Recap: Saturday, 14th September 2009. (Plays after Chapter 42. Mini-Ziva celebrating with her friends)

~ A Kid's Party ~

Ziva watched as Abby walked back and forth between the kitchen and the dinner table, decorating said table with a colorful tablecloth before placing plastic cups, paper plates and other things on it. All the time, humming a song which Mini-Ziva found awful familiar but couldn't place.

"Hard at work, isn't she?" Gibbs whispered in Ziva's ear, making her jump in shock at his sudden appearance.

"'ibbs!" The little girl scowled. Most times she caught him sneaking up on her, but when she failed to do so it always made her pulse quicken.

Gibbs smirked and picked her up, tickling her, "I haven't scared you, have I?"

-"Lo!"- Ziva giggled while trying to escape his hands.

Through their combined laughter the team leader nearly overheard the knock on the door. As Gibbs stopped his tickling assault, Ziva heard the knocks, too. She looked quizzically at Gibbs, earning a smirk in return.

"Guess we'd better answer the door," he said in a neutral tone as he set Ziva back down, but the little girl could tell there was more behind the simple action, than what there was.

She watched him open the door and squealed with delight as she saw her best friends standing there, holding brightly colored packages. Gibbs watched as the children greeted each other.

-"Shalom, Max."-

-"Yom Huledet Same'ach, Ziva!"- The boy said, giving his friend a hug after Gibbs had taken the present off of him.

Daniyel smiled and pulled Ziva into a hug, as well. "Happy Birthday, Ziva!"

The newly turned four year old beamed and looked at Gibbs.

"Two down and a lot more to come," Gibbs thought as he addressed the birthday girl, "Ziva, take the boys into the living room or the garden, will ya?"

As soon as those words left Gibbs' mouth, the kids began to shout excitedly and ran after Ziva through the living room into the garden, leaving Gibbs holding the presents from Max and Daniyel.

Abby grinned as she went over to him and relieved him of the the gifts. "If the rest of the afternoon is like this, it's going to be great!"

"Or extremely exhausting," thought Gibbs, looking around the living room a last time to make sure he had everything breakable removed out of the room. Not that there had been much to break anyway.

-"What happened to the garden?"- Max asked in awe, looking at Ziva, before his feet unconsciously made him walk to the rope ladder.

Mini-Ziva grinned as she and Daniyel followed him, -"'ibbs made those for me."-

-"You're so lucky! I asked my parents for something like that and they always say no."- Max said in a slightly pouting tone of voice.

-"Mine too! They're so mean. They say I could play at the park or at preschool."- Daniyel readily agreed with Max.

Upon Ziva's quizzically expression, the boys looked at each other before looking back at her, both elaborated at the same time, -"But they never have time!"- Technically this might have been not entirely correct, but for them it felt like ages before their parents took them to a nearby playground.

-"You can play with mine!"- Mini-Ziva offered, a toothy grin on her face.

"Toda!" The boys said at the same time..

"What shall we play now?" Max looked expectantly at Ziva, who only shrugged in response.

"It's your birthday, you hafta decide," said Daniyel, while Max nodded in agreement, "You can do whatever you want."

Ziva thought for a minute and then smiled, -"I want to try out the tire!"-

Daniyel grinned and repeated nearly the same sentence in English, "Okay, let's try out the tire!"

"I'll push us!" Max offered as the other two climbed into the tire and got comfortable, facing each other, while still leaving enough room for Max.

Daniyel protested, "But you hafta swing, too!"

"I will," stated Max as he climbed on the tire, also. Though, he didn't sat down like the others, but stood on the tire, right next to Ziva, who looked worriedly at him.

"T'at no good idea..."

"Yeah Max, come done! This is a really bad idea!"

"Don't be such babies. I've done this before!" Max grinned and slowly set the tire in motion.

They were fully swinging when Max suddenly got lifted away from his friends and the swing set.

Perplexed, the boy looked at who had disturbed their play, "Mr. Gibbs!"

Gibbs shook his head as he set Max back on the ground, "Don't stand on the tire, Max. I don't want you to fall down and get hurt."

"But I'm really careful!"

The team leader sighed and crouched down in front of the boy, "Max, we don't want to spoil Ziva's day by you needing to go to a doctor. Do we?"

"No..." mumbled Max. He hadn't meant to do that.

Gibbs ruffled Max' short hair, "Want me to give you a few pushes?"

Now, Ziva and Daniyel, who silently had observed them, made themselves known, "Yes!"

"Alright. Come on, Max, on board with ya," said Gibbs as he lifted the boy back on the tire and gave it a few calculated pushes, after Max had sat down. The children's laughter soon filling the backyard.

"Play something else?" Ziva asked her friends, after Gibbs had excused himself, claiming to have to prepare the party further.

Max shrugged, while looking around the backyard, "Hide and seek?"

Mini-Ziva nodded enthusiastically and ran off to hide as she didn't want to count. Max looked at Daniyel and grinned. "Go, I'll count."

The other boy nodded and ran into an unknown direction as Max turned around, facing the house in order to count and to give the others time to hide without being seen.

Immediately Daniyel went to hide behind the tree and waited. Just like Ziva, who had crawled behind some bushes, which stood near the fence. It was the perfect hiding place as the leaves covered her completely.

"Here I come!" yelled Max. He briefly looked around the garden, before he run straight to the tree. He smirked widely as he went around it, to try and find Daniyel.

"Ha! Got ya!" Max exclaimed cheerfully.

"Max!" Daniyel groaned. He had hoped to stay hidden for longer than a few seconds.

A muffled giggle caused both boys to look at each other before they looked around the wide backyard.

"Ziva!" Max called, in hope that his friend would give her position away by another giggle. Though, Mini-Ziva wisely had clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles completely.

After a few minutes of searching, Max sighed, "I can't find her."

Daniyel frowned. They had looked everywhere and from where they stood, they would surely have seen her moving, if she had relocated herself.

"What's up, boys?" Tony appeared behind them. He had watched them walk around the garden for a few minutes, till he had decided to investigate the reason behind their behavior.

"We can't find Ziva." Daniyel explained a bit frustrated.

Tony grinned as he heard the telltale sound of a giggle. "Don't give up, she's in the garden. Somewhere..." He stepped further into the garden and cupped his ear with his hand. "Listen."

The boys mirrored his posture and listened. They shared a grin as they could hear rustling and giggling to their right. They quickly followed the sound, until they found Ziva.

"Got ya!" Max and Daniyel exclaimed overly happily, causing Ziva to roll her eyes.

"Tony!" She accusingly looked at the teen as she climbed out from behind the bush.

"Come on, bug! You can't leave the boys waiting too long. You've won anyway. " Tony grinned and then took in her appearance, whistling as he realized her state, "You'd better clean up before everyone gets here."

Mini-Ziva took a step away from him. "No bath!'"

Tony shook his head and pulled a leaf out of Ziva's hair. "Just clean your hands, face and get Abby to do your hair."

The smile on Ziva's face returned. "You play wif' us?"

The teen shook his head in negation, "Maybe later, we got a party. Remember? Now come on, let's go inside. I'll put on a movie, till the rest of your guests are here."

The three children smiled and quickly ran into the house, straight into Abby. The goth smiled at their over-exited behavior, but then she caught the sight of Ziva. She put her hands on her hips, "Little Miss David..."

The little girl grinned at her friends and then looked sweetly at Abby, -"Ken?"-

Abby shook her head and picked her small friend up, "You got me wrapped around your little finger, you know that?"

Mini-Ziva giggled before she tried to look deadly serious, "Uh huh!" she broke out into laughter, causing Abby to laugh, also.

Once Ziva was cleaned up, she joined Daniyel and Max in front of the TV in the living room. Tony had decided against showing a long kid's movie and instead had picked out a DVD with several short cartoons on it.

As the minutes ticked by, more and more children arrived, bringing gifts for the little birthday girl.

"How did you know who to invite?" Abby asked as Gibbs shut the front door once again, after having bid the last parent goodbye.

"Asked her teachers who she hung around with at school..." He smirked. His eyes fixed on Mini-Ziva as she danced with her friends, without a care in the world. Just like it was supposed to be.

"Gibbs?" Abby's voice broke through his thoughts.

"Yeah, Abs?"

"Can I dance, too?"

The team leader momentarily just look at her before he laughed out loud.

"Gibbs?" Abby squinted at his reaction.

The team leader smiled, "Go on, have fun," he kissed her cheek and Abby quickly went to dance with Ziva and her friends.

Gibbs then turned to look at Tony, finding himself laughing again as he took in the teen's appearance. Tony was wearing headphones and shades.

"You a bouncer or something?" Gibbs asked, once he made his way over to his agent.

"I'm the DJ, like you said I could be." Tony replied with a smirk, causing Gibbs to pat him on the shoulder while he shook his head, just as Tony put on a new song, that even Gibbs knew how to dance to. - Not that he ever would do that when his agents could film it...

"Ok, who's up for some party games?" Gibbs asked loudly, catching the attention of every child. He smiled slightly as the reply was a mass of excited shouting. Motioning for them all to sit in a circle on the carpet, he smiled as he saw Ziva take a seat between Daniyel and Max.

"Alright, let's play 'Pass the Parcel'. Who knows how to play?"

Everyone's hands flew into the air, apart from Ziva's.

Max looked at his friend. -"You have to pass the parcel when the music plays, when the music stops whoever is holding the parcel has to take a layer off and you have to keep doing that until all the layers are off."-

Mini-Ziva frowned, -"Then what?"-

-"We will see."- Max grinned.

Gibbs watched the interaction between the two children with interest. Once it seemed that they were done talking, he looked at Ziva. "Ok?"

The little girl nodded, slowly repeating the name of the game. "Pass-a-passul."

The team leader smirked and nodded at the 'DJ' to start the music. Which would have begun, hadn't Tony and Abby been arguing over what song to play.

"No, it's not appropriate for four-year-olds..."

"It's a good song!"

"Hey!" Gibbs loudly interrupted their bickering, making Tony look at him perplexed. Though, Abby, being used to Gibbs' shouts, used the diversion to put on the song she wanted. The teenager momentarily glared at her.

"What?" She asked innocently, causing Tony to shake his head.

On the carpet Gibbs thanked Abby and passed the parcel to the child closest to him. The music continued to play for some time and when Gibbs was given the parcel for the fifth time, he glared at Tony. "You have to stop the music sometime, DiNozzo."

Ziva giggled at the teen for being told off.

"Got it." Tony grinned apologetic and finally stopped the music, just as Max was given the parcel.

The children watched as the boy tore off the first layer and was rewarded with a lolly and a pile of rubbish.

He laughed and looked at Ziva. -"See?"-

"Ken, pass-a-passul," Ziva grinned as the music started again. Before Max could pass her the parcel, she took it off of him and then passed it to Daniyel.

The following minutes the children continued to pass the parcel around, stopping periodically, until there was only one layer left.

Ziva had just passed the parcel to Daniyel again, when the music stopped for the last time. The little girl grinned widely and inched a bit closer to Daniyel to see what the final gift was. "Huwry, open!"

Daniyel happily obeyed and grinned when a small toy and a lolly fell out of the last piece of paper.

"Yay!" Ziva and Abby exclaimed at the same time as the other kids clapped.

Gibbs nodded in acknowledge and got up. "Ok, now... who's up for Musical Statues?"

"Me!" came a cry from nearly all of the children. Confused, Mini-Ziva looked at Max again. The boy grinned. -"It's easy, watch,"- he whispered to her, before he got up and started to dance to the music.

Meanwhile, Ziva stayed seated and watched her friend dance with interest. When the music stopped Max froze, as did everyone else. The music started again and everyone 'unfroze' and began to dance again. Max looked at Ziva and held out his hand. "See?"

Mini-Ziva nodded and took his offered hand. And so they danced, stopping every time the music did, until eventually it was just Max, Ziva and one of the twins, Xiu.

"Last round," Gibbs called eventually, nodding over to Tony, who started the music once more.

The three kids danced and when the music stopped for the last time, they froze. Gibbs clapped and motioned for Abby to bring him three prizes.

"Well done for winning guys!" Abby congratulated them enthusiastically, while watching Gibbs as he gave each winning child a small prize.

"Great! Now... who's hungry?" Gibbs asked casually and then smirked as the kids all jumped up.

While the children were bickering about who sat where, the team leader walked over to Abby, leaving Tony to break up any arguments about the seating order.

"Aww, look at them all... so cute!" Abby declared with a large smile on her face. Though, Gibbs just raised an eyebrow in response.

She shrugged, "Well, they are." Abby grinned widely, "You got the cake ready?"

Gibbs nodded. "Just waiting for them to calm down a bit. Don't want the cake to end up on the floor..."

"They wouldn't do that."

"Not deliberately, Abs... But they are hyper." He smirked as he made his way into the kitchen, leaving a slightly puzzled Abby behind.

"Caketime!" Tony shouted, causing all children to stop talking and to look at him. Some grinning at him and some frowning at his choice of word. "Not good?" He grinned a bit uneasy.

Though, Tony was swiftly saved by Ziva, Max, Daniyel and Hanah who repeated 'caketime' with large smiles on their faces.

"My cue," declared Gibbs as he entered the room with the birthday cake, causing Abby to strike up a 'Happy Birthday' song at which the children tuned in quickly.

The cake was a round two-layer castle cake, covered with white icing. Four large towers, made out of two different kinds of ice cream cones and blue roofs, stood right next the bottom of the cake. The few inches smaller top of the cake had another smaller tower on top of it, with several candles standing around it. Blue icing served as outline for windows, the brick walls of the towers and the large 'Happy Birthday Ziva' writing, which run along the top of the first layer of cake. Little marshmallows outlined the edges of the cakes.

"You're catching flies," whispered Gibbs as he set the cake right in front of his shrunken agent.

Ziva slowly blinked and closed her mouth again. With wide eyes she looked at Gibbs.

"You like it?"

The little girl broke into a large smile and nodded. "Uh huh! Bweau'fuwl"

Gibbs laughed, "I'm glad. Took me a lot of time."

Ziva stared at him, totally amazed, "You bake cake?"

"Yeah, I made it after you went to bed last night." He lightly stroke a wayward curl out of her face and cast a quick glance at the other children who had just finished the song, "Time to blow out the candles, so we can cut and hand out the cake."

"Cut?" Mini-Ziva looked sadly at the castle in front of her. "But itz' pwetty!"

Gibbs grinned, "It won't be any use if it just stands around. It will melt, too..."

Ziva sighed.

"I'll make you another one and you can even help me. How does that sounds?"

The little girl looked up from her birthday cake, "Pwomi'ze?"

"Yeah," Gibbs grinned and motioned with his head to the other kids, "Time to blow out the candles."

Mini-Ziva smiled widely and went to do exactly that, when she suddenly realized that she was too small to reach the candles, even if she knelt on the chair.

Gibbs laughed, "Come squirt, just this once." He gently placed his hands under her arms and brought her into a standing position on the chair.

First, the party guests giggled at the scene, but soon clapped and cheered as the candles were blown out in one breath.

"So, who wants a piece from the top?" Gibbs asked, unaware of the commotion he would set off as all children replied at the same time.

"Very bad move," he thought with a smile, before he started to asked every kid one by one.

"What comes next?" Abby asked the team leader as the kids were about to finish their food.

Gibbs looked at his watch. "It's five. The kids will be picked up in a hour. So, let them play outside for the remainder of the party. Get some sugar out off their system."

Abby sighed, "It seems like they arrived just a few minutes ago..."

"They are here since three pm," Gibbs silently thought."Abs..."

The scientist punched him slightly, "Oh come on! I know you enjoyed this!"

Gibbs just smirked in response... "Maybe..."

~ Fin ~