A/N: the idea for the title and the list mentioned in this chapter aren't my own. They came from a book entitled, Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorist by Frank Burton

Epilogue: The call and The list

The piercing wails of three month old Kelly Talitha Gibbs split the early morning air. Ziva eyes snapped open and the sound registered in her ears. She glanced at her husband, who was still asleep, got up and made her way to her daughter's room. She opened the door just as the child let loose another ear splitting wail. Ziva reached the crib in three long strides, picked her daughter up and the child immediately quieted. "Shh, little one. Your Ima's here." She cooed, bringing the child to her shoulder and going to the rocking chair in one corner of the room. She sat, adjusted the child and opened her robe, exposing her left breast, which the baby latched onto hungrily.

"Now, little one, you're lucky that you didn't wake your Aba. He would have been ill tempered tomorrow and your poor uncle McGee would have had to deal with two angry Gibbs men. That wouldn't be fair to him, don't you think?" She asked, smiling warmly at the infant. But as usual, the child ignored her and focused on eating.

000

Terry woke and felt Ziva's side of their bed, but found nothing but sheets. He glanced at digital clock and saw it read 0500, or five in the morning in civilian speak. He threw back the covers and was about to get up, when his cell phone let out a low warble of vibration on wood. He grabbed off the nightstand and answered with a gruff, "Hello."

"Is this Special Agent Gibbs, Terence J., of the Naval Criminal Investigative Services?" A voice that was way too alert for the earlier hour asked.

Terry rubbed his face to wake himself before answering. "Yeah, what'd I win?"

Terry could tell the man on the other end of the line hadn't expected that answer. "Uh, I apologize for not explaining myself first, agent Gibbs. My name is Paul Morris; I'm the warden at FCC Terre Haute. You understand?"

Terry was silent for a minute as the words fell into place. "I understand. What do you have for me?"

"I was giving instructions to call you personally should prisoners 097865 and 097866 escape and/or be executed." Warden Morris said. "I'm calling to inform you that they were executed by lethal injection at 0105 and 0145, respectively."

Terry nodded, even though the man couldn't see him. "Thank you, Warden."

"You're Welcome, Agent Gibbs. Give my best to your family."

"I will." Terry said, and the line went dead.

He sat for a minute before hanging up the phone, then went to his desk, opened the middle drawer and removed a small notebook. It was worn and faded with the passage of time. He flipped through several pages filled with names and dates. The names were those of friends lost in combat, target that had been killed and targets that had yet to be killed. Several of the names had lines through them. Terry read took a moment to read some of them and remembered where he'd been when certain friends had died and how they died. Then he forced himself back to the present, flipped to the last page and wrote the date next to the last two names, then drew a line through the names. He stared at the names for a long minute, then closed the book and dropped it in the drawer. But try as he might, he'd couldn't let himself believe it was truly over until he'd done one thing. He went to the nursery, and stood in the doorway, watching his wife and youngest child. The fact that this moment had almost been snatched from him by people who were now dead was not lost on the battle hardened soldier. He stared for several minutes until Ziva felt him watching, looked up and smiled. "She ok?" He whispered, so as not to wake the now sleeping infant.

"Yeah, she's fine. Who was calling at this hour?"

Terry fidgeted for a minute before answering. "Paul Morris, Warden at Terre Haute Federal Prison." Terry said.

Ziva's eyes widened and she unconsciously tightened her grip on her daughter. "Are they?"

Terry looked at her and nodded in answer to her unasked question. "Yeah, they're dead. It's over."

They were silent for a moment before Ziva stood. "You want to hold her while I get ready?" She asked, smiling.

"Do you ever have to ask?" Terry said, sitting down in the rocker and taking the baby from his wife.

Ziva watched them for a moment, then went to get dressed. Terry heard the shower running a minute later and started the rocker with his foot. As the chair moved, he looked down at his baby girl. He thought of how much his life had changed in the last eighteen months. He had a wife, a son, and a daughter. A family he'd fight to the death and die for if necessary. He smiled as he looked at the sleeping child in his arms. Yeah, he thought. Life doesn't get any better than this.

000

Well, that's all folks. This is my last multichapter fic until I get my other stories finished, but that should be done by August and as I get them closer to completion, I might start another one. But rest assured I've got plenty of stories running around my head. Also, I plan to do a series of one shots feature the team as parents, so that'll have to do until I get time to focus on a multi-chapter fic. If you have any ideas for one shots you'd like to see, PM me and I'll see if I can make it happen.