Tony sat on his couch and waited anxiously for Ziva to arrive, always so impeccable woman was not ten minutes late. He was nervously moving on his seat and kept gazing at the clock – eleven minutes late. He tried to be patient, but it was impossible right now – there was too much going on in his mind.
A relationship between Tony and Ziva happened by accident and very fast. In one, long movie night, he asked her to go on a date with him.
"Are you drunk?" she had asked him, but he was totally sober and very serious.
"You wanted to try something different, so go on a date with me," he had suggested to her. Ziva did want a change, but not between them, just to the movie (seeing Die Hard for the third time was enough for her, because she didn't see any realism of wasting so much ammunition on people, that you could be just silently strangled). Of course, Tony understood her wrong or was just kidding, but she was certainly taking his suggestion very seriously.
"I need to go home, it is very late," she had said and left his apartment - and him looking after her with a disappointed look on his face, because he had been very sure, that she'd say yes.
It took two days for her to say yes. Tony was ready to put on a show for her and give her the date of her life, but she didn't want all that – not that much attention. Tony was utterly confused for her lack of focus on the date he pulled off for her in his apartment – all the candles, some Sinatra playing in the background and she just kept gazing at the clock, like she was in a hurry to get out. But the confusion changed into a smile, when she asked to arrange their next date. And the smile turned into a awkward laugh, when he arrived to the NCIS cafeteria and saw her smiling at him with a plate filled with stuff from the venting machine.
"This is a date," Ziva smiled to him.
Tony sat next to her and smiled - the first thought that came into his mind was that she looked somehow adorable and the second thought was that this was really a date. His nerves took the best of him and made him shook a little bit.
"Is the famous Anthony DiNozzo scared?" Ziva asked mockingly and pursed her lips.
"Never," he said and suddenly cupped her face. He pressed a tender kiss to her lips and watched Ziva raising two fingers on her lips after they parted. A glimpse of hesitation flashed on her dark eyes, but it changed to something else – something like happiness. She leaned closer and kissed him back.
One date led to another and so on, until they promised to each other that they would no longer see other people, but tried to form a working relationship – while hiding behind Gibbs' back, which was more than hard, because when they were over the moon about each other, they were struggling to keep their hands off each other. Every now and then, they just had to exchange a kiss or two, ran their fingers on each others skin on the observation room's darkness or just gaze each others for few extra seconds. And all this, without getting caught was more than difficult, because it seemed like every time Tony looked at Ziva with need to have her shining in his eyes, Gibbs would march into the bullpen and confuse them by yelling "Grab your gear!".
Once they did get get caught, Tony later that same night came to tell Gibbs what was going on and what he was feeling towards his partner, but unlike Tony had expected, Gibbs didn't sent him to agent afloat to some ship far far away, instead of that, he shook his hand and smiled. But behind the fearless leader's smile was a promise of making his senior field agent's life a living hell, if he would let his relationship interfere with work too often.
Abby had jumped up and down, when she accidentally saw the kiss that Tony and Ziva exchanged in the stairwell. Abby had acted like a child on Christmas and hugged them both. Palmer wasn't that surprised when they broke the news to him and Ducky. They congratulated and continued dissecting a body. McGee was the last one to know and was utterly confused, since he didn't see anything special going on between his two co-workers.
In six months Tony and Ziva had went through a lot - from all sorts of fights to tearful, deeply emotional moments in the middle of the darkest nights. Their confession of love was sudden and beautiful; Tony had fought with Ziva and just when she was, again, about to walk out the door, he told her to stop and pulled her into his tight embrace. Tony kissed her hungrily and didn't let her go, no matter how much she tried to pull off. He held her close and they both sat on the floor. Right in that moment, he buried his face into her neck and whispered quietly, "I love you, please don't go," and Ziva realized, that she was in no need to go anywhere. It was right in that moment, when she realized, that she was meant to be right there, inside of his embrace.
No one ever explained them how hard it was to actually keep the love lasting. All those countless fights, little arguments and the amount of screaming ate away the feelings, but time showed that new ones could be created and the old ones could be built more stronger.
Finally the opening of the front door dropped Tony back to the reality.
"You're late!" he stood up and walked to Ziva, who rolled her eyes to his anticipation.
"Why are you late?" he asked and hugged her tightly.
"What is the matter?" she asked as they pulled apart. Ziva looked into his eyes and noticed that something was about to happen, "Tony...," she said slowly.
"Come," he said and walked her to the living room right after she had taken her coat off, "Sit," he ordered and sat her down to the couch.
"What is going on?" Ziva asked and crossed her legs.
"Okay, the deal is that-," Tony started pacing back and forth, "Is that I have something I desperately want to tell you and so I -"
"What is it?" Ziva interrupted him.
"Just listen to me first, okay?" Tony stopped pacing and looked at the woman sitting nervously on the couch.
"Ziva," he started and smiled, "We were never supposed to work out. We had so many fights and so many differences in us, that we never truly believed that we could actually make it together. But we also -" he took a deep breath, "We also have something that people search for a lifetime."
"And what is that?" Ziva asked, even though she was supposed to be quiet.
"Love," Tony answered smiling widely. He took a step and knelt down to her feet, which caused Ziva to straighten her back up.
"Tony, what are you -" she breath out and her eyes widened.
"Ziva," he said slowly, "Will you marry me?"
She felt like the time had stopped, like someone had just froze the moment to last longer than it should have had. She could feel her heart racing and her pulse rising. In that moment, she had a big choice to make.
"Ziva? This is the part where you're supposed to answer something...," Tony said, when he saw her fell deep into her thoughts.
She focused her eyes back on his - she looked at him for a while and smiled, "No."
Tony's image of getting to kiss her and hug her and share the happiness with her for a while, broke into pieces. Her answer was supposed to be yes, the words pouring out of her smiling lips were supposed to be yes. Where was the yes?
"No?" he repeated, cleared his throat and stood up.
Ziva stood up too and took his hands on hers, "Tony," she said slowly, "I do not want to marry you right now. I have to focus on something else."
"Like what?" he asked and frowned.
"This," she said and moved his hand onto her belly, "I was late, because I had an appointment with the doctor, and that...," she smiled, "That one in there, is your child."
Tony's entire world stopped – everything stopped. His hands touching the fabric of her shirt and knowing that under there was something that was his own flesh and blood made him want to scream, yell and cry – out of happiness.
"That's... my... that's...," he struggled with his words.
"Yes, Tony," Ziva smiled to the confused look on his face, "That is your child."
"My... My...," he stuttered and smiled. Tears were burning in the corner of his eyes.
"Child," she found the word for him and couldn't stop smiling.
Tony stared at her belly and then finally looked into her eyes. His expression was utterly happy and confused. Ziva smiled to him and kissed back, when he pressed his lips on hers.
He let his hand fell off her belly and he moved a little further and took few dance steps. His enthusiasm was admirable, especially when her smile faded away and doubt took over her.
"Ziva, I can't believe this, this is -" Tony turned to her, but after seeing the look on her face, his smile turned to more serious expression, "Are you okay?" he asked and moved back to her. He wrapped his arms around her.
"I just -" Ziva cleared her throat, "I am so confused."
"About this?" Tony placed his hand on her belly, "Ziva, this is a good thing – amazing thing! We're gonna be parents!"
A panic flashed in her eyes, "But Tony..."
"But what? This is amazing!" he said and Ziva loved the way his eyes sparkled out of excitement, even when her own were filled with doubt.
"I do not think I can handle all this," she shook her head, "I have to work and it is keeping me so busy, and I do not know how I can handle all of this!" she confessed and looked into his eyes.
Tony flashed a slow smile, "But Ziva, you're not alone," he said silently and pulled her closer. He kissed her hair, "You have me. I'm here for you, and for our kid."
"But it is a huge responsibility," she said and shook her head, dropping her gaze to the floor, "I do not think we can handle it - not even together."
"Ziva," he said and lifted her chin with his hand, "Look at me."
Slowly she lifted her gaze into his eyes.
"We can do this," he reassured her and smiled, "We can do this together. We can raise our kid to love movies and be a little ninja, sneaking up behind uncle McGeek and scare the bejesus out of him! And we can raise our kid to follow Gibbs' rules at the age of one. We can do this all together, you're not alone in this," he said and kissed her tenderly, "I am with you, Ziva."
She looked into his eyes and frowned, "Our child will not scare Tim. He will the one, who teaches our child how to behave like a lady or a gentleman."
"Hey! I'm not a gentlemen enough for our kid?" Tony acted offended.
"No, you are most certainly not," she said and made him push her down to the surface of the couch. She sank into the cushions and laughed, as he tickled her sides.
"Oh I will show you just how gentleman I can be, lady!" he said and pushed her on top of him. They laid on the couch and looked at each other. Time seemed to stop, when he ran his fingers on her back and when she ran her fingers on the structure of his jaw. Ziva stretched her neck a little bit and pressed her lips against his. A slow, synced motion, that made them both feel so loved. Once they parted, she molded herself against his side and rested her hand on his chest.
"We are going to be parents," she said silently.
"We are," Tony confirmed, "Excited?"
"Terrified," she answered and raised to her elbow. She looked into his eyes and saw his clear determination and his love towards this up-coming family.
"Me too," he said and let out a little lie, because really he was scared to death of messing up his kid in a way, that no therapist would fix the child up. He was scared of being a bad father and causing Ziva to leave him and taking the child with her.
"Tony," she cut off his thoughts and got him focused on her eyes again.
"Yeah?" he cleared his throat.
"Do you love me?" she asked quietly. Even though she had confessed her love and he had confessed his, this question seemed so obvious and quick – and it made her somehow nervous.
"Of course I do," Tony said and kissed her.
Ziva fell back against his side. She took a deep breath, "Then I think, that we will be okay."
Tony put his arm around her and it fell down to her belly. He rubbed it slowly and painted beautiful pictures of his family inside of his mind. He pictured himself watching movies with his child and seeing the smiles and shades of happiness. He pictured how Ziva would kiss him and then went out to play catch up with their kid. He imaged his whole family from work coming over to a dinner and having a few laughs and sharing a memories of their past and figuring out how the hell did someone like him and Ziva got into this point? He imagined the acceptance and the happiness. He had hope and love. And in that moment, and in the future, he had everything he had secretly wished for his whole life.
"Yeah, me too," Tony agreed and kissed her hair.
this was just a random idea. and yeah. i don't really know how to write family oriented stuff, but i tried - don't know did i succeed or not, but at least i tried.
ncis doesn't belong to me and hope you even tried to enjoy this ~