Tony's POV

While Callen and Sam had took Nikolai and Gala into custody, Detective Deeks rushed over to Agent Blye's side, calling her name frantically. Once he reached his partner's side, Ziva stepped away, allowing Detective Deeks to aide Agent Blye. A second later I heard the familiar yelp of an ambulance siren, and in less than a minute the red-and-white vehicle roared up to the curb. The paramedics quickly stabilized Agent Blye as best they could and loaded her into the back of the ambulance. Before anyone could stop him, Detective Deeks leapt into the ambulance alongside his partner, yelling to Sam and Callen that he would ride to the hospital with her. The paramedics closed the rear doors, and the boxy vehicle sped off.

As soon as the ambulance was gone, I rushed over to my wife's side while Tali and Isaiah whined piteously. Ignoring the chaos surrounding us, we embraced our babies, tears running down both our faces as we held Kate, Tali and Isaiah close, murmuring words of love to our reunited family. Suddenly I felt a light touch on my shoulder, and looked up to see Gibbs standing over us. I noticed that his sniper rifle was no longer slung over his shoulder.

"Ducky's here to look at them" he said softy. I nodded and carefully stood, holding Kate and Tali to my chest while Ziva embraced Isaiah. As we neared the triplets' adopted grandfather, Kate reached out with her hands, whimpering, and clearly wanting to be held. Gibbs reached out and held her close, rocking her back and forth while murmuring, "Shh, shh Kate. Everything's alright, Grandpa's gonna keep your safe, sweetie. Let's go see your Uncle Ducky." Soothed by Gibbs' gentle voice, Kate was quick to settle down and cuddled into her grandpa's chest. As we walked over to the ME van, I looked over to my leader and thought I saw a tear run down his lined face, but before I could look any closer, he turned away.

As we approached Ducky, I could see that the Scotsman was not so subtle in his relief. As the old ME gently examined our children, I could just see tears of joy running down his weathered face. Despite the tears, Ducky kept up his typical steady ramble as he looked over the triplets, and to our immense relief, declared all three of them to be perfectly fine.

"They're hungry, tired and still extremely frightened," Ducky said, "but they are perfectly healthy. A nice warm bath, a good meal and a full night's sleep should be all that they need to recover." He leaned down to give Tali, who was still lying calmly in his arms, a gentle kiss on the cheek. Tali responded by giggling happily and placing her tiny hands on her adoptive uncle's cheek. Ducky smiled gently and handed Tali back to me before leaving with Jimmy to retrieve Nazar's body. Gibbs watched his old friend go, and then turned back to us.

"Go home" he said quietly. "Go home and be with your kids. I'll call you if anything comes up."

I nodded and took Kate, who was now fast asleep, from him. Ziva spoke up.

"What about Agent Blye?"

Gibbs rested his hand on her shoulder. "I'll call you. Go home Ziver."

…..

Once we had arrived at the house, Ziva wasted no time in prepping baths for the triplets while I undressed them. Ziva had put on an old shirt of mine to cover up Agent Blye's blood, which she hadn't had time to wash off in the ensuing chaos.

As we bathed the triplets, we had to walk around carefully to avoid Engel, who refused to let the three out of his sight ever since we had arrived home. In fact, when our neighbors, (who had watched him while we were trying to rescue the three), brought him back home to us, he immediately made a beeline for "his" babies, whining and doing his best to lick them clean, all the while shooting us accusatory glances. It was clear what he was thinking: If I had been there, none of this would have happened!

Once we had finished with the triplets' baths, we dried them off, dressed them in soft, clean clothes, and brought them into the nursery to be feed, all the while accompanied by the overly helpful Engel. Kate, Tali and Isaiah all fed greedily; it was clear that they hadn't been properly feed while they had been held hostage by Nazar. I gritted my teeth at the grim thought, thinking once again of how lucky Nazar was to be dead.

Within in minutes, the three, utterly worn out from their fearful experience, began to nod off. Tali was the first to completely succumb to her exhaustion: her eyelids fluttered shut and her lips parted, losing their grip on her bottle. Almost as if they had rehearsed it, Kate and Isaiah yawned in unison and shut their eyes, drifting off into a peaceful sleep. I gently pulled the bottles away from Isaiah and Kate's mouths, burped them, and then laid them in their cribs while Ziva did the same with Tali.

Watching our 'brood' sleep soundly, I was overcome with emotion as I thought once again of how close we had come to losing them. My throat closed up as Ziva reached down to brush her fingers over the triplets' cheeks with one hand and grasped my hand with her other one. We stayed like this for several minutes, comfortable in the reunion with our children, until Ziva suddenly began to scratch at her chest. She removed my old shirt, revealing the blood that she was covered in.

"I need a shower, but I am afraid that your shirt is ruined" she remarked sheepishly. I ran my hand through her frazzled hair.

"It's perfectly alright, Sweetheart, don't worry about it. Go get cleaned up- I'll watch the triplets." Ziva nodded and left as I settled with a contented sigh into one of the rocking chair.

…..

Several hours later, just as we had finished supper, our home phone rang. Ziva excused herself, and went over to answer it. She looked at the caller ID, and was quick to pick it up.

"Shalom Gibbs… yes… yes… oh, that is wonderful… yes, I will. Toda, and shalom." Ziva placed the phone back in its cradle and turned back to me, her face full of joy.

"That was Gibbs, calling from the hospital. Agent Blye just woke up. She's doing much better apparently. She is sore, and very weak, but she is doing fine."

I grinned at this, relieved to hear the good news, and then found myself yawning. The stress from the rescue had finally gotten to me as my earlier adrenaline rush wore off, and I remembered that I was not as young as I had been. Ziva and I cleared the dishes, moved two sleeping bags into the nursery, sinking gratefully into a peaceful slumber.

…..

Ziva's POV

The next day, after lunch, I drove alone to Bethesda Hospital, leaving Tony, Kate, Tali and Isaiah at the house. I was the only one who was familiar with Agent Blye, so Tony had opted out of the trip.

When I reached Agent Blye's room, I was not at all surprised to see that Agent Detective Deeks was there, and from his appearance, it was clear that he had spent the entire night by his partner's side. As for Agent Blye, despite the multiple tubes feeding fluids, medicine and blood into her body, the nasal cannula, and the combination bandage/sling her arm was encased in, she looked like she was doing quite well. Her dual-colored eyes were bright and she was arguing adamantly with Detective Deeks about her hospital Jello.

"You ate my Jello when I was shot!" Detective Deeks cried with mock indignation.

"So?! Didn't your mother ever tell you to be nice to women?" Agent Blye retorted.

"To women, yes…" Detective Deeks muttered. Agent Blye's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"You are sooo very lucky that you're sitting on my bad side right now Detective Deeks. Oh, hello Agent David!" Agent Blye's tone changed considerably when she spotted me.

I smiled as I entered; truly glad to see that she was doing so much better. I pulled out one of the extra folding chairs from the supply cabinet next to Agent Blye's bed and sat down. Detective Deeks gave me a quick "hello", and then announced that he was going to go out to lunch- clearly he wanted to give us some time alone.

"You'd better have a new Jello cup for me when you get back!" Agent Blye called after his retreating figure. Detective Deeks just waved in response. Agent Blye sighed, and then shifted her body into a more comfortable position, wincing as the movement jostled her arm. Noticing my stare, she gave me a crooked grin.

"Nazar got me good. The gash went all the way to the bone, from my shoulder to my elbow, not to mention to the two four-inch deep stab wounds below my clavicle. Took several hundred stitches and three hours of surgery to close everything up and I lost two and a half pints of blood. I'm going to need several months of rehabilitation, and even then I may not regain the full use of my arm. It's a good thing that I'm right-handed." Agent Blye stated matter-of-factly. I immediately felt horrible.

"Agent Blye, I am so sorry, I…" Agent Blye cut me off.

"Alright, stop right there. First off, please call me Kensi. Second, this wasn't your fault. It was Nazar who stabbed me, not you. My job, by its nature, is a hazardous one, and it does involve taking risks that can put me in harm's way, and I knew this long ago when I became an agent. Third, I made a promise to keep your babies safe, no matter what. Finally, if it weren't for you Agent David, I would be dead. Your actions saved my life, and I'm indebted to you." Kensi stared levelly at me, and I found myself idly wondering how scary she was when she got really mad. I smiled at her.

"Alright Kensi, but you have to call me Ziva. Only the Director calls me Agent David. And Gibbs, when he is really angry with me."

"Deal" Kensi said with a wide grin. "How are the triplets doing?"

"Safe and sound, thanks to you and your teammates. They are at home with Tony right now." Kensi paused at this, and suddenly she asked something startling.

"Ziva, I want to ask you something personal. If you don't want to answer, that's fine. How does your marriage with Tony work, especially with the fact that you two are partners at work? I mean, if you don't want to go into…"

"No, it is fine. Being married to Tony can be extremely difficult at times, and just like any married couple, we do fight. But I believe it is because we are partners and because we have faced so much together that we are able to make things work." Suddenly I grinned, remembering something. "Gibbs would never let a fight affect our work anyway. It's a new rule of his- keep it out of the workplace." Kensi, obviously curious, asked about Gibbs' rules, and I explained them to her. But as I explained them to her, I could tell that her mind was far away- most likely focusing on a certain male agent who had eaten her Jello earlier.

We talked for a little while longer, and then I realized just how late it was getting. I got up to leave, giving the usual "get well" speech, and was on my way out the door when I thought of something and turned around.

"Kensi," I said quietly, "You asked me about Tony for a reason, so I am just going to say this: Only you can know who the right person is for you, and no one, not a single person, can say otherwise. But just remember who stayed with you all night long, and who would give his all for you without a second thought. Take care, and be sure to stop by the Navy Yard before you leave for LA." I turned to go, and nearly ran into Detective Deeks, who was carrying two cups of lime Jello. We exchanged a few words, and then he went into the room, announcing that he had brought "attainment" for his earlier mistake.

As I left, I looked back one more time. Kensi was smiling brightly as she bantered with Detective Deeks, and her eyes never left his scruffy face. The last thing that I saw before turning away was Kensi's hand resting on Deeks'.