It has been a week since Tony and Ziva started their new job. Everything was going well and they were slowly getting used to work together again. It was feeling pretty natural to them. Adam was almost 12 months old. It would be soon his first birthday. Tony was in the kitchen trying to make him eat his dinner. He was whispering to Adam:
-"say 'aba', come on buddy it's easy. 'A-BA' see.."
Ziva entered the kitchen and said:
-"what do you think you are doing ?"
Tony innocently answered:
-"nothing, why ?"
Ziva frowned:
-"I thought we had an agreement. No influencing, no cheating !"
-"I am not cheating I am showing my son that Aba is easier to pronounce than Ima"
-"this is cheating !"
-"oh come on, tell me you didn't do the same ?"
Ziva proudly answered:
-"I did not"
-"lying in front of our son is very good for his education.. I've heard you yesterday when you were giving him a bath.."
Tali entered the room to know why her mother was not coming back. She rolled her eyes when she realized that they were still bickering over what Adam's first word would be. When he saw her Adam smiled and said:
-"TA!"
Both Ziva and Tony stopped their bickering and looked at him. Tony asked:
-"what did you just say buddy ?"
Adam looked at his father and repeated:
-"Ta!"
Ziva was proud, she kissed her son's cheeks and said:
-"we should have known he would say Tali before Ima or Aba"
Tony corrected her:
-"he did not clearly say Tali.. the game is still on"
Ziva grabbed her son, rolled her eyes and said:
-"whatever.. he will say Ima first anyway right baby ?"
Ziva was in Adam's room, she was changing his diaper when Tony and Tali entered the house. Ziva walked out with a smile that she lost immediately when she saw Tony looking very upset at Tali. Tony ordered her to go to her bedroom and Ziva saw her leave the room without even looking at her. Ziva was worried:
-"what happened ?"
Tony sighed:
-"she fought"
-"again ?"
-"yes"
-"still with that same kid ?"
-"yeah... the Jefferson's boy... they want to meet us to try to find a solution"
-"I'm gonna talk to her"
Ziva gave Adam to Tony and walked to Tali's room.
Tali was sitting on her bed. When Ziva opened the door Tali raised her eyes to her mother then she looked down to the floor, ashamed that her mother might be upset or worse, disappointed.
Ziva walked to the bed and sat next to her. She tucked a lock of hair behind Tali's ear and said:
-"what happened ?"
-"Are you angry ?"
-"no I am not angry Tali. I just want to know why you keep fighting with that boy"
-"he is mean !"
-"with you ?"
-"no, with my friend, Tara. He's making her cry, I just wanted to teach him a lesson so he would stop"
Ziva smiled. She was actually proud that her daughter stood for others but she wished she had done it without using her fists.
-"you know that violence is not always the solution"
Tali sighed:
-"I know"
-"But I also know from experience that sometimes it's hard not to choose this path"
-"you fought when you were a kid ?"
-"All the time.. and that's why I know that violence never makes things better. It gets you in trouble. Your safta, my mother, she was really upset every time I came back from school with bruises on my face. She was always telling me: 'People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes'' I never really understood what she meant. But she was right. Violence is never gonna solve your problems"
Tali took some time to think and said:
-"Am I gonna be in trouble ?"
Ziva smiled and kissed her daughter's forehead. She whispered:
-"I'll talk to aba and we'll deal with this"
And she stood up. And walked out of the room, leaving Tali to her thoughts.
The next day, Tony and Ziva were supposed to meet the Jeffersons at Tali's school. They were walking, hand in hand. When they arrived, the mother sized them up with a very judging look. Tony could feel that Ziva was tense. As they reached the Jeffersons Tony whispered:
-"remember Ziva..self-control, we are here to talk like responsible adults"
Ziva did not answer.
At first the conversation was civil until the woman said:
-"your daughter is a savage"
Ziva's fists tightened and Tony felt the atmosphere becoming explosive. Ziva was not answering and Tony knew that in her mind she was probably hurting that woman in very painful ways. Ziva answered:
-"your son is harassing her friend, she was only trying to defend her"
They were now barking at each other. Some hebrew cursing was thrown by Ziva and Tony knew the situation was about to escalate. He grabbed Ziva by her shoulder and pushed her away to calm her.
-"I'm gonna hurt that woman, Tony !"
-"I know and that's why you should go back to the car, now"
-"I am not letting her win"
Ziva was pushing Tony to try to go back to confront her.
-"I am not sure that Tali would be happy to know that her mom is in jail for assaulting someone"
-"I'm not gonna assault her, I'm gonna kill her"
Tony made Ziva spin around and started pushing her back to the car. He said to the Jefferson's that he would be right back and forced Ziva to sit in the car.
-"you stay there! Don't force me to handcuff you on the wheel"
Ziva threw a provocative look to Tony and said:
-"you would enjoy that"
-"Yes I would. Let me handle that ok" he kissed her "I love you, I'll be right back"
When Tony came back to the car after 20 minutes, Ziva was quiet. Tony started the car and drove through the parking lot. He drove past the Jefferson's car and noticed that the front wheels had been slashed.
He looked at Ziva, she was clearly avoiding his look. He smiled and said:
-"I knew I should have handcuffed you."
For her only answer, Ziva smiled and looked at the car disappearing in the rear-view mirror.
