Awoken by the aromatic scent of coffee, Eli cracked an eye open, only to find Agent Gibbs sitting in the arm chair right next to the couch and staring at the light weight on Eli's chest with gentle eyes.

"Do you have another one of these?" Eli gestured to Gibbs' coffee.

The team leader smirked, "Sure – if ya answer my questions first."

Eli had a hard time stopping himself from rolling his eyes as he made a 'go on' gesture.

"When did she stop?" Gibbs asked as he leaned further into the chair, sipping on his coffee.

Eli stroked Ziva's cheek, causing her to snuggle deeper into his chest, "You mean when she drew away?"

Gibbs nodded.

"I think she was seven or eight. Her mother and I fought most of the time. Of course, Ziva took notice of this. She was always too smart for her own good."

Gibbs frowned, "Fighting doesn't necessarily explain why she pulled away... Never imagined Ziva to be such a cuddler as kid."

"She certainly was. And it was more the subject of the fights..."

"Mossad?"

Eli's lip curled upwards, "Yes and No. Ari. He asked me to train him and I started to do so. Rivka did npt liked it."

"Ari asked you..." Gibbs quirked an eyebrow, "Just like that?"

"Why are you suddenly so interested, Agent Gibbs?"

The team leader shrugged, a small smirk on his face, "Seems the right time."

At this, Eli laughed shortly. "Of course. It is not like I could walk away or stop your questions with Ziva right here." The little girl hadn't been perturbed at all by their talking and still slept peacefully on Eli's chest. "There was a time when my house was filled with the sound of children laughing..."

Gibbs acknowledged this with a sad smile. "I never doubted that..."

"Yet you want to know more."

"Trying to stop hating ya." Gibbs smirked.

Eli silently took this in, deciding that he had to make good with the agent in front of him, if he ever wanted to get the chance of changing his current relationship with his daughter. "I always wanted to protect my country. Mossad gave me the opportunity to do so. In retrospect, I regret having missed important steps in my children's lives. The higher my position became, the less time I could spent with them. And the older they became, the more they seemed to realize why I was not at home or visiting them like I was supposed to... Realizing they could spent more time alone with me while being trained how to defend themselves..."

Gibbs expression turned into a glare, "Yet, you didn't stopped them."

"They enjoyed it." He held a hand up to stop Gibbs from interrupting him and flared his nostrils, "I never pushed Ziva or Ari into doing something they did not want to do."

"Ziva's stubborn as hell. She would never admit something like that. Not to you. She always tried to please you. It took you leaving her to die in the desert to break this spell!" Gibbs whispered harshly.

Eli shook his head, "In hindsight, I admit that I should have stopped them at some point."

Gibbs scoffed. "Ya think?"

The Director of Mossad sighed, looking years older than he did a few hours ago, when he had animatedly spoken to his shrunken daughter. "Life mostly does not plan out like one wants it to. After..." he paused, "After Tali, who was all for peace and a world without war and guns, was ... killed in a bombing, both, Ari and Ziva pushed themselves even harder, trained longer, strived to be the best. " Eli's voice hardened, "I had no control over it. Nothing could have stopped them at this point. Revenge is a powerful force, which does not disappear before you have succeeded in doing what you feel you need to do. All I could do was to make sure that they were prepared well enough and would survive it."

The statement left a silence lingering in the air.

Gibbs sighed, he hated to admit it, but he knew this 'powerful force' and could to relate to it all too well. "If she's back to her adult self, and IF she's ready to speak to you, you should tell her this and that she never was just one of your officer to you..."

Eli slowly shook his head, "As you say, Ziva is very stubborn. She would not listen."

"I think she would. At the end of the day, Eli, she wants a dad. She's lost too much, I doubt she would turn away a chance to repair your relationship." said Gibbs, watching the sleeping child. "Besides, where do you think she got her stubbornness from?"

Eli contemplated this for a moment. "Maybe you are right. I should try at least. Worst thing, she will continue to avoid me, yes?"

Gibbs nodded, "She'll listen," he slowly stood up, "Black or white coffee?"

~ TBC ~