They stood in the observation room and watched Jethro Gibss when he was calmly questioning a petty officer, who was arrested for the murder and rape of a thirteen year old girl, that was visiting her father at Quantico naval base. Petty officer looked guilty, but didn't they all look that way, when they sat in the interrogation room? Gibbs asked him questions, but the suspect denied it all. He denied seeing a young girl or her father. He swore he was checking the supply-storage at the time when the girl was supposedly made her visit at the naval base.
Ziva stood beside Tony in the observation room and glanced at him quickly. He seemed to be more focused on the interrogation than her.
She turned her gaze back to Gibbs, who was not happy with the answers that the petty officer gave him. Ziva didn't have to even see his face. Simply watching him from behind was enough to see that Gibbs was getting really pissed off.
"What do you think? Is he guilty?" Ziva asked to break the silence between her and her partner.
Tony shrugged. "I don't know." He answered and watched the terrified face of the petty officer, who now was under a rage of Leroy Jethro Gibbs – and that was enough reason to be terrified.
"I think he saw the girl." Ziva said. "I know it."
Tony turned his eyes to her and flashed a smile. "What's up with the small talk here, David?" He asked and got Ziva to turn her dark eyes on him.
"Small talk?" She asked.
"Yeah, you know, a light conversation." Tony explained.
"Oh, I see!" Ziva understood and shrugged. "I don't know, I just want to clear the air." She said and turned her gaze back to the suspect, who was about to wet his pants, because Gibbs stood behind him and practically screamed to his ear, asking has he seen the girl or not.
"Why would you wanna clear the air?" Tony asked and leaned against he observation room's window.
"I feel like there is something bothering us." Ziva replied.
"Nothing is bothering me. I'm doing fine – hungry, but fine. How are you doing?" He asked and observed the woman who stood in front of him. She looked beautiful today, well, she looked always beautiful, but today she looked… stunning. Tony looked at her dark eyes, which looked black in the light of this room and her lips had a rosy touch of a lipstick. Her dark hair falling over her shoulder with a little curls and her body was wrapped in those same pants she seemed to like a lot and that dark, red, t-shirt with an open neckline. Stunning, he thought. But why was she so dressed up today?
"I am." Ziva answered and kept her eyes on Gibbs, who was starting to get a confession out of the petty officer. She felt Tony's eyes on her, but didn't have the nerve to look back at him. She tried to keep herself calm.
Tony looked at her for a little while, before he opened his mouth.
"You look good today." He said suddenly and Ziva turned her eyes on him.
"What?" She asked, because Tony hardly ever took time to say something like that. He would look at you and you could read it from his eyes, but rarely hear it coming out of his lips.
"I said, you look good today." Tony repeated and flashed his famous million dollar-smile.
"Why would you say that?" Ziva asked.
"I'm just saying it – jeez, should I tell you that you look ugly?" He wondered and rolled his eyes.
"No, no!" Ziva shook her head. "I just thought, that you hardly ever say something like that… So why now?" She asked and locked her eyes on him, like she was trying to find the answer before he could say it out loud.
Tony tried to figure out what he was supposed to say now. Curiosity won him over. "Do you happen to have somewhere to go today?" He asked carefully and he saw a little spark lighting up in her eyes. It was a 'yes' to him. I knew it, he thought.
"Why do you want to know?" She asked, without fully admitting that she had a date later tonight.
"You are all dressed up. You know, with the make-up and the hair and – wait, do I smell correctly?" Tony sniffed the air and smiled teasingly. "You bought a new perfume? He must be something special." He said and narrowed his eyes. "Do I know him?" He lowered his voice and sounded very serious again.
Ziva stepped closer to Tony, surrounding him with her presence and the new perfume, which was a mixture of something very feminine - more feminine than the one she usually wears. She tilted her head a little bit and smiled. She was intrigued by this moment between them.
"Do I suspect jealousy?" Ziva lowered her voice and kept her dark eyes glued to his eyes. She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from him.
Tony smiled, without admitting just how nervous he got when she came this close to demand an answer. "Who is he?" He dodged her question with his own. "Don't tell me, it's the new assistant on the second floor, because clearly he's an idiot, I mean, who self-respecting man still wears tennis socks AND flip-flops at work?" Tony asked and hoped Ziva would have forgotten her question, but he was wrong.
"Tony…" She started and clearly enjoyed to torture him with her questions. "Do I suspect jealousy?" She asked slowly.
He smiled and came closer, invaded all the way through her personal space. Their lips were few millimeters apart and their eyes were pierced through each others. He looked at her eyes and the smile on her lips - and for a little, undeniable second, he wanted more than anything just to grab her and fill her with his embrace – but he didn't do it.
Ziva looked at Tony and read him like a book. It was so clear, what he was thinking about right now and just how jealous he was. She enjoyed it, she loved it. She was under his full attention and it made everything always more exciting.
"No." Tony finally answered. His voice was cooler than before and his body wasn't so relaxed anymore.
Ziva smiled quickly and realized, that she just might not get an answer from him, but she kept trying. "I think you are jealous."
"Why would I be?" He stepped away and gave her her personal space back. He sighed and wondered what was going through in her mind at this point.
"Don't ask me that, ask it from yourself." She suggested. "But tell me the answer."
Tony thought himself for a few seconds. He knew the answer. He knew it all along, but admitting that he truly was jealous was harder than no one could ever imagine – especially when he had to admit it to someone like Ziva - someone so independent, so stubborn and so much more different than him.
She waited patiently for a moment. She waited for the 'yes', she waited for the answer, but the words that she got from him, were far away from what she'd expected.
"Did you know, that sometimes it's easier to say 'I love you' than admitting that you're jealous? It's easier to confess that you are in love, than to admit, that you are jealous for someone you cannot have." He said and took her by surprise. Tony felt what effect his words had on her and both of their hearts started to beat faster. What was he meaning with this? She thought to herself. What was the point of saying this?
Tony kept his eyes on her and didn't know what to say anymore, but neither did Ziva. They stood in the dark lights of the observation room in a total silence.
"We got him." Tony finally said. Ziva looked at him with confusion in her eyes. "What?"
"Gibbs cracked him. We got a murderer and a rapist." He explained and turned his gaze to the interrogation room, where Gibbs closed his files and handcuffed the guilty petty officer.
Tony stopped at the door and turned around. He looked quickly at Ziva before he left the observation room. "Have fun on your date, Ziva." He said and closed the door.
Ziva stood alone in the empty, dark room and breathed heavily. She was confused and didn't know what Tony had meant with his words. "Someone you cannot have…" She thought in her mind. Who was this someone?
She leaned her back to the window and sighed deeply. It didn't take her that long, when she finally figured it out. She knew it - she knew it all these years… It was her. The 'someone' in his words was her.
Ziva took her phone from her pocket and dialed a number. She waited for a little while, but no one answered. She reached a voicemail and left a short message.
"Hello. It's Ziva. I have to work late tonight, so I don't think I'll be able to see you. I'm sorry. Bye." She hung up and left the observation room.
Tony's ideal late Friday night wasn't made of warm beer and the most boring movie ever. He lifted his feet to the coffee table in front of him and sighed. "Oh my god. Since when cable TV got this bad?" He asked himself and heard someone knocking on the front door.
He rose from the couch and stretched his arms and back. "I hate getting older." He groaned and opened the door and got surprised.
"I rented this. Have you seen it?" Ziva stood in front of him with a smile on her lips and a movie in her right hand.
Tony looked at the cover and smiled.
"No." He lied, because he was afraid that she would leave, if he would have told her that he'd seen that movie about fifteen times.
"Do you want to watch it?" Ziva asked.
Tony narrowed his eyes. "Don't you have somewhere to be?" He asked and she shook her head. "My date got cancelled."
"How convenient." Tony smirked.
"Do you want to watch this or not? I can leave if you want me to." Ziva said and put her hand to her hips, demanding an answer from him.
"Sure, we can watch it." Tony said and opened the door wider and letting her in.
She walked pass him and all he could feel was her arm brushing against his. He smelled her perfume and watched her, while she took her coat off. While she lifted her arm up, the hem of her shirt raised too, showing the two dimples on her back and that he secretly loved. She threw the jacket to the nearest chair and dropped to the cushions of the couch. She sighed and smiled to Tony, who smiled back to her and took the movie from her hand. He put the DVD in and sat next to Ziva.
The movie was longer than they would have suspected. Ziva fell asleep after half an hour. She rested her head on his chest and breathed peacefully inside and out and her legs were stretched across his lap. She shivered a little, but seemed to be in a deep sleep.
Tony stroked her hair and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He pulled Ziva closer and held her tight. He smelled her perfume and touched the bare skin that the t-shirt didn't cover. He enjoyed the feeling of her body next to him – until the point, when in every possible position he put his legs into, they started to go numb. "Oh great…" He sighed and thought, should he move his partner of not. There is the possibility, that she might kill him if he wakes her up and she happens to be a little grumpy, but you'll never know and taking that chance – is indeed quite scary.
"Ziva…" He whispered and took the chance anyway, but she didn't respond. "Ziva…" He raised his voice.
"What?" Ziva sat back up and jumped away from him.
"You wanna go to bed?" Tony asked.
Ziva calmed down before she answered. "Excuse me?"
"You seem tired." Tony explained. "You can stay here, if you want to."
Ziva thought about the suggestion for a little while and gazed the clock on the wall. It was really late. "I can sleep on this couch."
"No, you take the bed. I sleep here. You seem to need the bed more than I do and I've slept in this couch more than I have in bed." He said and realized, how his words must have sounded like to her.
Ziva smirked and let out a chuckle. "Really?"
Tony laughed. "You know, what I meant! I fell asleep on this couch a lot, especially during boring movies like this one." He said and pointed the TV, where the same movie was still rolling.
"Hey! You said you liked it!" Ziva pretended to be offended.
"I did! For first half an hour, but not after that." Tony shrugged and laughed. "And you're the one to say, you fell asleep!"
Ziva giggled. "That is true." She admitted and yawned.
"Really. Take the bed, I'll sleep in here." Tony suggested and stretched his arm towards her. He brushed away a tress from her face. "Goodnight, sweetcheeks."
Ziva smirked. "Don't call me that." She said and rose up from the couch. She walked to the doorway to the bedroom, before she stopped. "Hey, Tony…" She started.
"Yea?" Tony yelled from the couch.
"Thank you. For letting me stay." She said and walked to the bedroom.
Tony smiled to himself and walked to the kitchen to get some water. He saw straight to the bedroom from there and he saw, how she stripped off her t-shirt and pants. He watched silently those two back dimples and her shoulder blades. He watched her body and somewhere deep inside of him, he swore that one day he would take that body to his ministrations and make love to her all night long.
As she slid under the covers, Tony turned his gaze away and sighed deeply.
Later that same night, Tony noticed, that he had forgotten just how painful it was to actually sleep on the couch. He got pain on his neck and back, for trying to change to ten different positions and everyone was as equally painful.
He thought, he could go sneak into the bedroom and sleep in his own bed. It would be so comfy and warm and… Oh yeah, Ziva was in it too. Not that he would really mind, but… She indented to snore and kick sometimes, which wasn't very pleasant. So he had to make a choice; snoring and kicking Ziva or tossing and turning on the couch for hours?
Tony sat up, yawned, stretched his back and walked quietly to the bedroom. He heard the silent snoring and rolled his eyes. "Great…" He sighed and carefully took his clothes off, till he was in his boxers and then, carefully of course, slid under the covers.
He got nervous when he heard Ziva sigh and roll to her other side. She was now face to face with him, but still asleep, thank God.
Tony looked at her face while she slept, she looked very peaceful. Her breaths were even and she looked so calm.
He wanted to stroke her hair and come closer, but he didn't want to wake her up because she, if anybody, needed to get some sleep. So instead of pulling her closer, he satisfied to just smile at her sleeping figure and then turn his back on her, and of course, very carefully again.
It took him fifteen minutes to fell asleep – and another fifteen to wake up again. Tony felt something wrapped around him, which woke him up from his dreams. He looked down on his chest and couldn't help at smiling.
Ziva's arms were wrapped tightly around him and she had pulled herself closer to him during their sleep.
Tony turned to look at her. She wasn't awake and Tony though, that maybe she was in a need for some kind of affection, but as stubborn as she was, she wouldn't ask it, but now, in her sleep, she didn't need to ask it, she would just clung onto him. But he didn't mind at all, in fact, he liked it. It felt like he could protect her in a way, something like from her nightmares. Ziva rarely asked for a protection, she didn't need it, but she did have nightmares and no one to protect them for, so Tony was happy to play that part.
He pulled her a little more closer and kissed her hair. He smiled to himself and fall back to sleep.
And for first time in a long time, Ziva didn't have any nightmares – she felt completely safe, as she lied in his arms.
hello there. so, this is my first fanfiction here. i got this random idea, and it wanted to just write something.
and just to clear up, i don't own ncis, sadly.
hope you even tried to enjoy.
- L