Home. The word was so simple, so lovely falling from her lips. After too long apart, too many months of sailors and a cabin too small he was finally going to set foot on American soil. He would sink into his couch, drink a beer and relish in knowing he wouldn't be awoken with alarm bells or early morning drills. He would go back to his desk, his team, his partner.

They'd talked the whole flight home. He could tell something had happened she didn't want to talk about; she avoided his questions as expertly as he would have imagined. But falling back into the easy banter they'd come to know was a homecoming in itself. Her teasing glances and soft barbs awakened something inside him that had lay dormant since they'd found out about Jenny months before.

He'd asked her again if older was really the best way to describe how he looked. She laughed heartily "People do age, yes? It is the natural order of things." He didn't think older was exactly the best look for him, but the twinkle in her eye made him hope hotter was still on the table.

It was odd though, how the two of them always circumvented what they actually wanted to say. He knew that was their thing, ambiguous discussions about hypothetical feelings and humor disguising sincerity.

You could have called. He hoped it was her way of telling him she missed him. It was all he'd ever get.

She'd dropped him off at home after an eyebrow raise from Gibbs that led him to believe the man was even more observant than he gave him credit for. She'd wished him a good day and sped off, leaving him in front of his apartment building for the first time in five months.

He notified his landlord he was back in the building and was greeted with an armful of mail, topped with a small package, the front adorned with Ziva's slightly messy scrawl. As soon as he got back to his apartment he dropped the rest of the mail on the coffee table and cracked open the envelope from her, the woman he'd spent the last five months missing. He was surprised when he pulled out a DVD case. The Maltese Falcon. There was no note save for a post it stuck to the front.

It reminded me of you

-Ziva

He smiled. It seemed like she missed him after all.