McGee looked over Abby's shoulder, making sure that Ziva wasn't in earshot. Though, he doubted that the little girl noticed much of her surroundings at the moment.

"Eli is here," he stage whispered.

"What?"

"He suddenly stood in the middle our desks."

"Oh my god, McGee! He isn't going to take her away from us, is he? Please tell me he isn't!" She gripped his arms more intensively.

"Gibbs won't let that happen." McGee gave her a reassuring smile, "Eli won't be able to take Ziva. But he managed to talk to her in the bullpen."

"What? What did he say?"

"He didn't speak English..."

Abby looked questionably at McGee, "But..."

"The only thing I know is that she backed away from him, after he had a minor discussion with Gibbs. After that, the boss and Eli got into an even worse argument, causing Ziva to run off."

Abby leaned against McGee, her eyes trained on Tony, who seemed to have succeeded in calming Ziva a bit. "She must be so confused..."

"Yeah..."

Abby turned her head back to McGee, "She didn't wanted me to come near her. Cried even worse than before as I tried to..."

"Vance took Eli to his office," Gibbs suddenly said from behind them, causing them both to turn around. But the team leader's eyes were solely trained on Tony and Ziva. He briefly caught the teenager's eyes, silently telling that his only job now was to be with the little girl.

Tony nodded and continued to walk around the lab. Only now he also made sure that Ziva wouldn't accidentally look into the direction of the others. He was glad that her sobs had finally turned into soft sniffles. There was no way he would let her tear up like that again. Not if he could help it.

Meanwhile, as Gibbs took over consoling Abby, McGee quickly got something to write. In shortcuts he then informed Tony about what happened upstairs and why Ziva was all in tears right now.

(About a hour later)

It had taken him some consoling, but after what felt like an endless time to Tony, he had finally managed to convince Ziva to return to Gibbs' house with him.

Though, after they finally had gotten out of the navy yard and were on the road, the little girl had done and pulled every trick she knew to make Tony change his mind. The climax had been reached when she successfully had managed to unbuckle herself, in the midst of their journey home.

Tony had felt livid, but to his own surprise he had managed to keep a cool exterior as he strapped the little girl back into her booster seat, making extra sure that all doors were safely locked and couldn't be opened from the inside.

"Toneeyy... pwease!" Ziva had tears in her eyes as she took a last shot at stopping the teen. They had just pulled into the driveway and Tony was in the process of getting out of the car.

The teenager sighed deeply and turned in his seat, "Bug, I promise you that you'll be fine. I won't leave you alone, let alone letting anyone else than me near you."

Mini-Ziva let out a heart-wrenching sob but didn't fight Tony any further as he opened her car door and got her out of the car. She was just too exhausted.

"I promise it's going to be okay," Tony repeated over and over as he carried his small friend inside. Not bothering with anything else, he brought her straight to his room, closing the door firmly behind them.

"See, the door 's locked. No one is going to get inside without us not wanting it..." He soothingly ran a hand up and down her back, while walking over to his couch and sitting down. "We need to get out of those jackets..."

He gently started to pry her hands from where they were clenched into the material of his jacket.

-"Lo!"-

Tony grinned in attempt to raise spirits, "But we will get super hot if we don't doff them."

"'m cold..." Ziva whispered, her grip relaxing.

Tony frowned and checked her temperature with the back of his hand, "Maybe we should run a nice warm bath for you..."

-"Lo!"-

Her loud protest, caused him to backtrack, fast, "Okay, okay..." He pulled her close to his chest again. "Let's take a break then..." While he quietly talked, he pulled his phone out, silently texting Ducky, asking the older M.E. for advice.

"Hey Ducky,

need your help. Ziva says she feels cold but she feels hot to the touch. Shock? What to do?"

Three minutes later he felt his phone vibrating.

From McGee:

"Is Ziva ok? Gibbs + us r worried. He'll be over soon. Told me 2 tell u he'll give u a short call when he's there."

A few seconds later another message from McGee arrived.

"Ducky says to keep her warm, make sure her breathing is okay."

Tony nodded to himself and sent a quick 'got it' back, before pocketing the phone again.

Some time later, exhaustion had claimed Ziva and she finally slept. Though, not necessarily peacefully. Tony had just gotten her as comfortable as possible in his bed, when his phone started vibrating - Gibbs.

With a last glance at Ziva, Tony stepped out of the room.

"How's she?" Gibbs immediately asked, not even waiting for the teenager to reach the first floor.

Tony glared at him, "What do you think?"

"Tony..." Gibbs gave him a glare of his own, before shaking his head. He was completely drained, emotionally. "Let's go downstairs for a few minutes..."

"But..."

"She's asleep?" Gibbs assumed.

Tony squinted at him, "Yes. Since about four minutes..."

The team leader nodded, "Then you have about ten before you need to be up there again. Come..." Without another word, Gibbs walked away, leaving Tony no other choice but to follow him.

When Tony finally caught up with Gibbs, the other man was just starting the coffee machine.

"What really happened at NCIS and what does that mean for Ziva?"

Gibbs kept his back to Tony, "Eli David had some of his people spying on Ziva, again – I might add..."

Tony frowned, "So?"

"Of course they noticed when Ziva didn't returned from work one day... " Gibbs turned around, "And then suddenly I'm in care of a young girl, who looks like a younger version of Ziva and runs by exactly the same name..."

Tony shook his head, "Giving us other names wouldn't have worked... At least not with Ziva."

Gibbs smiled ruefully, "Yeah. Still, it made it damn easy for Eli to discover the whole incident."

"Does he know what exactly happened?"

"Yeah. Vance had no other choice but to tell him, today..."

Tony went to sit at the dinner table. His expression one of complete seriousness, "Is he going to take her away from us? CAN he do that?"

Gibbs kept a straight face as he joined his shrunken agent at the table...

~ TBC ~