Title: Complicated

Author: purplejello1786

Rating: T

Spoilers: None

Pairings: McGiva mostly; some Tiva

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or any of the characters. If I did, I would have vast amounts of money, would buy a small tract of land in the Antarctic Peninsula and could pet the penguins whenever I wanted.

Chapter Ten

Tony finally got up to the obstetric ward at Georgetown about two hours after Ziva had called him. He had gotten there not long after they had, but had stood there staring at the entrance, holding up traffic, saying to himself over and over, "That's my son." A security guard had removed him and tried to tell him how to get to the unit, but Tony had gotten lost and ended up in Radiology fascinated by the MRI machine's magnet pulling at the chain he had around his neck. Accompanied by a nurse, he had finally gotten to the right place.

Ziva was lying on the bed, as curled up as her belly would let her be, with her face pressed into the pillow and her fingers gripping tightly to the blanket and McGee's hand. McGee was coping well with this and was sitting on the bed beside her, rubbing her back and whispering encouraging words in her ear. Tony waited until it looked like the contraction was over to speak.

"Hi, guys," he said, feeling kind of awkward. "How are things going?" Ziva lifted her head off the pillow, then looked at McGee and laid back down. "You ok?"

"Relatively speaking," McGee said. "It's just best for all involved if she doesn't talk right now. Why don't we go outside and—" He started to get up; Ziva tightened her grip and pulled him back down beside her. "Or we could talk in here. Her water broke about an hour ago and she's at four centimeters so it will probably be a while."

"Um—I've never done this before, so…what's at four centimeters?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourself about," Ziva said, hoarsely, from the pillow. "But I'm at four out of ten."

"And when whatever gets to ten the baby will be born?"

"Then I start pushing and hopefully soon after that the baby will be born. If I understand everything correctly. It will be some hours, Tony."

"Wow," Tony said. "It's always a lot shorter in the movies." Ziva rolled her eyes, then pressed her face back into the pillow with a groan, then a whimper as the contraction continued. Tony couldn't believe how calm McGee was, trying to be soothing even when Ziva was probably causing permanent nerve damage. When it was finally over, Ziva lifted her head and rolled onto her back, breathing hard. Her face was wet from sweat or tears, Tony couldn't tell which.

"That was almost a minute," McGee said, still speaking softly. "You're doing great; you seem to be moving along really well."

"They're getting stronger too," Ziva said. She leaned her head against McGee's arm. "Tell me I don't have to do this for twenty-two hours like that woman we talked to in class."

"Well, however long it takes, we'll do whatever you need to make you feel better," McGee said.

"Yes," Ziva said. "Maybe now they'll let me have an epidural."

"Didn't they give you one before?" Tony asked.

"They said I could have one when I got to five. Boy Scout Doctor said it could slow down my progress and I needed to wait."

"And what did you say?" Tony asked.

"That was when we decided she needed to stop talking for awhile," McGee said. "I'm just glad you said all that in Hebrew instead of English or he probably would have run away crying. Tony, could you take over here and I'll go find the nurse?" Tony very hesitantly sat down beside Ziva and took her hand.

"I'll try not to squeeze too hard," Ziva said, when McGee had left.

"It's ok," Tony said. "It's my kid. It wouldn't be fair if only one of us had to suffer to bring him into this world."

"Thank you for coming," Ziva said. With that another contraction hit and Tony wondered how much a robotic hand would cost and whether insurance would pay for it, but he didn't make a sound.

McGee came in with a nurse, dragging behind her an insecure young man in a white coat who was undoubtedly Boy Scout Doctor. The nurse pushed Tony off the bed, rolled Ziva on to her back and without ceremony put her hand into a place that Tony had spent years trying to get in to.

"Good news; you've made it to five," she said. Ziva almost cried with relief.

"I'll, um, go page the anesthesiologist," Boy Scout Doctor said, moving anxiously towards the door. The nurse looked at Tony.

"I'm sorry, but our policy is to have only the immediate family in the room. Friends can sit out in the waiting room."

"I'm the father," Tony said, at the same time Ziva said, "He's the father." The nurse looked surprised.

"Oh, I'm—I'm sorry, I thought—" She looked at McGee. "I mean, when he said he was your fiancé—" Tony looked with fierce surprise at both of them; Ziva looked with surprise at McGee who was smiling sheepishly.

"Well, you were going to say 'yes', right?" he said.

"I was," Ziva said, a smile spreading over her face.

"Then, um, I guess both of you can stay. I'll come back in when the anesthesiologist gets here." She left. McGee and Ziva hadn't taken their eyes off of each other.

"Tim," Ziva said, and then he rushed over to her and held her. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said and stroked her hair. "So, you will marry me?"

"I can't wait to marry you." She pulled him close to her and kissed him. McGee was grinning when they broke apart.

"I'm sorry I don't have a ring or anything right now," he said. "But I wanted to know, now if you wanted to marry me because—" He looked up at Tony. "I thought that maybe I could adopt the kid or at least be his legal guardian, if we're going to be together and he's going to grow up with me taking care of him."

"Great," Tony said. "That's-that's great. Congratulations." He moved toward the door. "I'm happy for you and he can even call you 'Dad' if you want. Do you want some ice or anything?" Without waiting for Ziva to answer, he left the room. McGee followed him.

"Tony, wait," he said.

"I wouldn't leave Ziva alone if I were you," Tony said. "Go on in there—I'll go out to the waiting room with the rest of the friends."

"Dear God; would you stop feeling sorry for yourself for one second?" McGee said. Tony turned to face him. "So it didn't work out the way you always thought it would. It worked out. You have a son about to be born. Try thinking of him for a second."

"I am thinking of him," Tony snapped. "I'm staying out of his life so he won't end up as screwed up as I am."

"I cannot believe that I'm the one having to say this to you," McGee said. "But you are not screwed up. At least you're not anymore screwed up than anyone else. I want to adopt the kid because if I'm going to be one of his parents, I want to be able to do my job and I need legal rights to be able to do that. That's all, Tony; I'm doing this for his good. I'm not trying to take this away from you. I'm trying to make the best of a situation that seems to be as complicated as it gets. And you know, there will be days when I have no idea what's going on with him and you will be the only person in the world who will understand him because you are part of him. You will be his father. And so will I, I guess. That's not going to do any harm. So stop moping and just think about the fact that in a few hours there will be another human being on this planet and you helped make it." He turned to go back into Ziva's room, then stopped. "Oh, right. There was one more thing and I guess we should have talked to you about this earlier, but we only just decided. If you want to, we would like you to name him. We already have his middle name picked out, but we couldn't agree on a first and so we thought we would let you pick. So, think about it." He went back in.

Tony knew the name he would choose; it had popped into his head as soon as McGee had said it. The kid across the street that he had broken windows with and stolen dirty magazines with. His best friend, who he had never seen again after his father had dragged him off to Germany or someplace like that; Charlie Halbrecht. Charlie would be his son's name.

He did go and get Ziva some ice and thought about what McGee had said. And came to the conclusion that McGee would make a very good father. But he couldn't be expected to always be able to handle a DiNozzo. The kid did have his blood. And Tony could still be the cool dad, and McGee could enforce the rules. Not a bad team.

He went back into the room. "Charlie ok with you guys?" Ziva and McGee thought and then nodded.

"Charlie Hayden David," she said. "Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" To avoid even more complications, they had decided to give him Ziva's last name.

"I think so," Tony said. "Feeling better?"

"Thank God for epidurals," Ziva said. "It will still be some time, but at least I don't have to fight off the urge to kill someone now." McGee smiled at her with ice wrapped around his hand; Tony imagined that he was just as relieved as she was.

The whole thing took much longer and was way grosser than anything Tony had ever seen in movies. He spent most of the pushing process being encouraging, but keeping his eyes locked on the wall across the room so he didn't have to see things coming out or where they were coming out of. He was afraid that if he did, he would never be able to have sex again. Then there was a rush of activity. Ziva slumped back into the bed, breathing wearily, from where she had been sitting up pushing. A nurse quickly wiped the baby off and placed him on Ziva's chest. She couldn't speak; tears of joy were running down her face. McGee was beaming in wonder at the head of the bed. And the baby—Charlie—was screaming his tiny head off. Ziva was so glad that it was all over and that she finally got to meet the person who had been keeping her awake at night kicking at her liver. He was the most precious, wonderful thing she had ever seen. McGee felt like an enormous burden had just been dropped onto his shoulders, and to his surprise, he felt like he could do it. He was looking forward to it, even. It was what he had always been meant to do. With one hand he touched Ziva's shoulder and with the other he touched the little face.

After a minute, the nurse slowly took him out of Ziva's arms, her eyes promising to bring him back quickly. Then Boy Scout Doctor, with shaking hands, placed clips on the umbilical cord and then held up a pair of scissors. Everyone looked at Tony. And he went over and, not even caring, cut through the cord. The nurse then placed the baby in his arms. Tony felt his world transform.

"Hi, Charlie," he said.

The End