Author's Note-I have no idea where this came from. I started writing and this is what happened. I hope you like it, it's been a while since I wrote for Tiva. I like it though. Before any of you ask, Happy Endings is on a temporary hiatus but WILL, I repeat WILL, be finished just as soon as my muse for it comes back. I won't leave it unfinished I promise. Read, review and enjoy NYLF xx
Ziva sat against the back of her desk, tears rolling down her cheeks, as she stared at the back of her partner's desk. It was, naturally, all his damn fault she was crying in the first place.
They'd been moving closer to each other for the past year and he had finally, finally, asked her to 'get a non-friends drink' with him, four months ago.
She had never smiled so much as she had in those past sixteen weeks. Each day with him, there was a new surprise.
He'd turn up in the middle of the night just as she was about to call him unable to sleep, with steaming hot chocolate from her favourite all night coffee shop and a 'must see classic' film. If they'd had a long day at work he spent the entire evening at hers, just massaging out the kinks in her back and shoulders, not expecting anything in return, just offering her the comfort she needed. Obviously sometimes she repaid him very generously.
She had never felt so in love with anyone.
He'd told her for the first time just as she was drifting off to sleep after working a four day case with no more than three hours sleep a night, and that was at their desks.
She hadn't had a proper shower in three days- each of them strip washing and washing their hair at the sinks, not even having time to use the HAZMAT showers- her hair was a complete state, she was stripped bare of all her make up and curled into his side in sweats and his Ohio State T-Shirt. He still cuddled up to her, wrapped her up safe and warm in his arms and murmured how beautiful she was and how much he loved her.
Naturally she had fallen asleep with a massive smile on her face and woken him up the next morning showing him just how much she loved him back, murmuring the three words that cemented their feelings into his ear as she collapsed on top of him, sated and sweaty. He'd chuckled and picked her up, carrying her to the shower.
They'd not been expected in until lunch time, they were still late.
Obviously, their relationship hadn't been perfect.
There had been times when they tore strips off each other. Knowing someone for near on a decade allowed you to know exactly what to say to hurt them, and god did they hurt each other sometimes. But they always sorted it out.
The guilty party never waited long before turning up at the other's door and presenting a movie, a bottle of wine and either flowers or chocolates depending on who was doing the apologising.
It wasn't exactly a conventional relationship, but it worked for them. They loved each other and that was enough.
This hadn't been your stereotypical argument; where one would apologise to the other and move on. They hadn't even argued and that was half the problem.
Instead they'd let it fester.
They'd had a particularly bad case-missing two year old boy, son of a Petty Officer-and it hadn't ended well. Each of the team had taken it hard but it had only increased the pressure between them.
An exasperated Tony had stormed out the moment Gibbs had told them all to go home, from the elevator when he left himself. He'd only had time to shoot Ziva a filthy look and a 'right again, Little Miss Perfect' before racing down the stairs.
McGee had only stopped to gently squeeze her shoulder before leaving, knowing anything more would only have caused her to break down in front of him. She needed to not have an audience, and he wasn't going to disobey that wish, wanting to see her in that state just as much as she wanted to share it with him.
The moment the floor had been clear, Team Gibbs the last ones in, she had picked up her stuff to leave and had made it only as far as between their desks before noticing he had turned the picture beside his desk face down, as if unable to look at it anymore.
She knew what that picture was.
That picture was of them.
They'd been in the park one day and he had spontaneously produced chocolate covered strawberries from their picnic basket. She shook her head and laughed when he'd tried to feed her but eventually let him.
A young woman had come up to them later in the day- when they were lying on their backs, cloud gazing, her resting on his chest- and had hesitantly explained that she was a photography student and had captured the moment and had thought they might like a copy.
The picture depicted them mid action. Ziva's eyes were closed, a small smile curling her lips as she took her first bite of the fruit while Tony gazed at her adoringly, holding the stem with one hand while they other held hers just in shot.
She loved that picture, they both did.
She had it on her nightstand, while he had insisted it took pride of place on his desk.
The fact he had turned that photo down meant they were in serious trouble.
It hit her like a roundhouse kick to the chest and knocked her to her knees. She'd broken down, sobbing as she leant against her own desk, staring at his and the upturned picture. That had been more than an hour ago.
She was yet to find the energy, or motivation, to move. Huge fat tears streaked her cheeks, her hand lazily coming to fruitlessly wipe at the never ending torrent occasionally.
Somewhere in her mind she recognised the sharp 'ding' of the elevator but she didn't acknowledge it. She didn't care, nor did she have the capacity to, that she was about to gain an audience for her break down.
Tony made his way out of the elevator almost frantic.
He'd gone to her place shortly after he'd gotten home, realising he'd been out of order despite his own hurt and anger about the situation, and had gone to try and beg for her forgiveness. He'd knocked for a full five minutes before letting himself in with the key she'd shyly pressed into his palm when he kissed her goodnight at her door just a few weeks ago. He'd called out, apologising to thin air, before establishing that she wasn't just ignoring him.
His next thought had been Gibbs', but after a quick phone call to the man, who he had clearly woken up, he discovered that she wasn't there either. This was his last stop before he started to panic that she'd gone off grid.
The floor was silent, the distant hum of a vacuum the only sound.
He sighed and made his way to the bullpen, hoping to find something that would tell him where she had gone or at least if she was planning on coming back.
He rounded the partition beside her desk when he spotted her and his heart dropped.
"Zi?" His soft, caring tone still obviously startled her as he knelt beside her. "Ziva, Sweetie?" She didn't move to acknowledge his presence save to drop her eyes from his desk to her hands in her lap. "Baby, please at least look at me?"
She hesitated, he could almost see the cogs turning in her brain as she weighed up ignoring him and doing as she was asked.
In the end, she rolled her eyes to slowly find his, and Tony immediately regretted asking.
The level of pain he saw in his girlfriend's gaze was enough to stop his heart.
"I'm sorry." He murmured, leaning in to kiss her hair. He almost stopped until he saw her move marginally towards him. He took it for the encouragement it was and laid his lips against her head softly. "I'm so sorry Baby." He whispered into her hair line, gently taking her hand in his to stop her worrying the hemline of her shirt. "I'm so, so sorry." She sniffed as the dam broke and the floodgate opened.
He swiftly pulled her into his lap as she sobbed, clinging to his shoulder for dear life.
"Oh baby, I'm so so sorry. I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry. Oh Honey, I'm sorry please don't cry."
His gently apologies did nothing to stem her tears.
He settled for rocking her to and fro, gently stroking patterns up and down her back as he cradled her head into his shoulder, periodically dropping kisses into her hair.
It was more than a quarter of an hour later before either of them moved.
Ziva slowly pulled away, tugging on his heart strings as she did.
"You turned down the picture." He didn't need to look to know exactly what she was talking about.
His heart dropped when she refused to lift her eyes from where her hand toyed with his shirt button.
"It was stupid of me. Ziva, I love that picture, almost as much as I love you." She sniffed again and didn't move to look at him. "Baby I shouldn't have said what I did. You're nothing like him and never would be okay?" She shuddered at the memory. "If, and that is an if Baby, I was so wrong to pressure you, if we decide to have kids you will never treat them like he did you. I was wrong to even think it. I'm sorry." She shrugged.
"Rule six." She murmured.
"I don't give a damn about the rules, Ziva." His voice hardened but there wasn't a single trace of that hardness in his hand as he gently tilted her head so he could look her in the eye. "You're my girlfriend Ziva. You're my soul mate and I love you and I hurt you. I will apologise until I'm blue in the face if it would make you believe it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sor…mph." His last word was muffled as she clasped her hand gently over his mouth.
"I heard you the first time." She felt him smile under her hand and slowly removed it, letting it fall against his chest. "Does this case not just reiterate what I was saying though?"
He sighed from deep in his chest because yeah, he got it.
"Bringing children into this world Tony…" She trailed off with a shake of her head.
He leaned his forehead against her crown before taking a deep breath.
"Baby, this world is a mess, okay? People hurt each other all the time for some really stupid reasons. But, Ziva, I know you. I know how great you are with kids. I know how amazing you'll be with your own." She started to protest but he gently covered her hand on his chest and she closed her mouth again, knowing he wasn't finished. "I won't pressure you into having my children Ziva, because that isn't fair, and I am so ridiculously sorry I even tried. But, I do want kids at some point and call me crazy Baby, but I'd like them with you."
She sobbed softly and he drew her tighter into his chest.
"I was scared you would leave me." She murmured.
Tony squeezed her tighter.
"I couldn't ever leave you, Ziva. The only reason I'd ever let you go is if you asked me to and even then I'd fight. I love you too much to just up and leave."
She buried her face in his neck.
"Can we go home? We can talk about this properly and…" He was cut off when she desperately fused their lips and kissed him as if her life depended on it.
He buried one hand in her hair while the other gently cupped her hip, while one of hers clung to his shoulder and the other gently guided his face so she could gently deepen the kiss.
She pulled away a few moments later and laid her forehead against his, gasping for air and finding only him.
"Is that a yes?" Her lips curled in a small smile and she leant in to kiss him again. Much slower and gentler than the first.
He pulled away and gently kissed her cheek before pulling her in to him. She buried her face back into his neck and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
"Home…" She started shakily. "Home sounds nice."
Tony nodded and slowly got up, holding her to him with one arm while the other held onto her desk to help him up.
He grabbed her coat and bag with the hand not holding her to him, like a life raft to a drowning man, and slung both on his arm before carefully righting the picture.
He gently kissed her neck before hoisting her up.
She got the hint and wrapped her legs around his waist, them both knowing she wasn't going to let go of him anytime soon, and he held her securely into his chest before leaving the building and going down to his car.
She let him go only so long as it took them both to get into the car before she took his hand in her own.
He smiled, perfectly happy to have 'Clingy Ziva'.
They held hands the entire way home.
They had a lot to talk about but loved each other too much for it to end anyway but happily.