Author's Note: So, I decided to take a chance again. McGiva. (: Takes place during 'Reunion.' Beware, Tiva lovers. By the way, I am still one-hundred percent Tiva lover, never doubt that. I'm just having fun. Also, this is just how I wanted the scene to play out. Don't mind me.
McGee sees her sitting alone in the middle of the Navy Yard after he buys his coffee. He hesitated about to her. She was still very emotional, and he didn't want to bother her in this state. She seemed lonely and scared, but she tried to play it off as if she were fine... McGee knew she wasn't fine. Not for one second did he believe that she was fine after spending three months being tortured in Somalia.
He takes a seat beside her, while she's looking away. It's his best chance for her not walking away in the other direction. "Hey," she jumped as he spoke. McGee kindly felt sorry for her, he knew she'd had it rough.
Ziva, again, plays it off as if it were nothing and smiles, "McGee." She notices that he smiles back. "You taking a break?"
"I was on my way to the office, came to get a coffee, saw you sitting here, thought I'd come say hello." And when he finished the sentence out, it sounded a little more cheerful than it really should have for a friend and a partner, but he'd missed her while she was gone.
As much as he wanted to deny it, because somewhere deep down, Tony is his friend, he felt it was definitely Tony's fault that Ziva left in the first place. She'd left McGee in an emotional fear himself. Ziva is his friend, she will always be his friend. But recently, he's been more and more attracted to her. He couldn't put his finger on it why, she'd always been beautiful to him, but now more than ever. Maybe it's because she's shown how strong she really is, how powerful, how super-like. McGee knows, though, that Ziva's just a regular woman who tries to make her way in this messed up world she has to live in. No, she's not regular to me.
She nods, "I was actually coming to look for you."
His eyes widen a little, barely enough to even notice. It catches him off-guard, but makes him smile at the same time.
"I wanted to say... Thank you." Ziva turns her head away, embarrassed at her words. It was the right apology, and the right time to say it, but it was still very un-Ziva like.
McGee opened his mouth slightly to say something, but ended up closing it again to choose other words. "Did you come to the Navy Yard just to say thanks or..." he trailed off. Truthfully, he'd like to hear a different answer, but she's vulnerable and he didn't want to take advantage of her, like Tony had so many times before.
Ziva didn't speak after his words. She had to stop and let the register. Did I come to only say thanks? She turned her head to focus solely on McGee and his features. Honestly, out of him and Tony, she really thought he was the better looking... And the right one for her. But to say it out loud? Into the open where everyone could hear? No.
"I- I," she stumbled. "No, I did not come to only say... Thanks."
McGee could tell she didn't want to say anything any further about that, so he changed the subject to something more subtle. "So, how's it going?"
She shifted harshly on the bench she was sitting on and played with her hands, "I will no deny these past three months have been a; challenge. But that was all in the past, and the past is the past."
"Is it?" He dared himself to go there.
Ziva looked back toward McGee, with a bigger smile than before. "No."
"How so?"
She let out a soft laugh and continued on where she had tried to before. "When I left, I should have known Michael had not been the right one for me," Ziva twitched her hands. "I think that I left to get away from what I had held on too long. I feared someday soon I would get you all killed. It would be my fault." She put up her hand to keep McGee from saying anything else. "I told Ducky," Ziva looked away. "T- To stay away. The ones who get too close, always get killed. I could not let that be the only people I have ever trusted."
McGee didn't know how to answer back to something like that, not when she'd just poured her heart out to him. "Uh, well." He began. "Ziva, you never had to leave to protect us, we could have protected you." Wrong words, he knew. "You didn't deserve to have to go through that, you're too beautiful."
Truthfully, it lifted her spirits from where they stood now. "Thank you, McGee. But I owed it to all of you to see what kind of life you could have without me."
"It's not anything we wanted."
"So. I had to try."
McGee gently placed his hand over Ziva's, careful not to spook her again. "You should have stayed."
"Why? So I could listen to everything Tony had to say about the matter?" Ziva's sudden outburst got to McGee, he'd only been trying to comfort her.
"Let's forget about Tony, push him out of the way."
She understood, Tony is not the one there for her. McGee is. "Yes, please." Ziva didn't say it out loud, "but there's something else."
"Continue."
"When Saleem sat me in that chair, I thought I was dying. I thought that he was ready to kill me, but then he took off the bag he had over my head. I was surprised to see Tony, because of how I treated him, but I was also even more surprised to see you."
"Why did that surprise you, Ziva?" His voice is soft and caring to her, he knows she's about to open up something that nobody could go back to fix. McGee listened closely, afraid of missing one moment of what she had to say.
"You were a friend... Are a friend, but I didn't expect to see you there. I thought, out of everyone, you were the one most mad at me."
"Why would you think that?"
Ziva again shifted harshly on the bench. "Every time you tried to help, I blew you off as if you were nothing. I betrayed Tony and you are his friend. I just felt like I was alone, because you were the best friend I could ever have. I left you. I left without giving you a moment's notice on what was happening. I regret that, and if I could go back... I- I would."
McGee gently squeezed her hand to let her know he was there, he was listening, that he would always be there. "I wish you wouldn't have left, but I think since you have, it's brought us closer over these last few days, don't you think?" She nodded to him, "so don't regret what you did. It was a life changing event that will always be there in your heart and on you mind. I'm sure you have scars to prove what they did to you, don't look at those as if you wish they weren't there. They show you how strong you are. You lasted three months out there and probably more had Tony and I not came."
"This is why I love you, McGee. Your choice of words are always right, you tell it like it is. You want to make me happy, you don't want to let me down, so you always have the upper-hand with me."
Did she really mean that she loved me? Like as a friend? Or something more? McGee became nervous at Ziva's touch and gaze. He began to get a cold sweat and shiver slightly. It's now or never. "Ziva, I understand that you just came back, you're trying to start your life over and build a new one. I know you're emotional, but I have to try this," he sighed and closed his eyes before opening them back up to look at her. "Ziva David, can I kiss you?"
It sunned her for a moment's second, but she came back to reality. "I am trying to build my life back up, I want a fresh, new start." He thought she was turning him down, "so yes."
He hurriedly cupped her cheek with his hand and leaned into kiss her. It had been his only chance and he had to take it before he lost it. Her lips felt small and soft upon his and he craved more of it. Ziva parted her lips to let him in, to feel a little more of him. McGee's eyes squinted tighter at how good that kiss felt and what he'd been missing this whole time.
This time, Ziva squeezed his hand and pulled back. "McGee."
He looked sort of hurt that she would pull back on him, is she embarrassed? "Yes?"
"I- I don't, well, I can't let this be just a kiss. If you are in for this, so am I. I can't go now without wandering what this will feel like."
McGee nodded, "I just don't want you to feel like I'm taking advantage of you."
Ziva suddenly chuckled, "I know you'd never do that."
"Then come on, let's go get lunch."
Ziva smiled as he took her hand, lacing his fingers with her's. He pulled her up from the bench, kissing her once more before they headed off in the direction of the cafe around the corner.
Today has been a great day.
Author's Note: To be honest, I like this way more than my others. I have a bunch of McGee fanfics over on my other profile, this is my first one on this account. (: I hope you enjoy it like I did writing it.