And Then One Night I Had A Dream Chapter 14: The Third Step- Satisfaction, a ncis fanfic

Hello again everyone! Long time, no see! First of all, Happy New Year! I hope you all have an amazing 2017! I am so sorry about the whole disappearing act! I've just finished my first term as a teacher and I'm loving it, but there's just so much work that I've had no free time to write. The staff are so nice and I love my class! So, while I've got a bit of time over the holidays, I have been getting back into the world of fanfiction (and marking books hehe)! Woo I've really missed this place and all of you guys! Thank you all so much for all of your amazing support and kind words, it really encourages me to keep writing and keep the Tivaness alive (as we know it should be and is!). I seriously cannot believe how lucky I am to have your support and I am hugely grateful to each and every one of you. I've made a lot of friends out of writing this story and I'm loving getting to share this story with you, sharing the love of Tiva and getting to know you better :D

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Chapter 14 – Satisfaction:

Thursday 26th May 2016, Parisian Apartment, France, 8am

(September 2014)

"Do you remember IT Kevin?"

That certainly threw a spanner into the works. His was not a name that Ziva expected to come up today, which piqued her curiosity. "I do, yes. He helped us out with Ajay Khan. Why?"

"Kevin was in Moscow visiting his sick uncle, who later died. But he felt like he was being followed so he went to the US Embassy. And because of all the classified information he knew, they needed someone to escort him back to DC. SecNav chose Gibbs!"

Ziva's eyebrows shot up in surprise, causing Tony to chuckle lightly. "Yeah I know; boss-man was less than impressed! Anyway, he and McGee picked Kevin up in a chopper, curtesy of the US Navy, but on the way back, they were hit by a missile and they went down."

"Were they all okay?" Her mouth fell open slightly and she leaned closer towards him, almost demanding a quick response from him. It was clear to Tony that while Ziva may have found a new path in life, she still cared immensely about her old teammates; her old friends.

"Few cuts and bruises, but they were alright for the most part. Unfortunately, the two pilots didn't make it." Ziva sighed softly and bowed her head out of respect, shaking her head a little. She may not have known them, but they did not deserve that. There had been too much death.

Her reactions were starting to concern Tony, but he decided to continue for now, knowing she wouldn't want any fuss. "We were sent the last radio transmission, from which Abby was able to determine that the missiles fired at the helicopter had been stolen from Libya by a Russian mercenary group."

The wheels were turning in her mind, trying to solve the mystery jigsaw puzzle. Why did the Russians want to shoot down US navy cops? Tony continued, filling in some more of the missing details for her. "Ducky notified Kevin's sister that he was missing, however she told him that she didn't know Kevin was going to Russia. She thought her uncle was in remission. Ducky and Palmer later found out that his uncle died from two gunshot wounds and that he had a micro-disk in him."

That made Ziva scoff and groan internally, which in turn caused Tony smirk at her. Thinking back to her experiences at NCIS, no good ever came from micro-disks being inserted into someone. Or just from them being around full stop. "Kevin eventually confessed that he had been approached by a man months before, who had offered him money in exchange for information about a weapon. He accepted the deal but later backed out, before he'd found his uncle dead."

"So, then what was the micro-disk for?" Ziva questioned, scrunching her eyebrows slightly.

"Kevin inserted it into the body; it contained a computer virus that could attack any defence system. McGee was able to get through to me and warn us but Abby had already accessed the disk, uploading the virus onto our computers and phones."

Ziva opened her mouth, about to ask whether they had been alright, but Tony sensed this and beat her to the punch. "We were all good. Bishop was still able to find their coordinates and I got straight on a plane after them. She then accessed a satellite feed and found them heading towards Finland's border but they were being followed by three men. When Kevin took a bullet, Gibbs made him and McGee go on ahead while he held them off. I picked them both up in my jeep before finding Gibbs. He shot the last mercenary before coming with us."

"So, their plan was to lure out Gibbs?" She felt a bit taken aback. Why was Gibbs of interest to the Russians, so much so that they wanted to kill him?

He scoffed, nodding his head. "Oh yeah, pretty much. The ringleader, he wanted revenge for something that had happened years before. Gibbs took someone from him. And he felt that it was payback time."

Ziva thought back; who could possibly want to kill Gibbs? She started racking her brain; she had a gut feeling that Tony had mentioned this person before. But who? Someone who'd gone after Gibbs… Then she remembered a name that Tony had mentioned.

"Sergei Mishnev?"

Tony nodded his confirmation. "He got added to The Wall pretty quickly after that!"

"But… why? He was dead? Was he not?"

Tony cleared his throat, just as he always did when he was a little nervous. He leaned forward, clasping his hands together in front of him, looking her in the eyes. Ziva knew then that whatever this was, that this was much bigger than she had first thought this was. "Vance later informed Gibbs that Sergei had survived. He wanted to get back at NCIS and Gibbs… for Ari's death."

No.

Ziva paled immediately. Sergei shot down a plane, killing two innocent people, and chased another three, all because of Ari? To avenge his death? Because she'd killed him?

No more.

She shot up and hurried out of the room. She needed space to clear her head. Ziva went straight to the kitchen, leaning over the cool sink. WHY?! Why couldn't her past just stop haunting her? Why couldn't it stop hurting those she cared deeply about, even though she'd removed herself from the equation?

Ziva cried out in pure frustration and kicked the sink unit angrily, muttering some Hebrew curse words under her breath. Placing her hands on the cool work-top, she leaned over the sink, inhaling, then exhaling deeply, trying to calm herself down. After a few moments, Ziva was able to compose herself enough and turn around to go and find Tony again. However, she soon discovered that he had followed her and was standing by the entrance to the kitchen. Ziva began to feel embarrassed about her reaction and being caught releasing her anger in this way.

To Tony's credit, he was a true gentleman and she could see he wasn't judging her in the slightest. Hell, he could understand why she was angry and just let her show this openly. He was her strong, silent rock. Their eyes met and locked onto one another's; a silent conversation playing out between the two old partners, dancing around in the air, sparking off each other. Yep… they could still tell what the other one was thinking.

"Who was he to you?" He knew she might need some help to get through this conversation.

Ziva ran her hand through her hair, pushing it all onto one side. "I did not know him all that well. I only met him a few times when Ari was around in Israel. He was Ari's friend. I never knew how they met; Ari kept that detail pretty quiet. But I was not a big fan of Sergei's. I just got a bad feeling from him. I guess now I know why."

"Yeah…" He trailed off.

The nerves were increasing more now. Ziva started playing with the left sleeve of her jumper, rolling it up and down her arm slightly, again and again. Her nervousness didn't go unnoticed. "I… I never wanted any of this to happen. I thought… well, I had hoped that by me leaving, you would all be better off. Safe from my past and my mistakes. I was fed up with you all getting hurt because of me. Why could he not just leave you alone?" She muttered that last part, more to herself than to him.

Tony was trying so hard to avoid going down that road. He certainly didn't blame Ziva for Sergei's or Ari's actions, and he knew that no one else did either, including Gibbs.

"Why did he wait so long? Ari died so many years ago, why did Sergei act on it after so long?" She questioned.

He looked away for a moment and shrugged, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "I don't know. Maybe all of the pieces lined up for him; maybe he wasn't in a position to do anything beforehand. I guess we'll never know."

Ziva sat on one of the kitchen chairs and leaned her head into her left hand, glancing downwards almost resignedly. To her it wasn't a good enough answer, but she knew that that certainly wasn't Tony's fault. Only Sergei could truly answer that. Tony knew she was frustrated with the situation and herself, but he wanted her to see that there was nothing that she could have done.

"You know, the whole situation reminded me of when we had the Pedro Hernandez case. When the Reynosa cartel was around and Paloma and Alejandro were trying to hurt Gibbs because he killed their dad, who had killed Shannon and Kelly."

Her interested look willed him to continue. "Gibbs' past came back to haunt him. We all put our careers and lives on the line. We never thought twice about it. Because we knew Gibbs' reasons for his past actions and we wanted to protect him."

"You do what you have to do for family." She stated, quoting the unwritten rule.

Tony smiled widely at her for that, before sobering up again. "At the time, did you ever blame Gibbs for what happened in that case?"

"No." She answered straight away.

"Then you know why no-one else blamed you for Ari or Sergei. So why do you blame yourself?"

Ziva tried to formulate a reply, but she was stumped. Ugh, she hated it when he was right.

Tony smiled to himself. 'Gotcha', he thought. "A week later, Vance confided in Gibbs that his doctor had found spots on his lungs and that he was waiting to have a CAT scan done the following day. They suspected that it was advanced stage lymphoma and when Vance showed the X-ray images to Ducky, he admitted that things looked bad. But Vance was more worried about Kayla and Jared. They'd already lost their mother and experienced something that nobody should ever go through. He didn't want them to be hurt any more. So, after speaking with Ducky, Vance re-drafted his will and sorted out who would get custody of his kids, before he went into surgery the following day to get a lung biopsy."

Ziva crossed her fingers. "How did everything go?"

"Good, really good. Luckily, the surgeon told Kayla, Lara, and Gibbs that Vance had a viral condition, not cancer."

Ziva breathed a loud sigh of relief, resting her head in her hands for a moment before composing herself and straightening back up. "Good, that family have been through enough. That is amazing news!"

(October 2014)

"Luckily Vance recovered pretty quickly. And then things started moving fast again. Then all of a sudden, it was October 1st. A year since I had left you in Israel." Ziva wanted to look away, feeling horrible that she had hurt him, but made herself face her past.

"That day was tough." He recalled. Remembering what had happened in Israel… how close I had come to convincing you to come back… I started thinking that I'd failed again. And I was letting thoughts of you, what you might be doing, where you might be, consume me. I guess the team knew well enough to leave me alone. They knew that I just wanted time to myself. Unfortunately, we got given a case. And not a particularly nice one."

"We found a Navy research scientist in the park; her head had been severed by some sort of motorised garrotte. She was from Moscow but had been granted US citizenship. And we ended up working with the FBI…"

Ziva was immediately concerned by his troubled expression. "What is it?"

"One of the FBI agents, in particular, we worked closely with… Leia. And after the case we… dated."

Tony felt very uncomfortable talking about this, but he wanted to be completely honest with Ziva. He could feel that he was starting to berate himself for his past actions. 'No. I don't have anything to hide or feel guilty about. It was Ziva's choice to leave and she told me to move on. I didn't do anything wrong… did I? No, Tony, stop thinking like that!'

She could see the guilt on his face. And she wanted nothing more than to take this away from him. But he wasn't done just yet. "Anyway, that only lasted less than a week. We just weren't meant to be." Ziva couldn't help but feel relieved. 'Why do I feel this way? I should be happy that he is in a relationship. Maybe it is because you are still in love with him? But I have no right to be…'

Now came the hard part. "However, we then got another case. A Navy SEAL Commander's wife was killed but it was believed that he was the intended target. And while we were out in the field, we ran into an old colleague of mine from Philadelphia PD. Well, technically she ran into me. Zoe. She had moved on to become an ATF special agent. During the case, we talked, got reacquainted. And later on, we decided to start dating. Over time… it become a long-term relationship."

"Oh."

Ziva felt her heart smash into a million pieces. While she may have already known about Zoe (curtesy of Orli), it didn't make it any easier to hear. 'We have been under this before, you have no right to feel angry or jealous! You are the one who asked him to move on!' She knew that she could only blame herself for that one. She made Tony leave, she chose not to be in a relationship with him at that moment in time, as she was in a very bad, destructive mindset and it was not the right time for her. So she told him to move on, not to wait for her, no matter how much it hurt her to say those words. But she'd had no right to ask him to wait. And it was right that he'd moved on. But she couldn't deny the pain her heart felt.

"Tony… I am the one who made you leave. I wanted you to move on. And you did…" Ziva began, going back to playing with the sleeve of her jumper. She could feel herself getting choked up, but tried to will back the tears. "I cannot deny that this is not hard, but you did the right thing. You should not have waited forever for me to sort myself out. You had every right to move on and be happy; there was no way that I was going to force you to wait for me, just in case I decided to come back. I am happy for you. Truly I am." With that, she leaned forward and took his hands in hers; wanting to show him just how much she meant her words.

Tony gazed deep into her eyes, seeking out the truth in her words. He saw instantly that she wasn't just saying those things to make him feel better, she really did mean everything. It made the tears of relief start to run down his face, and he brought their clasped hands up to his lips and kissed the back of her hands. It certainly helped to hear those words from her. They were healing lots of wounds between them, which would only repair their relationship…

(November 2014)

After that, Tony and Ziva needed a little time apart to gather their thoughts and regroup. Ziva cooked some breakfast for them all, while Tony bathed and dressed their daughter, who was in a very squirmy and cheeky mood today! The three of them sat down around the kitchen table, where Ziva fussed over Tali and Tony flicked through the newspaper, trying to make up stories to go with the text in French that he really had no clue about! Ziva could help but laugh at this, and at how domestic they had become. Who would have guessed that this is what would have transpired?!

"So, how were things in Israel after you'd had Tali?" Tony asked, placing the paper down on the table in front of him.

Ziva put the plastic cutlery down now that Tali had finished her breakfast. "Okay, I guess… tough at times. But I fell in love with Tali from the first moment that I held her. I had never felt that sort of connection to anyone before… it was so strange that she completely depended upon me. She seemed to grow up so quickly. And I loved that she looked like both you and me. She was beautiful, still is." Ziva paused for a moment, taking a moment to tuck a loose curl behind Tali's ear. "But at the same time, I felt very… overwhelmed. I had no idea what I was doing and there were times when I did not believe that I could be a good mom to her. I was really thankful and glad to have Nettie with me, and Orli and Shmeil visited often. They helped me to baby-proof the farmhouse, although Tali always made sure to find more things for us to baby-proof! Nettie helped me to change and feed her, and helped me through her grumpy spells. Especially when she was teething, she was very unhappy! But overall, things were okay."

Tony wasn't sure how to respond. He too was thankful that Ziva wasn't on her own, but he felt disappointed that he couldn't have been there. But, they'd discussed that already, and they would do again in the future. But now was not the right time. He needed to learn new things about the last three years. "Did she let you guys get any sleep?"

Ziva scoffed. "Not really, it was tiring constantly living off of broken sleep. It was hard adjusting to the lack of sleep. It is funny, you would think that after years of long nights filled with stake-outs and paperwork that I would have been used to little sleep and catching whenever possible. Little did I know!"

"Did she wake you up a lot during the nights?"

"Yes, quite often. Sometimes, she would want comforting, but most of time she just wanted to be fed. She really does have your appetite and love of food!"

That made Tony beam from ear-to-ear. "Well I'm very glad to hear that my food gene was passed on to the next DiNozzo!" He moved to tousle Tali's hair, which made the little girl in question to stare up at her Abba and giggle. "I was just gonna tousle your hair. Sometimes it makes you smile." 'Like mother, like daughter.'

Ziva watched the father/daughter scene in front of her with a sad smile. She was so happy that they had finally met, but they should have formed this bond years ago. And that was down to her. "What is it?" Tony queried, noticing her strange look.

Ziva didn't want to share this next piece of information, but Tony had been truthful with her and she needed to be the same. "The hardest part was… dealing with my… feelings." At his baffled look, she explained what she meant. "Nettie tried to get me to talk to someone. She told Orli that she was worried that I had post-partum depression."

"Did you?" Tony asked. The thought of Ziva being depressed alarmed him greatly.

"A little. I was just… that every time I looked at Tali, I thought of you straight away. Her eyes are all you, Tony. And while it was so amazing to be able to keep a little piece of you with me for always, it reminded me of what I had done to you. I felt so guilty that you were not in Tali's life and that you had no knowledge about her. I hated keeping your child away from you. But, as I discussed with Nettie, Shmeil and Orli on a number of occasions over the years, I was not going to disrupt and destroy your life, especially after I had made you leave. It was not fair to you. However, in retrospect… I should have told you. I should have found the courage and given you the choice. I really am sorry, Tony. I know that – "

"Hey, we've talked about this, yeah? It's gonna take me a while… maybe longer… to work through that fully. But, I'm thrilled to be in her life now. We can't change the past, but we can move forward, okay?"

Ziva promised herself that she wasn't going to cry any more, but she came close to breaking that. Again. After all that she had done… she didn't deserve him in her life.

Tony wanted to quickly move away from that conversation again. He knew that one day they'd get over that, but not without a profound level of work on both sides. He just hoped that she could forgive herself one day.

"How much did she weigh?"

"What?" Ziva looked at him strangely, snapping back to reality. "How much did she weigh?" he asked again. Ziva thought for a moment, then she exclaimed "Oh, that reminds me! Nettie insisted that I have one of these for Tali." Ziva quickly stood up left the room and went back into the master bedroom. Tony heard that she was searching (noisily) for something and exchanged confusion glances with Tali. Finally, Ziva hurried back into the room and placed something down on the table in front of him.

It was a book. A new baby journal. Inside it contained lots of information about baby Tali: her height (18.5 inches), weight (6 pounds, 8 ounces), tiny little hand and foot prints, the first time she crawled, walked, talked. Tony was mesmerised by this little treasure and spent several minutes flicking through the pages, carefully reading and absorbing as much information as he could, almost as if he may never see this book again. He would have to thank Nettie for encouraging Ziva to have a baby journal. Although it would never replace real memories, he was glad to have something that he could keep forever.

"Wow. I'm so glad she got you do this. Thank you for sharing his with me." Tony spoke softly. He could feel the tears forming and beginning to gently flow from his eyes.

"Me too." Ziva smiled, glad that her aunt's insistence had paid off.

"So, how is your fish?" she asked, moving the conversation back into his court.

"Good, yeah they're good thanks. My father's looking after them at the moment."

Ziva nodded, until she realised what was wrong with that sentence. "Wait, them?"

Tony stiffened, realising what he had let slip. Ah. He was gonna keep that one quiet. "Oh yeah, I bought another fish. Did I not tell you?"

"To go with Kate?"

"Yeah… yeah."

"What did you name your new pet?"

"Um…"

"Nothing, why does it matter?" Tony tried to avoid answering this.

"Come on, Tony, what did you call your fish?" Ziva was confused. She couldn't understand why he was being so evasive. It was only a fish.

Tony sighed. He knew that she was not gonna let this go until he'd given her an answer, although she may regret that afterwards. "Ziva." He tried to mumble under his breath.

"You named a fish after me?" She was hugely surprised.

"Yeah."

"Well, when I saw that it was coming up to your birthday, I started to think about you again. And I knew that I wanted to have a little reminder of you in my life, even if you couldn't be. When I saw my Kate fish, I knew that having a Ziva fish would be perfect."

Ziva felt speechless. "I… I do not really know what to say." She admitted. It felt a little weird that Tony had a fish named after her, but she was also deeply touched. He could have wanted her gone from his life forever, but he still wanted a little piece of her with him, just as she had. Perhaps there was hope for them both, yet… But that was dangerous to assume and she couldn't let herself think like that, especially not now.

Tony had gone red and so cleared his throat, trying to cover-up the awkwardness. Now it was his turn to deflect the conversation and try to hide his embarrassment. "All of a sudden, it had been a year since we'd first met Bishop. Nine months since she'd started her Probie training to be an NCIS special agent. Which meant that it was time for her Probie eval."

Ziva couldn't hold back a groan. "Oh yes, I certainly remember that! That eval was horrible, I hated waiting around for that and taking all of those tests!" That was bringing back painful memories of written tests and training exercises, least of all that stupid one that was designed for you to fail!

Tony chuckled; he could easily recall Ziva's distaste at the probie eval. Hell, pretty much the whole building could remember that! "Haha, I know, didn't we all! It never made sense to me why we took all those tests and ended up with a low score. What did you even score, again? You never told us?" He probed cheekily, hoping to force it out of her.

"What makes you think that I am going to tell you now?" She remarked with a smirk and a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

'Grr, she saw right through that one! Still a ninja then. Some things really do never change.' And he was certainly glad about that one. "Fine, I won't push it further. Besides, you'll tell me soon enough, one way or another!" He had his ways of making her talk (he hoped).

She simply rolled her eyes at him. "How did she find it all?" Now Tony wanted to roll his eyes back at her. She always was the master of deflection and segways. But he decided to humour her anyway.

"Okay, I guess. Couple of probie mistakes, but nothing that the rest of us hadn't done over the years. Her overall eval on the other hand was certainly the topic of conversation for a while though!"

At her frown, he expanded on this. "She scored an 82."

Huh? Now that she hadn't seen coming. It certainly made her jaw drop. "Wow…" She managed to stammer out. An 82? Had she heard that right? She must have done judging by what Tony had implied beforehand. 'But didn't Gibbs give low scores? So then why… I am not surprised that this was topical around the building.'

It was sort of amusing for Tony to watch the myriad of emotions running across Ziva's face. Shock. Confusion. Reflection. Either she'd gotten better at showing her emotions or he'd gotten better at reading her. Maybe it was a mixture of both. "Surprised much? I know Tim and I sure as hell were."

His voice was the catalyst to knock her out of her slight stupor. She found herself gazing back into his eyes, seeking out the story behind this with a child-like curiosity. Only he and Tali truly knew how to bring out that side in her. "Yes… I thought that Gibbs always gave out low scores on that. What did you score again?"

"58. And McSmartyPants scored a 63."

"So then why… I mean… I do not get it. Did Bishop know about Gibbs and him usually being tough with his scores?"

"Not at first… until Ducky accidentally let it slip before he knew what she had scored."

"Don't fret your number. Jethro gives low scores, well, to push you."

"Wait, what?!"

"The lower the score, the more potential Gibbs thinks you have."

"Uh, so if you got a high score?"

"Well then, I would advise you to turn in your badge."

"Yeah… suffice to say, that one really got to her. She spent ages agonising over why she'd been given a high score. And you could see she was starting to doubt her abilities and her place on the team again. That she was starting to question whether or not Gibbs thought she could make it as an NCIS agent. And of course, when that happens, you lose focus. Make mistakes. And she did."

At Ziva's confused but concerned expression, he continued. "She let a suspect get away. Gibbs told her to cover the back and she didn't."

"Oh no. We've have all been there. I bet Gibbs did not take too kindly to that!" Ziva replied sympathetically. She herself had made that mistake in the past and could recall how Gibbs had reacted.

"Actually, when she tried to apologise to him, he told her that it was fine!"

Her mouth fell wide open, and Ziva was certain that if she had been drinking anything at the time, she would have spat it out and choked on her disbelief.

"Haha, I know, that's exactly how Tim and I looked too!"

"Okay now you are pulling my arm!"

"Leg, pulling my leg!" God he'd missed correcting her little Ziva-isms. It kind of amazed him how quickly he'd slipped back into that old habit like it was the most natural thing in the world. He was going to have to start a running tally again. And bring out his Ziva-isms book to add more to the collection…!

"No I'm being serious. Well, he may not have said it in those exact words, or in any words really, after all he is still a functional mute, but he certainly didn't berate her much for it! He just sort of… breezed over it."

"I do not understand."

"Yeah, you're not the only one. I found myself wondering why Gibbs was going easy on her. We all found it strange and out of character for him. Even Bishop was questioning why he was acting this way towards her. And after I'd left the office that evening, it hit me. Suddenly, I put two and two together."

"What happened?" she asked softly, curious as to where this story was going to lead. She had been racking her brain and just couldn't think of an explanation as to why Gibbs was acting so strangely.

"That evening, I was heading out to the theatre. I was on my way to watch a ballet this time, in case you were wondering! I loved the opera last year, but I wanted something different."

Ziva was confused. What was he talking about? The theatre? What was he doing at a ballet? Why would Tony go to see a ballet? Suddenly, it hit her. My birthday? Could it be?

Tony saw the moment that she had her lightbulb moment. The moment her sparkling brown eyes met his wise green orbs. He gently smiled at her; the smile fully extending to those eyes of his. "Gibbs obviously knew that it was your birthday, and that it had been just over a year since you had left. He had clearly been thinking about you and was starting to blame himself for you wanting out of this life and our lives."

This made Ziva frown deeply. "Why would he blame himself? I left for my own personal reasons. He did not do anything wrong, none of you had! I know that our final phone conversation had been pretty intense, but it was not his fault that I could not deal with that way of life anymore and that I wanted out."

Tony sighed, where should he begin with this one? "After you left… Gibbs was pretty angry and upset. You could clearly see it. I don't think he quite knew or understood your reasons; couldn't work out that you'd been so unhappy with your old life. But when the one-year mark reached us, he started feeling guilty about his actions and started blaming himself for you leaving. He felt that he had pushed you too hard over the years. Was too tough on you. He liked to favour the tough-love approach when it came down to all of us, including you. And I guess he started to believe that if he had been less harsh towards you, then maybe you would have stayed. That maybe you would have been happier with your life…"

"Bishop. You were right."

"I was?"

"I have been going easy on you. But it's got nothing to do with you."

"I don't understand."

"It's about that desk. Lost two people off that desk. Good people. That's on me. I was doing something wrong. When something's wrong, you change it."

"Even after you'd left, you were still leaving a mark on us. Gibbs wanted to change his ways for you. He was fed up of losing people off of that desk; he was fed up of feeling that he had let both you and Kate down. He felt that he was the source of the problem, so he tried to change."

Ziva couldn't believe what she was hearing. Gibbs tried to change himself… for her? Or partly due to her. It wasn't his fault that she left. He had become a father figure to her; he had taught her so much during her time there. He had shown her that there were people who valued and loved her; that she could have fun. He gave her a family. She wanted to speak with him; let him know that he was not to blame.

Yet again, she didn't have to say a word. Tony could easily see what she was thinking. "Bishop set him straight. Told him that it wasn't his fault. Told him that he'd also moulded McGee and I, and that we were amazing agents. She wanted to be like us, so she asked him to start pushing her like he had done to us. I think that gave him some confidence back to do so."

She looked back at him and smiled sadly. Ziva was glad that he had gone back to his old ways. "So… how was the ballet?"

Tony smiled, reminiscing on that evening. "Beautiful, actually. This time, it was at the Eisenhower Theatre where they were putting on a production of 'Little Dancer', I believe it was called. I'd never seen a ballet in my life, never in a theatre at least, if we don't include movies. Cos, you know, there were a few times where we'd watch something like Billy Elliot or Flashdance, was it? Anyways, you started to bring those to our movie nights towards the end. And they were doing all these cool moves like – "

Tony stood up and tried to mimic those beautiful, graceful ballet moves around the kitchen table. He tried to replicate those arabesques, jetés, pirouettes (where he very nearly fell on his backside!), flapping his arms up and down. All of a sudden, this wonderful sound started which made him stop. To him, it didn't matter how that move was going to end. Because the most beautiful sound had overtaken the room. No, it had set the room alight. He'd tried so hard for years to elicit that sound.

Looking back, Tony found that both Tali and Ziva were sitting there laughing at his mad antics, when Tali asked to be put down to the ground. After Ziva complied with her daughter's wish, their young daughter then started to copy his funny moves, giggling to herself. Tony's heart started to swell; he couldn't be prouder that he'd evoked this response. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Ziva took hold of Tali's hands and started to dance around with her. Now both of his girls were giggling again. So, Tony lifted Tali up onto his shoulders and took Ziva into his arms, spinning them both around the room.

If he could have a soundtrack to die to, the sound of Ziva and Tali laughing had to be the main feature…

"How did you spend your birthday?"

"I actually had forgotten about it. I was so wrapped up in Tali, that I lost track of my birthday. But, Nettie and Shmeil had remembered and they put up some decorations around the house and insisted on baking a cake. You should have seen Tali; she had been covered in flour where she had tried to help them!" They both chuckled at that. "It was quiet, but I was glad about that. I've never really liked celebrating my birthday. I much prefer other people's birthdays."

"What about your sister, did you get to go to the opera for her birthday?"

He remembered, of course he did. "With Tali being so little still, I did not want to be away from her. But I still wanted honour my sister and share her with her namesake. Then, I remembered what you had done when the opera had been sold out. You had played opera music through the speakers in the bullpen. And you had made a CD of opera music that you let me keep. Well… I had taken that with me, and I played it through the house that day, sharing family stories with Nettie and Tali."

"You took the CD with you to Israel?" He asked with a sense of surprise in his voice.

"Of course I did. I love that CD, and not just the music, but the fact that it had been made by you. It is something that is special to me. You made that so that I could still experience the opera and remember my little sister; that really meant a lot to me, Tony. Thank you."

Tony smiled. "You're welcome." He was glad that she liked it and humbled that it meant so much to her. That she appreciated what he had done for her.

"Tali loved it too. She tried to babble along to the words, which Nettie thought would be good to film. We will have to ask her if we can borrow her videos one day."

"I would love that."

Ziva saw the look on his face. She wanted to make things up to him, even though she knew that he would never forgive her fully. But she had always wanted him to have a part in Tali's life. "Tony, you may have already noticed this, but I also took the photo of us from Paris with me. I was one of my favourite memories and I loved the photo, especially because it was of the two of us. It was placed in that frame that Shmeil bought me once he saw the picture and I put it up in my room. I showed that picture to Tali every morning and every evening, so it was like she was saying good morning and good night to you. When she was a bit older, she would request to see that photo and reach out to try to touch us."

Ziva had been getting Tali ready for bed and had taken her to see the Paris photo, just like they did every night. Tali's face lit up and she lovingly placed her hand over the glass.

"Tali, here is your Ima. That is me, my darling. And this man next to me is the most important man. This is your father, Tali. This is Abba. His name is Anthony DiNozzo, but everyone calls him Tony. And I know that he would love you with all his heart if he knew about you." Normally, Ziva would settle her down and tell her a story while she drifted off, but tonight, Tali was particularly clingy to that photo. She wanted her Abba. It broke Ziva's heart but she couldn't take Tony's life in DC away from him.

"Shall I tell you the story behind this photo?" Tali babbled happily, so Ziva sat in the rocking chair with Tali in her arms and began her tale.

"Your Abba and I both worked for a federal agency in America. We were partners on the same team and together we solved cases involving people who worked for the US Navy and their families. And one day, the two of us were sent to Paris. We had to pick up a witness and bring her back to Washington DC. But we were able to see some of the sights before we had to get back to work, which delighted your Abba a lot! He would not put his beloved camera down!" She laughed at the beautiful memories and Tali giggled too, enjoying the tale.

"He insisted on renting a motorbike for the day and he went to pick this up while I ate breakfast. And I climbed on the back of the bike and travelled around with him. It was one the best days. He always knew how to cheer me up and make me smile… I'd had some bad dreams the night before and he helped to calm me down; sat with me and talked to me for hours before we finally fell asleep. So, he made it his mission to make me smile and visit the sights of Paris with me the next day. He is an incredible person, and I am sure that you will have a lot of his traits as you grow up."

"As we pulled back up to the café, an older man sitting at one of the tables spoke to us. He told us that he had watched us that morning and he enjoyed watching a young couple in love. We tried to explain that we were not a couple, that we very good friends, but he rolled his eyes at us and told us that we were silly if we could not see the way that we looked at each other. Still, he wanted to take a photo of us and made us promise to always look back on that moment in the future and see where we ended up. I guess he knew that we would be together one day…"

"So, Tali… this photograph is very special and important. If you ever feel sad or lonely, you can always have this picture to show you your Ima and Abba. Two people who will always love you no matter what. And you can always keep us in your life…"

Tony blinked back the tears that were streaming down his face. "Thank you for still making me a part of her life."

(December 2014)

Tony needed some time to calm down after that and after some time apart, fixing things up around the apartment, they reconvened back in the living room. "Unfortunately, McGee had a really bad end to the year. His father's cancer had gotten progressively worse over the two years. And at the same time as this, we were also given a case, which involved hacking and tech stuff, meaning that McGee was given the lead. He tried to get out of that so that he could be with his dad and he later told Abby that the reason for that was because his father's only treatment option now was surgery and that one had been scheduled for him for that week."

"Wow… poor McGee. What did he do?" Ziva asked softly. She really hoped that things had worked out for Tim and his father.

"Well… he didn't have much of a choice, he had to stay for the case. And you could see the stress he was under, although he was trying to keep it quiet. But he then got a call from Sarah, saying that their dad had cancelled his surgery."

"What? Why did he do that?" Ziva questioned. She wasn't liking where this was going and she could only imagine how Tim must have felt.

Tony rubbed the back of his neck. "McGee was furious. With his father and with himself. He felt that he was supposed to be there for his dad and that he was meant to have persuaded his father to have the operation. It was almost like he felt that he had let his dad down. Finally, when the case was over, Gibbs told McGee to go and see his father, who had postponed his surgery so that he could spend some time with his family over the holidays. And they did get to spend some time together. Unfortunately, they didn't get long."

Ziva scrunched her eyebrows, but she quickly realised what Tony was implying. Her heart shot straight to her throat. Not another person. Please.

Tony recognised the look of realisation that had flashed across her face and he nodded his confirmation of her assumption. "He sadly passed away. And In true McGemcity style, he wrote a letter to his father. A thank you/goodbye note of sorts."

Ziva felt a stabbing pain in her chest. Wow, she really had not seen that coming. Poor McGee. He had been starting to repair his relationship with his father, only for him to be taken so cruelly from him. That just was not fair. She felt so awful that she hadn't been there for him. She should have been there to support her friend. Instead she was half-way around the world, completely oblivious to what Tim had been going through. Ziva felt incredibly guilty. She knew that she wanted to go and visit John McGee's grave, to pay her respects to him. And speak with McGee. She really missed him. But now she wasn't sure that she would ever be able to again. Not without putting someone's life at risk…

(January 2015)

"Things only went downhill from there. We were called to a crime scene at a diner. There were five victims who all had gunshot wounds. Looked like a shoot-out. But then Gibbs heard shouting coming from outside. It turns out that there were two women, one of whom was arguing with a cop; they wanted to get in to see Gibbs. Turns out it was Diane, aka ex-wife numero trois! But not only that, she'd brought along a friend with her."

"Well, who was it? And what were they doing there?"

Tony smirked at her. She really could be impatient sometimes. "Patience, young ninja. You shall have your answers all in due time." Ziva rolled her eyes and shook her head at him. He was a goofball, but with a heart of gold. "We got to meet Rebecca, ex-wife numero deux, or the mysterious ex-wife!"

Okay, that was unexpected! "Wait, so Diane and Rebecca are friends?!"

"Haha I know right! Said they had a lot of things in common that they liked to discuss, I could only imagine what! Who knows what dirty little secrets they share about one Leroy Jethro Gibbs and –"

"Tony!" Ziva exclaimed, making him snap back to reality. "Back to the case?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah! So, when we looked closer at the crime scene, we realised that someone had tried to replicate the diner scene from LA when Jenny was killed."

She froze. Ziva felt shivers run down her spine. Never again did she want to revisit that scene. Seeing her friend dead in a large pool of blood… that image still haunted her.

Her mind span with a multitude of questions. The 'why', 'where' and 'what they wanted to achieve' was something she could guess at: that someone had wanted to hurt the team. The 'how' they had pulled it off, she could guess that they were not working alone. The 'who', well it would have to be someone who knew the team or who could access their personal information or old case files. Someone with a grudge?

And she realised that Tony must have found that so hard to deal with, knowing that he in particular had blamed himself for Jenny's death. God, how did he cope with that?

"How were you?"

Tony was taken aback. Out of everything that she could have asked him, he had not expected that. Then again, she had seen right through him back then, too. Knew he was suffering in silence, blaming himself for Jenny's death. And she had been the only other person who was with him when they'd found her. "I… it was… tough. It was like we were revisiting that day. That scene. And I never wanted to be back there again. Um… yeah really I just had to put a brave face on for the boss and get on with it. But you could see how everyone was affected by this case."

Tony went quiet for a while and glanced down at his hands. Ziva could see it in his face how much it had affected him. It was hard enough to hear about this case, she could only imagine how the others must have found and dealt with this. Reaching out, she placed her right hand over his left hand, stroking her thumb over the tops of his knuckles. She wanted to comfort him; show him that it wasn't his fault; that he could not have prevented the inevitable. That caught his attention. Tony glanced up at her, their eyes locking on to each other. He appreciated her gesture and showed this to her by stroking his thumb over hers, with a whisper of a smile appearing on his face. She returned this.

Clearing his throat, he had gained some more confidence to continue his tale. "While we were running down the victims, McGee and I brought back the 'ex-wives presentation', which Gibbs accidently saw! Shoulda know not to have it up in the background, the man sees everything. He is the all-seeing man. But hey, it gave me a great opportunity to ask him about wife number 2." He held a mischievous look on his face.

"What did you do?" she asked cautiously.

"Nothing… I merely asked him if she was the one that he caught in bed with another man!"

"Oh my God – Tony, please tell me you are joking?! You really asked him that?!"

"Well, someone had to! Nearly ran the risk of getting the worst biggest head-slap, though it was so worth it!" She rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head. Same old Tony, but that was the way she liked him.

"Gibbs spent the rest of the day trying to avoid his ex-wives, but Rebecca went over to his house. What was even funnier is that McGee and Diane got payback. And probably scarred for life!" At her confused look, her elaborated. "You remember when Gibbs and Fornell caught McGee and Diane sleeping on the couch together a few years back?" Ziva nodded. "Well, this time it was Timmy and Diane who caught Gibbs and Rebecca asleep together on Gibbs' couch!"

"No! Uh… wow…!" Ziva couldn't help but laugh. What were the odds of that happening? Poor McGee, it was always him!

"Then we got another call-out. A Master Chief had been stabbed. In the middle of the night. With a single wound to the chest. He was lying dead in the middle of the road. This time they wanted to replicate a different death from our past."

"Mike Franks." Ziva muttered. There was a nasty pattern going on here.

"Yep. It seemed to us as if someone had gone through a lot of trouble to replicate murders and horrors that had occurred in Gibbs' life."

"Who?" she asked. She didn't like where this was going.

"Long story short, Rebecca's cell phone had been bugged by a Russian mercenary, Ghenna Ulanov, who had ties to Sergei Mishnev".

Ziva stiffed at the mention of his name again. Of course he would come back to haunt them, it would never have been that easy for him to walk away. "Sergei was back onto the scene. And this time, he wanted to dig up the past even more. He wanted Gibbs to suffer."

"Gibbs got a call from Diane, asking him to meet him on a rooftop. Said she knew everything. Only it was a set up. When he got there, Diane told him that she'd been getting a manicure and wondered why he'd text her to meet him on a rooftop. Gibbs tried to get her out of there, but they'd already walked right into the trap. Sergei was watching 'em with a sniper rifle. He fired and shot Diane. Between the eyes. He was replicating Kate's death."

Ziva lifted both of her hands up to cover her mouth. She was in complete and utter shock. How could this have happened? "Wh… what about Fornell? What about Emily? Oh my God, that young girl lost her mother!"

"Fornell was devastated. It didn't matter that they weren't married anymore, she still meant a lot to him. They were trying to fix their relationship." Later on, he would come to understand how Fornell must have been feeling. When he was told that Ziva had died in the farmhouse fire, his whole world stopped and crumbled apart. He didn't want to go on living anymore. Not without her. If Tali hadn't been around… he shuddered at the thought of what he might have done.

Ziva could feel herself physically shaking. 'This is all my fault! I know what Tony said earlier, but if Gibbs hadn't covered for me, Diane would not be dead.' She could feel the world starting to spin around her. It was getting warmer and she was suddenly short of breath.

Tony looked back up at her and was shocked to see that she had her eyes tightly shut and was finding it hard to breathe. He'd seen this before, but not for many years now. She was having a panic attack. He slowly moved over to her.

"Ziva… hey, Zi, look at me." He spoke softly. He knew that he had to stay calm. "It's alright, just breathe for me. Just like I am. Can you do that for me?"

For a long while, Ziva was stuck inside her own head. She had completely blocked out what was happening around her. 'My fault, my fault, my fault…'. She was repeating this like a mantra. Ziva could start to feel herself drowning in guilt, and she let herself sink, feeling like she deserved it.

Tony watched as she slowly tried to move to lay on the couch, but he was having none of that. He had to stop her going down this road. From their post-Somalia experiences, he knew that it would be a long road ahead if he didn't stop this. He gently moved her head between her legs and stroked her back. Then he remembered how much she loved his singing; how it calmed her.

"I've got you under my skin
I have got you, deep in the heart of me
So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me
I've got you under my skin

I'd tried so, not to give in
And I said to myself this affair it never will go so well
But why should I try to resist when baby I know so well
That I've got you under my skin."

As it turned out, he only needed to sing the first two choruses as Ziva had also remembered this and slowly she began to calm down. "Hey, it's okay Zi. You're alright, come back to me now."

"Okay? Okay! It is not okay, Tony! How can you not see it? Or maybe you just do not want to admit it?"

"Admit what? That Sergei was a twisted creep? That he was a murderer?"

She leaped up off the couch, still trembling with anger and sorrow. "THEY ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF ME! BECAUSE SERGEI THOUGHT THAT GIBBS HAD KILLED ARI! I KILLED HIM AND I HID FROM THAT TO PROTECT MYSELF. AND INNOCENT PEOPLE PAID THE PRICE."

"Yeah, and if people had known the truth, then you would have been dead years ago, Ziva. And if Sergei had known the truth, it could have been Nettie dead right now. It could have been Shmeil. Or Tali."

She pointed a finger at him, giving him a very stern look. "Do not go there, Tony. Diane's life is no less important than theirs."

"I'm not saying that, Ziva."

"Then what are you saying exactly? That it was her time?! That young girl is now motherless because of me!"

"No, Ziva. Diane is dead because of Sergei. He had the gun, he pulled the trigger, he killed her."

"That may be, but I am just as responsible."

"Ziva… listen to me. You had to kill Ari. He was always going to die, Ziva. It was just a matter of whose hand it was at. He chose his path in life. He chose to be affiliated with Hamas, the same people who were responsible for the death of your sister. His sister. The brother you knew disappeared the moment his mother was killed. He had to be stopped. And Sergei was always going to seek revenge for that. You are not responsible for that. Sometimes… you can't stop the inevitable. Sometimes… you can't prevent the Jenny's of the world from being killed. And sometimes… it's not your fault."

It then clicked what he was trying to say. He was getting it, finally. She had been trying to get him to see for years that he was not responsible for Jenny's death. She was dying and she wanted to go out fighting. He couldn't have prevented that, even if they had saved her from being shot in that diner. And then she realised what he had done. He was trying to make her believe that she was not to blame for the repercussions of Ari's death. She knew he hadn't quite succeeded today or if he ever would, but he had made a very good case about it. Maybe like him, she would accept it one day.

(February 2015)

"A few weeks later, Emily called Gibbs. Said she was worried about her dad, he wasn't coping. So, Gibbs took him to his old log cabin. While they were away, we were left in charge. And when we were reading up on Sergei, we found out that he was originally born in Israel and that his mother was a Palestinian doctor with Saudi roots. It suddenly clicked for us. We thought that we could have figured out why Sergei hated Gibbs so much. We remembered that Ari's mother was also a Palestinian doctor."

"Are you suggesting that…"

"It was largely possible that Ari and Sergei both had the same mother. That they were half-brothers."

This was just getting worse. Ari and Sergei were related?! Half-siblings! No way… she would have known if Ari had another sibling. God, no wonder why he felt so strongly about this. He wanted vengeance. Just like Ari wanted vengeance on Eli when he'd had his mother killed. It was possible that Sergei had helped him back them. Had Eli known about this? Probably. Her head hurt.

"Sergei found out where Gibbs and Fornell were and he went there to finish Gibbs off. However, he didn't count on this being a trap."

"Gibbs set him up?" Of course he had.

"Payback time. He knocked Sergei out and when he came to, Fornell shot him."

And that was that. Case closed as they say. Ziva didn't know how to feel. She was glad on the one hand that Sergei could not hurt anyone anymore, but at the same time, it made her feel empty. Maybe it was because she didn't care for taking someone's life anymore. Even though he had done all of those horrible things and broken families. She was still figuring out her morals in her new life.

Tony could see her conflicted look and decided it was time to move on to something happier. "However, we did finally get some good news. Breena and Jimmy had their baby shower at NCIS. It was really funny; when Palmer left the room, Breena told us he was driving her crazy. He was being over-protective when all she wanted was a burger! So, while she went and got one, we carried on with our next case. But Abby then got a phone call from her to say that she had gone into labour."

"When we got to the hospital, we got to meet the newest addition to the NCIS family. Baby Victoria Elizabeth Palmer had been born." Ziva smiled brightly. She was thrilled for them both, they really deserved to be a happy, loving family. "I know you said that Orli told you about Victoria, but did you get to see what she looked like?"

"Well, like you said, I knew from Orli that they had a baby girl, Victoria, but I did not see a photograph of her. I had already told Orli that I while I wanted to see her and her family, it would feel too intrusive."

"Would you like to see a photo of her?"

"Yes, please."

Tony took his phone from his shirt pocket and scrolled through his photos until he found the perfect snap. A group photo of all of the team together, with centre-stage being filled by Palmer, Breena and a beautiful baby girl nestled in their arms. It was the perfect family photo.

Ziva showed off her big, bright smile, she was in love with that photo. "Perfect… just beautiful."

"They are a really nice family, you know that she's 15 months old now?"

"Really? Wow, time goes by so quickly!" Tony laughed and nodded in agreement. "February, eh… that was also when Tali met one of her milestones."

"Really?" Tony asked curiously. He wanted to find out as much as he could about his daughter's early days.

"Luckily, this was something that was caught on video. Nettie was obsessed with this camera following us everywhere in case something big happened! It was a bit annoying at the time, but it is something that I am very grateful for now. This is another film that I will get for you from Nettie one day. It was really exciting when Tali was trying to get herself into the crawling position. She had started to lay on her stomach and pull herself across the floor since she was about 6 months old. I do not believe that she was very impressed that she kept collapsing!"

"Haha, now why can I believe that! She has her mother's spirit."

"And her father's determination." Ziva returned with a smile. It was a trait he held that she had always loved and been grateful for, and she was delighted that their daughter had this trait too.

"By February, she was sitting on her knees and dragging herself across the floor. She was then trying to crawl, but she was not quite strong enough to hold herself. But about two weeks later, she had gotten herself into a crawl position and was crawling slowly towards me. She wobbled and fell back down quite a few times, but she just getting back up and crawling again. It was… just… amazing to watch and cheer her. I could not believe that she had grown up so quickly!" Ziva gushed. She was such a proud mom. And it felt so good to share these moments with Tony; she could wait for them to experience more firsts together in the future. She wasn't going to make the mistake of excluding him again.

"You know… it is funny to think of how much has changed over these last few years. Palmer and Breena ae married with a daughter, you and I have a daughter together, McGee in a long-term relationship with Delilah.

(March 2015):

"It's funny you should mention that. We had the return of a few familiar faces. My father was back in town, and unsurprisingly he ended up helping us out on a case. We needed his expertise on artwork. But he revealed that he and Linda were no longer getting married. I initially thought the worse of my father; that Linda had seen him as a con artist. But she'd actually left him for an architect with apparently fancy glasses.

Her heart sank, poor Senior. He didn't deserve that, he only wanted to be happy in life. "How horrible, your father must have been devastated. I'm sorry. When you mentioned her before, they seemed like they would work, that they would be good together. I had hoped that your father would be happy."

Tony really appreciated her kind words, and knew that his father would have too. "Thanks, Ziva. So did I. She seemed to be really committed to my father, guess not… He was upset, started playing my breakup CD and hovering around my apartment. But eventually, he saw that it wasn't his fault and he started to move forward. And afterwards, we had another friendly face around. One of our next cases involved a certain, special someone. A woman had been stabbed and Ducky found that she had a piece of paper with a logo on her. McGee recognised the symbol and called his McSqueeze."

"Delilah?" Her face lit up. They had still been dating? Ziva was thrilled that there was someone special in Tim's life and that they were making things work while they were on opposite sides of the world. Finally, good for him!

"Oh yes! Timmy and Delilah had been managing to make their long-distance relationship work. McLover boy called her because she had been tracking a terror group called 'Dragons Tooth' and they used that symbol. They targeted anyone who posted online that a family member was currently deployed. We started exchanging information and it soon became a joint op between us and the DOD."

Ziva smiled. "It must have been quite nice for Tim and Delilah to see each other again and to be working on a case together."

"Yeah, I think it was nice for them to be in the same country as each other. Although they didn't get five minutes to themselves to even say hello to each other. Case came first. And after a little investigating of our own, Abby discovered that the DOD's main target of interest, Malik, was scheduled to meet someone called Pistachio that day. So, we set our own op up, but we were real surprised to learn that Pistachio was actually Delilah!"

"Oh."

Ah.

That couldn't have been good.

"Yeah… turns out she was undercover and had been back in the US for a week."

Ouch. "How did McGee take that?" Not well, she could imagine.

"Well, his girlfriend failed to mention that she was in the country. Which, I can understand cos it may have blown her op. But she was also sharing a safe house with her team leader, who was a guy. Don't worry, she made sure that they had separate rooms. But of course, McEnvy was so jealous! And angry. And that caused a lot of tension between the two of them."

Taking Tali into her lap, she brushed through her daughter's wild locks and kissed the top of her head. The sleepy little girl curled up against her Ima's shoulder, returning the favour by playing with the ends of her mother's hair. It had grown just long enough for her to be able to reach the curls. Ziva hoped that they hadn't let this case come between them. They deserved to be happy, and Ziva wanted something permanent for her old, dear friend.

Watching the scene in front of him, Tony knew that he could easily get used to that sight. Where was the camera when you needed it? "Anyway, they had to work through it and get the job done. We found that Malik had been making videos of himself going through houses of military people, which lead us to figure out that he wasn't working along; he had a cameraman. Abby ran the prints, which belonged to the pizza delivery kid we meet at Malik's apartment. Kid helped him for the money and told us that Malik was obsessed with this 'Pistachio' person."

"Malik followed McGee to Delilah's safe house and McGee made a probie mistake and opened the door when someone knocked, without checking the peephole. He tried to trick Malik into thinking that Delilah had gone rogue and really was working for him, but Malik saw right through that when he ordered her to shoot McGee and she refused. But McGenuis had figured out that the gun wasn't loaded, it was a test. Luckily, she was following Rule #9 that day and took Malik down. Although how is it that they had a gun pointed at them and yet they thought that it was the best time to discuss their relationship?!"

She couldn't help but laugh loudly, which made Tali look up at her through bleary eyes. She had just been starting to doze off. Not a happy toddler. "(Sorry), motek." Ziva whispered. She kissed Tali's temple once more and stroked her hair again, soothing her gently. Ziva knew that she would need to settle her down in their bedroom soon.

"And that was that, pretty much. Case closed. Her team leader was suspended due to gross negligence, which made McGee's day! And the DOD decided to make Delilah the new team leader. Tim was really happy for her, but a bit upset at the thought of her being in Dubai for even longer. However, she revealed that as the threat was in the US, that meant that she was going to be relocated back to DC!"

"What?! Oh my goodness! McGee must have been over the Earth!"

"Moon, Zi, but that was pretty close." Had he mentioned just how much he'd missed her little Ziva-isms?!

Ziva almost melted inside. 'Zi, he called me Zi! I have really missed him calling me that. Ugh, since when did I become such a girl?!'

Ziva went and settled Tali down before Tony continued with his recap of their 2nd year apart. "We had another pretty interesting case after that. A bit of a blast from the past. A man and a woman were shot dead inside a car. NCIS were investigating because the guy was a Navy Petty Officer. However, I was meant to be to Atlantic City for a week with some friends, which left McGee in charge. That was until he found out that the car was requisitioned for Operation Lex Talionis."

That rang a bell. "I remember that case. It was Latin for 'Law of Retaliation'. That was the case where someone detonated a bomb in the department terminal of Metropolitan International Airport back in the 70's, right?"

"Yeah, that's the one. The case that we'd picked up again because a similar bomb was discovered two years ago in Colombia by NCIS agents but the suspect was never caught. We managed to narrow it down to Tomas Orlando. But anyway, as soon as we heard that operation name again, Gibbs and I went straight to MTAC, but Tim and Bishop tried to follow. They certainly weren't too happy about being locked out of there."

Ziva winced. "I can imagine that they would not have been."

"They were then briefed on the case. They were told that Gibbs had been put in charge two years prior to that and that I had been brought in by him. Tim then asked if you had known about this and he could tell from our lack of response that you had. I think that made him angrier, knowing that he had been the only member of the field team at the time not to have known about this case. He was really upset and angry."

"I get why he was upset. He really should have been chosen above me, technically, as he had been an agent and a member of the team for longer than I had. I was only chosen because Gibbs and Vance wanted me to reach out to Monique and ask her if she had or could find out some information as she was still in Colombia. If they had been unaware that I was friends with her, then I would not have known about your operation either."

Tony nodded thoughtfully. She had a point, even though he had been glad at the time that she had been read into that case. He was fed up of keeping secrets from his friends and not having someone to confide in about cases. However, he did regret that it may have come at the expense of his friendship with McGee.

"Yeah… he sulked about it. He was fuming that he had been kept in the dark. But I think that he was more hurt by this than anything else. It was almost like a kick in the teeth: you, me and Gibbs had all known about this case, so why he had been excluded? He told me that he'd shared info with me all the time, so why didn't I share this with him? He said he no longer trusted me."

Ziva sighed and rubbed her left arm up and down with her right hand. She hated it when they argued with each other. It was like watching two brothers arguing with each other; family falling out with one another. She could only imagine how tense the atmosphere must have been, and Ziva hoped that they'd resolved this quickly (and painlessly).

"I broke Rule Number 6. But I had to apologise to him for keeping things from him, he deserved it. Lucky for me, he did forgive me after a while. He wasn't too McBitter towards me after that. But he wasn't the only one who needed an apology. Abby was livid that someone else had run the DNA and conducted forensics on this case. She felt betrayed by Gibbs. And she confronted him about that."

"Ooh, I would not have wanted to have been there for that conversation." Ziva winced. A father/daughter argument was something that she'd had plenty of times a few times with Gibbs and more so Eli and she could only imagine that Abby must have exploded.

"But after Gibbs explained about the sample being at another NCIS office, which would have had chain of custody issues had it been given to her, Abbs accepted his reason. Lucky for him. And later, Abby proved with DNA that Orlando was the bomb maker. But while everyone else was running around looking for Orlando, I used those good old school sleuthing and I found him!"

"Let me guess, he found you?" Ziva cheekily remarked, tilting her head to one side.

Tony frowned at her. How does she do that? "Well… sort of… alright, he came to the squad room, you happy? Anyway, he was seeking asylum. Said he was selling drugs so he could fund himself to stand up to his government, but denied making the bomb. He was planning to retire and wanted his kids to be safe. So, he provided us with his DNA. And it turned out that it wasn't Orlando. He had been set up by a drug lord and we later got him."

"Wow… he was lucky. I can understand why he would want to be out of that line of work. I bet you and Gibbs were glad to close that case."

"Oh yeah, we were. But as they say, when one door closes, another one opens. And this door came in the form of a bad group and a good friend."

(April/May 2015)

Good new first, they decided. "An old friend paid us a visit. The one and only Mr Ned Dornegat."

"Ned, wow! How was he? Last I heard, he was working in the Cyber Crimes department, right?"

"Yeah, that's right. He was there to help us with a case. One of the worst we'd ever had. A Navy computer tech officer working for ONI was found dead with her throat cut. Dornie was investigating her computer activity and he found that she'd accessed a home computer belonging to a guy with an import/export business. However, it turned out to be his teenage daughter she was interested in. The girl had been visiting an online chatroom, and was soon invited to join another. Except this one was a recruitment page and they were asking her if she knew what her calling was. She quit both chatrooms straight away, but got threatening messages for doing so. So, she spoke with our dead tech officer, who volunteered at the kid's school, and got the chatroom blocked."

"I see… That explains why she was killed. She had stopped this girl from being recruited." Ziva was starting to see how the puzzle was fitting together.

"Probably, yeah. The girl remembered their username, which we tracked down to a teenage boy from the same school, Bradley Simek. Abby also found out that the weapon used to kill our tech officer was a bayonet that had mould from the Vietnam-era on it. It just so happened that there had been a local collector of this era of memorabilia: Bradley's dad."

Rule #39. There's no such thing as coincidence. "I don't believe in coincidences!"

"Kid had a 3D printer in his room, which had been used to print a bomb detonator, and his computer had gun powder on it. He was also a bit of a loner at school, which made him join the terror group that had tried to recruit the other girl.

"Are you telling me that this boy murdered your tech officer to prove his worth to the group?" Ziva questioned. She knew first-hand that kids could be used as weapons and pawns by terror cells and groups, but it was still shocking to learn that this was happening.

"That's what we were all thinking. Abby tracked him down to a bus and when we got there, we saw that he had the bomb on him. Kid told us it wasn't him who was the murderer, but it was his weapon. Gibbs was talking him out of the situation, but when the kid spotted the police, he set the bomb off."

Horrible. Just… there was no need for him to be involved in that. "How many more kids are going to get caught up in this endless violence? All they want is a chance to belong somewhere. To be listened to and loved."

"I know… too many kids are being dragged into this. Dorneget was able to connect Simek to a terror cell located in Iraq named "The Calling". They were using chatrooms, cartoons, even video games to recruit young kids. Gibbs had spotted another kid near the bus. Luke Harris. His biological parents were from Iraq but they'd been killed, so he was living with his adoptive parents. He was also being bullied at school because of his Middle Eastern heritage. Luke had found Simek in a chatroom and wanted to fit in with him. Gibbs tried get through to Luke; show him that he was worth something. He believed he could save this kid, even Ducky saw hope in the fact that Luke never finished his goodbye note to his adoptive parents. But, when Gibbs took him to see them, they'd been killed."

Ziva felt bad for this kid. He'd lost two sets of parents, was being bullied, had no one to care about him. She could see why Gibbs had wanted to make sure he was cared for.

"McGee and Dornie were tasked with going to an Interpol meeting in Cairo. And while they were at the hotel, McGee got a phone call, warning him to evacuate the building. There was a bomb there. He and Ned started getting people out of there, but someone ran through the red laser light, causing the S-Mines to explode all over the hotel."

What. No… not them. "Were… were they alright?" Had time frozen? Ziva felt herself freeze with anticipation, praying for them both.

Tony hated this, sharing bad news. "McGee, he was fine. Lucky. He didn't get caught in the blast. But Ned…

No. Please no.

"Dornegat didn't make it".

NO! Her heart sank, and she allowed a few tears to escape. Ned… he was such a good, nice person. He was an easy man to speak to and had such a strong sense of justice. And she loved that about him. Ziva said a Hebrew prayer for him. This was another grave that she wanted to visit and pay her respects to.

"McGee escorted his body back to DC, where we met Ned's mother, Joanne. Did you know she worked for the CIA?"

"No, I never knew that."

"Joanne said that he wanted it that way. He didn't want people to think that he only got the job as an NCIS Agent because of her."

Ziva could understand that one all too well. As she'd told Tony before: "I know what it's like to have a relative in a place of power. It can… influence things."

"She came down to the bullpen and told us that Ned really liked all of us. Joanne wanted to thank us all for being good friends to her son."

Ziva smiled. "He was a good friend to all of us, too. He earned his place at NCIS." She thought back on those cases where they'd worked together, especially with Harper Dearing. She would never forgot Palmers bachelor party!

Tony nodded. "That he was and did. And he had become a great agent too. McGee found something that Dorneget had been working on. All of the kids who were recruited were sent some techno music. Joanne saw that Luke was listening to music and he wouldn't let her listen. She became suspicious of Luke and voiced her concerns to Gibbs, but he still wanted to think the best of the kid."

"Abby found out that the songs had codes similar to Morse code in the bass lines. Messages to hurt others. We also discovered that "The Calling" were giving out a free video game, but you had to win to get the information. So, naturally, who better to ask to play a video game than our resident Elf Lord! Big surprise he won the game, revealing locations and grids of business centres, tourist destinations and naval bases. All of them were targets for the terror cell."

Ziva shook her head. That was bad. Terrorists using music and games to get kids to join their cause… that was frightening. As a mom, that just made her want to hug and protect Tali more. But she couldn't keep her wrapped in bubble wrap for her whole life.

"Meanwhile, Luke managed to escape his protective detail and flee to Iraq. So, Gibbs, Joanne and I, we flew out to Iraq too. But while we were tracking down a lead through a market, I got a call from Daniel Budd, the leader of "The Calling". This was a distraction. Someone called Gibbs name, making him turn to face them, before they shot him twice. Once in the leg, once in the chest."

"Gibbs was shot! By who?" She was shocked. Someone shot Gibbs, who? What was that going to achieve? Did he make it? Wait… Ziva remembered that Tony had mentioned Gibbs meeting and learning about Tali. Woah, Grandpa Gibbs, now that was a weird thought!

"Luke Harris."

"The kid?!" Had she heard him right? Luke shot Gibbs?! This was the same kid that Gibbs had tried to protect. He had put a lot of trust into this young kid, all for him to betray him and shoot him. Why? Even though there was a bit of tension between the two of them, she still saw Gibbs as a father figure and was horrified of the thought of him being hurt like this. Especially by a child. Ziva felt utterly horrified.

"Was Gibbs alright?"

Tony sighed. Well, now that was an interesting question. Was he alright? That covered physically and psychologically. Neither of which Gibbs was 100% after that, as Ziva was about to learn…

A/N: Woo, another one bites the dust! Chapter 14, Season 12 is done and dusted. Now the dreaded Season 13… And then you will see where this story is going to go (maybe?). I've honestly been staring at this chapter for four months, so I apologise if this is complete rubbish or makes no sense haha.

Thank you all once again for your amazing support, hopefully it won't be another four months until the next update (I make no promises though, haha!). I am writing as much as I can before I start back on the 4th Jan.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed my last chapter, I really appreciate it! Thank you to all of the guests who read and reviewed my story, here are my replies to all of you.

Debbie: Hello there! I hope that you are well, sorry for not speaking in so long! Thank you so much for your review on my last chapter, yeah sadly it will get worse, but it will get better as you said. Ooh I like the name Jackson for the baby boy… all shall be revealed soon! :)

Guest (Sep 5, 2016): Hey, long time no speak, sorry about that! No problem at all, I totally respect that you want to remain a guest reviewer :) Ooh wow I hope that your exam went well for you! Yeah, I will add Alejandro teaming up with the Brotherhood of Doubt.

Guest (Sep 5, 2016): October 2013:

1. Ahh yes, I did think about adding that in that chapter (Deena's comment to Tony), but I have found a place for that to go in chapter 16 (the sort-of aftermath of their catch up). I love your take on that situation where Tony suspects that Deena will take revenge, and I too took her comment as an indirect threat.

2. Oh yes, Deena will have to decide if Ari truly loved her. I'm actually quite excited to cover that point in the future chapters…

November 2013:

1. Yeah, that makes sense, it's now been changed to Bishop, thank you :)

2 and 3. I think that Ziva would tell Tony that she thinks Bishop will be a good part of the team, and that Tony would explain his own opinions. I wanted to skim over this in chapter 13 but I want to add this point, possibly to chapter 16.

December 2013:

1. Hehe that's my Ziva-ism for the chapter! Turns out I changed that back in September and wondered why I couldn't find it to change it now XD

2. I did consider Ziva counting back to when her last period was, I'm guessing that my brain last year decided to do something different (I really don't know haha)

3. Ooh, I like the idea of Nettie telling Ziva that Tali was a gift. If it's alright with you, I may use that as a flashback later on?

4. Ahh, thank you for spotting that one. I read it back and you're right, something's missing. I think that Ziva and Orli do need to have a chat about the past: about Rivka and Eli. Like you said, they would then start to understand each other and repair the wounds between them. As Orli said, they built many bridges over the years. I'm not sure whether to add that to chapter 13, 14 or a future chapter, what do you think?

January 2014:
1. I just checked chapter 11 and it's probably just me, but I couldn't find where Ziva said she knew that Delilah was paralysed. She said she knew that they were still together. I like the silent prayer idea, that's very respectful.

2. Oh yeah, just added that McGee tried to throw himself back into work!
3. Yep, done and corrected :)

May 2014:
1. Yeah I intentionally left out the events of "The Admiral's Daughter". I guess at the time of writing that chapter, I didn't see the importance of including it, but I may bring it up as a funny anecdote later on!
2. Hehe that's in there now, it was funny!

Other notations:

1, 2 and 3: God it's so weird having to write with American spelling! I know there will be lots of the English spellings of words in all of my chapters haha!

4. Hehe I like the name, "Anthony D. DiNozzo III." I'm interested to see what people think of the name if I reveal it :)

5. Woah… that's weird. I wrote the ending to chapter 14 and then read your comment. With Ziva asking about Gibbs' fate and this leading into the start of chapter 15. That's so spooky that we both thought the same thing! We're on the same wavelength!

Guest (Sep 22, 2016):

1. I hope that the end of the chapter was okay, I found this part quite hard to write. Maybe it's where I don't quite like Gibbs' character as much anymore, he's just lost himself really.

2. Hehe oh yes I was always going to mention Rebecca and Diane being friends and ganging up on Gibbs!

3. With the NCIS:NOLA team, I'm gonna leave that for later, maybe chapter 15 or 16? I know, right! I really liked Brody, she worked so well with the rest of the team and it's just not the same show now! Creative reasons, huh, probably similar to why Cote left!
4. Again, I may mention the LA team later, but Tony in that suit made me laugh! Maybe a picture of that will be seen by Ziva :)

5. Ziva was angry and shocked to learn that Sergei and Ari were half-brothers.

6. Oh yes I totally agree with that. I think that Tony would not have been able to live if Ziva died and Tali was either not born or if he didn't learn about her. Look at his actions after Somalia and the whole "Couldn't live without you". I agree, he felt as if there was nothing worth living for. Oh I will most definitely be bringing this up in the next few chapters!

7. Definitely, we will need Rule #40 for the next chapter for Ziva. I'm sure it will appear again throughout this story.

8. Rule #3 is hugely important, otherwise Tony would never have found Ziva. And I love Rule #8, never take anything for granted. Gotta bring those two rules up soon!

Guest (Sep 24, 2016): I know right, I saw that Tony's dad was back! McGee got Tony's apartment, I expected that to happen and it's the right decision. Love DiNozzo Sr!

Guest (Sep 28, 2016): I know! I couldn't believe that Gary Glasberg died! While I may not have like where he took NCIS, I won't disrespect the dead and it is horrible that that happened :(

Guest (Oct 10, 2016): Ahh I wondered where you got the idea of the four steps from, I'm gonna have to read up on "The Four Steps - Reconciliation Education."

2. Yes I gonna have Tony mention the odd things surrounding Ziva's supposed death, like Gibbs' reaction and other things he wrote on his list (which Ziva will also see!). Oh we fans definitely spotted that their reactions, especially Gibbs', were strange!

3. Ahh… I really need to read "Where The Winds Carry Them." When I do, you will hear what I think. Aww, I hope they do update their story and that everything is alright :)

4. Yeah, the info would've had to have been leaked. Sneaky Pedro, bribing someone at NIS to bribe Mitchell to cause the crash. I think we would have to delve into the unsolved Shannon and Kelly case in this fic. I know right, I bet it will appear again on the show in the future.

5. Oh yes, that was always my plan from the start. Unless Tiva come back on the show, they won't be getting in contact with anyone on the team. And they will need to discuss that with each other.

6. Hehe, yeah it's quite tough without giving away the plot too much, I'm gonna have to think about that one too! Thank you :)

Guest (Oct 12, 2016): Hehe woohoo! It's about time that McGee settled down, I was waiting for him to propose to Delilah! :)

Guest (Oct 14, 2016): Ooh I didn't know about that fanfic "The Lost Daughter", I'll have to add that to my 'to read' list. I'm liking the new title "The Lone Survivor."

Guest (Oct 15, 2016): I know… I am thinking about adding Ray Cruz into the mix, I haven't fully decided yet. But it would be interesting to see Ray and Deena working together! I think that he would be like a jealous ex and would also want to get rid of Tony too, before keeping Tali for himself. Thank you so much for sending me your synopsis for both "The Lone Survivor" and "The Chains of Fate". The first one especially gave me goosebumps and both are great! Hehe, that would cool if the fans could get the show to make that story canon.

Guest (Oct 23, 2016): I read about what happened when Tony's dad came back. It was interesting that he mentioned that Tony and Tali were going to stay in Paris. I'm glad that fits in with my story! I also want Tiva to tell Sr in the future about Ziva, so he then had to lie to the team. Well, maybe not lie… just not tell them about Ziva. Yeah, I think that Tony would have put all of his stuff in storage before he knew what he was going to do, maybe he will move his stuff out of there in the near future…?

CG (Oct 24, 2016): I think Tiva need to be in contact with Orli (and people like Nettie, Shmeil and Sr) in the future. Orli would really need to explain why she lied to the team and went against what Ziva asked her to do. Tony would also see the weird things about how the team, mainly Gibbs, reacted.

Guest (Oct 24, 2016):

C1: Ooh I'm not sure, I still quite like Inconsistencies.

C2: I like Meeting Aunt Nettie, that's been changed.

C3: This is so tough, I may keep this as it is, I may change it…

C4: Again, I like An Unsettling Realization, that's changed.

C5: Or maybe Tony V Orli: The Confrontation?

C6: The Missing Pieces: Tough… I can't decide which title I like better!

C7: Ooh, I like The True Fate of Ziva David… I might change that, I'm not sure…

C11: A Cold, Cruel, Harsh Reality. Like C6, I'm not sure which title I prefer!

C12-15: I like the added first, second, third and fourth step parts.

C16-20: I'm loving the chapter titles and ideas for all of these. I'm excited to write these, especially chapter 16 for some weird reason!

Guest (Oct 29, 2016): Haha I've changed what Ziva called Bishop now! Ooh, I may need to change that and add when Gibbs cited Rule #11 to Bishop and the Parsa situation causing a temporary rift, then her earning his trust and probie agent status (plus a hug). I will discuss Bishop and her skillset in future chapters. Yeah, I think Orli didn't mention Jackson's death as it would have upset Ziva and may have affected her pregnancy.

Guest (Oct 31, 2016): I bullet-pointed this chapter and then checked this to see if I had everything! Sergei had to be mentioned, along with Zoe, McGee's dad, Diane's death, Rebecca, Sergei, Ned and The Calling. I'm going to leave Jake until the next chapter, mainly because I didn't have much to say about him in this one. And I'm going leave Agent Borin for a while (although I love her character and Diane Neal!).

Chapter 15:

1. Haha I'd love to see Ziva's reaction to Gibbs' change in haircut! We would have to link that to the mustache appearing in S4.

2. Good point, I will cover Jake in the next chapter.

3. Haha, that'll be interesting to mention Tony's date that caused him trouble!

4. Yes, the whole Kort situation will be discussed and what Tony might have done if he hadn't met Tali and/or Ziva had really been killed.

C. New NCIS Story Creation Suggestions:

"A Gift, A Curse" (A Caitlin Todd Story Idea) – Ooh I love reading those types of stories! That would be cool to see events from a ghost-Kate's POV. Exciting!

"Unleashed Fury" (An Alternate Take on Tony's Departure and Tiva Reunion) – You've easily sold that one to me, that's right up my street too! I would love to see that version of Tony take on Kort. I could see him killing Kort and attacking him brutally, but also ending up seriously injured himself. Maybe Ziva would learn about this and while she doesn't want to reveal that she is alive as it may endanger other lives, she can't bear that Tony is destroying himself and is happy to commit suicide to be with her.

Guest (Dec 15, 2016): Hiya, I know I'm so sorry about the huge delay. I love my job to pieces, but it leaves little time to write (which is sad). Aww no way it's totally not because of all your postings, I like speaking with all you guys! And I'm blushing now, I'm really glad you like my story, it definitely helps to have a fact checker like you! Yes I too believe that Orli always has a trick up her sleeve.

1. I'm really toying with the idea of whether or not I want Vance to have known that Ziva was alive. I keep changing my mind! The thing that stops me is his genuine reaction to the news of her alleged death. I do believe that Orli would have asked him to lie to Gibbs and the team, especially Tony, if she had informed him about Ziva going into hiding, and Vance would only have agreed to protect Ziva.

2. Ooh, that's interesting that only Gibbs, McGee and Bishop would have been told of Ziva's survival. I'm still a bit drawn to the whole team and Vance not knowing that she was still alive (maybe it's because I want a big shock/ reveal later?). Then again, that would possibly (and sadly probably) take the end of my story as AU, but I'd love to see a happy Tiva ending on the show. But I do believe that Gibbs' gut was telling him that she was still alive, which is why he was more together than the others, and it would explain his chat with Tony in the basement.

3. Yeah, I think the team did and would persuade Tony to go out there and find out what happened to Ziva. Which like you said is what Orli had wanted.

4. I also agree that the team would be angry with Orli's actions to lie to them, and that Abby wanted him to go to Ziva.

5. Oh I think Ziva will be angry with Orli for telling the team that she was dead, when she knew that they could be trusted to keep this to themselves. Tony would also be angry, but reminds her that he had still found her in the end. Orli did want the team to be angry and take revenge on the one-eyed teabag as Tony called him. It would also be good for Tony to see in the next chapter that Gibbs was trying to indirectly remind him about Rule #3 and tell him to go find and be with Ziva. To be a family together.

Guest (Dec 25, 2016): I really liked your version of the ending for chapter 14, I thought that it was very dramatic! I've intentionally left out the part about Pin-Pin and Gibbs' coma only because I'm going to put that at the start of chapter 15. I especially liked your ending sentence to flow to chapter 15, think you wrote it better than I did haha! :)

Guest (1st Jan 2017): I will definitely be adding a scene where Tony mentions that Gibbs changed his haircut and Ziva compares this to the time when he grew a mustache and had a scraggly beard. That's interesting to mention Gibbs' initial memory problems and lapses, especially times such as when he called Ziva 'Kate'. She may worry that he had similar problems after Luke shot him… Haha I could definitely see Ziva trying and failing not to laugh at Tony being manipulated by Elizabeth Elliott! And I love the image of a sulky Tony saying "That's NOT funny!" Perfect Tiva, that may appear in the next chapter if it's okay with you?

Sue Dooley: Hello there! Long time, no speak, sorry! I hope that you are well, thank you so much for reviewing my last chapter, Tiva forever! :)