Chapter Ten
Epilogue

Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

He didn't imagine that he'd cry, but there were tears streaming down his cheeks.

Holding his daughter in his arms felt exactly like it had done the very first time – warm, a comforting weight, and an overwhelming surge of love. He'd not had the beauty of holding Shai after he'd entered the world, but with Rhia he had. He'd held her first, kissed her forehead even though parts of her were still slimy. Now, he held her even though she felt more fragile than ever, although perhaps that was his interpretation. She was stronger than she had been in a week, more durable yet still thinner in a way that made him want to stuff her full of chocolate cake and pizza.

That wasn't why he was crying though.

He hadn't cried when the nurse had woken him up from the night he had spent at her crib side to tell him that her heartbeat was strong and that her breathing was getting stronger. He hadn't cried when they told him that she was beginning to wake up. He hadn't cried when she had opened her tiny eyes before he had the chance to rush and get his wife to be there too. He hadn't cried when she had grumbled uncomfortably for a moment. He hadn't cried when she had looked at him and opened up her arms.

But he had cried when she whispered 'Daddy' as he drew her into his arms.

She'd never said 'daddy' before. Always dada. Dada was the favourite word. Ziva would always be Momma, whether Rhia was a year old or thirty years old, but Dada had been itching to turn into Daddy for weeks now. And now it had happened. Considering the circumstances and the lengths he had gone to in protecting his children – and what he'd needed to do to his own father in order to be the better father himself – it had sprung tears from his eyes before he'd even realised they were forming.

"Daddy's here," he repeated. "Daddy's got you."

He'd wanted to take her to Ziva, to show her how their daughter was not only alive, but awake and asking for her mother, and saying 'daddy', but the nurses insisted that Rhia was not to leave the room. So instead, he'd gone down to Shai's room where his wife was no doubt sleeping. However, she was wide awake and watching their sleeping son, who'd had his colour return to his cheeks finally.

"Morning," he greeted as he walked into Shai's room. Ziva turned, showing that she'd barely been awake long enough to recognise the time.

"Morning," she repeated. "It is morning."

"And a very good morning it is," he announced, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Guess who's pretty eyes I saw this morning?" he asked her with a knowing smile.

"Rhia," she breathed. "Is she awake?"

"And asking for her momma," he nodded.

Ziva jumped up and faced him. "Oh my goodness, Tony..." she threw herself into his arms, and they held each other tightly. He felt the tears of relief as they soaked through his chest. The force with which they clung to one another should have caused some pain, but it did nothing but give them more strength. The drive which had been pushing them forwards for the past few days had been hanging on by a thread, and now that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, the thread was already wavering. The true exhaustion which they'd previously forbidden themselves to feel was setting in and even though moments like this reminded them that this was almost over, they still had to remember that they weren't at the end yet.

Keeping his arms around her, he let out a sigh. "She's ok," he assured her. "She's ok now."

She made to move away from him, towards the door, but she hesitated. "Shai..." He didn't envy her that moment. He'd had it himself. Though he was pleased his daughter had woken up, he felt almost guilty for being so happy when he held her when their son was still very sick down the hall. Shai had fallen into a deep sleep after vomiting up the last of the poison in his body, and the doctors hadn't been able to wake him up to get him to drink something, so he was back on an IV drip. They weren't concerned too much though, saying that his body was under a lot of strain and was just allowing time for him to get back to normal, but it still concerned the parents.

"I'll stay with him," he told her, turning her back towards the door. "Go see our little girl."

Ziva stepped into the sterile room which a pounding heart. She'd felt so many awful emotions in this room that week, and the anticipation at feeling something good there felt almost impossible to comprehend. Robbed of the chance to hold her daughter for what felt like a year, her arms itched to take her little girl in her arms and envelope her in the adoration she should have been awake to receive everyday she'd been here. She hadn't seen her little girl's eyes since the doctors had forced them to close, something which had simulated death way too much for her to bear. She wanted to look into those dark eyes, smooth down the dark curls, and for ten seconds, just imagine they were at home and everything was fine.

Soon, she assured herself. Soon, it shall be.

She approached the crib bed and placed her hands on the rails. Inside, was her tiny girl, wide awake, as alert as if nothing had happened and she were simply waiting to be taken from her bed and dressed for the day. She made no attempt to stop tears from dropping onto her cheeks as she looked to a nurse, who indicated that it was ok for her to pick up her daughter, and at that her heart seemed to melt. She didn't need to think about the natural action of lifting her child into her arms, and as soon as the permission had been given her arms had dropped of their own accord, hands bringing up the child before the girl had fully noticed she was there.

And then they were face to face, little Rhia held before her mother with matching eyes and matching hair mirroring one another. There was a small pause before Rhia reached out both her hands, placing them on Ziva's cheeks in an exploratory way and mumbling to herself before saying that beautiful word that made her heart swell and tears fall faster.

"Momma," she chirped, patting Ziva's cheek for good measure at the success of correctly identifying her mother. "Momma. Hi."

Ziva laughed a little despite herself. "Hi, my sweet girl," she smiled back, kissing her daughter before holding her tightly and taking her over to the couch in the corner of the room.

She would have contently held her there for hours, days, even, but Rhia was having none of that. Rhia was alert now, and she could see the shining jewels tha attracted her attention every day. Ziva was used to keeping her daughter from grabbing her wedding ring, and more than used to spotting that fascinated look in the girls eye when she saw something that she wanted. So instead of resting and cuddling, they sat on the couch and explored one anothers hands, they poked one another on the nose, and they sung, or in Rhia's case mumbled, songs that filled the previously despair filled room with a little more light.

Tony had been sat at his son's bedside for twenty minutes when the change happened. A breath that sounded different to all the others, more unsettled, more irregular - the kind of breath you heard when he was slowly waking himself up, but more than 90% of him was still clinging to sleep. It didn't surprise him too much, because he'd been hoping for it, but he still jumped up from the chair and perched on the edge of the bed over his son.

"Shai? Shai, can you hear me?"

"Hmm.." he mumbled back, moving his head as if to turn and go back to sleep.

"You've got to wake up now, Shai. That's it, listen to my voice."

"No school..." he mumbled.

Tony smiled, laughing under his breath. "Ok, no school," he agreed, "but you still need to open your eyes for Daddy."

"Dad," he recognised, and took a deep breath as his eyes opened. "Still bedtime," he complained tiredly.

"Not anymore, little guy," he said, smoothing down his son's unruly curls. "It's morning now."

Shai sighed in exhaustion and opened his arms up to Tony, who carefully moved him into his arms. Shai put his head lazily on his father's shoulder and relaxed in his arms. "Where's Momma?"

"Momma's gone to see Rhia," he told him softly.

"Is Ree-Ree ok?" he asked, worry creeping into his tired voice.

"Yeah, bud, she's ok," he assured him. "You're both ok now."

"Is she really ok? She's not sick anymore?"

Shai had a concern from the moment he knew that Rhia was sick as well that it was somehow his fault for being ill first. "She's really ok," Tony told him. "The doctors gave her the same medicine that they gave you, and she's not crying anymore, and she's not sick anymore."

"Good," he decided.

There was a small silence, and Tony felt that Shai needed more convincing, so he nudged him gently with his shoulder. "She smiled at me earlier," he told her.

"Yeah?" Shai asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Real big smile. Pretty."

"Pretty like Momma," Shai agreed, sighing contently.

"Yeah, our pretty girls," Tony agreed.

They contently held one another for a while longer, eventually one of the doctors noticed that Shai was awake during the morning rounds and removed the IV from his arm once he had proven he could drink some water without throwing it back up again. This left them able to sit wherever they cared, and they settled for sitting by the window where Shai could see outside.

"Well, this is an improvement..."

They both looked towards the door where Gibbs was stood with two coffees in his hands. "Hi, boss," Tony smiled.

Shai grinned at him, the two matching smiles startling the elder man for a moment. "Hi, boss," the boy mimicked his father, as he often did.

"First I see a pretty little girl awake and happy, and now I see my favourite little guy up and awake as well." He admired, as he came over to the window where they were and sat down on a chair by theirs. Shai decided to swap himself for the coffee as Tony took the drink, and moved himself onto Gibbs' lap with a practiced ease.

"I feel all better now," Shai informed him. "Daddy made me all better."

"That's because you have the best dad in the whole world," Gibbs told the boy, who nodded firmly to confirm this. He then looked up at Tony. "Ziva just told me the good news."

Tony smiled. "The news that Shai's awake, that Rhia's awake, or surprise number three?"

"Number three," Gibbs smiled. "Whoever up there decided that there aren't enough DiNozzo's in the world needs a smack on the head, but if they turn out like these two, we can't complain too much."

"Oh my god," Tony suddenly mumbled. "Ziva doesn't know that Shai's awake."

"Sir? Sir, what are you doing?"

Ziva looked up from where she had been entertaining her baby girl with a game of pat-a-cake for the fifteenth time in a row where she heard a nurse coming down the hall sounding distressed. Sure enough Tony's voice followed afterwards.

"You heard the kid, he wants to see his sister."

"He can't leave his room..."

"My son is feeling better, he's off the IV, my daughter is feeling better and also off the IV. My kids are usually only apart for school hours and they've been separated most of the week. He just wants to see his baby sister."

And with that, Tony walked into the room with Gibbs at his shoulder and Shai carried on his hip. Ziva gasped with relief at how alert her son looked, compared to how deeply he was sleeping not only an hour ago, and Tony went over to the couch where they were seated. Rhia chirped an endless stream of "Daddy, daddy," as he sat down until the children were swapped in their arms and Shai curled up to his mother.

Gibbs stood in the doorway, not wanting to intrude but finding it hard to stop watching as the family melded together as they should be. Tony's arm settled around his wife's shoulder, her head dropping to the gap in the corner of his neck as it so often did when she was exhausted beyond relief, but her eyes remained soft and aware as she watched her children. Shai made sure he was fully in his mother's embrace before leaning his arms out and joining his sister in a hand game that no one in the room could understand but the two giggling children. The parents shared a brief kiss before settling comfortably against one another, oblivious to anyone else in the room but their children.

Hours later, they remained there. Doctors came to them to complete their hourly checks and while recommending that they might be more comfortable in their beds, no one wanted to move from the couch. The children fell asleep in their laps, Shai bundled between them with his head leaning across Tony's lap and Rhia lying against Ziva's chest. In the quiet of the moment as night had begun to fall, the two parents breathed yet another sigh of relief.

"Are you ok?" Tony asked his wife softly.

"Me?" she asked, with a soft nod. "I am fine."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "You look so exhausted."

"So do you," she smiled back at him. "I am just so glad this is all over."

He nodded, and kissed her. "I love you," he mumbled against her lips. "I love you, and I love our family."

"And your family loves you too," she assured him,settling aginst him with a sigh. "I would love to leave here and never return."

"Me too," he agreed. "We've seen enough hospitals in our lifetime, but we'll be back here in nine months," he reminded her.

"But that is for a good reason," she pointed out.

And when little Aaron arrived in the world, eight months later (earlier by Tony's count, but right on time by Ziva's, he found that he had found the heart to replace the photo on his desk of Shai holding Rhia, this time with the frame containing his eldest son showing his only daughter how to hold their baby brother correctly.

And that image would be the one that he kept with him even when his first grandchild was placed in his arms.

END.

A/N: I know it's taken me a long time to complete this one, but I hope you've enjoyed it :)