"I've given you the rules! You were meant to follow them!"
"That's not true. You gave us rules at the beginning so we could learn our limitations. You knew just as we did that they were the guidelines that could be bent and changed to match us."
Stunned and speechless for once in his life Gibbs just stared at Ziva. She continued to shout at him.
"Don't even pretend that those rules were meant to protect you!" Ziva said as she pushed her finger into his chest. "Tell me to my face that rule 12 wasn't made because of Jenny, because you two screwed up!"
"That rule is meant to protect everyone! You disobey it, EVERYTHING changes!"
"Yes, you follow it as a rule, but some things are worth the risk. I would have thought you knew that better than anyone!"
"And what if you and DiNozzo don't work out? Huh? What happens to the team then?" Gibbs yelled.
"We owe it to ourselves to try! We don't want to end up wondering 'what if' for the rest of our lives like you and Jenny did."
"You answer to me! You obey my rules!" Gibbs continued the shouting match.
"Since when did anyone have rules about who you fall in love with?" Ziva shouted.
Gibbs would have continued, but he saw Ziva's face pale and watch her heart pour into her eyes when she realized what she just said. It was the first time she had ever been able to say it. It was the first time that she allowed herself to believe it.
"I have to go." Ziva said as she started to run out of Gibb's basement.
"Where are you going?" Gibbs yelled and started after her.
"To tell Tony that I love him. He can't leave." Ziva said with a desperate smile that shocked Gibbs more than when she first came into the basement going on about how because of the stupid rule, Tony refused to bring their relationship into the open.
Gibbs let her go. As much as he hated to admit it; he was wrong. He was right in worrying about the team and the whole situation. But he was wrong in trying to keep two people apart. And he admitted that he was a complete hypocrite for it. Because even as Ziva shouted at him, his lover, Abigail Borin, was upstairs in the bed they had just made love in.
