Recap: Friday, 6th November 2009.

~ Home? ~

Gibbs regarded his shrunken agent with concern. Since he had picked her up from preschool Mini-Ziva had been awful quiet. Only speaking when spoken to.

"You feeling okay, Ziv?"

Mini-Ziva nodded but didn't looked up from where she stared at the memory cards in front of her. In vain trying to remember where the second card of the pair was.

"You can talk to me about everything. You know that, right?"

-"Ken"- Ziva mumbled, for the third time in a row turning over the wrong card.

Gibbs sighed inaudible. If her silence wasn't anything to go by, her losing another game to him was for sure. Normally she would have annihilated him within minutes, no matter how many cards they used. But the current game seemed to drag on endlessly.

His thoughts were interrupted as the nearby house phone started to ring. With a grunt, Gibbs leaned over from where he sat on the couch to answer the phone sitting on the end table, just an arm's reach away.

"Gibbs."

'Mister Gibbs? This is Miss Leah – Ziva's teacher.'

Surprised, he held the phone away to look at it before holding it back on his ear, "Yeah?"

'I was wondering if Ziva is alright? She had become really quiet the longer she was here, today. I would have told you when you came by to pick her up, but I've failed to meet you.'

"She's still quiet," muttered Gibbs, his eyes darting to Ziva. Or rather to where she had been sitting on the floor just mere moments ago, on the other side of the coffee table. "You got an idea why?"

He could hear Miss Leah sigh, 'Actually yes, I do. Today's and next week's subject matter was/is all about family. The kids learning about the different relations, telling each other about their families...'

Gibbs grimaced and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I see. Did she had something to say? About her family in Israel?"

'Actually, she refused to and separated herself from the others. I'm really sorry, Mr. Gibbs. We should have thought about what kind of effect this topic will have on her.'

The team leader tried to suppress his anger and lowered his voice, "Why haven't you called me if you've noticed her not playing with the others?"

'Ms. McCully and I took turns watching the kids today. Only when we compared our observations shortly before lunch, we noticed that her withdrawn behavior hadn't changed. It's not unusual of children to want to spent some time on their own, but we could tell something was bothering her. In hindsight we noticed that not even Max could talk her around to play with them. And he normally can convince her very quickly to join him."

Gibbs would have given her a sarcastic remark if Miss Leah hadn't been Ziva's favorite teacher. "You said next week. So you'll have a different subject matter the week after?"

'Yes...'

"Alright. I'll keep Ziva next week at home, then. We'll see about the week after."

Leah sighed, 'Okay... Mister Gibbs, I'm ..'

"What's done is done," Gibbs interrupted her, though not harshly. "You have a list for me, yet?"

'Yes. You got something to write?'

"Ziva?" Gibbs was surprised to find his youngest agent already dressed in her PJ's and in bed. After all it was barely past five in the afternoon. Not to mention that she normally didn't went willingly to bed.

"You don't want to finish our game?"

The little girl shook her head as best as she could, with it laying on her pillow.

Gibbs sat down on the edge of the bed, facing her. "Dinner will be ready in about one and a half hours."

"No hungry..."

The agent decided to drop the subject of dinner for now and tucked a stray strand of hair behind Ziva's ear. "We should braid your hair if you already want to go to sleep."

"Lo, sleepy."

"Preschool was no fun today, huh?" His question was met by quiet tears, which Gibbs gently brushed away. "Ziv, talk to me. Maybe I can make it all better..."

"Miss Ima," Mini-Ziva finally muttered as Gibbs gently tucked the blanket a bit closer around her.

He gave her a small smile while choosing his next words carefully. It had only been a matter of time before Ziva would have voiced such a thought. Frankly, he had expected this to happen much sooner.

"Your Ima misses you, too."

"Rweally?" Ziva looked at him intently, her brown eyes searching his' for any sign that he was lying to her.

"Yes, very."

The little girl momentarily stared at her blanket before she looked back at Gibbs. Her voice coming out stronger than before, "Me home?"

"Not yet..."

Ziva sniffed, "When?"

"I'm not sure " he told her, gently freeing Ziva from her blanket and lifting her onto his lap as he scooted further onto the bed..

"Want home," Ziva whined quietly as she snuggled against him, her voice small.

"I know." Gibbs just held her, stroking her hair while thinking that he would never let her go back to what his shrunken agent called home.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Ziva spoke once more.

"Phone?"

"We can't."

"Why?" The despair in her voice tore his heart. Not having the right words to console the small child on his lap, he kissed the top of her head.

"They no want me?" Mini-Ziva question was only so much of a whisper.

"They love you," Gibbs said firmly, hugging the small child to him while he searched for a good answer. Past experience told him that she wouldn't fall for false words.

"It's dangerous, bug," Tony said from the doorway. He had been on the way up to his room when he couldn't help but to overhear their conversation.

"Why?" Ziva looked questionable at him with sad eyes.

"Remember the explosion?" He pointed to his ears, "Your ima and aba want you to be safe. They'll come and take you home when it's safe again."

For a few minutes Mini-Ziva said nothing, quietly mulling it over in her head. "O'tay," she whispered. She was still sad but somehow felt also satisfied with the answer.

Gibbs once again was surprised about Tony. He was so busy trying to ignore the hatred he felt against Ziva's father that he hadn't taken the injury into consideration as a way to explain the situation to the little girl.

He gave Tony an approving nod.

"You still want to go to sleep?" Gibbs asked after a while.

Mini-Ziva nodded but made no move to budge.

"You want me to stay for a bit then?"

"Uh huh..." Ziva mumbled into his shirt, yawning audible.

"Alright," Gibbs pulled the discarded blanket over them and fastened his arms around her.

"I'll order us something," Tony stated quietly, retreating out of the room.

(Close to midnight)

"Agent Gibbs, do you have an idea how late it is?"

The silver-haired agent smirked, "You sleeping already?"

On the other end of the line, Vance rolled his eyes, "What do you want?"

"It's time, Leon..."

~ Fin ~