A/N: OK, just wanted to say...you guys are the BEST! As for overnight responses, this is the most I have ever gotten! Keep 'em coming! Also please note I changed Richard's name to Ray because, as revealed by the lovely Ziva in 8x12 Recruited, that is his name! Yay!
Last time...
"When I was in Miami..." she started.
Oh, God. Please don't let this be what I think it is.
He looked at her hard. He could tell how hard it was for her to say it. Carefully, he placed a hand on her cheek.
Her heart was racing.
She had to tell him now. He deserved to know.
"I'm pregnant."
...
Meanwhile, at NCIS Headquarters
11:00pm New Year's Eve (2 hours after Tony and Ziva left for Christopher Mason's house)
"I'm trying, Boss, I'm doing my best..." McGee defended fearfully.
"Well, you're not trying hard enough, McGee!" Gibbs barked, furious at both his agent and himself.
He stormed towards Abby's lab, hoping that perhaps she would have more luck.
Tony and Ziva were in trouble. He had a gut feeling. They hadn't called, their phones were either off had been taken, and they were never, ever, off unless someone turned them off. Someone that wasn't part of his team.
...
Tony was silent.
More than that, he was overwhelmed.
It was just so un-Ziva.
Tony looked at her stomach, and only now did he really notice the small bump. It was incredible to think that there was life growing inside of her. What would she be like as a mother?
So many questions flooded his head. He had to know the whole story.
"Miami Man..." he whispered.
"Ray," she confirmed, finally revealing his name to him. "He's the father."
Tony felt a little hurt. No, more than a little. She had told Tony that they were 'just friends' and now she was telling him that she was carrying his baby?
"When Paloma Reynosa was still...at large," she began bravely with a shaky breath, "and I was in Miami following a lead, I met Ray through the work. He asked me out, but I declined, because the last thing I needed was a relationship. But on my last night I ran into him at a bar and we talked, hit it off...next thing I know I'm sleeping in his arms in my hotel room."
"Did you use protection?" Tony asked, only realising after he said it that it was incredibly intrusive but Ziva didn't seem to mind.
"It does only work like, 99% of the time," she replied, not being able to help being a little embarrassed. But this was Tony. She shouldn't have been embarrassed.
"Before I left I told him that I really liked him but I just wanted to be friends," she continued. "My life is too hectic and I can barely juggle a social life with my job at NCIS, let alone a boyfriend. Everything was fine for a few weeks. We emailed each other every few days. It was nice. Then I started having the morning sickness. I went to see the doctor and that's when I found out."
Tony waited for her to say more, something other than the bare facts.
"Tony, when I found out I was pregnant, I felt so many things. I didn't know I was capable of feeling that many emotions at one time. I was worried that I would make a terrible mother, anxious about what you, and the team, would say when you found out, and terrified of what Ray would say when he found. But most of all, I felt happy. I have never felt so happy in my entire life. There is a little person growing inside of me. I created that one little life."
Her brown eyes sparkled.
"When did you find out?" Tony asked, eager to hear more.
"The days before my father arrived. I'm almost eleven weeks now."
"Ray?"
"Um..." Ziva blinked a few times to hold back tears and swallowed. "I called him when I got out of the doctor's office."
"What are you gonna do? Is he coming to D.C.? Are you going to Miami?" Tony asked frantically.
"No one's going anywhere," she said quietly.
"But he's—"
"Married."
And there, was the second bomb dropped that January morning.
...
"Gibbs, what if we don't find them? What if they die wherever they are?" Abby asked, tearing up a little.
Gibbs kissed her silky black hair. "We'll find 'em, Abs." Irony aside, he was usually his calmest when he was around Abby.
"Can I come up to the squad room with you?" she asked, puppy-dog eyes pleading.
Gibbs cocked his head towards the elevator and Abby eagerly followed him, bringing with her Bert the Hippo tucked under one arm and the Caf-POW that Gibbs had just given her in her hand.
...
It was late; so late it was actually early.
But Tony couldn't possibly sleep. Not now.
"Ray is married and doesn't want his wife to know he had an affair. He asks also that when the child is born that he or she does not make contact with him, for as long as possible."
How she was keeping it so together, Tony had no idea. Although, this was the least together he had ever seen her and still he was impressed.
"But that makes no sense...you spent Christmas with him."
"He works in law enforcement. He told his family he had to be on call on Christmas, and instead took me skiing. Of course, I didn't know about what else was going on."
"No, I know you wouldn't. You'd never do something like that."
"Something like what?" the Israeli questioned.
"Break apart two people who love each other for your own personal pleasure. Knowingly, at least."
She was silent, avoiding his eyes that always somehow forced truth from her lips.
"Are you scared?" he asked gently.
Her eyes tried to watch the floor, but his pulled them up to look at him.
"I'm terrified, Tony," she whispered, holding her belly protectively. "This is a child, my child. What kind of mother will I be? I don't know how to look after a little baby. The closest I even came to that was staying at home when I was a child...with Ari and Tali," she said the last words slowly, savouring them on her tongue, knowing they were rare ones. "But Tali was only a few years younger than me; I don't remember when she was that small.
"And it kills me that I don't have a good relationship with my father. He formed so much of who I am; who I was, before I found NCIS. And now, my baby won't even know its father."
Just seeing her like this was heartbreaking. Tony wanted to do something, anything, to ease the pain.
"Ziva, there's a difference between who your father is, and who your dad is. You father is the person whose sperm was used to create you. Your dad is the one who teaches his son to play baseball, football, about fishing, about girls. And his daughter, his little princess, he'll practically load his shotgun every time a boy comes near her. Your dad is the one who teaches you how to grow up, and face the world with your best foot forward. And you know, your father and your dad can be two completely different people."
Ziva was taken aback at his poetic, thoughtful statements, but more or less confused. "What are you saying, Tony?"
He shifted just a little closer to her.
"I'm saying that, whatever you need, and whenever you need it, I'll be there. If you want me to, I'll show that kid how to play baseball, and football and teach him about fishing and girls, and I'll be the one who loads a gun every time a boy comes near that little girl." He held one of her slender hands in his. "We're gonna get out of this, Ziva. And when we do, I'm gonna be right by your side until you ask me to go."
Such a load had been lifted off Ziva's shoulders she thought she might faint. But instead, she jumped out of character and threw her arms around Tony's neck, crying into his shirt. He stroked her hair, treasuring the closeness between them as he always did, but this was different. She needed him, but what she didn't realise was that he needed her just as much.
It was them together.
It was always them together.
Ever since she walked into that bullpen five years ago, something clicked.
And the Universe had finally done something right for the two of them.
...
The two fell asleep at some ungodly hour, and they were both reluctant, but simply exhausted. Their amateur guts could feel a fight coming on, and they needed their rest.
Tony awoke many hours later. He didn't know how many. He didn't care.
Because Ziva was gone.
And all that was in her place was a laptop plugged into a power source hidden behind a tile.
In a state of panic, he opened it to find it was tuning in to a feed from a camera somewhere else.
Live feed.
Ziva, tied to a chair, cuts on her arms, all looking excruciatingly painful.
But what made Tony's heart stop was the dark figure behind her, holding an object in each of his hands.
A knife in the left...
And in the right, on a hanger, the uniform of a female petty officer.
A/N: I know I'm evil. I just wanted to update before I go on holiday on Monday. I highly doubt I will get the next chapter up in time. It will require some serious thinking. However, I will hopefully be able to write some while I am away and post it when I get back. Until then, please review! I would love to know if anyone gasped aloud while reading this.
