Chapter 17

"Oh, come on boss, I've only just got home, I need to cook Ziva dinner."

"I've already called Abby and told her to get over to your place." Ziva resented the fact that it seemed everyone believed she needed 24 hour care, especially at night. When ever Gibbs called Tony out after hours he always seemed to call Abby over for a while. She hated the fact she needed to be 'babysat' especially at night.

"But,"

"No Buts DiNozzo, we've got work to do."

"Fine, I'm on my way." Tony closed his phone. "I'm so sorry, I gotta go."

"I heard."

"But Abby will be here…" there was a knock at the door. "I guess now."

"You know, I do not need a baby sitter."

"Come on, if anything happened while I was on out on a case, Gibbs would never forgive himself, just let him do it. It's kinda sweet you know." Tony's voice became louder as he moved down the hall to answer the door so she could still hear him. He knew he was using Gibbs as an excuse, he didn't like her being alone too much either. "hey Abbs." He said looking at the gothic scientist as he opened the door.

Ziva heard from the bedroom. "You know where she is."

"Wow Tony, wish more men would greet me at their door looking like that." Tony just smirked a little proud of himself. "you been working out?"

"Well actually...."

"Ziva!" Abby interrupted him as she hurried down the hall. "So what movie we pulling from the DiNozzo Approved Watching Guide tonight?" She asked, a hint of scepticism in her voice, as she bounced on the bed next to Ziva taking Tony's spot.

"I was thinking The Professional. I need a little action."

"I'll make sure I'll be home early if thats the case!!" Tony eagerly taunted while he looked through his wardrobe for a fresh shirt that worked his pants.

"Come on Tony, not in front of the kids!" Abby joked.

"Kids?" Tony looked at her strangely.

Ziva turned to her looking at her on red alert. Had Abby just slipped in the worst possible way? She wondered. This was likely to be a disaster.

"You know… Caramel and me, McGee too when he's here."

"Caramel? It's Nougat Abs!" Ziva breathed a sigh of relief. Abby had not only covered her tracks, she'd made him divert onto a new path of distraction with the caramel thing.

"I like Caramel better." Abby retorted. "So what's for dinner Caramel?" Abby said directing the question at Ziva's stomach, "Pizza again?" Tony looked at Ziva with a look of comical disgust.

"Healthy Abby, the doc says we have to eat all the right things. There's fish and broccoli in the fridge and peas in the freezer." He plucked a black shirt with purple stripes on it off a coat hanger and started to pull it over his arms.

"Come on DiNozzo."

"Fish and steamed Broccoli Abby."

"But Caramel doesn't like fish, she/he kicks like crazy every time I feed it to Ziva."

"Tough! It's good for you!... wow, I like the sound of that, I'm going to be such a good dad!"

"You're going to be a great dad." Ziva confirmed. "Just promise me you won't freak out about stuff."

"Who me? Freak out? It's not the DiNozzo way." Abby and Ziva shared a look at that statement, they knew he'd be completely freaked when he found out that there were two buns in Ziva's oven. Tony lent down and kissed Ziva on the head, then on the tummy, "No artichokes and sour cream in the bed tonight." Tony finished doing up the buttons on his shirt and tucked it into his pants.

"Oh, but that's Nougat's favourite!" Abby joked.

"Glad to see your back on board with the Nougat name. HEY," He called as he moved down the hall, "great idea on a name. Humphrey."

"Humphrey?" Abby protested

"As in Humphrey Bogart… Humphrey Nougat. Go before you get Gibbs slapped into the next your child's teenage years!" his wife told him.

"Kinda fitting though, Bogart was a good navy man! Add The Maltese Falcon to that list. Hey, I'm proud of you Ziva! Love you, Thanks Abs! Behave yourselves." He yelled down the hall as he left the apartment.

"Proud of you?" Abby asked Ziva.

"The Bogart reference. He gets impressed when I get his movie references. I like the way you were able to side track him with the Caramel thing."

"side track him? Hey I think it's kinda cool, Nougat and Caramel, I like those chocolate bars!"

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By the time Tony arrived at the exceedingly dodgy looking bar Gibbs and McGee were already hard at work investigating the crime scene, even Duck and Palmer had made it there before he had. He rushed over to Gibbs. "Sorry Boss, I…"

"She alright?"

"Yeah, boss, Abbys with her."

"Good, looks like the work of our terrorist. Fits his MO."

Tony looked at the crime scene. There was a dead Naval Officer on the floor, from the look of the room there had been quite a scuffle. "Start bagging and tagging DiNozzo." Tony moved around the body picking up all the items that could possibly have any clues that would help them pin down their terrorist. He bagged several glasses most of them had traces of bourbon in them, surprisingly one didn't, though Tony couldn't work out what had been in it from sniffing the glass, he bagged it, hoping that Abby would be able to determine what was in it back at the lab. Near where the glasses had sat he found a stray hair on the green felt poker table, he used the tweezers to safely extract it. He found it surprising that there were no cards on the table or poker chips, but assumed who ever it was didn't want to leave any finger prints. He managed to find a few drops of blood on the floor, he summoned McGee over to him to take a photo of it before he took it as a sample.

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"I know your behind me." Abby said without turning to look.

"What you got Abs?"

"don't you want to know how I knew you were there?"

"I assume it's because you've got something for me."

"Well yeah, but I also saw you in the reflection of the plasma." She looked at Gibbs wanted to see some sort of reaction from Gibbs, instead she just saw his look and decided to get on with it. "I was able to get some finger prints of the glasses, I've matched one set to our dead officer, I'm running the other now. The bad news is the other print has been partially rubbed off so it's a little tricky. BUT. I did find some saliva on the glass so I'm running that as well as the DNA from the hair and blood Tony found. Could take a while to get a result though."

"Let me know Abs." Gibbs went to leave the then turned around. "Ziva alright when you left?"

"She was falling asleep in front of Independence Day."

"Thanks Abs. I know you're pulling double shifts at the moment looking after her so much."

"Gibbs… I don't mind, besides I'm getting all sorts of dirt on Tony."

"I owe you plenty of caf-pows for this"

"Can I trade a caf-pow for you referring to the baby as Caramel instead of Nougat?"
"Arh Jeeze Abby. That's…"

Gibbs was interrupted by the computer beeping. They looked to see what the partial finger prints could tell them.

They both stared at the screen. Stunned. There in front of them was the last photo they ever expected to see. They would have expected to see Tony up there more then this person. After all it had been about time for his annual framing. No, this was something they'd never expected, they slowly turned to look at each other before Abby finally broke the silence. "Gibbs? Are you seeing Ziva on that screen?"