Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own them.
He had given up one of his closets for her.
She even had a couple of drawers in his dresser. There was some flowery scented shampoo and conditioner along with a fruity smelling body wash in his shower. Her clothes filled up half of his clothes hamper. Makeup and hair products were strewn across the counter in the bathroom. Her things even invaded his kitchen. She had a few boxes of tea and energy bars in his cabinets, and her favorite drink was the biggest jug in the refrigerator. She had taken the liberty to make his living room more "people friendly," as she liked to call it. Pizza boxes and beer bottles no longer took up his coffee table. Clothes and other random items didn't litter his floor anymore. There were now candles and pictures everywhere and throw pillows on his couch. In one corner there was a book shelf filled with books, her books mainly.
It was safe to say that Ziva had taken over his apartment. But Tony didn't mind. He was just using one of Gibbs' unspoken rules: always have your partner's back.
It all started about six months after they brought her back from Somalia. Ziva had just been set up in a new place, she was eating more and she seemed happier. Little did they know she was having nightmares that was overtaking her mind and keeping her awake at night. Tony soon found out all about them.
One night Tony had just laid down in his bed and gotten comfortable when he heard a strange noise coming from his front door. He quickly grabbed his gun and ran to the bedroom door. Tony could see the outline of a person standing in his living room. He pointed his gun at the intruder, flipped on the lights and was about to shout "freeze!" when he saw who it was. It was Ziva, clad only in her pajamas, tears streaming down her face and shaking. Not the "I'm cold" shaking but the uncontrollable and violent kind. She was just staring at him. Tony called her name but she didn't respond. He didn't expect her to with the state she was in.
He reached for her hand, and when she didn't attack him for touching her he lead her to the couch and sat her down. He put a blanket on her shoulders and sat on the coffee table in front of her. He honestly had no clue what to do with her at this point. Ziva has never been one to be held so that option went out the window. When it came to comforting Ziva there were never many options. She was the tough assassin who was taught from a very young age to never show emotion. The fact that she was sitting in his apartment, crying in front of him was a huge deal for the both of them. So he did the only thing he could think of and placed his hands on her knees, trying to rub out all of her sadness.
After a few minutes he noticed that the tears on her face were starting to dry so he went to get her a tissue. She took a moment to clean her face up the best she could. He realized she was getting a little frustrated with not knowing where to wipe.
"Do you want to go wash your face?" Tony asked her.
Her only response was a quick nod.
So he led her into his bathroom and grabbed his face wash out of the shower and a small towel from under the sink. "Here," he said and then walked back out to allow her to straighten herself back up.
When she finally emerged a few moments later, he could see that she just looked so tired and worn out.
"Tony, I want to sleep."
That was all she said that night.
And that was all she had said every night that she came over, in the same condition, about the same time.
Every night she would let herself into his apartment, climb into his bed and get as close as she could to him without their limbs having to cross each other. Eventually she would fall asleep. But when he woke up in the mornings, she would already be gone.
Tony never knew why she did it. He didn't want to push her into talking but knew that whatever it was it had to be pretty bad.
It wasn't until a month later that she finally told him about the nightmares. She told him of all the different scenarios that her imagination came up with of how she could have died in Somalia, how they could have died in Somalia. They sat on opposite ends of his couch, facing each other and she let her guard down, way down, for that one night. Her nightmares, her thoughts, her fears and feelings all came spilling out, never to be spoken of again.
After that, her things slowly made their way over to his place. There was an article of clothing here and there, the random make-up pieces or hair spray. Then she started staying until the morning. He didn't mind. She felt safer not being alone and the nightmares were less frequent. He was there to wake her up from the nightmares that still plagued her, and he listened to what she had seen in her mind when she felt like telling him. That was all he cared about.
A couple of months later, he stood in his bedroom just looking around. He realized that just about everything she owned was now in his bedroom. That was when Tony finally made up his mind.
"Do you want to move in with me?"
Those words startled Ziva so much that she dropped the pan she was cleaning.
"What?"
"Move in with me," Tony said. "You stay here every night now. All of your things are here so you never even bother with going home after work anymore. There's no use in you paying for an apartment if you don't stay there."
She stood at the sink without speaking. He could see many emotions passing over her face in that time; fear, joy, uncertainty, apprehension, and many others. Ziva was one of those rare people who could have so many emotions on her face in a given moment but nobody was able to catch onto them. Nobody, except for Tony.
"Give me some time to think about it," she finally replied after a few moments.
She didn't take too much to think about it though, because one week later he was moving the rest of her stuff to his apartment as she was giving her keys back to the landlord.
And so he gave up one of his closets for her.
I know, it's been so long since I wrote a story. Well, here you go. Not too happy with how the ending went, but after constantly changing it for a year I decided to just publish it. Remember to read and review!