I do not own NCIS. I also am not in possession of knowledge as to who precisely is the father of the twins. It just doesn't seem worth the time it would take to figure that out. Ironically, I'm reading The Scarlet Letter at the moment. Interesting combination.

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Ziva still held her precious bundle against her chest when Ari pulled over near the hospital. The baby boy fussed in his sleep, waving his hands in the air. Ziva whispered something to him in Hebrew, as if trying to reassure him that she was doing this because she loved him.

Ari turned the car off and to his sister. "You absolutely sure about this?" Ziva looked up at him, eyes swimming, then nodded. Ari hugged her for a moment.

"Can you?"

Ari stared at her as she held out the blanket-wrapped infant.

"I don't think I can just walk in there and…" Tears threatened to fall again.

Kissing her on the cheek, Ari gently took his nephew in his arms. As he did so, part of the blanket fell away. He tucked it back in, then stopped as he saw Ziva's stitching. He raised his eyebrows, a finger on the messy thread.

Ziva shrugged. "I wanted him to have a name. And it's not like anybody would get him confused with you, you know."

She kissed her fingers and pressed them to her son's cheek.

"Goodbye, my sweet Ari."

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"You find anything yet, McSearching?"

McGee rolled his eyes, annoyed. "I told you, no. Abby's more likely to have something with that DNA search, so why don't you go check with her?"

"I don't want to run into Gibbs and have to tell him that we have nothing."

"How about Gibbs' hand runs into you because you have nothing?"

Tony froze. McGee smirked at him. "Does Abby have anything?"

Gibbs walked over to his desk and plunked his coffee down near his computer, which appeared to be terminally crashing.

"No, not yet. And Tony, you are going to go help her with that."

Tony looked like he was going to argue, but decided better of it.

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Caf-Pow! in hand, Tony walked through the door to Abby's lab. "Gibbs said you wanted help?"

Abby turned to face him, her fingers still flying over the keyboard. Tony hesitated.

"Well, actually, he said I was going to go help you with… whatever it is you're doing."

A couple of keystrokes later, Abby got up, grabbed Tony's arm, and dragged him over to her computer.

"I'm running Ziva's DNA through foster care systems, trying to find a partial match, like, for instance, one you would find if she had a kid and gave it up. They usually keep records of each kid, so we should be able to find her baby if he or she ended up in foster care."

"Any luck yet?"

Abby sighed. "Well, not in the U.S. databases, but considering she was in Great Britain at the time, I've been checking their records. Of course, she could have given the baby to someone specific, in which case MiniZiva might not be in the system, but this is me, going with my best guess, trying to find Ziva's kid. I think we owe her that much."

"Actually, I've been thinking about that."

"How so?"

"Well, if the kid's happy, then we might just be disrupting that, and does the kid really deserve to have that happen? It might be better for him or her if we just let it go…"

"And if 'the kid' is not okay? We should at least check."

"Abby?"

She turned to look at him.

"Is there something you want to tell me?"

Abby hesitated, for once in her life showing indecision.

"I'm adopted."

Tony was startled. "How come you never mentioned this?"

Shrugging, she took a moment to reply. "I only found out a couple of months ago. I guess I didn't want to talk about it because we were focused on helping Ziva, but…" She shook her head, paused, and continued in a stronger voice. "I've been trying to figure out who my biological family is, and why they gave me up, but no dice yet. I want to know. And it's not like I don't love my brother, and my parents were great, but I still want to know where I came from. I think anybody would."

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Another kick.

Ziva pressed one hand to her precious bulge, feeling her children move inside her. She was seated in the stopped elevator, taking a moment to relax in the dark quiet. "I love you, little ones. Don't worry. Mommy's going to take care of you."

She wasn't sure why she hadn't told her team as soon as she found out about the babies. They deserved to know. They were her best (okay, only) friends.

They deserved to know she'd had a son once.

She still remembered the way baby Ari had felt in her arms right before her brother had taken him away. The two of them had never talked about that day, just like they'd never talked about their father, about his mother's death, about what was bothering him… She hadn't even managed to notice until she'd had to execute him.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she thought about her brother, her sister, her mother, her brother's mother, her son, her friends…

I hope little Ari's not dead. He can't be dead. He can't be.

Worse than her longing for her baby son was the thought that if she and Ari had run away with him, she might still have her brother. I miss him so much…

Finally, she got up, adjusting her sweatshirt so her babies were hidden. She flicked the power switch on the elevator.

And once again, it is time to put this mask on, because I can't handle what's underneath.

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Author's note: I hope this isn't too confusing. Let me know if you need anything clarified. I treasure your reviews.