Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who's made it this far – especially: sammys1208, WritingFromTheSoul, ncisXpsych12345, Miss Suave, KokoTheBeast, smileanyway142, MegpieLovesTiva, conservativegirl, mprmusings, Robern, craftygirl11, and easylion for reviewing often. You guys rock :)

Anyway, finals week is tomorrow and after that, I'll have more time to update (until summer classes start D:). So I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and leave a review if you can. Seriously though, I've been having the worst freakin month ever, and I'm seriously ready to give up on everything, so I could use a little bit of encouragement from you guys. Thanks(:

…..

:: Chapter 21 – Special Delivery ::

Everything was going well with the three of them – until they asked her about her adoptive parents. That was when she snapped at them, and eventually, just snapped. It began in the midst of a normal conversation, in which she was laughing with them and clearly becoming more comfortable around them. Her mother had discreetly thrown the question in there, knowing that the topic would have been a little sensitive, hence why she was being so careful with it. Abby said she did not want to talk about it, but she was a little rude about the whole thing. It only got worse from there. And every time, I continued to tell myself that I did not want to be around them anymore. It was Sunday, we were still in Florida, and there were only a few more days left before we had to go back to DC. I continued to stick around.

That, however, did not mean that they stopped talking altogether. They continued to talk; they just avoided that subject. Penny seemed to be getting the hang of what to say and what not to say to Abby after that. After all, she was being extremely moody, and everyone had to be careful with what was said. There was a bit of tension after that, but nothing like their first meeting.

On the last few days, Tony and I tried to steer clear a little from Abby's family, and I threw away the camera when no one else was paying attention. We wanted to try to make the best of our last vacation days before we went back to DC to be buried under paperwork for what would feel like an endless amount of time. We went to the beach on Monday morning, followed by a restaurant, but if we were feeling lazy, we would stay in the hotel room, and, yes, that involved us having sex when Abby was not around.

On Tuesday, we went to the zoo. Really, I did not want to go to the zoo at all, but Abby was excited about it. She loved animals. It was like taking a little girl to the zoo. She was dressed with her pigtails and platform boots and short skirts, which only earned her stares. But she was too busy taking pictures of the animals to care about the weird looks she was getting.

It was not until Tuesday, when we were having dinner with Vince and Penny, that Abby actually said something about her adoptive parents. She started with her mother.

"My mother's name was Gloria," she said. "She was beautiful and the kindest person you could ever imagine. She was deaf."

Needless to say, that topic was one that, for the most part, was taboo, and she was practically near tears after she talked about and described the family she grew up with. But Vince, being Vince, and still reminding me of Gibbs a little, had a way to get her back on track. Although he was a man of few words, he knew exactly what to say to make her forget about what was nagging at her and distract her with something else. Tony and I and everyone else sat through nearly two hours of her talking about what she would do during a zombie apocalypse after he asked.

I dozed off on their couch, on Tony's shoulder. I fought to stay awake, because I never liked falling asleep at anyone's house, more so if I was someone's guest. But it did not help that Tony was playing with my hair in the way that I loved and that it was getting late and we had to be up early the next day, which I was glad about. I was sad that our vacation was a little short, but I was also happy to be going back home. I missed my house, working, and the rest of my family.

After we left their house and said our good-byes to Abby's parents, we took a shower and went to bed. My muscles were aching from being so tired. I was asleep quickly, with Tony by my side. I had no idea how soon he fell asleep. Before we had to be up really early the next morning, the last thing I remembered was waking up again at around two in the morning when I felt something move on my left hand side. I looked to see Abby crawling into the bed next to me.

"What are you doing, Abby?" I asked her groggily.

"I'm lonely," she whispered loudly. "You guys look like you're having fun over here. I thought I'd join you." It was not that the bed was small, but she was practically pressed up against me.

"We've been sleeping," Tony said.

"Yeah, but I still feel kind of lonely over there by myself. I don't like being lonely."

I could have argued against that, because a few things came to my mind at that moment. But I was so tired, and I did not care where she was. I just wanted to go back to sleep, which was not that easy to do after she woke me up. I moved closer to Tony so that I would not be so close to Abby.

"'Night, you guys," she said, and I could almost hear the smirk in her voice.

"'Night, Abbs," Tony replied.

We all must have fallen asleep again after that. I did.

The plane ride was calm and nice. Tony had been lucky to find a seat in the flight we had taken. He was not as lucky to find a seat next to us. The seat he was able to find had been a few rows behind us, so he switched with Abby so that he could sit next to me. About an hour after the flight, we switched seats so that he could have the window seat for the rest of the flight back.

When we finally arrived and finished getting our luggage and everything, we went to the parking lot where Tony's car was. He gave Abby a ride to her house, telling her that we would see her tomorrow at work. When she was gone, I asked Tony to stay at my house for the night – because after Florida, I really did not want to spend my nights alone anymore.

That was how it went after Florida. Tony and I were rarely separated, although we faked our banter at work just so Gibbs would not suspect anything. We spent almost every night at the other's house, mostly my house because it was bigger than his apartment, but we did sometimes stay at his apartment, too.

He said he had to unpack, so instead of going straight to my house, we went to his place, where I helped him unpack. He brought a few things in a backpack with him, and then we were off to my house. We had lunch, spent most of the afternoon talking, until at night we were all over each other again. I had remembered Abby's challenge, and I asked him if he was up for it. He was. We got it done, too. They were six long hours, and I was feeling absolutely exhausted and drained towards the end of it, even if we switched positions a lot, but we got it done. I could tell he was tired, too. We hit the shower after that, but we were sore. It felt uncomfortable to walk. I hoped Gibbs would not notice me walking weird tomorrow because that would have been really embarrassing.

On Thursday, we went back to work after we had breakfast. We were pretending that nothing had happened the day before. Tony took his car, and I took mine. When we got back to work, McGee was at his desk, but Gibbs was not.

"Good morning, McSunshine," Tony said loudly with a grin on his face. "Did you miss us?"

McGee glanced at us. "Look who finally arrived," he said sardonically. "Welcome back. I hope you're enjoying the forty-degree weather here as opposed to the eighty-degree heat you had in Florida. Also, I hope you don't mind, but I put some files on your desk. That's just some of the paperwork you guys will be doing for this month." He smiled dryly.

Indeed, on our desks was a small stack of files. I had a feeling that those files would only multiply and that that stack would get bigger.

"Okay, McCranky. Someone clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Tony huffed.

Fifteen minutes later, long after we had returned to our desks, Gibbs was coming into the bullpen, a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Morning, boss," Tony said.

"How's your sister, DiNozzo?" he asked him, completely ignoring the question he had been asked.

"Uhh, she's fine, boss. She asked about you. Actually, she asked about everyone. Even Ducky and Palmer."

I silently shook my head to myself. How Gibbs was falling for all that was really beyond me.

"Did you tell her that I'm sorry I couldn't bring her any flowers because her idiot brother thought they would be crushed in his suitcase?"

"Uhh..." Tony seemed caught off-guard for a moment. "Yeah, I told her, boss. She understood. She appreciated that you thought of her. And she told me to tell you thanks."

Gibbs gave a small nod as he sat down at his desk and began to work. I looked over at Tony, who shrugged and gave me a look. He glanced over at McGee, who was also giving him another look. McGee looked like he could not believe that Gibbs was falling for the whole sister thing either. Maybe he was starting to lose his mind. I could not tell. I could never tell what was going on in that man's mind.

Without looking up from his desk, Gibbs then said, "How was your trip, David?"

I looked over at him, but he did not return the look. "It was fine. But, really, it was all about Abby and her family. You should ask her."

He finally looked up at me. "I'm asking you. You were there, too."

"It was okay..."

He went back to his computer screen. "You two have a lot of paperwork to do. I hope you're mentally prepared for all the overtime you'll be doing for the next month."

"But, boss, I went to see my sister," Tony protested. McGee just shook his head.

"You don't have a sister, DiNozzo."

Tony momentarily froze. I had to wonder what he was going to say next.

"Boss, I went to visit her in Georgia..."

"No, you went to Florida to be with Abby and Ziva."

McGee looked away, burying his face into his computer to keep from laughing. Gibbs must have been aware of this, but he was too busy glaring at Tony that he probably let that one slide.

"Boss, I…"

"You were in Florida, DiNozzo."

Tony did not say anything else, and that was because he could not. Gibbs finished his coffee and stood up from his desk. Before he went to refill his cup of coffee, he stopped at Tony's desk and gave him a hard slap in the back of the head. Even I felt that one. "You ever lie to me again, DiNozzo, and I'm gonna give you a one-way trip to Italy."

"Am I in trouble, boss?"

"No, you're not in trouble," he said. "None of you are in trouble." I felt a little relieved at that. "You're all in big trouble, that's what."

McGee smiled at us triumphantly, but it did not last long.

"You, too, Elf Lord."

His face fell. "What! Why me! I didn't do anything!"

"You knew, McGee."

"But…"

"No buts, McGee!" Gibbs barked. "You knew DiNozzo went to Florida, and you covered for him! Don't think you're getting out of this easily." With that, he stormed out of the bullpen, leaving behind a quietness that lingered for a few moments.

McGee was angry. Angry that for one entire week he had been dealing with cases and doing a lot of the work with Gibbs and still ended up being in trouble. But, when I looked at it from another point of view, in a way, it was kind of fair. I had no idea if Gibbs was going to stuff him with paperwork the way Tony and I were stuffed, but whatever was coming was not exactly going to be pretty. I could understand his frustration, and so I did not argue when he hurled a stapler at Tony, narrowly missing his head, although he threw it in a way that he knew would miss his head, and a cooking magazine at me.

"I really, really, really hate you guys," he growled. Tony flung the stapler right back at him, but it did not hit him either. McGee threatened to throw it back at him, but I told them that unless they wanted to have a stapler up their ass, to stop throwing the damn thing. They did.

That Thursday had been a pretty slow day. I got my fifty dollars from Abby after convincing her that I really did it with Tony for six hours straight. I could tell that Gibbs was thinking about a potential punishment for us. It seemed like everyone had a lot on their minds, too. McGee, although pissed at the fact that Gibbs found something to blame him for, still looked like he was hiding something. And I still had a million things running through my head. I knew Tony would not want me to bring it up, but soon I was going to have to call that number I got from Abby's phone and see who answered on the other line.

We worked late – much later than McGee. By ten thirty, we were leaving work. McGee had left at around seven, and Gibbs had left an hour before us. Abby had probably gone around the same time as her boyfriend, but I had no clue. After we were done, we went back to my house where Tony spent the night again.

We decided to take a shower together, both of us too tired to do anything but shower and merely talk. After a small arm wrestling match, we were ready for bed. I felt absolutely comfortable wearing his shirt. It was his Ohio State shirt. I knew he loved it, but he insisted that I keep it.

I was standing before the mirror, taking in the way I looked with his shirt. It was very big on me, but it smelled like him, and I liked the way it looked on me. I did not care about the size of it. My towel-dried hair was up in a messy bun, and I looked very casual and kind of tomboy-ish with his shirt and black pajama pants. My mind began to drift away to something else; I hardly realized that I was standing in front of a mirror until Tony came up behind me and put his arms around my waist as his chin rested on my shoulder.

It was moments like those that I sometimes loved the most – straight out of the shower and right before bed. Moments where I knew I would be sleeping well after that. They were simple, but they spoke volumes to me. The first time was not the last, and I never grew tired of the way this took a routine-like turn for the most part. Our eyes would meet in the mirror, and as he held my gaze, he would tell me that I was the most beautiful girl in the world as he tickled my neck with his nose and pressed his lips against my neck and shoulder with a soft, gentle kiss. His lips trailed up to my ear, managing to send chills down my spine and give my skin goosebumps. As he pressed his lips against my ear, he would whisper, "I love you, sweetcheeks."

His green eyes would once again meet mine in the mirror, and before he could even think about pulling away, I would swiftly turn my head to face him and capture his lips against mine. When we came back for air, I would answer him every time, "I love you more, Tony."

"Hey, Ziva! You have a package!" McGee, in an unusually good mood that morning, barely let me exit the elevator when he told me this.

Tony and I had come in his car to work that Friday morning. Gibbs might have figured out eventually that although both of us were there, only Tony's car was in the parking lot. But neither one of us was thinking about that when we were headed to work. We did not care. We were tired. We just wanted to get to work.

"I have a what?" I said.

"You have a package," he said again. "I don't know when it got here – maybe last night or this morning, I guess. But it's on your desk."

"And you haven't opened it?" Tony asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, I thought of it," he admitted. "Since you guys are nosy and like to open my things and snoop around my desk and stuff, I thought I should open it and see what's inside. But Abby thought we should respect your privacy, so I didn't."

"Abby?" I said.

"Yeah, it was in her lab this morning," he said. "It has your name on it, but no return address. So I brought it up to your desk."

There was a brown, medium-sized box on my desk. I put my bags down beside my chair and took a good look at it. In a neat and clear handwriting, my name was printed at the top left side of the box. It looked like it had been done with a sharpie marker. I took the box and gave it a little shake. Whatever was inside shook as well, creating a rather faint rattling sound. Behind me, Tony and McGee were leaning over my shoulder to take a peek.

"Open it," McGee said impatiently.

"Don't rush her, McImpatience," Tony shot back. "Open it when you're ready, ninja girl."

McGee sighed that sigh that was usually accompanied by an eye roll. I took out my knife and cut through the tape that sealed the brown box shut. Both men were still hovering over my shoulder, curious to see what was inside the box. When I opened it, I wished I had not. I was not expecting to see what I saw. McGee was unimpressed. Tony had been stunned into silence, much like I was. For a moment, I felt completely paralyzed.

It was the camera.