Author's Note -- It's been a while since I've written anything that didn't involve grad school. I'm writing this as a one shot but if enough people like it I might be talked into a sequel.

As always, these characters aren't mine, I'm just barrowing them and promise to return them unharmed.

Blind Dates

By Vickiann Adams

Tony DiNozzo watched as agent after agent left for the night. He'd have to find his courage or he'd be screwed. Getting up, he headed over to his boss's desk. "Boss, I . . . What I need. . . What I was. . ."

"DiNozzo? Spit it out, what do you want?"

"Boss, uhm, do you have plans for tonight?"

Gibbs looked up surprised. "DiNozzo have you finally lost your mind?"

"No, there's this woman, Amber, in my spinning class but she'll only go out with me if she brings a friend from her building too. So, I was thinking if you weren't busy tonight, you'd like to maybe have dinner with Amber's friend so I can go out with Amber."

"Tony, isn't this something that McGee would be better suited for?"

"McGee's doing some PR appearance as Thom Gemcity and Palmer has a date. I even asked Stewart from Legal; he's going to some comic convention. It's got to be you or I'm out of luck."

Gibbs smiled, "so what's in it for me?"

Tony seemed confused. "I guess a date with a good looking girl? She's probably good looking. I mean she lives in Amber's building so she can't be that bad, right?"

"DiNozzo, do I look like I need dating help from you? I was thinking what's in it for me besides a free meal on you?"

Tony looked at his watch, he had forty-five minutes to meet Amber and her friend. "I get it now, Boss. I'll be buying you dinner at Tuscana West."

"That's a start DiNozzo but I was thinking more about the fact that you'll be filing my daily D-196/a forms for a month."

"That's not fair. I'm asking you to go on a date with me not donate a kidney."

"First of all, you'd better not be asking me to go on a date with YOU. Second, those are my terms – take it or leave it. You need me not the other way around. Third, I've got boats to build – I don't need a date."

Tony looked at his watch one more time. "Okay, Gibbs, you win. Dinner's on me and I'll do the D-196/a's for a month; but you have to drive yourself. I can't work my mojo if I have to drive you home."

Alone in his car and trying to keep up with Tony, Gibbs couldn't help but smile. He busted DiNozzo's chops a lot, but it said something that Tony invited him out like this. Over the years, he'd tried to keep a mentor–student relationship with Tony but somewhere along the line it turned into a much stronger, I've got your back through thick and thin, kind of friendship. It was different than the tentative and sometimes one-sided friendship between him and Mike Franks. His friendship with Tony was built on mutual respect and admiration, but he'd never tell Tony....

"Boss, I want you to know I appreciate you coming tonight."

"Tony, call me Jethro or Gibbs. Boss just sounds wrong in this setting."

Walking into the restaurant, Gibbs had no trouble picking out which girl waiting was Tony's date, Amber. He could also tell she was all wrong for him. Tony needed a girl he could be honest with, a girl that could love Tony for who he is and who he isn't. What he wondered was which girl he'd be having dinner with.

Tony looked like a little boy in a toy store. He was so excited he was only paying attention to Amber. If he'd been a little more observant he'd have noticed who he invited Gibbs to have dinner with.

"Amber, this is my friend Jethro."

Amber smiled and tapped her friend on the shoulder. Without saying anything, her friend turned and smiled at both men. It was then that three of the four knew it was going to be a strange evening.

"Nice to meet you, Jethro. Tony. I'm Ziva."

Ziva knew she hated blind dates for a reason. Since being back in the states, she was trying to reinvent herself. She was pretty sure that it did not include being on a double date with Gibbs and DiNozzo. Especially considering she'd told Amber she was a civilian working for the Navy. This was going to be a rough evening.

Tony looked from Gibbs to Ziva to Amber and back again. He had no idea that Ziva was living in Amber's building. In fact, he realized that since she returned, he had no idea where she was living or what she was doing. He hadn't wanted to ask after the whole Rivken debacle -- he wasn't sure she'd tell him anyway.

Gibbs couldn't help but smile. He'd expected to at least get a good meal and some entertainment from the evening but had no idea it would be this fun. As the waiter directed the couples to the table, Tony and Ziva looked like they were being led to a torture chamber. Gibbs just put his hand gently on Ziva's back trying to convey a little comfort. It wasn't working.

Tony's dream date was turning into his worst nightmare. As the waiter seated them at the table, it turned out that to sit across from Amber meant that he'd have to sit between Gibbs and Ziva. This was not good. As the waiter left to fill the drink orders, it became obvious that the evening was headed down hill. Gibbs took it upon himself to salvage what he could.

"So, Ziva, that's a pretty name. Is it a family name?"

Ziva looked up surprised, Gibbs was letting her control her cover. She wasn't expecting it. Relaxing, she smiled in a way Amber might believe to be shyness. "I am Israeli by birth. My name means brilliant. Your name, Jethro, is it family?"

"Family? Not really. My father named me after a close friend of his. Most people just call me Gibbs. I guess it stuck while I was in the Marines."

Through most of the dinner Gibbs made almost continuous small talk with Ziva allowing her to talk on subjects of her choosing. Tony tried to engage Amber in the same level of conversation but realized he was interested in Ziva's answers more than Amber's chatter. Near the end of the meal, Gibbs noticed several couples dancing on the terrace. He decided it was time to let Tony work whatever mojo he still had without a table full of coworkers.

"Ziva, would you care to dance with me?"

The question surprised Ziva. She was even more surprised when Gibbs took her by the hand and led her toward the terrace.

"Why so surprised, Ziva? You didn't know Jar-heads can dance?"

Ziva looked at her boss and smiled, "I didn't know you double dated with DiNozzo."

"Tonight's a special case. He promised me a nice evening with a pretty girl. I can't spend every night in my basement. May I ask you a personal question, Ziva?"

"Depends on who's asking, my boss or my blind date."

"Neither, just your friend. Is this the first date you've been on since we brought you home?"

Ziva nodded. "I'm only here tonight because I didn't want Amber going out alone with a guy she barely knew. If I'd known the guy from her gym was Tony I wouldn't have been so worried. They make a good couple."

Gibbs looked at the couple still sitting in at the table and smiled. "She's all wrong for him."

As the evening began to wind down, the couples exchanged the standard pleasantries expected at the end of a date. It was obvious that this was a first and last date for Tony and Amber. It wasn't so obvious between Gibbs and Ziva.

Tony walked Amber to the parking lot and didn't even try for a kiss. Once again, he knew this wasn't the one. He wasn't sure there was one anymore.

Gibbs walked Ziva slowly to Amber's car and laughed. "We should do this again, Ziva. Have a good night."

Ziva, not ready to let go, smiled and planted a small kiss on Gibbs cheek before getting into Amber's car. She waved shyly at both her boss and her coworker. Tony inhaled sharply but said nothing.

As they walked towards their own cars, Gibbs started to smile. "I've got to say, DiNozzo, it was refreshing to see your famous mojo in action. Ziva looked very nice this evening."

Tony turned and stopped, looking fiercely at his boss, "Ziva! What does Ziva need to be going on blind dates for? And you! Laughing and dancing with her. You should know better – its your damn rule remember."

Gibbs stood still. "Tony, what are you talking about? You asked me to come tonight. I didn't know it was going to be Ziva any more than you did. It was a date. I realize that I haven't been on quite as many as you have, but as far as I remember, laughing and dancing were usually part of the whole package. Unless Ziva moonlights as as a lumberjack I don't think I broke any rules tonight."

"Whatever, boss, just whatever!"

The car door slammed and Tony took off leaving Gibbs confused in the parking lot.

Gibbs roughly towel dried his hair and headed down to his boat. He didn't expect to find someone waiting for him in the basement.

"Ziva?"

"Are you mad that I came?"

Gibbs pulled out two saw horses and offered his visitor a seat. "Never mad. I must say surprised, I don't usually get followed home by my blind dates."

"That is what this is. I have not been on a date since I have returned to America."

"Ziva, tonight was nothing. I was trying to make the best of an awkward situation."

"You do not understand, Gibbs. Tonight, you had no problem making small talk with me. Tony could not even ask me to pass the salt. He is not the same since I have returned, more walking through egg shells than before."

"Walking ON eggshells. On, not through, Ziva."

"The idiom doesn't matter. I do not understand what Tony wants me to say to him. I told him what he wanted to hear when I first returned."

Gibbs stood up and walked to stand behind Ziva. "I don't think you understand. Tony would not accept that you were dead. Even when he had independent conformation that the Damocles sank he would not believe you were gone. He would have gone to the ends of the earth to avenge you. He did go to the ends of the earth."

"I never asked. I never expected. I have already told you, I was ready to die. I had nothing left to live for."

"Ziva, he needs to hear the truth. All of the truth – the things he doesn't think he wants to hear and the things you don't think he wants to hear."

"Its not that easy to trust again. Ari, Michael, Malachi, my Father, Director Vance – each time I trust and each time I am burned."

"The first person you have to learn to trust is yourself. Trust you heart. If you can't do that, you might as well buy a basement and take up wood-working."

Tony sat at his kitchen table; the apartment dark except for the faint glow of a street light. He didn't need light. He'd gotten to a point where he could strip and clean his weapon blind-folded. After the plane ride home from Israel, it became the only way to quiet his mind, to hold on to some part of her. Losing Jeanne was one thing, their entire relationship was a lie. Losing Ziva wasn't suppose to happen – shouldn't have happened.

The knock on the door surprised him. No one stopped by his apartment anymore and definitly not after three in the morning. Crossing the livingroom, he turned a single table lamp on to throw just enough light. Opening the door, he was shocked.

"Tony, you weren't sleeping?"

"Ziva, you drove all this way to see if I was asleep?"

Tony stepped aside so his guest could come in.

"I could not sleep. I do not sleep much any more. Tony, if I am not disturbing you, I believe we need to talk."