Authors Note:

Just something I hashed out with my sister on a car ride today. It really has no specific place and is set against the backdrop of my own little world where Tony and Ziva have been together secretly for sometime. There are some allusions to the season five episode About Face. I'm sure you'll catch them. Thank you for reading! Special shout out to Jade for her "way of murder" idea.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

The bullpen had been particularly quiet all morning. Tony and McGee had been discussing Tony's newest purchase and Ziva had been working on some paperwork that had piled up on her desk the last few weeks. The normal hustle and bustle of the bullpen was absent. Other teams must have been called to relevant cases; the MCRT was left without a major case for once.

"McGee, you should see it, it's beautiful!"

"What's beautiful? Your new blow up doll?"

Tony, flustered by McGee's response, continued on "McGee, I would never…"

McGee smirked, "Mmmm Hmmm, anyways, carryon, what is so beautiful?"

"My new 42 inch flat screen and accompanying blu-ray surround sound…"

"Brand?"

"Sony!"

"3D?"

"Of course!"

"I approve…"

"Well, of course you approve, it's the best of the best."

Meanwhile, Ziva is humming a song at her desk. As she taps away at her keyboard, her humming begins to match the keystrokes as if she's playing a set of drums or having her fingers dance across piano keys. While both men are aware of Ziva's soft voice filling the bullpen, Tony takes particular notice of his partner. She looked content, a small smile flitted across her face every now and then as the beat to the song reached the chorus. Tony recognized it right away. Pleased with his ability to not only recognize the song, but also the movie that made it famous, Tony took special measures to lock that conversation away for a later time.

Ziva noticed that Tony had been watching her, she had the song stuck in her head for the last two days but could not remember any of the lyrics or where she had heard the song. She mused that if she began humming the tune with Tony in earshot, he would immediately fill her in on what she had been missing. She could not be more wrong, a mischievous grin danced across his face. She knew that smile and she knew that just asking him would be too easy.

Gibbs swung the corner to the bullpen, coffee in hand, breezing past with his simple directions.

"Grab your gear, we got a dead marine in Anacostia."


The victim was Marine Sergeant Thomas Kincaid. He had been stabbed through his left eye socket with a particularly pointy stiletto heel. The housekeeper had entered the house at approximately 7:30AM to find him on the kitchen floor. Next-door neighbors had placed him in the neighborhood around 10PM the previous night; no one had seen him since.

"McGee, witnesses; Ziva, photos; Tony, bag and tag"

Ducky and Palmer were on scene and had begun processing the body.

"Liver temperature puts time of death between 4 and 5AM." Ducky chimed in…

"Such a shame, a beautiful piece of art used in such a way…" realizing what he had said, to his surprise, out loud, Palmer instantly blushed.

McGee, having told the others about Jimmy's obsession with shoes, was at a loss and could not keep it together. He shot Tony a look and then Ziva, all three burst out in laughter. Gibbs rolled his eyes and continued on his way to gather more information from witnesses. Ducky continued to process the body.

Tony in an attempt to help Palmer out, added, "Well it looks like a jaded lover to me, stiletto to the eye, that carries a lot of anger, I don't know too many women that would ruin their expensive shoes to commit murder."

"You would know." McGee and Ziva answered together.

"Stiletto is an Italian word from the Latin "stilus" meaning stake or pointed instrument. Traditionally a stiletto was a short knife used for stabbing, so in all actuality this killer was not too far off in his or her assessment of the tool being used as a deadly weapon."

With a little more confidence Palmer added, "This particular stiletto is from Mr. Manolo Blahnik's Spring 2010 collection."

Ignoring Palmer's addition, Tony added "Come on Ducky, this has to be a female!"

"Why are you so sure?" Ziva asked, eyeing him up and down.

"It's a stiletto to the eye! Isn't it obvious?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Tony, what kind of investigator jumps to such rash conclusions?"

"Okay, I'll give you that, is it too much to ask to have this case wrapped up and in the bag for the weekend?"

"I guess not, why did you have plans?"

"Ziva, Ziva, Ziva, of course I have plans, I have a new television and there's a sale at the blockbuster that's closing, I fully intend on adding to my collection.

McGee, having stayed silent the entire time was closely tracking the conversation, ready to report back to Abby about Jimmy's ensuing obsession with shoes.

Tony returned to his job at hand and began watching Ziva processing the scene, snapping photos as she went. He couldn't help but notice she had been humming again, this time also swinging her hips to the song that was so obviously stuck in her head.

Ziva had hoped her plan to get Tony's attention was working, she surmised that if she also danced while singing the song, there would be no way for him not to tell her what she had been singing.

"Like what you see?" Ziva turned and observed Tony so obviously staring.

"No, yes…I mean no..yes..Okay, Whatcha singing there?" Trying to skip over the fact that he was caught red-handed.

Gibbs stepped between the two partners.

"Get back to the Navy Yard and start going through Kincaid's records."

"We will find out who he has been in contact with and look for anyone who may be missing a 2010 Manolo Blahnik." Ziva winked at Palmer.


Abby and McGee, with the help of Palmer were able to track financial records for the purchase of the particular Stiletto; forensic evidence, including epithelials and sweat lead to one Shelly Jankovich; Kincaid's on and off girlfriend for the past two years.

Jankovich was in Interrogation with Gibbs as Tony and Ziva looked in from observation. Ziva was humming again.

"What are you singing?"

"Oh, it's nothing, just a song that's been stuck in my head all day. You wouldn't happen to know it?" Ziva gave him a sultry smile, with little regard to the tech behind the two of them.

"Sing a few bars, I'll get it." Tony whispered into her ear.

"Well that's the problem!" Ziva turned to him frustrated. "I can't figure out any of the words, or where I heard this song!"

Tony couldn't help but smile, this really was annoying her, "Well I can't help if you don't know any of the words!"

Gibbs slammed his palm into the table, "Why did you do it?"

Jankovich lost her resolve and her quiet sobs turned into yelling. "That bastard cheated on me! We've been together for two years and he just up and gets with the next model that comes rolling around! I got pissed!" she burst into a fit of tears and snot. "I didn't mean it, it just kind of happened!"

"Well that was easy."


Tony and Ziva made their way up to the second floor of Ziva's apartment building. Ziva fiddled with the keys and they finally made their way in. Ziva removed her badge and gun, put her shoes in the shoe rack and hung her coat behind the door. Tony hadn't walked four steps into the apartment when he couldn't help but admire his new purchase, which was actually a gift for Ziva, but a gift for him, he didn't like to put labels on it. He knew that he now had a beautiful TV to watch at either one of their apartments, and that made him happy, and Ziva didn't seem to mind.

"Very nonchalant about your new TV, what happens when McGee comes over to your apartment and realizes that it in fact does not exist?" Ziva gave him a silly smile.

"Well I hadn't really thought about that at the time, I just felt the need to tell someone." Tony began removing his gun and badge and stepping out of his shoes. "I'm going to grab a shower, care to join me?"

"Not tonight, I'm going to make dinner, and shower after, movie later?"

"You read my mind."

"I always do."

Tony slipped away into the bathroom as Ziva began pulling out the necessary ingredients and utensils to prepare dinner. 15 minutes later she was standing in front of the stove tossing vegetables for stir-fry, humming the song again. She began swinging her hips in hopes that it would help jog her memory but nothing was helping.

Tony came strutting into the kitchen singing the song for her, dancing along in his own little way.

"If you leave, don't leave now, Please don't take my heart away, Promise me, just one more night, Then we'll go our separate ways, We've always had time on our sides, Now it's fading fast, Every second, every moment, We've got to, We've got to make it lassssssssssstttttttt."

He walked up behind her and began putting one hand on one hip and the other on her other side, she smiled and joined along.

"I touched you once, I touched you twice, I won't let go at any price, I need you now like I needed you then, You always said we'd still be friends someday."

Ziva turned in his arms and continued swaying to his serenade. "You knew this entire time! Why did you let me be annoyed all day that I could not figure it out, why do I know this song?"

"Orchestral Manoervres in the Dark, better known as OMD, wrote the song for the John Hughes cult classic…"

"PRETTY IN PINK"

"Correct."

With Ziva still in his arms, Tony leant down and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. It was one of the first movies Tony and Ziva had watched together since Ziva had returned from Somalia. Tony considered the movie to be an essential on anyone's list, especially because of its connection to the brat pack and other great movies of its time.

"Well I'm glad you didn't make me suffer too long, it had been bugging me all day.

"I," Tony kissed her "noticed" and kissed her again, swung her around, and began singing again, kissing her one more time before Ziva stopped him.

"Finish dinner, I'm going to shower and then we can watch it, if you want."

"I would love that, hurry up."

"I'm moving as fast as I can." Ziva retreated to the bathroom, excited that she could finally sing the words and not just the tune in the shower.

END

If you want to hear the song, Google If You Leave, Pretty in Pink, OMD

Thank you all for reading, please review and let me know what you think! Especially all my tumblahs!

Thank you again!

-Meg