Tony was upstairs getting dressed for work. He had quietly taken a quick shower so as not to disturb Ziva who was going to be staying home with Ben for at least one more day. He stood in the mirror looking at his reflection as he adjusted his tie then proceeded to put on a watch and just a small amount of cologne. With one last look at himself in the mirror he nodded, satisfied with his appearance. He took one last look at his sleeping wife then walked a few steps down the hallway and looked inside his son's room to make sure Ben was doing alright. Seeing that everything was fine he headed downstairs and went into his Den to retrieve his badge and gun from the lock box. He placed the badge in his suit pocket and put the gun in his holster and headed out the door. Since he was driving in to work alone today he had one quick stop to make on the way to the Navy Yard.
He was happy to see that the drive thru at McDonald's was not too crowded. His eyes lit up as he approached the order screen when he saw the big sign announcing that Monopoly was back. "I love this game", he said aloud as he waited for the people in front of him to complete their order. When it was his turn he asked what he needed to order to get game pieces. After weighing his options he chose a breakfast sandwich value meal with a soda so he would receive 4 game pieces. He picked up his order at the next window and soon was on his way into work. He ate his breakfast as he drove singing along to the music coming from his radio. Once he had arrived and pulled into an open parking space he took a moment to look at his game pieces, and gently pulled them off of the cup and hash brown wrapper. His first pieces were New York Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, Pennsylvania Railroad and Pacific Avenue. He couldn't wait to get inside and look online to see what kind of prizes he had a chance to win. He safely placed his game pieces inside his pocket and made his way into the building.
"You're late", Gibbs said without looking up from the file he was reading.
"Only a few minutes boss", Tony said after looking at his watch. "Besides, I even beat McGee in, where is Probie anyway"?
"He's helping Abby with some new equipment in her lab", Gibbs answered as he leaned back in his chair looking towards Tony's desk. "Is Ziva taking the day off"? Gibbs asked as Tony powered up his computer.
"Yep! She and Ben are both staying home today", Tony answered wishing that he could tell Gibbs the reason why but Ziva had made him promise that they would wait so they could tell Gibbs their big news together.
"Everything okay DiNozzo"? Gibbs asked hoping for a bit more information.
"Yep, everything's fine boss she will be back to work tomorrow", Tony answered as he found the McDonald's website online and was in the process of printing out his game board. Tony got up from his desk and walked over to the printer and picked up his game board and quickly went back to his desk and began entering his game codes to see if he had any winners.
Gibbs wanted to ask about Ziva's blood work but also knew he had to respect the couple's privacy. He had hoped Tony would have been a bit more forthcoming with any news but for some reason his usually talkative agent did not seem to have a lot to say this morning. Gibbs watched as Tony continued to work on something he was certain was not work related and was about to call him on it when Tony suddenly thrust his arms in the air and cheered, "I won a Red Box DVD rental".
Gibbs glared at his senior field agent causing Tony to immediately close out the website and pick up a cold case file and begin working. Gibbs went back to his own work feeling a little more at ease about Ziva after seeing how carefree and happy Tony seemed to be this morning.
At lunchtime Tony called Ziva to see how she was doing. "Hey Zi, how are you guys doing"?
"We are fine, I was a little sick this morning but made it to my appointment on time. I had my blood work re-done and I waited for the results, we are definitely pregnant Tony."
"That's great Zi, when are we going to tell Gibbs, I think he is worried"?
"I know he is, he called me earlier and asked how I was doing".
Tony laughed, "Did he really"?
"Yes, I think it was very sweet don't you"? Ziva asked.
Tony had a hard time imagining Gibbs being sweet and answered, "Gibbs may be a lot of things but I can safely say sweet is not one of them".
Ziva laughed and said, "We should tell him tonight, I want him to be the first to know".
"Okay Zi, we can stop by his place tonight after dinner, I have to go now, I love you guys, give Ben a hug for me okay"?
"I love you too Tony, don't be too late I'm making dinner", Ziva said as she hung up the phone.
Tony pulled his car forward and smiled when he heard, "Welcome to McDonald's go ahead and order whenever you're ready".
The rest of the day was uneventful; Tony was happy that the team had not caught a case so he could get home to Ziva and Ben. After all, Ziva was cooking dinner and after having fast food for breakfast and lunch, Tony was ready for a home cooked meal.
The traffic was at a standstill and Tony loosened his tie as he tapped his steering wheel to the beat of the music coming from his radio. He picked up his cell phone to call home and let Ziva know he was tied up in traffic.
"Hey Zi, I'm almost home, just a few miles to our exit, the traffic is really bad today".
"Take your time, dinner still has about a half hour to cook", Ziva said as she opened the oven to check on her corn bread.
"What are we having"? Tony asked.
"Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and corn bread", Ziva answered.
"Sounds great Zi, I'm starving", Tony said.
"Tony hold on a second, I just heard a crash from upstairs I need to go and check on your son", Ziva said.
"Okay Ziva, let me know if anything is wrong, okay"?
Ziva had yet to hang up the phone and Tony heard her yell, "Benjamin Anthony DiNozzo, that was my favorite vase, how many times have I told you not to play ball in the house"?
Tony cringed and thought, "Oh no Ben, not Ziva's vase".
Then Tony could hear what sounded like Ben receiving quite a spanking from Ziva. He pulled the phone away from his ear as the sound of Ben's cries were deafening. "You are in a timeout young man, you go to your room and sit in your timeout chair until your father gets home", Ziva scolded. After listening to what sounded like Ben being escorted into his bedroom, a calmer Ziva got back on the phone. "He broke the vase Aunt Netty gave us on our wedding day".
Tony replied, "Yeah, I heard all of that, I will deal with him when I get home. What has gotten into him lately? I guess tonight will be a good time to talk about the candy incident and the lying too; I thought this stuff wasn't supposed to happen until he was a teenager"?
Ziva let out a sigh, "He is a DiNozzo; I imagine this is just the beginning."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean"? Tony asked.
Ziva smiled after hearing her husband sound genuinely offended, "I am just saying that your father has told me many stories about some of your exploits".
"Exploits! And to think you laughed when I gave you a new word for the day calendar last Christmas. I am actually really impressed my Naturalized American Ninja", Tony teased.
Ziva laughed, she could always count on Tony to make her feel better. Then she said, "I would like to go and see Gibbs tonight after dinner and tell him the big news".
"Okay, sounds good to me, but let's not tell him we are coming over, knowing Gibbs he will use the time to figure out why we are coming over and ruin our surprise", Tony thought.
Tony arrived home a short while later and immediately went into the den and put his badge and gun in the lock box. He stopped to look at the mail Ziva had put on his desk and quickly went through it. He then met Ziva in the kitchen and they kissed. She slid his loosened tie out from under his shirt collar and ran her hands down the front of his shirt. "Dinner will be ready in 15 minutes, go upstairs and have your talk with Ben". Tony looked over to the stairs and sighed, "Okay might as well get it over with".
Tony walked up the stairs and stopped in the doorway of his son's room. He found Ben where Ziva had left him, sitting in the corner in his timeout chair. Tony knelt down in front of his son and asked, "Ben, how many times have we told you not to play ball inside the house"? Ben just shrugged his little shoulders and looked down at the carpet. Tony continued, "I seem to remember telling you many times and I know mommy has too, Ben please look at me when I am talking to you". Ben looked up at his daddy with tear filled eyes and pouting lips. "That's better", Tony said. "Didn't we tell you that playing ball in the house could cause an accident and that something might get broke"? Ben nodded yes. "Now look what happened because you broke a rule, something that your mommy loved very much is broken and I do not know if I can fix it for her". Ben began to cry again, "I sorry daddy, I break rule, I no do it again". Tony stood up and picked Ben up from his chair and began to carry him over to the Bed. Ben began to cry and kick his legs, "No more spanking daddy, mommy already gave me spanking for breaking rule". Tony sat down on his son's bed with Ben on his lap, he had no intention of spanking Ben again, he only moved over to the bed because his bad knee was killing him from kneeling on the bedroom floor. "It's okay Ben, daddy is not going to spank you again", Tony soothed trying to calm his son down. Besides, he knew that Ziva's spankings were a little harder than the one's he gave his son and he felt Ben had been punished sufficiently.
"I just want to talk to you Ben about a few things", Tony said as Ben calmed down in his father's comforting arms.
"Okay daddy", Ben all but whispered.
"We need to talk about the rules again, okay"? Tony asked. Ben shook his head yes. "Okay, let's see", Tony thought for a moment. "You took candy from the kitchen without asking, big rule broken there. Then when I asked you how much you ate you said, only a little bit, even after I showed you all of the empty candy wrappers and asked you again, you still did not tell mommy and daddy the truth, big, big rule broken there Ben. Then today after us telling you not to play ball in the house many, many times, you broke that rule and look at what happened".
"I break mommy's pot", Ben said.
"Vase Ben, not a pot", Tony corrected.
"I break mommy's base", Ben corrected himself, sort of.
"Close enough", Tony said then he continued,.
"So it looks to me that you have broken three big rules and you know what that means Ben"? Ben's eyes went wide as he answered, "I get three spankings daddy". Tony nodded yes then added, "But not this time Ben, the spanking your mommy gave you earlier will count for all three, this time only", Tony emphasized. "Do you understand what I am saying Ben"? The little boy nodded yes. "I hope so Ben, because the next time you will be spanked for each rule you break, okay"? Ben nodded yes, "I understand daddy, I be good". Tony satisfied that Ben understood said, "Okay than, let's go have dinner and you can tell mommy you are sorry for breaking her vase, than we are going to go over and see Gibbs okay"?
"Okay daddy, can we see boat"? Ben asked as he held his daddy's hand as the two of them went down to the kitchen. "You can ask Gibbs if he will let you see his boat when we get to his house okay?", Tony replied even though he already knew Gibbs would never say no to Ben wanting to see the boat.
Ben had apologized for breaking his mommy's vase and the family shared a nice meal together all but forgetting the unpleasantness that had greeted Tony when he first arrived home. He had just finished buckling Ben into his car seat and climbed into the driver side of the car, Ziva was sitting next to him and the two joined hands as they drove to Gibbs' house to pay him a surprise visit and share their exciting news.
A/N….Please review if you have the time, I really enjoy getting feedback and would love to hear what you have to say, thanks everyone.