Total Salami
While on the tenth night of a stakeout, Tony makes a confession to Ziva. Season 9, about two months after 'A Desperate Man'
Tony and Ziva sat in the Charger for the tenth night in a row. They were watching a block of townhouses for signs of any of five suspects in a human sex-trafficking ring. "Ten freaking nights in a row…" Tony complained. "News flash to Gibbs; some of us have a life!"
"You have a life?" Ziva teased him.
Tony glared at her; he was in no mood to banter with her tonight. Sure, he was spending time with the one person in the world that he wanted most to be with, but not on a damn stakeout. He had planned to take her to a concert under the stars tonight, but work got in the way, AGAIN…
"What has you in such a bad mood?" Ziva pushed.
"Fine, if you must know, I had planned a special date tonight… and the past several nights…" Tony trailed off as there was motion by one of the cars down the street. Ziva handed him the DSLR and picked up the binoculars.
"Could be one of our guys, but all he is doing is putting out trash," Ziva sounded disappointed. "Looks like two pizza boxes and an empty beer case."
Tony took several pictures just to have something to show for the wasted night. "Could be a drop of some sort. Keep an eye on any pedestrians." He stifled a yawn and settled down into the seat. It was going to be another long ass night.
Thirty minutes later, Tony spotted Dorneget in his homeless get up headed to the trash can to check out the pizza and beer boxes. Dornie headed back to the alley from which he came, the signal that he had found nothing. Tony sighed, causing Ziva to smirk at him.
"What? I'm allowed to sigh," he grumbled.
"So what was this special date?" Ziva pried. "How many dates DID you cancel this past week?"
"Well, technically I didn't cancel any; I never got the chance to ask…" Tony admitted. "In case you hadn't noticed, we've been pretty busy with this case for the past two weeks."
"So you haven't been on a date in two weeks?"
"Um, yeah…" Tony turned to find Ziva staring into his face. He made eye contact with her and felt as though she could read his mind. "I didn't get to ask her out…"
"When was the last date you were on, Tony?" Ziva was now curious, knowing that the two of them had spent several evenings watching movies at her place before this case took away their free nights.
Tony could feel her gaze piercing to his core; he gulped and tried to deflect the conversation. "When was YOUR last date, Zee-vah?"
Ziva said nothing, but continued to gaze into Tony's eyes, knowing that she would hear the truth from him sooner or later. He couldn't lie to her when they were alone, especially when they locked eyes.
"Not since you got back," Tony whispered, hoping Ziva hadn't heard him. "From Somalia…"
She had though, and she was somewhat surprised, "So all this talk about the dates you have been on has been total salami?"
"Total baloney, Ziva. And if you tell anyone, I'll deny it. I have a reputation to uphold, you know." Tony was adamant. "Tony DiNozzo, ladies' man."
"Two and one half years?"
"Yeah," he spoke softly. "I got better things to do." He looked at her. "Like spend time with my best friend…" He grinned at her. She felt her heart skip a beat at the grin he saved just for her.
"Oh!" She grinned back at him, that smile she kept just for him, and watched his eyes light up. They slowly closed the space between them, with eyes still locked on the other.
The moment was lost when Gibbs' voice came over the comm, "We got movement around back; David, DiNozzo, Dorneget, McGee, close in, NOW."