Recap: Plays directly after last chapter ends...

~ The night isn't there for sleeping ~

Ziva silently peeked around the corner of the living room. Gibbs was ironing his shirts while watching the news on TV. His brows furrowed in thought as he concentrated on what the reporter had to say.

"'ibbs?" The little girl quietly asked from her spot at the stairs, knowing that she wasn't allowed to come to close to the iron board, since Gibbs didn't want her to hurt herself by touching the hot iron or pulling it to the floor by accidentally tugging on its cord.

Gibbs was instantly snapped out of his thoughts. He gently smiled at her ruffled appearance. The events of the day had made it seem impossible for Ziva to stay awake after her cup of hot chocolate was finished. So he had just put her right to bed after she had fallen asleep. "Hey kiddo, did you have a nice nap?"

"Mornin'?" Ziva asked confused, while rubbing her eyes. After all it was dark outside. Like sometimes when she woke up too early.

Gibbs laughed lightly, "Nah," seeing her confused face he elaborated, "It's just a bit past midnight."

"Midnigh?" Ziva's eyes got wide, "Sara' said t'at'z when monsterz come out!"

Gibbs quirked an eyebrow, momentarily baffled. "She really said that?"

The little girl nodded, inching a bit closer to the wall while looking around for any signs of monsters in the house.

"Ziv," Gibbs slowly put the iron on the ironing board and after making sure that it was turned off, made his way over to her, "There are no monsters at midnight." He crouched down in front of her.

Ziva looked thoughtful, "Rweally?"

"Yeah." Gibbs grinned.

"When then?" She asked, leaning forward so she was resting against Gibbs. Though, she still looked around the room a bit unsure.

"There are no monsters."

"But Sara' said t'at there were black monsterz!" Ziva defended her fear.

"Ah, the burglars Sarah's parents told me about." Gibbs thought as he stroke her back. He gently picked Ziva up, his knees having enough of being bent in such an unfamiliar angle. "Those weren't monsters, kid. Just men wearing black clothes." He explained carefully as he carried her over to a kitchen counter where he placed her gently.

"But why they black and why they at Sara' home?" Ziva asked.

"'cause they thought they would find expensive stuff at Sarah's home, which they would then sell to make money." Gibbs answered while checking the fridge for the leftovers of tonight's dinner. Since Ziva had fallen asleep before dinner was ready he had simply put her portion in the fridge, in case she would wake up before breakfast time.

Ziva chewed on her bottom lip. "Will they..."

"Nope," Gibbs swiftly answered before the little girl could even finish her thought. "The police found them and now they won't be going into houses anymore." He took the container with the leftovers out and put it into the microwave.

"You sure?" Ziva still eyed him with a bit of doubt.

The older agent smirked, "I'm very sure," he grinned at her.

Ziva sighed, finally relaxing "O'tay..."

(Later V.1.0)

"'ibbs?"

"Hm?" Gibbs answered while he lazily opened his eyes. In opposite of his little companion, he was feeling very very tired and just wanted to sleep. Unbelievable as it was, he was ready to admit that a 4 year old beat him in staying awake.

"Me like up at nigh'!"

This caused the older agent to laugh out loud, "This is just an exception, Ziv."

"What?" Ziva looked quizzical at the older man.

"An onetime thing. Tonight you're going to bed like normal and will be sleeping through the night." A yawn cutting off his last words.

Mini-Ziva grinned. She already had planned to stay up late again tomorrow night.

"Ziva..." Gibbs groaned, having seen the smile creeping onto the young girl's face before she had fully turned around, back to the TV where the Lion King was playing. Subconsciously he wondered how his old TV would have displayed the colored movie and if Ziva would have been so mesmerized by it anyway. Now the TV sat in his basement and a new LED flat screen TV adorned his living room.

(Later V.2.0)

"'ibbs?" Mini peered down at Gibbs, who was sprawled on the couch, fast asleep. "ibbs!" She carefully touched one of his closed eyes and pried it open. "You 'wake?"

Gibbs grumbled, "Ziv," he gently removed her hands from his face, "Please, lemme sleep..."

A sigh was heard before Mini carefully and quietly climbed of the couch, "O'tay, you sleepy." The little girl stated not at all miffed, before she made her way upstairs. If Gibbs wasn't going to play with her at the moment, she would find something else to occupy her time with.

(Later V.3.0)

Gibbs groaned softly as the light of the living room penetrated his subconsciousness.

"'ibbs?" A small voice asked from somewhere near.

"Tired," he mumbled.

"Sleep," commanded the voice, giggling slightly.

"Can't. Light too bright," mumbled Gibbs, slowly waking up.

Mini-Ziva grinned and went over to the light switch, shutting the light closest to Gibbs off. "Sleep 'ibbs. You ti'ed."

As the light disappeared his mind and body immediately seemed to relax. "k..." With a grunt, Gibbs turned around, this time facing away from a quietly giggling Ziva and the now semi-lighted living room.

(Later V.4.0)

Mini-Ziva carefully placed her music box in front of the couch table and opened it. Her eyes dilated slightly once the gentle and peaceful music emitted from the wooden box and the figure in the middle started to dance gracefully around in circles.

With a grin Ziva stood back up and got into position. Her eyes never leaving the ballerina, she cautiously proceeded to stand up on her tiptoes. Though, after some tries and nearly falling over as a result of lack of balance, she opted for only standing on her balls of her feet. Straightening her back, like she saw ballerinas on television do, she lifted her arms over her head and tried to spin herself around in one go. After a couple of tries and fails she managed some full spins. With a large smile on her face she thought about what else the ballerinas on television normally did. Remembering them jumping while running forward, she also tried to imitate this motion. Not finding it difficult, her eyes caught sight of the couch. If she would jump off it and imitate the 'ballerina jump' she would be really good. So she carefully climbed on the couch, careful not to wake the sleeping agent, and jumped right off it.

Though, her landing wasn't really graceful and she nearly stumbled into the crayon packages, which still lay on the floor next to the coffee table.

Her landing also wasn't really quiet. Mini-Ziva's eyes shot to Gibbs, who mumbled something before settling back into a deep sleep.

The little girl breathed a sigh of relief. If the team leader would have awoken she would have been sent to bed. And she really didn't felt like sleeping, yet. Deciding that her time would be better spent more quietly than now, she hurried off to find another toy to play with.

(Later V.5.0)

Mini-Ziva quietly observed her surroundings. Gibbs was still sleeping on the couch and she could hear the clock on the wall ticking, noisily. After having spent the last few hours building forts with pillows and blankets, coloring and dancing around in the living room she was getting thirsty. The little girl knew that Gibbs had juice and water stored in the garage. But the door to it was locked and the idea of going there in the middle of the night wasn't very appealing to her either. This left only two other option; either the fridge of the water tap. Though, remembering the huge juice and milk bottles in the fridge, the tap was her only real choice in getting water without waking Gibbs or Tony.

Ziva quietly went back to the dining table and pulled one of the chairs to the tap, stopping every now and again when the legs of the chair caused loud noises and a grumble from the couch. The little girl sighed deeply in relief once she had the chair in place and was standing on it. Luckily, some of her cups rested on the drip grid.

Once again standing on the balls of her feet this night, she leaned over as much as she could and filled her cup.

(Later V.6.0)

Gibbs slowly opened his eyes, just to be greeted by two brown button eyes, which looked unblinking back at him. "What the..." Not yet really awake he threaded his hand through his hair or at least was about to do so, till his hand connected with something very soft and furry. He carefully grasped the furry object and brought it into his line of vision. Another set of button eyes now starred at him. "You got to be kidding me," Gibbs mumbled, now also noticing the other twenty or thirty sets of button eyes eerily all looking directly at him.

"Ziva?" He warily asked, not having looked past the couch, yet.

"'ibbs?" Mini-Ziva giggled and shot him a large smile as Gibbs slowly brought himself into a sitting position, causing the teddies to fall off of him and partly to the ground.

"It's 4:30 am, Ziv. You should be in bed, sleeping." He softly stated, successfully suppressing a yawn. "I should have brought you back to bed hours ago." He emphasized in afterthought.

"No ti'ed, 'ibbs." Ziva smiled from the opposite end of the coffee table and abandoned her book in order to grab one of the many pictures from the table. "Look!" She quickly scrambled onto the couch, right next to Gibbs.

The older agent took the picture and smiled, "That's a very nice butterfly, kid."

"I made it b'ue!" Ziva exclaimed, while snuggling into his side.

Gibbs wrapped his arms around her and gently pulled her on his lap. "It looks really pretty."

"'ibbs!" Mini giggled as the team leader suddenly stood up, taking her with him.

"Bedtime," Gibbs grumbled good naturedly while smiling nonetheless.

"But me no ti'ed!" Ziva exclaimed, still laughing as they entered her room.

Gibbs gently dropped his little house guest onto her bed, making her small frame bounce a bit on the mattress, "You don't need to sleep but you're going to rest."

"'ibbs," Ziva pleaded, still laughing from the little bounce.

The team leader shook his head, clearly amused. He covered her with a blanket, "Just rest a bit and stay in bed. It's still night." He grabbed one of the books from the night stand, which had lots of pictured pages in it. "You can look at this, but no leaving the bed, except when you need to go to the bathroom, okay?"

Mini sighed, already thumbing through the pages. "O'tay."

"Good girl." Gibbs smiled and kissed her forehead before leaving the room in order to get some sleep.

(Later V.7.0)

Gibbs was rudely awoken by a loud bang, followed by a loud crash and small cry. Immediately on alert, he literally jumped of the couch and followed the sound of quiet sobs into the kitchen. There he found Mini-Ziva sitting in the middle of broken dishes and an upturned bowl and flour.

"Ziva!" he hurriedly knelt next to her, checking her over for injuries. "Are you alright, kid?" He gently took her chin and made her look at him. The little girl had tears in her eyes.

The little girl hiccuped, "Sow'ry. Jus' wanna make pan-cakes for you."

Gibbs smiled, "That was a very nice thought from you." Having found no injuries he gently picked her up.

"You mad?" Ziva asked, hugging him with all her might while fresh tears made her way down her cheeks.

The team leader shrugged, "Nah. Just glad you're okay."

Mini looked up, her eyes still shining with unshed tears, "But bowl is no o'tay."

Gibbs gently dabbed her cheeks with a paper towel, "I'll get new dishes. Just wake me next time you want to make breakfast."

"But itz' sur'pri'ze for you!" Ziva's bottom lip started to quiver again.

"Then get someone to help you." The team leader tipped her nose, causing her to smile briefly.

Ziva observed the mess around them, "O'tay..."

Checking his watch and finding it to be shortly before 6 am, Gibbs smiled and lightly bounced the little girl on his arm, causing her to smile also. "I think we should head to the diner for breakfast."

Mini-Ziva's face lit even more up, "Yay! E'aine!"

(Labby ~ 9 am)

"Abs?" Gibbs called, leaning on the door frame to her lab.

Abby instantly whirled around, "Gibbs! I don't have anything yet!" She looked thoughtfully, "What are YOU doing here?"

"Need a place to rest?" The agent grinned slightly. "Duck's place all cramped." He slightly grimaced as he remembered going down to autopsy and seeing every tab and gurney occupied by a body. This time there was no murderer involved, just two drunken sailors who drove themselves and their passengers off of earth.

Abby momentarily looked puzzled, "What... oh! Of course," she hurried into her office, her boots echoing "Just let me..."

Gibbs chuckled as he made his way over to Abby, whose voice was now completely muffled as she fought with her air mattress.

"... shouldn't have stowed it away this morning..." She momentarily busied herself with putting a pillow and blanket on it, before turning around to the team leader. "There all set!"

"Thanks Abs," Gibbs gave her kiss on the cheek before relaxing on mattress. Finally, he could get some some much needed and foremost unperturbed sleep. In three hours he would get a most likely very sleepy child from preschool and spending the rest of the day trying to keep said child from falling asleep too early.

~ Fin ~