Oh. My. Stars. A whole half year between updates. I am so sorry! Life has been crazily busy this year (in a good way, of course) and time just kept getting away from me.

Also, I felt this story didn't really have much direction – I sort of felt I was making it up as I went along. So I sat down one day and planned out the rest of this story, which means I actually know where I'm heading now! I had a rough idea, of course, but now I actually know exactly what's going to happen. Let's see if that speeds updates up at all and stops Kate from being pregnant for eternity.

Finally: thank you all for the fantastic response to the last chapter and the birthday wishes! I hope you're all still around and interested in this story because writing this chapter reminded me how much I enjoy writing Tate stories.

It seemed to happen suddenly. One day, she was comfortably wearing her normal clothes. The next, she was struggling to do up the zip on her skirt.

"Tony!" she called out, grateful he'd spent the night so she didn't have to go through this alone.

"What is it?" he asked, walking into the room, although the sight of Kate waging a war with her skirt gave him a pretty good idea.

"It won't fit," she pouted. "There must be something wrong with it – all of my other clothes fit. You try it."

"When was the last time you wore this?" he asked cautiously, walking up to her.

Kate shrugged. "I don't know. A week ago? A fortnight?"

Tony cocked his head to the side, trying to figure out the best way to tell Kate that the skirt probably wouldn't fit her for quite awhile now. Before he could work something out, Kate gave an impatient sigh and snapped. "Can't you just do it up? Please?"

Taking the zip in his hands, Tony stared down at the two pieces of fabric that had no chance of joining together.

"Aren't you going to try?"

"Well, what if..." Tony paused, wondering whether he should state his fear. "What if I squash the baby?"

"What?" Kate asked, turning around to face him.

"What if I squash the baby?" Tony repeated. He didn't know if it was possible but he knew that if the skirt did get zipped up somehow, it would be a big squish.

"You won't squash the baby by doing up a zip, Tony!" Kate cried in exasperation.

He let go of the zip and took a step back. Time to state the facts as plainly and simply as he could.

"It's not going to do up, Kate."

He expected her frustration to grow with that comment. For her to yell at him or something. Instead, she released a breath and it seemed her whole body deflated in defeat.

Sitting herself down on the edge of the bed, she looked up at Tony with sad eyes. "It's not going to fit," she conceded.

"But isn't that a good thing?" he asked, sitting next to her and taking her hand. "Don't you think it's exciting to see the baby growing?"

"It's not that," Kate said softly, shaking her head.

"Then what is it?"

"It's my grandmother," she began.

Oh, God. The miraculous grandmother again. Tony fought the urge to roll his eyes and tried to focus on being sympathetic instead.

"She was tiny. She said she didn't start showing until she was five months pregnant. I'm only four! I'm going to be huge and then my body will never be the same and, for all I know, I'll never be able to wear this skirt again!"

Kate stared at Tony, blinking back tears, and he pulled her into a hug, sighing. This grandmother was either, as Tony had said before, a freak of nature or a spectacular liar. Either way, she'd fed Kate these insecurities which, combined with her pregnancy hormones, led to a messy result.

"I'm sure that won't happen," he tried to reassure her. "Maybe your grandmother was exaggerating anyway."

"I doubt it," Kate mumbled, pulling out of the hug and getting up. "Anyway, I need to find something to wear or we'll be late for work."

She motioned for Tony to leave the room and waited until she heard the door shut behind him to pull off the skirt and throw it into the very back of her cupboard.

"How's my favourite desk-bound agent?" Abby cheerfully asked later that day, sitting on the edge of Kate's desk.

"Bored," she answered instantly.

"Until now! There's no way you can be bored when I'm here."

Kate leaned back in her chair, stifling the yawn that always came with the mid-afternoon slump and Abby's eyes popped open in surprise.

"Oh my God, it's a bump!" she squealed in delight.

Kate shot upright in chair. "Sh!" she hissed.

"Oh come on, there's no one here. And it's not like you can keep this from people forever."

Kate tried to think of something to respond with but before she had the chance, Abby had grabbed her hand and pulled her up to examine the bump again.

"It's so little!" she exclaimed. "And so exciting! Why are you hiding it? You should be showing it off. Wait – have you even bought any maternity clothes yet?"

Kate gave a sheepish look, about to respond, before Abby cut her off.

"Kate! You haven't, have you?"

"Some of my clothes still fit," she said defensively.

Abby shook her head solemnly. "Kate," she said seriously, "we're going shopping."

"Tony! We've been through this already. Kate needs more maternity clothes than maternity underwear."

"And I've told you that's nonsense. She doesn't have to wear a skirt every day or a dress every day but she does have to wear underwear every day."

"Just put them back!"

"Not until you've put back that goth-inspired jumpsuit."

Kate burrowed further into the corner of her change room. The upside was that she'd managed to put off shopping with Abby until the weekend.

The downside was that Tony had insisted on coming, too, so she was there with possibly the two least helpful people in the world.

A black t-shirt with skulls was proffered over the curtain to Kate's change room.

"Try this on, Kate!" came Abby's voice. "It's so cute!"

Kate hesitated, making no move to take the top. "I don't think it's really...me, Abby."

She heard a sigh before the clothing swiftly disappeared.

A moment later, a head and an armful of underwear poked through the curtain as Kate was pulling on a dress she'd selected.

"Okay. She's gone. For the moment, anyway. Try these on!" came Tony's voice, making Kate jump.

"Tony!"

"What? It's nothing I haven't seen before. And the dress was pretty much on. Just try these on!"

Kate looked down at his armful of underwear and briefly closed her eyes.

"Quick – take them before she gets back."

Kate looked at his selection again. There were some things that were nice, actually. And it was an essential part of her maternity wardrobe. She quickly grabbed the items and Tony's face broke into a smile.

"That's my girl!" he said gleefully, before stepping out and pulling the curtain shut behind him.

Kate woke with a start, suppressing a groan at having her sleep disturbed. Tony snored softly beside her and she opened her eyes, accepting that sleep wasn't about to return.

It took her a moment to realise where she was. The red glow of the clock on the bedside table and the slightly rougher feeling sheets were tip-offs that she wasn't at her place. She didn't often spend the night at Tony's – somehow, it had worked out so they virtually always stayed over at her place.

She was wide awake now but she still closed her eyes and pulled the covers up over her in a vain attempt to go back to sleep. It didn't work. The longer she tried to go to sleep, the more she realised it couldn't happen: she was thirsty and hungry. Sleep wouldn't come until those needs had been taken care of.

She slipped out of the room as quietly as she could, careful not to wake Tony up, and made her way to the kitchen.

One of the things that had surprised her about Tony's place was that it actually wasn't that shabby. Before they'd got together, she'd conjured up visions of dishes that hadn't been washed for days, magazines piled up next to the toilet. And she had happily been proved wrong.

She was reminded of this fact as she fumbled about in his kitchen, trying to find everything she needed in the well-stocked fridge and the drawers filled with utensils. As much as she hated to admit it, his place was possibly even better equipped than hers.

It was certainly bigger than hers, Kate admitted as she wandered into the living room, waiting for her toast to cook. Her eyes scanned the space and before she knew what she was doing, she was envisioning kids' toys strewn about the room. Possibly even a bouncer in that corner.

Opening the adjoining door to his spare room, the fantasy continued. It was the perfect size for a baby's room – better than her shoebox excuse of a spare room, anyway. A crib could fit right there, with room for a change table and maybe even a chair to nurse the baby to sleep on. She could almost see the baby in her arms, swaddled in blankets, and Tony, somewhere close by.

The sound of the toast popping up brought Kate back to reality and back to the kitchen but she couldn't shake the image of living here as a little family, with Tony and the baby, from her mind.

It just seemed right.

Getting back into bed several minutes later, she couldn't help but cuddle up to Tony, nestling her face in his chest.

"Kate?" he mumbled sleepily. "What is it?"

"Nothing," she whispered.

Except for the first time, she could see herself – really see herself – as Kate DiNozzo.

That moment at Tony's wasn't enough to make Kate give him an answer of yes. But it was enough to make that one word form on the tip of her tongue. She just couldn't get it out until her mind had been settled further – until she found out just that bit more.

The cold weather didn't stop kids from coming out and playing in the park. Kate looked across at the playground, holding Tony's hand as they walked through the park. He stopped walking and followed her gaze.

"Hard to imagine we'll have a baby in five months, isn't it?" she asked as he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her against him.

"You know," Tony said, looking over at a girl with pigtails on the slippery dip, "I had a dream we had a girl the other night."

He continued looking over until he felt her body shaking with silent laughter. "What?" he asked.

"Ever since we went to my parents', I've been feeling the baby's a boy."

"It's a girl," Tony said with great certainty. "I'm sure you only think it's a boy now because you want to prove your mother wrong and follow the family tradition."

Kate shook her head. "It's a boy."

"Well, it's not too long until we end this and find out what the baby is."

"You want to find out the gender?" she asked, turning around to face him.

"Don't you?"

"I thought it would be nice to have a delivery surprise."

"I thought you'd want to be able to plan everything."

"We don't need to know what the baby is to be able to plan everything."

"Yeah, but don't you think it would be nice to know?" Tony asked.

"I'd rather wait until the baby's born to find out."

Kate looked across at the playground again, a frown forming on her face.

"What is it?"

"How many kids do you want, Tony?" she asked, turning back to look him directly in the eyes.

"I don't know," he said with a shrug. "Four?"

Kate's eyebrows shot up and he immediately changed his answer. "Maybe three?"

He noted with relief that her eyebrows had almost returned to their normal height.

"How many do you want?" he asked her.

"Two," she answered immediately.

It was Tony's turn to frown. "I thought that since you came from a big family, you'd want a big family."

Kate shook her head. "Mum did a good job raising all of us but she didn't work. I want to keep working. And even though she did a good job, I still often felt like she didn't have much time for me. I don't want my kids to feel that way."

"Oh."

"And you want three or four."

"I just thought it would be nice to have a big family. But anyway, who knows? Maybe one baby will be enough for us. Or maybe we'll end up having a football team. I guess we won't know until this one's born."

"I suppose."

She took his hand and continued walking through the park, making their way back to her place. They walked the last part quickly, to avoid the cold, and happily shrugged out of their coat and jacket once they were back in the warmth of Kate's apartment.

"Okay, what is it?" he asked, almost as soon as they got back in.

"What?"

He walked close to her, sliding his arms around her waist. "You've been quiet ever since we had that talk about kids."

She bit her lip, frowning again. "Doesn't it bother you that we can't agree on anything?"

"What? We can't agree on the gender of the baby, or how many kids we should have but we both agree we want kids?"

She released her lip, considering what he'd just said.

"Call me crazy, Kate, but I don't think we're disagreeing on the most important things."

"You're right," she said, sounding almost surprised.

"Of course I am," he said, before giving her a kiss.

She draped her arms around his neck and looked at him carefully. "And you really think you want to marry me?"

"I know I want to marry you, Kate."

"Once I get married, Tony, that's it. I'm only doing it once – divorce is not an option for me. Would you be okay with that?"

He nodded. "I won't leave you. Marriage wouldn't be some temporary thing for me."

"Good," she said with a smile.

"Does that mean I'm getting a 'yes' to my proposal now?"

"It means I'm thinking about it very, very carefully."

Tony smiled. "Well, that's one step closer to a 'yes'," he said, before kissing her again.

At first, she thought she imagined it.

She was sitting at her desk, in the midst of some paperwork, when she could swear she felt the baby move.

Stopping what she was doing, she sat completely still. It had been so gentle – it hadn't felt like much more than a fluttering sensation – that seconds later, as she was waiting for a repeat performance, she convinced herself it had been in her mind.

Even so, she waited another minute or so just in case it had been real before she returned to her work.

Almost as soon as she settled back into her work, her face broke into a smile: there it was again, the fluttering feeling. The baby moving. It hadn't been her imagination.

She was completely distracted now. Her hand reached for the phone, toying with the idea of calling Tony but she knew she couldn't: he was out with Gibbs and McGee. And the fact that she wanted him to be the first to know was the only thing stopping her from running to Abby's lab.

She was glad to hear someone walking towards her, just to have an excuse not to have to focus on the damn paperwork. She looked up to see who her saviour was, smiling as she saw McGee.

He didn't return the smile. He hurried over to her, his face pale, and her smile disappeared from her face as she felt concern creep into her.

"Kate, you've got to come with me."

She looked up at him, her blood turning to ice. "What is it?" she asked in a whisper. "Is it Gibbs?"

He shook his head and she noticed his whole body was shaking as her heart dropped somewhere around her feet.

"It's Tony."

What happened to Tony?

Did he die?

Did he get seriously injured?

Did he decide to drop out of society to live as a unicorn, as per the facebook group?

Will I have mercy on the souls of Tate lovers?

Will Tate lovers forgive me for having to wait so long between updates?

Let me know, and:

REVIEW!

(Pretty please.)