Recap: Thursday, 5th November 2009.

~ Bullies ~

"Hey," Tony shouted as he run full speed across the large playground, towards a small crowd of children, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Dude, stay out of this!" A ten year old boy snarled, watching his younger brother closely.

"Yeah, it's none of your business," his brother commented snotty, advancing on the small girl again.

"The hell it is! You better make a quick escape." Tony growled.

"Or what?" the older boy laughed sarcastically.

-"Lo"- Mini-Ziva shouted loudly, hugging her toy to her, as the boy closest to her made a grab for it.

"That's mine."

The little girl furrowed her eyebrows and took another step back. Though the boy advancing on her kept in step with her.

"Hey! Stay away from her." Tony shouted.

The boys were still between him and Ziva, so he needed to act fast as the younger boy closed in quickly on Ziva.

Though, his worries were partly gone as the boy tried to grab the toy again but ended up on the floor instead, Mini-Ziva having kicked him into his shin, hard.

"Argh, you fu++++ kid."

Using the distraction, Tony quickly rendered the older boys arms useless, keeping a firm hold on him. "I said go!"

"Get off me you …"

By now other people at the playground had noticed the commotion.

"Don't you have something else to do than to bully younger children who are half your size?" A older woman asked Tony, who was completely taken off guard by the comment.

"Ma'am," he tried to be polite, "Those two were harassing my..." he thought for a moment, "sister."

"Tell this the police," a young mother chimed in, having misinterpreted the situation as well. Mini-Ziva looked up at the mention of police. Her only encounter with them wasn't a good one. The little girl involuntarily trembled.

"She stole my toy," the younger of the two boys now commented.

"What?" Tony shouted enraged, "You tried to steal it from her."

"Did not."

"Did."

"What's going on here?" A young father now asked.

"It seems like this girl stole the toy of one of the boys and when they went to get it back the teen got bodily." The older woman nagged at the shrunken agents.

"She kicked me too!" The youngest boy cried, completed with fake tears and trembling lip.

While the two women immediately dotted the boys, the man frowned at the situation. After all Ziva had played with his own daughter only a few minutes ago and hadn't shown any sign of being not well behaved.

"Hey kid," he called gently, crouching down in front of Mini-Ziva.

-"Lo"- Mini-Ziva didn't trusted him and took another step backwards, "Tony!"

The teenager immediately reacted towards the desperate cry and abruptly ended his discussion with the two woman and the boys. He quickly covered the last steps between Ziva and him and picked her up. "It's okay. They won't get to you." He whispered into her hair while she hid her face in his shirt, tightening her arms around his neck.

To engrossed in consoling his little friend, Tony didn't noticed one of the women sneaking up behind them. At least not until she had taken advantages of the position of Ziva's arms and had taken the toy from her.

-"Lo"- Mini-Ziva shrieked while Tony protested loudly.

"Alright," the father now called loudly, causing everyone to fall into silence, except Ziva who's soft sniffles still could be heard.

"I just called the police." He stated matter of fact, taking in the different reactions.

While Tony looked relieved, the boys suddenly looked very very uncomfortable.

"Mister, this is really not necessary," the older boy said, "We have the toy back, so all's forgiven" He motioned for the toy in the other boy's hand.

"Let's be sure," the man winked, taking the toy away from the boy, "I'll keep this for the moment."

"But..."

"No. Now let's sit down," he motioned for a pair of banks a few meters away.

"Good idea," mumbled Tony, his hand going in circles over Ziva's back as he carried her on his hip. He had noticed how the little girl had gone rigid as the word police fell. Tony had tried to get her to relax again, but to no avail. He just hoped that this would be over soon.

"She okay?" the father in a whisper as he looked over at Ziva.

"No. She doesn't trust strangers and this is making everything worse. She also had a not so good encounter with the police a few weeks ago. She had walked off alone and the police man, who had found her, had dropped her off at an orphanage." Tony bitterly retold the story, which everyone just wanted to forget.

"Home," Mini-Ziva mumbled pleadingly. After a nice day at the playground with Tony had turned into something ugly, she only wanted Gibbs now.

"Soon, bug. I promise you." Tony consoled her, meeting the man's eyes, "We'll get pizza and ice cream then, okay?"

Ziva lifted her head and studied him, "P'o'mise?"

"Yeah," Tony smiled, happy to see her finally smiling again. Even if he only managed to get a small smile from her.

Beside them the two women were still occupied with mothering the boys.

(A few minutes later)

"Hello?" A young officer approached them, "I'm Officer White, what seems to be the problem here?"

Immediately the women told him their side of the story, putting the whole blame on Tony and Ziva.

"Always those foreigners. Not speaking our language, but stealing other people's thing."

Meanwhile the boys kept their heads down. They already had been caught by the police several times before and most officers patrolling this district knew their faces by now.

"Wha..." Tony was interrupted as the father, who sat next to Ziva and him, lay his hand on his knee, silently telling him to be quiet.

"Officer," the young father said with a smile, "You may want to take a look at this?" He gave the officer the upturned toy.

"Well," the officer smirked after having studied the tag of the toy for a moment, "If neither of you boys is called 'Ziva David'..."

"It's Dav-eed," Tony corrected automatically.

"Sorry, of course, Dav-eed," he smiled at the little girl who had raised her head and was now looking questionably at him, "And lives with a L..J. Gibbs a few streets away, then I would say you've got some explaining to do."

However, the boys wisely kept their mouths shut and even the annoying women were now quiet.

"I think we'll talk about this further at the police station," commented the officer, directing his full attention to the boys.

"You want to press extra charges?" He then asked Tony, who declined it with a shake of his head.

"We just want to go home."

"Very well," the officer gave him and Ziva a smile, "Those two won't be very happy for a while, when their parents need to pick them up, anyway."

Tony chuckled, "Good."

Meanwhile Mini-Ziva regarded the police officer closely. To her he seemed friendly enough. He neither shouted nor tried to touch her. And the man next to Tony wasn't bad either. Only the two women and those nasty boys were very mean. But they all sat on another park bench, which stood a couple of feet and a save distance away from her.

"I hope you'll have a nice day, despite what happened." Officer White said as grabbed the boys' upper arms, leading them to his waiting car.

Tony turned towards the young father, "Thank you."

"I'm glad that I could help. She had played with my daughter earlier. I couldn't believe what the ladies here said." He shot the women a disapproving look.

Grumbling something to themselves, the two mothers quickly stood up and left them without another word.

"What for B-I-T-C-H-E-S..." The man spelled grinning.

Although Mini-Ziva didn't understood the word she nodded enthusiastically. Knowing that it couldn't have been a nice one, since words get only spelled when she wasn't supposed to hear them.

In return the two man grinned even wider.

Gibbs was in the kitchen, preparing lunch, when he heard the front door getting unlocked.

"'ibbs!"

The team leader laughed as he saw Mini-Ziva running to him. He easily caught and lifted her into his arms, "Hey there. You got fun, today?"

Ziva scrunched her nose and only shrugged. After all it had been nice before those boys showed up. But then..

Tony leaned on the doorway, his brow furrowed, "You already know?" His words were a statement rather than a question.

"Yeah..." Gibbs smirked, "An officer from before, remembered her when Office White told him what happened at the playground." He regarded the teen with a raised eyebrow, "Where you going to tell me?"

"If Ziva or the police officer hadn't beat me to it," Tony shrugged but grinned. "What's up for dinner?"

"Spaghetti," Gibbs smiled, "If someone takes off her shoes and jacket," He lightly grabbed one of Ziva's shoe-clad feet.

The little girl grinned sheepishly, "Oopsy..." She quickly gave Gibbs a hasty peck on the cheek. "Sowry, 'ibbs.." Ziva threw him a big toothy smile.

~ Fin ~