Mimi looked embarrassed. "Am I really that bossy? I don't like being that way. I don't want you to think all I do is nag and then get tired of me and not want to be together anymore and…"

"Is this the "insecure" side you referred to when we decided to give in to our wild ways and become an actual couple?"

He lifted her chin. "I'm not going anywhere. If anyone needs to be insecure or worried, it's me. So get rid of those worry lines and let me take you out to dinner tonight, ok?"

Chapter Three: "Meant to Be"

NCIS, May 15, 2013

The one-year anniversary of the bombing of at the Navy Yard was noted by a simple ceremony; honoring those who had died and sacrificed, celebrating the resilience and refusal to give in to terrorism. For some employees, it was too overwhelming and many had to go home that day, or didn't come in at all.

Others stayed; more determined than ever that they would never be so compromised or vulnerable again. Gibbs' team all remained at work, as expected. They immediately got a case and spent most of the day out in the field. Life goes on as before.

They all got together that night after work, at Gibbs' and Mimi's, to celebrate being together yet another year. Mimi felt at first an intruder into this most personal remembrance. Bailey made everyone feel at home.

She had not met any of them at that point last year, and this was a private sharing of memories. But they all insisted she belonged and there was no arguing.

So they all spent a long evening and pretty much got shit-faced, but it was worth it. Gibbs made everyone stay there that night, and told Vance that the team needed to take a day after all, the effect of the anniversary having a delayed reaction.

Lily had stayed at Tony and Ziva's to stay with Karina. Lily didn't really want to talk of morbid things, although she knew her possible future would deal entirely with all things morbid; and thrilled at the chance to not only babysit Karina but be responsible for her overnight as well.

If Vance didn't buy Gibbs' fairly thin story, he said nothing other than "understood, hope they are better tomorrow," making it clear they would be expected in the next day.

NCIS, June 20, 2013

Tony was working hard to complete his reports. His eyes kept glancing at the empty desk across from his. Karina had gotten a cold, probably from some snot-nosed kid in daycare, as Tony referred to it.

Mimi had been able to take care of the sick baby while they were at work, but then Ziva came down with the same cold, and was currently at home, under serious antibiotics.

She was feeling much better, but her doctor had not returned her to work until the coming Monday. She had come back from maternity leave the beginning of May, so she was not pleased to be out again so soon.

Tim was humming happily as he typed away at his computer. Even Gibbs started staring at him. He finally had enough. "Ok, McGee! Either spill what you're so happy about or shut the hell up!"

Tim looked momentarily scared, but then his face cleared. He looked at his watch. "Well, I am waiting for Abby to come up. So I'll just shut the hell up, Boss."

Gibbs gave one of his crooked smiles and looked at Tony. Tony was smiling as well. He had just figured out why Tim was so happy, but waited patiently for Abby instead of pumping McGee to spill it.

About a half hour later, Abby showed up and joined Tim at his desk. "May I have your attention, please?" Abby had her arms raised, in case her voice was not enough to get their notice.

"Have something to say, Abbs?" Gibbs asked, looking at her with a slight grin. Tony had already gotten up from his desk and moved over to Gibbs'.

Tim had also by this time stood up to join Abby and took her hand. "We have decided on a wedding date." They both announced.

"Well, it's about time, you too! Tony quipped. "You've only been engaged since forever!" Abby glared at him. "That is not true and you know why we have been waiting before we made a decision."

Tony hugged her. "I know Abbs, I am just happy you finally picked a date."

"Which is?" Gibbs asked.

"September 14th!" Tim and Abby said together.

"Of this year?" Tony responded as usual to the head slap. "Thank you, Boss!"

"Abby wanted a Halloween wedding, but…"

"But he didn't want to wait. Which is perfectly understandable." Abby beamed.

Gibbs and Tony glanced at each other, smiling at the thought that the real reason was that McGee didn't want a Halloween Wedding.

Gibbs got up and kissed his girl and shook Tim's hand. Turning to face them both, he congratulated them. "That's not too far away."

"No and we have a gazillion things to do." Tim just smiled. He knew that meant Abby had a gazillion things to do. The only thing he asked was that her wedding dress, whatever style she chose, was not all black.

She reluctantly agreed but started finding dresses she liked that had black accents, so she was happy at the moment. But she was definitely planning on her bridesmaid's dresses being black.

Tony was never so glad to have Gibbs call it a day. They had a dead Marine that had been found in an old house during renovation/demolition. Not only did he have to deal with a freaked out couple who now thought their dream home was cursed or haunted, an area he wished Abby had been there to deal with; the remains were in really bad shape and even made Tony sick to look at.

At this point, Ducky had not made the determination as to whether or not the Marine had been murdered or somehow it was an accidental death or even suicide.

As sad as it was, there was no point in the team working through the night to solve this case. Especially since Tony had two sick ones at home. Gibbs yanked his thumb and told them all to clear out.

He told Tim to do his best to convince Abby to leave her "babies" until the morning and to go have a nice evening of wedding planning. McGee left with a big grin on his face.

Gibbs sighed and looked at the empty office. Just a year ago, he would have stayed and continued working, unless he was in the middle of working on a serious project in his basement. He smiled to himself.

He now had a very good reason to be heading home, and he wasted no time grabbing his things and heading out. He gave Mimi a quick call to let her know he was on his way. Her delighted response brought a big grin to his face. "Gibbs', you are one lucky SOB." he said to himself.

Tony and Ziva's Home, North Arlington

Tony entered the house quietly, in case his girls were sleeping. He was pleasantly surprised to see that they were in the family room; Karina in her playpen, swatting her mobile to make the musical sounds. Ziva was on the sofa, reading a book, covered in her blankey.

"Looks like my two favorite ladies are feeling better." He bent down to kiss Ziva, and then reached way down to try to kiss Karina without falling in to the playpen. Her reaching her arms up for him to pick her up solved his dilemma for him. He reached in and pulled her out, cradling her against his chest.

"How's my punkin doin' huh? Feeling better? I don't like it when my girl isn't happy." She snuggled her head into his neck and patted his face. She was feeling much better, but wasn't quite 100%. Ziva had been quite upset when she had refused to breast feed when she was first ill.

"She did breast feed today, so she is definitely feeling better."

Tony sat down on the sofa, putting Ziva's feet in his lap, balancing Karina on her toes. She found this quite funny and giggled.

"And what about you? Are you feeling better?"

"Oh, much better. I really think I could go back to work tomorrow, but the doctor said to stay out until Monday so…" Ziva shrugged.

"So…" Tony began. "You are pretty much returned to normal?"

Ziva knew what he was asking. "I think I may have regained some of my interest in doing things other than lying in bed, doing nothing other than sleeping."

"Hmmm…" Tony responded. "Good to know, good to know."

Ziva chuckled. "Tony, you are so transparent. If you want to make love to me all you have to do is initiate it. Have I ever refused you?"

"Once or twice, but those don't count since we weren't in a relationship, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit to being disappointed."

Ziva was intrigued. "When are you referring to?"

Tony scrunched up his face. "Well, one time that comes to mind was when we were stuck in that box. I mean it's not like we had anything else to do, and it would have helped us keep warm."

Ziva was laughing at him so hard, she started to snort. "In that box? Tony, my refusal had nothing to do with you, it was…the atmosphere. After all, we had sex when we posed as Jean Paul and Sophie."

"True." Tony considered.

"What was the other time?" Ziva was truly interested in hearing what Tony considered a refusal.

"Oh, I don't know. Every time we had a movie night, I guess."

"What? We had sex after many movie nights. The only times we did not to my recollection were when one of us was injured or neither of us were in the mood. You have to start something first; I am not a mind reader, so how can I be accused of refusing to have sex with you?"

"And I know several of those times I was the initiator. Is that what you are referring to? That I did not initiate sex enough to make you happy?"

Tony winced. "It isn't…wasn't an accusation. Probably just wishful thinking on my part, looking back over all those times we spent together. Do you ever feel like we wasted time, that we could have had all this sooner?"

Ziva thought about it for a few minutes. "I do not know the answer to that, Tony. Maybe if we got together earlier, we would have had a baby, but it would not maybe have been Karina."

"I think things happened the way they were supposed to happen. I am very happy with our life the way it is now, I cannot imagine it being different."

Tony placed a free arm around Ziva. "How did I get so lucky, getting such a beautiful, smart and wise woman to look past my idiot façade and see the real me?"

"How did I get so lucky that the woman I fell madly in love with, fell in love with me too? And now we have this amazing child. I am sometimes so surprised by my life."

"It was not luck, Tony. It was always meant to be. Do you remember in the elevator when my father called, and I made a comment about how you were never going to change, then I said 'No we are fine.' Then I said again, 'We are fine, yes!'"

"He made a comment regarding my use of the word 'we,' as in were we now a couple. I let him know in no uncertain terms that as far as I was concerned we were, although we had clearly made no such declarations to each other."

Tony looked surprised at her revelation. "I wondered about that at the time, the repeating of the 'we are fine' thing, with the emphasis on 'we', but I kind of had other things on my mind so I never really took it to mean too much."

"But I do have to say, inappropriate or not, if your father had not called just then, I may have made a serious attempt to kiss you."

Ziva smiled. "And I think if he had not called right then, inappropriate or not, I would have let you. We left a lot of things unsaid, but understood in that elevator, Tony. I wonder if we had not been trapped together all those hours would we be together now."

"Hey, no second guessing. Like you said, it was meant to be." He looked at Karina. "It looks like someone here is ready for bed." Karina was asleep on her father's shoulder.

Ziva looked at her husband and daughter, and smiled. "Come, let us put your daughter to bed then get you something to eat. I am sure you have not eaten all day." They both stood and took Karina to her crib.

Ziva went back downstairs and heated up some leftover veal picatta for Tony. He joined her in the kitchen. "Aren't you eating?'

Ziva shrugged. "I have already eaten although I will eat a salad to keep you company."

They enjoyed each other's company, sharing their day. "Oh, my god! I almost forgot. Abby and McGee set a date." Tony looked apologetic.

"What! How could you forget to tell me that? When is it?"

"September 14th, no other details." Tony replied, taking another bite of his dinner.

"Hmm," Ziva thought. "That is less than three months away. I hope they already had a lot of things decided before today. It is very difficult to get a good place for a wedding reception in this area."

She looked at Tony. "I don't know what kind of wedding Abby wants, but if they are agreeable, maybe they could have the reception here. We have plenty of room."

Tony laughed. "What about what kind of wedding McGee wants? Oh wait! That's right; he has no say in anything."

Ziva playfully pinched his neck. "I believe you had plenty to say about our wedding, no? In fact, you did all of the planning. All I did was pick out dresses, shoes and flowers. Oh and the cake. That was a great cake." Ziva sighed in fond memory.

"Well, don't forget we still have the top layer in the freezer. Tradition says you eat in on your first anniversary."

Ziva smiled. "I am going to go take a shower. Just put your plate in the dishwasher, it is not full enough to run." With that, she gave him a quick kiss, and then headed upstairs.

Tony watched her go up the stairs. He checked his watch. It seemed a little early for Ziva to be taking a shower. He thought better of it, and quickly finished his dinner, did as he was instructed with the dinnerware and headed upstairs to find his wife.

Friday morning came too soon for Tony. He really wanted to call in and stay in bed with Ziva all day. If last night was any indication, they had a lot to look forward to. Tony smiled to himself, and then turned his head to look at Ziva.

She was still asleep, facing him, amazingly not snoring so she must not have been in a deep sleep. Her features were soft and peaceful and worry-free, just how Tony wanted to see her. He quietly got out of bed, not wanting to disturb her much needed rest.

Although no longer contagious, she still had a lingering cough, so he was glad the doctor held her over to Monday.

He quickly took his shower and got dressed. He went over to Ziva and kissed her cheek. "Leaving now, will call you later sweetie." Ziva stirred and smiled and turned over, opening her eyes.

"Have a good day, I know yesterday sucked for you." Tony smiled and kissed her forehead. "See you tonight." She murmured, already falling back asleep.

Tony did a quick peek in on Karina, but thankfully she was still sleeping as well. Reluctantly, he headed down the stairs, got into his car and drove into DC.

NCIS

They caught a break in the case of the dead Marine. Ducky found a fine groove in the spinal processes of C-4, something that would not be caused by disease or surgery. Ducky concluded that the Marine had probably been garroted, almost to the point of decapitation. Murdered.

"Ah, hell." Gibbs grumbled. That meant tonight would be a late night and probably multiple late nights until this case had been solved. The team spent the rest of the day rebuilding the life of Private Eric Sellers- Abby had been able to identify the remains from DNA Ducky got from some bone marrow.

"Went missing five years ago, Boss." Tony started. "Stationed at Quantico. Listed as AWOL. Apparently foul play was not considered. Didn't have an outstanding record, and it looked like he may have been being considered for early release from the Corp due to his poor evaluations."

"Single, born in San Francisco, family moved to Virginia in the 90's. Average grades, nothing outstanding in school, no prior arrests. No credit cards, never bought a car. In fact, Boss, if he hadn't joined the Marines, no one would probably know he existed." Tim added his notes.

"His parents would know." Gibbs replied.

Tim looked down at his notes again. "Both parents deceased, car accident in 2007. No siblings. No other relatives listed in the parent's obituaries."

Tim looked up. "Boss, the house they found Private Sellers in belonged to his parents. It's been vacant since…"

"2007, the same year as Sellers' death." Gibbs headed toward the elevator.

"Boss?" Tony asked, glancing at McGee. Gibbs just hit the button.

Thanks for showing me the love and posting reviews. I'm really glad you all are enjoying it so far. Trying my hand at adding a sidebar procedural, which will have ramifications later, but this is still and foremost TIVA.