Hello everyone! Thanks for the reviews, as always. I guess I have to make clear again that it is now a new semester for me, my last year in undergraduate. Please, please, please make note of this because if you are spamming the reviews constantly telling me I need to update or asking multiple times a night when I will update next, you know who you are. College ALWAYS comes before fanfiction. I know most of you get this as you have been in this position, but there are some who are not diligently getting that I cannot slack in my courses and work for my career to cater to fanfiction. Trust me, I wish there were more than 24 hours in the day, but unfortunately that can't be helped. Either way, I hope you will stick around through the delayed updates because they can't be weekly like in the summer time where I had all the writing caught up. I now have to write the chapters when I have free time available.

Thanks to all who understand,

Ash.

-x-

"Dah-deeeeeeeeee…." Isabella sounded in a mere sing, tapping her tiny fingers on the touch screen of Ziva's iPhone. She grunted, tapping harder and muttered out "Dah-dee?"

"Bella, we have to call Daddy first for him to answer you." Ziva sighed, grabbing the phone out of her daughter's hands and typing Tony's phone number on the screen to call him. "I am not sure if he will answer…"

"Why wouldn't he answer?" Ty asked curiously, remote in hand.

Ziva bit her lip and paused before she pressed "call". Ty was extremely persistent in finding out why his parents weren't in contact and she wasn't quite sure how to handle this whole situation with him. With Isabella, it was easier to just tell her she would see Daddy later and the little girl would soon forget as soon as she saw a cookie in her mother's hand. With Ty, it was more complicated. He was older (even at four years) and took more notice to the situation in front of him the past month. It was rare for Tony not to call all the time when he was out of town, especially at bed time and she knew Ty was upset about that. She could only figure that the questions would keep coming, more often and that he would only get angrier once he realized that Tony was definitely not coming back.

"Mommy?" Ty repeated, staring at her in a quizzical matter and dropping the remote into the crack of the couch. "Ima?" He knew the Hebrew would get her attention.

Ziva snapped out of her train of thought, "Because he might be working. He's got a lot of cases happening now…" That was the best excuse she could come up with at the moment. At least it was half true. Tony could be at work this early at the moment, depending on the case so, she wasn't exactly lying… per se.

"He had lotsa' cases before?" Ty continued, testing the waters with Ziva.

Ziva pressed "call" quickly now, "Enough questions, let's see if Daddy is around." She tried, Isabella pulling the phone out of her hands.

"Dah-dee, dah-dee, dah-dee…" Isabella sang in a squeal into the phone, her lips close to the screen of the camera while she waited for her father to pick up the phone.

-x-

"Yeah, let's put that…." Tony drew along the words while he watched the movers carry his new couch into the room. "Right….there! Perfect!" He clapped, walking over and jumping onto the couch when the men walked away to continue carrying items in from the moving truck. When he plopped onto the couch, he took a moment to look around. His new apartment seemed small, cold or maybe that was because he didn't have much in it yet. He looked down, noting the couch he had just bought from the furniture store in SoHo seemed identical to the one they had at home…well, he had at his old home. It was the same brown leather, golden trimmings along the sides of each arm rest that Ziva had picked out for their house when they had moved in. He remembered that day like it just happened…

"Tony! It's perfect!" Ziva beamed, looking at the couch in front of him. "It will go with the gold trimmings on the wall."

"No piece of furniture is perfect until it gets the DiNozzo Sleep Seal of Approval!" Tony protested, walking over to sit down on the couch she was admiring. "Oh…" He moaned, his body sinking into the cushions. "Okay, okay, that's nice. You gotta try it, sweetcheeks."

Ziva rolled her eyes, taking a seat next to him. Her body sunk into the cushions next to him and she giggled.

"Mrs. DiNozzo, would you like to give this tremendous couch the DiNozzo Sleep Seal of Approval?" He smirked, leaning closer to her.

She leaned into him, their faces inches apart, "Mmm, I'm thinking this couch could get multiple seals of approval, not just for sleep, yes? No more rug burn…" Her breath was hot against his lips and he gulped, their interaction interrupted when they heard the store clerk clear his throat.

"We'll take it!" Tony excitedly yelled, jumping up off the couch while the customers around the store turning to see what the commotion was. "Can we get that loaded on a truck now? We're going to need that stat, my wife has some ideas for it." He wiggled his eyebrows, stopping when the clerk's face was covered in disgust. "Or… order it for pick up. I'm sure we can find somewhere else to complete our activit-" He received a punch in his gut and looked at Ziva with wide eyes. "What?! I'm just saying our new house has some really nice, newly painted walls-" Another punch to the gut.

"You'll have to excuse him." Ziva smiled at the clerk, "My husband will never leave the honeymoon phase."

"Leave it? Sweetcheeks, I wanna bask in it forever." He smirked, kissing her forehead before she could hit him again.

Tony sighed, leaning back into the new couch and suddenly craved for the warmth that had come along with it for so many years.

"Yo, this place is solid!" Mark laughed, walking into the apartment with the rest of Tony's team who carried boxes with them. Tony smiled, getting up off the couch and from his distant memory to help retrieve what was in their hands.

"Thank you guys for helping me out. I'm sorry it was such a short notice." Tony apologized, setting the boxes down on the ground.

"No problem." Lisa slowly walked through the door, a small box in her hands. Tony looked up at her, a serious expression showing up on his face.

"Boss, your wife must have sent the whole house here." Mark laughed, unaware of the situation.

"I'm sure she had her reasons." Lisa spit out, walking closer to Tony and running her hand down his chest quickly and setting down the small box onto the floor.

Tony's chest puffed out, an uncomfortable feeling taking over. "What did I tell you?"

"Oh, I remember you telling me to do a lot of things." She laughed, touching his chest again as the team watched in confusion.

Meanwhile, in the small kitchen, feet away, Tony's phone lay vibrating on the table as his eager children and still wife, waited for his answer.