Furbelow

Tim looked around the attorney's office as he arrived for the will reading. He was surprised to spot Tony and Gibbs seated in a corner.

He walked over to them, “You guys were invited too? Do you know what this is about?”

“Yes, McGee. Our invitations told us exactly why we're required at a will reading.”

McGee's shoulders slumped. He was genuinely confused as to why he was even a part of this. Tony, McGee could understand.

He and Ziva had had a relationship before her unexpected death. Even Gibbs made sense as Ziva had looked up to him. He was the only odd one out.

He had never connected with Ziva beyond colleagues, so why was he here for her will reading. Heck, why was she even having a will reading? Wouldn’t everything just go to her dad?

By the time the attorneys drew everyone’s attention up front, there were around 50 people total at the will reading. Eli David was by far the most prominent, but there were many other well known officials and people that McGee didn’t even know that Ziva knew. McGee zoned out for most of the will reading.

Who could blame him, it was rather boring listening to the attorneys drone on and on about how Ziva’s money was being split out and her properties and various possessions in many countries of the world including a number of stashes that no one would have found without Ziva telling the attorneys exactly how to find them. Still none of it was for any of the NCIS agents and McGee couldn’t help wondering, again, just why they were there.

It wasn’t until the very end that McGee, Tony, and Gibbs’ names were mentioned. Even then they’d somehow inherited a child? Why would Ziva leave them a child?

McGee exchanged glances with Tony and Gibbs, but they looked just as confused as he was. As the others slowly started exiting the room, Eli David made his way to the front and McGee also headed that direction. This had to be a mistake.

Tony and Gibbs quickly followed McGee. They weren’t going to leave him to go head to head with Eli alone. Though, hopefully, that wasn’t what would happen.

“This has to be a mistake.” McGee blurted to the lawyers at the same time Eli David said something similar.

“How can my grandchild be given over to them? Isn’t it better for her to stay in the family?” Eli protested.

The attorneys addressed McGee first. “It’s no mistake. Though, Ziva thought you might feel this way, so she left you each a letter to explain her decision.” The attorney handed them each an envelope with their names on it.

Tony, Gibbs, and Tim took the envelopes and turned to leave, stunned. The attorney meanwhile tried to placate Eli, letting him know it was his daughter’s wish that her daughter Tali be raised by the three NCIS agents. Eli stormed out threatening to sue the attorneys and that this couldn’t possibly be what his daughter would have wanted.

Turning back to them, the attorney murmured, “If you read the letter in the envelopes while you wait, I’m sure it will all make sense. I’ll just go get Miss Tali for you, now.”

Tony opened his letter and quickly breezed through it. It mostly contained what he expected about Tali and her parentage and he jumped straight to the part about why she's been left to all three of them. Apparently, Ziva felt Gibbs would protect Tali the best. Tim was to teach her about computers and it was Tony's job to make sure she got a well rounded education and enjoyed her childhood.

Of course, Ziva gave him the second hardest job. He didn't envy Gibbs his job. Keeping a child safe was the stuff of nightmares.

Tim opened his letter and as he read it, stood completely flabbergasted. Apparently, Tali was Vance’s child, but Ziva didn’t want to break up Vance’s happy family to take care of her kid even in death. Especially not after she’d promised Vance that if he did this for her, she’d make sure the child was taken care of and he would never have to take parental responsibility for it.

It even went on to explain how she could have gone to Gibbs or Tony or even Tim to get their sperm, but that she’d felt that given Vance’s relationship with Eli that Eli would forgive him the best if Tali’s full parentage ever came out. It had also been a purely business transaction between Vance and her, something that wouldn’t have been possible with any of her teammates. Still with the possibility of her dying a high probability in her line of work that meant she’d had to line up a backup plan.

In this case, Tim, Tony, and Gibbs together taking care of Tali was her backup plan. Tim was actually rather offended at the part he was supposed to play in taking care of Tali. Apparently, Ziva didn’t think much of his parenting skills and had only relegated him to teaching her kid about computers.

Gibbs read his own letter, which was filled with lots and lots of explanation as to how Ziva had considered him a father figure in her own life and knew that he’d teach her daughter right from wrong while keeping her safe at the same time. It also called out his debt to her in the form of Ari, just in case he considered refusing. She’d also included an apology of sorts for forcing this on him when she knew he didn’t want any other children, but that there wasn’t anyone else she trusted to keep her daughter safe.

After reading their letters, the trio stared at each other, their eyes swirling with their varied emotions. None of them had expected this. The closest to expecting this was Tony and even he hadn’t expected Tali to be handed over to the three of them.

Ziva had confided in him about the deal she’d made with Vance, so he’d known that Tali existed. Still he’d expected if something happened to Ziva that Tali would go to Vance, no matter what Ziva had said at the time, or that she would find one person or couple to look after her. They’d had a long talk about Eli and his role in Ziva’s life, so Tony hadn’t been surprised that Ziva had made plans to prevent Tali from falling under Eli’s care no matter how temporary it might be.

Before any of them could form words about what had just happened to them or even begin to make plans for taking care of a child, the attorney appeared with said child in tow. “Here you go. We’ll just need you to sign this paperwork and then she’s all yours.”

Gibbs quickly signed as did Tony. Tim signed, albeit much slower, not at all sure he really wanted to take on responsibility for Ziva’s child. How was he going to explain this to Claire?

Tali wore a beautiful dress complete with a furbelow and Tony couldn’t help wondering just who had dressed her for today. He hadn’t noticed her as part of the ceremony, but undoubtedly Ziva would have left a lot to her.

“Oh. Here’s your copies. It includes everything that you’ll need to know for taking care of Tali as well.” The attorney murmured handing them each a set of papers.

“Well, Tali, it looks like you’re stuck with us. You’re much too pretty for the likes of us.” Tony murmured.

Tali giggled. “You’re silly.”

“How about we go back to Gibbs’ place and you can tell us what you want?”

“Gibbs!” Tali cheered in agreement.

Tony turned to Gibbs. “Are you fine taking Tali in your car? On second thought, she’ll ride with me.”

“I can drive a child safely to my house, DiNozzo.”

“I’m sure you can, Gibbs, but I’d prefer to be sure she doesn’t get motion sickness.”

Tim was quite happy to stay out of the discussion and quickly offered, “I’ll meet you guys there,” as he vanished to his own vehicle, happy for an excuse to leave this gathering.

Gibbs glared at Tony, following after him to make sure that Tali was appropriately situated in the vehicle safely. He’d have to see about making sure they had booster seats for all the vehicles. Fortunately, the attorney had handed him Ziva’s booster seat for Tali so they’d be ok for this trip, at least.

They’d have to find some childcare as well. Either that or someone was going to have to stop working and he just couldn’t see any of them being willing to do that for Ziva’s child. There were so many details to take care of.

He missed Shannon even more than usual. She’d been the one to make sure Kelly had everything she needed. Gibbs knew what a kid needed, but Shannon was much better at keeping them happy and supplied with appropriate toys and what not.

Hopefully, he could talk DiNozzo into handling her clothes. She may not need bigger clothes every 2 months anymore, but she’d probably be outgrowing clothes every 6 months at least and Gibbs was not looking forward to that kind of shopping. After getting the girl settled into Tony’s car, Gibbs quickly headed for his car.

He’d have to really drive fast if he wanted to hit the store and get some necessities for her before the others arrived at his house. Tim arrived first and waited on the porch for Gibbs and Tony. Tony pulled up not too long after Tim and Gibbs sped quickly around the corner pulling in just slightly after Tony. Everyone piled into Gibbs’ living room and Tali settled onto the couch between Gibbs and Tony while Tim chose a chair facing the couch.

“So how are we doing this?” Tony blurted. “Are we doing a shared custody schedule or what?”

“Don’t be silly. We don’t even all live in the same school district.” Tim pointed out. He really didn’t want to be in charge of raising Tali even a little. He could probably do a tutor like thing, but being an active part of her life as a parental figure was just too much for him to even think about, right now.

“I can take primary caregiver status of her.” Gibbs suggested.

Tim pulled out the papers the lawyers gave them to see if there was anything in them about how they were expected to handle this. He hoped there wasn’t some kind of enforced living together situation. He didn’t want to break any laws, but he didn’t want to be a major part of Tali’s life either.

“Can you really keep her safe the way you drive?” DiNozzo stared Gibbs down.

“I’ve had a kid before, DiNozzo. I know how to drive and keep them safe. I just wasn’t willing to slow us down further by arguing with you at the attorney’s office.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Well maybe it would be best if I move in temporarily to help take care of her anyway.”

“Are you suggesting I’m not capable of taking care of her?” Gibbs snarled.

Tali burst into tears.

“Now, look what you’ve done.” Tony glared at Gibbs, drawing Tali into his arms. “Hey baby, it’s ok.” He bounced Tali a little, making silly faces and trying to cheer her up. “Gibbs is just being his usual grumpy self.”

“Actually, according to the lawyers, we have to all 3 live together for the first year of Tali’s care or we’ll forfeit the right to her and she’ll be put into the system.” Tim pointed out, having finally found the section in the lawyer’s papers that talked about requirements.

“What? Give me that.” Gibbs demanded.

Tim walked over and held his copy of the papers out to Gibbs, even though, technically Gibbs had his own copies. Gibbs grumbled as he read the papers. “Well. I guess we’ll need to find a bigger house for the year. There’s no way both of you and Tali will fit in my house.”

“I’d be happy to sit this one out.” Tim suggested.

“No, you can’t. If you don’t participate, none of us can keep Tali. I won’t let you do that. It’s only for a year. You can handle it. Tali needs us.”

Tony continued to bounce Tali, hoping that she wasn’t understanding the conversation currently happening. He glared at Tim. He’d personally see to it that Tim understood appropriate behavior when Tali was in the room.

He wasn’t about to let Tali grow up thinking one of her parental figures hated her even if that was the truth as far as Tim was concerned. Exchanging glances with Gibbs, Tony nodded as he saw that Gibbs was on the same track he was. Together they’d make sure that Tali was taken care of and after a year if Tim still didn’t want to be a part of her life, they’d let him leave like he wanted to.

Tony hoped that Tim would come around though. He could already tell that Tali was a special child. Tim would be missing out on so much if he refused to give her a chance.

“Let’s save the rest of this discussion for later.” Tony suggested, tilting his head to indicate the child in his lap. “For now, we should probably get dinner going. Are you hungry Tali?”

“Ungry.” Tali agreed.

Gibbs couldn’t help smiling at the cute child. Tony too smiled at her. “Come on, let’s go see what we can find for dinner.” Tony led Tali into the kitchen hoping that Gibbs and Tim would choose to shut up about how they were going to handle caring for Tali until after she went to bed.

Gibbs quickly joined Tony and Tali in the kitchen. “I bought some stuff on my way home.” Gibbs handed the sack of groceries to Tony.

Gibbs had just grabbed whatever seemed relatively childlike or safe for children or what not. He didn’t have the slightest clue what to cook for a child. Shannon had always taken care of that.

Tony opened the grocery sack and shook his head. It was clear that he’d have to take over shopping for food if Tali was going to have a healthy diet. His choices here were rather limited, but he’d make do for now.

Setting Tali at the table with a coloring book that had been in her backpack, Tony started to make dinner. Gibbs sat down across from Tali to keep her company and give Tony room to work.

Tim stayed in the living room. He hadn’t had much luck with other kids when he was a kid and as an adult he had even worse luck with them. He may be forced to live with the child, but he would do his best to stay out of the way.

The first year of Tali’s life after Ziva’s death progressed much the same way as this night had. Tim stayed out of her way while Tony and Gibbs raised her together. Adult discussions happened after she was in bed forcing them to argue in whispers.

Tony had never argued in whispers before. It was a very strange experience. He found he had a harder time staying angry when he had to focus on whispering.

They’d temporarily moved into a 3 bedroom house, which while still small for them they made do. Tim had his own private room. Tali had her own room and Gibbs and Tony shared.

It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but together Gibbs and Tony made it work. Tim missed out on a lot, but that was his choice. Tali seemed happy and that was all that mattered.

Well not all that mattered, but it was one of the main things. Gibbs and Tony were glad to hear that the lawyers had won the case Eli had brought against them. They had quite enough on their plates between NCIS, Tali, and trying to make sure Eli didn’t kidnap his granddaughter.

They were quite happy to have Tim move out at the end of the year and have Tim removed from the guardianship paperwork. They decided to move back into Gibbs’ place. It was smaller, but as it was already paid for made more financial sense. Tali ended up in the guest room and Gibbs and Tony shared Gibbs’ master bedroom.

It wasn’t perfect. Gibbs and Tony didn’t really know how to share their space even after sharing it for a year, but they both agreed that Tali came first. In the end, they made it work and they made sure that whatever problems they had with each other it never affected Tali. She may not have been their child originally, but they loved her like she was.