Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS.
For as long as he could remember, Anthony DiNozzo could relate his life to a movie. He had overcome a difficult childhood (lost his mother, survived step mothers and boarding schools), had the American college experience, dated and slept with many beautiful women, had a fulfilling job, well he worked for the government, had his girl taken away from him. He even acted as the hero and went on a suicide mission half way across the world to get his girl back. When did he start thinking of Ziva as his girl? He pondered as he pretended to be working on the case. She wouldn't want to belong to anyone. She would have clarified that you couldn't possess a person, a person wasn't owned by anyone. The point is that she was alive and safe and away from the clutches of Mossad.
There was one problem with this movie plot. He may have gone all the way to Somalia, but Ziva wasn't his. The only thing holding Tony back from declaring his not able to put into words feelings was rule #12. A rule that Gibbs had probably made up to make sure relationships didn't occur and ruin a team. He glanced over to her desk, just to double check that she was there. Throughout their partnership, he had looked at her desk thousands of times to flirt, argue, tease, and stare. She was on the phone with the local authorities trying to verify a suspect's whereabouts on the night of the murder. She was wearing her hair down, the curls framing her face gently. During the time she was gone, he had gotten in the habit of looking over to her desk, hoping he would hear the elevator chime and she would walk in just having chased down a suspect or interviewed a witness. He had gotten used to her presence over the years. Unlike the heroes in the movies he quoted, he wasn't able to declare his love or what ever he felt for her. He was just grateful for the fact that she occupied the desk across from him again.