"Tony, can you just choose one?" She said in exasperation.

She had finally given him permission to ask about the photos and he was dawdling over it! He was standing there, hovering over the photos, not doing anything!

"Give me a minute."

"You have had a minute. You have had lots of minutes."

"Well, I need a minute more."

She rolled her eyes and let out a huff. Sometimes she did not understand how her partner's mind worked.

"You do realise that we are going to go through all of them so it does not matter which one you choose first," she said in exasperation when it became apparent that he was no closer to choosing.

"But I want to start off on a high. Set the barre, so to speak."

Deciding that that wasn't even worth a response, Ziva simply rolled her eyes again.
It was not like any of these photos were anything special. They were just of her, on the beach at Haifa. Which was not unusual. She spent most of her holidays up there. It was were her grandparents lived as well as many Aunts and Uncles. Of course there were going to be pictures of her at the beach. If she was being honest with herself, it was her safe place. Her refuge. There was no Eli David at the beach, he never wasted his time in such a way. She could do what she wanted. Build sancastles. Bury cousins in the sand. Swim in the sea. Jump on the waves.

She could not help but smile as the memories washed over her. The next time she returned to Israel she must make time to go to the beach. That would be nice. Maybe even talk to some of her cousins. Have words with Aunt Nettie.

Then she realised Tony was still staring at her and she made an impatient noise.

"Just pick one, Tony."

"Okay, what about this one?" He lifted the one furthest from her and held it up. "You look extremely proud of yourself here."

Ziva inspected it quickly, just needing to verify which photo he had chosen. She had already figured out what was happening in each one when she first saw these photos.

"I had just buried one of my cousins in the sand," she replied. "An older one. He had been annoying me all day and he put sand in my hair. It was the stick that broke the camel."

"Straw that broke the camel's back," Tony corrected.

"A straw cannot break a camel's back. A stick could if you swung it hard enough."

For some reason Tony flinched at that. It was not like she had a stick that she was going to hit him with.

"Thats the point," Tony explained. "It means that you're so worked up or upset or angry or whatever that it only takes something small for you to lose control. You know what? Never mind. Not important. Photos important."

She could not help but chuckle at him. As annoying as this was (and she had to admit that it did not feel as annoying as it originally did), Tony's one track mind was funny. Especially when it made him forgot how to form sentences properly.

"Cousins." He stated, brow furrowed.

She raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"You said that he was one of your older cousins. As in multiple."

"Yes?"

What exactly was he getting at?

"Do you have a lot of cousins?"

Ziva thought for a moment and then nodded.

"I suppose I do. My father had a lot of siblings."

He gave her this look that she couldn't quite read. What? It was true. Her father had a lot of siblings so therefore she had a lot of cousins.

"Huh. You don't talk about them."

She shrugged.

"There is not much to talk about."

Sure, she emailed them a few times but that was about it. She saw them even less, even when she was in Israel. Mossad taking up most of her time. She did enjoy their company however but what they got up to when together was nothing interesting. Not like some of the exploits she had heard about Tony and his cousins and friends.

"That's Tali, isn't it?" He asked, pointing at the photo next to the one he just put down.

A smile automatically came to her face at the thought of her little sister. It was not even tinged with grief, this time.

"Yes, that is Tali."

He looked closer at it. "You look like each other."

"We do. Though she always wore her hair longer than I do," Ziva absentmindedly touched her own hair. "She was always asking me to braid it."

"Like in this photo?"

Tali's hair was done in two French braids, curls escaping from every part. Just like it always seemed to mere minutes after she fixed her hair. It was extremely infuriating for them both to have such curly hair.

"Yes. I did her hair here. Our mother wasn't around much and our father certainly never wasted his time doing either of our hair."

"Can't see Eli being the type to braid hair or tie ribbons."

Ziva could not help but snort at the image that gave her.

"We did not wear ribbons but no, he definitely was not."

Lifting the photo up, Ziva coukd not help but smile and the memory it invoked.

"She is pouting because I built a bigger sandcastle than her."

"Ah, good old-fashioned, sibling rivalry, huh?"

"Indeed."

As sweet as Tali could be, she definitely had a competitive streak that matched her own. Especially when it came to sandcastles, something both of them took most seriously.

"She could not get one of her towers to stand. She found it most frustrating and actually ruined her sandcastle over it."

Tali was always hot-tempered like that. Impulsive too. She actually kicked the rest of her sandcastle over because one tower refused to come out right.

Not that Ziva minded, it meant that she always won. Hey, she said that they both had a competitive streak.