"Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." -Elizabeth Stone
Ziva David wanted to become a mother.
Mail was usually not celebrated, especially in the bullpen.
Tony was still extra cautious opening letters, making sure to not unnecessarily blow on the top, or open anything with a mysterious SWAK on the back.
Ziva never really got the point of mail. Or any confrontation that was not face-to-face in general.
McGee was the only one that liked mail, but paper mail seemed boring to him. Everything he did now was email and mail-mail seemed to come less and less.
Gibbs, well, any mail that Gibbs got was usually a package from someone wanting help or a letter from an old friend stuck between a rock and a hard place.
But today, Ziva was excited to see the manila envelope sitting on her desk when she arrived at work that morning. She sat down with a content smile on her face as she opened the envelope and took out the stack of pictures.
"Morning." McGee said towards her as he entered the bullpen.
"Good morning McGee." she chirped as she slowly went through the photographs, smiling momentarily at each one.
Tim sat down at his desk, noticing the smile in her eyes as she went through a mysterious stack of photos. "What are those?" he asked, his eyes wandering past Gibbs's empty desk to hers.
"Photographs." she said simply, continuing to go though the stack.
He paused for a second, hoping she'd continue, but she didn't. "Of?" his interest peeking.
"My nephews." she smiled, and could feel Tony's now present presence.
"Nephews?" Tony questioned, putting his stuff down. And by now, McGee had already made his way to Ziva's desk, standing in front of it.
She looked up momentarily from her delight to explain. "Ari and Tali were not my only siblings."
"Tali?" McGee questioned, confusion staining his face. But his confusion turned to pain as Tony's elbow made contact with his ribs. He shot him a don't-go-there-look. But it was too late.
"My younger sister." she said, not looking up. "She was killed." she explained simply, not getting into details.
"Sorry." McGee mumbled, hating himself for asking, but he was innocent, having no prior knowledge of this, although he still received a brief glare from Tony.
"Cute kids." Tony commented after slipping behind Ziva's chair and lowering down to her level.
"Thank you." she said softly, still admiring the new and shiny photos. "They are my younger brother's sons." she picked out a photo of just the two young boys and herself, sitting on a burgundy couch, smiling brightly into the camera. "That is Avery, he is four. And Ethan is two." her smiled was still fresh on her lips.
"You're really good with kids." McGee said, almost admiringly as he glanced through the pictures.
She looked down at her desk for a moment, seemingly deep in thought, but only for a second. Her eyes then re-met the photographs in front of her.
Just then, a phone rang. McGee's. He rushed back over to his desk, answering it quickly, and hanging up almost as fast. "Abby needs me." he announced to no one in particular before leaving the bullpen.
"He's right you know." Tony said, looking at a picture of Ziva, sprawled out on the floor surrounded by toy cars and Ethan straddled to her stomach. Their smiles were glorious, you could hear their laughs.
He watched her, her eyes lit up with every change of the photo in front of her and her soft chuckle as she recognized a moment captured by the camera.
"You'd be a great mom." the last word caught her attention and she immediately turned her head towards Tony, looking at him softly. "You ever think about it?" he asked.
She watched him for another moment, then turned back to the pictures. "Occasionally."
But the simplicity of the answer and the hint of a smile told Tony that she had thought about it a lot more than just occasionally.
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