The weekened passed by too quickly for Charity and Tony. Good news for the both of them, Charity only got sick twice, and Tony had no idea. They arrived back to Tony's apartment late Sunday evening. They got dressed and ready for bed.
When they slipped in under the covers, they cuddled up. Charity looked at the ring for about the millionth time. "What are you thinking about every time you look at that?" Tony asked.
"That I'm going to rip a lot of gloves." Charity answered with a grin.
Tony chuckled and kissed her cheek. "You could always not wear it to work."
"Bite your tounge." Charity said, looking at him. "This is never coming off my finger."
Tony grinned. "I like the sound of that."
Not much later, the couple fell asleep. The next morning, Charity woke up before Tony. Her stomach was roiling and she knew she had to get up or there was going to be a huge mess and there was no way she could hide it from Tony. She rolled herself out of bed and headed straight for the bathroom.
She emptied her stomach. Once she finished, she flushed the toilet and then brushed her teeth. She walked back into the bedroom and looked at the time. She still had a couple more hours before she had to start getting ready for work. Tony was still sound asleep. She crawled back into bed and snuggled up to Tony. She easily fell back to sleep.
NCIS...
Burley sat at his desk, waiting. He knew that at any moment, Charity would be stepping off the elevator with a case for their team. "She's running late." Burley said.
"No, she's not." McGee countered. "You just wanna know if Abby won the bet or not."
"There's no way." Burley replied. "I mean even if he did propose, there's no way she'd say yes. She's just not the marrying kind."
"I think for the good detective, she is." McGee replied.
"Why do you assume she would say no?" Ziva asked, from her desk.
"Really, I find it hard to believe taht she's even dating, but whatever. Just there's no way the boss would get married." Burley answered.
Just then they heard the elevator ding and then Charity was stepping off. They couldn't see her left ring finger as her hands were tucked in her pockets. they were observing her. She seemed just like her usual self, but slightly more well rested.
"How was your weekend away boss?" Burley asked as Charity sat down at her desk.
"Good." Charity answered.
Just then Abby made her entrance. She walked over to Charity's desk. she had an extra excited smile on her face. "So, how was the big weekened?" She asked.
Charity looked up at Abby. She kept her face composed. "It was good." She answered.
"You can keep your face composed, but you can't keep that excitement from your eyes." Abby said. "Now give me your left hand."
Charity lifted her left hand and held it plam down, so Abby could see the ring.
"I knew it!" Abby said. "I knew you were coming back engaged!"
Burley looked up, his eyes wide with surprise. "What?" He asked. "Seriously?"
"I know you find me a hard ass, Burley, but I am still a human being." Charity replied.
Burley got up from his desk and walked over to get a look at the ring. "I just friggin' lost ten bucks." He said.
"Yea, so pay up." Abby replied, holding out her hand.
Just then, the phone at Charity's desk rang. She answered it and had a brief conversation. When she hung up the phone, she looked at her team. "Dead Petty Officer found in an abandoned warehouse."
The team grabbed their gear and headed out. They arrived at the crime scene shortly. The Petty Officer, was laid out on a table, strapped down. He had wounds that were very strategic, intended to cause maximum pain. He'd also had his finger nails ripped out. The site made Charity's stomach roil.
"He was obviously tortured." Ziva observed.
"Yes." Charity replied, trying to control the queasiness that gripped her.
Ducky soon arrived. He walked over to the body and started his preliminary analysis. He looked at the body. "You poor young man." He said, as he stood beside the body.
Charity forced herself to stand beside Ducky. "So, what do you think Duck?" She asked.
"Well, let's start with the liver probe and try to get a TOD." He said. He reached into his bag for the liver probe and pulled it out. "Abby, tells me that congratulations are in order. I hear you are getting married."
"Yes, Tony proposed." Charity answered.
"Wonderful. It's about time you fell in love." He replied.
Charity watched as Ducky inserted the probe into the body. She had seen him do this hundreds of times before, but today it made bile rise in the back of her throat. She swallowed it back down. What is wrong with me? She thought to herself. My body is reacting like a probie.
"It would appear that TOD was about ten hours ago." Ducky said. Then he looked over at Charity. "My dear, are you feeling alright?"
"Fine, Ducky." Charity answered. "Why would you ask?"
"Because I've seen corpses with better coloring." He answered.
"I think it was just something I ate." Charity said, trying to cover things up.
The team began to process the scene and collect the evidence. While no one was looking, Charity snuck out of the warehouse and took in a deep breath of fresh air. The smell of blood filled the warehouse and it seemed to suffocate her. Then the sight of the body, so mutilated and grotesque. It all made her stomach heave.
After a few more moments, Charity was able to compose herself. Then she headed back inside the warehouse. The smell of blood hit her and hit her hard. Ziva was kneeling close by and taking a picture. She looked up at Charity. "Are you alright?" She asked.
"I'm fine." Charity answered. Then Charity felt like the room was beginning to spin. Then it began to tilt.
"Stan! McGee!" Ziva called, as she moved to catch Charity.
Burley and McGee looked up as Charity passed out. Ziva had caught her. "I'll call for an ambulance." McGee said, as he and Burley rushed over.
Burley took off his NCIS jacket and folded it up. "Here lay her head on this."
Ziva laid her back and McGee was hanging up his phone. "An ambulance should be here soon." He announced.
Just a few moments later, the ambulance arrived and was taking Charity to the hospital. Burley ordered Ziva and McGee to continue the work and he followed the ambulance to the hospital. He called Tony on the way.
Tony...
Tony had walked over to his and Dan's desks, carrying a big box of donuts. "Oh, these are celebratory donuts." Dan said. "She said, yes, didn't she?"
Tony grinned. "Yes."
"Well, congratulations." Dan told Tony. "She's good for you."
Just as they were pulling out their donuts, they got a call to go out for their next case. They headed for the crime scene. They soon arrived. The body was a young Jane Doe. She was found in a dumpy little apartment, a needle in her arm. It appeared to be an overdose, but of course they had to fully investigate the crime to be sure.
Once their ME had cleared the body, they processed the scene and collected evidence. Once they were done, they headed back to the presinct and got to work. While Tony was going through the records, trying to fingure out who the young woman was, his cell phone rang. He looked at the screen, it was Burley.
"Hello. Is everything alright?" He asked.
"Charity passed out at a crime scene. We called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. I'm following it there." Burley answered.
"I'll be there." Tony said. "Thanks for calling." Then he hung up his phone.
"Is something wrong?" Dan asked.
"Charity passed out at a crime scene." Tony answered. "They're taking her to the hospital."
"Alright, I'll keep going through everything." Dan said. "I'll call you when I find something."
"Thanks Dan." Tony said and then headed out.
Tony arrived at the hospital and headed for the nurse's station. "Charity Gibbs' room?" He asked.
"Second floor room two oh three." The woman answered.
"Thank you." Tony said and then headed in the direction of the elevator. He stepped off and headed down the hall to find Charity's room. When he walked into her room, Charity was sitting up in the bed wide awake and fighting with Burley.
"I'm telling you this wasn't necessary. I'm fine." Then she looked up and saw Tony.
"You passing out, that doesn't sound fine to me." Tony told her.
"Oh, it was nothing." Charity replied. "I'm sure I've just come down with the flu or something."
"Boss, I know that that scene was pretty gruesome, but you didn't even get the slightest bit queasy when you were a probie." Burley countered. "Something is definitely wrong."
"I'm sure I'm fine." Charity countered. "And how the hell do you know what I was like as a probie?"
"Come on, you know you're a legend at NCIS." Burley replied. "People talk."
Charity motioned for Burley to come closer. Then she gave him a slap to the back of the head. "See, I'm perfectly fine."
Tony chuckled slightly. He walked over to her hospital bed and sat down on the edge. He took her hand in his. "It won't kill you to be checked out and get the results of any tests you've had."
Charity instantly softened. "Okay." She replied.
"I said the exact same thing, twenty minutes ago!" Burley replied.
"Yes, while the nurse was sticking the frigging needle in my arm." Charity replied. "I hate needles and I hate hospitals."
There was a knock on the door just then. The doctor then walked in. "How are you feeling Miss Gibbs?" He asked.
"Fine." Charity answered.
"Your tests are all perfectly fine and your vitals are all normal." He said, looking at her chart. "Now, you said you were feeling sick right before you passed out and that you've been feeling sick on and off for the past week, correct?"
"Yes." Charity answered, hating the fact that her secret was out.
"Well, it just appears that you're suffering from severe morning sickness." He said.
"Morning sickness?" Charity asked. "You have to be pregnant to have morning sickness."
"Yes, you're about four weeks pregnant." He said.
Charity blinked a few times. "I'm pregnant?"
The doctor looked around and noticed the surprised looks on the three faces in the room. "Well, I want to keep you overnight for observation. So I'm going to step out now. If you need anything, just call for a nurse." He said and then he was out the door.
Burley looked at Charity and Tony. "I...can see you guys have some talking to do. So I'm just gonna get out of here and leave you two alone. That and I'd better get back to work on the case." Then he was out the door.
"I'm pregnant." Charity said.
Tony looked over at her. "We're gonna be parents." He replied.
They both sat there in the silence for a while. They were each lost in their own thoughts and still had these stunned looks on their faces.
A/N: So what do you guys think? I can't wait to get further into the development of this one. It's going to be very interesting how Agent Charity Gibbs deals with this now. Please read and review. I love to hear from you guys.