Recap: Monday, 23rd November 2009. (Remember: -"..."- = Words spoken in Hebrew)

~ Don't Do That ~

"Gibbs..." The team leader answered his phone. He was slightly annoyed to get bothered yet again. His load on paperwork didn't seemed to decrease these days. He was either upstairs, talking to Vance about ongoing NCIS operations, getting status updates from his team or entertaining Mini-Ziva, so he wanted to make the most out of this 'paperwork-day'.

He sighed as he listened to the person at the other end of the line. "I'll be there in 20." His team looked eagerly at him as he replaced the receiver back on the phone.

Unperturbed by their stares, Gibbs grabbed his car keys and the jacket, which hung over the back of his chair, before walking to the elevator.

McGee, these days the only agent who dared to speak to him, stood up, "Boss?"

"Be right back," Gibbs replied just before he entered the elevator car.

His team threw each other quizzical looks, but then concentrated on their reports once more.

Stepping into the unusual quiet building, Gibbs made his way over to the reading corner, where he was already awaited.

"Hello, Mister Gibbs."

"Leah." He shook her hand.

Meanwhile Mini-Ziva briefly had looked up from where she quietly sat at a table. Not really daring to meet the agent's eyes just yet.

Gibbs looked intensively at Ziva, before directing his gaze back to her teacher. "So..."

Miss Leah smiled, "Maybe we could sit down for a few minutes?"

Gibbs nodded and took a seat right next to his shrunken agent. He could sense that she had the urge to run. The feeling of guilt and also fear of his reaction was practically radiating off of her. Gently, he grasped her linked hands, which she had placed on her lap, hoping it would reassure her a bit. With a fleeting glance at the young teacher, he directed his full attention to Ziva.

"Ziv, you want to tell me what happened?" Gibbs inquired.

The little girl quickly shook her head in negation.

"Okay..." Since he already knew what had happened, he settled for another question. "Do you think it was the right thing to do?"

This time he was rewarded with a quiet -"lo"-, which brought a smile not only on Gibbs' face but also to her teacher's.

"What will you do the next time?"

"Tell adult," While her head still hung low, her eyes quickly darted to him as she said this, before directing them back at the table top, once more.

Gibbs leaned over to kiss Ziva's temple, "Good." The simple gesture made Mini-Ziva sniff. "Have you apologized?"

Miss Leah choose to answer this question. "She hadn't had the chance yet. Peter was taken to the nurse office right after the incident. His nose was bleeding pretty bad."

"How's the boy?" Gibbs asked as an angry looking woman, dressed in a pantsuit, stormed through the front doors.

Miss Leah regarded the woman warily. She hoped that the woman wouldn't come to them, "He's okay. His nose doesn't seem to be broken. He's waiting for his mother..." She trailed off.

Gibbs, having followed the 'pantsuit-woman's' movements, sighed. "That's his mother?"

"Oh yes." Leah voice turned into a whisper as the woman started to walk to them "And she thinks her son is the most well behaved kid on earth..."

"Is this the brat who hit my son?" Peter's mother immediately started to rant, pointing angrily at Ziva. She didn't even thought about greeting either one of the adults.

Instead of answering the question, Leah tried to persuade the woman to concentrate on her son."Mrs. Hall. Please, this is not the right time. I'll show you where the infirmary is."

Gibbs growled under his breath and gently squeezed Ziva's hands in reassurance.

"No, first I want an answer!" The woman's face turned red as she slammed her bag on the table. Mini-Ziva slightly jumped at the sudden movement, while Gibbs swiftly stood up.

"Mrs. Hall..."

Peter's mother didn't gave him a chance to finish his sentence, "Are you the father of this brat?"

Gibbs glared at her and was ready to take a step closer, when Miss Leah intervened. "Please, Mrs. Hall, Mr. Gibbs, calm down. Neither of your kids is exactly innocent. They both made mistakes."

"My son's nose is bleeding and you tell me it was his fault? I'm sure that.."

Miss Leah raised her voice, "Several of my students say that your son had started to hit the other children first. And right now your son is anxiously waiting for his mother to pick him up."

Though, Mrs. Hall was quite done yet and turned to Gibbs, glaring daggers at him and Ziva, "If he has so much of a scar, you will hear from my lawyer!"

Gibbs wisely choose not to respond to this threat and so Mrs. Hall stormed off. Ms. Leah trailing behind her.

Once the two women where out of sight, Gibbs retook his seat and gently pulled Mini-Ziva onto his lap. The ranting of Peter's mother had done nothing but to upset the little girl further. Gibbs took a handkerchief out of his jacket pocket and dabbed Ziva's cheeks.

"Sh, squirt." He gently rocked her back and forth, waiting for her to calm somewhat before continuing, "Miss Leah already told me the teachers' version of what happened, but I would like to hear yours, too."

Mini-Ziva sniffed and shook her head. Meanwhile Miss Leah had come back to them.

"How about you explain it in Hebrew and Leah translates it for me?" Gibbs glanced at Leah, who nodded in confirmation of his statement.

The little girl looked at both of them before she sighed, "'tay..." Ziva took a shaky breath and started to tell her version of the past hour, -"Lu'y, 'ana' and I were playing in the sand box. *sniff* Suddenly he stood behind Lu'y and *sniff* he pulled on her pigtails. *sniff* He wouldn't stop..."-

Gibbs had to grin at Ziva's flood of words. It was still foreign to him to hear her speak for so long. Even if it was interrupted by quiet sniffles. For him, it was just another proof of how hindered she still was in voicing her thoughts.

He listened quietly as Miss Leah translated the words one to one.

-"We asked him to. But he got meaner. *sniff* He said that he was older and therefore had the right *sniff* to do as he liked!"-

The agent gently fastened his hold on her, "How did he ended up with you punching him?"

"I an'ry! He laugh an' no stop." Ziva looked at him, her expression one of pure misery.

"Did you asked him to stop, first?"

Mini-Ziva nodded, burying her face in his shirt, "He laugh an'..." -"Continued to pull Lu'y's pigtails."- "He..." -"destroyed our"- "cakes. 'ana'" -"wanted to stop him but he pushed her.-"

Gibbs listened quietly to Leah's translation, "Did he pushed you, too?"

"Uh huh." Mini-Ziva showed him her right hand, where several excoriations where visible on the heel of her hand and fingers, as she had tried to break her fall on the sandbox' wooden frame.

"It was hardly bleeding. I cleaned it and removed three splinters from the heel of her hand. I didn't found any others." Miss Leah stated, giving Ziva a smile. "That's the second time Peter made a spectacle of himself. Another one and he'll be kicked out of school."

Gibbs nodded, "What consequences will this all have?"

"For Ziva, none. Except that this day ends earlier than normal. You can bring her back here on Friday, just like every week. I think we all agree that Ziva already knows that punching Peter wasn't right. And that she won't do it again," Leah smiled as she saw the little girl nod against Gibbs' chest.

"And Peter?" The agent inquired. A hand continually caressing Ziva's back.

"The Director mentioned a week's detention."

Gibbs smirked, "His mother won't be happy about that."

Miss Leah laughed, "If this ends like last time, the Director will need some painkillers for her headache."

Infected by the lightheartedness of the adults, Ziva peeked out from her hiding spot. Directly into Gibbs' blue eyes. "Guess we better take our leave then. Before she comes back..." He grinned at Ziva, happy when she shyly grinned back at him.

Normally he would have made Ziva apologize, but seeing that the boy's mother wasn't one to be able to talk too, he thought it for the better to just drop the whole thing.

Ducky was at his desk, writing down his finding about his latest guest's death, when he heard a knock coming from the autopsy doors. After he had received a call from Gibbs, he had deactivated the automatically opening of the doors. Just in case of that the dead body, on which he had been working at that time, wasn't stored in a freezer.

"Hey Duck," Gibbs greeted him after Palmer had opened the doors for them, before excusing himself a second later to bring some samples to Abby.

"Ah, hello my dears." The older M.E. smiled at the pair. Mini-Ziva was standing close to Gibbs, holding his hand while looking around the room in wonder. The times she had been down in Autopsy were very few and not exactly times where she had taken notice of the room itself. "I heard you had some trouble in preschool," Ducky addressed her.

Ziva only smiled shyly.

"You got the ice pack?" Gibbs inquired.

"Certainly." Ducky motioned for the pair to come to his desk. "Ziva, can I take a look at your hand?"

Mini-Ziva looked uncertainly at the older man, making Ducky smile, "I promise to be really carefully."

Gibbs gently pushed Ziva to him and in the end she trustingly put her injured hand in Ducky's much bigger one.

"You know, my dear. This reminds me..."

"Duck, don't make her actions look good." Gibbs swiftly interrupted, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

Ducky grinned, "Of course." He gently made Ziva clench her fingers, smiling when she could mirror his movements without problems. "Very good, my dear. Does this hurt?" he gently probed around the excoriations.

Mini-Ziva shook her head. "Itchy..."

"I thought so. But don't worry it will pass though." The little girl giggled as Ducky 'stole' her nose.

Back in the bullpen, Gibbs made his shrunken agent sit down on the mattress. "Ziv, till lunch I want you to stay here."

The little girl looked very unhappy right then. "And keep your hand on the ice pack. It will help." Gibbs instructed her with a smile, as he placed the pack next to her. "You and I know that we can't just punch people.""At least now you do..." he thought.

"So I want you to think about it. No drawing, laptop or anything else what makes fun." He quietly explained while collecting her coloring books and other things, safely stacking them up a few feet away. "Once we go for lunch, everything will be forgiven and you can play and run around the building again, okay?"

Mini-Ziva nodded wordlessly. It wasn't the first time someone gave her a timeout. Usually her mother would sent her to her room, to think about her 'bad' behavior. Though it normally didn't lasted longer than a few minutes, since her father lifted the timeout as soon as he was home. He would only shake his head in amusement at his daughter's latest adventure, while her mother would scold Eli about his reaction.

McGee frowned as he returned to his desk and saw Mini-Ziva and Gibbs back in the office, "Boss?"

The team leader briefly looked up from his notes, "Punched a boy, who wouldn't leave her friends and her alone."

McGee looked surprised.

"Gave him a bloody nose." Despite his intention to be at least a bit bothered about it, Gibbs had to smirk.

"She in trouble now?"

Gibbs looked back at Ziva, who's eyes were transfixed on the TV, which stood right next to the big flat screen between McGee's and Tony's old desks. "Nah. She's just supposed to stay where she is till lunch." He gave his agent a pointed stare.

"Right," McGee looked at his watch and frowned, "For two hours, boss?" He felt instantly bad for Ziva. She loved to run around. Just sitting more or less in a corner must be pure torture for the small girl.

"We'll see about that..." With a knowing smile Gibbs walked to the elevator. The unexpected call had made him miss his usual 9 o'clock coffee and he hadn't dared to stop at Starbucks with Ziva in tow, knowing that his resolve would have undergone a hard test with denying Mini-Ziva some chocolate drink or a muffin.

When the team leader returned to the office some minutes later he was met by a stare from Abby, who sat next to Ziva on the mattress.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow in question. However, as Abby just kept staring at him, he decided to get back to work and sat down at his desk.

"'ibbs?" Ziva quietly got his attention.

He didn't looked up from his file as he answered her, "Hm?"

"Me sleep?" Tiredly, she rubbed her eyes and yawned loudly.

The sound made Gibbs look at her. He smiled at the sight that greeted him. Ziva barely could keep her eyes open. Just as he had thought what would happen.

Gibbs gave her a small nod, upon which Ziva lay down, trying to fit in the space on the mattress, which Abby didn't occupied.

"Abby?" Mini-Ziva sleepily tried to get comfortable.

"You want me to read something to you? I know this..."

Abby's rambling was interrupted by a not so friendly sounding command. "Moof..." Ziva set her feet against Abby's leg as if to prove her point.

Flabbergasted Abby looked at her small friend.

"Abs, she's tired."

Gibbs stood up from his chair and offered his hand to Abby. "Come on..."

Abby grumbled but let herself be pulled up by the team leader, who then led her to the back elevator.

She looked questionably at Gibbs as they silently rode down to the level of her lab. As the elevator finally came to a halt and she stepped out of the car, Gibbs held the elevator doors open. "I'm not mad," he smirked.

"But..."

"Abs," he motioned for her to step a bit forward so that his next statement wouldn't be overheard by people passing by, "We both know that the boy probably deserved it, but I can't let this one slide as if nothing happened. Ziva already knows that her actions were very wrong. However, it doesn't change that she will stay right where she is, till lunch. After that, we can all move on and forget about this."

Abby frowned, "So no hard feelings?"

"Nope." He grinned at her while pushing the button, which would bring him to the right floor again, "And now back to work. You wouldn't want to miss out our weekly lunch date?"

Abby laughed and gave him a mock salute, upon which he playfully glared at her. "I'll be up in less than two hours!"

~ Fin ~

- "..."- = Words spoken in Hebrew