Recap: Wednesday, 21st October 2009. Title says it all. (Co-written with mollygibbs101)

~ First day of preschool ~

"Ziva..." Gibbs called softly as he walked into her room. It was almost half six and therefor time for his little agent to wake up. Today was her first day of preschool and she still was fast asleep. A fact that could turn out badly for both of them.

Gibbs smiled at the sight of the sleeping child. Mini-Ziva was curled up into a fetal position and had her hand tucked under her chin, the blanket once again having been kicked out of the way during the night.
The team leader carefully lowered himself onto the side of the small bed and gently tickled the spot behind her ear. Ziva, still asleep, squirmed away from Gibbs' hand.

The silver haired agent chuckled and did it again, making Mini-Ziva open her brown eyes in order to glare at him, annoyed that he had woken her up.

"Come on Ziva, time to get up."

-"Lo!"- Mini-Ziva replied stubbornly, snuggling back down.

The team leader grinned and stood up, walking to the door, "Ok, I'll eat the chocolate flakes myself then..."

-"Lo!"- Ziva shrieked aghast before climbing out of her bed and running over to Gibbs, who caught her smiling.

"Good morning, Ziv" Gibbs greeted, settling her on his waist.

"Mo'nin' 'ibbs." The little girl answered sweetly, resting her head on his shoulder, by way of a hug. Gibbs returned it and pressed a kiss to her hair.

"Let's go eat breakfast. That ok?''

"Uh huh!"

Upon her happy declaration, the corner of Gibbs' mouth turned upwards.

"Ziv? Do you want to play a game?" He asked as he took her downstairs.

"Uh huh!"

"Okay, here it goes. The first one of us, who says 'Uh huh' next, will have to take out the trash tonight, alright?"

"Uh..." The little girl stopped in the middle of her answer, grinning cheekily at him, "O'tay!"

"Good," Gibbs laughed. Silently hoping that the game would keep his shrunken agent from saying 'Uh huh' while being in preschool.

After the team leader had eaten breakfast with Ziva and had dressed the little girl in proper clothes, as well as had brushed her hair and had coaxed her into brushing her teeth too, Gibbs sat down with her in the back of his car. Already having strapped her into her booster seat.

"You excited, Ziv?"

Ziva looked at the older man, "No... not 'cited, o'ter ohn."

Gibbs frowned for a moment. "Worried?"

The little girl shook her head. She had thought about it, technically, well in her mind at least, it was ok to confirm the emotion she was feeling, it wasn't as bad as saying it aloud. Her father had taught her to be strong after all.

"Scared?"

Mini-Ziva looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Gotcha," thought Gibbs, "It's ok to be scared sometimes Ziva."

The shrunken agent looked at her guardian. "You not scared," she muttered lowly as Gibbs tucked a curl behind Ziva's ear before tilting her head to look at him.

"Do you remember when you went away to that place?" asked the silver haired agent, referring to the time when Mini-Ziva had run away and was taken to the orphanage. The little girl obviously caught the reference as she looked at him, fear of the event flashing in her eyes.

"Ken," she whispered softly.

"I was scared then." Gibbs admitted quietly.

Ziva's brow furrowed in confusion."But you big 'ibbs."

The agent bit back a smile at the face Ziva wore, "Yeah, but even big grown ups like me get scared."

"Why?"

"Why I was scared?"

Ziva nodded and reached out to hold Gibbs' hand. He gently caught it and held her tiny hand in his large calloused one.

"I was scared that I wouldn't find you. That I never would have got you back. 'Cause you're irreplaceable, Ziv." The team leader smiled at his shrunken agent. Not wanting to think too much about the if's.

Mini-Ziva looked at him, "Rweally?"

Gibbs nodded. "Yeah. So it's ok to be scared sometimes, 'cause even I can be scared, ok?"

"O'tay," said Ziva, wiggling in her seat. The silver haired agent nodded and flicked her nose with the tip of his finger, making her giggle.

"Good girl." He got out of the backseat and closed the door, before getting himself into his seat and buckling up. Gibbs had just started the car when a small voice stopped him from hitting the road..

"'ibbs?"

The agent looked up at the rear view mirror, "Yeah?"

"Nee' toilet," Ziva squirmed in her seat with an uncomfortable expression on her face. Gibbs turned off the engine.

"Of course you do," The corner of his mouth lifted slightly before he got out of the car. Even though it delayed them he was glad that she mentioned it now than later when they would have no chance to stop.

It was an hour later when Gibbs walked into the preschool, holding Mini-Ziva's hand as he guided them through the building to where the headmistress's office was. Due to their late departure and unforeseen traffic jam the different preschool groups had retreated to their rooms already. Leaving the halls and the wide indoor play areas devoid of any children.

Gibbs knocked on the open doorway of the administration, causing an older secretary to look up from her computer screen.

"Hello, I'm Ms. Kensing," she motioned them to step inside and take a seat, "You must be Mr. Gibbs and Ziva?"

The team leader nodded, "Good morning."

"I'll call out Ms. Rodgers. Just a moment."

After having taken off their jackets, the pair was doomed to wait, so Mini-Ziva decided to use the time to investigate the small office a bit. With Gibbs watching over her and the secretary sitting behind her desk, the little girl felt it was safe for her to wander around. She had just poked her head into an adjoining office when the headmistress entered the room, greeting first Gibbs and then her.

"Shalom," the little girl mumbled, feeling caught red-handed she quickly run back to Gibbs' side.

"Shall we?" Ms. Rodgers smiled and led them back to the entrance of the building.

"Every group has a coatroom, where the kids can store their coats, shoes and other outerwear. The blue room belongs to Ziva's group."

Mini-Ziva followed the adults reluctant into the room. Not that she had much of a choice since Gibbs' held her hand again.

"Every kid has it's own small shoe shelf and set of hooks. An animal labels it for the children while we orientate us on the name tags."

"No wonder you charge that much," Gibbs smirked. He had already noticed the vast number of equipment on their first visit.

The headmistress laughed heartily and picked off the symbols from the free spots of the coatroom, "Ziva, what animal would you like?"

The small girl frowned and looked from Gibbs to the different symbols in Ms. Rodgers' hand.

"'is," she quietly answered, pointing to a camel. The team leader smiled at the choice.

"I would have chosen it too," the headmistress grinned at Mini-Ziva, "Here," she peeled a camel sticker off the backside of the symbol, before sticking the symbol itself to the wooden plate above the hooks and pinning the sticker on Ziva's backpack.

For the first time since entering the building, the little girl smiled openly, -"Toda."-

"You're welcome."

"Come Ziv, like at home you're not gonna wear your street shoes inside." The agent took a pair of house shoes out of his backpack. They were identical to those at home.

While the little girl changed her shoes, Ms. Rodgers explained the shoe shelf to her.

"You can put your street shoes on the lower shelf and when you go home, or when we go outside you can put your house shoes on the shelf above. This way the sometimes wet and dirty street shoes won't make the house shoes wet. And on the very top you may put your hat, scarf and gloves, if you like."

The little girl frowned at the unfamiliar words but nodded in agreement, watching Gibbs as he hung up her jacket on one of the hooks.

"Okay," Ms. Rodgers declared smiling, "Let's go to Ziva's group now."

"Ms. McCully, this is Agent Gibbs and Ziva," Ms. Rodgers explained to her co-worker after having waved the teacher out of her 'classroom'.

"Hello," Gibbs shook the woman's hand, with the hand he wasn't using to hold Ziva, who had wanted to be picked up as they left the coat room, "We're a bit late."

The teacher just smiled and looked at Mini-Ziva, "That's no problem. Hello Ziva."

After a moment of silence, Gibbs nudged Ziva's head with his chin.

"Hello,'' the little girl mumbled, her voice lacking enthusiasm.

Not bothered by Ziva's mood, the headmistress indicated to her subordinate, "Ms. McCully will be Ziva's main teacher. As well as speaking English, she's fluent in Hebrew and Arabic. The second teacher of the group, Miss Leah, will arrive later today. She mostly speaks only Hebrew with the children."

Gibbs nodded.

"If you wanted to say goodbye to her Mister Gibbs, the children are about to have a painting session," Ms. McCully mentioned kindly.

Though as soon as Ziva heard her say the word 'goodbye' she tightened her hold around Gibbs' neck.

"Could you give us a minute?"

The teacher nodded her head and went to back to the classroom, while Ms. Rodgers excused herself too in order to go back to her own group. Her last sentence being the promise of putting the necessary paperwork into Ziva's backpack.

With both woman gone, Gibbs set Mini-Ziva down and crouched in front of her, "Ziv..."

"Lo 'ibbs, I stay wif you." The little girl interrupted him. The beginning of tears were brimming in her eyes. The sight made Gibbs want to take her home with him again, but he knew the preschool was for the best. For everyone. He lightly stroke her cheek, whipping a few stray tears from it. Gibbs lightly shook his head and smiled at his shrunken agent.

"No one is gonna hurt you here," he reassured her once more as she slung her arms around his neck again. Not planing to let go of him anytime soon.

Gibbs' attention was drawn to the corridor which led to the single 'classrooms' of each group, when a boy with long brown hair came running over to them.

"Hey Daniyel," he greeted the boy smiling.

"Shalom!" the boy bounced on his heals, "Shalom Ziva!"

The cheerful greeting caused the little girl to loosen her grip on Gibbs and to look up, smiling shyly at the boy, "Shalom."

Gibbs grinned, "See Ziva, Daniyel's here too. Don't you want to play with him for a while?"

Mini-Ziva looked at him, a frown coming to her face, "But me stay wif you!" This said, the sniffles returned and Gibbs once again debated with himself about calling the whole thing off.

"Daniyel!" A teacher had appeared at the entrance of the room from which the boy had come running.

"Can Ziva paint with us?" The boy immediately asked as his teacher had reached them.

Gibbs kissed the top of Ziva's head before he gently pried her hands from where they grasped his jacket. He slowly stood up.

"Hello, I'm Gibbs and this is Ziva," he put a hand on top of the little girl's head while she clung to his pant leg, slightly hiding behind it.

"Hello, my name is Ms. Willow." The middle aged woman smiled at them.

"She's with Ms. McCully's class," the agent explained.

"First day," noted the teacher, gently crouching down to the child's eye level.

"Hey Ziva."

The little girl snuffled but managed to reply with a quick 'Hi'.

"Ms. Willow?" Daniyel inquired.

"She's in a different group then you, Dani." she gently explained. "But you'll see each other at the playground." She added as she saw both kid's faces fell slightly.

"Oh," the boy lowered his head for a second, "But we still can play!"

"Yes, you can," Ms. Willow smiled at her charge, "Dani, the others are waiting for you so that we can begin, why don't you join them again?"

The boy looked from Ziva to his teacher and back, "Okay." He sighed dramatically. "See you soon!" He gave Mini-Ziva a wide smile and wave before running back to his group. His teacher following him after saying goodbye to the pair and reassuring the little girl that she would have lots of fun in their preschool.

Gibbs gently ran his hand through Ziva's hair, trying to sooth the nervous child.

"Come on Ziv, we should get you to your group too." He held his hand out to her, which the little girl took after a few moments of hesitation. She looked warily up to him.

"'ibbs?" She quietly asked as they neared the room door, "P'o'mise you come back?"

Gibbs nodded, "I promise." He carefully knelt in front of her, taking a pen and paper out of his jacket pocket, "Look when the big hand on the clock is on the one and the little hand is on the twelve, I'll be here to pick you up, ok?" Ziva studied the small drawing.

"O'tay," she sighed, watching as Gibbs neatly folded the note and put it into her trouser pocket. On the one hand she was content that he was going to come back, on the other hand though she still was reluctant to stay.

"You're very brave," the gray-haired agent whispered into her ear, hugging her one last time before he walked with Mini-Ziva into her new 'classroom'.

Gibbs gave a subtle nod to the teacher, who then approached them.

"You ready to meet your new friends, Ziva?" Ms. McCully softly asked, aware how troubling the first day of preschool could be.

The little girl looked up at Gibbs before she slowly nodded.

"Have fun, kiddo." The team leader placed a gentle kiss on Mini-Ziva's hair and retreated from the room after making sure that the little girl wouldn't run after him.

"Alright," the teacher clapped into her hands, effectively silencing the prior loud room and making every kid look at her or rather at Ziva, who felt very uncomfortable with everyone staring at her. She stood a bit in front of the teacher but didn't dared to step back and hide like she wanted to, since Mini-Ziva, under no circumstances, wanted to look like a coward.

"I would like you all to meet your new classmate. This is Ziva. Like some of you she only came to America a few weeks ago, so if she doesn't always understand you, be nice and try to explain again. Ziva's originally from Israel. So you can speak Hebrew to her as well."

While Ms. McCully had spoken she had placed her hand on Ziva's shoulder in silent support.

After a rehearsed chorus of different forms of greetings, the teacher directed Mini-Ziva then to a table where already four boys and only one girl sat.

The five of them smiled as Ziva joined them, quietly whispering another set of hello's, shalom and hi's. They all knew better than to talk before their teacher gave out the tasks. After that they would be free to talk as much as they wanted.

Obviously Ms. McCully was aware of this and spared the introduction of every single child. They would mingle soon enough and the other five kids on Ziva's table would tell her in great details who everyone was. Sometimes the teacher needed to refrain from laughing when she listened to their wild explanations.

While Ms. McCully explained to her group what they would do for the next hour, Mini-Ziva used the time to look around the large room.

It was panted in a soft green and and on the walls hung at least five big cork notice boards. Some were littered with drawings while others were total free of anything, except the small pins sticking in them.

Large windows took up another wall of the room, with small plants sitting on the windowsills.

In the corner, in the far end of the room, there was a neatly piled up stack of mattresses. Obviously they were meant to be sleeping places, which most likely would be laid out on the large soft looking carpet, which took one third of the room. Ziva inwardly hoped that Gibbs would get her before it was time for a nap. She never liked it when the agent forced her to lie down and rest. Also sometimes he just let her play, with increased regularity.

The little girl's eyes wandered back to the farther end of the room. She could see an area, looking comfy enough with big pillows and smaller fluffy blankets scattered around. A bookshelf stood within its reach. Mini-Ziva knew immediately that this might turn out to be her favorite spot in the whole room.

A bit in front of it there was a place where dolls lay scattered around. A miniature kitchen with dishes and faked food stood right next to it. The little girl grimaced and silently wondered if they were supposed to play with this.

Ziva would rather play with the toys, stored in the shelves, which lined up the wall opposite from the windows.

Near the door the shelves got smaller and looked more different. Familiar looking symbols adorned each of them, along with the one which she had picked out earlier.

At last the little girl's eyes wandered to the final third of the room. It contained of the tables, chair and a big black chalkboard. Altogether there were six small chairs on each of the four tables. One had only girls sitting on it, who were dressed from head to toe in pink. Ziva knew instantly that she would never be able to be friends with them. They seemed like a close knit group to her. Only letting someone in who shared their passion for pink, which Ziva never would do, even if her life depended on it.

The next table held an equal number of boys and girls. The children who were facing Ziva and probably had kept staring at her the whole time, were now smiling openly at her as they noticed the little girl looking back at them. Their seemingly friendly reaction caused Ziva to inwardly add them to her 'talk-list'.

The third table had only three children sitting at it. They looked a whole year or even two younger than the rest of the group, who seemed to be in Mini-Ziva's age, of 3 and 4 year old...

Outside Gibbs had kept a few moments away from the window of the door, before he looked into the room.

He was relieved as he saw his little charge sitting next to another small girl, who kept animatedly chatting to Ziva for a moment before she seemed to concentrate on what the teacher was explaining to them. With someone like that close to Mini-Ziva, his shrunken agent would soon relax and enjoy her time.

Ziva was brought out of her thoughts as the children around her suddenly stood up and went to their allocated shelves. The little girl frowned, she had no clue what to do now.

"Do you like our room?" Ms. McCully had come over to her and now knelt next to Mini-Ziva's chair.

Ziva's eyes snapped to the teacher. She hadn't noticed the woman approaching. The frown on her face deepened.

"Ziva?"

-"Ken?"-

The teacher laughed lightly, of course she had noticed how her new student's eyes had darted across the room, obviously not listening to anything she had explained to the group earlier, "I know it's a lot to take in," reassured Ms. McCully, "Do you like our room?" She asked anew, still smiling gently.

Mini-Ziva nodded and cast another glance around the room, before she bit her bottom lip, moments later.

"You don't know what to do now, right?" Ms. McCully inquired gently.

Remorseful Ziva shook her head. At home, with her real family in Israel, she would have gotten into lots of trouble for not paying attention.

"That's ok," the teacher reassured with a smile, "We will be drawing. The others are getting the material for it out of their shelves."

Ziva watched as some children finally returned to their seats, crayons and paper in hand. The rest of the group was still trying to get their things out of the different boxes and drawers. Not easy when everyone wanted to get to their material at the same time.

"When you and your..." Ms. McCully stopped herself from saying 'dad' at the last moment, "When you and Gibbs came in this morning, Ms. Rodgers made you choose an animal, right?"

Again the little girl nodded.

"Like it marks the place where you can hang up your jacket and store your shoes, the animal tells you also which shelf is yours." The teacher explained quietly as more and more children returned to their original places.

"Come, let us see where your shelf is. I'm sure we'll find paper and crayons in there as well."

Mini-Ziva nodded once more and slowly got up from her chair in order to walk to the shelves. She was well aware of some children still following her every move, curious of what she would do next.

Meanwhile Ms. McCully had picked up Ziva's small backpack and carried it over to the spot where the shrunken agent already stood in front of.

"While we're here, we can store some of your things in there as well. So you don't need to carry them back and forth every time." The teacher explained, opening the lowest box and putting the spare clothes, which Gibbs had packed the evening before, in there.

"Okay?" Ms. McCully asked.

-"Ken,"- mumbled Ziva, wondering what the other boxes were for.

"So the lowest is always for your spare clothes. The box above is for your sport wear."

"No more," Mini-Ziva frowned at the nearly empty backpack. Her spare clothes had taken up most of the space.

"The preschool gives the sport wear to every child. I'll put some for you in there, later today. Okay?" The woman smiled at the small child, who nodded in agreement.

"Good, now the next box holds some paint, glue and other things to do handicrafts."

Mini-Ziva looked questionably at her teacher. She had no clue what the woman had just said.

"Here," Ms. McCully opened the box, revealing the contents to Ziva, who cocked her head.

"Now, the next two drawers are for the things you made with the materials from the large box underneath and for your pictures. And the very top drawer," like before she pointed to the drawer and opened it, "Contains white and colored paper."

"Where t'at for?" Ziva squinted at the free spot in the shelf, which didn't held a box or drawer.

"Look at the other kids' shelves. Can you find it out?" The teacher smiled.

The little girl took a step back from the row of shelves to look at them.

"Food!" She exclaimed happily, proud to have figured it out herself.

"That is very good, Ziva. Do you think you can get the material out, which you will need in order to draw?"

While Ms. McCully put the small child's breakfast into the right place, Mini-Ziva busied herself with taking out a few white papers and some markers and crayons.

"Me done!"

The woman chuckled, "Very good. But we say 'I'm done'. Okay?"

Ziva frowned, "I'm done?" No one had ever told her that she was saying it wrong. So was the teacher wrong or Gibbs and the others...

"That is right. Mostly we use I if we do something. Me if something isdone to us." Ms. McCully explain in a calm tone, trying to keep it very simple for the child, while subtly putting an emphasis on 'that', in order to correct Ziva's pronunciation.

The little girl thought hard for a minute before she finally declared, "I say 'is often. They no …" She crinkled her nose and lowly whispered the Hebrew word she wanted to say in English.

"Correct." The teacher offered smiling.

"They no correct me." Ziva finished, nodding.

"It's okay, most children mix the words and adults don't notice it. Do you want to draw now?"

Mini-Ziva's frown was replaced by a smile and she eagerly bobbed her head.

"Then go back to your table. Today we want to draw something that you can find outside, like for example a tree or flower. Can you do that?"

-"Ken!"-

Ziva ran back to the her table where the other kids were already waiting for her.

"I'm Hanah!" The blond girl next to her exclaimed and promptly pointed to the boy on the other side of Mini-Ziva, "This is Max." Max had short, raven dark hair, which was slightly curled. His eyes reminded her of Tony's.

The boy in question rolled his eyes but smiled at Ziva.

"This are Thomas, Peter and Jared. They are twin-twins!" Hanah pointed to the boys who sat opposite from them.

"I'm not Jared. I'm Peter!" The left of the triplets exclaimed a bit angrily while the other two snickered.

"I'm Jared," the middle triplet informed Mini-Ziva, grinning openly at her.

The little girl smiled shyly at them. She felt like asking them a question but couldn't find the right words in English and she wasn't sure if she could talk in her native language to them. So she just settled for quietly drawing while the others kept telling her all about the other children in the room. A few times she would nod, letting them know that she still listened even though she wasn't looking at them.

-"Ziva, what do you think?"- Max suddenly asked in Hebrew, showing Ziva his painting. The little girl stopped drawing for a moment to have a look. She tilted her head.

-"It's nice."- Ziva replied in her native tongue, causing the other four children on her table to look at her.

Max beamed. He had figured that she just kept quiet cause she only understood bits of what the others were telling her. He himself had had trouble when his parents had decided to change countries. While it had gotten easier to understood adults, the sometimes jumbled speak of other children had taken him longer to figure out.

The boy looked at her and then looked down again at his painting, before his eyes came to rest on Ziva's picture. He was about to ask what she was painting when Hanah beat him to it.

"Whatcha paintin'?" Ziva looked at the girl but kept silent. Hanah frowned at Ziva and then at Max, "She don't speak much."

-"She's asking what you're drawing,"- the boy translated dutiful before he turned to Hanah, "She's shy Hanna and you use 'slayng'."

The long blonde haired girl crinkled her nose.

Meanwhile Ziva looked at her painting, suddenly realizing that she never would be able to name it out loud cause she only knew the Hebrew word for it. Her gaze wandered to the boy's picture.

-"What does horse mean?"- she quietly asked. For now ignoring the triplets, who had started to whisper among themselves since she had first started to exchanged 'foreign' words with Max.

"Horse," the boy answered her with a proud smile.

Ziva nodded, -"Toda."- and turned back to Hanah, "Horse," she repeated with a small smile on her face.

Hanna looked at the girl and then at her painting. Suddenly all hyper again, "That's a nice horsey, did you ever sat on one?"

Mini-Ziva nodded, "Dod Ben has 'em."

"Dod?"

"Uncl'," chirped Max, making both girls grin at him. He was the perfect translator for them.

~ TBC ~

Lo = No

Shalom = Hello

Ken = Yes

Dod = Uncle

-"..."- = Hebrew