Disclaimer:I don't own NCIS or any of its associated characters or intellectual properties. No copyright infringement intended.
Even though I should study for my exams, fanfic ideas keep flooding my brain, so I decided to put them on paper.
This fanfic takes place after Season 10 finale and is mainly about Tiva, however, some parts of it will be focused on other people and cases also. It's going to have multiple chapters, each of them ending with a bit of a twist.
I would like to thank Kat (Lyrander215) for beta.
Enjoy :)
"She should be here any minute," Tim looked at his watch and ordered another Mojito.
"I can't believe you're actually going to introduce me to your girlfriend," Tony smiled contentedly.
"I know if I didn't, you would bug my phone and go through my trash."
"Oh come on, I still have some dignity. I'd never go through your trash. I might follow you home and peek through your window, but..."
"Yeah, because that doesn't sound creepy at all."
Tony was thinking of a funny remark when his phone rang. "Ah, Ziva probably got stuck in traffic and wants to know if the divine Delilah's arrived. I'm gonna take it outside," he took the phone and went out.
"Hey, Ziva. She's not here yet. Where are you?"
"At the airport."
Tony frowned. "Going somewhere?"
"Yes, actually, I would like to get out of DC for a couple of weeks. I just wanted to let you know, because you like to jump to conclusions and you would probably think I disappeared or was kidnapped..."
"Well thanks, that's very thoughtful. Where are you going?"
"I do not know yet."
"Are you okay?"
"I will be. I just need a break, get a second wind, you know." Her voice seemed somewhat shaky.
"Maybe you could wait a few days, think it through... Tim and I would be more than happy to advise you on your holiday location."
"That will not be necessary, but thank you. See you in a few weeks, Tony."
"No, Ziva, wait," he started, but she had already hung up.
He came back to the bar and noticed a pretty brunette sitting on his barstool.
"Tony, this is Delilah. Delilah, this-"
"I'm very speci-... I'm Tony. It's a pleasure to meet you," he smiled at her and shook hands with her. "You're a lucky guy, Tim. Um, listen, I gotta go, Zivemergency."
"What happened?"
"I don't know. Yet," he put a twenty-dollar bill on the bar, took his phone out of the pocket and took a picture of Delilah. "For Ziva," he explained to the surprised brunette and left the bar.
...
Not knowing how much time he had before Ziva figured out where she wanted to go, he made a quick stop at home, packed a few things, fed his goldfish Kate and took a taxi to the airport.
Thanks to that tracking app on his phone, which Abby had installed on all their cells, he found Ziva pretty quickly. She was sitting at a café, sipping cappuccino and watching the news.
"I heard Florida is wonderful this time of year."
Ziva turned to him and looked at his small suitcase. "I wanted to say goodbye, I was not inviting you to go with me."
"You maybe didn't say it," he sat next to her, "but I knew you were thinking it. You shouldn't be alone, Ziva. Not after everything that has happened."
"We could all use some alone time."
"We could also use some fun."
"I need to think about what I want to do with my life."
"No, you need to stop thinking. You need to enjoy your freedom, your life."
"Don't you have something better to do?"
"Actually, no."
Ziva sighed. "Nothing I say will make you leave me alone, right?"
"Right."
She rolled her eyes and finished the coffee. "Fine. Do you know any good places?"
"That depends... Have you packed your bikini?"
"I might have."
"Okay, in that case I know the perfect place to go."
...
"I'm simply saying the flight attendant was rude."
"SHE was rude? Tony, you stole a Coke from a six-year-old."
"It was the last Coke they had! Plus, six-year-olds shouldn't be drinking Coke in the first place!"
"This really looks like the end of the world," Ziva looked around her. "I am not surprised your uncle moved to the city."
"Okay, it might be a bit far from civilization, but I guarantee you - the house is beautiful, the ocean is warm, and the sand is soft. You will have the time of your life here."
"Are you sure about the weather forecast?" she looked up. "Because this definitely looks like a rain cloud," she pointed at a slow moving gray cloud above their heads.
"Twenty percent chance of showers."
"All right, if you say so..."
When they got to the house, they were both soaking wet. Tony closed the door and locked it.
"Twenty percent chance of showers," Ziva grinned and wrung out her hair.
He took off his jacket and his glare was telling her to shut up.
"Time of my life," she whispered to herself, when Tony went to the living room to light a fire in the fireplace so that they could dry their clothes.
"When I bought this suitcase, the man told me it was waterproof."
"Well, he obviously lied," she smiled slightly, watching him take his things, all wet, out of the suitcase.
"My movies!" he squeaked.
"You brought movies?"
He gave her a "we've-known-each-other-for-eight-years-how-can-yo u-even-ask-this-question" look.
"Of course you did."
"You can thank me later. What's in your suitcase?"
"Nothing worth looking at," she smirked.
"Oh, I'd like to take a look."
"Are you just being curious, or do you really want to creep through my underwear so badly?"
"Can't it be both?"
"I am going to change into something...not wet."
"Yeah, me too." Suddenly, he realized none of his clothes were dry. "I suppose you don't have anything that would...you know...fit me?"
"I do not, sorry."
"Okay. I'll think of something. There's a bathroom at the end of the hall, last door on your right. You can change there."
...
"Do we have any food?" she asked when she came back.
"I found some cookies," she heard his voice from the kitchen. She went there and found him standing in front of the pantry. He was wearing only boxers and he didn't seem to mind.
"There's some canned food, but I think it's been there since the war, so I wouldn't open them-" he noticed her looking at him. "What?"
"Should I look around to find you something to...cover yourself?"
"I'm fine."
"But I am not. I feel uncomfortable."
"Then take off your clothes as well. Maybe you'll feel less uncomfortable." He was so enjoying this.
"I will go look for a blanket, or something."
"Is there something wrong with my body? I started working out."
"It is not particularly warm in here; you might catch a cold."
"So you're worried about my health."
"Precisely."
"I'd rather worry about the lack of food. I can't survive on cookies for long. I should go out and check if the shop by the gas station is open."
"You cannot go there, it is raining cows and dogs!"
He smiled. "Cats. It's raining cats and dogs."
"Whatever. You get my point."
"Do you get mine? We need food."
"I was trained to survive without food for a week."
"Well I was trained to eat every two hours."
"I think I packed a few sachets of instant porridge if that helps."
"Ugh. I'd rather open one of those cans."
The sound of thunder resonated through the house and all lights went out.
"Perfect. A thunderstorm and a blackout."
"At least you're not hungry and half naked," he mumbled.
"Do not worry, I will be."
"What? Naked?" She couldn't see it, but his eyes lit up.
"No, hungry."
Tony found a flashlight in one of the kitchen drawers and kept looking for food, while Ziva was keeping an eye on his clothes hanging by the fireplace. When he finally came back from the kitchen, he had a victorious smile on his face, a jar of peanut butter in one hand and a few sachets of cookies and dried fruits in the other.
"Look what I found!" he swelled with pride as if he had just confiscated war booty.
"Does that mean you will stop whining?"
"I'm not whining. It's completely natural to be hungry."
"Have you ever not been hungry?"
He gave her a serious look. "I'm an NCIS agent; I need a constant supply of energy. I mean, I was an NCIS agent."
There was a moment of silence. Every time he realized he's unemployed, it felt like being stabbed in the heart with a dagger.
"I think this one is dry enough for you to wear it," she handed him one of the T-shirts that hung by the fireplace.
Tony put it on and sat on the couch. "This is not really how I imagined it."
Ziva smiled and sat next to him. "How did you imagine it?" she opened a pack of cookies and reached for the peanut butter.
"Well, let's just say I wasn't expecting me to be the one in nothing but underwear." His hearty laugh lit up the room. "No, I just thought we would cook something delicious, open a bottle of fine wine, and then sit on the beach, watching the stars."
"That sounds very romantic."
"Oh, I'm a hopeless romantic."
Ziva smiled and handed him the peanut butter. "Well, Tony, if it makes you feel any better, I do find this moment quite romantic too."
"It has its charm, doesn't it? The fireplace, the blackout, this, probably expired, peanut butter... My uncle knows how to live."
"So, am I going to meet this uncle of yours?"
"I'm not sure if that's a good idea. See, in our family, all the men are..."
"Womanizers?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
She smiled and looked at the fire. "At least you have some family. All my relatives are dead and none of them died of natural causes. It is almost like a curse. Makes me think how much time I have left."
"All the time you want," he gave her one of those adorable comforting smiles. "And you have us. Some of us might be weird, mentally unstable, geeky, nosy...Gibbs...but hey, no one's perfect."
"Have you talked to Abby?"
He nodded. " She's not taking it well."
"I am not blaming her, it is a massive change, and it all happened so suddenly... Gibbs is gone, we resigned, Tim has found himself a girlfriend..."
"Speaking of the girlfriend," Tony remembered and reached for his phone. "I thought you might want to see her," he found the picture he had taken at the bar and handed Ziva the phone.
"She is very pretty. But I expected no less."
"Yeah, he's a lucky bastard."
Ziva gave him the phone back and opened another pack of cookies. "I am happy for him. This has been one stressful and a rather unfortunate year, he deserves to have someone who can help him take his mind off it."
"Oh I'm happy for him, too. It's just... I don't know, life seems somehow empty now.
"I know. However, as much as it crushes me, I cannot imagine how you must be feeling."
"That job was my life. It made me the man I am today, and it just...it was breaking my heart to put my badge on Vance's table. Tim is a young MIT genius, he'll find a new place in no time. You," he looked at her, "you are beautiful and smart and badass. You can do whatever you want. I, on the other hand, am quite old and I can't do anything else other than what I've been doing my whole life."
"There is still a chance we can go back."
"You really believe that?"
"That is of the things life has taught me; never to lose hope."
"Look at you. You're so strong and determined, and I'm here whining like a little kid who fell off a bike."
"Well, to be honest, it is nice to see you from a different perspective."
"As a broken man?"
"No, as a man, who is not hiding behind jokes and who is able to talk about his feelings."
"Yeah, I guess I was never really good at talking about feelings."
"Neither was I."
"You were trained not to be."
"You know what? I am seriously going to miss this."
"What?"
"Us, the dynamic we have."
"Wait, what do you mean, you're gonna miss it? You plan on staying in DC, right?"
She bit her lip and looked away. "I have not decided yet."
"Are you seriously considering moving away?" he was so shocked he even stopped eating.
"Not moving, but I would like to travel Europe," she shrugged. "I would like to go to places without having to trace or kill somebody."
"Oh, I see. Okay, um, that sounds...that sounds pretty good."
He was never very good at lying, especially when he tried to lie to her.
"Unless you gave me a good reason to stay," she said suddenly, looking into his eyes.
He took his time, looking at her, trying to figure out what she was thinking, until he realized she was just waiting for him to make his move. "I've just lost my badge. I can't lose the only thing I have left that I care about. I know it's selfish, but I need you in my life."
Ziva moved a little closer to him and gently stroked his cheek. "In that case, I might reconsider my plans."
There was a quick moment of loud looks they exchanged, and it was Ziva, who interrupted it, when she looked at his lips, like she always did. But this time it was different. She felt so calm and safe and so close to him, there was no place for struggle in her mind on whether she should kiss him or not. She moved even closer to him; so close he could feel her warm breath on his lips. She closed her eyes and felt her whole body quivering.
Then, all of a sudden, Tony's phone rang. Ziva opened her eyes and saw Tony's face turning from disappointment to anger.
"I had no reception five minutes ago," he mumbled angrily and put the caller on speaker phone. "It'd better be a matter of life and death," he said instead of a greeting.
"It is, Tony." It was McGee and he sounded confused. "I just got a call from Vance. FBI found Parsons at his house with a bullet in his head. Wherever you are, you need to come back, ASAP."
What can you expect in the next chapter:
- Tony and Ziva sharing (not only) things about their parents,
- someone gets in some serious trouble.
Please, review and let me know how/if you liked it. I love to interact with my readers. :)