Ziva watched out the window as the group of girls giggled and jumped around on the trampoline. She sighed and brushed a lock of hair off her face and sat back on the couch.
"Haven't been away from her have you?"
"Brings back bad memories when we are." She gave Michelle a tight smile. "We have just gotten them back, and it might be for good…I do not want to ever let her out of my sight again."
Michelle grabbed a bottle of wine out of the fridge and pulled the cork out. "I can understand. I won't say that I know what you're going through because I don't. But if you need anyone that isn't Tony to chat with…I'm here."
Sitting down on the couch, Ziva took a glass of wine from Michelle. "Thanks."
The black doctor smiled. "Anytime." She winced as the back door flew open and four little girls ran in, Lucy leading the charge.
"Mooooooooooooom."
"Yes Luce?"
"Can we order pizza now? We're huuuuuungry." The girl batted her eyes and smiled.
"Sure. Ask everyone what they want and I'll order." She smiled to Ziva. "Am I right to assume veggie pizza or cheese?"
Ziva grinned and fingered her Star of David necklace. "Well I have not kept as kosher as I should, but Daniela and Jacob do, so we try as much as possible. Though, I think that Tony sneaks bacon cheeseburgers and pepperoni pizzas when I am not looking."
Michelle laughed. "He's not Jewish?"
"With the last name DiNozzo?" Ziva rolled her eyes. "No, he is not. But he is trying. He has even gone so far as to take Hebrew lessons and we have gone to the synagogue for couples classes."
"That's sweet. How long have you guys been together?"
"It feels like ages, but we have only been together for a little while…but we have worked together for three years." She smiled. "We were…I do not want to use the word afraid, but we were wary of starting a relationship…"
"! CAN WE HAVE A HAWAIIN PIZZA AND A CHEESE PIZZA?"
Rolling her eyes, Michelle gave Ziva a smile and stuck her head out the backdoor. "Okay, I'll order them. Do you girls want to come in and watch movies?"
"THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOOOOOOOOOOOVE!" The girls roared as they ran into the house.
"This is what you have to look forward to." Michelle grinned and popped the DVD into the player. "Food will be here in 45 minutes. Think you all can survive?"
"Yeah."
Daniela smiled up at Michelle. "Thank you Dr. Hsu." She said shyly, hugging Ziva tightly. "Are you staying?" She whispered.
"If you want me to."
The girl nodded. "Please." She squeezed hard and went back to sit beside Lucy.
"Do you mind?" Ziva asked turning to Michelle.
"Not at all." She smiled and gave Ziva's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "In fact we can go over Jacob's surgery if you want…and I'm pretty sure that the men are stinking drunk by now."
Ziva laughed. She watched as Daniela giggled with the rest of the girls.
"NO TOUCHIE!" They chanted.
"LLAMA FACE!"
"Warning. The pizza will only keep them quiet for a little while." Michelle said rolling her eyes. "Though I have a feeling that we may be making out better than the men."
"Really?"
Michelle grinned. "Trust me, leave Tyler alone for 30 seconds and he's going to break something. He cut a hole in our wall."
"Why?"
"To see how the electricity works. He also accomplished to give himself second degree burns, shorted out the power for the whole neighbourhood and got launched across the room. It was lovely." Michelle shook her head. "With his autism, he tends to do things that he's either thought through very very well…or not at all. Sadly, that one I believe he thought through very well. I'm sure that with the card game those two are elbow deep in trouble."
#
No. He likes it.
Jacob cocked an eyebrow before smiling. It did seem like he liked it.
This is fun.
I know. I have an invention outside, we can play with that after.
Cool.
Tyler held the dog down as Jacob ran the clippers over his fur.
Lets make it all spikey in a row down his back!
Jacob nodded and kept going. They pushed the fur into a corner and pulled the hair gel they took out of Tyler's uncle's bathroom and squirted it on the dog, Lego. The dog panted and rolled over, allowing the boys to finish their clipping job.
"Tyler, are you guys okay in there?" Keith called from the other room.
"Yes Dad!" Tyler replied through the door. He turned to Jacob. Do you think we should dye Lego's fur?
Jacob nodded. Green. He can be HULK DOG!
HULK DOG! Tyler grinned in agreement and grabbed his box of paints. He loved coming to his uncles. They drank special pop and let him do everything. It wasn't as fun when his uncle's girlfriend was around, she actually watched him. But she was gone. They dumped the green paint on Lego and rubbed it into the stripe of fur.
"He looks awesome!" Tyler said, signing to Jacob. Now let's go outside.
Okay.
"Dad, my new friend Jacob and I are going to go outside." Tyler pushed his glasses up on his face and brushed the dog hair off his pants. "DAD!"
"I hear you Ty. Go. Stay out of trouble."
Jacob ran into the kitchen were the card game was happening. He tried to grab the pizza box off the table before Tony grabbed it back.
"Not Kosher." He handed him the cheese pizza. "BE. GOOD."
Grinning, Jacob grabbed the pizza pieces and took off towards Jacob.
"Well at least they seem to get along well."
Keith laughed. "Tyler found someone to help him out with his 'inventions.'" He grinned. "I love him, I really do. But sometimes it's frustrating having a kid smarter than you."
Kieran Murphy, Michelle's brother, frowned. "Guys. I think we have a problem."
"What now?"
He pointed outside to the tree house where Tyler and Jacob were standing both with sheets.
"What ARE they doing?" Tony stood up and walked over to the window.
"Oh not again." Keith sighed and watched as Tyler launched himself off the treehouse into a pile of blankets that they obviously stole from inside.
"Jacob DON'T!" Tony yelled.
"Dude, he's deaf. He can't hear you." Kieran said with a smile.
Jacob jumped off with the sheet billowing behind him.
"Welcome to my life." Keith said dryly, putting his cards down and heading outside. "Tyler Hsu!"
Tyler buried under the blankets. "You can't get mad at me! I'm just a small child!" He cried from deep inside his tunnel.
Keith sighed and dragged the pile of blankets, kids and all, into the house. "I told you to be good."
Tyler poked his head out with Jacob quickly following. "Then I advise you not to go into the other room."
"TYLER! What did you guys do?"
"You might want to give me my punishment now before you find out." He gave a sweet smile and crawled back into the blankets.
We are in trouble. Tyler signed closing his eyes.
Jacob sighed and curled into a ball.
"WHY THE HELL IS MY DOG GREEN? AND WHY DOES HE HAVE A MOHAWK!"
#
- She seems to be fine. Ziva texted to Tony, watching Daniela giggle as one of the girls braided her hair.
- Good. Jacob is getting into trouble w/ Tyler. Tony texted back, keeping an eye on Jacob as he built with the kinex set.
- What did they do?
- They painted the dog green, gave him a haircut and tried to parachute out of the tree house.
- Are they ok?
- Fine. Just mad because we made them clean up the paint.
Ziva smiled and looked at her phone. Tony sent a picture of the green dog with green handprints all over the wall.
- Way to babysit.
- Oh be quiet. J I love you Ziva.
- Love you too Tony.
She closed her phone smiled. She had been brought up thinking that life was nothing more than means to an end. Maybe, just maybe, this is what people were talking about when they talked about being truly happy.
A/N - Sorry this took so long. I was having a major block with this and then had midterms. Ugh. And my mom is down in Mexico getting the liberation treatment for MS…hopefully it works! I hope that I can be more timely with updates, but finals are quickly approaching! Eeek!