Yes, yes, that scene in Jurisdiction has been the setting for more than three dozen fics already, but really, I couldn't help it. Anyway, it's neither a continuation nor an alternate version of that scene... more a prequel that explains it. :) So yeah, random, short, kinda angsty drabble, here we go.
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"My date canceled."
"Mine too."
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By January, when the bar nights faded and the weekend movies disappeared, he found he knew her voice best on the telephone.
"Tony." The voice was soft - such a change from office surety - a mere apparition contained in a prism of static.
"What's up?" He leafed through pages on his desk casually, tone with matching ease.
"Is this a bad time?" Even then, it was strange to hear the spark that hindered her speech.
"No. Of course not."
There was a hesitation.
"Gibbs told us to have Monday off - they caught the man they were looking for."
A laugh was let out... he wondered if it sounded as painfully bright over curly circuit cables. "That was fast. " Yet somehow, he didn't think anything was turning out as planned.
Another hesitation. A crackle on the line.
"Tony, I might have to-"
"Cancel."
"...Reschedule."
"That's fine."
"No-" this time the voice was firm, wholly there - "it is not fine... I will make it up to you."
"Come on, Zee, we're friends." He didn't want to leave too large a pause before continuing. "Tell you what. You promise to go next year and I won't make your life hell for it."
If she smiled, he couldn't tell from where he sat.
"Agreed. I will see you, Tony."
And despite the vibrant phrase he tossed back into the microphone just before the click in the speaker, he had a twinge in his gut that told him that faceless statements made over roads of telephone hush were simply never meant to pass.
One day, he would remember. A time of post-case solitude would lead him to cast his eyes over her dim profile and bittersweetly ponder the promise that seemed to have vanished from her consciousness. Until then, though, it hardly seemed to matter so much.
By June (after the point-blank bullets of a confident voice uttered through Middle Eastern air) he rather missed her voice on the telephone.