Tony hummed quietly to Azalea as he slipped her into her sleeper. She lay on the changing table gurgling happily, and he sincerely hoped she would stay that way. When Ziva had come to him earlier in the day to say that she was staying at work late, he'd about had a conniption- the baby was five months old, Ziva had been back at work for one, and, so far, he had managed to avoid putting Azalea to bed by himself.
While Ziva was fantastic with the baby and he was getting better, he sometimes felt self-conscious when handling her, afraid he was going to do something wrong. Soothing her in the middle of the night usually involved just a few minutes of rocking, but getting Azalea to fall asleep in the first place was one of the most trying tasks the new parents had faced. Up to now, Ziva had either done it alone or with him up.
Tonight was his turn to fly solo.
"Come here, Aza," he said, scooping her up gently. The curly head against his chest was comforting. Tony began to sing to her, and her body relaxed. Twice, she was almost asleep and he moved to lay her in the crib, but she would cry as soon as she touched the mattress. And so he set to work again, calming and lulling her to sleep.
The third time, he held her while her breathing evened out completely, and then waited a full sixty seconds before gingerly laying her down. Once she was in the crib, he held his breath- but she was quiet.
That wasn't so bad.
Tony grinned and did a little fist pump. Then he stroked Azalea's cheek once and turned to leave. In the doorway, he stopped. For some reason, he didn't feel right about leaving her in this room alone.
I wish Ziva was here.
He stood there for several seconds, staring at the crib. Making his decision, he walked over to the rocker, sat down, and slipped a pink blanket behind his head for a pillow.
Content with being two feet away from his baby, he went right to sleep.