Title: Good Hygiene
Pairing: McGee/Ziva
Rating: K+
Genre: Het
Cat: Romance
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: Tony makes a discovery in McGee's bathroom, then Ziva's, but it can't be what he thinks it is. Can it?
Author's Note: Written for the anon on Tumblr (who I'm pretty sure was Caitlin ) who asked for, "McGiva - toothbrush."
"Come on, McNeatFreak, get a move on." Tony stood in McGee's bathroom, rifling through his medicine cabinet, then closed it, turning his attention to the sink. A grin snaked across his face as he caught sight of not one, but two toothbrushes in the toothbrush holder. His grin only grew wider when he saw one of the brushes was a pale purple. He picked it up and walked from the bathroom, twisting it between his fingers.
McGee exited his bedroom then, buttoning his shirt cuffs, and looked up to see Tony holding the purple toothbrush. He paused for a second, but decided to pretend he didn't notice. "I'm ready," he said, brushing past Tony to walk to his writing desk and pick up his keys.
"You never mentioned you were seeing someone," Tony said, walking up behind him.
McGee turned around, purposely looking confused. "What?"
Tony shook the toothbrush under McGee's nose. "Unless there's something else you're not telling me."
"That's, uh, that's Sarah's," he claimed, his brow furrowing as he wondered himself at the plausibility of that statement.
Tony gave him a questioning look, then turned back toward the bathroom, muttering, "Weird ass family," as he walked.
A couple days later, Tony found himself at Ziva's apartment, picking her up for work at Gibbs' insistence. They'd had a scuffle the day before while in the field and Ziva had left with a sprained wrist, leaving her unable to drive. Tony whined about needing to get up even earlier to pick up who he was sure to be a grouchy Ziva, but Gibbs had given him a stern look and he had shut up, knowing better than to argue.
He wandered around her apartment as he waited, instinctively heading for the bathroom, much like he'd done in McGee's apartment. He had just reached for the medicine cabinet when he heard, "Stay out of my medicine cabinet, Tony!" He wrinkled his nose and glanced around the bathroom before he left, but just as he was about to walk out, something caught his eye and he turned back.
"Well, this is interesting," he muttered, honing in on the set of toothbrushes on her sink. One was a basic blue and the other was. . .
"Purple," he muttered, holding up an identical toothbrush to the one he'd found in McGee's apartment earlier that week.
McGoo and Ziva? No, he would've known! Besides, the whole idea was just . . . ridiculous. Yeah, there was no way. Toothbrushes were toothbrushes, and the odds of McGee's sister having the same toothbrush as Ziva were way better than his two partners having a secret affair that nobody knew about. He nodded to himself, confident in his theory, and turned to exit the bathroom, forgetting about the toothbrush he held until he heard Ziva's voice as she stood before him.
"What are you doing with my toothbrush, Tony?" She gave him a worried look and he flashed her a smile, turning to put the brush back in its holder.
"Nothing. I just noticed you had two toothbrushes." He turned back and found Ziva giving him an expectant look.
"And? What is your point, Tony?"
He frowned, then coughed. "Uh, just, you know, wondering if there was a second owner for the second brush."
Ziva rolled her eyes, pulling him from the bathroom. "So now it is suspicious to own two toothbrushes? I think you would know if I was seeing someone."
"Who said anything about you seeing anybody?" The typical DiNozzo smile he was known for made an appearance as he followed closely behind her, reveling in her sudden stiffness. "Ziva's got a boyfriend. . ."
Ziva paused, then turned around, giving him a pointed look. "And so what if I do? I am a grown woman. I deserve to have an adult relationship. Just because we work together does not mean I have to share every detail of my personal life with you." She turned back around, making it clear she was finished with the conversation.
Tony grumbled to himself, but didn't push the issue. He'd find out one way or another.
"I'm going for lunch," Tony announced a handful of hours later, and he was waiting for the elevator before McGee or Ziva could say anything in return. Gibbs was in Vance's office, so Ziva saw the opportunity before her and waited until Tony was in the elevator and the doors had closed before standing and rushing to McGee's desk.
He looked up, surprised to see her standing there. "Hey," he said, giving her a small smile.
But she didn't return the smile. Instead, she gave him a serious look and quietly said, "We need to talk."
He could almost feel his face lose its color as he stood and followed her to a mostly unused stairwell. He waited until he heard the door close before he turned to her. "What's up?" he asked, trying to act nonchalant, but failing miserably.
"I think Tony is onto us," Ziva said, and McGee let out a breath, grinning at her. Her eyes widened at his reaction. "You are happy about this?"
He shrugged, unable to keep from laughing a bit. "Well, he was going to find out eventually. I just thought you were going to break up with me or something."
Ziva shook her head, not acknowledging his worries, and turned away from him. "I had hoped to keep things quiet yet."
McGee's smile slowly faded as the first traces of hurt appeared in his eyes. "Are you embarrassed at the thought of people knowing we're together?"
She faced him upon hearing the sadness in his voice and looked up at him. "Of course not. I had just hoped we would have more time to ourselves first, that is all."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Well, it's not like we're inviting Tony to join us."
Ziva rolled her eyes, but smiled at his comment. "That is not what I meant and you know it." She placed a hand on his chest. "I have enjoyed getting to know you better, and our time together, and I am afraid we will not have nearly the privacy we do now once everyone else knows."
He raised a hand to cover hers. "Then we'll just let them know we won't appreciate interruptions, and besides, I think even Tony has better things to do than stalk us outside of work."
Ziva grinned at him and closed the distance between them with a hug. "You are wonderful," she murmured into his shirt, snuggling for a moment, then backing up a step, but keeping her arms around him. "Perhaps you are right. We should tell them. It would be nice to not have to sneak around anymore."
He gave her an affectionate look. "How did I get so lucky?" he asked, leaning in to kiss her. She returned the kiss, deepening it and raising a hand to run through the short hairs on the nape of his neck, and he struggled against her shortly before pulling away. She pouted at him and he laughed. "Wouldn't want people finding out this way, now would we?"
She gave a dramatic sigh, but he knew she agreed. "We should get back to work," she said after a moment, clearly not wanting to return to their professional life.
"Hey, how about this," McGee said before Ziva could leave. "End of the day, we'll get Abby and Ducky and Palmer up here and once everyone's in the same spot, tell them."
Ziva stepped close to him again and slid her hands up his back. "Won't they be suspicious of us calling them up?"
He lowered his head to press his forehead against hers, dropping his voice. "Isn't that the point?"
She smiled and gave him a quick kiss before pulling away. "We have to get back to our desks before Tony gets back, or else they will find out sooner rather than later."
McGee nodded and resisted the temptation to reach out for her again, instead following her back into the bullpen, where they found themselves thankfully alone. They had just sat down and started working when Tony arrived, and they shot each other an amused look before turning their attention to Tony as he handed out their lunches.
"Alright." Gibbs' voice cut through the silence of the squad room, and McGee thought how much this was like being in school, with Tony already scooping papers up to shove into his desk and tossing things in his backpack so he could leave as soon as Gibbs said the word. But before Gibbs could say anything else, Abby appeared from the elevator. He raised his eyebrows at her. "Abbs?"
"Hey, Gibbs," she said, perching herself on the edge of his desk.
He just looked at her. "You want something?"
She shrugged, playing with the pens and pencils in the cup on his desk. "Timmy said to meet him up here at the end of the day, that he had an important announcement to make."
"Oh, really?" Tony stood up and made his way over to McGee's desk, looking for some sign from the younger man of what he was about to say. McGee simply sat back in his chair, looking smug. "Well, I gotta say, we all knew. It was only a matter of time before you came out of the closet." He put a hand on McGee's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Tim."
McGee ignored the teasing glint in Tony's eyes, turning his gaze toward Ziva, who shook her head at him. He then looked toward the elevator, where Ducky and Palmer were just exiting, and stood, causing Tony to turn around.
"This must be big, if you've got everyone up here," Tony muttered.
"I thought you knew what I was going to announce?" McGee countered, and Tony tipped his head in recognition of the comeback.
"And I was the one to call Ducky and Jimmy up here," Ziva spoke up from her desk, and Tony turned his attention to her, as everyone else attempted to put the pieces together.
There were a few moments of silence as Ducky and Palmer shared confused looks, Abby and Gibbs shared a knowing look, and Tony continued to make sense of what was going on. Finally, Tony raised his head and looked at Ziva, his eyes wide. "That was your toothbrush, wasn't it?"
"Very good, Tony," Ziva said, and Palmer continued to look oblivious as realization came over Ducky's face.
"Um, can someone. . ." Palmer started, and Ziva stood and walked around her desk to join McGee, who put an arm around her shoulders.
"We did not mean to keep it a secret for so long, but Tim and I," Ziva looked up at McGee with a soft expression, "have been seeing each other for a while now."
Tony waited for her to elaborate on the length of their relationship and when she didn't, asked the question himself. "And? How long is 'a while'?"
"Six months tomorrow," McGee said quietly, waiting for Gibbs' response.
"Wow," Tony said, not realizing the depth of their relationship. "Well, I had no idea."
Ziva smirked, but didn't say anything, as McGee turned to Gibbs, his eyes asking for their boss' permission.
He simply nodded, knowing they'd been successful at keeping it out of the office and it hadn't affected their work, so he had no real reason to disapprove.
McGee looked back at Ziva, knowing better than to try to get any actual words out of Gibbs. He gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze as she stared up at him with a dreamy look on her face.
"Well, let me be the first to congratulate you two," Ducky said, stepping forward to shake McGee's hand and give Ziva a soft kiss on the cheek.
"Yeah, you guys seem really happy together," Abby said softly, which seemed uncharacteristic for her, but perhaps she was thinking of what could have been and the chance she'd missed out on. Though from the way McGee and Ziva were looking at each other, maybe she never had that chance in the first place.
Tony didn't say anything else then, just reached out and shook McGee's hand. They were his friends. And if they were happy, he would be happy. He couldn't pretend he wasn't hurt, both by their secrecy and the fact that McGee had snuck in and swept Ziva off her feet, when he'd felt for a long time it should have been him, but maybe he was wrong. Abby had a point – they looked really happy together.
"Okay," Gibbs said, a signal to everyone to wrap things up and get out of there. The group chattered quietly for a few more moments and eventually trickled out, leaving just McGee and Ziva in the bullpen with Gibbs. He just looked at them. "What?"
"Uh, we were just wondering. . ." McGee started, and Ziva rolled her eyes and stepped in, knowing how he was.
"We broke one of your rules, Gibbs." Ziva shot McGee a dirty look as he elbowed her in the side.
Gibbs just nodded, looking down at his desk, and McGee found himself tightening his hold on Ziva. Finally, he said, "Six months, huh?" McGee opened his mouth to affirm, but Gibbs looked up and met his eyes before he could. "Good."
Before either member of the couple could respond, Gibbs had gathered his things and headed for the elevator, leaving McGee and Ziva giving each other slightly shocked looks.
"Did he just. . .?" McGee asked.
Ziva grinned at him. "I think he did."
He mirrored her grin, leaning in to kiss her. "Good."
THE END!