Chapter Four: McGee
After arriving back from lunch with Jimmy and Ducky, Ziva and Tony had a brief conversation in the breakroom. Ziva had gone for a cup of water and Tony poured himself a cup of coffee.
"Thanks for the assist," said Tony, knowing full well he had dropped the ball earlier.
"Well, what was I supposed to say?" she asked taking a sip of water.
"I just - I didn't know where to start," said Tony. "I'm not doing a very good job about all of this. I'm sorry."
"Well," she sighed. "I am also the one that began the news with 'I'...which I'm sorry for..."
"This is more difficult than I thought," he replied.
"What's more difficult?"
Ziva and Tony looked up to see McGee walk into the room.
"Um, nothing," said Tony with an awkward smile. But he also saw it as a possible window, "So, McGoob, any dinner plans?"
McGee raised his eyebrows, "Well, actually, no. Is there something going on?"
"Well I just convinced Ziva here to grab some pizza tonight and catch a movie at my place. Just got a new Blu-Ray copy of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' - classic Jimmy Stewart! You want to join us - take advantage of all that work you did on my TV audio and video system?"
"Actually, that sounds like fun," said McGee. "Why not? Should we ask anyone else?"
Ziva chimed in and lied, "Oh no, I've been asking around and people seem a bit busy."
McGee nodded, "Okay. So what time should I be at your place?"
"I think 7 sounds pretty sensible?" said Tony.
"Okay," said McGee with a smile. "I'll meet you guys at 7."
McGee left with a cup of water and Ziva and Tony stood standing in the breakroom for awhile.
"So...I'll try not to mess this one up," said Tony.
Ziva said, "If you say so, Tony."
"At least I'll be in the comfort of my own home - that should give my nerves home court advantage right?"
Ziva smiled and patted his arm, "We'll be fine..no matter what happens."
They shared one lingering look before heading back into their lives.
"McGee, glad you could make it," said Tony a little too enthusiastically when he opened the door.
"I also brought over some wine," said McGee, handing Tony over a bottle.
"Thanks," he said. "This should go well with the pizza. We picked it up on the way over."
"We?" asked McGee.
"Um...my car is in the shop," said Ziva. "Tony gave me a ride this morning." The truth was that she had spent Sunday night over at Tony's, but that wasn't the best way to introduce their news.
"When is her car not in the shop?" said Tony under his breath, half speaking to be supportive of the cover story and half being pretty honest.
"I heard that," said Ziva, hitting him on his arm.
They gathered around Tony's dining table enjoying salad and pizza.
"Oh yeah, that wine," said Tony. He grabbed two glasses from his kitchen shelf.
"You're not having any, Ziva?" asked McGee as Tony poured him a glass.
"Oh I'm..." began Ziva thinking of what she could say that wouldn't be seen as an outright lie in the next few minutes, that seemed to add on to all these lies the past two years. The plan was to tell McGee after dinner and before watching the movie...if they got to that part depending on McGee's reaction.
Tony poured himself a glass and set the bottle down. He wasn't going to drop the ball this time.
"McGee, Ziva shouldn't have anything to drink of the alcoholic variety."
"But why? Are you on some kind of medication...?" McGee began. He looked at his partners, at Ziva's averting eyes. There were plenty of reasons why Ziva couldn't drink. Medication had been the first thing he had thought about, followed by that she might have been feeling well, but there was something about Ziva and Tony that made this seem like a bigger deal than any of those reasons...so it had to be a big deal. "Ziva, are you...no...Ziva...?"
Tony and Ziva glanced at each other.
"Ziva is in a particular condition, Probie..." Tony began.
Ziva rolled her eyes knowing that she might as well say it, "McGee, I'm pregnant."
"Oh my God, Ziva!" said McGee grinning. "Congratulations. How far along are you? Was this dinner thing just to tell me?"
"Yes, a couple of months," she nodded. "I'm sorry we sprung this on you, but - um - there isn't that many ways to bring up this conversation."
McGee blinked and paused, catching the 'we' in her sentence. There were many reasons why she might say 'we', one being that perhaps she had enlisted Tony to help her tell people the news. This didn't seem like the case either.
"We...?" he repeated before looking over at Tony. "Tony...are you...does this mean...?" He leaned back on his chair, "Oh my God."
After a few moments of silence, Tony said, "You okay, McGee?"
"I - I don't know what to say. How...how long has this been going on?"
"Awhile," he said, glancing over at Ziva. They had been right - vague was better.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Well, the last time there was office gossip about us, it was a bit...out of our control," said Tony. "When things happened, we kind of just wanted it to be about us." He put his hand over Ziva's.
"I'm sorry we didn't tell you earlier McGee. It's not that we wouldn't have trusted you," said Ziva. "It's just that you know it can all blow up."
He nodded, "Rule #12 too. Wow...and here I was expecting pizza and a movie."
"There's plenty of pizza and there's a movie waiting," said Tony. "That hasn't changed."
"No, but everything kind of has - hasn't it?" McGee replied. "Especially for you two?"
Ziva smiled, "I don't think you need to remind me and Tony that part of it at all."
Tony looked at McGee thoughtfully and said, "You want to see something?"
"What?"
Tony stood up to take a frame from where he and Ziva had hidden it quickly before McGee arrived, "Well, so long as Ziva doesn't mind?"
He looked at her and Ziva, recognizing it, shook her head, "No, not at all."
McGee sat confused until Tony handed him the frame, "Is this? Oh my God..." He sat looking at a picture of the ultrasound with his trademark wide grin, "This is - this is really happening." He said honestly, "This is all kind of amazing."
"Probie, I'm sorry we sprung all of this on you and we know it's a lot to take in all at once," said Tony.
"Tony, the most important thing is that you guys are happy about everything, right?"
"If it wasn't for all this needing to tell people - and even with it - " said Tony who somehow found himself oddly at a loss for words. So he ended up with, "Yes."
"Very much so, McGee," Ziva replied simply.
He handed the frame back to to Tony who set it on its unhidden place on the coffee table. As they began to serve themselves pizza, McGee shook his head, "So, Tiva...huh...?"
Ziva rolled her eyes, "Why must we be haunted by this nickname?"
"I'd blame Abby for that one, Ziva," said McGee. "She was the president of the fan club...oh wait...does she know yet?"
"No," said Tony. "We're going to tell her next...just weren't sure exactly how that one is going to go..."
"Well, it's Abby, she's going to be thrilled," said McGee.
"Yes, but as our biggest supporter, we feel that she might feel a bit - slighted - about being left out of the part where we've been together," explained Ziva.
"Oh come on, it's Abby," said McGee. He paused and then realized his ex-girlfriend's sugary sweetness could have a bit of an edge, "If there is anything, it wouldn't last long."
"We weren't sure if we might need to enlist your help in telling her," said Tony.
He laughed, "What could I possible do?"
"Make her feel better if she's upset? Be there when she needs to ramble to someone that isn't us?" asked Ziva thoughtfully.
"You know, whatever Abby might feeling, I bet if you showed her that ultrasound, everything else will just go away. Imagine - Aunt Abby?" said McGee.
Ziva and Tony laughed. If there was anyone in the world who could be the picture perfect image of a spoiling Aunt, that person would probably be Abby Sciuto.
"But of course, I'll be there for you guys if you need me," said McGee. "I just kind of wish you'd told all of us about you two earlier. I mean, this is sort of a lot to absorb - you two and...a baby. Does anyone else know?"
"We did a practice run on Ducky and Jimmy at lunch," said Tony.
"Not to categorize them so lightly," Ziva quickly emphasized. "We just figured they would be the easiest to tell first without major team impact and implications."
"You mean, not Gibbs," said McGee. "Who...I take it doesn't know yet?"
"Nope," said Tony.
"Not at all," said Ziva.
"Oh, I'm not going to be there for that one," said McGee. He would love to know the outcome and watch the entire thing unfold like a television show, but he knew better than to want to be in the same room as it happening.
"I don't blame you, Probie," said Tony who's brain did not want to think about that yet.
"So...were you guys ever planning on telling us?" asked McGee eventually.
"What do you mean?" asked Ziva.
"I mean, well the baby would have made things pretty obvious so I understand us knowing now, but you two - without the baby - would you have ever said anything?"
Tony and Ziva glanced at each other. It was something they talked about every once in awhile...it used to be more frequently, but in the last year or so it was a sporadic conversation. They liked everyone not knowing...not asking or watching or wondering... Still it was difficult not letting everyone else in.
"I think so," said Tony. "I mean, especially once we were pretty sure this was...it."
Ziva raised her eyebrows. She knew that he wasn't going anywhere, but she hadn't been actually told with words that he was this sure about them as much as she felt she was.
McGee smiled, "I don't know how you guys could have hidden this for so long. We must have all had blinders on. You guys are just..."
"What?" asked Tony.
"Totally in love with each other," McGee summed up. Something about that statement, made Ziva and Tony turn a little red and reveal almost bashful smiles. This was the first time anyone had confronted them about that. McGee didn't seem to notice and continued, "I guess Abby was right."
"What was she so right about?" asked Ziva.
"She once said that sometimes there are all these crazy things that have to happen for two people to collide and be colliding...and I look back on so many things that had to happen for you two to happen. Abby tried to do all this scheming to get you guys together, but I don't think she needed to. I told her that if it was meant to be, you two would find your way there...and well, here you guys are."
"...and then some," said Tony.
"So...thoughts on names?" said McGee after taking a bite of pizza.
"Let me guess, probie, you think Timothy or Tim would be a lovely addition to the list?" said Tony.
He laughed, "How did you know?"
"We're beginning to see a trend..." said Ziva as she explained Zony and Zinozzo from the conversation earlier.
McGee laughed, "This only supports my case. Timothy or Tim is a much better alternative!"
As they sat talking and eating dinner, Ziva thought about the next conversation, the one with Abby. All this worry about Abby and this acknowledgment that she would be a great Aunt who would spoil this child rotten regardless, Ziva thought it was amusing that they didn't state the other obvious. Sitting here in the room, future Uncle Tim would be exactly the spoiling same.
Sitting there, Ziva felt very amused as she watched McGee and Tony banter about how Tony would handle having a daughter as opposed to a son. She wondered how much her amusement was because it was nice that McGee knew or that she and Tony were all the more closer to letting go of their biggest secrets.
It scared her more than she wanted to admit. She wondered what that change would mean to her and Tony, if they would just tuck it away in all the chaos and change that was bound to happen with the arrival of their child.
She thought about her unintentional implications of her "David-Dinozzo" joke at the doctor's office. Was that in the cards too? If someone had told her three years ago that all of this would happen, she would have said they were joking. But here she was very much pregnant - and McGee was right - totally in love with Anthony Dinozzo.
End of Chapter! Next up, Abby! Feedback welcomed.