Thanks for the reviews and alerts and the response to the first chapter! We were so thrilled! Love to you all! Here we have some Tony/ Ziva fights, and a jumping point for things to come. We're ignoring the P2P storyline for the most part, as in the next few chapters we'll be fast forwarding past all this unpleasantness that's in the NCIS universe.

Also, if they kill off Ziva in the finale, we're boycotting CBS for the rest of our days.

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Part 1: Two Weeks Later

"It's getting so damn creepy just nursing this ghost of a chance, the fiction, the romance…" –Matchbox Twenty

"Day seventeen." Ziva muttered under her breath. For the last seventeen days, she had come to work, rode the elevator to the bullpen, gotten off and sat at her desk without a word from her partner.

About ten minutes after he gave her that look on the stairs, that look she had been struggling to define ever since, he shut down. He stopped speaking to her, he stopped texting her. They were in a partnership with the least amount of communication possible, and not only were she wholly clueless about what she'd done to get him this angry, she was also completely sick of it.

But since she didn't know what the hell was going on between him and E.J. who was still behind her, blonde and irritating as ever, she decided to try a civilized approach, despite her overwhelming gut feeling it would end with them trying to kill each other in a men's room somewhere.

Never the less she set a cup of coffee on his desk and smiled brightly at him when he arrived a few minutes later. "Good morning Tony." She said in the tone that she saved especially for him. It was her light, leering, come and get me tone, and it usually snapped him out of….anything.

"Agent David." He replied with a curt nod.

"I brought you coffee." She offered, determined to keep her voice calm and pleasant.

"Thanks." Was his short reply.

McGee watched with trepidation as Ziva folded her arms over her chest and her eyes narrowed in Tony's direction. "Oh no." he said quietly.

"Is something wrong, Tony?" Ziva inquired, her tone now dripping with sarcastic concern.

"I am positively peachy, Agent David."

Ziva snorted in response, causing E.J. to look over, and McGee to briefly close his eyes.

"And you?" Tony shot at Ziva, his eyes flashing, "Were you implying something with that noise, or do you have a cold?"

"Well there is certainly a chill in the air."

"I'm sure that's shocking to someone with your warm and affectionate upbringing and cuddly disposition." Tony spit out.

McGee, who had been staring intently at his computer screen, his usual tactic to Stay Out of Whatever It Was This Time: Tony and Ziva Edition, felt his head snapping toward their voices, and he noticed even E.J. recoil at Tony's tone.

Ziva shot out of her chair as soon as the words left Tony's mouth, and for a split second, her partner was sure he'd finally done it and she was actually going to kill him this time, but the murder in her eyes slipped almost instantly, replaced by a rawness she rarely showed anyone.

"Ziva…"

"Oh, no more Agent David?" she asked, cutting him off. She moved to stand in front of his desk. "If you want to do this, why back down? Since I apparently have no feelings, you certainly should not worry about offending me!"

He almost stopped it then. After all, he wasn't even angry with her. He'd resorted to being a total asshole while he tried to figure out…everything between them, but until now, she'd just let him. He almost stopped it then, when she did the thing she knew would hurt him the most.

"Typical." She muttered. And then she turned and started walking away. That's when the emotional powder keg in Tony snapped. He took two huge strides after her, and grabbed her arm, turning her around and pulling her toward him.

"No." he practically shouted at her. "You're not walking away." Like she did from her father, and Ari, and Ray, and everyone else. He could not be one of the people she gave up on.

"What is the matter with you, Tony?" Ziva demanded. She took a step closer to him. "You haven't spoken to me in weeks, you're acting like a crazy person and you say you're fruity?"

"It's peachy!" Tony thundered.

"Why does that matter?" Ziva hollered back. "Why does anything matter but-" She stopped herself before she shouted something she'd regret all of NCIS hearing.

Tony swore he could have smacked her, but he was simultaneously suddenly aware of how close they were, and the heat that was coming from her body. She looked up at him through her lashes, with dark eyes and he felt weak in the knees. She boldly held his gaze, unsure of whether she'd rather beat him or jump him.

McGee was starting to get seriously concerned that the tension and the hate eye sex they were currently having was going to have them ripping each other's clothes off and working out their issues on Tony's desk when the elevator door dinged, and they separated instantly.

"We've got a…" Gibbs trailed off when he noticed Tony and Ziva glaring at each other, McGee and E.J. gaping and tension he could cut with a knife.

"What the hell?" he asked.

"Minor disagreement." Tony said through gritted teeth.

Gibbs turned to Ziva, who had already put on her Mossad mask that betrayed nothing in her face. "We're fine." She said.

Gibbs rolled his eyes. They both looked hurt, pissed, and like they'd be screwing each other's brains out if the rest of them weren't there, which was way too much for Gibbs to handle any time, let alone on his first cup of coffee.

"What do we got, boss?" McGee asked, interrupting, and earning a grateful look from both of his co-workers.

"We got…" Gibbs started. "Yea, that's a good question. Grab your gear." He jerked his head at E.J. "You too, Barrett."

"You don't even know what you have."

"What we have is evidence of a murder in an old Navy warehouse. Could be connected to your Port killer."

Irony was following him. For all of his efforts to ignore her recently, Tony didn't think he'd ever been more aware of Ziva's presence. They sat stone still on their way to the crime scene; they were stunted and moving strangely around each other at the warehouse. He was hyper aware of her every move, she was furiously avoiding eye contact.

Their roles were reversed from this morning. Act one was Aggressive and Belligerent Ziva Tries to Elicit a Reaction from Stony and Silent Tony. Tony sighed; Act two was no better.

Ziva volunteered to check the perimeter of the building for evidence, and McGee followed her.

"What are you guys doing?" he asked.

Ziva looked up, surprised at his bluntness. "I wish I knew." She answered sadly.

McGee shot her an exasperated smile. "You two are ridiculous! Every time you step forward you force each other to sprint back in the opposite direction."

"McGee, I do not…" she started, but McGee cut her off.

"You do know, Ziva. Just… figure it out." McGee was surprised when she met his gaze looking earnest and open, but not angry.

"I am not sure if we can."

"You can't not," McGee said firmly, "You guys are in it now, and you're only as strong as you are together, so why not go all in?"

Ziva had to smile. "This from Special Agent McGee who once wore his uniform to a crime scene ten feet from his desk?"

McGee shrugged. "I'm evolving."

She was about to ask him if he meant what she thought he meant when Gibbs called for her from inside the warehouse, so she patted him on the shoulder and hurried inside.

"DiNozzo is in the back with the camera. Bag and tag anything he shoots." Gibbs said, still obviously unhappy with them. Ziva privately questioned his punishment methods, but she hurried in the direction her boss' thumb had jerked anyway.

"Tony?" she called, winding through the warehouse. She was all the way in one of the back corners when she noticed a partially open door. "Tony!" she said again, louder this time, hoping it wasn't E.J. Or worse, hoping he wasn't back there with E.J.

"Ziva, don't come in here." She frowned.

"I have to. Gibbs' orders." She took a deep breath. "Plus I think we should…" she trailed off. "Will you at least tell me what I did?"

There was a pause and he didn't answer. "Please?" she asked, swallowing her pride.

"Ziva, go." His tone put all of her senses on alert and she drew closer to the door, realizing now that something was wrong.

"Tony…" she said again. Her voice was alert now, and he knew instantly that her inner ninja was about to come out. From his spot in the middle of the room across from the shadowy figure pointing the gun at him, he tried one more time and sent a silent prayer that for once, she would listen.

"Ziva, be my partner right now. Trust me, and please get out of here."

It was the partner line that almost got her. That word meant so much to them that it was practically sacred, but she burst through door anyway, hand reaching for the gun at her side.

When she saw the arms holding the gun swing to her temple, the dirty fingers holding it go for the safety, and heard the shot of the gun, she was positive this was it. In that split second that everything happened, she was bracing herself for a bullet to the brain.

There was no chance to talk until hours later. There was all the time they spent fending off suggestions to get checked out at the hospital, identifying the would be shooter, who turned out to be a drug dealer using the warehouse as his meth lab, statements to give, and concerned looks to dodge. And then she disappeared.

Night had fallen by the time they returned to NCIS, and after assuring Abby a million times she was okay, Ziva had seemingly vanished, and nearly another hour passed until Tony found her in autopsy, drinking. In a strange, déjà vu inducing role reversal from years ago right after Jenny died, it was Ziva who poured him a drink this time.

He accepted it and downed it before turning his glare towards her. She stood quickly, trying to get the first word in but Tony was faster for once.

"I'd kill you myself if I hadn't just shot someone to prevent it from happening." He said in a low, dangerous tone.

Ziva's eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?"

"You had to come in there, didn't you?" Tony shouted. "You… Damn it, Ziva, it's like you're looking for a gun to your head! You're not invincible!"

"Neither are you!" she cried, running an angry hand through her curls. "And I knew something was wrong, and it was the gun pointed at you!"

"I practically begged you to trust me, and you couldn't!"

Tony could have sworn lightning flashed in her eyes as the words left his mouth. "For God's sake, Tony, you used our partnership to manipulate me!" she shouted at the top of her voice. "If I had walked away, trusting you, as your partner, and you had died…" She trailed off.

Tony threw his hands in the air, still angry and indignant, despite how right she was about what he'd done, and scoffed. "So we're back here. With the half sentences and the crushing silence of what isn't said."

"You are the one who has not been speaking to me!" Ziva cried, slamming her hand into the autopsy table next to her. "We are always here, Tony."

"You didn't even properly draw your weapon!" Tony thundered. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking! I heard your voice, and I knew something was wrong, and if I had walked away because you asked me to be your partner, in some delusion that it has to be you instead of me, I never would have forgiven myself!" she shot back at him, eyes blazing.

"And I would never forgive myself if it wasn't me instead of you!" He laughed bitterly and stepped forward to grip her shoulders. "Don't you get it, Ziva? I am always the one losing you, and I can't do it again. Why do you think I went to Somalia? I sure as hell didn't know you were alive. Maybe Gibbs and Vance did, but I was going to kill the guy who killed you or die trying!"

She recoiled like he'd slapped her, but he didn't let go of her shoulders. Ziva shook her head adamantly. "No. No, Tony, that does not make sense."

"I told you I couldn't live without you then! What part of that didn't you understand?" Ziva didn't say anything. She was furious, shocked and more than a little bewildered. Tony seemed to take advantage of her silence to make as much noise as possible.

"He had a gun to your head, Zi. He was pulling the damn safety, about to blow your brains out, and I…" He trailed off, struggling with himself.

It was Ziva's turn to give a short, humorless laugh. "And nothing changes." She muttered, wrenching from his grasp and starting to walk away from him for the second time that day.

Yes it does. It has to change, Tony thought to himself. For the second time that day, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back, but this time he pulled her right into him and brought his lips crashing onto hers.