Tony watched Ziva sleep. Well, more like succumb to a drug assisted coma. He silently thanked the makers of no taste gravol and how quickly it dissolved in a can of coke. Even in her drugged stage, her face was still wrought with pain, exhaustion, frustration and defeat. He sighed and brushed her hair out of her face. Instead of seeing a strong, and somewhat scary, Mossad agent, he saw a woman far too young to be dealing with the issues she had internalized. Her face was pale, her cheeks tears stained, her hair was messy, but to him she was beautiful. He placed a parting kiss on her forehead and quietly left the room, shutting the door to the bedroom quietly.

He was tired, nothing like Ziva, but he was tired none the less, but his mind wouldn't wind down. The look on Ziva's face haunted him. He closed his eyes and he could see it. The look in her eyes, the pain, the anger, the emptiness. Ziva's eyes always told something of her mood. The glint in her eyes when she was planning something, the light in them when she was happy, the dark shadow that went over them when she was upset. But now. Nothing. It disturbed him more than her ninja skills. It down right scared him. With a sigh he opened his laptop and logged into Instant Messenger. It was 2:45 pm in Israel, meaning it was early in the morning in DC. Nevertheless Abby logged on with one emphatic message WEBCAM!

With a tired smile, he turned on the webcam. "Hi Abby."

"TONY!" The forensic scientist's voice was loud through the speakers. "How are you? How is Ziva? How is Israel? Is it hot? I bet it is, because it's a desert. Did you see Ziva's dad?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "One question at a time Abby. We just got back to the hotel…Ziva…she's sleeping right now." He sighed. "We met with her dad. I'm not sure what went on because I couldn't understand most of it…but…" He looked back towards the shut door. "It didn't look good."

"Oh." Abby frowned. "What did she say?"

He shrugged. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" The Goth's eyebrows disappeared behind her dark bangs. "Ziva never says nothing."

"Well she said nothing." Tony yawned.

"Jetlagged?"

"Yeah. But if I sleep it'll just get worse." He forced a smile when he heard some movement in the bedroom. "It sounds like Ziva is awake. I'll catch you later Abs. Say hi to McGeek for me."

She nodded as he closed the computer and walked back to the bedroom. Ziva was sitting up on the king sized bed, her dark eyes void of all emotion.

"How're you feeling?" He asked quietly.

Shrugging, she looked around. "What time is it?"

"About three."

"Oh." She brushed her hair off of her face.

"Ziva, do you want to tell me what happened in there, with your father?" He sat down on the edge of the bed.

Her eyes went dark. "Tony…"

"Ziva, I don't want to push, but if I don't know what happened, I can't help you." He reached over and gently brushed her hair off her shoulder. She flinched and hung her head.

"I know how much you want to be a father Tony…"

His eyes darkened, confused by her comment. "With Jacob and Daniela, I am a father. I don't understand what you're getting at."

Ziva's face paled further, if possible. "I know that, but…you. Your child. You want to have a child of your own?"

"A little DiNozzo? Yeah, sure. Why? You offering?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

She bit her lip, her body tensing. "Tony, that is what I am talking about."

"I still don't follow."

"Tony, how much do you know of Mossad?" She pulled herself up and sat cross legged on the bed.

"Um…essentially what you've told me…and a bit from Gibbs and Jenny. Why? Is there a blood oath you take to become Mossad?"

She shook her head. "No. I am talking about the goals of Mossad. An intelligence agency, yes, but we work to keep Israel a haven for Jewish people." She looked down at her lap. "And that my father is the head of. He does not take to "dirtying" the bloodline too lightly."

Tony held up a hand. "Wait wait wait, back up. Didn't your father have a child with a Palestinian doctor?"

"It is okay for him, he is the director, but not for his sub servants. Especially for his daughter."

"So you're saying that you can't have kids with me because I'm not Jewish?" He scooted closer to her. "Well that's easily solved. There are classes at the synagogue I can take to convert. I've actually looked into them, and we can do them as a family. Especially if Jake gets those Cochlear thingies you were researching…"

She placed a finger on his lips. "That is not what I am talking about." Closing her eyes she took a deep breath. "I was 17. He was 17. We lived in the same building…we grew up together, but we knew that our paths would never cross. He was Muslim, his family a holdover from Palestine, and my father was one of the top officials in Mossad." She looked at Tony. "It was not supposed to happen. Asher and I were not supposed to know each other, let alone be together…"

"Did you love him?"

"I was 17. What did I know about love? All I know is that he made me feel special and it went on from there… Tony I did not have a father, well in the literal sense I did, but not in the physical sense. Asher, he made me feel beautiful…confident."

Tony brushed a lock of her curly hair off her face gingerly. "Zee, you are beautiful, and you're one of the most confident women I've ever met."

"Woman yes, but a teenager? I was far from confident." She gave him a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "And then it happened."

"Your father found out?"

"Worse. I found out I was pregnant."

#

"Timothy McGee." McGee answered into his phone cradled under his chin. He was typing madly on his keyboard, keeping an eye out on the two probies that were assigned to their team in the absence of Tony and Ziva. One, James Wick, a former Marine officer with a big time attitude and the other, Megan Jones, a probie in every sense of word sat working on their reports.

"Hi Tim, it's Marguerite Taylor."

McGee sat up straighter. "Hi Marguerite. Is there something wrong with Daniela and Jacob? What is it? Where do I need to be?" He started speaking faster, pulling up an IM box with Abby, prepared to update her with any information he got.

The voice on the other end laughed. "No no nothing like that. It's just that today is Daniela's first basketball game back, and I know that she really wanted Tony and Ziva to come, but she mentioned having you, Abby, Jenny, Gabbs, Jimmy and…Ducky come?"

"That would be Gibbs and yes Ducky." McGee smiled and relaxed at his desk. "I'll ask everyone, but we're not too busy today so I can't see it being a problem."

"Great. It's at the North West Rec-Plex, gym three at 6:30. They're the Hawks."

"Thanks Marguerite." McGee hung up the phone and looked over at Gibbs who was drinking his coffee and glaring in the direction of the two probies. McGee was starting to think that he did it, just to make the probies feel uncomfortable. Shrugging he walked over to Gibbs's desk.

"Who was that on the phone?" Gibbs asked, continuing to glare at Wick over his coffee cup.

"Marguerite Taylor." McGee started.

"What's wrong?" Gibbs stood up ready to throw his empty cup into the trash bin and undoubtedly drive really really fast and really unsafely to go and save the day.

"Nothing. She just wanted to let us know that Daniela has a basketball game tonight and wanted to know if we could all make it."

Gibbs sat down. "Oh. Yeah, we don't have anything pending. The probies have some paperwork that has to be done."

McGee smiled internally. At least one good thing came out of Tony and Ziva leaving to Israel.

"I'll go ask the Director, Abby, Ducky and Jimmy." McGee said with a smile, heading down towards Abby's lab.

"I'll go talk to the director, you talk to the other three." Gibbs said taking the stairs two at a time.

#

Daniela wiped the soles of her basketball shoes on her knee high socks and took the pass from Amy on her team. She dribbled around and shot it at the hoop, scanning the crowd for familiar faces. She caught Abby first, the tall dark haired scientist waved and sat down.

With a happy sigh Daniela turned back to her team and got in line for warmups. Everyone she cared about was here, except for Tony and Ziva. She pushed that thought out of her mind and took the basketball in her hands. The whistle went and she crowded around the coach.

"Okay, starting line up. Sarah, you play centre."

A tall girl with short blond hair nodded.

"Kari, you play power forward."

A girl, who looked like she could eat Daniela for breakfast rubbed her hands together and grinned. "Got it coach."

"Ashley, you play shooting guard."

The coach looked around at the rest of the players. Daniela tightened the tie around the end of her braid and prepared to sit on the bench. She was the youngest on the team by two years and a good inch shorter than anyone. That, and she missed a good month of practice.

"Daniela. You take point guard."

"Me?" She pointed to herself. "Coach, I think you mean Danielle." She said quickly, pointing to the taller Asian girl across from her.

"No, I said Daniela. You. You take point guard. You're our best ball handler on the team. Go play the way you practice and we'll be fine. We really need to beat this team if we want to make playoffs. Got it?"

Daniela grinned and nodded. "Got it coach." She took a deep breath and walked out onto the court, taking her position for tipoff. Sarah won the ball back and she grabbed it, dribbling confidently with one hand, putting up two fingers with the other. She made her way up the court, eyeing the possibilities. Quickly she passed the ball, watching as it made it's way back to her and finally to Ashley on the other side and into the hoop.

"Nice passing Dan!" The coach yelled from the sidelines as the girls ran to get into the defensive position.

"You know, I never quite understood basketball." Abby said taking a sip of her Caf-Pow in a travel mug. "But Daniela's good."

Gibbs nodded. "Mmmm hmm. She's a good little athlete." He said, watching as Daniela stole the ball away from a much bigger girl and went in for an easy lay up. "Have you heard from DiNozzo or David?"

Abby nodded and took another sip. "Yep. Tony."

They all looked at her expectedly. "Oh. You want to know what he said?" She smiled. "Just that they were jetlagged and they went and talked to Daddy Director David."

"How did it go?" Jenny interjected, stealing a worried glance at Gibbs.

"Tony said that he wasn't sure since he doesn't understand Hebrew. But he said that Ziva was really drained after the meeting and didn't want to talk about it."

Gibbs fingered his cellphone in his pocket, resisting the urge to call his two officers. He would do that later, he thought, right now it's Daniela's moment. He smiled as he watched Daniela slide across the floor on her behind after being knocked down by a larger girl. She got up quickly and brushed her shorts off with both hands and shot a disgusted glare at the girl.

"Charging, number 8 blue. Number 13, red, two free throws."

Daniela grabbed the ball and went to the line. She bounced the orange ball a few times, spinning it in her hands. The ball made an arc as soon as it left her hands, deftly falling into the hoop. The next shot was the same.

Tonight was all about Daniela. Tomorrow Gibbs would worry about his two agents.