Ziva's POV

There was something on my mind. There had been since the day I met him. And I knew I eventually had to either tell him, or move on. But I also knew that both options were equally as hard to do. There was no easy way out of this. But then again, love is not supposed to be easy.

As I entered the NCIS building, I listened to the iPod Abby had bought me a few years ago. Since then, I had put over three hundred songs on it. Compared to Abby's collection of songs, mine was small, but to me there were plenty of songs to entertain me. I exited the elevator and entered the bullpen. The only noise I could hear was my music feeding directly into my eardrums. I looked at Tony, surprised to see that he was here before me. I could see him say something, only to have to repeat it after I pulled out my earphones.

"Good morning, Ziva." He repeated for me.

"Good morning, Tony. Why are you here so early?" I replied with a smile.

"Well, I was hoping to see you for a moment before everyone else got here." I looked at him; at first I was concerned – maybe something was wrong. His smile convinced me everything was fine.

"What is it, Tony? Need me to cover for you when Gibbs arrives?"

"No, I was wondering if you wanted to come to my place tonight do like a movie night thing, like we used to. We haven't done anything, just me and you, for a long time." He said walking away from his desk and over towards mine. That is how this all started. Tony's movie nights. They started out with everyone – Abby, McGee, even Ducky. But after a while it began to be just the two of us. Spending so much time alone with Tony would usually drive me insane, but this was different. I enjoyed movie nights. And Abby was the first to notice just how much.

"Is there something going on between you and Tony?" she asked bluntly during lunch. My hand, which was half way to my mouth with a fork full of salad, dropped back onto the table.

"What do you mean?" I asked dumbfounded.

"You know what I mean, Ziva. You're my best friend; don't think for a second that I won't find out if you're sleeping with him!"

"Whoa, Abby, I am not sleeping with Tony." I took a sip of water. I was not sleeping with him, but I had thought about it... too often.

"But you want to?" I was trying to say something, but I did not know what to say. "This is fantastic!" she squealed excitedly before I could explain anything.

"Earth to Ziva." Tony said forcing me away from my flashback.

"Um, yeah, sorry. A movie night sounds good, Tony." I smiled at him, hoping he didn't ask what I was thinking about.

"Great. So, I'll see you at my place around... eight?"

"Yeah. I'll bring the popcorn." Just at that moment, McGee walked into the bullpen.

"Tony... you're here early. Is something wrong?" McGee asked. I couldn't help but laugh at his surprise to see Tony here.

"Come on guys! I'm not always late." Tony defended himself.

"Yeah you are. Gear up, we got a dead marine." Gibbs called as he walked past, coffee in hand. All three of us grabbed our bags, guns and badges and headed to the elevator where Gibbs was waiting.

The case was simple enough. The killer was amateur and left a number of significant clues at the crime scene. There was fingerprints, blood and other DNA from the killer in the victims house, and the killer was stupid enough to look directly into the security camera, allowing our facial recognition program to get a good enough image to find a match within seconds. With this evidence, we had him in lock-up by that afternoon. At six o'clock, Gibbs sent us all home for the day. I said good bye to McGee and Tony and headed downstairs to Abby's lab.

"Ziva, hey! Good job on catching the bad guy." She yelled over her music as I walked into the lab. I nodded to her and she turned off her music. "Is everything okay, Zi?" she asked, suddenly a lot quieter than she was seconds ago.

"I do not know. Abby, I need your help."

"My help? Why my help? You usually go to Tony when you need help..."

"I cannot go to Tony with this. Or McGee, or Gibbs, so please do not say anything to anyone." I pleaded.

"Zi, I want to help you but you know I can't keep a secret from Gibbs – the man has a way of making me speak!"

"Abby, please. I do not know what to do. I am not used to feeling like this."

"Feeling like what?" she asked, obviously worried about me now.

"Vulnerable." I replied, looking right into her eyes. I could the sympathy pooling in her eyes.

"I guess you could talk to me now, and then I can just forget everything before I see Gibbs." She said with a smile. I knew she would always be there for me when I needed her. "So, what's your problem?"

"This thing... with Tony." I began, only to be interrupted by a squeal.

"Did something happen between you two? Ohmygod I knew it!" she pulled me in for a hug before squealing in my ear again.

"Nothing happened, Abby." I said pulling away. Her smile faded. "I told you, he does not see me in that way."

"Oh, I'm fairly positive he does Ziva."

"Abby, he does not. We are friends. it's just me, for some reason I have convinced myself that there is something more there, but there is not. And I need to know how to get over it... preferably before tonight."

"Why before tonight? What's happening tonight?" Abby questioned.

"Tony asked me to do a movie night thing again tonight."

"Oh, I see. You fell in love with him when the movie nights began, then you stopped going thinking you would fall out of love with him but that didn't work and now he wants to have another movie night and you're freaking out because you don't realise that he loves you just as much as you love him?" she spoke so fast it was hard to understand what she was saying, but I think I got the main message.

"He does not love me, Abby. I told you that."

"Well, did you ask him?" no, why would I ask him? He would say no, and then I would be embarrassed. And our friendship would never be the same again. "I'll take the hesitation as a 'no'. Go ask him! And I'm sure he'll say 'yes, Ziva, I'm so in love with you it hurts!' and then you'll live happily ever after."

"That is not how it works Abby."

"Ziva, don't start this argument with me... again. You will never know until you ask so you either talk to him about it tonight or I will and don't even think for a second that I'm joking because I'm not. I'm deadly serious! Tomorrow morning I'm asking him how it went."

"There is no way for me to get out of this, is there?" I asked, hoping she would give me more time if I happened to be ill... or dead.

"Nope." Was her answer, served with a mischievous smile.

"Fine." I said as I walked away. I was not ready for what I had just gotten myself into. But, I really did not have a choice anymore. My two options were now narrowed down to one – tell him.