Following Tali

40 - Abba

"Come on girls lets go" Ziva smiled carrying the girls out
"Okay, Ima is Abba at home" Tali asked
"No" Ziva mumbled smiling sadly
"Okay, can we get slushes" Tali asked not understanding why Tony wasn't at home
"Of course" Ziva said buckling the girls in the back of the car "What flavours do you want"
"I want Raspberry and Strawberry" Kai giggled clapping her hands
"I want all, Raspberry, Strawberry and Apple" Tali squealed
"Okay" Ziva smiled getting in the drivers seat and driving off.

Ziva drove to the nearest Slush Puppy shop, she got the girls their slushies and drove them home, the whole journey the girls sat in their seats happily slurping away and singing along to the radio.

When they got back to the house Ziva led them inside and sat them on the sofa
"Right girls so your Abba isn't coming home, he's had to go away" Ziva tried to explain
"What do you mean Ima" Tali asked while Kai stopped slurping her slushie
"You know how my Abba had to go away and live with the Angels" Ziva asked
"Yeah" Tali said slowly
"Well your Abba had to go live with him and the Angels" Ziva tried to explain again
"So he's not coming home" Kai asked
"No Kai he's not, he has to stay away"
"How long for" Tali asked
"Forever" Ziva told them
"Why, why does he have to go" Tali started crying then only a few seconds later Kai joint in
"Come here" Ziva held her arms out to them, Tali and Kai almost dropped the last of their Slushies while running into their Ima's arms.

For almost two hours Ziva comforted the girls until they eventually fell asleep and she laid them on the sofa and went to make their dinner.

The girls ate their dinner in silence then watched their favourite cartoons and went to bed but they where still miserable. After Ziva put them to sleep she went up to her room to sort out all Tony's things, she got two boxes from their study and filled both of them with as much stuff of his as she could then took it all upstairs to the study.

She tried to sleep there was nothing left of him in there room everytime she saw a photo of him or something of his she burst into tears all over again but it was no use she couldn't sleep. She ended up going up to the study for one of Tonys shirts, it smelt of him, she laid in their bed with her legs tucked into her chest for hours without getting any sleep.

Finally at 0600 she got up slipping into her work clothes she went downstairs and made the girls simple lunches and cheap pancakes for breakfast she woke the girls early fed them and dropped them at their school before lessons for a morning club. She couldn't bare to be around other people she just wanted to run, by the time she was home and in her jogging gear it was gone 0700 so she left and didn't return until 1100 when she had to be back at NCIS.

She took a quick shower, changed and left. When she arrived Gibbs took her down to autopsy to view Tonys body and talk with the team about the case.

"Ok, so as far as we know this is Tony's body and he was the unlucky victim of drug dealers who where after his alias, Ziva was lucky enough to get away seconds before their hotel room blew up" they said putting the pieces together, Ducky hadn't started the autopsy yet so Tony's body was still intact although he was completely burnt and unrecognisable, he looked like a mummy with his charred skin and missing finger tips, dna was going to be almost impossible to find.

They where discussing the case when Ziva spoke up again "excuse me" she simply said rushing out.

2 weeks went past Ziva enrolled the girls in a early morning games group before school so she could go running for hours before she went to NCIS where they where lead round in circles searching for Tony's killer, then after school the girls where at an after school club on 3 of the days and on the other two they where either at Gymnastics or Ballet with the teacher who took Ziva's place when she decided to go back to NCIS full time. On the weekends the girls stayed with Gibbs or Jimmy because Ziva didn't want to cry in front of them or them to sense how depressed she was, she had stopped eating a lot of the time and was running a lot she was running for at least 5 hours a day and was only slightly smiley when she was with the girls but the smiles where always fake.

The girls had adjusted to not having Tony around after all they where only 5 they didn't understand, they only occasionally asked if they could see there Abba but other than that they where just enjoying school and their other activities.

A/N - sorry for the short part, though you guys deserved an update