I must admit that I myself am little surprised at the way that Palmer's starting to find his own voice inside of this whole series of stories... Just saying.

"Work a little harder," Delilah suggested. "You guys are seriously down to the wire here; time's of the essence."

"Tell him that," Ziva requested, nodding in Tony's direction.

Delilah shot him a look that had Tony demanding of Tim, "Did you tell her what we talked about earlier this week?"

"No!"

"Did you tell Abby? Because Abby would tell her."

"No, I didn't!" McGee insisted before saying calmly, "Listen, Tony, you tend to be a bit of an open book when it comes to how you feel about women; it's not hard to figure out that you like them both. I get that; I understand it completely. So why not just take a chance and give polygamy an honest try instead of being afraid of it? For someone who likes to call himself a ladies' man, I'm surprised that you're so scared of the idea."

"But… it's just so… unorthodox!" Tony protested. "And hard!"

Ziva slid down from the table, approaching Tony as she said, "And if there's any two things that Anthony DiNozzo is afraid of it's being different and working hard."

Tony's eyes snapped, and he actually heard himself say, "Has it ever occurred to you that maybe another problem here might be that I don't want to hurt you or Ellie? Polygamy is obviously something that's hard on the wives too."

"Tony," Ellie said evenly, making her approach. "If this was something that we weren't okay with, we never would've brought it up in a serious context like this."

"It is hard to see you and Ellie when you're being affectionate towards one another, yes," Ziva said. "I won't deny that, but has it ever occurred to you that Ellie and I just want to see you happy, even if that does mean you take both of us as your wives?"

"Who says that makes me happy?" Tony asked. "So far it's only served to stress me out!"

"No," Ellie answered, "That's not true. It only stresses you out when you over think it. When it's just you and I, or just you and Ziva, or just the three of us enjoying an evening doing something fun together – when you're not thinking about it, and just doing it – then you're happy. As a matter of fact, that's when you're honestly the happiest that I've ever seen you." She asked softly, "Do you want to know why I think that is?"

"Why?" he snapped.

"For one thing, because you've missed Ziva. I didn't realize it until I started paying attention after Michael died, but you were grieving like somebody's widower, and in the past two weeks, that has stopped."

Tony wanted to refute it, but he honestly knew that she was right on that point, so he kept his mouth shut, just pressing his lips into an even thinner line as Ziva took up with a different point.

"And here's another thing, Tony. You don't do well with repressed emotions. When you started getting to know Ellie, you started to fall for her, but you were bound and determined that no woman was ever going to put you through that again, so you kept your thoughts to yourself, and began to eat at you. This project gave you an outlet for that, and you were able to be a little more relaxed once you got your feelings for her off your chest."

"That's stupid!" he snapped, looking at both of them. "All of it is!"

"Then pick one, Tony." It was Palmer finally speaking, standing up straight and looking him frankly in the eye as he asked evenly, "Who do you love more, Ziva or Ellie?"

Tony's eyes darted wildly between Palmer, Ziva, and Ellie, before landing back on the man with glasses.

"You can't, can you?" Palmer asked softly. "Because as much as you love Ziva, and as much of a history as you share with her, Bishop is just as beautiful to you, and just as irreplaceable, and just as special. So you can't choose."

Tony slumped it defeat as he realized the truth of what was being flung at him from all directions.

"Do you want to know what I've found to be the most fascinating thing about these polygamous trios that all of us are in?" Tony looked at him wordlessly, and Palmer continued, "It's not that your relationship with one of the women doesn't work without the other woman there, it's that your relationship as a whole – as a family – works better with the three personalities in it. It isn't that without Abby, McGee and Agent Fielding wouldn't be able to make it – we all know better than that – but McGee and Agent Fielding are better people – the atmosphere in their house is lighter – with Abby in their family too. It's not that Breena and I can't raise Summer on our own, because we could, but having Anna around just makes it so much easier and less stressful. It isn't that you and Ziva couldn't figure out all your scuffles without Bishop there if you wanted to – because we all know better than that too – it's just that Bishop's a wonderful negotiator and voice of reason, and a buffer between the two of you in all your petty spats. It's not that these relationships between us and these women wouldn't work monogamously, it's that we've found that they work better – that they are better, that we are better – if they're polygamous. So what if it isn't orthodox; it's what works best for us. Maybe it's not for you – and if not, I'm sure that's fine – but it just seems stupid to me to throw away the one chance you'll ever have to find out just because you're afraid of finding that something that is different works well for you."

Palmer shrugged, glancing around himself, flushing a little in embarrassment as he seemed to remember the rest of the people in the room.

Tony sighed, knowing that once again, someone else had been right. Honestly, the way Palmer had just put it made sense – made it seem a little less weird then he still knew it was.

"Are you sure that you would be okay with this?" Tony asked carefully, looking to Ziva first for an answer.

She grinned at him, taking one of his hands as she said, "I'm sure."

Tony looked to the blonde at his other side, asking, "Ellie?"

"I'm sure," she answered, grasping his other hand.

He took a deep breath, searching both sets of eyes and seeing no hint of anything close to doubt – only some happiness and determination, and even a little relief.

He took a deep breath, squeezing both women's hand as he admitted what he had been fighting for the past week, but had just been dredging up the courage to admit, "Then I'm sure too."

Thus we come to the end of this story. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this! Reviews are my new best friend if you feel inclined to drop me one! Thanks!:)