Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of its associated characters or intellectual properties. Otherwise Tony and Ziva would have done the horizontal mambo a long loong time ago.


"I'm tired of pretending," echoed in his head. God, that felt like a lifetime ago. Still until this day, he was not entirely sure what she meant by that heavy statement even though he had agreed. Pretending was what they did. It was the essence of their whole relationship. Pretending to feel indifferent about each other, even though their eyes were on fire. Pretending to act aloof when one of them had plans for the night. Makes one wonder if they would ever get to a point where they didn't try to cover up their thoughts with metaphors and brilliantly witty jokes on his part, of course.

But he had reached his limit. He was officially exhausted. His whole being throbbed from all the half-truths and cover-ups. At least where he was concerned.

He had no idea where all this courage came from but it was time to be the main hero and grab the girl. But first, he had to find a way to go around the first plot twist which appeared to be in the shape of a silver-haired older man with a mean head slap. Never underestimate the surprise element in a seemingly light punch.

Gibbs was...Gibbs. He had been the father figure he had always wanted and needed even if his sense of affection was a little warped. But Gibbs was always there when Tony needed him which is why he found himself in Gibbs' basement where all the after hours therapy always seemed to take place.

He had been sitting in the dark for God knows how long when someone switched on the light that illuminated the room only slightly. Gibbs didn't seem to be phased by Tony's presence and moved calmly towards his newest project which was covered under a large tarp.

Tony opened his mouth, but nothing came out as the reality set in. He shouldn't have come here. His earlier resolution had vanished and he decided this was a bad idea. He moved to leave, but his feet had stopped on their own accord as if his body knew his mind needed the answers his heart was looking for.

"Out with it, DiNozzo." Gibbs' firm voice stated.

"Out with what?" Tony questioned.

"Whatever you came here for."

Tony swallowed tightly and started stuttering, not managing to find an acceptable way to express himself, which in itself was an astounding feat, considering the sheer amount of words that oh-so-easily came out of his mouth daily. The only other person that had ever made him feel so utterly nervous was Ziva and she was the reason he was in this mess in the first place.

"I…I…you see, Boss, heh…I kinda needed to ask you something." he stammered.

"I'm waiting." Gibbs replied as he watched his chatterbox Senior Agent tripping over his tongue.

"Well, I wanted to ask you what you would advise me to do if I met my…my Shannon." he asked him quietly.

Tony saw Gibbs tense at his heavily loaded question and eye him curiously before stating in a firm voice, "I would tell you to do your best to hold on to her." And went back to his woodwork. Ah Gibbs. Trust him to be the ever conversationalist.

The older man slowly stopped working and carefully enquired, "DiNozzo."

"Yeah, Boss?" Tony stopped fiddling around with a rope he managed to get his hands on.

"Mind telling me who the lucky lady is?" Gibbs narrowed his eyes at him.

Tony felt his throat closing in on him like some invisible creature was choking him, trying to help him pass out before he could dig himself into a deeper grave.

"Well?" he heard Gibbs' faint voice coming through the haze he was in.

It was either now or never and the prospect of never terrified him to his very core. It was time to step up and be the person the motivational speakers seemed to have such a high opinion of. He took a deep breath and uttered the name of the person who meant the world to him, "Ziva."

Tony saw Gibbs' head slump and shaking slightly. "Ah geez, Dinozzo. Has everything we have seen in our line of work taught you nothing? I don't have rule 12 in place just to crank up the unresolved sexual tension, you know."

"Well it has made the work life more fun." Tony tried jokingly but his boss would have none of it.

"You do realize this changes things. You gotta be aware of the fact I'm not gonna approve of it."

And with that, Tony felt all his hopes and dreams crashing down even though he hadn't even confronted Ziva about their amazingly twisted relationship that has had him tossing and turning in his bed longer than he would like to admit. He didn't expect Gibbs to support his potential relationship with Ziva but he would have liked for Gibbs to at least understand the simple fact that Ziva was it for him.

As covert as Tony had tried to be with his feelings towards Ziva, he had always thought that Gibbs knew the whole time. The man had Sherlockian observation skills borderlining on psychic, for Pete's sake, and Tony had always been outrageously bad at hiding whatever feelings he had had for Ziva in the 8 years he had known her.

Gradually, Tony was brought out of his reverie by Gibbs' subtle coughing. "I don't approve of it, Tony. But I'm pretty sure that my approval does not change your feelings towards Ziva. Therefore, I will try to simply accept it even though I think it is a recipe for disaster." Gibbs sternly said.

"With our track record, I don't blame you. But I will do everything in my power to make us work if she'll have me. And I needed to let you know before I did anything further so that you wouldn't find us occupying your makeshift office one day." Tony was ready to head slap himself after his last revelation to Gibbs but it was true nonetheless. In his potentially delusional, but hopeful opinion, their raw magnetism was enough to power a small village for a week.

"DiNozzo, I told you I will accept it, not that I will turn a blind eye when you two start fooling around. Keep it out of the office." Gibbs firmly stated.

"Right, yes, thank you, Boss." Tony mumbled and started moving out of the basement.


Tony took a deep breath of relief and suddenly realized that all his thought and effort had gone to figuring out how to tell Gibbs, but he hadn't thought how he would face the ninja. What if she kimbo-sliced him to pieces? What if she laughed at him? What if he had totally imagined their recent try at intimacy?

Tony felt his stomach drop to the floor. Maybe his obsession with films had transpired him to over-romanticize his relationship with Ziva. In the fictional world, the two seemingly opposite characters always seem to have a connection that may be translated into a budding relationship. However, he knew his feelings for her are real. He might have been attracted to her mysterious aura at first, but then he realized what a caring and vulnerable soul lies beneath.

But what if he thought that Ziva reciprocated his feelings because that was what he wanted to believe? It would have made a great movie. An exotic kick-ass Mossad ninja falling for the debonaire federal agent with the heart of a lion. Perhaps he was simply trying to live out the idealistic vision movies had instilled in him from a young age.

Tony took in the realization that had suddenly hit him. He might have jumped the gun with telling Gibbs about his feelings as he had no idea if Ziva even felt an inkling of what he felt for her. She had always been so damn good at hiding her feelings. Except her eyes. It sounded cliché but her eyes had always been a window to her soul. Only, sometimes he had a feeling she didn't want anyone to see into hers.

But he couldn't help it. He had seen what a beautiful soul she has and he felt his entire body ache for her. She seemed to think she didn't deserve anything good in her life because she had inflicted too much pain on people which was a completely ridiculous notion in his opinion. She was the one who had endured too much pain through the hands of others. And he couldn't stand for her to suffer any more pain which is why he would make it his mission to a loyal constant in her life. Lovers or not. But preferably the former. He just hoped his observation skills were as accurate as Gibbs'.

Somehow, in all his introspective reflection, Tony found himself outside of his apartment door, so tired from all the wheels turning in his head at full speed. Crashing into his bed, his last thoughts before he was grabbed by the clutches of sleep, revolved around the conundrum love had gotten him into. He told Gibbs, now all he has to do is tell Ziva.

Easy, right?


Hello, my fellow shippers!

This is kinda my first try at writing anything (except for the one time I wrote a fairy tale about a teddy-bear's first day at school when I was 12). So, I would appreciate it if you told me what you thought of it. I have a couple more chapters written, so let me know if anyone would actually like to read more :)

Aanyway, toodles.