AN: Sorry for my long absence but I hope this chapter makes up for things...doing a time jump to move things along, hope you guys don't mind.
Abby: Enough with your excuses...
During the next two weeks, things started to calm down for the NCIS gang. Daniela was still recovering from her injury and was forced to stay home from school. Nate visited her every day. Abby, at this point had figured out the symptoms, but kept quiet about them anyway to see who would be first to know without her saying a thing. Steve and Terence, it seemed, appeared to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Vance, getting frustrated, decided to give up on the case for now. There were more important matters to deal with at the moment.
Meanwhile, Ziva had the problem of her youngest triplet Jane. Some of her teeth had grown in, but she had yet to hit the next major milestone other children had managed with no problem: sitting up and supporting herself. It appeared that no matter what was to be done, she was always a few steps behind the others.
"She'll be fine," Tony said once Ziva had brought up the topic over the phone while he was out getting pizza. "You know, Einstein didn't say a word until he was six. I'm pretty sure he had a lot of smart thoughts he needed to process before saying all of them at once."
"I would feel better if we saw Dr. Austin tomorrow," Ziva insisted. She hung up and looked at her three sleeping children. Just yesterday, it seemed she had given birth to Taliah and Maria. Jane, unfortunately, had been a problem from her very birth. She had taken the longest in labor, spent more time than the other two in NICU, and simply rebelled in every way possible. Her personality was more fierce than Maria, who happened to be a very vocal one out of the triplets. Thankfully Taliah was a quiet and well behaved child. She complied with every solid food without complaint, unlike Jane. Maria, though better with eating, usually would scrunch up her button shaped nose when presented with squash, bananas, or green beans. It was difficult most of the time to tell them all apart, so Ziva had them wear different colored jumpers so as to tell them apart. Jane wore yellow most of the time, Maria wore pink, and Taliah was usually seen in blue.
Today was Saturday, so Ziva didn't have to worry about going into work. She enjoyed having a little time to relax after all the craziness that went on at NCIS throughout the week. Currently, Daniela was in a situation with Nate, unsure whether he felt the same way about her now that she confessed her feelings to him in front of everyone in the heat of the moment today. She decided to check up on Jane, just for something to do. Ziva sighed and trudged into the nusery. Maria and Taliah were both fast asleep, unaware of their mother's presence. But Jane, on the other hand, was wide awake. But the unusual part was suddenly, she was sitting up, as if she had always done it. Her face lit up with a smile as she caught sight of Ziva, and she laughed.
"Jane..." Sometimes the smallest miracles were the most enjoyable ones. Ziva picked up the youngest triplet and carried her out into the living room to wait for Tony.
NCIS
"I'm sorry," Daniela blurted when Nate had come back into the room. It was not long after physical therapy, and her favorite television show was on. "I don't know what I was thinking earlier today. Sometimes my brain shuts off, and my mouth says things I know that I'll end up regretting later, so I don't know about you, but maybe we should pretend that nothing happened. It seems like the only good plan to me-"
"Relax," Nate interrupted, speaking for the first time since she had made her confession. She stopped talking at once and gazed at him curiously. For as long as she had known him, he never had that look on his face.
"I've been thinking about what you said," Nate continued after a silence. "I wasn't sure how I felt. So I took a walk outside and did some watching." He loved bird watching, and spent a great deal of his time pointing out a new kind of bird to Daniela almost every day. "These two doves came down, a male and a female. They picked at one another's feathers and flew away into a nearby tree. That was when I realized everyone needs someone, even birds. I'm willing to give you a try. We've become pretty good friends recently and you really need someone to be there for you after all you've been through." Daniela looked ready to answer, but Nate just cut her off once again, his face very serious.
"One step at a time, okay? I've never done anything like this before."
"Okay," she said quietly.
NCIS
"Have you ever heard of Metallica?" Adien asked Stacey casually that evening on their way to visit Daniela.
"Duh!" Stacey said. "But I don't like them all that much. I prefer Katy Perry or Demi Lovato. They're pretty great once you really hear their music." Adien realized then he had grown up on country and latina music, not rock or pop or hip hop. It probably didn't matter all that much anyway what sort of music he had heard of. He decided to let it go. Everyone had their own preferences. Besides, there were other things to deal with right now.
NCIS
"Aya!" Rylan cried out happily at his high chair. Abby had been trying to wean him off the bottle now that he started teething, with mixed results. Almost-five-month old Rylan only ate certian solids, such as bananas or grapes, but refused to put anything else in his mouth. Only a couple teeth had truly grown in, so this came as no surprise to the newly married couple as they ate their own meal of clam chowder and salad. Abby moodily picked at her meal all evening, not saying much. She felt tired again, and a headache was making itself known much worse than usual. This was the third night in a row this had happened. Tim had already suggested she go to the doctor about it, but she blatanly refused.
"I'm going to bed," Abby said finally, making the long trek to the bedroom they shared with Rylan. Having their only son sleep in the same room made response times to when he woke up that much faster. Tim was left to get Rylan out of his high chair and put him down for a nap as well.
"What am I going to do with you, Abs?" Tim sighed. Rylan started fussing, growing tired since it was getting close to his nap time.
NCIS
"Everything set up?" Steve asked without looking away from his mathmatical notes. Terence huffed in reply, choosing to remain silent. It was too late to back out, but after having flashbacks of a much younger Abby, so sweet and harmless, he started having second thoughts about murder. He wasn't a killer. Perhaps he had held onto his anger for much too long. But if he didn't do it, Steve would for sure.
"Alright...Abby is in her apartment-"
"I don't want this," Terence said without thinking.
"Excuse me?" Steve looked at him increduously.
"You heard me. This is a little unnecessary. So what if Hades was killed. He was a crazy old nut anway, he deserved it, and frankly, Abby didn't do anything to you to earn this fate. So take your pretty inherited toys and find something else to do with your life." Terence walked off without another word.
