Crisp air hit the surface of his skin, creating goose bumps along his arms as he paced along. Sand withered beneath his shoes beside the dark blue foam. The thoughts of the past twenty minutes ago racing through his mind.

He had walked into that little café on the side street by the beach hoping to find her. He'd figured she'd be inside with a new book and drinking her favorite tea before going home. But when he walked inside, his heart dropped and shattered to the dusty, tiled floor of the café.

There was no book, there wasn't any tea. But, there was a man.

He stood in the doorway, palms sweating and mind whirling all over the place. His favorite brown pupils before him, growing huge and slowly getting up from her seat. The man across from her, turning around to see what she was staring at.

Adam, Tony's fists curled up. The fire in his veins igniting at what he was seeing. Christ, if he could have beat the shit out of anyone, it would be him. Before he could move, the smell of coconut rose to his nostrils as she breezed by him and walked out the door. Curly nodding at Adam, he followed her out the door and towards the beach. She was hurrying, he could tell he surprised her, that's for sure.

Stumbling Tony out of his thoughts, she spun around in the sand facing him, her eyes filled with flames, "Why are you here?"

Tony sneered, stopping in his tracks "Are you seriously going to ask me that every time you see me? What? Thirty years from now, are you gonna wake up, see me and ask why I'm there?"

She stepped forward, her voice still filled with anger "What the hell are you implying, Tony?"

"I'm not implying anything. It just always seems like you are never happy to see me," He shrugged, putting his fists into his pocket.

"I never said that," She pointed a finger at him "Why are you here, Tony?"

"Sorry, did I interrupt your date?" He snapped.

Ziva chuckled, "You are still such a child. I was eating at a café with a friend. I was not expecting guests,"

"Clearly. Well, I'll be going home now-" Tony turned and abruptly stopped short "oh, wait! I'm a thousand miles away from home"

"Tell me why you are here," Ziva crossed her arms over her chest.

Tony sighed, rubbing the back of his head with his palm "Funny story, actually"

"Tony, what is wrong?" She stepped closer to him, sensing the hurt in his voice.

He looked towards the ocean, not making contact with her eyes "My dad's getting married…to my moms best friend"

"I am-" she tried to touch his arm, but he moved away before she could.

"No, Ziva. Hell, if you had looked at your emails or listened to your voicemails, you would've known this" He threw his hands up in the air, pacing back and forth on the sand.

"I am sorry, Tony. I did not know…" she watched him pace along.

"Maybe if you would have checked your emails you would have known, Zee-vah! And god, I'm such dumbass. I thought you would have read them and maybe just forgotten to of answered, but no. You were too busy fucking around with Adam to even bother with your best friend back in D.C" Tony snarled.

Ziva stood there quietly, feeling guilt take over her as she watched her best friend crumble for the first time right in front of her.

Tony proceeded to yell "and you know what, Zee-vah?" she cringed at the nickname she once used to love, "The most fucked up part about all of this is the way you lead me on to believe we could be something. Am I- am I wrong for… thinking that we could have been something real? For eight years I put off how I felt about you, I searched the world for you twice, almost dying both times and finally my last time in Israel I realized everything. I finally accepted that holy shit, Ziva David makes me want to be a better man. And then we spent all those nights together in your childhood home...we kissed, we made love…god, Ziva. How can you just act like none of that happened?!"

He finally turned to look at her, tears welling up in his eyes. Tears were already streaking down her cheeks as he kept speaking, not sorry at all "For fucks sake, Ziva. I can't get any of this out of my head! Then my dad comes and drops the bomb on me that 'oh yeah junior I'm marrying your mom's best friend cause she's my soul mate' bullshit and expects me to be okay with that. I tried to talk to Boss and McGee about it, but it didn't matter. Not like they would have cared anyways, they don't know the way my mind works. I never have been able to open up to anyone, except one person and what does that one person do? Moves thousands of miles away to pretend to find herself because she can't accept the fact that she's scared that she might just feel the same way about me,"

Ziva stood there, shaking. She stared him down, hearing everything he just said echo through her ears. Her heart felt like it was going to jump right out of her chest and her knees felt weak. She wanted to run, run away from him because that's all she was good at, running away. No one wanted her in their lives, she only caused them danger and hurt. Now that he was saying all this, these thoughts in her head were becoming the truth. She risked his life numerous times, he didn't deserve this.

"Everyone keeps bothering me to bring a date to my Dad's wedding on Saturday. Dad, Boss, McGee, Abby, everyone won't shut the fuck about 'Tony! Ladies' man! Bring a hot date to the wedding!' I don't know what the hell has happened to me, but I can't even look at other woman anymore." He watched the look on Ziva's face "Crazy, right? Playboy Tony can't even stand the thought of sharing a bed with someone who isn't you, Ziva. So, there. There's your answer as to why I'm here…"

"You needed a date to your fathers wedding in three days?" She questioned.

"Not just any date, Zee. I wanted my soul mate there to have my backup and watch the shit show that was about to occur," He whispered, waiting for her reaction "Ziva, I-"

"Don't…"

"Ziva, I-"

"Don't. Don't say it, Tony…just don't" The tears came faster now as she backed up away from him, holding her arms around her chest.

"Ziva, I love you," He protested, getting closer to her as she backed up.

"Tony…" She choked out, covering her face with her hands as she cried into them.

"Tell me you don't love me and I'll leave… I'll go back to DC and pretend like there was nothing ever between us…" he took one of her hands in his, kissing the back of it.

She shook her head, her brunette curls sticking to the moist skin on her face from her tears.

"Tell me you don't love me and I'll leave you alone…" he pleaded, wanting to know the answer.

"I-I-I d-don't…" She removed her hand from his hold and backed away, tears coming down like waterfalls again.

Tony took in a deep breath, holding back the painful stab that ripped through his chest "Fine, I hope you live a life full of happiness and that you get everything you've ever wanted, sweetcheeks…" he whispered again, before turning around and walking away from her.

Dropping to the sand below her, Ziva cried every ounce of tears she had in her. This isn't the life she wanted. A year ago, she never pictured herself being without Tony and now everything was falling apart. She no longer had a warm home or a warm family to be with like she had in DC.

That night, Tony had found a small motel by the airport to stay in before he traveled back home in DC in the early morning. He felt empty. His heart was no longer filled with love, but emptiness. Who knew that he could have found the one he wanted to commit to and have a family with? But, no. She didn't want that and she didn't want him. Maybe it was for the best and maybe, life does work in strange ways. Alike many nights within the past year, Anthony Dinozzo Jr slept in a twin size bed, dreaming of a beautiful Israeli woman being in the cotton sheets next to him, her body warmth entangled around his own.

Saturday came quicker than Tony wanted it to. Yeah, he was happy for his Dad, but part of him still felt betrayal against his mother by him marrying her best friend. Tony shrugged as he stood next to Senior up on the alter, looking down at his tie the whole tie. He glanced away after his Dad and bride to be made the promise of forever. His brown eyes scanned the audience in the church, smiling at Gibbs, Abby and the rest of the team. Looking towards the doors of the church, he smiled at the rest of the audience and stop when he saw a brunette sitting in the last row by the doors. His heart stopped and his palms became sweaty as he realized she wasn't sitting there when the ceremony first started. Rapidly blinking his eyes a few times to make sure this wasn't a dream, he quickly followed his bride and the rest of the others in the wedding party down the aisle. As soon as he came to the row were the door was, he grabbed the brunettes arm, spinning her around and pulling her out the door of the church with him.

"What are you doing here?" He questioned, trying to not give away the hope that came with his voice.

"Now you are the one asking that question?" She smirked, pulling him by the tie closer to her so their bodies were pressed up against each other.

Tony's hands settled on her waist, pulling her closer to him as he breathed the scent of her coconut shampoo "Ziva David, did you miss me?"

She smiled at him, her eyes lighting up as she realized with his arms tightly around her that she felt at home "Yes I did, Tony and…"

"And?" He raised his eyebrows at her.

"and I love you" she smiled as she watched his eyes grow large at hearing those words she couldn't say a few days ago.

Tony cupped her face with his palms, bringing his lips down to hers. Their lips moved in fluid motion, both savoring the moment of how it felt to be joined again as they were that chilly night in the airport before he left Israel. Ziva's tongue rubbed along Tony's bottom lip and he groaned at how crazy she could make him.

Behind them, a man cleared his throat causing the couple to turn around.

"My god, well if it isn't the amazing Ziva David," Senior smiled, giving her a hug.

Ziva smirked at Tony as she hugged his father "Congratulations,"

Senior pulled back, taking a look at Ziva "How is it even possible that you're more gorgeous than you were before?" He chuckled, watching Ziva laugh at how annoyed Tony looked at his father.

"You're married now Dad, you're going to have to stop hitting on my girlfriend" Tony replied, rolling his eyes.

"Your girlfriend?" Ziva's eye brows rose suggestively.

"Yeah, my girlfriend Zee-vah" Tony's lips curled into another smirk as he leaned down and placed another kiss on her lips.