A/N: After relaxing a little bit doing a lot of One-Shots, I figured it was time to get back to real fics! ;) Enjoy! ~Lynn D.
After days of not speaking, Tony was ready to clear things up with his partner, "I had no choice."
Still not over everything that had happened, she quickly bit back, "That is a lie."
Hurt that she still wasn't ready to forgive him and start over, he replied, "Why would I lie to you, Ziva?"
"To save your worthless ass," she spat.
Confused, he sought some answers, "From who? Vance? Mossad?"
"You jeopardized your entire career, and for what?"
Trying to make her get the point, he kept trying, "For you." He paused, realizing what he'd just said. Trying to make things sound better, he continued, "He was playing you, Ziva."
She shook her head, "For some reason you felt it was your job to protect me?"
"I did what I had to."
"You killed him," Ziva confirmed.
"If you hadn't, you'd be having this conversation with him," he paused, "but maybe that's the way you'd prefer it."
"Perhaps I would," she said, piercing a hole into Tony's heart.
Hurt by her words, he figured she just needed to let off some steam, "Okay, why don't you just get this out? You wanna take a punch? Take a swing? Get it out of your system! Go ahead! Do it!"
"Be careful, Tony. Because much like Michael, I will only need one." Ziva bit, showing off her Mossad training.
"And that's what you're really angry about isn't it?" Tony asked, "That's what's bothering you. It's not that he's dead. It's that your Mossad boyfriend got kicked like a chump like me."
"You took advantage of him."
"He attacked me! What was I supposed to do?" He questioned, wanting to know really what he should of done.
Ziva responded by knocking him to the ground onto his back. Cringing from his still hurting arm, he let Ziva rant.
"You saw a glass table, you pushed him back, you dropped him on it. He was impaled in the side by a shard of glass, bloody, gasping for air." She recalled with emotion in her voice.
"I guess you read my report."
"I memorized it!" she shot back, "You could have left it at that, you could have walked away! But no, you let him up, you put four in his chest!" She yelled, putting her glock to his chest.
At that point, he was worried for his life. He had never really figured out women, but one thing he knew was not to provoke them, they were a delicate subject, "You weren't there," he quietly explained.
"You could have put one in his leg," she cried, pushing the barrel of the gun to his leg.
"You weren't there." Tony tried.
"But I should have been!" she yelled, mentally kicked herself for not being home just minutes sooner.
"You loved him," he said, coming to the awful truth.
Getting teary eyed as she got up, she breathed, "I guess I'll never know." As she walked away, she held back the tears that she so desperately wanted to cry.
As Tony watched her walk away, he gritted his teeth, trying to take away some of the pain coming from his arm. He wondered if things would ever be the same between them, he wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to joke with her, really ever be the good friends they were before again. He wanted good back.
Tony rolled his neck, trying to relax himself as he repositioned his arm. He still wasn't quite sure why a federal agency could afford planes that at least had padded seats. Adjusting his back, trying to get as comfortable as possible against a hard, medal back; his boss got onto the plane.
Without seeing Ziva, he cocked his head to the side, "Boss, one short?"
His heart dropped when the plane's door went up. Putting his head back, he first thought it was just a terrible joke, maybe a way for Ziva to apologize, maybe even a way for him to apologize. So many different feelings and emotions were running through his brain, All he knew was that he wanted her back where she should be, next to him.
On the flight back home, he did everything he could to keep her off his mind because he had an awful feeling that he would never see her again. He tried to sleep but every time he fell asleep, his dreams brought him right back to her. He attempted to look to Gibbs a few times, trying to find some answers, but it always ended in a cold, steely glare back.
Tony never even attempted to look to the Director, being sure that he was just as mad and confused as him. There were many instances when he went to the head and peeked over at the pilot who was innocently flying the plane farther and farther away from her. He probably would have tackled him to the ground and fly it back to Tel-Aviv to at least attempt to talk to her, convince her to come back, but his arm seemed to be getting worse and he knew he's break it for sure if he pulled a stunt like that.
Tony figured he must of fallen asleep at some point because the next thing he heard was the pilot telling everyone to strap back in for their landing in D.C. For a second he thought all of this had just been a terrible dream, but his fears were confirmed when he looked around again and still didn't see Ziva on the plane.
They had all driven to the airport in their own cars in case they had arrived home late and wanted to get home quickly which ended up being the case. When he saw Ziva's red mini right next to his car, he nearly lost it, but his boss was there and he didn't want to do anything stupid or embarrassing. He was headed home like everyone else, but he ended up pulling into NCIS, he figured he had one last ray of hope there.
But after getting off the elevator and looked at her deserted desk, he knew for sure that she really wasn't coming back.
As he came to his desk, he saw that Jimmy and McGee were waiting when Abby came up and hugged him, a faint smile crossed his face, "Missed you too, Abs." Saying 'hi' to Jimmy, he sat down, hoping to God no one would ask about Ziva, he didn't think he could bear to talk about it.
But, right when the thoughts even hit his mind, McGee came over with Abby close by his side, "So, Ziva's getting her stuff, or—"
Cutting him off he just wanted everyone to leave, "No."
Despite his attempts, Abby continued, "Is she parking the car?"
Tony sighed, "No."
Confused, McGee tried again, "Well, then what is she doing?"
Moving some things to the side to at least pretend like he was doing something, he answered, "Well, considering the time difference, probably eating breakfast."
Jimmy brought them to the conclusion, "She's still in Tel-Aviv?"
"Yup," Tony confirmed.
"Well," McGee wondered, "when is she coming back?"
Tony began holding back any emotion at this point, "She's not."
"No! This cannot happen! Vance cannot do this to us again!" Abby shouted.
"It wasn't Vance's call," Tony said, reliving the horrible day he'd just lived.
The team took a moment to soak everything in, but it was McGee who stepped up, "Well, if it wasn't Vance, then who?"
After getting a death glare from their Senior Agent, Jimmy decided they wouldn't get anymore out of him and went home. After waiting a little longer, still asking Tony the same question, McGee and Abby finally gave up.
Once McGee had gotten his gear and helped Abby get her coat on, they were about ready to leave, but Abby went over to Tony with tears in her eyes, "Tony, we'll get through this together. Gibbs will figure this out, we'll get her back."
Looking into Tony's green eyes that she always saw such a spark in, her heart fell when she saw that they were dead, almost as if there was no hope left. When Gibbs was in Mexico, Tony became a big influence on her life, as well as a big brother that she could always look up to, as well as someone to lean on, but now, she could tell that he needed her, and the team for support.
Ziva was a great friend to her and the rest of the team, but she knew that she and Tony had always shared something different than anyone else, being partners wasn't something Abby could easily wrap her mind around, but she knew it was incredibly special and unique.
Knowing he'd end up staying there all night if she didn't do something, she grabbed his arm, "Come on, it's time for you to go home."
Shaking his head, he put on a fake smile, "Thanks Abs, but I'll be fine."
Seeing right through the disguise, she looked to McGee and made him grab DiNozzo's gear as well as Abby nearly dragged Tony to the elevator.
Abby knew what happened to him when Kate died and couldn't bear to see him go through that again. From then on, Abby decided as the elevator's doors closed that she would have to keep a close eye on him these next few weeks to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid.
A/N: Well, how was it? I'd really love to know what you thought! ~Lynn D.