After hearing Diane Neal would be returning as Agent Abigail Borin, I've been wondering how they were going to deal with Ziva's absence, since her last visit was so much of her and Ziva having fun with Tony and McGee. I finally decided that the show probably wouldn't deal with it at all, at least not in the way it should be. This is what I would like to see happen. This story contains slight spoilers for 10 x 4 "Lost at Sea", 11x 2 "Past, Present and Future" and 11x 6 "Oil and Water".

"It Sounds to Me Like You have Better People To Ask"

The minute they showed up, she knew something was off…something was wrong. Agent Abigail Borin greeted Gibbs in the usual manner she did when NCIS showed up to take over her crime scene: a mixture of exasperation and relief.

She would never tell her superiors that she enjoyed having her Navy counterparts walk in tandem with her. After so many frequent encounters she considered this particular team to be part of her team, and dare she say it, friends. Well, maybe friend was too strong of a word to describe their relationship. Perhaps acquaintances described it better, something that was more than colleague or co-worker but still less than best buds.

Her radar went up as soon as she saw Tony. There was an air about him, a difference that was so glaring she was surprised he wasn't wearing a neon sign. He was quiet, too quiet. Her eyes had narrowed as she contemplated this unusual circumstance. When McGee showed up, looking unusually chipper her annoyance turned into alarm. Something was definitely going on.

It wasn't until Gibbs suggested that she show them what she had found did she figure out what was bugging her. "We aren't going to wait for Ziva?" She raised her right eyebrow the way she always did when she didn't like what was going on.

If they had been inside a room, Borin would have thought the air had been sucked out. Since they were standing outside on the dock, she could only equate it to a change in gravity, as if the Earth had tilted on its axis.

"Not coming." Gibbs answered gruffly after a few tense moments, and walked on, his footsteps heavier than necessary.

Borin turned a cold gaze toward Tony. He dodged her look and hurried off after Gibbs. She followed their retreating backs, stunned by this turn of events. Where was Ziva? They were acting like she was gone, like as in gone for good. What in the Hell had happened?

During the entire case, Borin had made numerous attempts to corner Tony and ask him what was going on, but he always managed to deflect her, or be in the middle of something. It didn't take a genius to figure out he was avoiding her. Even Abby was non-cooperative, which was surprising considering what a chatter-box she was.

The case was finally solved; the perpetrator caught and Borin had filed her report. She drummed her fingers on her desk, still at odds with the missing Ziva and not having been given any sort of explanation. She got a gleam in her eyes and grabbed her keys.

Georgetown

Borin stood hesitantly at the entrance to the bar, waiting for her vision to adjust to the lowered lighting that was built into the charges as "ambience". Darting her eyes back and forth, she finally saw her prey and made her way over to the bar.

"Vodka martini, please." She spoke to the bartender, who came over as soon as he sensed a new warm body in his wake. Tony tensed slightly when he realized who was sitting next to him.

She chuckled at his discomfiture. "I knew I would find you here, where the four of us went out after that case with those idiots trying to steal and sell a military helo." She tried to gauge his reaction to this oblique reminder of Ziva and was pleased she had hit her mark.

She waited until her drink arrived before she spoke again. "You didn't do what I told you to do, did you?" She took a sip of her martini, looking at his reflection in the mirror over the bar. Tony looked up, gazing in the mirror as well.

"How do you know that?" He asked quietly, taking another sip of his scotch, his body even more tense than it was before, if that was possible.

Borin turned her head, looking him up and down. "Let me rephrase that: you didn't ask the right question, did you, DiNozzo?" Tony flinched slightly at that.

"Again, how do you know?" Tony finished his drink in one swallow. Grimacing, he turned toward the woman he had been avoiding for the past week. "How do you know what the right question even is or was?"

Borin silently regarded him, not sure if she should reveal things told in confidence. She turned back toward the bar. "I know what Ziva wanted you to ask her, that's how." Tony stared at her profile, his eyes wide.

She could sense his body almost sagging into the stool he was precariously perched on. He held up his fingers, signaling the waiter for another round.

After he got his drink and took a healthy sip, Tony looked back up. "Yeah, well sometimes even asking the right question doesn't get you want you want."

This time it was Borin who was taken aback. "What in the hell happened, DiNozzo? Where is Ziva?"

Tony made little circles on the bar with the sweat from his glass. "Israel." He finally answered.

"Israel? I thought she was a citizen now? Why would she go back?"

"Why indeed." Tony nodded. "She has some things to work out. And I guess she thought she should do it there rather than here."

Borin stared at him in disbelief. "Ziva loved it here, DiNozzo. She loved working for NCIS. What changed?"

"Oh…a lot." Tony answered sardonically, but didn't elaborate. He didn't want to rehash the horrible events of the past year that led to this moment. Even if Borin wanted to know, she would have to hear it from someone else.

"I searched for her, for four months. I finally found her at her family home in Be'er Sheva, where she had been born." Tony looked down at his hands.

He suddenly turned toward Borin. "I did ask her, Borin. She said no."

Borin looked stricken, and contrite that she had been giving Tony such a hard time over Ziva's absence. "I'm sorry…" She finally managed to say.

"So am I. I asked her to come home with me, to be with me. She's not ready. But you're right; I didn't 'ask' her like you suggested last year. I always thought there would be plenty of time. So I waited and dragged my feet and I lost her, because I waited too long." He finished his drink again, the fiery liquid burning its way down his esophagus.

"Maybe if I had said something to her sooner, she wouldn't have felt so alone, and…damaged, and that she needed to stay away from people until she could heal herself."

Borin considered her words carefully. "Tony, I don't think you lost her. I think you just may have to wait longer than you expected, that's all."

Tony looked her, almost with pity. "We don't talk about her, it's like we're not allowed to. Gibbs has already moved on and it makes me so angry I want to punch him. He's looking to put someone at her desk the first minute he finds anyone he can tolerate." Tony took a breath, a little surprised at his vehemence.

Lowering his voice, he looked at Borin. "All I do is look at her desk, and see she's not there. It's killing me, but I have to…move on." Tony brought his fingers up in quotation marks, making clear that this has been an edict brought down to him, probably from Gibbs.

"She didn't want me to contact her until we had been apart for at least a month. You know, give her the time she needed to process what we had just been through." Tony fell silent.

"So you two parted on good terms?" Borin wasn't sure how much Tony was willing to share, but she needed to know that Ziva was ok. She could see that Tony was not.

Tony chuckled wryly. "Well, as good as it could be, considering that we admitted that we loved each other and I got on a plane and she stayed on the ground." He took the fresh drink that had magically appeared.

Borin looked shocked at that, and smiled sadly. "Then she will be back, Tony. At least she'll be back for you. Ziva would never admit that she loved you and then cut you out of her life."

Tony smiled. "I hope you're right, because I am so ready to go back there and drag her home, to our home. But I know I can't do that. This has to be on her terms. It won't work unless she's at peace with herself. But that doesn't mean I like it that she's not here, I hate it." His smile faded, and he reached into his pocket.

He lifted up the necklace for Borin to see. She took the delicate chain into her hand and regarded it. "She gave this to you?"

Tony nodded. "She hid it in my coat pocket. I found it when I was on the plane back. I'm holding onto it for her, for safe keeping."

"She'll be back to get her necklace, DiNozzo." Borin placed the necklace back into his hand and folded his fingers over it. She didn't say she would be back for Tony, she hoped he would understand that's what she really meant.

Tony cell phone rang and he groaned. "That's probably Gibbs, telling me to 'gear up'." Tony looked at the readout, a wide grin slowly appearing on his face. Borin glanced over his shoulder and smiled. She patted his shoulder and put a $50 dollar bill on the bar. As she walked away, she could hear Tony's voice, so much lighter and happier than it had been a few moments earlier.

"Hey Ziva…"

I have no clue what this episode is about other than Borin is involved and it has to do with an oil rig. Her comment to Tony last year was part of the "Year of TIVA" that amounted to nothing. The show is not known for its continuity so I will not be shocked if that conversation is not addressed. But since Diane Neal is best pals with Cote, I would expect something will be mentioned, but as with everything else, I am not holding my breath. I can't depend on the writers, so I'll just have to do it myself.