Disclaimeryish stuff: I wonder, if I (or Em, for that matter) owned NCIS, would we need to put disclaimers if we also wrote FF for it.... if there are any closet NCIS writers reading this, drop us a PM about that.

A/N: And no, Emily has not just become schizophrenic and started referring to herself in the 3rd person - though I wouldn't rule out it happening at some point - it's OutCold here. Or Hayley, if you prefer. Some people also go for Hay, which is not in fact a shortening of Hayley but of Haybucket. My friends are strange. I don't question it. Same friend (YouGottaSingAlong) went from Carey to Car to Carboot as a nickname. Henceforth, it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. Although this could be called prodding them with a stick until they wake up and... probably lick you, dogs really aren't vicious. Woah, I don't usually ramble this much in A/Ns, I guess I've gone giddy with the power of having Em's password *resists temptation to post Em's password and see if she gets spammed*. Good Hayley. And why no, I'm not schizo either.

A/N2: I decided people probably gave up on the last one. Yeah, Emily has block, so she asked me to write a chapter. My excuse for the overwhelming shippiness is that this is writer's craft, designed to fit in with Em's fic. :P By the way, be impressed. I don't ship Tiva, but if I say so myself, I did a pretty good job of pretending I did. And anyway, on with the chapter.

"Tony," Ziva said, "He will find out eventually, and I am fine,"

Gibbs turned to Jenny, who looked back at Ziva, "Gibbs, I am pregnant."

-----

Gibbs' eyes widened the slightest bit in shock – only Jenny noticed before he composed himself. Slowly, calmly, he reached over and whacked the back of Tony's head.

"Hey!" he protested. "Who said I was the father?"

Simultaneously Gibbs, Jenny and Ziva gave him identical withering looks.

He sighed. "Okay, so I am."

"Stating the obvious, Tony," Jenny said dryly.

"You two planning on tying the knot?" asked Gibbs. He wasn't really that worked up about it, but it made him smile to watch Tony splutter about maybes, and possibilities, and that is if Ziva… Ziva smirked and let him blunder for a few minutes.

"There's still a lot to do before even thinking about that Gibbs," she eventually said.

Tony's expression changed to that of pure relief. "Yes, exactly, boss."

Jenny laughed quietly. At a pleading look from Tony, she took Gibbs' hand and led him outside the hospital room to let Tony and Ziva talk. They sat in the uncomfortable plastic chairs outside, without noticing they were still holding hands, it felt as natural as anything ever had.

"You are so cruel," Jenny whispered, amusement twinkling in her eyes.

He shrugged, and smirked.

"I love you," she said, realising that she hadn't yet. It was like unblocking a dam that had been keeping a lake of emotions at bay. If Gibbs was half the agent he was supposed to be, he already knew, but saying it aloud was different, saying it aloud helped her to come to terms with it, accept it. Stop running away. She had told him she couldn't come back, but for the first time in a long while she began to hope that maybe there was a way. Or maybe, just maybe it was a risk worth taking – that there were still those who wanted her dead – for as long as she could have to be with Jethro, without the secrets, without the lies.

Gibbs blinked back threatening tears. "We'll work it out," he said, guessing at her train of thought. He wouldn't sacrifice her life for anything, but he wasn't going to let go again either. "We'll work it out," he repeated.

-----

Tony and Ziva looked at each other. The awkwardness was strange – there'd never really been any in their relationship, they were too at ease with each other, too familiar to be awkward.

"So…" Tony began.

"Yes?" she asked, glad he was saying something.

"Gibbs seems… okay."

She laughed shortly. "He is in shock. Jenny is alive, I am pregnant," when she said this Tony smiled, and she smiled in response. Now he was there, she was beginning to love the sound of those words too. "I am pregnant," she said again, just to hear it. "We are going to have a child."

"Something Abigail Ziva," he said, recalling their conversation. "Or Something Ziva Abigail. Or…"

"Something to be decided at a later date?" she cut in.

"Yeah," he smiled. "That."

Tony mused that if there was anything his boss were really, truly good at, it was voicing the elephant in the room. Of course he'd thought about proposing – he was raised in a good Catholic family, where if you got a girl pregnant, you did right by her – why else would his parents have married? But he didn't want Ziva and him to be anything like his parents, depressed and basically insane mother, he was still bitter about the sailor suits; impersonal and detached father. Their child, he was determined, would grow up in a house full of love, and he would go to the end of the world and back to make sure that happened, even if it meant facing Eli David himself.

"Are you okay, Tony?"

He blinked and brought himself back down to earth. "I'm great," he said. "You know I love you, right?"

She smiled a smile of pure bliss. "Yes. I love you too."

He knew it was childish to want to here this before he took the leap, but it made him feel better to have it confirmed. "What do you think?" he asked.

"About…?"

"I love you. More than anything. I love you so much it drives me insane. You drive me insane. Every time you look at me my mind goes blank. No matter where we are or what's happening, you make me happy just by being there. Every time you say my name I get shivers. I could listen to you for hours on end. When I'm bored I think about you. And other times. All the time." The words came out as a rush, as though he'd been trying to say them for years, and he had. "I didn't come prepared, and I don't have a ring. But I'll buy you any one you want. And I don't care," he continued before she could interrupt, seeing the look on her face, "that everything's complicated at the moment, or about your dad or Ari or anything. They don't matter, they're not important. You are. I don't want any of them, I just want you, and I'll take everything and anything you come with. Marry me."

The silence was filled with his ragged breaths, waiting. Ziva tried to think of anything she could say, something that would explain, and that would equal his speech to make him understand that she loved him like that too.

She finally settled on, "Yes."

-----

"Do you think they're done yet?" Jenny asked.

Gibbs stood. "Let's find out."

Walking into the room, they saw Tony sitting up on Ziva's bed, his arm around her shoulders. Her head was resting on him, and his chin lay on the top of her head. They were perfectly silent, but not asleep. They smiled, and Jenny was struck by how in sync they were, how perfect they looked with each other.

"We have another announcement," Tony said, face breaking into a grin.

Gibbs groaned and shot Jenny a pleading look. "Jen, they're trying to give me a heart attack."

Do I get extra reviews for being a guest writer? :P Hope I did okay in even coming close to matching up with this amazing fic.