I swear, the majority of this chapter wasn't meant to happen. It just came at me. Who I had actually planned for Tony to talk to first, will be in the following chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own it.

As soon as his plane touches down in DC that morning, he gets a cab to drop him home, to change his clothes, and takes his car straight to the Navy Yard to see Ziva, and the rest of his team.

He contemplates pulling his wife aside when he sees her, to explain what went down in New York, but has a change of heart. Work isn't the best place for it, especially when he's technically not on the clock until tomorrow.

So he settles for kissing her as long as she lets him whilst in the bullpen, until Gibbs orders them away for a half hour break. He drags her outside to the garden area he knows is private and out of the way from the majority of the Yard and Agents and civilian workers.

She parks herself down on the bench beside him and before he can utter a word, she plants another kiss on his lips, a little longer and a little harder than the previous. "I missed you." She murmurs the words softly on his lips, and his hand comes up to cup her cheek.

"I missed you too; and I certainly missed that."

"I'm sorry, for not going with you, to New York. It was selfish and I-"

"Forget it. Please? It's done... How've the twins been?"

She instantly grabs his hand from her face and places it against the top of her abdomen where one of the twins is kicking. "They have been difficult since you left."

His fingers immediately spread and stretch over the top of her stomach and the motion slows down the kicking one of their daughter's is currently engaging themselves in. "You been bad for mommy, babies?"

"I went to see Dr. Johnson the other day for my appointment. She said I am having Braxton Hicks. I will be having them occasionally until they are born."

"As long as they hang on for another month, that's all that matters."

Tony grabbed both her hands and caressed them softly in his own. "What happened with your father?"

He sighed; "Can we uh, talk at home, about that?"

She studied him for a moment, before nodding, understanding his need to postpone the conversation. "Ok."

"Fancy a burrito for lunch?"

"I could do with a burrito."

Tony is ordered home shortly after he and Ziva return to the Yard after lunch, and his wife is left to help her team mates solve the remainder of the killer case they've been working for the past three days.

Gibbs, McGee and Ziva work rock solid until late, and eventually it's Abby who gives them a lead to chase down, and they find their prime suspect in the torture and murder of a Navy Seal, in an abandoned warehouse with another victim ready to play his sick games; and during the take down, he swings for Ziva, and clips her round the side of the head, before McGee and Gibbs put at least five bullets in him and he falls to the ground.

The whirlwind of noises and lights pass Ziva by too quickly, and Gibbs orders her to be checked over by Ducky in the M.E van, when he arrives, and luckily she's confirmed to be in no pain, and gets patched up.

Ziva had asked McGee to call Tony for her earlier to explain that she would be home late, but when the Probie comes to explain to her that her husband is presumably on his way, and is rather unimpressed, suddenly brings about a headache for her. He's going to go in overprotective mode.

None of them have much of a chance when Tony arrives, Ducky and Palmer are all packed up and just leaving as he comes storming in. He charges for Ziva and cradles her head in his hands, checking over her wound. She softly tries to brush him off, but she notices the flare in his eyes. He's only getting started.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"I am fine. Just an uncooperative suspect." She attempts to push his hands away again, and is successful, but the way his fists clench, tell her that he is furious and will not let this go easily.

"Who had your back!?"

Before she could utter a word, he turns to his other team mates, and his fury rises. "Where were you two!? You were supposed to have her back!"

"I was clearing the other side of the building DiNozzo. We shot the guy."

"What about you, Probie!?"

The younger agent is taken aback, and stutters slightly on her words. "I-I was a few seconds behind Ziva."

"Tony-" He cuts off his wife immediately, and lays into McGee further.

"She's nearly eight months pregnant with twins, McGee! She shouldn't be out in the damn field!"

"DINOZZO! Enough!"

"She needed protecting. One of you should have covered her six!"

"Don't talk about me, like I am not here! I do not need protecting! Enough is enough, Tony. Take me home." He opens his mouth once more when he faces her, and she instantly knows he's going to protest further, so she cuts him off. "NOW!"

He silently and diligently follows the order, and Gibbs and McGee quietly watch them leave, before clearing the remainder of the crime scene and helping the near victim up to take to the hospital.

Ziva doesn't speak to him the entire ride home, and Tony understands why, but after everything that has happened to him in recent weeks, he doesn't want another load of stress put on him. He needs to tell her.

Once they get settled at home, Tony can tell an argument is simmering on the slow lit burner that is their relationship. He knows he shouldn't have gone overboard at the crime scene; she can take care of herself, and she had McGee and Gibbs as backup. There shouldn't have been a problem. But here they were, sitting on opposite ends of the couch, because he had been overprotective of her, and taken it upon himself to blame whoever he could for his partner getting hurt in the field, because he wasn't there to protect her six.

He isn't paying much attention to the TV, as Ziva is fidgeting beside him, and he's preparing himself for the storm that is about blow. "I wish you would stop doing that, Tony."

Oh goody, it's started. "Excuse me?" He's not really calmed down that much yet.

"Doubting not only my skills in the field to be able to protect myself, but Gibbs and McGee's as well!"

"Who said I doubted your skills!? I never said that!"

"You are being overprotective of me; believing that I cannot do my work in the field!"

"Hang on one minute! It's not just about you anymore sweetheart!" He points downwards towards her extremely protruded stomach. "That's my daughters you're carrying. The second you're in danger, so are they!"

"I am aware, Tony. I am the one who is carrying them! It is merely a bruise on my forehead. Stop overreacting."

"I CANT." He fumed, standing up from the couch, to start pacing in front of her. "I can't lose my family! Don't force me too, Ziva, please."

She moved to stand also, colliding a little roughly with Tony's shoulder, before she turned to face him. "I am not forcing you to. Do you think I would put our unborn children in danger?"

"I don't know anymore... I'm sorry. I've been thrown head first into danger most of my life, I guess I just expect it."

"You should not expect it from me." Her voice is softer, and she presses a hand to his chest in a comforting manner. "What is the matter?"

"I umm... Can you, promise me, what I tell you, never leaves this house? Unless I talk to someone else too?"

"Of course."

He manoeuvres her over to the couch, and sits down beside her, fiddling with her hands when she places them in his. "I decided not to see my father anymore."

"Is that what you want?"

He sighed; "Yeah. It's what I want."

He was silent for a long while that Ziva moved to lean her forehead against his and caress his hands. "Whatever you are struggling with Ahava, I am listening."

"You know how uh, I got disowned, when I was 16?" She nodded; "Well, prior to that, my Dad umm, was very violent towards me... He used to hit me, and throw stuff at me, and be verbally abusive and drunk, most of the time, after my mom died." He glanced at her, in time to see a tear shed in tandem with his, and he could see her heart breaking in her eyes. "Everything came out the other day at the hospital... I told him, our relationship was non-existent. I don't have a father, Ziva."

"You have me, and them." She gently placed one of his hands over her stomach, and held on tightly to his own. "You have Gibbs, and McGee, and Abby, Ducky and Palmer, even Vance. Your Aunt and Uncle too." She wiped quickly at her own tears, and then softly at his. "We all love you, for who you are. You are the most amazing, man I have ever met, and you will make a wonderful father for our daughters."

He leant forward to capture her lips, and savoured the gentleness of her lips. "I love you, so much."

"I love you."

Umm, yeah...