Jenny settled back into her position of director easily, with Vance stepping down gracefully (and gratefully) and her old contacts glad to have back a director that they knew and trusted. Even Director David, who had a close relationship with Leon Vance, was glad to see Jenny back in charge of the agency.

Meanwhile, Gibbs team was still unsettled by Ziva's notable absence in the field. For her part, despite her temporary role as Abby's assistant, Ziva was crawling up the walls, impatient for the baby to be born so that she be active once again.

Ziva reclined on the couch in Abby's office, rubbing her head. Her back had been hurting all morning and, if she remembered the sensations correctly, she was fairly certain that she was in labor. She wished she could remember Aliyah's birth more clearly, but at the time it had seemed more prudent, not to mention easier, to block out those memories.

Okay, yeah. That's definitely a contraction, she thought as a sharp pain went shooting up her spine. Ziva sighed quietly, unwilling to alert anyone quite yet. Gibbs and Abby, she knew, would overreact and she was not planning on spending the whole day in the hospital when her water had not even broken yet. At the next contraction, Ziva began counting, keeping track of both the length of contractions and the space between them.

Abby kept looking into the back office at Ziva, concerned by her silence and complacency. Ziva was usually all over the lab, checking all of her work and bugging Abby to give her more assignments to stave off the boredom that accompanied being out of the field. This morning, however, she had largely remained on the couch in the back office, staring off into space.

Abby signed to Ziva that she was going upstairs and, after Ziva nodded acknowledgement, went out to the elevator to go talk to Gibbs.

"I'm really worried about her. Seriously. She's really quiet and still and...."

"Abs, she's probably just tired. After all, she is 38 weeks pregnant. And she hasn't exactly been taking it easy these past 9 months. I'll come check on you guys when I finish up this report."

"Gibbs!"

"30 minutes at the most, Abs. If anything changes before I get down there, you know how to get ahold of me."

Abby sighed and leaned into Gibbs' reassuring hug.

"How ya feelin', Ziver?"

Ziva took a deep breath, preparing to talk in the middle of a contraction to allay suspicions.

"I'm fine. Just tired," she replied a little more snippishly than she had intended.

"Uh-huh..." Gibbs respondedd without conviction, bending down to the level of Ziva's face and looking in her eye.

Ziva could not stop the flash of pain that flitted across her eyes as the contraction's intensity increased and Gibbs easily caught the look.

"I'm going to get the car. Abs, call her doctor and tell her that Ziva's in labor and we're on the way to the hospital."

"But the contractions aren't even..." Ziva began to protest. Her voice cut off, however, when she realized that Gibbs was already out of the room and Abby was beyond reason.

Ziva's lay in the hospital bed, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge her pain.

"Baby, it's okay to express yourself."

"I'll leave if you want me to, Ziver, but you've cried in front of me before; you know I won't think any less of you for crying right now. Acknowledging pain doesn't make you weak."

Ziva just sighed, pushing down the whimper that wanted to follow an especially strong contraction. I got through this at 15 without betraying any emotions; I'm not about to cry now.

"Z, baby, please, just tell me how you're feeling."

"I'm fine, sweetie. Really. I've dealt with much worse pain than this."

The doctor pushed open the door, breaking up the tense moment just before Abby exploded with frustration.

"Hello, Ziva. How are you feeling?" she asked as she glanced first at Ziva's chart and then at the monitor that was tracking both the fetal heart beat and Ziva's contractions.

"Everything looks alright. Let me just go ahead and check your dilation and we'll see how we want to proceed from there."

Ziva nodded and shifted to allow the doctor better access to her pelvis, nose twitching as the cold gloves hit her skin.

"Well, Ziva, you're progressing a lot more quickly than I expected. You're just short of 10 cm right now, so I'm going to go ahead and have you taken up to delivery. This should be over fairly soon! Do you want Mr. Gibbs and Ms. Sciuto to accompany you to delivery?"

Ziva nodded, breathing through another contraction.

Soon she, Gibbs, and Abby were in the delivery, Gibbs attempting to calm Abby while the staff prepped for the imminent birth.

Approximately an hour later, Ziva lay in the recovery room, Abby snuggled up to her side, nursing their new son while Gibbs smiled deliriously and took picture after picture, wanting to document every second of his grandson's life.

The next morning, the team arrived at 10am to meet their newest family member. Abby and Ziva decided to let Gibbs introduce their son to the team so, with Tony, Ducky, McGee, Jenny, and Palmer standing around the bed, Gibbs proudly displayed the baby and said, "We would like for you all to meet Caleb Ari Sciuto-David."

The following hour consisted of excited chatter, passing around a surprisingly alert baby, and opening even more presents that everyone had bought the moment Ziva, et al. had left for the hospital the day before.

The doctor then came in and shooed everyone out of the room, ordering the new mothers to rest before their noon release. Gibbs sat in the room with them until all three of his babies were asleep and then snapped one last picture of Abby, Ziva, and Caleb curled up together on the bed before leaving to make a few last minute arrangements at the house.