He reached for her hand, grasping just her fingers at first in a gesture of affection and comfort.

But then she turned her hand over and allowed his fingers to slide between hers much more intimately.

And they shared a long, silent, meaningful look.

One of many, lately.

Like when they'd slow-danced at that club in Berlin. When they were supposed to be scanning the crowd for the face of the man they were hunting and yet they hadn't been able to take their eyes off each other for a very extended length of time…

Tony now glanced briefly at the road ahead of them and gently pressed the car's accelerator, momentarily glad of the automatic transmission that meant he didn't have to relinquish the hand in his to shift the gears.

"Tony," Ziva began, pausing a small moment to put her thoughts into simple words.

He looked in her direction again, probably longer than he should have since he was the one behind the wheel. But it was late at night and they seemed to be the only ones on the road.

"Thank you…for being my brick."

Her use of the wrong word brought a chuckle to his throat. "I think you mean 'rock'." He gave her another long, soft glance in the dark of the car. "And you're welcome."

Rock. Yes, he was her rock. The one constant, steady anchor in her sea of turmoil.

Their hands were still gripped comfortably together on Ziva's left knee and she moved her other hand to join them, locking Tony's right hand between both of hers.

Tony drove on, his left hand free on the steering wheel and his right happily trapped in his partner's double grasp.

"I'm here for you," he added softly, honestly. "No matter what."

Ziva spoke again, a few quiet words in her native Hebrew tongue.

The words reached Tony's ears easily, and a smile twitched at his mouth as he recognized them.

"What does that mean?" he feigned ignorance, wanting her to say the words in plain English too.

But she wasn't translating. "I have a feeling that you already know what it means."

The smile at his lips settled into a full-blown grin. Yes, he knew exactly what those words meant. He'd looked them up himself once, in the anticipation of being able to say them to her one day.

Who'd have thought that she'd beat him to it?

He took his eyes off the road long enough to look straight into her eyes again, solemn and sincere as he answered.

"I love you, too."