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The next chapter is finished. Hope it's okay. Have fun.

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS.

Chapter 3

It was seven in the evening and Ziva was just on the way to Gibbs. She didn't know what she should do. All the time she thought about Tony and his date. How he had talked about her! As if he was a school boy who had fallen in love for the first time. Ziva didn't know why she got so upset about it. After all she has no rights at Tony and if he wanted to meet somebody, he could do it. She had no problem with it.

Okay. That was a lie, but what did she really expect? These mixed signals all the time and their latest hunt after Bodnar had dictated her life until now. There was no space for Tony and her feelings for him. Yet he always came running to her and stood by her side.

The thought about spending the whole evening thinking about this made her shudder. She had to do something. Anything. The only question is what should she do? Abby was bowling with the nuns, which meant she won't have time to go clubbing with her and she didn't want to go alone. All her other friends already had plans too. McGee was having dinner with his sister. They hadn't seen each other in ages. Gibbs was presumably working on something in his basement again but this would be better than sitting at home thinking about all the complicated things in her life. She grabbed her jacket and went to her car. A peaceful company and some bourbon were waiting for her.

When she arrived at Gibbs' she exited her car and slowly made her way to his house as she suddenly stopped. There was a car. A car she knew very well. Well, as good as she can know Tony's rental car. But what is he doing here? Shouldn't he be on his date?

Slowly, Ziva was sure that it had been a good decision to go to Gibbs. Maybe she can solve the secret about this mysterious beauty which has apparently captured Tony's heart. Determined she went to the front door and entered. She heard the television in the living room and went into it.

She spotted three people on the couch. Gibbs was sitting on the left side and Tony on the right side, but she didn't recognize the person in the middle of them. The only thing she could see of this person was the back of her head and her brown hair. According to the long brown hair it has to be a woman. However, what bothered her the most was that this woman had her head on Tony's chest. Tony's left arm was wrapped around her.

Now Ziva didn't know what to do. Should she make her presence known or should she quietly disappear again? Why was Tony with his date even at Gibbs'?

She decided on a tactical retreat. Maybe she should grill Tony for some answers on Monday. But before she could reach the front door she heard Gibbs behind her. "Ziva?"

Shocked that she had been discovered she slowly turned around. She saw that Tony was now standing next to Gibbs and was staring disbelieving at her.

"Ziva what are you doing here?"

She was just about to give a reply to Tony when she saw a third person next to the two men. The woman. The woman that had just laid comfortably in Tony's arms a moment ago. Now she was confused. This woman was not a woman. Well, not yet. The third person is a teenager girl. Ziva had the feeling that there was something going on.

Tony followed her glance to Amelia and groaned internally. At the beginning, when Ziva was new in the team, he didn't know whether he could trust her or not, which is why he kept the existence of his daughter to himself. With time their partnership and friendship had grown and he could have told her about Amelia. The only problem was that he did not know how to do so. How do you tell somebody whom you already had known for over one year that you have a child? He has got the same problem with the others. He had never told Kate about Amelia, although he often had been on the verge of simply letting the cat out of the bag. But in one point Tony was sure, he didn't want that Ziva got to know about Amelia like this. Although he should have known that Ziva was the one to get to know about his secret first. They were too close and it was a miracle that she didn't learn about this earlier.

Ziva was first to speak. "Should you not be on your date, Tony?"

"I'm in the middle of it. But what are you doing here? Did something happen?"

"I wanted to visit Gibbs. Is she your 'date'? A little bit young for you, don't you think? But this is nothing new, is it? The younger the better." Ziva was angry and attacked him with her words.

„Okay too much information," interrupts the girl their conversation that developed slowly into an argument while Gibbs let things go on and just watched them. It was not his place to tell her about Amelia. No, Tony had to deal with this on his own.

"You must be Ziva. I have heard a lot about you." The girl came closer and offered Ziva her hand.

So strange this situation may be, Ziva liked the direct nature of the girl. She accepted the hand and shook it. "I would like to say that I know a lot about you, too, but until know I never heard of you." Indeed, the situation was really absurd.

The girl shrugs her shoulder. "I know, but it looks like that will change from now on."

"Ziva … " Tony interrupted before one of the women could say something else. "I want to introduce you to Amelia." He made himself ready for the worst case scenario. "She is my daughter."

Silence. No one moved. Gibbs is the first to react. "I get the bourbon. I think we all need a glass now."

"Daughter? You have a daughter?" Ziva asked confused. "And Gibbs knew about that?"

"Ziva believe me when I tell you that I didn't want you to find out like that! Over the years I often wondered how to tell you."

"Who else knows that you have a daughter?"

"At NCIS?" Tony asked just to be sure and gets a nod from her.

"Apart from Gibbs, only Duckie knows. Nobody else. You are the third one to know about Jo."

"Jo?"

"Her full name is Amelia Joan DiNozzo. I often call her Jo or Jojo. That came with the years."

"I still can't believe it. You have a daughter."

"Well, yes … " Tony wanted to interrupt her, but she spoke again.

"A daughter who is already in her teens." Now Ziva finally looked at Tony again, but when he saw the hurt and disappointment in her eyes he wished he wouldn't. "A daughter our team does not even know about. Our team that is like a family."

"Ziva … "

"I should go." Ziva went to the front door.

"Ziva! Wait … "

She turned around to face Tony when passing the threshold. "You know I thought we could trust each other, that we can tell each other such things. Do you remember? Your 'post-elevator-us'? Why do you expect me to tell you everything that goes on in my life, with my father and Bodnar, if you cannot even tell me that you have a daughter?"

Tony didn't reply and just stared at his partner. What should he say? He could understand her. If the roles were reversed he would, too, be angry and disappointed that she didn't tell him. After so many years of being partners you find out that the partner you worked with for so many years has a kid. You question how much you really know your partner. Ziva wasn't sure if she'd have liked it more to catch him with another woman. She could have dealt with that. That would be the Tony she knew. Not this Tony. The Tony who was a father.

After a minute Tony still hadn't responded and Ziva turned to go resigned and just left Tony wordlessly.

"Did you really think that you could keep my existence forever a secret to your colleagues?" Tony turns to his daughter who now sat on a step from where she quietly had watched the conversation between her father and Ziva. "I told you that you should have told them. I even remember that I have told you that quite a few times over the years. Such things never stay a secret."

Tony sat down on the step next to Amelia. She wrapped her right arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder. "Ohh, Jojo. I messed up."

Ziva was furious. Furious and hurt. How could she, after all these years in which he was her partner, her friend, maybe even her best friend, not know that he had a daughter? She understood that he didn't want to tell her when she first joined the team, but after eight years? Eight years in which they had worked side by side and always had each other's back? She thought he would trust her more than that.

She had to admit that there had been many questionable situations, at first Jeanne, Michael, Somalia, Ray and E.J. and lately her father and Bodnar. But after all these experiences the relationship between them should have been stronger than ever. But maybe she have misinterpreted it. Who knows when he would have told her about his daughter if she hadn't interrupted their evening at Gibbs'? Maybe never. But if this would have been the case they could have never become a couple. He cannot simply start something with her and at the same time conceal that he had a daughter.

Ziva opened the door to her apartment and frowned. She had the feeling that she was not alone. She cursed herself for leaving her gun on her dresser in her bedroom. She had been in such a hurry to go to Gibbs, in search for some distraction from her thoughts that she hadn't thought about it.

She entered her apartment slowly. Her eyes searched the darkness for any intruder. Nobody was in her living room and otherwise there were no indications that something was missing or had been moved. Did she just image everything and her instinct played her a prank?

She stepped into the open kitchen slowly and saw a figure that had its back to her. She remembered that she kept a spare gun in one of the drawers behind her. Carefully, so that the burglar wouldn't be alarmed of her presence, she crept backwards to get to the drawer. Her eyes remained on the intruder, so that she could react quickly if he would turn around and discover her. She opened the drawer and got out the gun. She aimed at the intruder and made her presence known.

"NCIS turn around slowly and put your hands were I can see them. If I notice that you are trying something, I will shoot." Ziva was still furious and to shoot a bugler would suit her already sour mood. She almost wanted him to attack her, because then she had a chance to work off her fury and her disappointment.

The stranger held up his hands and turned around slowly. Ziva was shocked when she realized who stood in front of her. She hadn't thought she would see him again. Not that fast.

"Hello Ziva."

She stared at him unbelievingly. What did he want here? She thought they had clarified everything? "Adam?"

"I'm sorry I'm intruding your privacy just like that, but after some time I thought that I should better wait in your apartment. Some of your neighbors started to give me strange looks," Adam explained and a grin accompanied the last part of the sentence.

Ziva recovered from her shock, secured the gun and put it back in the drawer. "What do you want, Adam?"

"I was worried about you. I heard you were in a car accident. And then I heard from one of my sources that you killed Bodnar. Is that true?" Adam asked.

"Bodnar is dead if you meant that. But you didn't have to come all the way for that, am I correct."

"I wanted to be sure that you were alright," Adam said and got closer to her. Very close. Since she stood with her back already against her drawer she couldn't back away. Adam lifted his hand and caressed her cheek softly.

They stared into each other's eyes and nobody even dared to blink. Slowly he lowered his head to Ziva's until she felt his lips on hers.

Ziva didn't respond to the kiss. For her it was just a one night stand, but Adam wasn't put off of her resistance and continued kissing her.

She put her hands on his chest and wanted to push him away from her, as her fury and her disappointment about Tony came back again. Instead of pushing Adam away from her, her hands slid from his chest to his neck and pressed his head even further to her. She started kissing him deep and passionately. After a while Ziva kissed his neck and started to open his shirt. More and more clothes were removed and scattered all around her apartment on their way to her bedroom. For the rest of the night Ziva had found a solution to escape from her thoughts.

I thought that I'm going to make things a little bit difficult for the characters.

Don't worry. I still plan for Tony and Ziva to get together. Just not yet.