Ziva's POV:
It was when I heard his voice. I whipped around. "Ziva?" he cried . "Tony? What are you doing here?" I hissed. "Mr. DiNozzo is here for the same reason you are." Mariah said, peering over her glasses at us. "Wait." I said. "Tony's the godfather?" I asked. "Yes, he is. We are here to discuss the custody of Zoey Belling."
I wasn't listening. I was too busy trying to take in how and what happened. Why him? Why me? Why us? What about work? How would this affect our partnership? I halted the steady stream of frantic questions I had so I could pay attention.
"Okay, so Zoey has been entrusted to you two. In order to have complete custody of her, you both must sign this legal document acknowledging that Haylee Belling, Zoey's birth mother, has given you custody of Zoey, and that you accept her as your goddaughter." Silence. "Can me and Tony talk about this for a minute?" I said, breaking the silence. I grabbed his hand and led him out into the hallway.
"Okay, Tony. Let's take a minute to review what in the hell we just heard. The Belling's have entrusted us with their three-month-old child. Us, who are not married, not engaged, not even dating. Us, who work for a federal agency, with which our job is to hunt down murderers, rapists, and the like. Parenthood? Us? Really?"
He thought about what I said. I was pretty accurate. He, too, was confused. Why us? I could see him thinking his answer through carefully before he answered.
"Ziva, I think everything happens for a reason. There must be a reason why, on her deathbed, Haylee named us Zoey's godparents. There must be."
"Well, if you've got any theories, I'm listening."
He was at a loss of anything to say.
"See? I can barely handle adjusting to a new life, let alone a child." I buried my face in my hands.
"Well, Ziva….how bad could it be?"
I gaped at him.
"Tony, when you have a child, it is not like a dog. You need to attend to its every need; you need to take total care of it. We don't have any experience with children! Face it. We're just going to have to tell them that we're not ready for this."
"Come on, Ziva. We can do this."
"Tony, we can't do this."
He placed his hands around my waist. It was unexpected, yet comforting. I placed my hands on his shoulders, staring into those deep, chocolate brown eyes. The eyes that secretly melted me for years. I laid my head on his chest, and then looked back up at him. I sighed. "You think we can do it?" I said.
"I know we can." He said, leading me back into the office.
As we left, he handed the receptionist a piece of paper. "I'm a father." he said.