44 reviews and 89 followers now, so thanks guys! I'm trying to put off posting chapters until I get more written, just because I only have through chapter 6 written right now because its the end of the semester and things are getting crazy. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

Two nights later, Tony finally decided that he needed to tell Gibbs of their predicament sooner rather than later, because he knew it was only a matter of time until Ziva started showing. Her jeans that usually fit perfectly were already becoming a little snug, and soon, they would no longer have the option of doing things the easier way.

His stomach had been tight the whole day, and the only thing he'd eaten was a bowl of cereal that morning and a chocolate bar at lunch time, and that was only because he'd forced himself.

When he walked into Ziva's apartment that night, he tried to ignore how messy it seemed to be becoming and greeted her with a smile. "You feeling okay today?"

She shrugged, making a face. She was wearing an oversized t-shirt that went to half way down her thighs, and her hair was pulled into a messy bun at the back of her neck. "Yes, I suppose so. I just took some of the medicine the doctor prescribed for nausea, so I'm fine as far as that is concerned."

"Good. Well, I brought you some food, if you're feeling well enough to eat." He offered the bag in his hand to her.

"I said earlier that I wanted Chinese." Her voice was soft, and she seemed a little bewildered. "I didn't think anybody heard me."

"Oh." He felt his cheeks flush slightly, but he shrugged nonchalantly, holding the bag out even further. "Well, I did. So… yeah. Here."

"Thank you. The medicine has kicked in pretty well, and it smells amazing." She took the bag from him, taking an appreciative sniff before smiling widely at him.

"It's no problem." He smiled back, and then sat down on her couch, elbows on his knees. He automatically started playing with his fingers, an action he'd noticed himself doing a lot of lately.

"Are you still going to tell Gibbs tonight?" she asked, walking into the kitchen.

"I…" he hesitated. "Yeah. I'm going to try, anyway. Little… nervous, though."

He felt her sit down beside him, but he was looking at the floor. "That is understandable." She paused. "Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?"

He sighed, tempted. Gibbs would be sure to go a little easier on him if Ziva was with him, wouldn't he? He had been pretty gentle with her for quite some time. If she went with him, they could take the force of whatever happened together, and it wouldn't just be on him. However, he wasn't sure he wanted her to have to take any of it at all.

He shook his head finally, deciding against it. "No, I'm going. You're staying here. Eat, sleep, all that stuff."

"I'm not a child, Tony. I'm pregnant." She argued, and he could feel her glaring at him.

He still wasn't used to hearing the word "pregnant" every time he turned around, and winced before he'd realized it. "I know that." He dismissed quickly. "Anyway, I'm going to go see Gibbs, and tell him that you're… what I have to tell him, and then hope he doesn't shoot me."

He looked up at her, and her expression quickly changed to concerned. "He would not do that."

"I guess you're right." He replied, standing. "But still, he's Gibbs."

"True." She said, pausing in her task to pull out her food to look up at him, a look resembling sympathy etched into her features.

Before Tony realized he was doing so, he leaned down, holding a hand to the back of her neck and pressing a kiss to her head. He froze for a brief moment, wondering where that had come from and second guessing himself because he'd just kissed her on her head, and they didn't do things like that. Just because she's having your kid doesn't mean anything other than that, he scolded himself, pulling away from her and speaking quickly."Don't worry about me, okay? Eat, take your vitamins, and get some sleep. You have a baby to take care of."

He turned then and headed to the door with long strides, the room suddenly feeling stuffier.

"Okay." She said, her voice resigned. Whether it be because she was just as thrown by his actions as he was, or she was still upset about being treated like a child, he wasn't sure."Good luck."

He stopped, his hand on the doorknob, turning back to her and pushing his feelings aside long enough to give her a small smile. "Yeah, thanks. I'm going to need it."

He didn't know how long he'd been standing at the top of the stairs, watching Gibbs sandpaper a piece of wood, contemplating how easily he'd pressed his lips to Ziva's hair, but eventually, Gibbs spoke and pulled him out of his thoughts.

"You just going to stand there and stare all night, DiNozzo?"

He swallowed, slowly beginning his walk down the stairs. "Hey." He said conversationally, hoping his fear would not show through.

"What's bothering you?" Gibbs didn't look up from where he was, and Tony sighed, rejecting the almost automatic urge to deny that anything was bothering him.

"I need to talk to you, Gibbs." Tony said, voice firm despite the fact that internally he was scared senseless.

There was a brief silence as Gibbs got to a stopping point on whatever he was doing and put up his materials. Then, he sat down in a chair and looked at him. "Okay. What's up, DiNozzo?"

Tony felt his throat close up as all the fears he'd conjured up over the past few weeks rose up again. "Please don't hate me." He whispered painfully, wishing with everything in him that Gibbs would understand.

"Tony." The tone in which Gibbs spoke surprised him almost as much as the sound of hearing his first name coming from his mouth. "I don't know what this is about, but I can almost guarantee I won't hate you."

He took a deep breath, and then looked up. "Well, it's… uh…" He swallowed with some difficulty, feeling more anxious as each second passed. "It's… Ziva."

Gibbs tilted his head slightly, and Tony could see his wheels turning already. "What about her?" His voice was still completely calm, and Tony fought the want to get up and walk right back out the door.

"Well…" He hesitated, the words sticking in his dry throat. "We… We messed up."

There was a pause as Gibbs seemed to process the information he'd been given, and then his head tilted again. "When?"

Tony scratched the back of his neck, his eyes finding refuge on the random construction in the middle of the room. "Uh, after we… the serial killer case."

The poker face shifted a little. "I have rules against that."

"I know." Tony winced, feeling nauseous. He wondered if he should have taken some of Ziva's medicine before he came, or if it would have helped. Hell, he didn't know.

"So, why are you telling me? You want me to get pissed at you?" Gibbs asked, face incredulous.

"I wouldn't have, boss, but…" Tony swallowed, taking a deep breath. "She's… she's pregnant." He finally said, and then his mouth was running faster than his brain could keep up. "And I know that there's rules against it, and I know you're going to be pissed, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do here, and I figured you would find out eventually so I should just go ahead and tell you, and…" He trailed off, trying to calm his racing heart. "I can't do this."

There was a long silence that fell between them, . He heard him stand, but didn't register the fact that he was standing next to him until he felt the familiar sting of a head slap on the back of his head.

He looked at him then, but found it difficult to maintain eye contact. "I'm sorry." He said quietly, but Gibbs shook his head.

"People make mistakes, DiNozzo." Tony internally winced at his choice of words, but he quickly buried his emotions that were dug up as a result. "But there's nothing you can do about it now, but take responsibility for what you did and deal with it. You need to stop freaking out and saying you can't do this, because if you keep that up, I'll wind up killing you. You can do this, and even if you can't, you don't have a choice. You got yourself into this, and now you're going to do what you're supposed to do."

Tony frowned, looking down. "You're mad at me."

Gibbs sighed. "Yeah, DiNozzo. I'm sort of pissed, but being angry at you over it isn't going to help anything, so I guess I'll get over it."

Tony looked down at his hands, searching for words and failing to find any other than more apologies.

"Now, go, before I change my mind about killing you."

"Right, boss." Tony said, before jogging back up the stairs. At the top, he stopped, turning back to see Gibbs looking at him with an eyebrow raised. "Uh, t-thank you."

He ran out then, not waiting to see how Gibbs would respond to that. There was a part of him that wanted to see Ziva, and tell her how things had went, but he had told her to go to sleep, and she probably had done so. So he wouldn't bother her.

Not tonight.

"He wasn't mad?"

Tony hesitated, twirling a piece of popcorn between his fingers absentmindedly. "Oh, yeah, he was mad, but I think he loves us more than he hates us for breaking his rules."

Ziva pursed her lips, focusing for a moment on the movie playing in front of her. "I hope it stays that way."

"Me, too." He agreed.

"You know, technically, his rule says not to date co-workers, and we aren't dating, so we didn't actually break his rule." Ziva said, grinning a little in an attempt to make him smile.

He felt a sharp stab in his chest and forced a smile that he knew had to look as fake as it was. "Yeah. Guess you're right. You tell Abby yet?" He asked, quickly changing the subject before she could ask him what was wrong.

She shook her head. "No, I'm going to Monday at work. You're welcome to come if you want."

"You don't sound too thrilled about that." He pointed out with a small smile. Even through the few changes they'd already experienced, she was still Ziva, and he was grateful that at least that had stayed the same so far.

She made a face. "Because I am not, really. She will make a big fuss about things."

Tony nodded, and a silence fell as they absentmindedly finished their food. "So…" Tony said after a moment. "When do you find out whether it's a boy or a girl?"

She looked over at him, expression clouding over in a way he couldn't describe.

"What is it?" He asked, eyeing her curiously.

"It's just… I did not expect to be thinking of these things right now. I had nearly given up on the idea of having children, and now here I am, talking to my baby's father about when I find out the gender of our baby." She paused, looking away from him. The hand on her knee started playing with the fabric of her pajamas. "I think… I think I'm still getting used to everything. Or maybe I just miss my life being predominantly predictable."

He laughed a quick, slightly bitter laugh, putting his bowl of popcorn remnants to the side. "Well… that's the thing: A baby changes everything, and I think that we just have to come to terms with the fact that from this point on, everything is changeable and unpredictable."

She looked over at him for a long moment, not saying anything. Then, slowly, she nodded. "I guess you're right." A small pause lingered between them, and then she spoke again. "I find out in about a month."

He nodded, briefly allowing himself to picture a little girl, all dressed in pink.. He repressed the image and the rush of mixed feelings that came alone with it before looking at her and asking, "What do you think it's going to be?"

She looked down at her still nearly flat stomach. She pursed her lips, and her hand twitched as if she were going to put it over her stomach, but then didn't. "I think it's a girl." She said finally, her voice soft. "Yeah. A girl."

She did put her hand on her stomach then, and her expression changed to something he didn't recognize. He watched her run her hand over the practically non-existent bump in between her hips, and then he had to look away, because this was all getting a little too real, and if it had been anyone else at any other time, that would have been the moment he did what he always did when things got real: Run.

But it wasn't anyone else. It was Ziva. His Ziva. The Ziva who he knew everything about and who knew everything about him. The Ziva that had been with him through a hell of a lot of tough times, and he'd done the same for her. This time, he knew, was no exception.

And so he knew that this time, running scared wasn't an option. This time, no matter how things went or what happened or how real things got, he had to stay.