"In the great green room
There was a telephone
And a red balloon
And a picture of
The cow jumping over the moon
And there were three little bears sitting on chairs
And two little kittens
And a pair of mittens
And a little toyhouse
And a young mouse
And a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush
And a quiet old lady who was whispering "hush."
Goodnight room
Goodnight moon
Goodnight cow jumping over the moon
Goodnight light
And the red balloon
Goodnight bears
Goodnight chairs
Goodnight kittens
And goodnight mittens
Goodnight clocks
And goodnight socks
Goodnight little house
And goodnight mouse
Goodnight comb
And goodnight brush
Goodnight nobody
Goodnight mush
And goodnight to the old lady whispering 'hush.'
Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere."
(Margaret Wise Brown, Goodnight Moon)
Ziva softly smiled, closing the book in her hands and setting it onto the bookshelf next to Isabella's crib. Ty was curled up in the center of her lap, listening intently as she quietly read to them. The moon peaked through the baby pink curtains, illuminating the walls along with Ziva's heart from the darkness of the night.
She stood up slowly, resting Ty's body onto her hip before leaning over the bed with him to Isabella. "Goodnight, my love." She whispered, kissing the sleeping little girl and shutting the light switch off. She closed the door, leaving a tiny bit of it open enough in case she would have to return in the middle of the night and continued down the hall to Ty's room.
"Is Daddy coming home?" Ty questioned, rubbing his eyes with both of his fists.
"I do not know…" Ziva sighed, slowly placing Ty into his bed. Her hands grabbed the end of his sheets, tucking them into the bottom of his bed and around his body. She knelt down on her knees, facing him and stroking her hands though his hair. "I know that you are worried, tataleh. But I promise that Daddy loves you and Isabella very much."
"Does he love you?" His eyes were drooping, the loss of sleep through the whole family showing on his face from the past few days.
Ziva made a face, unable to answer the question and leaned down to kiss him goodnight. Without an answer to his question, she made her way out of his room, shutting the lights off in the same sequence as she had done every night.
Returning downstairs, Ziva picked up the remainder of dishes that waited inside the kitchen sink from dinner. She loaded most of the dishes that they wouldn't need for the next day into the dish washer and rinsed through some of the silverware that they would need. The moonlight bounced off her face, shining through the window overlooking the sink into their backyard where the grill and playset sat. A thought struck her as she looked at the tools that still lay onto the ground next to the almost built fireplace that Tony had started a few months ago. There would no longer be any family picnics or cookouts, at least with Tony there and the thought made her heart ache. She loved the warm, summer nights where they would eat and play with the kids for hours and then once it was bedtime, she and Tony would lay on a blanket sewn by Aunt Nettie. They'd spend the rest of the night, dousing in each other after Tony had been gone for so long to work where it felt like they had to get reacquainted with each other. The passionate touches, kisses and taste of each other skins would automatically register in their minds once the fieriness sparked. Although they were away from each other, they would never forget what the other one liked the most, the little nips to their ears and sucking on the pulse points of the other's neck.
It had been a week since she kicked Tony out of the house, throwing his clothes at him and making him beg for life to stay. Her heart was torn between asking him to come back, the cold of the newly Fall nights getting to her while she lay alone, staring at the ceiling with tears streaming down her face and pondering how she could make it as a single mother. But she was also still angry, enough to the point where she wouldn't even need more than one paperclip to slit his throat after the show he had put on about needing to go to work when all he wanted was a quick fuck from a random in New York.
-x-
"Uh, hey Agent DiNozzo." A scared voice echoed over the speaker of McGee's apartment.
"What's up?" Tony asked, rolling his eyes at the frightened member of his team. This wasn't the first time he had called up in a frantic way at the least likeable moment for Tony.
"We, uh, we went to go get the wife since you said she was the suspect. And, uhh…"
The stutter on the other line made Tony's fists clench. "Just get it out!" He yelled, kicking an empty bottle over with his foot and belched from the swishing of alcohol floating through his stomach.
"Uh, well, it looks like she definitely has some killing problems…" The voice on the other line coughed, continuing on. "We're here at her vacation house now, in Montauk and there's some other man here."
"Question him then, probie!" Tony yelled again, turning to look at Gibbs who shut off the TV beside him. "Jesus, do I have to do everything while I'm not even there?" He looked up at Gibbs, "When did you get here?"
"Agent DiNozzo I just said we got here to their vacation-"
"I'm not talking to you!" He scowled, grabbing another bottle of the table, gripping the bottle cap to open it when Gibbs took it out of his hands.
"And uh, we can't question him." He could barely hear their voice with the screaming in the background.
"Why not?!" Tony groaned, reaching out to grab the bottle back, receiving a head slap.
"He's dead. Looks like she's killing whoever gets in her way, so uh, we kind of…need you here" The voice trailed off, afraid of the bad mood Tony definitely was in with no realization of the alcohol in his system.
"Damn it." Tony cursed, rubbing his forehead. "I'll see what I can do." And with that, he hung up and turned around to look at Gibbs with a stern look on his face. "Did anyone ever tell you that you look like the Wizard of Oz?"
"God damn it, DiNozzo! You better pull your life together!" Gibbs snarled, nodding towards McGee who had just walked out of his kitchen.
"Oh hey, boss." McGee smiled, gesturing towards Tony. "You hear to see the damsel in distress?"
"Very funny, Mclilah!" Tony teased, raising his bicep and holding up a middle finger to the young man. "Book me a flight, probie!" He ordered, throwing his phone towards McGee.
"A flight?" McGee questioned, glancing at the numerous texts from an odd number on Tony's phone.
"Team is having trouble on a case. Crazy wife going around killing people," Tony shrugged, looking through the cracks of the couch for the remote.
"So, you're not going to fix things?" McGee asked, looking startled at Gibbs.
"You need to fix things, DiNozzo." Gibbs remarked with a slight yell.
"Fix what? My wife told me it's over. How do I fix that?!" He sneered, standing up to face his old boss and coworker. "She said she would send me the papers. I can't fight against what she wants."
"You ever think maybe she doesn't want that, DiNozzo?" Gibbs questioned, rocking back and forth on his heels while he waited for Tony to answer the question.
"I have to go pack…" Tony shook his head, the question lingering in his mind because what if boss was right? She could just be saying that because of how angry she is, doesn't mean she meant it. There was plenty of things that they said to each other in the past that they didn't mean.
"She said you're like a brother to her."
"Did you love him?" "I guess I'll never know."
"Well then, we must have different interpretations."
"You could have called."