"Am I xenophobic?"

There was no greeting as he opened the door to his apartment for her; just the question that left her blinking up at him in complete and utter confusion. Thrusting the bag of take out at him, she shook her head, "What?"

"Am. I. Xenophobic," he repeated the question slowly.

She shrugged, "I have no idea."

"Do you know what it means? It means…"

"Tony," she cut him off as she moved passed him into the apartment towards the kitchen, "I'm very close to having my master's I know what xenophobic means. I just don't know if you're xenophobic. I mean in the last couple of months that I've known you; you haven't shown any signs of hating foreigners. But then, in this post-9/11 world most law enforcement officer are overly suspicious of any non-natives. And you aren't just a normal LEO; you work for the Navy. So, yeah, you might be a little xenophobic."

"So you do think that I'm a… a… racist, too. Lovely. I had hoped that my friend would see the truth."

Maddie sighed as she watched Tony storm off towards the balcony at the end of his living room. Opening the refrigerator, she grabbed two beers from the fruit drawer and used her foot to close it. Grabbing the bottle opener as well, she followed him to the balcony. As she sat on the end of the chaise by his legs, she handed him the beers and the opener, "Someone who is xenophobic isn't a racist. They just are afraid of foreigners. Those foreigners could be white, black, Asian, Arab, whatever. I'm sure when your grandfather immigrated to this country he met a lot of Englishmen who hated him because of where he was from even though they had the same skin tone. When I said that you might be a little xenophobic, I honestly meant because your occupation trained you to be that way. For good or bad. What is this all about, Tony?"

"Ziva," the word came out as a sigh as he dropped his head back against the chair. "We had this case with a woman and a cab driver… Anyhow, it was weird and Ziva was really weird. And she accused me of being xenophobic."

"Well, that is because she's in love with you," Maddie took a swig from one of the now open beers.

Tony's head popped up from the chair, "What? I mean… how did you know that?"

"Tony, Tony, Tony," Maddie smiled as she moved from the chair. "A woman knows these things. It's cold out here, I'm going in. If you don't join me in ten minutes, I'm eating your shrimp and starting the movie without you."

Before she could even open the first carton of Chinese food, Tony was sitting next to her on the couch, "I'm not in love with Ziva."

"I know."

"What do I do about it… her?"

Maddie shrugged as she handed him a fork and his carton of shrimp lo mien, "I don't know. I don't think that there is anything to do. Well, except still be her friend and hope that she finds someone else. Maybe nudge her in McGee's direction. I don't think he'd mind."

"I'm not playing matchmaker, missy," he stole one of her dumplings.

"Hey," she swatted his hand with her chopsticks, leaving a smear of soy sauce. "I'd do it, but you won't let me play with your friends."

Licking the sauce off his hand, he sighed, "I've told you, Mads. I just don't want Gibbs to get the wrong idea that's why I haven't told them we're hanging out."

"Sometimes, Tony, I think you've got the wrong idea. Jethro isn't going to care if we're friends. I need more duck sauce."

She headed for the kitchen and he was left wondering about the nature of their friendship yet again.