A/n: References to 4x16 'Dead Man Walking'. Based off of 5x16 'recoil'. My first story ever. Whatevs.
It had been a long day. A long week to be honest. Tony had thought the case would be open and shut. They had the killer, they had the weapon, and they had the victims.
Then a random blood type appeared on the knife.
"Just great" he thought as he headed back towards his desk to follow up on a couple of leads. He looked over at his ninja, sitting across from him at her desk. Only she didn't look like a ninja. She looked like she was tired; she had looked that way all week, ever since she killed Andrew. It killed him to see her like that and it seemed that none of his usual antics were cheering her up. He put a pin in it, and continued his work.
Friday night, FINALLY. They had found the copycat; it had been the angry husband. No surprise really. He arrived home, fed his fish, and changed into sweats and his favorite OSU shirt. Started with a movie and leftover pizza.
"The Boy in the Plastic Bubble" seemed like the perfect thing to watch on that rainy Friday night. But for some reason, he couldn't focus. All he could see was her, sitting across from him, looking tired and lost. Giving in to his emotions, he pulled on some jeans, grabbed an umbrella, and what was left of the pizza.
20 minutes later, he knocked at Ziva's door. This was not what he expected; a drunk Ziva, still in her crumpled work clothes.
"c'min" she slurred.
He walked in, immediately noticed the 4 beer bottles sitting on her coffee table, her bag and shoes threw across the apartment floor; VERY unlike Ziva.
"What happened in here?" he asked.
Ziva replied with a grumble that didn't count as anything really. Tony sat next to her on the couch, grabbed her cheeks with his hands.
"Ziva, what is going on?"
She thought about telling him. Telling him everything. How it felt to have a dead corpse land on her. How it felt to come so close to death. To come so close to losing him. She was really drunk and all she could think about was Andrew, and Tony, and how he was the last thing she saw when the bullet missed her head by a fourth of an inch. All of this she wanted to say and more, but all she could muster was tears. A lot of them. And when they came, they came hard, pouring out of her cheeks. She let it out, all of it. She cried for her brother Ari, she cried for her mother, and Tali. She cried for Roy Sanderss, and how she felt and when he died. She cried because she never let herself show so much emotion, especially in front of people.
Tony grabbed her in his arms into a big bear hug and he held her there for what seemed like hours. He held her until she was done crying. Then he held her some more. When she was done, she looked up at him. They sat there, him stroking her cheek with the pad of his thumb.
"Let me tell you about my week" Ziva said.
And they sat there on her couch, drinking coffee, while Ziva told him everything. Andrew, Roy, Andrew, Tali, her mother. When she was finished, all Tony could do was look at her. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Then he kissed her on the lips. And she didn't pull back. They kissed for a long time, and when they came up for air Tony noticed it was past midnight.
"Stay" She said.
They both changed into something more comfortable; Tony had sweats and an old T-shirt from previous movie nights. As they climbed into bed together for the first time ever it was weird. They way she fell into his arms just felt, right.
And there they slept, comfortable in each others' company, together as best friends, as partners.