I know this is super short in comparison to the other chapters of the story and for that i'm sorry. this is a filler chapter to just sloooow things down a bit. I'm so sorry its been this long for an update. I just finished this like right now and its 3 am where i love but you guys deserve an update so her you go. I will have an update for my other story S.O.T.F soon.

Heres the chapter anyway. If anything at all seems confusing or like off just message me and i'll catch you up on the bits you dont get or just dont remember.

Disclaimer: i dont own NCIS or any of its characters

"You okay?" Tony asked carefully when they entered their apartment. He knew Ziva was annoyed with him- although he didn't know the reasoning behind it- and he definitely didn't want to further her frustration. Ziva glared at him not even bothering to answer him. She was hungry, sore, grouchy -the list could go on- and she wanted to stay at NCIS and at least observe Gibbs interrogate Naji instead of sitting around doing absolutely nothing at home.

She knew they were all hiding something from her. After leaving Naji in interrogation Gibbs received a phone call from McGee resulting in a grim look overtaking his features. He quickly updated Tony on whatever was going on but he spoke in such a hushed tone that it set off alarm bells in the pregnant Israeli's head. Especially after he sent her home. She knew Gibbs didn't want her to hear whatever he was saying to Tony and slowly but surely it was driving her insane trying to figure out what could have possibly happened in the 4 hours she had been gone.

"Are you going to tell me what has happened?" Ziva finally snapped after about 10 minutes of silence. Tony had been sitting on the sofa, caught up in his thoughts and when he looked up at her he could see the look in her eyes; determination...

Tony sighed. He was silent for a few seconds contemplating his response as Ziva stood two feet away, her left hand on her hip in impatience, the other hand subconsciously resting on her growing stomach which by now- at four months along- was already slightly larger than Abby's and she was in her sixth month.

Tony scratched the back of his head nervously. He smiled as he tried to act clueless- he'd figured that was his best shot, "What do you mean?"

She raised her eyebrows; not buying his act for one minute.

"You and Gibbs have been acting shaded sin-"

"Uh, Zee, I think you mean shady"

"Same difference" she scowled at him, " Anyway, as I was saying, you both have been acting shady since Gibbs got that phone call from McGee and even before that you both were acting odd."

Tony feigned oblivion.

"Tony" Ziva said in a warning tone, signifying that her patience was wearing quite thin.

"We found Amanda" he said, hoping she would take that as his answer and not dig deeper.

She looked at him confused, "Amanda who?"

"Amanda Phillips... from the, uh, murder case we had a few months ago."

"You found her body?"

"No- Well yeah- we found her, but she's not dead... well, actually, I'm not sure. Probie went to the hospital with her. Amanda's on life support. Apparently she had internal bleeding and it put her heart under a lot of stress or something like that. She had minor heart failure because of it but the doctors revived her. Its touch and go now. We need her statement but..." he trailed off not needing to finish the sentence.

Ziva's faced scrunched up in confusion. There was so many things she just didn't understand.

"Did we not get a confession from her colleague saying that she killed her?" she asked as she opted to join him on the couch, her feet starting to hurt as she stood.

Tony groaned inwardly. She was digging, like he had half expected her to but neither Gibbs nor himself wanted to mention anything about Abby yet just in case it wasn't what they suspected.

They all knew Ziva and they all knew what she would do; regardless of the consequences. She would do everything in her power to help. She and Abby were always close to begin with- well after Abby finally gave in and admitted to herself that Ziva was kind of nice and that she wasn't replacing Kate- but they had become even more so in the past few months and Ziva definitely wouldn't willingly sit helplessly on the sidelines when she could be helping her friend.

"Tony?"

"Yeah, she did...but she lied"

"Why?"

"For Yasir"

"Yasir, as in Yasir Admon?" her eyebrows rose considerably.

"Yeah, the two cases are actually connected. It's kind of a long story..." he scratched the back of his head again as she took the information in.

She looked at him skeptically, "Tony I am pregnant, not an imbecile! What else is going on."

"Ziva, it might not be what we thi-"

"Tell me" she snapped, scorning his excuse.

"We don't want you to worry..." he tried reasoning and failed miserably at it.

"We? Who is we Tony? You, Gibbs and McGee? I can look after myself, I do not need you all deciding what you will and will not tell me. We are a team, yes? Teams tell each other everything. It does not work any other way."

Tony frowned. He knew she wouldn't give it up.

"Ziva, McGee doesn't know either..."

"Oh..."she chuckled sarcastically as she shot daggers at Tony, "So it's that way now? You and Gibbs the old two man team again? News dash Tony-"

"Flash Ziva its flash" he snapped.

"Tishtok!" Ziva yelled, "Tell me what is going on rightnow unless you wish to die!"

He scowled at her.

"Abby's missing! There! You happy?" he barked as he rubbed his stressed face with his palm.

The anger slowly faded from her face as she processed the information she had just received. Abby? Missing? As the gravity of the situation finally surfaced in her mind she looked at Tony, astonished.

"You and Gibbs have not told McGee?!" she exclaimed as she remembered Tony telling her.

"No. Gibbs said not to, he said it would wo-"

"Tony, just because Gibbs said so is not a good enough reason. Abby is his girlfriend, she's carrying their baby. Right now you have him sitting in the hospital thinking everything is okay, when in fact, something really bad could be happening at this very moment!"

"Gibbs sai-"

"Rule 51 Tony" she pointed out cutting him off, "Gibbs is not always right"

Tony was silent for a moment contemplating her words. She was right. Damn he thought she's always freakin' right!

"I'll call him" he stated.

"No. You will go and tell him in person" she said leaving no room for arguments, "If you phone him there will be no one to stop him from going out and doing something he will regret"

"Okay, Okay!" he said with his hands up in a surrender gesture, "I'll go tell him..."

"But?" Ziva pried, "I sense there is a but."

"I'll go tell McGee, but, you are coming with. I'm not leaving you alone'

She rolled her eyes "I am not an infant, I can look after myself."

Tony gave her a disgruntled look. Trust Ziva to be back to normal- well at least acting normal- in such a short space of time after what she'd been objectified to. He hated her putting on the 'I'm fine' façade because he- unlike most people- saw right through it.

Although she was physically fine after it all, he knew the whole situation was bringing bad memories... he saw the look on her face when he and Gibbs arrived. It was the same look she had given him when Salim took the bag off of her head in Somalia.

It seemed as though, even with her relief to see him prominent in her facial expression her eyes conveyed everything past strong ninja exterior. All the emotions that she hid, or at least tried to.

"Ziva you are coming, end of story." he said grabbing her hand.

She bit back the urge to fight and argue with him some more because in all honesty, she was exhausted even though in actual fact it was only just 1300.

As Tony locked up the door, he turned back to her with a curious look.

"What does... tisck tock mean?" he inquired suddenly remembering the words she had yelled at him but he failed to pronounce the word correctly.

"You mean, tishtok, yes?"

He nodded as they continued the journey to his car, their newly acquired SUV still wrapped around a tree.

"It means shut up, in Hebrew" she explained.

"I thought that was Sheckkit bevah kusha"

"Sheket bevakesha. And, no, that actually means 'be quiet please'... I did not feel like asking nicely" she elaborated, glaring slightly at him telling him that he was not off the hook for treating her like a child.

Tony sighed, she was just as stubborn as usual.

In the car ride no one said a single word. Tony was worrying about how he was going to tell McGee and he was wondering how he would take the news. There was no telling how he would react, though. He could either explode with anger like Tony or he could be completely civil about it not making a show of himself in public.

Usually McGee was quiet but it was Abby they were talking about here. Everyone knew how protective he was of her...

i hope that was enough to tide you guys over. i feel horrible for leaving it so long to update. but anyways... i guess i should wish you guys a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy new year :)

leave a review if you'd like, i enjoy all of your feedback :) oh and if you have anything you'd really really like to see happen in this story after all the drama is kind of sorted (or if you'd like something to happen during the drama leave a suggestion) leave a comment and i'll be sure to try and incorporate most of them all in the story if theyre do-able.

Oh and i was just a little curious if anyone who's a beta-reader whos been reading this would be interested in beta-ing the rest? Because theres 20 chapters now and it would help if it was someone who kind of knew the story. Im just curious, but anywho...

Choi from cherrycafpow ;) x