A/N: Hello all! Thanks for being patient with me, and I apologize for the long wait! I promise to make it worth the wait, and I will make the best effort I can to update more regularly! I hope you enjoy this chapter though!
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any original characters.
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McGee was at his desk avidly checking John Davis' bank accounts for any signs of a possible affair. After Tony and Ziva had returned with the blood sample and suspicion of Marie, their theory of Marie murdering her husband due to an affair sounded more and more plausible. McGee had been sure that he would easily find a large withdrawal or anything to indicate an affair, but so far he had found nothing.
"Whatcha got for me?" Gibbs asked as he entered the bullpen. McGee looked quickly up at his boss, his mouth opening and hoping something suspicious would pop onto his screen.
"Checking Davis' bank records for signs of an affair," he replied. "Nothing so far." Gibbs sighed exasperatedly.
"DiNozzo?" he asked, turning toward his senior field agent.
"According to his credit card company, Davis canceled his card the day before he died," Tony replied. "It could be nothing."
"But it could be something," Gibbs countered. As Gibbs turned toward Ziva, his desk phone began to ring to Ziva's relief; she had not found anything yet either.
"Yeah, Gibbs," he answered. After listening for a few seconds, Gibbs hung his phone up and addressed his team. "Abby's got something." He turned and gestured for the team to follow him down to the scientist's lab.
Upon reaching the sliding doors, the team could hear loud rock music, as always, and saw Abby bustling around her machines. Abby jumped slightly when they entered and was obviously excited to tell them her news.
"What's up, Abbs?" Gibbs asked.
"Well, I-" Abby stopped as she looked at Gibbs' hand and realized it was empty.
"Abby?" Gibbs asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.
"Gibbs?" she returned, cocking an eyebrow of her own. She held his gaze until she felt uncomfortable with the signature Gibbs-stare and decided she would inquire about her missing Caf-Pow later. "I ran the test on the blood Tony and Ziva found at the Davis' house."
"Did you find a match?" Gibbs asked.
"I did," Abby nodded, typing into one of her machines and pulling up the positive match on her big screen. "The blood belonged to John Davis."
"You couldn't say that over the phone, Abby?" Gibbs asked. Abby looked slightly taken aback.
"I haven't got to do much for this case, Gibbs," she explained. "I feel like I'm out of the loop or something."
"You'll never be out of the loop, Abby," Gibbs smiled, holding back his laughter at the scientist's explanation.
"So then he wasn't killed at the pond," McGee observed.
"He was killed at home and then taken to the pond," Tony added thoughtfully.
"Either that or wounded," Gibbs pointed out.
"So let's assume Davis was having an affair with Crystal Klein," Tony began. "He charged all the evidence of the affair onto his credit card, paid off the balance, and canceled it."
"But his wife had already found out by then," Ziva continued. "They had an altercation, and one thing led to another...But how could she get his body to the pond by herself? Certainly he would be too heavy for Marie."
"Unless it was Shawn Klein," McGee suggested. "He had a lot of hatred toward Davis."
While they were piecing together different theories, Ziva's cell phone began to ring. Noticing it was Janice calling, she excused herself and stepped into the hallway while the men continued brainstorming and Abby listened intently.
"Marie Davis definitely couldn't move the body on her own," Tony agreed with what his wife had previously said. Gibbs nodded his agreement.
"Go to Klein's-" Gibbs was interrupted when Ziva rushed back into the lab, a panicked expression on her face.
"Ziva, what's wrong?" Tony asked worriedly.
"That was Janice," she began hurriedly. "She is at the hospital."
"The hospital?" Abby exclaimed. Ziva nodded.
"She was feeding them lunch and Aiden started choking-"
"Go," Gibbs ordered. Tony and Ziva nodded thankfully at him and started for the door.
"Thanks, boss," Tony called over his shoulder.
"Let us know how it goes!" Abby called as the elevator door closed behind them.
Tony drove very quickly to the hospital, speeding the entire way. They arrived at the emergency room within a matter of minutes and nearly ran inside the building. After turning a corner, they saw Janice down the hallway and hurried over to her.
"Janice!" Ziva exclaimed as they reached their babysitter. "What happened? Is he okay?"
"Aiden and Aaliyah were eating lunch. We were just having hotdogs, and I had cut them into bite-size pieces. They were eating in the living room and watching tv, and I was only in the kitchen. One of the pieces slid down Aiden's throat whole, and he started choking on it," Janice explained quickly with tears in her eyes.
"It was scary," Aaliyah piped in quietly from a chair against the wall in the hallway. Tony walked over to his daughter and knelt down in front of her, running a hand through her hair.
"Are you okay, baby girl?" he asked. Aaliyah pulled her knees up close to her chest and rested her chin on top of them.
"She was really shaken up by it," Janice said.
"Aiden was crying and coughing a whole lot," Aaliyah recalled. Tony pulled her into a hug and stood back up with his daughter in his arms.
"Aaliyah started calling for me, and I heard the commotion from Aiden, so I ran into the room and saw what was going on," Janice continued in an anxious voice. "Then I noticed he was choking, and out of instinct I put my finger in his mouth to try and push the piece of hotdog down his throat so he could breathe. I know you're not supposed to do that, but I just reacted!"
"Is he okay?" Ziva asked, the fear very prominent in her voice. Just then, as if to answer Ziva's question, a doctor came out of the room which they were standing in front of.
"Mr. and Mrs. DiNozzo?" he asked.
"Yes," Ziva replied quickly.
"I'm Dr. Hayes," the man introduced himself. "I'm happy to tell you that your son is doing just fine."
"Oh, thank God," Ziva breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "Can we go in now?"
"Of course," Dr. Hayes replied. Tony and Ziva thanked him and walked inside the room with Janice following.
"Mommy!" Aiden exclaimed from the bed. The nurse standing beside him looked up and smiled as they entered.
"He's doing fantastic," she smiled. "I'll go get your discharge papers ready, and you'll be good to go." The nurse politely left the room.
"I am so sorry that this happened," Janice said apologetically. Ziva pulled a chair next to the bed and pulled Aiden into her lap, wrapping him in a big hug.
"Accidents happen," she said reassuringly. "I am just glad that he is okay."
"So am I," Janice agreed. "I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if anything had happened to him."
"I know that," Ziva said. "Thank you for handling the situation so well."
Later that night, Tony and Ziva had called Gibbs to tell him that Aiden was okay and to let the rest of the team know. After tucking the kids in for the night, Tony was lying in bed when Ziva entered the bedroom. He could tell that Ziva was still stressed out over everything that was going on, especially the accident from earlier that day. Ziva let out a sigh as she crawled into bed next to her husband and closed her eyes, massaging her temples.
"You okay?" Tony asked her. Ziva was silent for a moment and sighed again before opening her eyes.
"This was a huge wake-up call today, Tony," she said. "We need to get the kids into pre-school."
"Zi, it was an accident; you said so yourself at the hospital," Tony pointed out. "It could have happened to anyone."
"But it happened to us," Ziva said. "I know Janice loves them, and they love her too, but we need to think about Aiden and Aaliyah here. I know that we've sort of been looking around, but we need to get serious about enrolling them somewhere."
"Honey, you're stressed. I think you just need to relax right now and be happy that everything turned out okay," Tony said.
"I am," Ziva replied. "But think about it, Janice was just in the other room and Aiden started choking. What happens if they all leave the apartment to go somewhere, and Janice looks away for a moment and one of them runs out into the street?"
"You don't really think that would happen," Tony stated.
"You never know what could happen," Ziva said. Tony sighed. He knew Ziva was still reacting out of fear, but he also knew she had a great point.
"Okay," he relented. "Tomorrow we will check out pre-schools. For real."
"Thank you," Ziva said, relief in her voice. Tony kissed her good night, and they quickly fell into a deep sleep.
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A/N: Well I hope you enjoyed it! Please remember to review!