I thought of this while listening to "I Won't Say I'm in Love," from Hercules. The song was suggested by my friend Piper. I don't own NCIS...
Officially, they had been together for six months; unofficially, four and a half years. They were relishing every moment they had together. Sure, they had to keep it a secret from everyone else because of the rules, but she really didn't care. He was hers now, and that's what she had wanted.
But she was nervous. Ziva knew that she cared about Tony more than anyone in the world, but she didn't know whether or not she loved him. She loved him as a friend, yes. She knew that much. But...was she in love with him? That's the one thing she was not sure of.
There was a part of her that knew that she was in love with Tony. Over the past five years she had fallen in love with him, one day at a time. The other part of Ziva though, did not want to jump the bun. She wanted to take things slowly; she wanted to make sure that they were really going to make it before she admitted anything.
After work they would have their date nights. Usually they would go back to Ziva's house and watch movie before falling asleep together. Tony and Ziva were careful to make sure that they were not caught. And for six months they had managed to keep it a secret. The fact that she could keep it a secret surprised Ziva. She thought that she was acting differently, acting a little more friendly with Tony and she wasn't fighting with him when he told her to do things for cases. She thought it was obvious that they were dating.
McGee had his suspicions, and he had asked Ziva about the supposed relationship, but Ziva shot down his suspicions. She was going to try her damnedest to keep their relationship a secret. She didn't want to get in trouble with Gibbs at all. And if he knew about the relationship then he would get pissed. And it wasn't gonna be good if Gibbs was pissed.
So Ziva wasn't going to say that she was in love with Tony. She knew that she loved him, yes, but she wasn't going to admit it just yet. Those three words were really hard for Ziva to say. She wanted to at least wait until he told her, because she didn't want to jeopardize their jobs.
Unfortunately though, she didn't keep the promise to herself. They were alone in the bullpen one day, working. McGee was down with Abby and Gibbs was talking with Director Vance. She was just sitting at her desk, looking into a new lead, talking to Tony, when it just slipped out.
"I love you, Tony," she said, after informing him on the lead that she was following.
There was no reason for her to say it. They weren't talking about their plans for the evening or what they did the night before...she just said it.
Realizing what she did, Ziva's hand covered her mouth and her eyes widened in shock. She looked at Tony nervously, her heart beating a thousand times a minute.
DiNozzo looked up from the file he was looking at and raised his eyebrows at her. He looked around the bullpen nervously, making sure that no one was around to hear. "What did you say?" he asked, unsure, walking over to her desk. Tony set the file down and then leaned close to her.
"I said...I love you," Ziva murmured, looking up at him.
Tony was silent a moment, looking up to make sure that they were still alone. Once he was certain that nobody was coming, he murmured, "I love you too," and kissed her lips quickly before pulling away, taking the file, and heading back to his desk.
Ziva watch him sit down and she smiled widely, unable to stop herself. Her heart was still racing and she didn't know what to do to stop it. She was happy that she told him. She was happy that he felt the same way.
Everything was perfect.