Very beautiful. Poor Ziva. Good thing she has Tony.

Greetings. It's Theodore Hawkwood from the Review Lounge Too, Review Tag again. As an NCIS fan and a confirmed Tiva shipper I was drawn to read this nice littler read of yours.

Right. Now onto the review proper.

The first paragraph set the scene nicely, a bitter cold winter night contrasted with the warmth of the shared bed that Ziva and Tony have here. And Tony shaking her awake.

The first reaction Ziva has, an emotional response to a likely practical (and definitely commonplace) occurance, is a great characterization of Ziva. It shows how she compartmentalizes various aspects of her life, or tries to at any rate.

It definitely tugged on the heartstrings to see Ziva crying about what was bothering her, but it was also great characterization of Tony that he did something about it. I can see aspects of how Eli David left his marks on Ziva's psyche when she criticizes herself as 'weak' for having been caught crying in her sleep as the result of a nightmare.

The first half of this tale was a great depiction of hurt-comfort writing between Ziva and Tony. And you definitely show how a more sensitive side to Tony DiNozzo exists as evidenced by the fact that he knows how nightmares about Somalia still haunt Ziva and that he comforts her through them.

And you also show how DiNozzo has grown as a character because I'm sure a Season 1 DiNozzo wouldn't care overmuch to distinguish between Hebrew and Arabic the way that this DiNozzo in your writing does. But given he's involved with Ziva I can see he has in fact take the pains to learn. Good tidbit you show there.

The feels/hurt comfort bit at the first part was offset rather nicely with the slight comedy of DiNozzo attempting (and failing?) to make challah for Ziva. And Ziva's reaction to it was certainly one that elicited a smile from me.

Nicely written.

Theodore Hawkwood

Hi again, Rebecca. Reviewing you again for Caesar's Palace reviewathon. I knew I had another fic of yours on my list ;)

You capture Ziva's confusion very well in the opening with how she doesn't realize she was crying in her dreams, embarrassed at finding the evidence and fearing that she might be judged for a nightmare. Tony's concern is totally adorable as well, thinking the reason for the tears is her remembering Somalia, only to find out that it was dreams of home.

"Homeland-sick" – LOL, such a Tony thing to say—and very appropriate to the conversation at hand too. I also love how she is torn by the dream but eventually centers herself in the comfort of his arms and his scent and how it was worth moving halfway around the world to discover that comfort.

And I was laughing when she comes over the next time to find him burning baking in the oven, only to go OMG AW when it turns out that his baking experiment was challah bread just for her. And then laughing again when he complains about the recipe containing eggs and oh maybe you can teach me to make it better next time (which means you'll be over here more often because I'll screw it up repeatedly just to ensure extra lessons...:coughcough: okay I'll stop there, hehe)

You should write Tiva "fluff" more often (though I'd call this a subtle hurt/comfort myself). Either way, it was totally adorable!

Oh yeah!

Sweet and heartwarming. This is beautiful. Your pace and style are excellent, you've captured emotions well and your characterisation is spot-on.

Tiva cuteness!

I knew the prayer, but not the Israeli custom of only saying the title of it? "...who has brought forth bread from the earth..."

Homeland sick. Very good. Appropriate, huh? Maybe that's why you wrote it.

Thanks for posting it here for us to read.

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"suddenly terrified by the possibility that she was having another dream about Somalia and Tony just heard her begging"

That is stunning...that her fear of being seen as weak, childish, out of control is something that cannot be undone, that her fear is not that he knows or has seen, but that he'd *hear* her beg and she is still ashamed of that...gorgeous that you expressed all that in such a simple sentence. Nice work.

NICE re: dreams about Somalia being dark: nice double meaning.

"It was a good dream – why did it make her soak her pillow with tears, then leave her with this terrible ache inside?"

And that she wouldn't understand the loss and loneliness of missing something that she doesn't WANT to miss, missing what could have been, what she saw others have or try to have, what she fought for, and to end up leaving it all... And it makes sense (especially in the howling winds of cold winter) to be homesick.

And Tony...what a sweetie, baking bread. I LOVE baking bread. And Tony's ulterior motive as well. This is GORGEOUS...and there's nothing that says "home" more than bread, and home-baked bread at that.

I'm not going to lie... this brought tears to my eyes. As someone else who is so homesick right now, the thought of biting into fluffy challah on Shabbos just got me. Very nice story.

Even though I've never heard of something called challah before I read this I liked the story. It is very detailed and it's easy to think about the two of them like that.

It's a very sweet gesture of Tony that he tries to make her feel at home in his home... :)

And make the blessing. What a good description - homeland sick.

Incredibly sweet and such a nice read. :)

For someone who claims to NOT be a Tiva-shipper, you did a really good job of faking it. LOL I love the visuals created by Ziva's thoughts... and I love that Tony tried to bake challah for her. I burnt my first loaf, too.

Now you've made me hungry for Challah. ;-)

A lovely, in-character fic.