This is the shortest thing concerning NCIS I've ver written..and probably the most random.

I just watched 4x03 'Singled Out' and noticed Ziva getting a teenytiny bit jealous of Tony's GF (which we know is Jeanne, of course) and it kinda inspired me to write this. It's definitely not my best work, I'm aware of that, but I posted it anyway.

Rated 'T' 'cause I'm friggin paranoid and the switch of tenses is deliberate (Except when it really doesn't fit. Then it's a mistake I overlooked.)

Disclaimer: Would everyone just leave me alone...please? No? Okay. I own nothing.

She watches him from a distance while he is talking on the phone. His smile could light up all of Manhattan. It is always like that when is talking to her. The mystery woman. His girlfriend. She knows she shouldn't feel like she does now, her happy mood from earlier gone, but she simply cannot help it. Because not too long ago he was smiling at her the way he does now. Not at some random girl on the phone.

There is no reason to be jealous. After all he is still talking to her somewhat normally, except for their little arguments when it comes to the girlfriend none of the team, none of his friends, have met yet. And it's her fault really, she knows that. Because she's always the one approaching that subject. Not because she wants to annoy him, as he likes to think, but because she seriously wants to learn something about the woman that got Anthony DiNozzo to fall so utterly in love with her. The woman who managed the one thing she herself could not.

She is tired but not from lack of sleep. Tired of trying to keep her distance, tired of watching him love someone else and, most of all, tired of pretending to be happy about it. Of course a small part of her actually is happy that he's finally found The One, as Americans like to call it. She's never thought Tony would ever get that far in a relationship, not after he had his times with several women a week in his bed... or on his couch or even his kitchen counters...yep, he actually told her that kind of stuff. She was his best friend after all. And she didn't mind his mostly amusing – and slightly disgusting- stories in the beginning, because it had just been something that was very Tony to her.

But with time there came change and a lot of it. When Gibbs quit – and that's what he did, he didn't retire, he ran off, leaving them on their own – they had grown very close, she and her partner. They started spending quality time outside of work with movie nights on every Thursday. They would then spontaneously decide what kind of take-out they wanted to have and get it on the way to his or her apartment. The first couple of times he forced her to watch the Hitchcock classics with him, because they'd always been his favourite right after James Bond movies.
It happened often that she fell asleep during a film, especially after a challenging case, and ended up using his shoulder as a pillow. He didn't seem to mind.

She doesn't remember when she's fallen for him exactly, but at some point she stopped concentrating on the movies and started to observe him. He was rather interesting when he had his eyes fixated on the screen, when he moved his lips to the lines which he, of course, knew by heart. Sometimes he would grab her hand and just hold it to signal her that he really liked the scene that was coming up. And she found herself liking it as well, just because he enjoyed it so much. That was about the time that she noticed that she was already helplessly in love with him.

And for a short time she knew that he felt the same way, but neither had the courage to take the step that would most likely take them to the next level. Out of the friendzone. Then he met his current girlfriend, soul mate, love of his life or whatever you liked to call her, and she ruined everything. She threw her entire universe off balance, took her best friend from her – in some way at least- and took her only chance of forming a relationship with him.

She has troubles keeping the tears of frustration, anger and hurt out of her eyes and blinks furiously. That gets his attention, as he's just hung up on Miss Perfect.

"You okay there, Zee-vah?" He stretches her name out in that special way of his that she's come to love so much lately and that in combination with his ridiculously wide smile that is not directed towards her is more than she can take, really. She jumps up.

"I am fine, Tony."

Hot tears stream down her face as she makes her way towards the bathroom, and she doesn't even bother to wipe them away.

Jeez, I'm a bad person for taking my bad mood out on poor Ziva, right?

~ feedback as always appreciated ~

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To anyone who's reading my story 'Strangers' - the updates gonna take a while. Sorry for that.