Another oneshot about Tony and Ziva. It has no link to the episode "In the dark" of the fourth season - the title is related only to what happens in the fic.
I don't know anything about NCIS.
I hope you'll enjoy!
Tony moved his gaze from the screen of the computer and took the umpteenth look at the elevator. The doors had been closed for three hours now and he wished he were a Jedi and could open it just with a thought or a simple world. However, the only thing he could do was stare at it and picture in his mind what was likely to be going on the other side of the doors, inside the elevator. As much as he tried to stay positive, though, he could only imagine the worst situations occurring just behind those shiny grey doors. He could almost see Ziva kissing that guy, pressing her body against him, laughing with him while sitting on the floor of the elevator. Tony grumbled; that guy, a blue-eyed, tall and charming thirty-year-old man with a predilection for green ties, had been flirting with Ziva since the first day he had entered the squad room. It had been a week since Green Ties had shown up in the bullpen, claiming to follow their every move during the investigation, and he had never missed a chance to make his gaze run up Ziva's body, studying her with a sensuous light in his eyes. She always caught him when he did so and she would give him a provocative but somehow amused look. Every time Gibbs left the office, he would go to her desk and they chatted and laughed and flirted.
Tony had been watching this never-ending movie since the start and he could honestly state that he disliked it, to say the least. He felt like Lancaster – this was Green Ties' real name – was stealing Ziva from him, which was inexplicable, since Ziva had never been "Tony's"; but Tony knew, deep inside, what his mind meant to tell him with the words "he's stealing her from you." That man was getting from her what Tony usually got from Ziva. The laughs, the never-ending teasing, the stares and the smirks had always belonged to them, to the two of them and Tony wasn't willing to let anyone take it away from him. However, a voice coming from somewhere in his head kept whispering to him that she was just trying to make him jealous. Tony knew that she had already done that before, so it was likely to be the same now; yet, he couldn't hush the continue buzzing in his ears that told him that Lancaster was a big threat.
Tony couldn't believe Ziva was swallowing Lancaster's bait; he didn't like to see her flirting with that man for no obvious reason. Okay, he was cute, but what else? He had always thought Ziva was looking for someone to have a life with and he knew that this was what Ziva thought Tony needed. He understood why she had been with Ray, but he couldn't understand why she was flirting with Lancaster. The only conclusion Tony could reach was that she wanted him to be jealous of Lancaster, and nothing else. This thought gave him hope, but didn't make the situation any easier for him. To think that they were stuck together in the elevator was getting on his nerves. He cursed the elevator for the bad timing and came to the conclusion that he was indeed the most jinxed guy in the world. Why wasn't he stuck with Ziva in the elevator? Why had it always to be a McGee or, much worse, a Lancaster to be held captive with her by a stupid machine? Not that Tony and Ziva had never found themselves together in a secluded place, because they had, of course they had; but the first time was a long time before, when they still barely knew each other – even though they had already kissed and also shared a bed, but this was another story. The second time, on the other hand, had been more than a year before and they hadn't concluded much – unless you considered the mixture of Tony's constant flow of words and Ziva's protests a conclusion. Now, Tony wished he was stuck in the elevator with her instead of that Lancaster guy. Given the circumstances – which included Lancaster's presence – Tony would have certainly known what to do to use at best the time they had to spend together. Though, he had to deal with the nagging fear that Lancaster would make his move with Ziva and that she, for some reason Tony didn't want to think about, would accept to play his game with a smile.
An unexpected "ding" woke him up from his thoughts and he brought back his eyes to stare at the elevator, just in time to see Ziva and Lancaster leaving it, laughing, walking next to each other.
They don't look too devastated by the experience, Tony thought with a grunt, moving his gaze away from the approaching couple, since he didn't really feel like staring at the two of them any longer. When they reached the bullpen, he asked, without raising his eyes from the keyboard, pretending to be interested in what he was typing, "So, did you have fun?"
"Two hours stuck in the elevator?" Lancaster asked with sarcasm in his tone, a sarcasm that Tony would have liked to hush with a punch. "Yeah, we had a ton of fun, thank you."
Although Lancaster's answer should have sounded reassuring, Tony didn't feel better. There was something in his voice, something that said that, after all, even though it had probably been pretty boring, those two hours in the elevators hadn't been so bad. Ziva's smile, which refused to go off, confirmed his suspicions. He just wanted to get up from his chair and give Lancaster a piece of his mind, but he knew he would never do anything like that. Yet, he felt an increasing need to tease Ziva about what had happened in the elevator, with the intent of gathering information that would let him piece together the events.
Tony's investigation had to wait, though. Gibbs entered the bullpen right in that moment and nodded at Ziva with a smile, as if she had just come back from a nice outing instead of a two-hour-long stay in the elevator.
"DiNozzo, David," Gibbs said, in the same tone of voice he always used when he was giving orders. "We had a tip. Go to this address and call me if you find something." He handed Tony a note with the address written on it, then he went to his desk and sat.
Tony took a quick glance at Ziva, who was collecting her things, then he went back looking at his boss. "You're not coming…?" he asked.
"Nope. McGee and I are going to follow another lead."
When he said so, McGee's head, which had been hidden by the computer for hours, popped out from behind the screen. He looked around for awhile, confused by the fact that the bullpen was much more crowded than the last time he had looked at it; then, as soon as he noticed Gibbs's stare, he got up and grabbed his bag.
"And who am I going with, Agent Gibbs?" Lancaster asked, while everyone was heading toward the elevator. The team stopped and they all simultaneously turned to look at him. Gibbs addressed an annoyed gaze at him and murmured, "You choose." Then he left, immediately followed by McGee. Lancaster's gaze went after them, then he returned to look at Tony and Ziva.
"I guess I'll come with you, then," he concluded with a smile that had the only effect of making Tony snort. He turned and left the squad room; Ziva and Lancaster shared a look, then they did the same.
"There's nothing here, I'm leaving."
Tony's mind greeted Lancaster's words with a, "Thank God, it was about time."
"Oh, you're already leaving us…?" he asked, grinning at him. Lancaster observed him carefully, obviously annoyed by him – not that Tony bothered, he couldn't care less about being liked by that guy.
"There isn't much to see anyway," Lancaster replied eventually, grim-faced. "I'll leave you guys alone; you probably won't need my help either way. Seems like the tip was a bogus."
"It does, right?" Tony said, hinting at a laugh. Lancaster smiled at him, with a completely fake smile; he then turned to Ziva and he said something to her that Tony didn't hear, then he left. When he went out of their sight, Tony sighed and said, "Finally alone."
Ziva immediately looked at him and smiled. "You obviously can't stand him."
"I wonder how you can," he replied sharply. "He's always standing in the way, with his green ties that are nothing else than an eyesore, and with that stupid grin on his face that seems to be begging to be punched."
Ziva frowned and laughed, amused. His jealousy was clear and Tony knew that she saw it. He wished she didn't though; but there was no way for him to hide something from her. She was so good at reading him that if he had attempted he would have sounded ridiculous. The only thing he could do was to deny the obvious, if she would accuse him of jealousy.
"Anyway, he's right," he said eventually, breaking the silence. "There's nothing here. I'd better call Gibbs." He picked up his phone and started to dial, but Ziva interrupted him.
"Is it a door, there, under the stairs?" she asked, looking at something with her eyes half-closed. Tony followed her gaze and stared at what Ziva had seen; there was in fact a door, covered by some chairs, right under the stairs.
"It might give access to a cupboard or something under the staircase," she deduced, and started walking toward the stairs. Tony sighed and followed her for the twenty yards that separated them from the door. When they reached it, they only looked at each other for a moment, then they started moving the chairs from the door, in order to be able to open it. It didn't take them more than fifteen seconds.
When all the chairs were removed, they studied the door for awhile, then Ziva said, "Come on, let's go," and they entered the cupboard. There was only a little lamp on the ceiling, a lamp that barely lit the space. Incredulous, they observed another staircase that led somewhere down. They cast a glance at each other and they started to go down. The basement was only a small room, but a quick look at it was enough for them to realize that it was the place they were looking for. Right in the middle of the it, there was a box, the box they had been pursuing since they had started to investigate that case.
When they reached the box, they observed it for some moments, in silence, until Tony said, "I'll call Gibbs." Ziva nodded and watched him pick up his phone and dial Gibbs' number once again. He took the cell to his ear, but he soon went back staring at it, wrinkling his forehead. "I can't get a signal from here, I need to go back upstairs," he said, disappointed.
"Okay, I will be here," Ziva replied; but as soon as she pronounced the last word, the lights went off and they heard the door shut. Tony turned to look at Ziva, but saw nothing but darkness. He rushed to the point where he remembered there were the stairs and started to go up, but when he reached the door, he found out he couldn't open it. He felt Ziva standing behind him and he turned to where she had to be, trying to see her in the deep darkness, but he saw nothing but black.
"We're stuck here," he stated simply, panting.
"Once again."
"Nothing, it won't let me call anyone," Tony concluded, grumbling. "We just have to hope they'll come to look for us soon."
"They found us the other time," Ziva replied, and Tony heard that she was moving around the darkness.
"We can't be always that lucky, can we?"
"Let's hope we will," she said simply.
The silence filled the air and Tony found himself staring at the darkness, all by himself. If someone told him he was dead, he would believe them; there was no sound but his own breath, no light, and the room was neither too cold or too hot. As seconds passed, though, the darkness started to make him nervous and he grabbed his cell from the pocket and clicked a key. The screen immediately lit up and he finally saw Ziva standing a few yards away. He got up and walked toward her, but soon the light went off and he had to press a key once again. He sat next to her, keeping turning on the light of the cell phone until Ziva shouted, "Would you stop that?" She sounded really bothered and she kind of scared him and he put his phone back into his pocket.
"I thought you'd like some light," he said simply, looking at her, or at least at the part of darkness where she was.
"It just blinds me," she replied sharply.
"Did I annoy you?"
"Yes."
Tony hinted at a laugh and raised his head. "Well, I guess you'd rather be stuck here with Lancaster then… I'm sure it would be much more fun with him."
Ziva laughed, amused. "I am sure you are doing the same expression you always do when you are jealous," she said. "The… pinchy one."
Tony grumbled and turned to her. "Too bad you can't see it, right?"
"Yes, what a pity," she replied sarcastically.
They both stayed silent for awhile. Tony could hear Ziva's breath right next to him and he could feel her presence on his left, yet he couldn't see her. When she had spoken, he had been given the chance to focus on her voice in a way he had never done before; he couldn't describe it in any other way than fascinating. It was a kind of voice that belonged only to her, a voice very different from the ones of all the other women he had known. He couldn't say what was the difference – how could you describe a sound with words? – but he could totally sense what her voice made him feel; it filled him with warmth, just like as if he were drinking a cup of hot cocoa on a freezing cold winter day.
"You know, this isn't the first time I've been stuck in a dark place," Tony suddenly said, when he felt the need to speak just to give her a chance to reply so he could hear her voice again. He waited for a moment, expecting her to say something, but she remained silent, so he continued. "When I was a kid, I liked peeping at my mother's clothes. Those heels, those skirts, those blouses… they kind of intrigued me."
Ziva laughed lightly and Tony enjoyed for a moment the sound of her laugh that spread around the basement filling it with its music.
"One day," he carried on," I slipped into her wardrobe while she was turned away. I wanted to take a look at her skirts from a close distance. I was so fascinated by all those colors – green and red and yellow – that I barely noticed when she closed the door. She hadn't seen me. I was in the complete darkness and I couldn't see the clothes anymore, which was a pity. I waited for at least thirty minutes to start beating the door. And do you want to know why?"
She didn't say anything. Once again, he waited for her to ask, but soon he realized she wasn't going to say anything; however, he could bet that she was anyway listening to his story carefully, interested and maybe, maybe, even amused.
"Because I enjoyed the darkness." Tony let the answer fill the room and waited a few moments before speaking again. "It was kind of comforting, you know… It made me feel safe. I wasn't scared of the darkness, so I liked being in there, in the wardrobe."
"You had deep thoughts, when you were a kid," Ziva observed, finally letting him hear her voice.
"I still do," he replied, and Ziva immediately chortled.
"What? You don't believe me…?" he asked, affronted.
"I do, I do, but…" She probably turned her head to his direction because he could now feel her eyes on him.
"But?" he repeated, tried to let the rest of the sentence slip out of her mouth.
"Nothing," she said.
"No, really, what?" he insisted. She didn't answer though and the silence surrounded them again. Tony heard her head move beside him and he understood she was probably back at staring the darkness in front of her. He did the same and he turned his head and watched the deep black fog in front of his eyes. He had thought he would get used to the darkness eventually and that he would start to see something; yet everything was still immersed in the dark.
"Anyway, to give my story a proper ending… when my mother found out, she… lectured me and from that moment on she checked the wardrobe every time before closing the door." Tony sighed. "And the first episode of The Adventures of a Young Tony DiNozzo is at its end. Do you want a sequel?"
"No."
"Okay." He paused for a moment. "Then I guess it's your time to talk."
Tony understood that if she could see something, she would give him a provocative look right away.
"Oh come on, since we have to stay here for who-knows-how-long, we'd better have a little chat, at least," he protested.
"If I refused, would you shut up?" she asked tiredly.
"Nope."
"Just as I thought."
The silence, again. Beside him, Ziva was probably enjoying the lack of words a lot, but he, he hated the silence more and more as time passed. It was awkward enough for him to stay next to her like that, he couldn't let himself focus on that feeling. He had to distract himself talking, which was the thing he could do best.
"Was little Ziva afraid of darkness?" he asked eventually.
She didn't speak at first and Tony feared she wouldn't, but in the end she did, and her voice sounded calm and her tone low. "My father… my father didn't want us to be afraid of the dark."
This time was Tony the one who remained silent, waiting for her to go on.
"He would turn off all the lights and we would sleep in complete darkness. He said it was important not to be afraid of the darkness because it taught you not to be afraid of the enemies you cannot see."
"Well, I guess… your experience was much more interesting than mine with the wardrobe, then," he murmured.
"It is far from interesting. It was cruel," she pointed out and again he felt her gaze on his skin and he could swear she was looking at where he was intensely, with a shadow of sadness in her eyes. "The first times… Tali always cried. Then we all got used to sleeping in the darkness, but this does not change the status of things." She paused for a moment. "We were just kids."
Tony turned to her and he felt like the air around them was getting harder and harder to breathe. "I guess I had his reasons to do that… Even though I wouldn't share his methods."
"He did have his reasons." Ziva sighed. "And yes, he made me stronger, he made me… less scared of things, but… His… methods…" She left the sentence unfinished, but Tony didn't mind, he knew what she was feeling and he didn't need her to say that in words.
He tried to lighten up the air by asking, "And how does Ziva sleep now? Light turned off? Or with a night light?" He hinted at a laugh. "I guess you sleep with the light turned off anyway, I mean, because…"
"You are wrong," she interrupted him, and her voice sounded so sad that Tony immediately stopped speaking and remained like that, with his mouth half opened, speechless. "I do sleep with a light on."
"Oh." Tony sounded very surprised and, as a matter of fact, he honestly was. He waiting a few moments before asking his question and when he did, he pronounced the words slowly, cautiously, as if he could hurt her with them – and maybe he could. "May I ask why?"
Tony heard Ziva change her position next to him and for a moment he feared she would leave. When she spoke, he felt relieved, but it lasted a heartbeat, just as long as it took him to realize what she was talking about. He felt a weight on his heart that broke his breath.
"When I was…" she paused for a moment, probably trying to find the right words and then strength to speak. After breathing in, she continued. "When I was in Somalia, I was left alone in a dark room. For hours. The first days… I found solace in the darkness, because those were the only moments when I was left alone, when I wasn't…" She stopped, unable to continue her sentence.
Tony was listening to her, hushing his mind every time it tried to think a thought: he didn't want to let himself think now; he wanted to focus on Ziva's words. There would be time to feel the anger, the sorrow, the fear. He just wanted to listen now.
"But then I started to be scared of those moments more than of the ones I spent with… Saleem, and… and the others. Waiting was… excruciating. Knowing that they would come, but not knowing when… I heard the door open even when it wasn't opening. I thought I heard voices even when there weren't any. Every moment, every instant… I was scared they would come to get me." She stopped and Tony knew she wasn't going to add anything.
"So when you came back, you started to turn on your light," he concluded for her, in a murmur.
She probably nodded, but then, after realizing he couldn't see her nod, she said, "Yes."
"And… you still do, after all this time…?" he asked. The question had a much deeper meaning than it seemed. Tony wasn't just asking her about her habits before going to bed; he wanted to know from her if those months in Somalia were still haunting her, he wanted to know if she had gotten over it of if she was still dealing with the consequences and the scars. He was afraid of her answer, though, he was scared of being told the truth and for an instant he hoped she wouldn't reply, but she did.
"I do, but…" Ziva laughed slightly, to break the tension that had been building up in the air. "It is more a habit than a need now."
Somewhere in the darkness, she was smiling, he knew, and that smile, that he couldn't see but he could feel, reassured him and swept away that weight from his heart. He stared at the darkness at his left for awhile, still unable to see her; however, just knowing she was there was enough.
"I…" Ziva suddenly said, then she stopped, maybe regretting to have started to speak. Tony hoped she would go on, but he didn't want to push her so he didn't say anything. She went on.
"I… I never talked about Somalia before. With anyone. It is…" she laughed nervously. "It feels good to let it go."
Tony stared at the place where she was intensely, as if he could see her.
"I'm glad you got over it," he said simply, letting the plain truth slip out of his mouth, enjoying the feeling he got when the words flew through his lips.
"Did you think I hadn't?"
"I wasn't sure." He shrugged. "You never talked about it."
She stayed in silence for a moment. "I got over it," she stated then, and her voice sounded relieve, genuinely content, as if she was savoring the sweet taste of those words. "I got over it," she said again.
Tony couldn't help but smiling.
"Now I kind of like the darkness, actually," Ziva said, her tone of voice still happy, relaxed.
"Hum, really?"
"Yes."
"So… you're not afraid of what could be hiding in this room…?" he asked amused.
"Nothing is hiding in this room, Tony," she replied.
"Then… what if something touched you?" he insisted, getting closer to her, with a playful smile on his lips.
"I would think it is you," she answered simply, just as entertained as him.
Tony stretched his arms and grabbed something in the darkness, something that was most likely Ziva's body.
"Tony!" she protested while laughing, but he was already holding her waist and tickling her; she laughed louder and tried to free herself from his arms, until she fell to the ground, dragging Tony with him. He continued tickling, getting closer and closer to her, until she could almost see her features in the dark. She kept laughing, amused.
Tony's hands ran up her body, until he reached her chin and he stopped tickling. Her laughs immediately stopped and the silence embraced them again. His face was now only a few inches away from hers, but he still couldn't see it, he still couldn't see her. He looked for her eyes in the darkness, but he couldn't find them; yet, he felt her breath on his face and he touched her body with his. For the first time in his life, he wasn't scared to face her feelings for her. He wasn't scared to face them because he didn't need to look them right into their eyes and feel the powers abandon him. He didn't need to look at those eyes and lose the courage. He could just sense those feelings, he could let himself forget about the face of the fear and the shape of the reality that was in front of his eyes every day. There, in the darkness, it was easy to focus only on the beating of their hearts, on the sound of their breaths, on the smell of their bodies. There, in the darkness, it was easy to let all the defenses fall down and just let themselves go.
In the middle of that black room, Tony searched for Ziva's mouth with his hands and when he found it, he placed his fingers on her lips. He then bent down his head, following that feeling that told him where his fingers were, and he brought back his hands to her cheeks, letting them slide on her skin. When his lips were less than an inch away from hers, he lingered there for a moment, then he broke the little distance that kept them apart and he kissed her.
Tony was invested by a storm of feelings, all at once. He felt her lips move under his and he caressed her cheeks with his fingers, immersed in a darkness that wouldn't let him see anything of her. He had his eyes closed, though, and no light got through his eyelids. There was only the black, and her lips on his, and her body under his and her everywhere around him, somehow. The time seemed not to exist anymore; they just kissed, letting the seconds past. After a few moments, Tony moved his arms down her body, until he grabbed her hands in his and held them. He saw them to his chest and he made her lean them on it; he felt her grab his shirt with strength and he brought back his hands to her face.
After what felt like hours, Tony pulled away, just an inch, then he moved his lips down her face and placed a kiss on her cheek. He felt her shiver under his body and he smiled, happy. When he raised his head from hers, he tried to see her, and for a moment he believed to have catch a flash of light coming from her eyes.
"You can leave my body now," Ziva said, somewhere under him, with an amused tone of voice that sounded incredibly sexy.
"Nope. I'm protecting you from whatever's hiding in here." He smirked, but then Ziva started to get up from the floor and he moved away from her. They both stayed in silence, somewhere in the middle of that dark room, listening to each other's breath. Tony couldn't say how much time they spent like this; he just knew that for some reason he didn't want to go away from there, he didn't want to leave that shelter of darkness. He was afraid that, once they would be back in the real world, the light would give back the shape to all their inner fears and that that moment they had shared, that kiss would only belong to a dream.
When they heard voices coming from somewhere above their heads, they got up all at once and Tony pressed a key of his cell phone to light up the basement. They reached the stairs, without looking into each other's eyes not even for an instant, then they rushed up. They heard voices yelling their names and they started beating the door. For just one moment, Tony felt again a child stuck in a wardrobe, beating the door hoping for his mother to come rescue him. The voices approached and Tony and Ziva caught Gibbs' and McGee's and even Lancaster's. For a few minutes, noises kept sounding from the other side of the door, but it eventually opened. The light invested the cupboard and the two agents, who covered their eyes with the hands.
"Are you okay?" Gibbs asked and Tony noticed with a smiled that he sounded worried.
"Yes," Ziva answered and her voice reached Tony's ears carrying the echo of the words she had told him down in the basement.
When he moved his hands away from his face, he saw Gibbs' face in front of his eyes and he was back in the real world again.
They tracked down the owner of the warehouse and followed his every movement – credit cards and phone calls – until they found him. He confessed to have stolen the box containing sensitive files to sell it on the black market. He also admitted that he had closed the door of the cupboard as soon as he had realized that the agents had found the box; he had hoped he would be able to leave before they could alert their team, but he hadn't been lucky. The case was closed.
At the end of the day, Tony felt exhausted. The only thing that had made the afternoon a little better was the absence of Lancaster. When it was 2100 by his watch, he raised his gaze and met Ziva's eyes which were staring at him from the other side of the squad room. They were alone in the bullpen; Gibbs was in Vance's office and McGee was in Abby's lab. Tony got up from his chair and grabbed his bag from behind the desk, then he went back, looking at Ziva.
"I'm going home… are you coming?" he asked.
"Sure," she answered, taking her things as well, while putting in order a wisp behind her ear. He addressed a smile at her, then he started walking to the elevator, followed closely by Ziva. When they reached it, the doors opened in front of them and Tony found himself staring at Lancaster's face.
"Hey," the man said, with a wide smile that let Tony see all his bright white teeth.
Tony responded at his smile with a much less friendly smirk, then he walked past him and entered the elevator, waiting for Ziva to do the same. However, Lancaster seemed to be willing to tell her something, so she waited for him to speak.
"I was wondering…" he said, and Tony perked up his ears to hear his words. "Maybe we could… go get a drink or something tonight…?"
Ziva smiled lightly. "I am actually quite tired, sorry. I just want to go home."
Tony enjoyed the seconds of silence that followed Ziva's words and he wished he could see the disappointed expression that Lancaster had to be wearing at that moment.
"Okay," the man murmured, then Ziva took a step toward him and he moved away. She smiled again and she entered the elevator, placing herself next to Tony. The doors closed in front of them and soon Lancaster was out of their sight.
Tony waited a few moments before speaking. "Are you really that tired?" he asked, looking at the ceiling above him, with a fake nonchalant tone.
"No. I was just saying it to get him out of my way," she answered simply.
Tony nodded, smiling lightly.
"Pizza?"
"Sounds great."