It was something that she never really talked about. He always assumed that it was because she didn't want to relive the past, but that wasn't entirely true. She didn't want to all the mistakes that she had made. She didn't want to tell him, all of the secrets that she had to keep. The truth, it was far harder than the story he had made up in his head. She knew that. She was certain of that. What happened to her, she couldn't even bear to think about it, but not for the reasons he thought.

He's in the car next to her. He sits in the passenger's seat. He had let her drive. They would be in the car for another hour, at least, even with her at the wheel. The drive to Roanoke would take a normal human about four and a half hours. He knew it would probably take her somewhere around three. It was late in the day, and they had three interviews to do. Gibbs had given them orders that they were to check into a hotel, and finish their investigation, of the dead petty officer's home, in the morning.

He turns off the radio. She's so focused on the road, and the thoughts buzzing through her head, that she doesn't even notice. She grips the steering wheel tightly. It's clear to him, that there is something on her mind. He leans the back of his seat back, and looks at her. Her face is stiff, and unmoving. He watches her instead of the road. Her eyes don't move from the road.

"What?"

"What, what?"

"You are staring at me, is there a reason?"

"I was just wondering what you're thinking about."

"Nothing," she lies.

"You never think about nothing."

"I am thinking about something."

"That you don't want to share?"

"That is correct."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes," she sighs.

"Are you going to have kids?"

The question hits her like a punch to the jugular. She glances over at him, for a moment. She swallows hard, and finally she responds.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I was just curious. I can be curious, can't I?"

"I suppose."

"I mean you're my partner."

"I'll let you know when I decide."

"Fair enough. Ziva?"

"What?"

"Have you ever..."

"Does it matter?" she interrupts his thought.

"What would you do if you found out that you were pregnant, today?"

"Are we playing twenty questions?"

"Will you answer me, if we are?"

"You just wasted a question, you're down to twelve now."

"Answer the last one."

"You want to know what I would do?"

"Yes," he nods.

"I would not do anything."

"You would have it."

"Was that a question?"

"No, a statement. Why? That was a question."

"Why? I don't know why. Why do you insist on stopping at 7/11 every time we start out on a trip longer than an hour?"

"You know that if you did get pregnant, that would mean you'd have to do desk duty, most likely. You hate desk duty."

"I would not tell Gibbs as soon as I found out."

"You think that you could hide it from him?"

"You think that I couldn't?"

"I don't know."

"Tony why are you asking me all of this? Are you thinking about having a child?"

"No. That isn't why I'm asking."

"Then why are you asking?"

"I am just trying to figure something out."

"Why don't you just ask the question that you want answered? That would save time."

"Answer the one that you interrupted," he insists.

"Yes."

"You have thought that?"

"Yes."

"Would your decision have been any different then, if you had been?"

"A lot of things would have been different, if I had known then, what I know now."

"Meaning?"

She doesn't make eye contact. The car jerks onto an exit ramp. She stops in a parking spot, at a rest stop. She puts the car into park, and turns it off. She takes off her seatbelt, and looks at him.

"You want to have this conversation, now? Why?"

"There are something's that your partner should know," he answers.

"Ok."

"Did you mean that if you were, things would have been different? Or did you mean that you made different choices, and you wish you hadn't?"

"Why does it matter?"

"Is it why you stayed in Israel?"

She looks at him in shock. She says nothing.

"You chose to stay, because you were, and you needed to sort things out? You sorted them out, and decided that your job was more important? It never made sense to me, why you stayed. You hated me, I get that, but... you've worked with people that you hated before. I guess that I want you to say yes, because, then it wouldn't be my fault. What happened wouldn't be my fault, and... I wouldn't blame myself for what happened. I wouldn't hate myself for not coming sooner. I wouldn't..."

She waves her hand, stopping him. "You have it all wrong."

"All of it?"

"I was angry at you, for a lot of reasons."

"You had the right to be, but... you were far angrier than I anticipated. Because I killed Michael, and... you were..."

"No," she shakes her head.

"No?" he furrows his brow.

"I was angry that you killed Michael. I was angry that I was never going to know how it could have turned out."

"So that is why you stayed?"

"No."

"You were having his..."

"No. I wasn't."

"So you weren't pregnant?"

Her brown eyes look up at him. She answers with a look of shame, "I didn't say that."