Confession, continued from my note on the last chapter. The case wasn't supposed to be any real focus of the story. Then it was going to be the Reynoso angle. Then, I remembered the two converged at the end of the eleventh season. There you go. And, the circle is still relatively small with who knows the details of the case. It'll grow a bit more, but not for a while.

Ziva's still going to be struggling with her fear. I've been doing an extensive rewatch of NCIS and Ziva made a comment to Dr. Cranston about wanting something permanent, something that can't be taken from her. That actually ties in nicely for the state of mind she's in throughout the story.

Tony realized he'd been out of it for the past forty-eight hours or so. Getting shot will do that to you. So will the woman you love who you thought gone forever coming back in your life and, oh, by the way, pregnant with your child! And the drugs in your system don't help matters. But, when Abby came running into his room declaring she had found out who had shot him, he also realized this was the first time he'd even thought about why he was back in Baltimore in the first place.

He'd been sitting at his desk in the squad room, piecing together the information they had on Howard Wren all day when he'd finally had it and packed it in for the night. Ellie and McGee said they were staying behind, trying to obtain any more information they had on him. He told them to call him if anything came up.

Just as he was pulling up to his apartment, his phone rang. Senior. His dad had been calling him constantly until a week ago, giving him the details of the plans for his upcoming wedding to Linda. Then, he had stopped. Tony wasn't worried, though. Frankly, he was more worried when he heard from his father than when he didn't. He answered his phone and his dad was going on about a big business deal he had in the works. Tony didn't think much about it, as it was more typical of the calls he got from his father when he got them.

Actually, he'd rather hear about Senior's wheeling and dealing. It still wigged him out, the thought of his dad and Linda. He loved the woman and she'd been there as much as possible after his mother's death, but he was still uneasy about his father and his mother's best friend.

Tony listened as his father as he got into his apartment and then mercifully, he was off the phone. He stowed his gun and checked on Kate and Ziva. They were still swimming around, no care in the world. He'd begun to make himself dinner when his phone rang again.

Joe McMann was a cop he'd known when he and Price had been partners in Baltimore. Not real well, but enough to have beaten him in the precinct pool tourney. McMann said he'd seen Wren from the BOLO that NCIS had issued, up in one of the dumpier parts of the city. "Professional courtesy and all, me calling you," he'd said. "Figured you and your boss would want to be the first to know."

Tony took the information down and called Gibbs. It was shortly thereafter he'd found himself in the car with the older man, who was being his usual taciturn self. Hell, even moreso, especially after he'd alluded to Ziva.

Tony shook himself out of the memory and looked to the side of his bed. A part of him still didn't believe she was here. He really thought he'd never see her again once he boarded that plane. Never say never again, he thought, the 1983 Bond movie flashing in his head.

Tony tried to turn his attention back to McGee and Abby doing battle trying to score more points with Gibbs. Right now, in his opinion, Abby was winning, as she cut through McGeek's technobabble to reveal his shooter's name.

And it made no sense to him. "Dad, can you leave for a bit? We need to talk business." Tony looked back at his father, who didn't put up an argument. He sent a silent look to Tim.

"Um, Delilah, can you…?"

He didn't need to say anything else. "Above my clearance level?" she asked as she wheeled herself back to the room's door. That was one of the great things about McGee's girlfriend. She knew there were things she wasn't allowed to know. "Mr. DiNozzo, want to get a cup of coffee with me?"

His father smiled. "I never turn down an offer from a beautiful woman," he said as they made their way down the hall.

Tony shook his head. "Never misses an opportunity to use the charm," he muttered. Then he looked to Gibbs. Their boss had that haunted stare he got whenever anything related to his murdered wife and daughter was brought up. It could be minimally connected to their topic, but the look was the same-like he'd been thrown for a loop while shot with a round. Tony decided to exert his Senior Field Agent status to allow Gibbs time to recover. "What is he, another son?"

Tim was at work on his tablet. It had a secure connection back to the office, so he was able to access any files he needed. "No, not that. But his father, Gabriel Hernandez, was the brother of…" Tim's eyes shifted to Gibbs.

Nobody needed to say anymore. They all knew who his brother was.

Again, Tony took action to ease any burden off of Gibbs. "I'm actually surprised no one else from that family has come after us, what with setting Alejandro up to Swiss cheese his sister, the head of one of the biggest drug cartels in Mexico. What was he, a button man for the cartel?"

"'Button man'?" Ziva, naturally. But Tony shook his head. He'd explain it to her later.

"Well, now I think we know how they got their hands on some pretty sophisticated computer software," Tim theorized out loud. "Even from jail, I'm sure Alejandro still has some connection in the Mexican government."

"Even so," Ducky added, a hint of disbelief, "that is rather a leap for a jailed former Mexican bureaucrat, isn't it?"

"Not if he's got other connections," Gibbs said at last.

"Parsa?" he said as Ziva whipped around to him, open-mouthed. Tony was about to add to that when a new voice came into the room. It was a surgical nurse, who informed Tony they were going to begin prepping him for surgery. Looking very reluctant, as they seemed to have been making progress brainstorming, everyone began to leave, wishing their luck. But before Ziva could turn to leave, Tony grabbed her hand.

Her look concerned him more than what he was being readied for. "You okay?"

He could always tell when Ziva was struggling between fighting and hiding. It looked like the latter was winning right now. "It's been so much to take in since I got here and now, you mentioned someone...I have heard the name only mentioned once or twice." She took a deep breath, willing herself to go on. "When they came for me...I heard the name Benham Parsa."

"Look, Ziva," he said softly. She looked like she was ready to crumble before he continued. It was an attitude that was so foreign to him for her. "Ziva, right now, I don't want to you to worry about that. You're not NCIS anymore, let them take care of it. And they'll understand. I want you to think about one thing and one thing only."

"You?" she asked with a cracked smile.

He thought about it for a minute. "Okay, two things." He flashed her his brightest smile, trying to cheer her up. "I'm going to be fine. You just worry about yourself and," he brought his hand to her stomach, "our baby. Just that. Don't think about the latest Big Bad right now, just her."

"Her? Do you think it's a girl?"

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Do you?" She smiled back at him enigmatically. "Look, my gut tells me the only thing this world would let me be a father to is a girl. I mean, consider all the bad karma I've racked up."

He saw her relax a little, which was the point of his comment. He could tell Ziva was ready to go off in ten different directions the minute he said the name Parsa. It made him thankful they'd come to get him down for the procedure. "My gut tells me the same thing," she said at last.

"That makes three," Senior agreed, as he seemed to blink into existence in the doorway. He came over and put his hand on the top of Tony's head. "Look, son."

Tony could see the emotion on his father's face. "Dad, I'll be fine. They don't think this'll be anything big," he tried to reassure his father.

"Tony, it's surgery. There's always…" Senior stopped there, unable to continue.

"Ziva, I'm adding one more person to worry about," he informed her, nodding his head towards his father.

He knew he didn't need to say anything more. "I'll keep an eye on him," she replied as she bent down and kiss him. Tony hadn't been ready for it, and was actually a little uncomfortable kissing her in front of Senior. "Stay strong," she whispered. Then, with a light tap on the head, she told him with a watery smile, "Come back to me."

She had to step back as they were moving his bed out of the room. They held hands for as long as they could until the doors to the surgical unit forced their separation.