Nothing related to NCIS belongs to me.
Lucky
Exhausted, Tony closed the door behind him, all but throwing his bag into the corner of the hallway. He hadn't been at their apartment for two days now because they had been chasing down a suspect and it had taken them longer than he had thought possible to finally make him confess. It had been a tiring case and the fact that it was still somewhat odd to look up from his desk to stare at Dorny instead of Ziva across the bullpen hadn't made it any better.
Sometimes it still felt weird not having Ziva there with them, but whenever his mind would reach that particular thought, he remembered that there was a damn good reason for it all. And that particular reason was currently crying his lungs out by the sound of it. He suppressed a smile as he walked down the hallway into the nursery and saw Ziva sitting in the rocking chair Gibbs had made for them. She was trying to cradle their baby boy back to sleep but apparently in vain as the baby fussed and wiggled in her arms. Tony paused at the door, leaned against the frame and then let out a sigh. Yes, this was definitely worth not having Ziva at his six at work anymore.
"Hey," his girlfriend looked up now, giving him a tired smile.
"Hi," Tony replied with a broad smile. "We got the bad guy and Gibbs ordered us to take the weekend. So I'm all yours for the next two days."
"Good," she replied with another smile. "Noah has been inconsolable almost since you left."
Tony walked over to them now and carefully took the boy out of Ziva's arms, softly cradling him.
"What's wrong, huh buddy?" he softly asked the still crying baby. "Did you make sure your mommy didn't get much sleep?"
"He has been crying almost all night," Ziva answered, only just suppressing a yawn. "I think he missed his Daddy."
"That true?" Tony said, trying to shush him. "Well, I missed you, too. A lot. But now I'm here, buddy."
He repositioned the baby so that his head was lying on his shoulder and started to slowly walk around the room. It usually worked getting him back to sleep in the middle of the night, but it didn't work as smoothly as usual this time. So, Tony kept on walking, whispering meaningless things into his son's ear and lazily rubbing his back to soothe him. It took a couple of long minutes until the crying stopped, first replaced by quiet sobs and then by even breaths. Tony adjusted his grip to look at the boy's face and realized with a smile that he had fallen asleep.
"There you go," Tony whispered barely audible and turned around to tell Ziva that he had missed her a lot, too.
He stopped short, though, as he saw her still sitting in the rocking chair, her head leaning against the backrest. Her eyes were closed and quiet snores escaped her. Tony couldn't help the smile on his face as he grabbed for a blanket, mindful of the sleeping baby in his arms, and covered her with it. He stood there for a moment just looking at her. She was beautiful like this and Tony really wished he had his phone ready to take a picture. He subtly shook his head and smiled to himself. Yeah, this was worth not having her at work anymore and this was the reason he couldn't wait to get home in the evenings for the first time in his life. It had been an adjustment at first, but this really was everything he had ever wanted and needed and nothing compared to moments like these.
He really was one lucky man.