"Your ribs are most certainly fractured, my dear" Doctor Mallard said as he gently prodded the bruised flesh of Ziva's side. The Israeli was sitting patiently on a milk crate in Ducky's Compartment, her shirt removed to give him easier access to her injuries. Natalia was sleeping peacefully in Gibbs arms as he stood in the doorway, watching with mild concern.

"I could have told you that, Ducky," Ziva responded drily.

"Yes, I am sure you have had your share of battered ribs in the past," Ducky remarked.

"What about her leg, Duck?" Gibbs interrupted.

"It does not appear to be broken, and her knee has full range of motion, even if it is a bit tender."

"Tender?" Gibbs said. "Duck, you saw her come in she could barely walk."

"Well, it is possible that a bit of nerve was damaged, which would account for the stiffness of movement."

"It is fine, Gibbs," Ziva said, giving her lover a pointed look. "I have had much worse."

"Even so my dear," Ducky replied, "it is going to swell quite a bit over the next few days. I recommend staying off of it as much as possible. If you'd like something for the pain—"

"I will pass, thank you," Ziva said shortly, moving to put her shirt back on. Her movements were abbreviated by the damage to her ribs, but she managed the task on her own nonetheless.

"Take the damn aspirin, Ziver," Gibbs ordered in exasperation. Ziva shot him a sharp glare.

"You mean waste it?" she rolled her eyes. "You and I both know that it will not do anything substantial with the pain, and we have so little of it that it would be irresponsible for me to use it." She stood. "I will pass," she reiterated. Her tone was final, and, as if for emphasis, she strode forward with only the slightest of limps. She held her arms out for the baby, whom Gibbs passed over without protest.

"That kid really has you wrapped around her finger doesn't she?"

Tony stood in the doorway, lounging casually against the wall. Ziva spared him the briefest of glances before checking that Natalia did not awaken as she settled in the Isreali's arms. A slight grimace flitted across Ziva's features as she reclaimed possession of the baby, but it disappeared before Gibbs could do or say anything about it.

"But you know," the Italian continued, "I can't really say I blame you. I mean, she's just so darn cute. So cute, in fact, that I took it upon myself to go see if we had any supplies for the little tyke. And you'll never guess what I found." Gibbs scrutinized the younger man, taking in the self-satisfied grin and twinkling eyes. Whatever the idiot had discovered, Gibbs decided, it was good news. He waited semi-patiently for Tony to continue. As with all of Dinozzo's successes, he did not have to wait long for the man to spill his guts.

"Mark and his boys cracked open Sector Four a couple of weeks ago, and found not one, but two containers of baby supplies. Formula, diaper rags, clothes… you name it. No cribs or anything, but the necessities are all there. I'd say you're good for, oh, the next eighteen months or so." Tony's pride in himself was palpable, and Gibbs found himself grinning in reaction. It didn't help his steely resolve that Ziva's own expression had lit up with silent delight at her partner's words as well.

"Thank you for checking, Tony," she said softly. Mild surprise crossed Dinozzo's expression at the tenderness of her words, but he recovered quickly.

"My pleasure," he responded congenially. He walked over to where Ziva stood to peer over her shoulder at the sleeping babe. "It's kinda weird you know?" he whispered. "It's like the Twilight Zone, seeing a baby in a place like this."

A soft hiss of pain from Ziva sparked Gibbs' concern, and he sent a sharp look towards Tony, who was apologetically retrieving his hand from where it had been resting on her shoulder.

"All right," Gibbs said. "You're coming with me back to the Compartment, and you're going to get some rest." He gave her an intense look. "For the rest of the day."

"Okay," she conceded, much to the others' surprise. She looked at them when silence met her response. "What? The baby needs some decent sleep, and I am not about to leave her in the Compartment alone."

Tony choked back a laugh at Ziva's rationalization, and Gibbs moved quickly to take advantage of Ziva's currently dormant stubborn streak. He wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Giving Tony a pointed look that promised a head slap in the near future if he made another comment, Gibbs quickly ushered Ziva out Ducky's Compartment and back to their own.

To Gibbs' pleasant surprise, someone had anonymously put a mattress where their pile of cardboard had previously resided. Extra blankets had also been donated as well, and Gibbs could see a box of baby formula and bottles in the corner. As he got both Ziva and the baby comfortable , Gibbs realized how grateful he was for the mattress; with nothing but a pile of cardboard between her and the steel floor, taking a nap probably would have only exacerbated her injuries. As it was, it took little effort to ease her down onto the mattress and get Natalia swaddled in clean blankets before placing her next to Ziva.

"You need to go brief the Council on what happened," Ziva said, gazing up at him. Gibbs nodded.

"I'll be back as soon as I'm done," he told her. "Try to get some rest, okay?" He brushed a kiss across her lips, which she returned tenderly.

"Yes, yes," she teased with a grin. "Go, be a leader. We are not going anywhere."

*******

"Ziva found what?"

Gibbs stood in the office with the rest of the Council, having just finished briefing them on the morning's events. McGee had been the first to voice his shock, but was not the only one to stare at their leader in disbelief.

"A baby," Gibbs responded. "Ziva rescued an infant, but the mother was killed by the Vipers. Natalia will be staying with us."

"Awwww!" Abby exclaimed, her excitement tangible. "What a pretty name!" She paused. "Wait, won't the other Strays want to keep her with them?"

"I'd pay money to see them try and take her," Tony remarked with a grin. "Trust me Abs, Ziva is not going to let that kid go without a fight."

"And none of them are the father," Gibbs added. "They're not a gang. They don't feel any kind of responsibility to each other that would rationalize taking a baby with them." At this, any restraint Abby had been exhibiting vanished as she launched herself at Gibbs, latching her arms around his neck enthusiastically.

"I'm an aunt!" she exclaimed. "Yaaay! I've always wanted to be an aunt!" She pulled away to make eye contact with Gibbs. "Where is she? I wanna see her!"

"Easy, Abs," Gibbs said. "She's with Ziva, and they're both resting."

"Can I go see them? I'll be really really quiet, I promise! Just a little peek?"

"You mean you want to try sneaking up on a sleeping woman who is notorious for her ninja skills and is currently in the middle of her first stint in lioness mode?" Tony asked, giving Abby an exaggerated look. Abby's brow furrowed, and she chewed her lip as she weighed his words.

"Yeah, you're right," she conceded. She whirled back towards Gibbs, her expression all business. "But I get first dibs on the kid as soon as they wake up, capische?" Gibbs looked at her with a skeptical brow, and after a moment, she softened. "Pretty please?"

With a smile, Gibbs nodded in agreement, eliciting another hug from the Goth. "Yay!" she said. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Okay," Mark spoke up, drawing focus back to the reason they were getting debriefed. "Ziva found a kid. What about the Vipers? Are they a problem?" Gibbs took a moment to disengage from Abby before answering.

"Not for the Warehouse. We dumped the ones still breathing away from the Docks. It was just a Patrol, probably not from the immediate area."

"Are you sure? With the Bloods so close—"

"They'll probably help us with the Black Blood Gang," Gibbs interrupted.

"You thinking alliance, boss?" Tony asked.

"Hell no, Dinozzo," Gibbs replied. "Diversion. The Vipers maintain a higher profile than we do. The Bloods, if they're close enough, will catch wind of them first, and the Vipers might put up enough of a fight to keep them occupied until we can get a handle on what the Bloods are doing around here."

"I like the way you're thinking boss," Tony said. "We get to do some Recon, come up with some plans… It's perfect!"

"We should advise the Residents to hold off on leaving though," Gibbs added.

"Good idea boss," McGee said. "We don't want them getting caught in the crossfire."

"What about the Strays?" Tony asked.

"S.O.P.," Gibbs responded. "Let them stay a few days, give them the rundown. They want to stay, they can, but they gotta pull their weight."

"Got it boss."

"Any other injuries that need tending, jethro?" Ducky asked. "I think I saw a bit of blood on Mr. Reynolds on his way in."

"Just a bloody nose, Duck," Gibbs said. "Most of that blood wasn't his."

"I thought that might be the case." The doctor paused. "You know, Jethro, I am little concerned about Ziva's injuries."

"She refused the aspirin, Duck. I'm not gonna be able to change her mind," he said honestly.

"It is not the refusal that bothers me. In fact, I believe she made the correct decision. The ibuprofen would have done next to nothing for her discomfort. She needs an anti-inflammatory. We are lucky she was not more grievously injured. One more blow to her ribs and she probably would have sustained a collapsed lung." The look the Scotsman sent Gibbs was scathing. "With things as they are, she would not have survived."

"Duck—"

"This is a very serious matter!" Ducky's voice rose. "And it would not have been an easy death, either! Days, maybe even a week of agonizing pain as she slowly suffocated to death!"

"Ducky!" Gibbs tried to interrupt, but the medical examiner didn't back down.

"I do not think you have thought your decision through." The accented voice was low, and more intense than the Council had heard in years. "Would you be able to watch her slowly slip away? Or would you be strong enough to end her suffering yourself, knowing that it had been your decision that had caused her death?"

"Enough!" Gibbs bellowed. Ducky was the only one to not flinch as the Voice's anger crackled throughout the room. "I am NOT going to send anyone on a goddamn suicide run. We don't know anything about what's beyond Vector 9, and I am not going to risk anyone's life until we do!"

"That's not good enough. Anything less than sending out a Patrol to that hospital immediately could be too late. It almost was too late!"

"And I have made my decision!" Gibbs stepped up to the older man, and for a long moment, they shared a fiery gaze. "You don't like it," Gibbs growled dangerously, "feel free to leave with the Strays."

Silence reigned as neither man backed down, and the rest of the Council watched with bated breath, frozen in shock as the silent moments ticked by. After several long moments, Ducky's expression shifted to scorn, and without another word, turned and left the Office. The door slammed shut with a sharp bang, and making all but the Voice jump. All eyes returned to the silently fuming figure, who regarded them all with a scathing look.

"Anyone else?"

The office was dead silent as no one moved, no one breathed. Ducky may have left, but the situation was no less volatile.

"I didn't think so."

Then the Voice turned, and the door slammed shut a second time as he stormed out of the room. After a long silent moment, the rest of the Council tore their eyes from the door to glance nervously at each other. Finally, Tony spoke up.

"I dunno about anyone else, but I'm hoping having a baby in the Warehouse will mellow him out."

*****

Gibbs leaned against the open doorway of the Compartment, allowing the burning anger in his gut melt away at the sight of Ziva sleeping peacefully next to Natalia. The last time Gibbs had had thought about Ziva with children had been before the Incident, during a case he barely remembered. It had been shortly after Dinozzo's undercover mission had come to light, and Jeanne Benoit had left him. But after that case, even after he and Ziva had developed a romantic relationship, he hadn't eve considered children. And after the Incident, it would suffice to say that any thought of procreation had been eclipsed by the instinct to simply stay alive.

But now, looking at the two sleeping forms on the mattress, he realized he had been an idiot. Never before had he seen something so natural, so… right. Not since Shannon and Kelly, anyway. And after the Incident, most of his memories of events prior to his second coma had been reduced to nothing more than feelings. He could no longer conjure a memory of what Shannon and Kelly looked like, or how they sounded. But her remembered the warmth of the love they had shared, the comfort of being a family. Ducky had said his foggy memories were a result of stress, fatigue, and his multiple brain injuries over the years, but as he stood there in the Warehouse, he realized that he had remembered the most important part of his past.

Guilt nagged at Gibbs' conscience. He didn't like arguing with Ducky. Usually, when the M.E. fought so vehemently for something, he was in the right. And as he looked at his sleeping wife, Gibbs heard echoes of Ducky's words ring in his ears. His friend was right about one thing—Gibbs had come dangerously close to losing her this morning. And after such an enjoyable, carefree evening the night before, he was painfully aware that anything could happen at any time.

But he stood by his decision. There was simply too much uncertainty about the situation, and the Bloods were too dangerous to do anything on a whim, without having some semblance of Intel to help shape their plan of action.

Gibbs was pulled from his thoughts by a soft whimper that emanated from the direction of the mattress. His first thought was that Natalia was waking, but then Ziva shifted fitfully with a low moan. Her brow furrowed as she turned again, and Gibbs realized she was having a nightmare.

He slipped silently into the Compartment and moved directly to her side. He knelt on the mattress next to her.

"Ziva," he said softly, trying not to wake her too suddenly. Normally, he would have let her ride it out, but between the baby and her injuries, doing so now could cause more harm than waking her. But his efforts to be gentle were for naught; before his hand had a chance to touch her shoulder lightly, she bolted upright with a gasp. Panic and confusion flooded her gaze for a short moment before the pain of her movements hit. With a low cry she tensed, an arm coming up to wrap around her middle.

"Whoa, whoa," Gibbs said, quickly moving to brace her, allowing her to lean against him and relieve the strain on her ribs. "It's okay," he soothed, more for his benefit than for hers. He doubted she heard him, as her eyes and jaw were clenched tightly shut as she let the pain pass.

After a long moment, she relaxed a little against him, letting him know the pain had dulled slightly. When he asked if she was alright, she nodded.

"I am fine," she said. "I just sat up too quickly."

"I'd say," he remarked with a grin. She sighed in response. "Must have been a hell of a nightmare." He paused. "You wanna talk about it?" It wouldn't surprise him if it had something to do with the Bloods, and memories of that night in the Tunnels. Gibbs thought he saw her eyes flick towards Natalia as she answered.

"I do not remember," she said, her voice husky with sleep. Gibbs' brow furrowed—usually she remembered the dreams that woke her. But he decided to let it go.

"Do you think you could lie back down now?" he asked instead. She shook her head.

"Mmm. No." She placed her hand on his knee. "I like it right here." Gibbs let out a soft huff of amusement.

"Okay," he said. He shifted slightly, just enough so that his back was supported by the bulkhead of the Compartment. "Abby wants to meet Natalia," he informed her.

"I thought she might," Ziva responded tiredly. "I was already planning to find her once the baby woke up." Ziva's eyes drifted towards the sleeping girl. "I am surprised she has slept so long."

"She's had an exhausting day too," Gibbs supplied with a grin. "But don't worry, she'll most likely be up all night."

"Mmhmm," Ziva mumbled. A glance down told Gibbs that she was slowly drifting off again. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. A few moments later, her breathing had evened out once more, and she was sound asleep against him. The steady rise and fall of her chest as she breathed softly in his arms soothed him, and he found the tension from his confrontation with Ducky bled away. He had intended to remain awake, so that he would be able to take care of Natalia if she began to fuss, but the battle fatigue from the fight proved too much for his resolve, and within minutes, he had succumbed to Morpheus' call.

********

Several hours later, Gibbs awoke to find himself once again alone in an empty Compartment. Ziva's boots were missing, as was Natalia. Gibbs quickly put his own boots back on and went in search of his absent family. Almost immediately, the sound of a squalling infant greeted his ears. He followed the sound through the stacks until he found Natalia, who was squirming fitfully as she screamed bloody murder in the arms of a frazzled Abby.

"Abby!" Gibbs said loudly over the din.

"Gibbs!" she cried. "Thank goodness! She won't stop crying!"

"Where's Ziva?"

"I don't know! She asked me to watch the baby for a while, and then she left. That was three hours ago Gibbs! And this, this thing had been screaming for the past hour!" Gibbs frowned—it was out of character for Ziva, given the protectiveness she had exhibited earlier that morning.

"Why didn't you come get me?" he asked, buying himself some time to think.

"Well," Abby said sheepishly, "I knew you were trying to sleep, and you had been in a fight this morning, so I didn't want to bother you." Gibbs regarded her for a moment, before an approaching figure caught his attention.

"Dinozzo!" he shouted, catching the younger man's attention as he entered the Warehouse, an unlabeled box in his arms.

"Yeah boss!"

"You seen Ziva?"

"Not since the rumble, Boss," Tony replied, hefting the heavy box to get a better grip. "But I heard she was helping out over in Sector Five."

Gibbs cursed under his breath. Ziva shouldn't be doing any of the heavy lifting that Sector Duty entailed. Motioning for Abby to follow, Gibbs led the way out to the Maze. Sector 5 lay to the south, and it was a short walk through the stacks until they joined the controlled chaos that was the process of unloading the shipping containers.

Residents milled about, some with paper and pencil, taking inventory of the containers' contents, while others carried merchandise back to the Warehouse. Curious eyes followed Gibbs and Abby as they escorted the screaming baby across the Docks. Gibbs found Mark halfway up a metal ladder, directing the Residents who were busy investigating the contents of a fourth-tier container.

"Hey Gibbs!" the scruffy man said as he noticed his leader approach. "What can I do you for?"

"You seen Ziva round here?" Gibbs called up to him.

"Yeah, she's fiddling with something over in Quadrant 2. Uhm…" He considered the clipboard in his hands. "Compartment B-6."

Without another word, Gibbs turned and made his way over to the 16 compartments that were quadrant 2. Compartment B-6 was ground-level, on the far side of the Block. The doors of the container were wide open, and Gibbs was greeted by the sight of Ziva's boots poking out from underneath a wheel-less army-green Jeep that was propped up on cinderblocks.

"Ziva!" Gibbs called as he approached. At the sound of his voice, Ziva rolled out from beneath the vehicle. She sat up on the wheeled backboard she had been laying on and looked up at him as he reached the Container, streaks of oil smudged on her cheeks and hands.

"You are awake," she remarked with a smile. Abby pushed past Gibbs before he could respond.

"Ziva! Where have you been?! Natalia has been crying and you didn't tell me I was going to be watching her forever! She's been changed and fed, but she still won't stop. She's been missing you, which normally I would find adorable, but given the fact I didn't know where you were for the past hour she's been missing you, I no longer think it's cute!" She held the screaming baby out to the Israeli. Ziva stood, but then surprised both of them by turning away.

"Abby, this is no place for an infant." Natalia, who had quieted slightly upon seeing Ziva, resumed her screaming when the Israeli had turned away. The shrieks were shrill, and echoed gratingly in the metal confines of the container.

"You shouldn't be here either," Gibbs told her. Before he had a chance to berate her for disobeying his orders of twenty four hour's worth of bedrest, she cut him off.

"Do not start with that, Jethro," Ziva returned over Natalia's cries. "I have not been lifting anything, and I was doing nothing simply lying on that mattress. I am just doing the simple task of fixing this old junker here, in the off chance we get our hands on some gasoline. At the very least, it has kept me occupied."

"You'd rather tinker with a piece of crap car than take care of Natalia?" Abby asked, her tone incredulous.

"You asked to carry her, Abby."

"Not for three hours! You need to take her back!" She proffered the squalling babe once more, who only cried louder at the sudden movement.

"Abby, I am filthy, I cannot—"

"No, I can't! Take her!" Natalia's screams amplified once more.

"Abby…"

"Now, Ziva!" The noise became deafening, and Ziva finally snapped.

"ENOUGH, TALI!"

Her sudden outburst left them all stunned—even Natalia was shocked into a moment of silence before starting to whimper softly. Ziva's eyes were wide in surprise—Gibbs' gut told him that she had not meant to shorten the baby's name that way. Tali—Gibbs knew her sister was still too tender a subject for her to have consciously decided to create that particular nickname.

Ziva's eyes darted between Natalia and Gibbs, and he could see concern, alarm, and doubt cloud her expression. Finally, she looked at him, her head shaking in self-doubt.

"I cannot…" Her words trailed off, and instead of trying to finish her thought, she pushed past Gibbs and quickly disappeared among the stacks as she moved back towards the Warehouse. Gibbs couldn't help but notice that her limp was much more pronounced than it had been prior to her nap. For a long moment after Ziva was lost from his sight, he turned to Abby and found her staring at him with wide, confused eyes. Finally, Gibbs crooked a finger at the Goth, indicating for her to relinquish possession of the infant. Abby did so willingly and without question. Natalia whimpered slightly as she was shifted from one person to another, but as she settled in Gibbs arms, tiny hands reached for Gibbs' shirt.

"Should I be worried, Gibbs?" Abby asked once relieved of her burden. "I mean, I'm going to be worrying even if you say I shouldn't, but I would feel better if I was worrying because I wanted to and not because I needed to." She paused. "Tony said she was way protective of Natalia this morning. What changed?"

"I have an idea," Gibbs admitted. He avoided explaining it any further, instead turning and leaving Abby in the container as he followed Ziva's path through the Maze back towards the Warehouse. He wasted no time in going to where he knew she would be—their Compartment. Ironically, it was where she always went when she wanted to shut out the world for a while. Most of the Residents were respectful enough to leave the place alone except in the case of an emergency, so it afforded them a private enough of a place to be alone. Not only that, it was enough for Ziva to feel safe, meaning she would be able to just shut down for a while, and not have to worry about the possibility of a Stray or enemy gang sneaking up on her.

When Gibbs reached the Compartment, Gibbs found Ziva sitting in the shadows of the back-left corner of the familiar space. Her back was resting against the bulkhead, and her knees were drawn up close to her chest with her arms draped around them defensively. Though her posture was withdrawn, she was also relatively relaxed, alerting Gibbs to the fact that she was unsurprised by his decision to follow her.

"You wanna tell me about that nightmare now?" he asked, leaning against the wall just inside the door. She didn't look at him.

"No."

"You need to." Gibbs was willing to be just as blunt as she was.

"Bullshit," Ziva retorted. Gibbs gave her a sharp look; over the past few years, Ziva had adopted more of America's less savory colloquialisms, and though he was familiar with the terms, Ziva's lightly accented voice gave the words more bite than native speakers generally imparted. "It has nothing to do with you Gibbs," she continued. "Leave it alone."

"Can't do that," Gibbs replied. "And it does have something to do with me." Ziva didn't respond, so he continued after a moment's pause. "It's bothering you, which is more than enough to get me involved. And it has something to do with Natalia too, which makes it even more my problem. This morning you were ready to bite the head off anyone who looked at her sideways, and now you can barely stand to look at her. You aren't the type to simply lose interest, and the only thing that's happened between now and then is the nightmare you claim to not remember."

"I do not want to talk about it."

"Not gonna fly, Ziver." Gibbs took a step forward to take a seat on the overturned milkcrate, facing his partner. "You're going to have to talk about it. Natalia needs you." A moment of silence followed, and Gibbs let her have it, seeing the wheels turning in her head. Finally she gave a heavy sigh.

"Tali needed me too," she said softly. "I wasn't there when she needed me the most."

"You think Natalia is going to end up like Tali?" As Gibbs had suspected, Ziva's earlier slip of the tongue had been more than a mistake of convenient coincidence.

"My nightmare was simply a necessary reminder that the people I am supposed to protect have a habit of dying." Ziva's voice was bitter. "It is safer for Natalia to have another guardian."

Gibbs looked from Ziva to the girl in his arms, taking a moment to determine the best course of action. Though he was not as fully aware of the circumstances surrounding Tali's death as he was Ari's, Gibbs knew that Tali had been murdered by a suicide bomber at the tender age of sixteen. It was not too far a leap to guess that Ziva had either been near the blast but had been unable to prevent it, or that she had been supposed to have been with her sister at the time of the bombing but for some reason was not. Either way, her guilt was palpable, and unlike the instance of Ari's death, she could not draw comfort from the fact that someone else's life had been saved. The loss of her sister had never healed; instead it had simply scabbed over as the years passed and life went on. But every now and then the scab was ripped off, revealing the raw weeping wound beneath.

But despite her insecurities, Gibbs knew that she was the only one who could effectively watch over Natalia. Given the babe's behavior in Quadrant 2, she had already bonded with Ziva. She could already distinguish between her savior and other Residents, and had quite clearly demonstrated her preference for the Israeli. And Gibbs had noticed something else that morning, seeing Ziva care for her new ward, something he couldn't define, or even put his finger on, but was indisputable nonetheless. She needed the little girl as much as Natalia needed her, more than Ziva would like to admit.

Gibbs silently moved off the milkcrate to take a seat next to Ziva. She moved to scoot away, but his hand on hers kept her in place. Natalia reached up from where she lay in Gibbs' arms and curled her tiny fist around one of Ziva's long curls. She cooed softly, obviously calmed by the woman's proximity. For a long moment, Ziva was unresponsive before she reached up to rub the tears from her eyes.

"I do not want her to get hurt Gibbs," she admitted softly. Gibbs shifted closer to her.

"Ziver, if you turn away from her now, you will be hurting her just as much as those Vipers did this morning," he told her in a low voice. She looked at him. "They took her mother from her, and now you're about to do the same thing. She's chosen you to replace her mother, Ziva. You know it as well as I do." Her shoulders slumped slightly, and Gibbs knew he was getting through to her.

"If you doubt me," he continued, "trust your instincts. You have always followed your instincts, and that act alone has kept you and most of us in this Warehouse alive. What are your instincts telling you now?" He looked at her intently. "They're telling you to fight for this little girl, tooth and nail. They're telling you to not let her out of your sight, aren't they?"

"I can't take care of a baby, Jethro," she whispered.

"Yes, you can," he contradicted. "I saw you this morning, Ziva. You're a natural mother. You were handling Natalia like a pro, and she couldn't have been happier." Gibbs paused. "And you're not alone, Ziver. I'm going to be here with you every step of the way. And no," he cut her off as she began to protest, "I can't do it on my own either. Natalia chose you."

Ziva shifted her gaze back to the baby. Gibbs watched her expression soften slowly as Natalia tugged gently on her captured curl. Finally, Ziva reached over and took her from Gibbs' arms. The little girl giggled in delight, and Ziva smiled back involuntarily. After a moment, she looked up at Gibbs once more.

"You promise you will not let me screw up?" Gibbs chuckled softly.

"I'll do my best," he assured her. But then his expression turned serious again. "But in all seriousness, Ziva, no one is a perfect parent. You're gonna make mistakes." Her face fell.

"My mistakes get people killed, Jethro." She looked down at Natalia. "I do not want that to happen to her."

"That's what I'm here for," he said. He knew he was entering dangerous territory; he was promising something he may not be able to fulfill. He knew that some things were out of his control. Illness and injury were very real possibilities, and there was always the chance that the Warehouse would be attacked. And if Natalia fell victim to any of those threats, there would be little he could do to help her. And he they lost Natalia, he ran the risk of losing Ziva too. She was trusting him now more than she had ever trusted anyone else before. But he knew it had to be done.

Ziva focused on the baby, tracing a finger along a soft cheek. Natalia gurgled happily, her free hand latching onto the slender finger. After a moment, Gibbs saw something shift in Ziva's gaze, and he knew that she had made a decision.

Gently she pulled the small hand up, and brushed her lips over the tiny fingers. She shifted her grip on the little girl, propping her bundled form up against her drawn up legs. Gibbs scooted closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Natalia," she whispered softly. "Welcome to the Warehouse, Tali." The baby laughed, as if she understood every word.

"She's just about the luckiest kid in the world right now, Ziver." He pressed a kiss to his wife's temple. "And I think Tali would be proud of you." Tear-filled brown eyes looked up at him.

"Thank you, Jethro." She paused. "Does this bother you?" she asked. "After Shannon and Kelly?"

"No," he responded without hesitation. Ziva arched an eyebrow at him. "I will always love my first wife and my daughter," he said honestly. "But they're gone. I love you, Ziva. I want a family with you, and the fact that we can have one, even here, now… It's a miracle I'm not about to second-guess."

Ziva's eyes crinkled in appreciation, her lips curving into a smile. She leaned in close to him, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips before resting her forehead against his.

"Love you," she said simply, her breath tickling his skin.

"Love you too, Ziver," he returned, giving her shoulders a gentle squeeze. "Love you too."