Beep. Beep. Beep.

The alarm went off too soon after what felt like the married couple had both just laid down. It was a frustrating night, too much tossing and turning ending up in neither of the two sleeping. To make matters worse, neither of their bodies were touching which took an emotional drain on Ziva.

Ever since she can remember, she would always cuddle up with Tony in bed. Whether it was a case or they were undercover or simply in the comforts of their own house, they were close together in bed. It had been something they were awfully used to, a routine of some sorts that could keep the nightmares away. Just a simple touch from him reminded her that she was here and that she was in fact alive. It was those nights in Paris after Somalia where they figured out this little trick. If he was in bed with her, close, the nightmares wouldn't come.

Ziva groaned once she felt Tony sit up and throw the covers back. He rubbed his face with his rough palms and stood up, going to their walk in closet. He flipped the light switch on once he was inside the closet, gathering the clothes he needed for the trip back to Long Island. Stuffing the clothes into a suitcase nearby, he flipped the switch off again and exited the closet.

Her head thumped loudly, a headache ensuing from the night before so, she flipped over in bed and watched her husband. He was buttoning up his white dress shirt, staring at her. Her brows furrowed together and she grumpily stared back because no…there was no way in hell he was going to get away with last night.

"You better wake your little ones up and tell them," She warned, yawning in the process.

"I'm not going to upset them this early," He was stern.

"And you think it will be better for me to upset them in a few hours?!" Her legs curled underneath her and she sat up, wincing at the pain in her head.

He noticed her wince, "Take an Advil," He threw the bottle at her which she caught in a ninja fashion.

"An Advil will not help for how many ways I want to take a paperclip to you right now," Her threat was heavy, but he knew nonetheless that she never meant it. Her fingers twisted the bottle, slipping out two pills before setting the bottle back down on the counter. She rose from the bed, walking into their bathroom and swallowing the pills down with a glass of water she retrieved from the sink. She walked back out, watching him buckle his belt and continued "You do realize that you will have to make this up to him? He already planned to watch James Bond with you all night after his party,"

Tony sighed and looked around for his phone charager, "Yeah, I promise."

"That does not sound too promising, Tony. What the hell is going on with you?!" She threw her hands up in the air.

"Nothing is going on with me, Ziva. It's 4 am and I need to get to the airport. I don't need all of this bitching because I'm going to miss some stupid birthday party!" He watched as her face fell, a deathly glare ceasing over her features.

"A stupid birthday party?" Her arms fell to her sides and he could sense she was going to start moving towards him. The next words out of her mouth were all in Hebrew and he shuddered at how loud she was getting, let alone how fast she was sputtering out these words that he had no idea what she was saying.

Oh yeah, she's fucking pissed.

"Fuck, okay. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that, you know I would never be that way to our kids, Zi." His hands went up in defeat and landed on her shoulders as she advanced towards him.

"I've gotta get going. Can we please not fight any more about this?" He pleaded, grabbing his suitcase from next to him and kissing her quickly on the cheek. She watched as he exited the room and could hear him fumble down the stairs trying to be quiet. She imagined him racing around the kitchen to grab a quick drink, grab his keys if he needed them and heard him open the garage and leave.

It was going to be a long two days. Today, she would have to explain to both her children that their father had to leave for work and would not be home for long time, again. Then she would have to woo her crying children that everything would be alright because they had Mommy and she was sure she could provide them with more love than anyone else in the world could. And, the worst part of all… that Daddy would not be home for Ty's birthday, regardless of how many times he promised he would. That would result in the conversation of how sometimes people promise to do something, but sometimes they can't keep their promises no matter how large they are.

Damn, her kids would learn a lot of life lessons to come about how people can let you down so easily.

-x-

The morning didn't go well at all, as Ziva had already planned. The kids both woke up in pissed off moods, accustomed to their mothers own mood. When she had explained to both of them where Daddy was, the tears bursted out.

"But too-mow-rohs my birfday!" Ty cried, clutching his blanket tightly.

"I know, but Ima promises she will give you the best birthday ever…" Ziva reasoned, picking him up and kissing him when Isabella started crying. "Oh no, tatelehs. I promise we will be okay," She grabbed Isabella with her other hand, swooping her up into her arms and sitting down on the couch with both. Ty screeched into her chest, his head buried and Ziva cooed to try and get them to calm down.

"Dah-dee?" Isabella's head popped up from her mom's shoulder, sucking her thumb intently while she cried along with her brother. She was clearly only doing this for her brother's sake because he was so upset.

Ziva rocked the two crying infants in her arms when she got an idea. "Here, let's see if we can get a hold of Daddy. He should have landed a few hours ago," Her fingers hit speed dial on her phone and she pressed the speaker button. The other line rang and rang till Tony's answering machine picked up. Ziva exhaled loudly, both of the children picking up where they left off with their crying. When the beep came over the other line, Ziva began to speak, "Tony, hear what is happening here. I have two little ones who will not settle down because Daddy is not here. They want to talk to you so, give me a call back when you can." She hung up, annoyed that he was not answering now out of all times.

She continued to rock her babies, turning the TV on so, they would get preoccupied with something else besides why Daddy had left. Glancing back down at her phone after some time, she began to surf the web when she saw a picture of a plane. A thought clicked in her mind suddenly.

She already had the next few days off to get things ready for Ty's birthday which meant there was no need for her to be worried about being called into work. Combine that with the sobbing children in her arms who wanted desperately to see their Daddy again and she had the perfect plan. She spent the remaining hour looking for the best airfare prices and finally made her decision, "What do you guys think about going to see Daddy in New York City?"

"YEAH!" Ty shouted, jumping in her lap and knocking the phone out of her hands.

Ziva laughed, grabbing her phone off the floor and asked Isabella who nodded. "Well, we would have to pack some clothes and pack up a few of your birthday gifts to take…" She bit her lip and wondered how long this would take. She would obviously have to leave the bike here and they could give it to Ty when they got back.

"Dah-dee" Isabella clapped, smiling at her mother.

"I suppose we will go surprise Daddy!" Ziva smiled, kissing Ty and Isabella's puffy, red cheeks.