04:57. The red numbers glared at him, reinforcing the ridiculous hour that it was. Tony had barely slept, the words which had been said, or rather yelled, just a few hours previous echoing in his ears. He was well aware that he and Ziva had their differences, but regardless of how long the two had known each other, they had never argued like that before. His tired eyes stared up at the ceiling as he silently went over the events in his mind, still unable to grasp exactly how it had got so out of hand. All he had wanted to do was to try and keep things stable, for him to take over the stressful responsibility of telling everybody and dealing with those consequences but perhaps keeping such a secret had wrecked the magic which had once been present.
God, I'm such an idiot! He scolded himself mentally, trailing his fingers through his messy bed hair. If only he had just been straight and tried not to be the hero, then maybe question marks wouldn't be hanging over their relationship. What if the two weren't able to move past this? What if they wouldn't be able to raise their child together and they'd be like one of those divorced couples who just shared their child? That couldn't happen. At the start he had made a promise and DiNozzo's didn't break promises. He completely accepted that this, his family, was his responsibility and he wasn't going to let one argument put that future in jeopardy.
Ignoring the early hours of the morning, Tony swung himself out of bed, changing into something reasonably smart but which was also comfortable enough for the long haul flight ahead of them. His bag was already packed for their overseas trip, containing all the necessities he'd need for however long the team were going to spend abroad. Scooping the khaki coloured bag up into his hand, he swung it over his shoulder and, on the way to the front door, grabbed his car keys. He only had about two hours before their flight was due to depart, leaving him only about an hour to try and patch things up. Leaving no time for coffee or breakfast, Tony pulled open the front door, giving a quick scan of his apartment to check he had everything before he stepped out into the hallway, pulling the door closed behind him.
Thankfully, the streets were reasonably quiet; the light rain and early hour putting most citizens off wandering outside. With his eyes focused entirely on the road, Tony took the silence inside his car to gather his thoughts. How was he ever going to make things up to Ziva? He knew that he'd said some pretty mean things, things which he never meant to say, but he couldn't turn back the clock no matter how hard he wanted to. All he could hope for was that the two partners would be willing to forget about it and move on before they headed overseas, which is where they'd run into the real problems. Hiding it from Gibbs was hard enough, but when they were all going to be in such close proximity for weeks, working with Mossad and therefore, Ziva's father, it was going to be twice as hard.
By the time Tony had pulled his car over to the kerb, the light rain had turned into the beginnings of a torrential downpour, causing Tony to run inside Ziva's apartment building for shelter. Shaking off the rain which had managed to soak his hair, he started his ascent of the staircase which lead up to her apartment. Soon, Ziva's front door came into view and the knowledge of what could possibly happen next caused Tony's heart rate to increase a little, a release of adrenaline coursing through his system. Taking a deep breath, Tony raised his hand, lightly knocking on the door.
With it now being nearly half five in the morning, Ziva had been up for quite a while, making regular and precise checks as to what she had packed for their trip abroad. 'Trip' was definitely putting it lightly. Somehow, she had managed to focus her mind on what was going to happen over the next few weeks, how she'd handle being back in her home town and, most importantly, how she would reveal to her father that she was with child. There were so many reasons as to why this situation would be unacceptable in her father's eyes. Placing a hand over her stomach, Ziva let out a slow breath, not allowing the worrying thoughts to cloud her mind too much. The sound of a knock at the door echoing through her apartment soon caught her attention and, after putting her final item of clothing into her backpack, Ziva headed through her apartment, pulling open the front door. Her big brown eyes soon caught onto the familiar emeralds of her partner, her breath nearly hitching in his throat in surprise, "I…I thought we were meeting at the airport?" She questioned, finding it was the only thing she could say, the memories of their heated argument soon coming back to the front of her mind.
"You and I both know we need to talk before we leave," Tony commented quietly.
Ziva nodded slightly, stepping aside so that he could come in, "We'd better,"
Stepping inside, Tony quietly closed the door behind him. "Zi, what I really want to say is that I'm sorry." He knew it was the obvious response, but something he sincerely meant, "I said a lot of things that I didn't mean last night, and I don't want that to affect the future we could have."
Turning to face Tony, Ziva looked to the ground before gathering the courage to allow her eyes to meet with his, "You lied to me, Tony," Ziva reiterated, still a sense of hurt in her voice.
Tony sighed softly, "I know, Zi, I know and I know I shouldn't have. I just didn't want to stress you out before the appointment but you're right, I should have told you. Just with all the stuff we have to sort out, I thought it'd be best not to say anything but now I know that that was the wrong decision," Taking a baby step forward, Tony gently took her hand into his own as his eyes caught a hold over her own. "We're having a baby, Zi,"
"You don't say…" Ziva mumbled beneath her breath.
"I know, still hasn't quite set in, but remember what I said to you in that elevator all those weeks ago? I said that I'd stand by you, no matter what happened. So what if we had an argument last night, it doesn't change a thing for me. Maybe you were right last night, that if this had happened any time before, maybe I would have been a jerk and ran a mile but not with you, Zi. That's never even entered my mind,"
Ziva slowly felt her angered emotions melt away, his words gradually setting her mind at ease. "Why?" It had been a question which she had asked the previous night, one which still remained unanswered. She had gone over all the possibilities, whether it was positive or negative, she had gone over each of them meticulously.
As soon as the question was vocalised, Tony knew exactly what was coming next. The answer had been going round and round in his mind all night, the words echoing endlessly. "Because…" he started, a slow breath escaping his lips as his soft sea-green eyes met with her own brown orbs, "Because I love you,"
Ziva felt her heart nearly skip a few beats upon hearing his reasoning. Not once had that reason came into her head when she had been pondering it over, and to hear it vocalised sincerely made a ball of emotion gather in her throat. Whether it was out of surprise, relief, mutual feelings, she didn't know. "What?" she stuttered, gazing up at him in utter shock.
"I love you," He repeated, actually saying it making the three words hit home. "These three little words are all that I have to describe this whole situation. You and I have known each other for, what, nearly six years now and we know more about one another than I ever thought we would. I know your past, your deepest fear…heck, I even know the secret ingredient to your recipe. Everything about you, I love and now that you are carrying our baby, I can't even begin to describe how much that means for me, for us and for our little one,"
Hearing his gentle words caused salty tears to well up before her chestnut eyes, threatening to fall. Reaching up a hand, Ziva quickly wiped them away before returning her attention to her partner, his words still echoing in her ears, "I…I love you too, Tony…" she managed to say, her voice much softer than usual. "I..I'm so sorry for what I said yesterday, I really am. I just.." It was all she could say before the tears slowly fell onto her cheeks, the emotions overwhelming her briefly.
Pulling her gently into his embrace, Tony wrapped his arms around her slender body, pressing a kiss to her temple, "Hey, hey, it's okay. Don't worry about, I know. That was yesterday and it's all in the past now, right?"
Slowly nodding, Ziva pulled back a fraction, still maintaining as much contact as she could as she wiped the tears from her cheeks, "Right,"
"But there's still one thing left to do before we leave," Tony mentioned, quietly, not wanting to ruin their moment. "We still have to…"
"…Tell Gibbs and McGee," Ziva finished, nodding her head softly in agreement. Glancing down for a brief moment, she rested her hand back over her slightly swelled stomach, "We can tell them at the airport, before we depart. As for when we get there, that is a different story,"
A small smile crept across Tony's lips, placing his hand to cover her own, "Together, we'll tell them."