Warnings: Slight spoilers for S13

A/N: Here is the last chapter! The beginning of the sequel has already been posted. Feedback is always appreciated :)

amaia- I'm still trying to piece together a head canon, but I don't think Tali was at the farmhouse when the fire broke out. I've been trying to throw little bits of foreshadowing in for a future story, and Tali's line was one of them :)

Sometime in the middle of the night Tony felt the king sized bed shift. Opening his eyes, he glanced over his shoulder to see Tali lodge herself between him and Leah.

Tony was about to roll over and remove her from the bed and return her to her own, when Leah's eyes opened and she shook her head at him. Normally they wouldn't let the kids sleep in their bed, but tonight, perhaps they should be making an exception. He gently rolled over now, watching as Tali fell into a deep slumber, snuggled up to her stepmother.

Leah ran her fingers through the little girl's curls and kissed them. Resting her arm over Tali, she soon fell back to sleep as well, leaving Tony the only one still awake. He reached out and lightly traced his fingers over his wife's knuckles and then through his daughter's hair.

Tali had been clingy since coming home that afternoon. It had taken Tony a long time to get her to fall asleep in her own bed that night. He wasn't surprised that she had found her way into the master bedroom and into her parents' bed. After things had settled down in the house that afternoon, Tony had tried to call Director Elbaz—he needed to know what Tali's comments about Ziva taking her away meant. Had Ziva been aware that they were in danger and tried to get Tali to safety?

"Anthony," Leah mumbled, alerting him that she was not sleeping, "Try to sleep. Stop beating yourself up."

"What if she knew Leah?" Tony questioned. "If she knew that meant she wasn't comfortable calling NCIS."

Leah's eyes opened and she looked at him, sadly. "Maybe she didn't know who was after her and why."

Tony shook his head and sighed, heavily. "I don't know. I can't stop thinking about what Tali said today."

"Honey, she's two; we don't know what she really meant."

"I hope it meant nothing."

"She's still confused, Tony. I know it's been almost a year but… time means nothing to a child."

He took a deep breath and propped himself up onto his elbow. Tony leaned over his daughter and kissed his wife, tenderly. He whispered for her to go back to sleep.

She snuggled underneath the covers and soon Leah actually fell back to sleep, leaving her husband the only one still awake—still thinking about what Tali had said and the implications that came with it.

Tim was sent on the task of finding Tony the following morning. He had arrived for work and dropped his gear, soon disappearing afterwards. Problem was, they now had a call out and Gibbs was steaming mad that the SFA was nowhere to be found.

Gibbs and Ellie had gone ahead of Tim and Tony, to meet Ducky and Jimmy at the crime scene, leaving Tim in charge of tracking down the senior field agent. He was instructed by the former marine to "give him the hardest slap to the back of his head he's ever felt"

He finally ended up finding Tony in MTAC, talking with a man that Tim immediately recognized from Ziva's funeral—Adam Eschel. Why was Tony contacting Eschel? They had no cases involving Mossad at the current time, it was like Vance was doing his best to avoid the foreign agency.

"I was not even aware Ziva had a baby until the funeral," Adam confessed. "She kept in touch but at a distance. I always figured it was because she was breaking away from Mossad—not because she had a child."

"So, she wasn't working back at Mossad when she died?" Tony questioned. "I know that Tali is only two, but a normal two-year-old would not request that my wife and I did not take her away like Ima did."

Adam shook his head. "If she came back to Mossad, I was not aware of it."

Tony sighed and thanked him before signing off. "Dead end," he muttered to himself before turning to find Tim standing there, starting at him. "Great, let me guess...I missed a call out."

Tim frowned. "We've been searching all over the building for you—Gibbs is pissed. He wanted me to give you the hardest head slap of your life."

"Well, we better get moving then," Tony said with a chuckle. "Or has the boss left without us."

"He left without us," Tim replied with a wince. "Why were you talking to Eschel?"

"Something Tali said last night," Tony confessed.

"A two year old had you rushing in here to talk to Mossad?" Tim questioned, a confused look on his face.

"She asked Leah not to take her away like Ima."

"Wait? What?"

Tony sighed. "My thoughts exactly."

Tim noticed the slight circles underneath Tony's eyes. Tali's comment had kept him up all night. "Do you think Ziva knew there was trouble coming? That she and Tali were probably in danger?"

He wasn't sure. So many thoughts had run through his head since Tali had returned home yesterday afternoon. Since Ziva's remains had never been recovered in the ashes after the fire, Tony had held onto some hope that she had survived and would be following Tali. He envisioned her finally returning to Washington, coming back to the family, where their daughter had both her parents in her life. Months after the fire and the funeral in Israel, Tony realized that the chances of Ziva surviving that fire were slim—and she never would have left Tali for that long. While he struggled with the theory that Ziva had gotten Tali out of the farmhouse before succumbing to smoke inhalation, it was the only one that made sense at that point.

Now, what if Ziva was aware that someone was looking for those files? If NCIS knew about Jacob Scott, Mossad had to have known as well. Surely, Elbaz would have warned Ziva. "I think she did know trouble was coming. She left Tali in a safe place and went back to the farmhouse for whatever reason—maybe to destroy the files—and the hitman fired his RPG."

"We should have sent someone to Israel the moment we found out Kort was looking for her," Tim muttered.

"Would it have mattered, Tim?" Tony asked, honestly.

"Yes—I like to think it would—she'd be alive."

"And my life would be even more complicated—but at least Tali would have her mother."

Tim shuffled his feet. The longer they stood there talking about this, the longer they were away from the case—and Gibbs was only going to get angrier. "Might be one of those times we'll never find the truth."

Tony grunted and glanced at his watch. "We better get a move on before Gibbs blows. It won't be a pretty sight if that happens and I'm in no mood to clean up that mess today, you?"

"God, no."

"Sounds about right. Let's go. Don't worry, either, I'll let Gibbs head slap me and not you."

Leah was the only one still up by the time Tony made it home that night. She was wearing a crew cut sweatshirt and flannel pants, sitting in front of a fire. "I called Dr. Bellamy this afternoon."

Tony slipped out of his jacket and hung it up in the closet. Dr. Bellamy was their family counselor; she had helped the couple through their marital problems, helped Tony through his depression, and once a month she would check in with Tali. "And?"

"She wants to see Tali this week," Leah replied. "She thought the comment was odd too."

"Did she have any insight on where it came from?" Tony asked.

"Tali's memories are jumbled because she's young. It might feel like Ziva just took her away from her home and left her here. She thinks it's time that we start to explain to her that her mother is dead, and she is not coming back," she said with a sad sigh.

"Explaining death to a child isn't easy. She's two and a half. Is she going to understand what we're really saying? Or are we going to make matters worse?" he countered.

Leah unwound her legs and shifted on the sofa. "That's why Dr. Bellamy wants to see her first. She recommended some materials for us, books we can read, books we can read to Tali, and maybe Jack as well. He's going to start to question why Tali calls you abba and not daddy."

Tony sat down with her and rubbed his hands over his face. She had told him how Eric had observed that his children called him two different names; Jack was just as intelligent. "Any books for those situations? My Daddy had a One Night Stand and now I Have a Sister…"

She glanced at him, sternly. "Anthony."

He sighed and collapsed backwards, against the cushions. "Hey, I could have said My Daddy Couldn't Keep it In His Pants…"

"Clearly, because you will have three children in four years," Leah teased him.

"Hey!" Tony snapped.

"You brought it up; not me."

"Just rub more salt into the wound why don't you?"

Leah smiled, sweetly at him and leaned over. She rested her hand on his chest and kissed his mouth. "I think explaining to Tali and Jack that they have different mothers is going to be easier than you think; children are very tolerant at a young age—it's the adults that foster the intolerance."

Tony wrapped his arm around his wife, drawing her closer and resting her head against his shoulder. His fingers lazily slipped through her hair. "Dr. Bellamy must think I'm the worst man in the entire world."

She kissed his cheek. "Tony, you're not a bad man. Look at what you did this week alone—you helped a lost little boy find a family. Eric is the happiest he has ever been; you should have seen him today when he stopped by, how excited he was for school, calling Breena mom."

He eased, slightly. "Really?"

"Really. You beat yourself up too much."

"So you keep telling me and I keep forgetting."

Upstairs they could hear Tali calling for Leah. Gently she leaned over, kissed Tony and headed up to the little girl's room to help settle her down for the evening.

Tony sighed and got to his feet. In the kitchen there was a stack of photo frames, he recognized them as the ones that Leah kept in the entrance and liked to put new photographs in them every couple of months. In the top frame was a recent picture, probably taken that afternoon of Eric Barnes with Tali, Jack, and Victoria. In the picture all he saw were four kids that were happy, loved, and he realized that was the promise of family.