Tony stopped, hand in mid air. He didn't know what he was doing here, it was 3:30 am and he was standing at Ziva's apartment door trying to will himself to knock. He put his hand down & turned to walk away. He only took a few steps before turning back around to head towards her door again. A few times of this and he just started pacing outside of her door, rubbing one hand over his hair and dialing Ziva's number on his cell with the other. Before he hit the last number he always flipped the phone shut. His voice echoed in his mind from earlier in the week, "Come on, Ziva." The look she had given him nearly broke his heart in two, but she refused to talk about anything that had happened in Somalia. He stopped suddenly, slid his phone into his jacket pocket & gave one last passing look in the direction of Ziva's door before heading home.
Inside Ziva's apartment she had heard him pacing for half an hour, she stood silent with her back against the door waiting for him to knock but it had never come. After a few moments of silence she turned slowly and stood on her tippy toes to look out of the small glass hole in her door. Her eyes flittered in both directions but Tony was no where to be seen and she sighed in relief. She pulled her blue satin robe tightly around her and curled up in her favorite chair. She stared out the window, watching the lights of the city knowing tonight would be another sleepless night. She had been having a lot of those lately, since her time spent in Somalia. She closed her eyes, but all she could hear was Tony's voice asking her to expose all her darkest secrets… "Come on, Ziva", the words were so simple yet still frightened her. She did not understand why she could not just let him love her, and then she had an idea. Maybe it was a little crazy, but every time there was a problem someone called the computer technician. So she retrieved her laptop from the bedroom, hit the power button and as she waited for it to load she thought to herself that her "loading love" button must be broken; a problem a technician could fix, right? She logged onto one of those websites that was always popping up in her email. A little box popped up in the middle of her screen with the words Anthony: How can I help you today? She laughed at the irony of the situation and began typing back…
Ziver10: I have a problem with a program loading, is this your specialty?
Anthony: That's one of my specialty's, can you tell me which program will not load?
Ziver10: LOVE
Anthony: LOVE?
Ziver10: Yes, my program LOVE will not load. I need you to fix it.
Anthony: You want me to install LOVE?
Ziver10: It is like ripping a bandage off, yes? I must do it sometime.
There was a pause on the computer and she wondered if this was a mistake, but to her surprise Anthony typing blinked across the bottom of the small window. She sat back satisfied that he was going to help her.
Anthony: I will walk you through the steps to install LOVE. Will you be able to do this?
Ziver10: I am not very technical but yes, I think I am ready to install it now. What is the first step I must do?
Anthony: Step 1 is to open your HEART. Have you located your HEART ma'am?
Ziver10: Of course I know where my HEART is! But there are many programs running right now, will this stop the installation process?
Anthony: What programs are running ma'am?
Ziver10: Do I really have to name them all? You Americans are too nosey. And do not call me ma'am!
After she pressed the enter button she immediately regretted it, this man was trying to help her at her request. She quickly typed an apology message.
Ziver10: Apologies. I am afraid that these things will be unable to be wiped from the core.
Anthony: What may I call you?
Ziver10: Ziva is fine.
Anthony. Okay, Ziva. What programs are running?
She stopped not wanting to go any further. She did not know if she could do this, she could not even tell her secrets to Tony the man she loved, must less some stranger on her computer screen.
Ziver10: I think that tonight is not a good idea for this, but I will come back to finish… soon.
Anthony: Come on, Ziva. You can do this. I'm here to help you install it correctly and I can guarantee a smart woman like yourself will have no problems with any glitches that arise.
There were those damn simple words again! She did not type back, instead she sat her computer on the table and just stared at it. She did not want to relieve the pain she'd felt in Somalia, not ever again and she knew LOVE would be a vital part of her healing. She wrestled within herself, frustrated that she did not know what to do. She saw the blinking Anthony typing message at the bottom of the instant message again and she breathed in deeply, placing her laptop back on her lap.
Anthony: Ziva? You need to do this.
Ziver10: The programs are , , , and
Anthony: No problem, Ziva. LOVE will automatically will erase & . Now these programs will remain in your permanent memory, but will no longer disrupt other important programs. LOVE will also eventually overwrite with a newer module of its own called . However, you have to completely turn off and . Those two programs alone prevent LOVE from being properly installed. Can you turn those off Ziva?
Ziver10: I do not know how to close them off.
Anthony: Turn, turn them off. Go to your Start menu and invoke & . Do this as many times as necessary until the other two files have been erased.
Great. Now her computer technician was correcting her. Is it men in general or just Anthony's who thought they were know it all's when it came to American idioms.
Ziver10: Okay, they are erased. Is that all?
Anthony: Be patient. LOVE should begin installing automatically now, do you see the box of hearts loading?
Ziver10: Yes there is a message that says it will reinstall for the safety of the core. Is this normal? You can reinstall it?
Anthony: It has an unlimited amount of reinstalls, but they become ineffective if you have to do it too many times. Your program installation for LOVE is now complete.
Ziver10: It is done?
Anthony: Yes, but this program is only the base model, in order to get the upgrades you must connect with other HEARTS.
Ziver10: It seems that it did not work, there is an error message.
Anthony: What does the message say?
Ziver10: Error 582 – program not run on internal components. What should I do?
Anthony: No worries, this is a common problem Ziva. It simply means you must LOVE your HEART before you can LOVE other HEARTS. Find the directory programs labeled and . Let me know when you have them up.
Ziver10: I have them.
Anthony: Good. Now copy those files into the file named . You will see some other files here: , , and . All conflicting files will be overwrote or fixed. And one more thing, the file must be deleted from all directories! Once this is done please empty your recycle bin.
Ziver10: My HEART is now filling up, you are good at your job! There is a that is on my screen right now, and several files which are being duplicated throughout my HEART; , , WARMTH&. This is okay, yes?
Anthony: It's perfect Ziva. LOVE is installed & running the way it is supposed to. I think that you can handle everything else from here, but before I go there is one more thing you must know.
Ziver10: Do I need to install something else?
Anthony: No, but LOVE is what we call freeware. In order for these components to keep running correctly you must give LOVE to all those you meet, and they will in return give you the proper components for yours to run. Do you understand?
Ziver10: I do. I must give LOVE and then I will receive LOVE and other wonderful things. I will try this tomorrow. Thank you for helping me.
Anthony: Good night Ziva. I have a feeling you will do well with this program.
The computer technician signed off, leaving Ziva feeling renewed. No wonder everyone liked computer technicians, they could fix everything! The clock on her laptop now said 05:00 am and despite no sleep she felt full of gumdrops & horses. Or was it lollipops & unicorns? She laughed out loud, knowing it didn't matter anyway because this time she'd be ready for Tony when he said, "Come on, Ziva."