Nuclear Family

4

The second scene was just like the first.

Same brutal slices to the victim's neck, same gruesome carvings in the victim's abdomen.

He was sure that the guy behind this wouldn't survive an encounter with him.

No, he definitely would not let that happen.

Tony glanced up from his computer.

McGee was typing away at his own computer, probably updating the database.

Gibbs wanted as many people to know about this guy as possible, which normally would be a good thing, but this guy... Well, Tony wanted to catch this guy himself. He needed to make sure this guy got exactly what was coming to him.

The day passed slowly, seconds dragging and simultaneously blurring together.

Sure, he was excited to see Tali, but there was another sensation in his chest, something a little like guilt and... something else he hadn't felt in a while.

Just this overwhelming hunch that tonight could be the start of something really special.

He deserved that, right? After everything that had happened in the last five years?

Yeah. He and Tali both deserved something special.

"DiNozzo!"

"Yeah, Boss?" he replied automatically.

"Quit daydreaming and get back to work."

"On it, Boss." Tony let his gaze drop back to his computer screen, but his thoughts were still far beyond the murder case before him.

Should he take her out tonight?

Was it too soon?

But did he dare wait?

Look what happens when you wait to tell people how you really feel, a nasty voice said from the back of his mind. They get killed in a mortar attack and you wind up a single parent to a child you didn't even know you had.

He shook his head.

He was surely starting to lose it.

***

He walked down that hallway again, fingers crossed that Tali had behaved herself after he left her at Ava's house.

He was a couple minutes early, surprisingly, so he stood just outside the door, listening as the class went through their end of the day routine.

They were still going through the clean-up song, no doubt pushing in their chairs and putting away their crayons and the toy trucks and the plastic food and all those other things you find in a preschool room.

"Okay, you know the drill. If you ride the bus, follow Ms. Land. If your mom or dad is picking you up, stay here until they come get you," he heard Ava say.

"What if my granny is picking me up?" whined one little voice.

"Stay here until she comes and gets you, Charlie. Just like yesterday."

He honestly had no clue how she could handle so many children with such patience.

Some days he could barely handle just Tali, and Tali wasn't even that much of a handful to begin with.

Takes a very special woman to do that job, he mused.

Before he could mentally prepare himself for the noise, a herd of preschoolers flooded the hallway, all shouting and pounding on the lockers and stomping their feet.

Yikes.

He waited for the classroom to empty out before trying to go in.

Tali didn't immediately run at him, which raised a silent alarm in his head.

Ever since she started preschool a couple months ago, she had run at him every day when he picked her up, every time without fail.

Where was she?

"Tali?"

As Ava was busy helping another student with a stubborn jacket zipper, Tony took it upon himself to peek around into the corners of the room.

Tali wasn't over by the beanbag chairs, nor by the hamster cage, nor in the play corner.

His pulse was really starting to race.

He was just about to call her name again when he noticed a pink sneaker poking out from under the craft table.

He willed his heart to stop pounding as he walked over and crouched down.

"Tali? What are you doing, motek? You had me worried."

Tali glanced over her shoulder at him, barely a glance, before turning back to the page she was coloring on.

Again, it was very unusual behavior for Tali. She wasn't the secretive type.

He turned and saw that Ava was finally free.

"Has she been like this all day?" he asked.

Ava strode over, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Quiet, you mean? Withdrawn? Yes." She hesitated. "I wanted to put it down to the change in her morning routine, but..."

"But what?"

"Tali, why don't you come out and show us your drawing?" Ava suggested.

Tali reluctantly crawled out from under the table, sending half a dozen crayons rolling across the floor.

"Can I see?" Tony asked softly.

She frowned, clearly unwilling to show them what she had drawn.

"Please? We can get extra sprinkles on your ice cream, if you let me see."

It probably wasn't the best idea to be bribing his five-year-old, but he was much more concerned about the dramatic change in her behavior.

Tali finally turned the page around, and while it was no better than any other preschooler's artwork, he instantly recognized the woman in the drawing.

How could he not, with all those curls and the flames dancing around her?

He didn't know what to say.

He just wanted that drawing gone. He wanted all memories of Ziva gone.

It wasn't fair for Tali to have to remember her mother like that.

It wasn't fair for him to have to imagine Ziva like that.

Ava seemed to sense the storm building in Tony, because she didn't say anything when he roughly picked Tali up off the floor and pried the drawing from her hands.

"Thanks again for watching her this morning. I owe you one. Dinner?"

"Maybe not tonight," Ava said, and he couldn't have agreed more.

He was much too angry to be a good dinner date.

*** ***