A month had passed since the children had come home and finally, Abby felt comfortable enough to leave them at day-care. The whole team knew how hard it would be so Ziva had decided to spend her lunch break with her.

"Hey." She greeted as she entered the back office, dragged the spare stool over to the desk and sat down opposite her friend.

"Hey." Abby replied cheerily, closing down the laptop and retrieving her skull and cross bones lunch box from the top draw. Ziva couldn't help but chuckle. "How is everything upstairs?"

"Slow." Ziva sighed. "We are all doing paperwork. Obviously I do not wish any thing bad to happen to the men and women of the navy but…"

"You wish you had a case?" Abby laughed at her friend's exacerbated nod. "Hey, at least you can have a minute to yourself without Gibbs breathing down your neck." Ziva tilted her head to the side as she chewed her sandwich.

"What do you mean?" She asked before taking another bite.

"Haven't you noticed that he's been majorly on your case lately?" Ziva shook her head.

"No more than usual." Abby pondered that.

"Hmm, I just thought he'd been looking at you funny lately. I wondered what you'd done." Ziva raised her eyebrows slightly.

"I had not noticed. I shall talk to him." She took a sip of water. "How are you coping?" Abby sighed.

"It's hard. I've had Timmy confiscate my cell so I can't phone the day-care every ten minutes like I want to." Ziva smiled gently. "I trust them, I really do but…"

"But they are your babies and you care so much about them it hurts." Abby smiled. "I get it." Ziva smiled softly.

"Hey, Zi, can I ask you a question?" Ziva nodded as she finished her sandwich. "Promise not to get upset?" She looked curious but nodded all the same. Abby took a deep breath but didn't say anything; instead she looked down at her fingers.

"Abby?" Ziva asked gently.

"Are you and Tony gonna have any more?" Ziva choked on her last bite before recovering. "Sorry."

"Do not be." She murmured as she caught her breath and sipped her water. "Umm, he does not want to."

"But…" She hesitated. "You do?" Ziva sighed.

"I understand his reasons. I do not want Tony to ever blame the baby for him loosing me or for Oscar to grow up without me but…yes ideally I would like another child." Abby nodded. "May I ask why you are so curious all of a sudden?"

"Just, y'know, am I guess. No real reason." Ziva accepted her answer despite there being something in her gaze that she couldn't quite determine. Her cell buzzed in her pocket and she sighed as she fished it out.

"David." She answered making a bored face at Abby making her giggle. "Okay, I am on my way."

"Case?" Abby asked as she replaced the phone to her pocket and swept her rubbish into the bin beside her.

"No such luck. Gibbs has decided that have all of us out of the office is 'not going to happen'."

"Where's Tony?" Ziva sighed.

"Taking a 'private' phone call from an old Baltimore friend. I heard the words spring break and hot chicks and decided that I would yell at him for it later." She smiled as Abby laughed. "Tim had better hurry up with that dentist or Gibbs will have his guts for guarders." Abby laughed.

"Garters, Zi, garters."

Gibbs was sat at his desk when Ziva came out of the stairwell and reached the bullpen.

"Elevator out of order?" He asked, not even looking up. Ziva took a seat.

"No, Gibbs." She asked confused.

"So, just missed your run this morning?" She looked over at him and was greeted by his iciest stare. She barely resisted the urge to shudder.

"No, mile, round the block three times."She informed him slowly.

"So why the stairs?" Ziva looked over at the elevator, desperately hoping Tony would choose that moment to return.

"Umm." Gibbs got up and curled a finger at her, indicating she should follow him as he called the elevator. "Gibbs?" She questioned curiously. He simply walked into the lift without a word and leant against the back wall with a smile. Ziva sighed but took the hint and followed him in, pressed a button and switched the emergency brake before facing him.

"What's going on?" He asked far more gently than she thought he would. "You're just not yourself recently." She sighed, leant against the wall and slid to the floor. He stared at her curiously.

"I thought I had hid it better than this." She ran her hands through her hair before facing him. "I would apologise, but I know how you feel about them." He smiled before sitting opposite her.

"There's no need Ziver. Just tell me what's up." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I…cannot Gibbs." He looked faintly hurt and she closed her eyes. "I just…" Her voice cracked. "Cannot." He got up and sat back down beside her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder as the first tear fell.

"Shhh, it's okay. I just wanna help." He soothed gently into her hair as she started to sob into his shoulder.

"I, I stopped taking, my pill." She sobbed. "And now, I am, I am late." He didn't react, knowing it would make her feel worse.

"Tony doesn't know?" She shook her head. "He doesn't know that you stopped taking it or that you're late?" He was trying really hard to keep the images of last time out of his head as he comforted the sobbing woman. "You need to tell him."

"I, I know." He pulled back to face her.

"Why did you do it?" She shrugged as she wiped away her tears.

"It was not premeditated. It just happened. One minute I was about to take it and the next I was washing it down the sink. I do not know what I was thinking. I feel so guilty." She dropped her gaze. "I have to tell him." Gibbs nodded. "He is going to hate me." That set off the tears all over again.

"He's not gonna hate you. He couldn't hate you." He assured her. "But you do need to tell him." She nodded, trying to recover some control. "And you need to try a little harder to hide it at work if you don't want people to notice." She smiled. "And take motion sickness meds if the elevator makes you feel sick." She looked up at him curiously, to which he only shrugged.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay." Gibbs smiled.

"Good. Now, how about we get up off this floor and get back to work?" She nodded but took his arm before he could move. She pulled it around her and held him tightly. Slightly shocked at the very-Abby action he hugged her back.

"Thank you, Gibbs." He kissed her forehead.

"Not at all, Ziver."