Hi everyone! Thanks for all your reviews, they mean so much and I love to read them (especially before I go to work!!) However, I do have one request: PLEASE don't ruin any of season 5 for me. I've only seen up to Chimera, which I saw last night, so I don't know what happens in the rest of the season or this big finale that everyone's talking about! Please let me stay in the dark!

Chapter Seventeen: No, I'm Still Shocked

It had been three days since the funeral. He'd like to think that a lot had happened in three days, but it hadn't. A lot hadn't happened when it should have done…like opening the curtains, daily showering, doing things other than watching old TV re-runs and movies. He couldn't remember the last time the rooms were flooded with natural daylight or when they had a healthy cooked meal. Take out was easier, more convenient, and they could watch more movies if they didn't have to take time away to cook. Life seemed easier when they were watching television.

But that changed on the fourth morning.

On the fourth morning, he walked into his living room and saw Penny already sitting on the couch in front of the television, staring at that mornings weather report blankly. One thing that had happened in the past three days is that she'd learnt how to turn the television on herself. So, he turned around and went into the bathroom. He showered, put on a clean pair of jeans and a clean long-sleeved t-shirt (double checking that they were clean because laundry also hadn't been done in the past three days), and then he went in to Penny. She was still sat in the same place.

Not anymore, he realised. This wasn't good for her.

He got her up from the couch, took her into the bathroom. He ran her a bath, carefully checking the temperature of the water, and he made sure that she was clean before he let her out. Then, he let her choose her favourite outfit to wear to make a chance from the constant pyjamas of the past few days, and brushed her hair for her, making sure that he played some music in the background of their very different morning. They needed to get out, they needed to see people, they needed to do something.

And all of this came to one conclusion.

NCIS.

"What do you think?" Tony asked, as she sat down on the floor before him and handed him her shoes. "It will be nice to see everyone, won't it?"

"Yeah," she answered, and he was taken aback to find that she was smiling. Really smiling.

That made him smile, and he touched her cheek. "You're smiling."

"I like seeing everyone," she told him simply.

"I like it when you smile," he told her, giving her a big hug. "When you smile, it makes my day so much better."

Penny was still smiling when he pulled away and went back to putting on her shoe. "I miss Ziva 'specially," she told him.

His smile dropped a little, but he tried to regain it. "I miss Ziva too," he told her. He hadn't heard from her since the day of the funeral. He'd tried calling a few times since, but always hung up before she'd have even noticed the phone was ringing.

"When will she come over for dinner next?" she asked.

"I don't know, you'll have to ask her."

"Do you think she wants to?" she asked. Yes, she must be feeling happier…she's asking questions again.

"Maybe, but we'll need to go shopping first," he reminded himself. "We're running out of food again." Actually, they ran out of food days ago, but thanks to the magic of delivery boys they hadn't needed to worry about that.

"Auntie Jenny said that we've gotta go shopping before we run out next time," she pointed out to him.

"That's not a bad idea. How about when we come home we go shopping first? You think we can handle it without Ziva and Jenny?" he asked her.

She thought about it, and then nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

"We'll give it a go, right?"

"Yeah."

As he tied up her shoelace, he wondered whether they were still talking about shopping.

--

Down in the lab, Abby and Ziva were sitting together. There was a gap between the cases, so as Ziva had finished her paperwork and Gibbs was in MTAC she'd gone down to see Abby. The two of them sat around the large table, Ziva with a coffee and Abby with a decaffeinated caff-pow, even though she insisted they tasted disgusting. Ziva had just finished explaining to Abby about not answering Tony's call in time, and that she is now worried because she hasn't heard from him since.

"It was not supposed to happen," she insisted. "It was a mistake. It must have been…"

"Look, you don't have to explain anything to me," Abby told her.

"It was inexcusable, Abby."

"If anything, I think you two were long overdue for some good old pent-up frustration sex."

Ziva looked at her strangely. "Abby, I am not talking about having sex with Tony," she explained slowly.

Abby suddenly snapped up. "You're not?"

"I did not sleep with him," she insisted.

"Okay, wait. Totally wrong end of the conversation. Start again," Abby told her, this time listening to the conversation that she was supposed to be hearing rather than the one she wanted to be hearing.

"I was at Adam's, but I had told Tony to call me if he needed me," Ziva repeated.

"And he called?"

"Yes."

"But you didn't answer?

"No," she groaned. "Adam told me not to but when I went to answer anyway he had already hung up."

Abby shrugged. "Maybe he just thought you were asleep or something."

"I always answer my calls," she justified. "Unlike Tony. Since then he has not returned or answered a single one of my calls."

"Ziva, relax," Abby told her. "He's under a lot of stress. He hasn't answered any of our calls."

But still, Ziva was worried. "Perhaps I should go over tonight and check that things are all right…"

"Wait, don't you have a date with Adam tonight?" Abby reminded her.

Ziva stopped, but then shook her head. "Some things are more important."

Abby was silent for a moment, focusing on her drink, before asking out of the blue: "So, what's Adam like?"

Confused, Ziva frowned. "How do you mean?"

"Is he more of a hopeless romantic or is he one of those guys who likes it angry and rough?"

She shook her head, rolling her eyes. "You were never an innocent child, were you?" she realised.

"Nope, now stop avoiding the question and give the poor pregnant girl some details," Abby instructed her.

"He is more of a romantic but not as much as he could be," Ziva divulged.

"So, what?" Abby pried. "No candles, roses and silk sheets?"

She shook her head. "He has given me roses, but it did not coincide with the sex."

"I thought not," Abby decided.

"You did?"

She nodded. "Oh yeah, some people you can just tell with."

Ziva looked even more confused. "You have not met him before."

"He has a vibe. What colour were the roses?" she asked.

"Yellow."

Abby winced. "Ouch. Bad move for Adam."

"What is wrong with yellow roses?" she asked.

"In roses, yellow is the colour of friendship," she explained.

"Yellow is my favourite colour for roses," Ziva defended.

"So! Guys should always give red roses," she insisted.

Ziva looked away. "I am not particularly the flower type, Abby."

Abby eyed her suspiciously. "What's going on between you two?" she asked. "Yellow roses, wanting to cancel dates…"

"Abby-"

"And you had this really weird look in your eye when you said it, too," Abby pointed out to her. "Has something happened?"

Ziva was silent for a moment, fingering the rim of her coffee mug. "Something is bothering me about this relationship, yes," she admitted.

"What is it?"

"I do not know," she told her. "That is what is bothering me."

Abby frowned. "I don't get you."

"In Mossad, I learned how to read a person," she explained. "I can tell what a person is thinking just by looking into their eyes."

"You think Adam's lying to you?" she realised.

"No, I know that he is lying to me," she corrected her. "But I cannot figure out what he is lying about."

"Have you tried asking him?"

"Of course. He insists there is nothing to lie about."

"But you're not convinced?"

"No."

Abby paid close attention to the look on Ziva's face. "Do you think it's something bad?" she asked, hoping that it wasn't an illness. She didn't think Ziva could go through another Dead Man Walking after what happened with Roy.

"Would he have a reason to lie if it were not?" she pointed out.

"Well…maybe you're just over reacting," Abby suggested. "Perhaps it's just something on his mind. Maybe it's not you he's lying to."

Ziva shook her head slowly. "Abby, I am not wrong about this."

"Wrong about what?"

Both women turned to see Tony and Penny standing in the doorway, both with smiles on their faces. It was as if they had never been away. Abby got up went over to them. "Tony! Penny!"

Penny waved from Tony's arms. "Hi, Abby. Hi, Ziva."

"Well, this is certainly better," Ziva observed. "Seeing the both of you with a smile."

"We're happy today," Penny announced, as they came to stand beside her at the table.

"I am very glad to hear that, Penny," Ziva smiled.

"We like seeing people. 'Specially you guys."

"That's because we're so awesome," Abby told her brightly. However, her face dropped when she saw two lop-sided pigtails on Penny's head. "Oh dear, Pen-Pen, what happened here?"

Penny looped her fingers through her pigtails. "Daddy did them, but he didn't do them very good."

"Hey, I tried, didn't I?" Tony defended quickly.

"Oh no, this will not do," Abby shook her head. "This has to be fixed. Wonky pig-tails are a no-no."

"Yeah, Daddy. Big no-no," Penny told him.

Abby plucked Penny from Tony's arms and marched through the lab to her desk, leaving the two agents alone. They instantly began speaking at the same time.

"Ziva-"

"Tony-"

They stopped, laughing lightly at their mistake, before Ziva stepped in first. "I am sorry, Tony," she told him.

"For what?"

"Not answering your call."

"Ah, it's nothing," he waved off. "Penny was asleep and I just wanted to see if you remembered that documentary about James Bond I told you about ages ago." Ziva raised an eyebrow, but was pleased to see that she could still tell when he was lying to her. He noticed her look. "And this is where you remind me that you're Mossad and you know I'm lying. So…uh…I was just a bit freaked out when it was only me awake, and once I called I realised how stupid a reason that was to call you so I hung up," he explained.

"I should have answered," she told him. "I said to call-"

"It's okay, I don't mind," he assured her.

"I haven't answered anyone's calls," he pointed out. "I just…needed to shut out the world for a few days."

"And now?" she questioned.

"I realised that shutting the world out in the way that I did isn't healthy for Penny," he said, looking over at where she was happily chatting away to Abby. "She needs to see people, she needs me to open the curtains in the apartment…things like that."

"You both seem happier today," she observed.

"Yeah, we are," he nodded confidently.

"You have become a natural protector."

He looked back to her. "You think?"

She nodded. "I saw the state in which she arrived in, Tony. Look at her now. One week, and she is smiling. Whatever you are doing for her, it is working."

He squirmed uncomfortably. "I don't really feel like I'm doing anything," he admitted.

"You are doing everything," she assured him. "And she knows it."

He nodded, and then changed the subject, almost too quickly for her liking. "Are you guys busy today?"

"For the moment, no," she told him. "We do not have a case. Why do you ask?"

"It's the official reading of Alicia's will this afternoon. I can't really take Penny with me."

"I am sure there will be someone here who will watch her."

"Okay, cool," he nodded.

Abby and Penny came back over, both of them smiling. "Much better, don't you think?"

"Thank you, Auntie Abby," Penny said, shaking her head around with her now level pigtails.

"Now, let's all go upstairs," she said. "Auntie Abby has something to tell everyone."

"Ooh," Tony cooed. "Sordid secret, Abs?"

"You'll never know if you don't come upstairs with us," she told him.

Tony looks shocked, wondering what on earth she had done that even she would consider 'sordid'. Ziva pushed him lightly towards the door. "Come on, Tony. It is worth hearing, I assure you."

--

Upstairs in the bullpen, Tony sat down on the front of his desk, lifting Penny into his lap. Ziva stood beside them, continuing to talk to Penny about what her new favourite movie was (Tony was actually glad that her new favourite was one of the Disney films rather than From Russia With Love). Abby stood in the centre of the bullpen, beckoning McGee out from his desk until he was standing next to her. Gibbs looked up from his computer, strangely gazing upon them up. Abby and McGee were almost directly in front of him, looking like a pair of nervous teenagers, while Tony and Ziva were behind them, Penny on her father's lap while she chatted away to Ziva, the three of them looking strangely mature and natural together.

"You tell them," Abby hissed to McGee.

"You tell them," he shot back.

"I told you," she countered.

"And Ziva and Gibbs," he pointed out. "It's really just telling Tony."

"Then you can tell Ducky and the Director and we'll be even," Abby suggested.

He looked confused. "What?"

"Just do it!" she told him.

"No. I can't. I think I'm going to throw up."

"Fine," she huffed. "I'll do it."

"Thank you," he sighed gratefully.

"Attention people!" Abby said brightly, not needing to get anyone's attention because they were all watching her already. She looked at the eyes on her, Ziva's encouraging smile, and took a step backwards, pushing McGee into the proverbial spotlight. "McGee has something to tell you!"

"Abby!" he hissed, before realising that everyone was now looking at him. "Uh…Abby's uh…"

"Spit it out, McGee," Gibbs told him.

"Abby's pregnant," he mumbled quickly.

Tony's eyes widened, and if Penny hadn't been holding onto his neck he probably would have dropped her. "Really?"

"Congratulations," Ziva praised, coming over to hug Abby.

Gibbs just looked at them silently.

Tony was looking at them with more curiosity. "Wow. I'm shocked…" he announced. "I mean, I'm happy for you…" he stopped, shaking his head. "No, wait, not yet…no, I'm still shocked."

"You knew, didn't you?" McGee assumed.

"No, he did not," Ziva assured him.

"Gibbs?" Abby asked, looking at her surrogate father with hope. Silent could either mean good or bad with Gibbs.

Gibbs stood up from his desk, going over to Abby and kissing her on the cheek. She smiled, realising that this was a blessing from him. However, he stood before McGee for a long time, just staring, before he eventually spoke. "Mess this up, McGee, and I'll find you wherever you run to."

With a suppressed terror, McGee nodded. "Uh, yes, boss."

--

Later that afternoon, Tony arrived back at NCIS to collected Penny. He'd been longer than he'd planned to be, which meant that Penny would probably be complaining about not having dinner by now, but the reading of Alicia's will had taken a lot of out him. It seemed more final than the funeral, in ways, dividing up what little she had and delegating it to others; mainly him. Every step they took away from Alicia's life seemed more final than the previous one. So, when he stepped out of the elevator, his eyes were still rather red even though he'd carefully composed himself in the men's room downstairs first.

What else could cheer him up, however, than seeing Penny happily sitting on Ziva's lap whilst she worked at her desk?

"Daddy!" she cried when she saw him watching them. She dropped herself down from Ziva's lap, and hurried around the desk to him, throwing herself into his arms.

"Hi, Princess," he told her.

"I missed you," she told him. "You were gone for a long time."

"I know, I'm sorry," he said, placing a kiss against the top of her head. "Do you want to do your drawing on my desk while I talk to Ziva?" he asked her.

"Okay."

"Good girl," he said, watching as she gathered her picture and her colouring pens and then took them over to Tony's desk. He turned to Ziva. "Thanks for watching her."

"She is no trouble, Tony," she smiled back at him.

"Where is everyone?" he asked, noticing that the bullpen was well and truly empty save for them.

"Gibbs is downstairs with Ducky, and Abby and McGee left early for a doctor's appointment," she told him.

He narrowed his eyes at her playfully. "You really knew that she was pregnant?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked her.

She shrugged simply. "If I were in her situation I would not expect her to tell McGee."

"That's a strangely hypothetical situation," he commented.

"Of course. How was the reading?" she asked him.

He sighed, not really liking the change of conversation. "It was harder than I thought it would be," he admitted. "Any money she had left was for Penny, but I already knew that. Then there's this," he said, holding up the thick envelope in hands. "Letters for Penny on her eighteenth birthday, her wedding day, and one for whenever she feels ready to open it. There's a Christmas card for her and a card for her next birthday as well. Then there's a necklace that belonged to her mother; not the evil stepmother woman, her real mother, that she wanted to pass on to Penny. There's uh…" he trailed off, looking down at the envelope. "There's a letter for me as well, with a DVD."

"What is on it?" she asked.

"According to the letter it's all the video footage she has of Penny growing up," he told her. "Stuff that I missed."

She smiled gently at him. "That will be nice for you to see."

"Yeah," he nodded. "Except I can't bring myself to watch it."

She reached out, taking his hand over the desk. "It may take time, Tony," she reminded him.

"It's stuff that I shouldn't have been there for though, but I wasn't."

"Through no fault of your own," she pointed out.

"I still should have been there."

"You are here now," she said. "When it matters the most."

He nodded slowly, having not taken his eyes away from the hand that held his. She kept doing that. She kept taking his hand, just as he kept on being surprised at how everything seemed to disappear when he felt the brush of her skin against his. "I should get her home," he announced. "We've got to get some groceries before we run out of food again. Thanks again for watching her."

Ziva watched sadly as they left, realising that Tony no longer had the smile on his face as he had done that morning.