56 reviews, 109 followers. Thank guys! sorry for the delay, I had a family member die on Sunday and wanted to get a little farther ahead of what I've posted. I'm done with the rough draft of chapter 7 now, and I'll probably revise it today or tomorrow, then start on 8. I did lay out basically the rest of the story, though. So progress is being made. Anyway, why am I still talking? You're here to read this chapter. Carry on.

The next day, when Ziva told Tony she was about to go attempt to tell Abby their news, he promptly offered to go get her lunch, and so he found himself buying hamburgers across the yard from the building. He sighed, surveying the line in front of him and noting that it would be another ten minutes before he got to the front.

He cast a quick look toward the front of the building, which hadn't seemed the same since the bomb fiasco last year. He could vaguely see Abby's lab window, and he wondered how Ziva was doing. He felt a little guilty about making her face Abby alone, but figured it was only fair after he'd done the same with Gibbs.

He actually hadn't even talked to or seen Gibbs since two nights ago, when he'd told him their news. He still winced every time he thought about how he'd awkwardly stumbled over his words, looking like an idiot. Part of him wished he could have another chance at pleading his case, because he knew his boss was angry with him, but he knew that Gibbs would have been angry regardless of how he'd been told the news.

"People make mistakes" played through his head over and over, and he felt a rush of anger each time. It wasn't a mistake to him, but everyone kept insisting on calling it that, and there wasn't anything he could do about it. He guessed he could sit down and bring the conversation up to Ziva, but she was so adamantly calling it a mistake that he dreaded even the thought of how that conversation would play out.

So, as much as it pained him, the conversation would continue to go untouched, just like so many others.

"Abby!" Ziva yelled over the music in the lab.

Abby turned, reaching to lower the volume on her radio. "Hey! I haven't gotten anything on the case yet, but I'm actually running a partial right now and-"

"Abby!" She interrupted, smiling. "I'm not here for the case."

"Oh." she stated simply. "What is it then?"

"I have... something to tell you." Ziva said, her heart pounding. She suddenly felt greatful to Tony that he had done this with Gibbs.

"Okay. I'm all ears."

"Well... I... I'm going to... have a baby, Abby."

Abby's eyes widened, and she squealed, hugging her. "Oh my goodness! That's amazing! When? I didn't even know you were dating someone again! Who is it?"

Ziva hugged her back and spoke quickly, hoping she could finish before having to look at Abby again. "Well, actually, Tony and I... slept together after the serial killer case and he's the father."

Abby pulled back, looking disappointed. "Something about the way you said that makes me think that you aren't together."

"Right." Ziva said, shrugging and looking at the wall to her left, wringing her hands together.

She pursed her lips for a long moment, not speaking, until finally, she smiled. "It's okay. A baby is still a baby. What color do you want to paint his or her room?"

Finally getting to the front of the line, Tony ordered two hamburgers, paid for them, and then stopped by the break room on his way back to get two drinks before heading back to the squad room, empty except for his partner.

"So how'd she take it?" he asked, handing her one of the two hamburgers he had.

She made a face. "She started talking about wallpaper colors."

He pictured Ziva and Abby picking out paint colors, shuddered, and then pushed the images out of his mind. "How'd you tell her?"

"I just... I just told her. I told her I had something to tell her, and then I just... said it." She said, shrugging.

"Said what?" McGee asked as he walked in, his own lunch in his hand. "If I had known you were going to get hamburgers, Tony, I would have asked you to get me one."

Tony shrugged, handing Ziva her drink as well. "Sorry, Probie. Taking care of Ziva." He said absentmindedly, separating the stack of napkins he had and giving Ziva half of them.

McGee's face scrunched up strangely in confusion as he took a bite of his machine sandwich. "Why?"

"She's having his baby, McGee. Keep up." Gibbs said as he entered the room, a vending machine sandwich and coffee in his hands. Tony and Ziva looked at each other, eyes widening.

McGee's eyes widened, too, and for the next few moments, he attempted to recover from nearly choking on his food. "What?" He asked as soon as he could speak again, coughing a few more times.

"Yeah, Probie. Keep up." Tony tried to shrug off of his shoulders as he sat down at his desk with his own meal. He looked over at Gibbs, who was staring at Ziva, and for a brief moment, that made him slightly uncomfortable, and he looked at McGee, whose eyes were wide and confused.

"You doing okay, Ziver?" Gibbs asked, his voice unusually soft. "DiNozzo taking care of you?"

She nodded, looking down, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink. "Yes, Gibbs. I am perfectly fine."

Gibbs nodded. "You tell me the second he doesn't take care of you, okay?"

A small smile pulled up the corners of her mouth, and Tony admired the way it lit up her face. "I will."

"Hey, I thought you're on my side." Tony said, grinning at her, still entranced by the glow on her face that he hadn't ever seen before. She rolled her eyes at him playfully, and he felt his heart give a tug at the almost forgotten sight.

"Wait a second, let me catch up!" McGee broke in, voice a little louder than necessary. "So are you two together now?"

Tony's entire body froze at the question, and his eyes flicked to Ziva. Her own eyes were wide, but when she didn't say anything, he spoke.

"No." he said stiffly, looking right into her eyes. "We just made a little mistake. Right, Ziva?" His voice held more bitterness than he'd intended, and she pursed her lips, obviously hurt.

"DiNozzo." Gibbs shot him a glare, and he sighed.

"Sorry."

"Don't be." Her eyes narrowed. "You are right. It was just a little mistake."

Tony closed his eyes against her words and nodded, mouth shut tight, suddenly feeling angry despite knowing that he was the one who'd brought up the subject that was so unbelievably sore to him. He stood, his chair hitting the wall behind his desk with a loud bang. "Be back later." He nearly spat, walking to the elevator, not once looking back to see what he'd left behind.

He found himself sitting on a bench near a hot dog vender, listening to the random sounds of the lunch time crowd. Voices scattered around him were strangely comforting, and he found that people watching was a decent distraction.

For five minutes, he tried to piece together the life story of a woman on her phone who looked disheveled and stressed. Her phone was nice, but it had one crack on the back, so she'd dropped it once. He assumed she was an overachiever with a little bit too much on her plate. She had a ring on her right hand, so he gathered that she had a serious boyfriend, but not serious enough to ask her to marry him… yet. She wasn't him, though, so he was sure that eventually, she would be able to marry whoever the hell he was.

After a moment of trying to find someone who might offer a more interesting story, a couple pushing a baby in a stroller came by where he sat and he looked away, fighting the bitter taste in his mouth that the happy picture gave him.

He guessed that it shouldn't make him feel that way. He supposed that he should be thrilled and ready to welcome his child into the world, but when that cruel world kept reminding him that the child was created because of a mistake that he didn't want to be a mistake, it was difficult to be cheerful.

"Are you mad at me?"

Ziva's voice shocked him out of his thoughts. He honestly hadn't expected her to follow him outside, especially after how he'd snapped at her. He took a moment, and then sighed, resting his chin on his intertwined fingers and focusing on an older man standing in line at the hot dog vender. "You know I can't stay mad at you." He said simply and honestly, voice slightly muffled by his fingers.

"But you were mad at me?" she asks again, voice slightly more persistent.

He sat up, running a hand through his hair. Her questions were getting to him, and just like he'd told her, he suddenly found that he wasn't mad at her at all. He knew that fact should have irritated him, but he couldn't find any of his earlier anger. Instead, his head hurt and he felt more mentally exhausted than he ever had.

"I…" He paused, looking at a small child chase a dog not too far from where they spoke. A laugh escaped his throat as the dog collapsed on the ground and rolled over. "I'm terrified, Ziva. I'm absolutely terrified. I don't know how to be a dad, but I'm going to be. I don't know how to be a father, but even if I did, I don't know if I'm even going to get the opportunity to try. All this uncertainty scares the hell out of me, Ziva."

He looked back at her, and she was looking down at her feet. He found his eyes travelling to her stomach. The bump there would go unnoticed by the passing stranger, but not to someone who knew Ziva well enough to know that she probably hadn't gained a pound since she was 17.

He looked away, feeling the urge to run again and shoving it back into the darker part of his thoughts where it belonged. He felt her sit down beside him, but he didn't look at her.

"I am scared, too, Tony."

Her voice is soft, and childlike, and he fights the urge to take her into his arms and hold her tightly the way he wants to.

He knows that wouldn't be appropriate.

A long silence passed between them, and he could almost feel the raw emotions threatening the thin balance they'd formed with each other over the years. It had taken nearly four years to get things back to their normal after he'd brought her home from Somalia, and now it was all crumbling around him, and he wasn't sure if he should just let it fall, or fight to maintain it despite how hopeless that seemed.

He was afraid that if it fell, he'd never be able to fix it again.

She was still being indifferent toward what happened between them, and it was still a mistake, and he hated that. She was having his kid, and he wanted to run as far away as he could, but he knew he couldn't.

He knew the two different sides would clash a lot over the next few months, but he also knew it didn't matter. He had to be there for her, because he'd promised he always would be. So, pushing his own emotions aside, he damned the consequences for his heart and turned to look at her.

God, she did look scared.

"Well…" he began, searching for the right words. "I guess if we're going to be scared out of our minds, at least we can be scared... together." He said, hoping his voice was reassuring. She nodded.

"I suppose you are right." She hesitated, obviously trying to decide whether or not to say something. "Tony, about what you said earlier-"

"Stop." He cut her off, closing his eyes as if he could stop her words by doing so. He swallowed, opening them slowly, but not looking at her. "Don't worry about it. It's not important. Okay?" He tried to smile reassuringly at her.

Then, not wanting to wait around for her to try arguing with him, he stood and walked back toward the office building. He was tempted a few times to look back, and see exactly how she'd taken his dismissive words, but he resisted.

He knew that would only hurt him in the end.