She has been hard to reach all summer. Completely closed off. He can't blame her. She doesn't like depending on other people, and he has no idea how to tell her that he depends on her.
Finally, Tony can't take the lack of contact anymore. He asks McGee to trace her cell phone. It doesn't take much for McGee to obey his command. He expects a synagogue. He expects a bar. He expects some random apartment, but he does not expect the Arthur Murray Dance Studio.
On the car ride over, he tries to recall every time Ziva mentioned dancing as a little girl. The references are few, but he can see her eyes soften when she talks about the art.
Pulling into the parking lot, he immediately notices that all the lights are off. It is pitch-black inside. He peers inside the window, which is very difficult because of the blinds, but it doesn't look like anyone is there. Tony sighs as he takes his cell phone out of his pocket, planning to call McGee and tell him to redo the trace.
Then he sees it.
A door opens and closes, and he can make out a figure entering the room. He knows it's Ziva, so he does what she most likely did, even though there were several alarms going off in his head telling him to leave her alone.
He enters through the back and notices that the lock has already been picked.
Yup, it's Ziva. He thinks.
Somehow, he makes it to a corner without her noticing. She is so lost in the moment. Her eyes are even closed, as if she's trying to remember the steps in her head. There isn't any music playing on the stereo near her, but she is humming a beautiful ballad, almost like a lullaby. The hums are very faint, but Tony can hear them, and he is completely and utterly lost in her as she dances.
She is so graceful and rhythmic, which leads him to believe that the lessons did not stop for her when she was a young girl.
She finishes humming the melody, and the dancing stops with it. Tony has to bite back the urge to applaud. She starts another one. This one is slightly faster, and he examines each move she makes and realizes that she is dancing a waltz.
Ziva finally spins around, her arms held close to her chest, dancing on her toes like a ballerina, and she opens her eyes when she finishes.
He knows he is caught.
"Tony!" Ziva exclaims, not out of anger, but out of surprise.
Tony turns his head from side to side as he stands up to face her. "This isn't Beltway Burgers." He says jokingly.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, it's been a while."
"What are you talking about?"
"We haven't seen each other much this summer, and I kinda missed seeing you, I guess. I, um, dropped by your place a couple times, but you were never there. You didn't return any of my calls, so I had McGee trace your cell…again."
"Well, it is good to see you, Tony. I mean that. I just was not expecting it here."
"Nah, I dig it, Ziva. Dark dance studio that you broke into, so you can practice routines you learned years ago while you hum the songs. Nice waltz by the way."
"Impressive, Tony." She smiles. "How did you know it was a waltz?"
"They teach you a thing or two about ballroom dancing in boarding school." He informs her, and she laughs, trying to picture him as a teenager doing the waltz and the foxtrot. "I remember the girl I was partnered with, too. She had two left feet."
"Are you sure it wasn't just you?"
"Are you kidding? I was an amazing dancer."
"Show me."
He is taken by surprise when she asks this of him. "Um, I don't really remember any steps."
She nods her head, as if to prove her point, that she has won. "You have to remember something, Tony."
He scans his head for any memory of dancing. He remembers asking himself when he would ever need ballroom dancing in life when he was learning it. Well, he needs it right now. Finally, something comes to mind. "Okay. I remember one thing. We had to count the music for the waltz as boom-tick-tick…boom-tick-tick and lean. My instructor had us dance in closed position."
She has a smirk on her lips as she extends her hand. "Show me." She repeats.
He chuckles uneasily. "Look, Ziva, really that's all I know."
"I thought you were an amazing dancer." She really wants to try and do this with him, and she knows how to make him. "Well, I thought you were amazing," their eyes meet. "In Berlin."
He smiles at the memory, and he feels a certain burst of confidence because of her comment. He takes her hand and leads her back to the polished floor. He places his right hand slightly beneath Ziva's left shoulder blade, and he holds his right arm at a 90 degree angle to his body. His left arm is raised, so Ziva's hand can rest lightly on it. Her eyes meet his as they hold the position, and he begins to lead her around the floor.
"You have to hum." He tells her.
"What?"
"Whatever you were humming when I came in. I can't dance without music."
"You are doing fine, Tony." She says to him when secretly she does not want to hum with him right there, even though he has already heard her. She is very shy with her voice, so she attempts to convince him that he doesn't need the music.
"Fine. I'll hum." His music throws both of them off, which was his intention.
"Alright, I will do it."
They dance until the end of the song, and Tony reluctantly lets go of Ziva.
"Very good, Tony." She whispers. He has taken her breath away, and she was upset when the song ended, too.
"Thanks. Hey, Ziva?"
"Yes."
"Do you think that we can do this again?" he doesn't even think about asking her to dance anywhere else with him. In his mind, there isn't anything more intimate than a dark studio with a dance floor all to themselves, especially when they had to break into it.
"I would like that." She answers.
"Me, too."
This was a prompt I received from someone on tumblr. I thought I would post it here as well. I would really appreciate some reviews. Thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed it, and I promise I will update Us Forever soon. I know it's been a while. Thank you for your patience!
Love,
Serena