"You haven't seen it?" Tony asked incredulously with a look upon his face that was a cross between disbelief and despair at his partner. They were just about to get out of the car at a person of interest's house when a small child had ridden past on a character tricycle and had sparked Tony's memory of the particular film.
"No I haven not. I do not spend my rare hours off watching such drivel."
"It is not drivel! It's DreamWorks!"
"It is a movie, a quartet no less, not counting the various spin offs, about a green man trying to win the heart of a princess who just so happens to also turn green after sunset. It is unbelievable."
"I thought you said you hadn't seen it?"
"I have not. I have read about it though." Ziva replied, not missing a beat as they walked in stride to the front door. "And it sounds utterly pointless." Tony sighed before ringing the bell.
"It's cute. It's about facing adversity and loving yourself for who you are and...I don't think this guy's in." Ziva leaned slightly so as to peer through the window in to what appeared to be the living room. She saw someone move off the couch and walk towards to door. They both took a synchronised step back as the man they had come to see opened the door.
"No thank you, I don't want any bibles, I've got cable cheers and I don't donate to charities." Lee Samuels was about to close the door when Tony's hand stopped it.
"Actually we aren't here to sell you anything or convince you to donate money, although it is a nice thing to do." They both made their badges visible. "We're from NCIS. We're here to talk to you about Petty Officer Megan Ryan. May we come in?" Both agents noted the change in his demeanour the moment their badges were shown but neither pictured, and therefore hadn't planned for what happened next. Samuels took Tony's arm and twisted it around his back causing him to turn before he wrapped his arm around his neck and released Tony's arm before retrieving his gun. Ziva immediately brought hers level with Samuels' head.
"Drop it and let him go!" Ziva spoke loudly but didn't shout; she was less that three foot from him and they had no back up whose attention it would draw.
"Drop yours." He retorted. "There's no need for either of us to get hurt here. Just drop the gun, get your pretty ass back into the car and I'll let him go. If you're nice about it I'll even give him his gun back." Ziva dropped his gaze and took up Tony's. She already knew that he would when he silently told her to do whatever she had to do to get the guy. He had raped and murdered a nineteen year old girl and no one wanted him more than Ziva, not even Gibbs. So she made a conscious choice.
"Release him or I will shoot you." She replied sounding a lot calmer than she felt. Yes, she was trained well and trusted her aim but this man had a gun to her partner's head and if things went awry, his bullet would meet its target before hers could.
"You wouldn't risk his life." He challenged but the words were barely out of his mouth before Ziva pulled the trigger and her bullet hit him slightly off the centre of his forehead. He crumpled to the floor leaving Tony stood beside his body, tense with his eyes squeezed tightly shut.
"Relax DiNozzo. I did not shoot you." Ziva stated calmly re-holstering her gun and taking out her cell and phoning Gibbs while Tony learnt how to breathe again.
"Hey, do you want to get a drink with me?" Ziva leaned over Tony's desk that night once everybody else had gone. "I shall buy? It will make out for nearly shooting you earlier yes?"
"Make up, not make out, Zi." Tony chuckled and shut down his computer and shut off his lamp. "Sure. Why not?"
She was already a drink and a half ahead of him when he arrived at the bar and sat beside her. He ordered for them both, knowing that it had been one of those cases that made her drink tequila like it was water. In fact in cases like these, she seemed to inhale it rather than drink it. So it wasn't surprising really that she was three sheets to the wind by the time he got round to ordering his third drink.
"You know, Tony." She started, only slightly slurring her words. A small smile crept onto his face as he watched her try to convince, not just him but herself, that she was sober and failed. "You, are a very lucky man."
"Oh yeah Zi? And why's that?" He chuckled as she drained another drink.
"Because I can aim!" She laughed more than she would if she had been clear-headed.
"I never doubted it for a second." He laughed. Of course watching her bullet zoom past his peripheral had shaken him up but he did trust her. He had to; they put their lives in each other's hands every day. She laughed too but it had lost some of its enthusiasm.
"No one has ever survived, once I have decided to kill them." He smiled widely and turned to order them both fresh drinks, unaware that he had just been lied to. The moment his eyes weren't on her, Ziva found herself distractedly stroking her left wrist.
She'd once told him, after a few drinks, after nearly shooting him in a case, that he was lucky, because no one had ever survived once she'd tried to kill them. He laughed, still shaken up from watching his partner's bullet zoom past his head and hit the guy with his arm around his neck. She had laughed too, but it was half hearted. Because she knew that she'd just lied to him. Finishing her drink and watching him to get her another, she found herself absent-mindedly stroking the thin, well faded scar lying vertically on her left wrist. Yeah, no one had ever survived once she'd tried to kill them. No one. But her.