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It was probably not a sign of good things to come in the new year that the previous year ended with illness, Tony couldn’t help but think. The flu had ravaged the David-DiNozzo household, with Ziva being the third (and hopefully final) victim.
Tali had come home from school on the last day before break with a high fever looking absolutely miserable. Ziva had stayed up most of the night with her as she threw up more than such a tiny stomach should be able to hold. The following day, the doctor had been so alarmed he had sent Tali to the hospital for IV fluids.
Ziva had scrubbed the house spotless after returning home with Tali the next morning, but that didn’t stop Tony from falling ill Christmas morning with eerily familiar symptoms. Ziva had immediately started pumping him with fluids and made him a doctors appointment the following day that she had attended with him. When she discovered he had forgotten to take a dose of the medication they gave him the next day, she started administering it herself and told him that he was more of a baby than their daughter had been when she had stayed the night in the hospital.
Tony had been none too thrilled with that comment but continued to let Ziva nurse him back to health (what choice did he have?). He was feeling much more himself by day three of the virus, just in time to see Ziva starting to get very pale.
By the following morning, Tony was almost back to 100%, and Ziva was down for the count. Tony offered to make a doctor’s appointment as she had done for him, but she had scoffed. “We know what this is. And they can only treat the symptoms. There is no point.”
“You make me and Tali go, but you refuse to go yourself? How does that make sense?”
“I will be fine,” had been her only response.
And so he had watched her continue suffering through, silently getting her to drink as much water as possible and take Tylenol around the clock.
By New Year’s Eve, a night when they usually would have left Tali with a babysitter for a rare night out on the town, her fever had broken, but she was still feeling thoroughly miserable- stuffy nose, nausea, and achy. Tony found himself putting Tali to bed alone at the usual 8:30 while Ziva dozed on the couch.
Around 10:30, after a few hours of watching the usual New Year’s Eve coverage on TV, and when it became apparent that Ziva would not wake on her own, he had gently shaken her shoulder “Maybe we should both head to bed…?” He suggested to her softly. She had simply nodded and slowly got up from the couch and made her way to the bedroom.
Tony ensured all the lights were off, and the door was bolted shut and went to join her in the bedroom of their tiny Paris apartment. What an end to the year, he thought.
“Can you toss me some pajamas?” Tony asked as he saw her squat down to pull her own out of the dresser.
Ziva nodded, and went to stand up to hand him his clothes, when her face blanched and she started swaying as if she were about to pass out.
Tony was by her side in an instant, leading her to the bed. “Sit,” he directed her, and it was a sign of how terrible she must have been feeling that she complied without complaint. “Enough is enough. I know you hate doctors probing you, but this has gone on long enough. We’re making you a doctors appointment tomorrow,” he declared.
“That is really not necessary,” Ziva tried to argue.
“Then we can go to the hospital now,” Tony suggested. “You were about to pass out just now.”
“Fine,” she finally conceded. “I will call in the morning.”
Tony nodded and reached behind him to hand her the pajamas she had been about to put on, before he disappeared into the connected bathroom to brush his teeth.
When he returned, Ziva was already laying in bed on her right side facing away from him, as per usual.
He got into bed and turned off the lights, noting that the nightlight Ziva liked to sleep with had automatically come on with the sudden darkness.
Ziva felt Tony scoot across the bed until his chest was pressed into her back. He wrapped his left arm around her middle, and pressed a kiss to the place where her neck met her shoulder. “Mmm... you should not get so close. You could get sick again,” she warned. He could tell she was already getting drowsy again.
“I’ll take my chances,” he whispered.
“I do not understand It,” she continued. ”I never get sick.”
“I think this is how life goes with a first grader,” Tony responded. “She gets sick and passes it on to the whole house. Never let it be said that our daughter doesn’t share.” He heard her laugh softly in the dark. “You should really get some sleep.”
But still, Ziva continued, “I have not been this sick in years.” She was silent for a few seconds, but then picked back up again. “I do not even usually get colds. It makes no sense. I do not think I have been this sick since I was-“ and she stopped dead in the middle of the sentence.
Tony felt her tense up, and suddenly Ziva had turned in his arms to look him dead in the eyes, her own eyes looking slightly panicked. “Since you were what?” He prompted.
“Since I was pregnant.”
They both looked at each other for several seconds in heavy silence before Ziva started rambling nervously, “But that cannot be it, can it? Surely I just caught the flu from you and Tali. Nevermind. That makes even less sense. Please just forget I even mentioned it.”
“You can’t really expect me to do that,” he said. He turned on his bedside light to give her some time to think, and when she didn’t say anything, Tony decided to ask the obvious question. “Is it possible?”
He could see the wheels turning in her mind as she thought about it. “It’s possible,” was her eventual response.
He suddenly couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Say something. Literally anything! His mind kept telling him, as he could see the anxiety growing in her eyes. But his mouth couldn’t seem to form any words.
It became apparent that Ziva was taking his silence to mean he wasn’t thrilled with the possibility, because the next thing out of her mouth was, “Tony, please say something.” Tony, where are you going?”
His mind was still devoid of any coherent thought. Until one popped into his head, and he immediately got out of bed and pulled the jeans he had left on the floor earlier over the boxers he had worn to bed. Now Ziva seemed speechless.
But when he started walking toward the door, Ziva came to her senses. “Wait! Tony, where are you going?”
He turned to look at her from the doorway with a smile, “To go buy a pregnancy test.”
And before Ziva could object, he had left the room.
When he returned from the pharmacy down the street about 30 minutes later, Tony found Ziva pacing their bedroom waiting for him.
“This could have waited until morning,” she said, though she held out her hand for the box and immediately walked into the en-suite bathroom. “You did not have to go out so late.” He followed her into the bathroom as she was disappearing behind the door that separated the toilet from the rest of the room.
“It’s actually fairly early for New Year’s Eve,” he countered, calling to Ziva through the door, “and neither of us was going to sleep until we did this.”
Tony waited in silence until he heard the toilet flush. Ziva opened the door, placed the test in one of the sinks, and washed her hands in the other, then turned around and leaned back against the vanity. Tony set his phone timer for three minutes and put it back in his pocket.
They watched each other for almost a full minute before she broke the silence, asking, “Are you okay?”
He couldn’t believe she had been the one asking him . “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?” He asked with a smile.
“How are you so calm about this?” She asked, ignoring his question.
He moved forward and wrapped his arms around her. “Because one of us needs to be, and I don’t think you are,” he responded softly.
She laughed into his chest, a response that surprised him. “You should have seen me when I realized I might be pregnant with Tali,” she explained. “I was far more anxious than I am tonight.”
“Tell me,” Tony replied simply.
“That was so long ago,” Ziva responded slowly. “It does not matter anymore.”
“ You matter to me.”
He heard her sigh, and she remained silent for a while before finally responding, “I just felt so alone. I felt like I had no right to call you after I had asked you to leave. You were in DC, and I was in Israel, and I could not ask you to give up your life for me. And I knew that was what you would do if I called you.”
Tony felt his phone vibrate in his pocket signaling the three minutes as up. Ziva didn’t seem to notice. “Why aren’t you anxious now?” He prompted.
“Because I am home,” she said simply. “I did not even know what home was after I left DC.”
“Do you think of Paris as home now?”
“My home is wherever you are. I realized years ago that I could not live my life without you. And when I tried, it was the hardest thing I have ever done. So no matter what happens, as long as you are there, it will be okay.”
Ziva shifted in his arms, and Tony kissed the top of her head. He held her for several minutes, listening to her breathe slowly, before he felt her look to the side toward where the test lay. “The timer has probably gone off by now,” she said softly.
“Yeah, it’s after midnight by now.”
“I do not think I can look.”
“Why don’t you go sit down, and I’ll look?” Tony suggested. She nodded, and he kissed her forehead again before he dropped his arms that were still wrapped around her. She stood up straighter and walked out to the bedroom again.
He watched as she started to pace the bedroom again, clearly not in a mood to lay down and relax. Tony felt the nauseous feeling in his stomach that signaled nerves. So much for staying calm , he thought.
But with every passing second, he could feel Ziva’s anxiety growing. He could not keep her waiting. Tony glanced at the test in the sink and saw two pink lines. Holy shit .
Tony left the test in the sink and stood in the doorway, still watching Ziva. “Well?” She asked, suddenly stopping her pacing.
He couldn’t speak. She was...they were…
Tony’s legs carried him forward until he was standing right in front of her, and his lips met hers in a deep kiss. He pushed her back until they both tumbled into the bed, and Ziva was laughing against his mouth.
“Really?” She asked.
“Really.”
“And you’re really happy about this?”
He kissed her again in response.
Maybe it would be a good year after all.