Disclaimer: not mine.
PROLOGUE
He couldn't believe it had been five years. Five years since she had said goodbye to NCIS, to her life as she knew it, to him. Five years since he had seen her face; five years that consisted of phone calls here and there, phone calls which became less and less frequent, until they stopped all together over a year ago.
He wondered if she looked the same; with the same long, wild hair, the same spark in her eyes. He wondered if she still messed up her idioms, if she still had the ability to one-up him at any given opportunity. He couldn't believe it had taken him this long to pick up the phone and call her.
"Hello?" She still sounded the same.
"Hi," he started, wondering if she still recognised his voice. "It's Tony," he added after a moment's pause – he had no desire to make the conversation any more awkward then it had to be.
"Hi," she breathed.
"How are you?" He asked, unsure of how to restart a friendship that had been dormant for over a year. He had all sorts of conversation starters planned, but they seemed to disappear the moment he heard her voice.
"I'm good. How are you?"
She was using contractions. Had it been that long?
"Pretty good. I know we haven't spoken in a while…" He trailed off, trying to think of the reason he had stopped calling. Why she had stopped calling. Some nights in the beginning they would stay up talking for hours… Somehow it all faded away. "I guess I just wanted to catch up, see how you were."
"I'm good. Could we have you over for dinner?" She offered, and he couldn't prevent the wave of disappointment that flooded through him. We. That small word made any ideal he had about Ziva's life evaporate completely. The disappointment was then replaced with guilt, because of his selfish hope that she was living alone; that things had somehow changed drastically since he last spoke to her.
"That sounds great," he managed. He still wanted to see her, even if he had to spend the time with her and her perfect family.
"How is Friday night? Seven?" She asked hopefully.
"Sounds good," he answered again, without giving a thought to whether he had plans.
"Daniel may be late home from work, but James and I will be here."
"Great," he tried to sound enthusiastic, attempting to smile. Even if they were only on the phone, he needed all the practice he could get.
A/N:
Hello, again :) okay, so a few things:
1. Chapters will be MUCH longer than this. This is just an introduction.
2. I intend to respond to every review for this story - I only just realised you can do that. Yeah, I'm not so great with these things.
3. I will update this story once a week. Well, I plan to. Life can sometimes get in the way.
Thanks for reading, and if you have a moment, a review would be great.
- L
