"DiNozzo, I'll kill you myself!" The elder man's voice shouted, stepping into McGee's apartment.

"Let me guess, she told you?" DiNozzo chuckled, tilting his head to the side from where he was sitting on the couch. "Yeah, sure, Boss! Go ahead! Let yourself in!" His sarcastic comment didn't go without a head slap.

"You just going to give up on your family like that, DiNozzo?" Gibbs was stern, looking around the quiet apartment that reeked of alcohol.

"Nah, she kicked me out. I'm not going against the ninnnnn-ja." Tony slurred, kicking over a bottle of beer with his leg. "Oops,"

"You hurt her bad." His boss quietly said, plopping down on the couch next to Tony.

"I know," Tony's reply was quiet as the situation seemed to dawn on him in his drunken state. "I don't know how to fix it."

"Not the answer I wanted to hear." The elder man groaned, getting up and grabbing some of the bottles off the table. "McGee's not going to want you trashing his house." He disappeared into the younger agent's kitchen to dispose the bottles.

"Wha'dya want me to do, Boss? Build a boat?" Tony chuckled, tossing the newest bottle he drank onto the table when it smashed.

"Christ, DiNozzo. Figure your shit out! I don't need one of my best out on the field crying for the next ten years!" Gibbs re-entered the room, shouting when he heard the glass break.

Tony turned his head, head pounding to the beat of his heart. "She was crying?"

-x-

"Where's Daddy?" Ty asked, slurping up the spaghetti from his spoon. "This is his favorite meal, Mommy."

"Daddy won't be back for quite some time," Ziva replied, focusing on feeding Isabella since she hadn't got the hang of how to use a fork and spoon. "Tataleh, you can use your hands." She chuckled, her daughter not giving up the fight to learn how to use tableware.

"Why?" Ty asked again, that age where a million questions would come out at once.

Ziva took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts. "Well, my loves…it is very hard to explain."

"But I'm a big boy." Ty whined, taking a sip of water.

"I know you are a big boy, but this is an adult situation between Mommy and Daddy. I am trying to find the words to explain it for my big boy and girl," She smiled as Isabella threw down her spoon with a grunt. "What Mommy and Daddy are going through… it will be extremely hard. We will need you both to understand that I will always be your Mommy and Daddy will always be your Daddy. But, sometimes things will happen and… we cannot control them."

Ty made a face, processing all of the words his mother just stated. In his little mind, a place filled with adventures and superheroes who turned out to be his mother and father in disguise, he still could sense that something was indeed going on. It wasn't like his father to skip out on bed time, as he had the night before, unless he was in New York. He had always made sure when he was home that he would read Isabella and him a bedtime story, reenacting the characters and their voices. It was something that Ty noticed his mother would stand in the door frame and watch, a smile lit upon her face. That wasn't the scenario these past few weeks, but last night was different. Last night, Mommy had shut the door and Daddy kept his distance. No bedtime stories, no goodnights and – no kisses. All that was heard was a shushed tone by his mother to his father in the hallway to which he wasn't sure even if his father had stayed the night or went back to New York.

He waited a moment, watching his mother as she helped clean up Isabella and her dinner mess before speaking. "Is Daddy going to come home?"

His voice was sincere, breaking Ziva's heart when she realized how much this would really take a toll on her whole family. Yes, they were too young to understand what they had seen at the hotel, but they weren't stupid. Isabella didn't have the communication capabilities yet to describe her worries because she was still too young, but Ty could. Bastard broke this family. "I am not sure, Ty." How could a mother tell her children that their father wasn't allowed back in the house? Let alone, that he would probably never come back for them.

She wanted to believe that the latter wasn't true, that Tony wouldn't turn out to be like his father and pop up every few years when it was convenient for him, but something inside her understood the way he was raised. Perhaps that was the part that hurt the most. The part where they had sworn they would create a family where there wouldn't' be any drama, any heartache and that neither of them would put their children in the same debacles as their fathers had with them.

She promised to not force her children into anything unwanted or undesired.

She promised to listen to her children in time of need.

He promised that buying his children simply wasn't good enough and that no amount of money could make up for the hugs, the kisses and the affection that he could give.

But most of all, he promised he wouldn't leave.

Except, here they were. Alone. Something she knew awfully well from when she was a mere ten years old in Israel. The vivid memories of her mother crying, constantly yelling on the phone in a mix of Hebrew and Arabic. Eli David had left Ziva, Tali and Rivka for a young officer who had been working for him on his newest case, Orli. The situation of Ziva's life perfectly mirroring her mother's, despite knowing that Tony would not send either of their children on suicide missions.

But, he hadn't beat out Senior Anthony DiNozzo, famous for leaving women in the time of need. And that's what Tony had promised not to do.

So, Ziva watched as her children continued eating the remainder of spaghetti left for dinner. The little girl next to her, an exact replica of herself and the little boy to the other side of her? An exact replica of his father. And yet, through all this turmoil, all she could see when she looked at her son was Tony….Tony who would wait every night for his father to come home from work, watching movies with his dying mother to pass the time. The time in which… his father would never return.