Recap: Plays directly after the last chapter.
(Later)
"Squirt, I can't open the door if you bounce around in front of it..." Gibbs laughed.
A moment later the front door was opened and an excited little girl came running into the house, dragging a plastic bag across the floor behind her.
"Ziv, shoes..."
Sheepishly, Mini-Ziva stopped to dump the contents of the bag on the carpet of the living room and went to get rid of her shoes and jacket. Afterward she regarded the team leader with big brown eyes, "Can we play, now? Pwease..."
Acting unperturbed, Gibbs continued to hang their jackets up before he turned back to her and gave her a slight nod, smiling at her obvious excitement.
The mentioning of knights, coupled with the doctor's question about imaginary games had given him an idea. The result were about six plastic swords & shields and a smaller number of breast plates and helmets, which luckily would only fit Ziva and her friends.
After a bit of preparation time, in which Gibbs had secured the perfect fitting breast plate and helmet on Mini-Ziva, the game could begin.
"So... where's the castle?"
Ziva looked around the room, "There!" She pointed at the top of the stairs, while her eyes sparkled in excitement.
Though, Gibbs shook his head. "Too dangerous. If there's a battle for the castle someone could fall down the stairs."
"Oh.." Mini-Ziva's face fell momentarily.
"How about the couch?"
Now, Ziva grinned broadly, again. "Yay!" She quickly climbed on the green furniture, pointing to both sides of the couch, "An' there moun'ains!"
Gibbs laughed, pulling the couch table to the other side of the room, away from where someone could hurt oneself on it.
"Okay. So... who am I?"
The little girl gave him a pointed look. "My 'night!" She declared as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Of course. Silly me." Gibbs smirked.
"Uh huh!" Ziva grinned cheekily at him, before her eyes went wide. "'ibbs! There!" She pointed behind the agent.
Bewildered, Gibbs looked at her.
"Huwry! Dwagon!"
"Oh..." With a grin he joined Ziva on the couch, picking up a sword and shield on his way there.
"Itz goin' up'tairs!" The little girl exclaimed as she bounced slightly on the couch cushion, while pointing to the stairs.
"Oh no," Gibbs acted shocked, "We should follow the dragon."
Mini-Ziva nodded, "But we haf' to be carefuwl! It 'as fire! Itz' very hot!"
"Our shields will protect us." Gibbs stated confidently, puffing his chest dramatically, which earned him a giggle from his small companion.
"It dis'peared! We nee's to huwry!"
Gibbs grinned, "Lead the way, oh mighty knight."
"'ibbs!" Ziva laughed at his silliness and then proceeded to jump of the couch, hurrying after the imaginary dragon.
"You look," Ziva whispered to Gibbs as they had stopped right in front of the room – Gibbs bedroom – in which the dragon had disappeared.
"Why me? You're the leader." He argued from his crouched position, slightly behind her.
"Nuhu," Mini-Ziva shook her head, "You do!"
"Afraid?" Gibbs grinned.
"Me no ah'ffraid!" The little girl scowled slightly before breaking into a wide smile, "Me boss!"
Gibbs snorted. "Alright, Boss. I'm right on it," he whispered with a smile as he sneaked past her, closer to the entrance of his bedroom.
"What you see?" Mini-Ziva asked from behind him, after he had kept quiet for some time.
"It's lying on my bed..." Gibbs growled playfully, casting a quick glance at her.
"T'at your bed!" Ziva exclaimed with wide eyes. "We nee's to get it away!"
"Uh huh. It needs to get off my bed..."
The little girl furrowed her brows in thought, "How we do t'at?"
"Hm... we could throw some stuffed animals at it..." He cast a look to Ziva's room, which was a bit further down the hall.
"I haf' stuwfed ami-nals!" Mini-Ziva squeaked, quickly clapping her hands over her mouth as she had nearly screamed the words.
"Really?" Gibbs grinned.
"Uh huh!" confirmed Ziva a bit more quietly, while smiling brightly. Silently, she turned around and started for her room.
With a shake of his head and an amused smile on his lips, Gibbs followed his shrunken agent. Together they collected enough ammunition and brought it back to the entrance of Gibbs' bedroom.
"So..." The team leader looked beside him at Ziva, who already had a stuffed rabbit at the ready to throw.
"Attack!" Ziva exclaimed and the rabbit found itself on bed.
"It's moving," Gibbs called out, laughing with Ziva as they bombarded his bed till it wasn't visible anymore under the mass of stuffed animals.
Once all ammunition was gone they were both breathing hard from laughing. Mini-Ziva was all smiles as she jumped up and down. With her arms, including sword and shield, halfway up in the air and her knight's armor bouncing on it's own, Gibbs swore that she would have made the hardest criminal smile.
"Itz gone!" Ziva squealed as she wrapped her arms around Gibbs.
"Out of the open window!" He agreed, lifting the little girl up and into his arms.
"Uh huh! But we nee's to.. to... to..." Mini-Ziva frowned and pointed to the window.
Gibbs grinned, "Close the window?"
"Yes!"
"Oh... and why should we do that?" The team leader questioned teasingly, spinning them around as he did so.
Ziva giggled, "''cause the dwagon..." Further she didn't came, cause the constant turning caused her to laugh uncontrollably. "'ibbs – stopp!" She pleaded within fits of laughter.
Another spin later, Gibbs finally dropped her on top of her stuffed animals, eliciting another laughing fit from the little girl. Swiftly shutting the window, he let himself fall next to her.
"Good dragon hunt, huh?"
Ziva only giggled in response. Though, a moment later, a stuffed animal landed on the team leader's chest.
"Hey!"
"Sowry!" Came the sweet reply.
"Yeah sure you are." Gibbs grinned and seconds later he was tickling Ziva all over. The little girl squirmed and squealed in delight, while trying to free herself from the tickle attack.
Later in the day, the front door was opened once more and the last inhabitant of the house finally arrived back home. With Gibbs not going into work that day, Tony had helped out the team a bit longer than usual.
"Toneyyyyyyyyyyy!" Ziva quickly abandoned her new Lego King's Castle and made a beeline for the teenager.
As he spotted her running towards him, Tony dropped to his knees to give her a hug. The force of impact nearly made him fall over. "Missed ya too, bug."
Mini-Ziva grinned, "Look!" She started to drag him to her new Lego toys when he gently stopped her.
"In a moment. I need to get out of those first." He indicated to his shoes and gave her a bright smile.
"Uh huh! No shoes in house!" She grinned and patiently waited till he was done.
"Okay... What do you want to show me?"
Tony had barely finished the sentence when Ziva retook his hand and dragged him to the middle of the living room.
"See!"
The teenager laughed at the bouncing girl next to him. "Oh wow, you got a huge castle there." Tony crouched down to examine the construction a bit further. "Knights and skeletons.. a drawbridge! Nice... You even have catapults and a dragon!" He grinned.
Mini-Ziva nodded, "But dwagon an' ske'tons mean!"
Tony gaped theatrically, "Really?"
"Uh huh!" Ziva knelt next to the teen and took the king in her hands. "They want him!" She held the king into Tony's face, who in return grinned even wider.
"But they won't get the king, cause the knights will protect him, right?"
"Yep!" Ziva smiled, "'nights chase dwagon away! Like me and 'ibbs do!"
A bit away from them, Gibbs was leaning on the door frame of the kitchen, quietly observing his shrunken agents.
Tony was confused, "You and Gibbs chase dragons?"
Mini-Ziva nodded vehemently. "Dwagon sleepz' in Gibbs bed!"
"There's a dragon in 'ibbs' bed?" The teenager frowned.
"Nuhu!" Ziva shook her head.
"We chased the dragon away by throwing Ziva's stuffed animals at it. It flew out of the window." Gibbs explained with a smirk as he took a seat across from them on the carpet.
"Huh?" Tony still looked confused.
"Never fought against imaginary things?"
"Oh..." Slowly the teen understood. "With the swords?" He smiled widely as he pointed to the plastic toys, which lay in a heap next to the stairs.
"An' shi'll's!" Ziva butted in.
"Don't forget the breast plate and helmet, squirt."
The little girl giggled, "An' stuwfed ami-nals!"
Tony grinned, "Seems like the two of you had lots of fun today."
"Oh!..." Suddenly Ziva's eyes widened as she remembered something. With a grin she quickly run upstairs, leaving a confused teenager in her wake.
Gibbs smirked, "Guess she remembered her present for you."
Tony looked up surprised, "She got me a present?"
"Yeah... After the trip to the doctor.."
"She's okay, right?" Tony quickly interrupted the team leader.
"Yes, no health issues of any sort." Gibbs smiled, "As is was saying..." he gave his shrunken senior field agent a look upon which Tony only smiled, "I told her she could get three toys from the store. She used one of those toys on you."
Stunned, Tony could only looked at Gibbs, not able to form words before Ziva came back racing down the stairs.
"Toneyyyyy!" The little girl smiled broadly as she more or less threw a wrapped packet into his lap. "I haz' some'ing for you!"
"Uh... Thank you, Ziva." He quickly gathered her into her arms before releasing her and carefully opening the present.
Gibbs smirked as he watched Ziva fidgeting next to Tony. She hadn't moved very far from him and was watching him intensively as he fought with the paper.
"You made this wrapping paper yourself, bug?" Tony grinned as he regarded the various stick figures and colorful circles on the paper.
"Uh huh!" Ziva beamed. She had hoped that he would notice this special detail.
"Even stopped to assembled the castle, in order to get it wrapped before you arrive." Gibbs continued to explain. While both of his agents had been immersed in unwrapping the gift, he silently had gotten the video camera and now was filming everything. If Abby found out that she had missed this particular scene he wouldn't be able to hear the end of it...
Tony briefly looked at the castle, only now noticing the parts still lying next to it. "We'll build the castle up, fully, later then."
"Planned on it," Gibbs commented and then nodded to the present, "You going to unwrap it anytime soon?"
Tony grinned, "Don't want to destroy the pictures. I plan to hang them up in my room, after all."
Mini-Ziva smiled happily at this and wrapped her arms around the teenager's neck. Just in time for him to finally unwrap the present.
"You bought me a racing car game for my console?" Tony smiled widely. "Thank you, bug!"
-"Al-Lo-Davar."-
"We can play it together, sometime. If you want..." Tony offered and was promptly interrupted.
"Yay!" In her excitement Ziva suddenly leaned heavily against him. This time managing to make them both fall backwards, in the process.
There was a shocked silence after the two shrunken agents hit the floor, but that silence was soon gone as a deep laugh from across from them sounded. Ziva smiled and then giggled, before long all three of them were laughing.
~ Fin ~
Al-Lo-Davar = You're welcome