake Anderson. He's from the construction company."

"Hello," Gibbs raised an eyebrow at the designer's appearance.

While Jake, dressed in work clothes, looked completely normal to him, the designer had a tight fitting black jeans on. Together with the white v-necked muscle shirt he looked very foreign to Gibbs.

The team leader's scrutiny was totally lost to Clyde though. However the construction worker wasn't so blind and gave Gibbs a subtle smirk as the two men entered the house.

"Show me your rooms," Clyde immediately asked as the door clunk shut.

"If we first start taking the measurements of the room, I can measure the attic while you design the room." Jake suggested calmly.

Gibbs saw right through the offer and smirked, "Kid who gets the room is still sleeping, so it won't be any use to do it now."

Jake mentally groaned, "More time to spent with that hyper designer then."

"Attic it is," Clyde chirped happily as he ascended the stairs.

"Can't you wake the kid?" Jake asked.

"He always like this?" countered Gibbs.

"You haven't seen him in action yet. I always need to bring myself to go to work when I'm assigned on a project with him."

"Well, don't skip work while working here. Schedule leaves no room for that."

Upstairs Clyde met Tony as the teenager, fully dressed for the day, emerged from the bathroom.

"Hi?"

"Oh hello. I'm the designer, Clyde Heyes. Pleasure to meet you."

The overeager designer shook Tony's hand extensively.

"Likewise," Tony's eyes went to Gibbs as the agent came up to them, with Jake trailing behind him.

"That the kid you were speaking of?" Jake whispered next to Gibbs.

"Nope."

"Damn."

"Tony," Gibbs addressed his shrunk agent, "I see you already met Mr. Heyes."

"Oh please, call me Clyde," said the designer in a much to cheery tone.

"As I said, this is Mr. Heyes," Gibbs continued, completely ignoring Clyde's comment, "And this," he pointed to the man next to him, "Is Jake Anderson. He and his firm will do the actual work."

"Hello." Tony said warily. His hand was still tingling from the exaggerated handshaking.

"Hey. Mind showing me your new room?" Jake offered with a hopeful expression on his face as he wanted get the first part of the work done as soon as possible.

"Sure."

"Oh, this is fabulous. So much space!" Clyde happily exclaimed as they stood in the center of the attic.

"Before you get all jumpy let me measure the place," Jake said with a roll of his eyes.

"Can I help you?"

"Actually, you can Tony. If you take this and hold it horizontal against the wall close to the corner." Jake gave him his second measure device. "I'll do the same at the opposite site. Then we check if both devices say the same and note it down."

Meanwhile Gibbs was assaulted by a seemingly endless ramble from Clyde.

"You are a Marine, right?" the designer's sudden change in topic caught Gibbs' attention.

"Yeah," he hummed in displeasure of where the conversation was heading.

"Oh, I always loved the corps. All those men, so sexy in their uniforms," Clyde gushed.

"There are a lot of women, too," reminded Gibbs with an exaggerated sigh.

"Oh yeah, but those male Marines..."

"Mister Gibbs?" Jake came to his aid, "We've finished, Clyde can start his work now."

"10 minutes too late," thought Gibbs as he asked Tony to bring the designer downstairs where they could start planing the new layout of the attic.

"He'll be gone as soon as the concept stands," Jake smirked once they were alone.

"How do you survive working with him?"

"The knowledge that he'll only hang around for a few hours on each project helps a lot."

"He's not married, right? I didn't saw a ring on his finger," Clyde inquired.

"Could we please go on and finish this?" Tony rolled his eyes, becoming more and more annoyed with the designer.

"Just trying to make conversation."

"Yeah, right," huffed Tony.

"How it's going?" Jake came up behind them.

"The material list for the walls and carpet already stands, but there are so much else to plan," Clyde reported cheerfully.

"What else?" Gibbs checked.

"How to separate the attic into different spaces. And..."

"Actually, I like the space wide and undivided," Tony said with a fake smile, interrupting the designer in a harsher tone of voice than intended.

"What about the colors then?" the designer exclaimed wide-eyed, "It's all about colors and atmosphere!"

"White," Gibbs and Tony said simultaneous.

"What? That's so boring! I thought you wanted something special?!"

"Nope, we don't," stated the gray-haired agent bluntly.

"But!"

"It's what they want, Clyde." Jake rolled his eyes again. It was more than clear to him that their clients wanted to get rid of the designer as soon as possible.

"Well then," Clyde sighed dejected. "What about the other room?"

"Kid's still sleeping. I'm sure we can sort out the color of the walls and the floor alone," Gibbs smiled apologetic as the designer stood up and packed his things, even though the agent felt more than pleased with himself.

"Well then," Clyde huffed, "My job is done."

"Also I don't know why they called me if they don't want to do anything else out of the rooms. Tsk," the designer thought more than annoyed. Without further word he stormed out of the house.

"Nice man," Tony snorted.

"Behave," Gibbs said sternly, even though he grinned.

"Wow, no other client had made him leave so fast. I'm impressed."

"Thanks," the teenager beamed but soon lost the smile when Gibbs' slapped his head.

From where she stood at the bottom of the stairs, Ziva looked questionably at the foreign man, "'ibbs?" Her small voice was laced with uncertainty.

"Hey Ziv," the team leader went to stand in front of her, "Slept well?"

The little girl nodded and peered around him at the unknown man. One hand clutching the baluster of the stair-railing.

Meanwhile Jake stayed with Tony and waited to be introduced. He knew that it was always better to let the parents handle situations like this.

'He's a friend,' Gibbs signed, carefully choosing his words, 'He'll make sure that your room and Tony's are really nice. Okay?'

Upon Mini-Ziva's nod, he scooped the little girl up and carried her to the others.

"Hello, I'm Jake," the man greeted friendly.

Though the little girl was having none of it and hid her face in Gibbs' shirt, refusing to acknowledge the man.

"Ziva is wary of new people," the team leader informed, while he gently stroked her back in soothing circles.

"Most kids react like this when we come into their houses, but in the end they act as if we were always there," Jake gave them a smile, "Two of my men should be here soon, then we can start with the lower room."

Three hours later the construction workers were gone for the day and Ziva's future room was bare of its wallpaper and the time-worn carpet.

"Come on, Tony!" Gibbs called out as he finally tied Mini-Ziva's shoe laces. Having spent over twenty minutes to convince the little girl to pull on the shoes in the first place.

Gibbs shout was met by loud rumbling as his senior field agent dashed downstairs.

"Already here," the teenager responded with a cocky smile on his lips.

"Just get in the car," Gibbs sighed and shook his head, closing the front door behind them.

"Can I drive?"

"No."

"Please?"

"Another time," huffed Gibbs, looking down at the little girl who stubbornly stood next to the car and refused to take a seat in her booster seat.

"Ziva," he warned.

Over the roof of the car Tony tried to catch a glimpse of what was going on on the other side.

"Problems?"

"Tony, not now." Gibbs growled, his dark tone of voice persuading Mini-Ziva to quickly scramble into her seat.

"Why didn't you do that in the first place," muttered the team leader as he strapped the 5-point harness into place.

The little girl just gave him innocent look, smiling widely at Tony who made funny faces behind the gray-haired agent's back.

"Saw that, DiNozzo," Gibbs smirked as the teenager's smile quickly disappeared.

(At the building center)

"Uhm Gibbs..." Tony interrupted the team leader's talk with the salesman about carpets for the girl's room, "Where is Ziva?"

A look of horror crossed the older agent's face as he quickly looked in all directions, not spotting the small girl anywhere.

"Sir?" The clerk asked confused.

"Tony you take the left side, I'll check the right side of the store."

"Sir!"

"You got all information you need. We'll get the receipt from the information point," Gibbs shouted as he started walking fast through the main corridor, checking the different rows for the familiar girl.

"Come on, where are you kid," he muttered under his breath as he neared the end of the store.

He was about to turn around and met with Tony, in the hope that the teenager had more success, when a small giggle caught his attention.

Gibbs stopped short in his track to listen, before he walked into the direction of the sound. He was starting to believe that he was just hearing things, when he finally spotted a mop of curly brown hair in front of several glas boxes.

"Ziva!" The little girl looked confused at him as she was roughly lifted of the floor.

"Never do this again!" Gibbs leaned his head against her forehead before hugging the small child as the adrenalin left his body.

"'ibbs?"

Mini-Ziva was confused with the agent's behavior and patted his cheek in order to cheer him up and to get his attention.

Her action brought a smile to his face, "No run," he repeated in words he knew she would understand.

The agent could see how realization slowly dawned on her face as she looked around, maybe for the first time seeing how far she had wandered off. As a result her eyes became slightly watery as a sniffle escaped her throat.

"Don't cry," the team leader soothed, hugging her once again as she gripped his shirt tightly in her little hands, "It's okay now."

"Gibbs!"

"Found her," he gave the approaching teenager a smile, "Seems like the bunnies here were more interesting than rolls of carpet." Despite his own worry he couldn't help but to laugh lightly now.

"Well," Tony observed the small animals after he gently had patted Ziva's back, "They are sort of ... cute."

"Cutehh," mumbled Mini-Ziva, having calmed down enough to lean relax against Gibbs' shoulder as she look at the bunnies once more.

"We won't get any of them though," Gibbs scrunched his face and shook his head. The idea of having to take care of such animals sending small chills through his body. Not to mention the question who would look after them when his agents where back to normal.

"No?" Ziva looked at him with sad eyes.

The gray-haired agent groaned inwardly, "No, no, no, don't fall for her," he chastised himself, "Bunnies aren't the right pets for small children."

"'ibbs?" Ziva's pleading voice brought him out of his thoughts.

Across from them Tony looked highly amused, "Hey Ziva, wanna have ice cream?"

"Ken!"

Her loud shriek made the team leader wince momentarily, while Ziva clapped her hands in excitement.

Gibbs shot his senior field agent a grateful look as they finally walked away from the zoo section, "Let's get the colors sorted and then go to the ice cream parlor."

~ Fin ~

Ken = Yes