I sincerely hope that Abby is not angry with me. It is not as if I enjoy keeping secrets from her. And this one was imperative for the safety of others and, more importantly, her safety. Besides, Gibbs made me swear and she would not want me to break my word to him for any reason. At least, I do not think she would...
Ziva swerved into the far right lane, receiving several glares, multiple rude gestures, and a cacophony of horn blares. Ziva blithely ignored the clamor, used to such reactions to her driving, and skillfully parallel parked her Mini Cooper. A few minutes later, Ziva emerged from the florists carrying 13 black roses in an intricate Gothic vase.
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Arriving back at their house, Ziva placed the flowers on the mantel above the fireplace that had sold her on the house and walked into the kitchen to begin artfully laying out the take-out that she would be serving.
When she heard a squeal of delight from the living room, she carefully sat down the knife she was using to carve the Peking duck and turned around to receive Abby's ever-enthusiastic embrace.
After kissing Ziva on both cheeks, Abby held her at arms length and looked at her suspiciously.
"What are the flowers for?" Abby asked suspiciously.
"I love you. And..."
"Yes?"
"Well, I hope you do not become angry with me. I do not like keeping secrets from you and this is a big one."
"Oh," responded Abby flatly.
"But," Ziva cut in, "I kept it for good reason. You were safer not knowing and reducing the number of people who are aware of a confidential operation reduces the risk of it being leaked exponentially..."
"You don't trust me to keep a secret?!"
"Of course I do, Ahuvati. But there was a chance, until quite recently, that those who knew any details were in danger of being tortured for their knowledge. There is no way I put you in danger like that. And, Ahuvati, Gibbs made me swear not to tell anyone, even you."
"Okay," Abby replied with a shrug.
"Really? I wanted to tell you but..."
Abby smiled brilliantly and drew Ziva back into her arms. "I would never, ever want you to break a promise you made to Gibbs, cher," she said into Ziva's hair. "And yeah, I'm a little annoyed, but not at you."
Ziva leaned back slightly to give Abby an inquisitive look.
"I'm 98% annoyed because someone knows a secret that I don't know and I hate not knowing everything. You know how nosy I am."
Ziva smiled back at Abby, rolling her eyes at the self-deprecation.
"And the other 2% is with Gibbs. You, I'm perfectly fine with."
Abby kissed a very relieved Ziva and darted back to the living room to find the perfect place for the roses.
As Ziva turned back to her food arranging, she heard an indistinct "Oh yeah, thanks for the flowers!" from the living room, causing her to burst into laughter at Abby's slightly distracted enthusiasm.
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The guests trickled in slowly. McGee arrived first with a bottle of white wine, a Berry Mango Madness for Ziva, and a light blue baby blanket with a teddy bear head attached to the top.
"Timmy!" Abby scolded gently, "you shouldn't bring gifts every time you come over. You'll break the bank. And you've already bought so much for the baby I'm afraid it will drown in toys."
"But," interrupted Ziva after eagerly slurping down a bit of her smoothie, "the baby does approve of you bringing it Berry Mango Madness whenever you want to."
McGee grinned and Abby shook her head, taking the wine to chill while Ziva tossed the blanket into the growing pile of baby supplies in the office. (Gibbs still stubbornly refused to allow them to so much as open the door to the nursery, but would periodically transfer the pile of presents from the office to the mystery nursery.
Next came Ducky, quickly followed by an eternally nervous Jimmy Palmer. Tony waltzed in 20 minutes later, expecting to be the last to arrive and looking around expectantly for a clue as to what the mystery revelation would be.
"I beat Gibbs!"
"I sincerely doubt that you could," Ziva answered wryly.
Abby rolled her eyes at Ziva, knowing full well that she understood what Tony had said.
"But he lives next door and he's always here first."
"Relax, Tony," Ziva said. "Gibbs is intentionally the last to arrive tonight."
As she was saying this, the door opened to reveal Gibbs and... Jenny Shepphard!
"You're dead!" Abby screamed as she launched herself at Jenny for a hug.
"Actually, I'm feeling quite well," Jenny replied with a smile.
Ziva stepped forward to detach Abby, breaking the shocked stillness of the room. Soon everyone was surrounding Jenny, hugging her, voices overlapping with a plethora of questions. Finally, Gibbs whistled for silence and herded the unruly group into the dining room.
As they served themselves the Chinese feast that Jenny had requested for her welcome back meal, Jenny told her story.
"After La Grenouille's death there was an increase in conversation between arms dealers. Apparently, they were upset by my pursuit of him and believed I was responsible for his death. In response, they effectively put out a hit on me. So, with the assistance of Gibbs, certain members of the upper echelons in the American intelligence community, and Mossad, I disappeared for a while."
"You faked your own death!"
Tony spun around to face Ziva. "She said Mossad! You knew about this?!"
Ziva held up her hands defensively. "Not initially. When we came back from Miami, I sincerely thought she was dead. My reactions were legitimate. I found out when I went back to Israel. Part of my mission was to resolve some of the... issues for my father."
"So you are safe now, dear?" asked Ducky, concern written on his face.
"Yes," Ziva responded. "Mossad has... eliminated the problems and officially released Jenny from their protective custody, which they would not do unless she were truly safe."
"Like they care," Tony murmured.
"Of course they do not care," Ziva answered evenly. "But it would be embarrassing for them if they could not handle a simple protection detail."
Realizing that Ziva would not appreciate any further questions regarding Mossad or its methods, Abby redirected the conversation with a question of her own. "So what's going to happen now? Are you back at NCIS?"
"SecNav and Vance were both in on the operation from the beginning so I will resume my position as director. Vance will remain her for a month or so to catch me up on what has occurred in my absence and then he will return to his previous post."
The most pressing questions having been addressed, the conversation shifted to lighter subjects as the group caught Jenny up on all that she had missed, in terms of cases solved, social developments, and gossip. Jenny also regaled them with tales of her most recent trip to Israel.
When they had finished the meal, the group moved to the living room to enjoy their fortune cookies and the wine McGee brought (Ziva refraining from the second part of the imbibements, of course). Abby and Gibbs remained behind to clean up but finished quickly enough to be subjected to almost half of Tony's commentary on the fortunes with the traditionally "in bed" added to them. Gibbs' presence cut Tony short, to everyone's relief, and the conversation turned to movies.