Here is the final story of the One Year of Posting Celebration. I hope that you have enjoyed.

This story dives into the idea of, "What if Jenny and Ziva had joined the team at a different time in their lives under different circumstances?" Enjoy!

This is dedicated to fiftyshadeswritergal, who might be surprised by this since it is one of the first NCIS stories in a long time that I have not asked her to edit. Surprise!

And to all my readers through the day, thank you! Here's to another year! Now, please enjoy!

...

Gibbs shook Jenny Shepard's hand. She was back - after all these years, back! - as director of NCIS.

"Welcome," he repeated, not knowing what else to say.

"Thank you, Jethro. I actually have someone that I would like for you to meet," she replied glancing over at the other side of MTAC. It looked empty. She turned back to Gibbs and smiled. "I brought an agent with me, from Israel."

Gibbs immediately felt himself begin to bristle. He always hated these joint-force-politcal-party-schenanagin-type-things that figureheads put agencies through - he did not want to be forced to deal with another stuck-up, self-entitled hot shot. Jenny seemed to sense his dislike and smiled.

"You will like this one, I'm sure," she said hastily. "Ziva is the best agent that I've worked with, although easily also the worst driver."

Suddenly, there was a small whirring sound, then something banged against Gibbs' shoe. Gibbs looked down at his foot in surprise. There, stopped next to his shoe, was a blue matchbox car. He heard a shuffling sound on the other side of MTAC and looked up to see a surprise.

What in the world?

There was a tiny, olive skinned girl - likely around two- standing on one of the chairs, watching him with big brown eyes. She shoved her wild mane of curly brown hair out of her face with the back of her hand. Gibbs promptly decided that she was the cutest thing that he had seen in years. He reached down and picked up the toy car before looking at her again. Now she was knitting her eyebrows together a bit, putting adorable little wrinkles in her forehead. It was clear that she was suspiciously watching what he was going to do with her toy.

"Is this yours?" he asked kindly, holding the toy out in her direction.

He was surprised when the child gave him a scowl fiercer than that of the world's most hardened criminal before dramatically dropping to her bottom on the seat, out of sight behind the chairs. Gibbs expected her to come running over for her toy. Instead he heard a scuffle of squeaky sneakers and itsy bitsy jeans as she crawled under the chairs up to the front row where she peered out of him and gave him another death glare when she realized that he still had the toy and it was very much out of her clandestine reach.

Gibbs finally overcame his astonishment long enough to turn to Jenny for an explanation. She smiled helplessly at him and motioned to the toy in his hand.

"I told you that she was a bad driver. This is Ziva." She took a deep breath before adding, "And she's mine."

"I thought you said she was an agent," he said, too dumbfounded to think of the wording to the thousand questions that were overwhelming him.

"Oh, she is - as long as the case is 'where are the cheese sticks?' or 'how can I get more ice cream?'!" Jenny laughed.

Jethro examined her. The blush to her cheeks, the twinkle in her eyes, the pure joy in her laughter - she was happy to have this child. But the lines in her forehead, the bags under her eyes, the slight tension in her body - something was not quite right.

"She's yours?" he asked again, hoping for more information. She nodded and motioned for him to take a seat with her.

"Zizi, do you want to come sit with us?" she called. There was a scramble of little limbs, but a glance behind them revealed that Ziva was still warily watching Gibbs. "Mr. Gibbs is very nice," Jenny assured the little girl. He smiled at her. Cautiously the little girl grabbed some of her other toys and then skittered around the room to come to Jenny's side while keeping as much space as possible between herself and Gibbs.

"Do you want this back?" Gibb asked, holding out the toy. Ziva narrowed her eyes and slowly reaching out before grabbing and yanking the toy into her chest in a flash of motion.

"Say 'thank you'," Jenny coached. The little girl buried her face against Jenny's chest. Jenny sighed and looked at Gibbs apologetically. "She's still learning her manners - and English. It takes her a long time to trust - or even begin to try to trust - people."

"That's fine," Gibbs said, smiling at the tiny girl curled up in Jenny's lap. Her head was turned away and he still had not seen her smile but he already thought that she was the cutest little thing. Jenny was lucky to have her and she was lucky to have Jenny - he did not know anything else about their combination but he knew that any child in Jenny's care would be special. "Who's the dad?" he asked the pressing question.

"Director Eli David of Mossad."

Gibbs could say nothing. He had know that Jenny would push herself to the top of the political ladder, but would she actually have a child to achieve her goals?

"And he doesn't know that she is still alive. He thinks that she is ... gone ... along with her mother and sister."

"Tawi?" Ziva said hopefully, looking up as she recognized the word. Jenny blinked back tears as she stroked the little one's cheeks.

"No, honey, remember? Tali went to heaven with Ima."

"Ima?"

"Tali and Ima are in heaven," Jenny gently repeated, kissing Ziva's forehead as the little girl's lip began to tremble.

"Want dem," Ziva mumbled, pushing herself back against Jenny's chest.

"I know, I know," Jenny soothed, rubbing the toddler's back. Gibbs reached out and gently wiped a tear off of Jenny's cheek. She turned to him and smiled at him sadly.

"Her m-o-t-h-e-r was a good friend of mine. She was why I was working in Israel. She was in a very dangerous and harmful situation, but she knew that she could not leave. There are many good people in Israel, but unfortunately Eli is not one of them. Like many politicians - yes, I will agree with you for once - he is not exactly an example of virtues and morals. I was supposed to plan an escape plan, but there was a b-o-m-b-i-n-g and ... well, there was only one survivor. It was the cover we had dreamed of - everything had been prepared by others who were involved in the extraction from the abuse. He is a crazy man, Gibbs - and we rescued her. And now a team is working on putting her through the foster system and making it so that I can legally adopt her as my daughter. I can explain in depth at some other point, but that's the basics."

Ziva squirmed a little in Jenny's arms and turned around to look at Gibbs. Now in the safety of Jenny's arms she seemed willing to give him another chance to impress her.

"You're some cute, aren't you?" he asked her. She looked between him and Jenny. Seeing Jenny smile and nod, she seemed to relax a little, realizing that he had said something good. She contentedly stuck her pinky finger in her mouth and began to suck, self-soothing as her big brown eyes began to drift closed, only to snap back open to suspiciously look at Gibbs before relaxing once again.

"It's been a long day. I never expected to be taking her in and be appointed as director within the same month," Jenny mused, standing with the toddler in her arms. "As everything is taken care of here for the day, I believe that I will take this little love bug home." She paused and a look of annoyance flashed over her face.

"What is it?" Gibbs asked, secretly pleased to realize that he could still read her body language as well as always.

"They sent a car to pick us up this morning. I just realized that I do not have a ride back however. I need to call a taxi or something."

Gibbs shook his head. "Can't have the new director using public transit on her first day in the office - especially not with a tired toddler. I'm guessing that she does not do sleepy very well?"

"No, she does not," Jenny answered, amusement obvious. "She tends to get cranky."

"No cwanky!" the toddler protested, shifting to glare at them.

"Proven correct," Jenny laughed, gently pressing Ziva's head back against her shoulder. "Relax, Zizi, you're okay, you're okay. We're going to go home now. You just cuddle with Mama."

Gibbs felt the tough exterior of his heart crack as the only woman he had ever loved after Shannon kissed the motherless baby.

"I'm driving you both home. C'mon."

"Are you sure? I don't want to inconvenience you..."

"You've never been an inconvenience, Jen."

"Are you sure of that?" she asked, her eyebrow quirked. Gibbs chuckled, remembering some of her early exploits as a probie.

"Well, not much," he amended. "Now, let's go."

Ziva shifted in Jenny's arms and patted Jenny's face to get her attention. "Hungwy."

"I know, baby, We'll get some food ... when we get home."

Gibbs smiled. "You don't have dinners plan, do you?"

"No," she admitted. "Some higher ups wanted to take me out but that wasn't going to work with cutie pie here."

"Hungwy!" Ziva repeated with more urgency in the whining tone.

"How about I pick up something before dropping you off?"

"You'll stay and eat with us, won't you?"

"If it's no problem..."

"We'd love to have you," Jenny cut him off before he could even finish.

"Great. What would you like?"

"Maybe Chinese? I noticed that place we used to get takeout from is still open. The food still good."

"Sure is."

"Then maybe from there would be good."

"HUNGWY!" Ziva wailed, throwing herself backward in her frustration over being ignored.

"Ziva! Hold still or Mama might drop you, darling."

"Here, let me." He scooped the thrashing toddler out of Jenny's arms. The overtired and grumpy little girl immediately stilled in the confusion of finding herself in a new set of arms.

"Mama," she whispered unhappily, blinking back a fat tear.

"Mr. Gibbs can hold you. Mama needs a bit of a break," Jenny told the unhappy baby.

"Want some chicken?" Gibbs asked the little girl. She popped a finger in her mouth and began to suck anxiously. "How about some rice?"

Ziva, not wanting to talk to him, turned to Jenny and echoed, "Wice?"

"Yep. Rice and chicken and all sorts of yummy things."

Ziva seemed pleased with that answer. She turned to Gibbs and asked another question, unprompted this time.

"Ookie?"

"She means 'cookie'," Jenny explained.

"Oh, I guessed that," he said with a smile. "Yeah, I have a feeling we could find a cookie in celebration of your mama's promotion."

"'ig ookie?"

"Yeah, I think we could find a big cookie."

And with that, little Ziva threw her arms around Gibbs' neck in a tight hug. For the moment, she was willing to stay in his arms - as long as he got her that cookie!

"You know, I think that she just might like you," Jenny said happily.

"I think so too," Gibbs chuckled.

"You know," Jenny ventured, "I just started taking her to this play therapist. They mentioned that it would be good to have some safe male influences in her life to help counterbalance all the bad she's seen. You've always been good with kids. And although I haven't seen you in forever and ... well, I was hoping ..."

"Of course."

He did not need any time to think. He already knew that he would do anything - anything - in the world to protect this little girl along with her beautiful mama. For the moment, that meant getting takeout and feeding Ziva before she had a total meltdown. That was a manageable first step.

The three of them walked out of NCIS. Together. Like a family.

And nothing had felt so right in years.

..

Please review! Would you like to see this turned into a full length story sometime in the future (probably in the new year)? If so, what would you like to see happen with these three and the team?

Thanks for reading! I hope that you enjoyed!