Chapter 15

Ziva was smiling as she laid in the bed with Tony. They were both completely nude, since Tony had somehow convinced her that it was okay to make love even with their co-workers and their boss in the house with them. Ziva knew that there was a chance that they all knew what the two of them had been doing in the bedroom but she didn't care at the moment. She looked down to where Tony's arm was holding her tightly, his arm was banded tightly around her stomach as they cuddled, or spooned, under the sheet. She heard Tony snoring and she rolled her eyes. She would have to remember to tease him about that later, when they were no longer trying their hardest to stay alive. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was getting close to the time to start dinner and she figured she should get up and get dressed and go out there to at least start cooking for everything. She slowly lifted Tony's arm but he immediately came awake and saw up in bed as she climbed out.

"Where are you going?" He asked immediately, acting as if she was trying to sneak out of the house and run away again.

"To the kitchen to start dinner, unless you want McGee to start cooking again." Ziva said with a wince. McGee was a smart guy and he seemed to be a talented author, but he was not someone who knew his way around the kitchen that well. His last meal that he had made had nearly given them all food poisoning and so he had been banned from cooking anything in the kitchen unless he was supervised at all times.

"All right." Tony said with a wince as he watched her pull her clothing back on. "I love you Ziva, you know that right?" He asked her softly.

"I love you to, Tony." Ziva said as she stopped what she was doing and knelt on the bed and leaned over to give Tony a kiss on the lips.

"I want to be able to help you through this. I want you to trust me and I want you to let me be there for you. I know that you don't want to be protected and I know that you want to handle this on your own, but when someone is in love with someone, they let them in and they let them help. I want to be there for you Ziva, I want to be the one you turn to when you need someone. There is that and the fact that I didn't use a condom." Tony said with a small wince.

Ziva's eyes went wide as she realized the implications of what he had just said. She slowly sat down on the bed and bit her bottom lip nervously. He hadn't used protection, she knew Tony was clean and didn't have any diseases and she was clean as well, but there was a risk for pregnancy with the news.

"Okay, I was told of a new pill that there is out." Ziva said as she thought about it. "It is a pill you can use if you have fail sex." Ziva said with a sigh.

Tony smiled at her misspoken words again. "Unprotected sex, Ziva. The word is unprotected. Do you really think that someone is going to pick that up for you? Do you want to sit there and explain to them we didn't put a shield on and we need a pill to stop conception?"

"Shield? I thought we were talking about protection." Ziva said as she gave him a very confused look.

Tony tried to not laugh at her. He had to remember that English was not her primary language and that although she was getting better and her mistakes were getting less and less noticeable, they were still there. She didn't understand most of the terms that other people would understand and sometimes you had to be very direct and use only correct names and terms with her, no slang. However he couldn't resist using slang because the confusion took away the worry that had etched in her eyes with the news of his major screw up. However the more he sat there and the more he thought about it, he didn't think it was a mistake and he was beginning to think it could be a blessing. What if there was a little baby DiNozzo growing inside her, what if they had made a little miracle? He wanted to marry Ziva, sooner or later, it didn't really matter when he did it as long as he did it. He was beginning to wonder, though, if Ziva wasn't interested in being a wife and mother, or maybe it was just that she didn't want those things with him.

"Come on, could having a baby really be that bad Ziiii-vvvvaaaa…." Tony drew her name out the way he did in the office when he was trying to get her to smile and was pleased to see it worked in this situation as well.

"What would happen if there was a baby on the way? What would we do then Tony?" Ziva asked patiently.

"Well I always figured we would get married anyway, we would just have to do it a lot faster then we expected so that we would be married before a baby was born. Then we would be together and we would be welcoming our first child, of many, into the world." Tony said with a soft smile, he placed his hand on her stomach and gently massaged. "Think about it, picture it Ziva. A little girl or a little boy, a piece of the both of us." He whispered in her ear softly.

Ziva had never thought that Tony wanted to have kids and the thought that he was asking her to picture the possibility of a child, a child that they created together and a marriage that he apparently had been thinking about, really made her realize something new about him. She turned and faced him, studying him with her head cocked to the side, "and what we would do if there is a child and Maliek had not been caught? How could we bring a child into this world with such an angry and vindicated man waiting to kill me?"

"I think you mean vindictive. The word you used, vindicated, means someone who is in the right and has gotten his way or been proved right, something like that I think, I don't know we need a dictionary to know but I know the word you mean is vindictive." Tony said automatically correcting her. "No matter what happens we would be on our guard Ziva, we would protect each other and any children we had together. So will you think about marrying me, whether there is a baby in there or not?"

"Are you proposing to me?" Ziva asked in shock.


Maliek was so impatient but he knew that tomorrow morning, Ziva was going to need to run. He had grown to know more and more about the woman he hated with everything inside of him, and he knew that no matter what the risk was, she had to get outside. She was not the type of person who cared about being safe or staying inside, she was the type of person who had to have her way or no way at all. She would risk everything to run, she would need to.