Title: Plausible Deniability
Fandom: NCIS
Author: alidiabin
Words: 406
Genre: het/friendship
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and if I did he would have said it in English.
Warnings/Spoilers/Rating: none || up to 9x20 || PG
Pairings: Tony/Ziva.
Summary: Puss in boots never said that. Ziva and Tony talk on the plane home from Colombia. Happy belated birthday dragonheart
Plausible Deniability
"Yo no pudiera ser esto sin ella. Es una mujer increible.' Antonio
Banderas, Puss in Boots. Ciao." Tony DiNozzo, 9x20.
Tony rubbed his eyes as the plane cruises out of Colombian airspace. He looks across the plane to the see the two Chaplains fast asleep. He had never understood how people could sleep after traumatic events. He never could he was always too scared of the nightmares that would follow. The silence in the planes cabin meant that his partner was not asleep either. She was sitting next to him lost in deep thought. He assumed she would be running through the last few days, trying to work out why Monique had joined the list of people she trusted that had hurt her. At one point, he too had been on that list. He had redeemed himself in a way that Monique would never be able to top.
"Tony," Ziva whispered careful not to wake the sleeping Chaplains.
"Yes," he said in an exaggerated voice.
"Puss in boots never said that," Ziva uttered.
Tony stopped. He had been caught. He did not know what to do. So he decided on denial, after all it usually worked.
"He does." Tony retorted like a schoolchild.
"We both took Amira to see it, he does not." Ziva responded. Tony remembered taking Gibbs goddaughter to see it while her mother was at the dentist.
"He does you just have to translate it." Tony continued knowing he was losing the argument.
"I speak better Spanish than you," she replied, wining the argument. "He does not say it."
"Fine," Tony replied, admitting defeat.
"Do you even know what you said?" Ziva asked. She had wondered if he had simply been quoting from another movie, but they way he had said it to Monique had given her the impression that he knew what he was saying, and meant it to.
"Yes." He whispered.
"You really cannot do this without me," Ziva uttered her voice small.
Tony took a sharp breath of air. It was crunch time. Either he could hide, with a joke or a movie reference or he could be real. He could put his heart on the line. Something he had not done in a long time.
"No," he said, "I can't."
"I need you too," Ziva replied, as she place her hand in his.
Neither of them said another word. They let each other's words swim around in their heads. Maybe, one day they would take a step forward. Go further. For now they just let the words sink in.