Chapter 10

Monday came, and Gibbs and Tony went back to the office. Gibbs went directly to MTAC for a meeting so Tony continued to the squad room alone. When he got there he saw that Tim and Ziva were already there. Ziva was standing behind Tim, leaning over his shoulder as they laughed and talked about something on the probie's computer screen. None of them noticed Tony approached which brought a smug smile to Tony's face. Usually it was really hard to approach Ziva without her noticing, but this time she seemed to be too occupied, and Tim was never very aware of his surroundings while focusing on computers anyway.

"What have you got there, Probie?" Tony asked as he dumped his thing at his desk.

"Nothing", Tim swiftly replied, which got him a suspicious look from Tony.

"That sounded to be a little too funny to be nothing", Tony replied.

"I don't think you would understand it anyway, Tony", Ziva said and straightened her back, giving Tony a teasing smile.

"We'll see about that. Show me."

He walked over to stand beside Tim, but when he looked at the screen all he saw was a site filled with some kind of gibberish he didn't understand.

"What's so funny about that?" he asked and glared at Tim and Ziva.

"I told you you wouldn't understand", Ziva said as she want passed Tony to her desk. Tony turned his glare at Tim, who just smiled and nodded.

"She did, Tony", he said.

"Aren't you gonna explain it?" Tony asked.

"Nope. Don't have time for it, anyway. Time to get to work."

Tony gave Tim one last glare before he returned to his own desk. He had a feeling that it was something fishy going on, but decided to drop it and started on his pile of paperwork. It had grown almost painfully big over the last few days so it was about time he finished some of it.

Gibbs came back after about and hour and a half and announced that they had a new case. It turned out to be a hard one, involving the body of a young boy, and it gave them some very long and stressful days. Gibbs drove them hard until they solved it and could take the perpetrator into custody, and by that time they were all tired, both physically and emotionally. When Tony and Gibbs came home that day, Gibbs went straight down to the basement and Tony had a feeling that his lover wanted to be left alone for a while, needed a time to clear his head.

Tony put on one of his old, classic movies and flopped down on the couch to watch. He desperately wanted to drown the memories of the case in alcohol but knew it would be a really bad idea. They still needed to get back to work tomorrow so giving himself the mother of all hangovers wouldn't be very bright.

Tony waited until after the end credits before he turned off the movie and warily went down to the basement. He saw Gibbs sitting by the work bench, a cup of bourbon beside him. Tony walked slowly over to him and saw that he was working on a small, wooden box. Tony leaned against the work bench beside his lover and watched in silence until Gibbs put down his tools and looked at him.

"Hansen called just now", he said gravely.

Tony felt his heart starting to race. "And?"

"They will let us adopt her."

Tony felt it like a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders and a bright smile split his face in two. She would really be theirs? Then he noticed the still serious look on Gibbs face and immediately got worried.

"Isn't that a good thing?" he asked.

"It is, Tony", Gibbs replied and gave him a reassuring smile. "It is a very good thing."

"Then what is it?"

"It's nothing. I promise. Everything is fine."

"You don't look fine."

"I know, but I am. Really. Let's go to bed."

Tony wasn't fully convinced but figured that the stress from the case and the revelation that they would adopt Sarah maybe had got a little too much for the older man. He pulled Gibbs in for a tight hug and just held him like that for a long moment. After a while he felt his lover relax against him and slowly let him go before giving him a soft kiss.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah", Gibbs said and smiled again. "Come on."

XxX

"Are we going to tell the others now?" Tony asked later when they lay together in the dark, the older man's head resting on the younger one's chest, right over his heart.

"Yeah. I think they'd like to know now, before we take her home."

"Did Hansen say when we can do that?"

"In a month or two. They want to be sure that we'll get along before we take her home, so they want us to come and visit her as soon as we can. They won't tell her anything before we do."

"OK. God, I just want this to be over."

"Me too."

TBC