A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews, I'm glad you're enjoying the story! In order to have this a bit more organized, I'm gonna be updating the story every monday. We're getting closer to the plot, I just really love slow burn stuff. Thank you again!


Chapter 3, Come Clean.

The next day they met at Tim's place. It wasn't a common meeting point but it was fair enough. The man had stood them up, he had to pay. It was lunch time and Tony arrived (about twenty minutes later than agreed because, in his words, public transport was that inefficient) with three boxes of Chinese food and a six-pack. He claimed that Tim had "missed the opportunity to taste a mind blowing Italian dish last night" and Ziva chuckled in agreement, giving Tim a look. The place looked better than the last time Tony was there and Ziva couldn't really complain. Everything looked more organized, more professional, more writer-like. His probie was trying hard to impress that girl.

"So how's Delilah?" They were sitting in his couch despite the previous argument of the "no food in the couch" rule. Ziva was in the middle of the two men and they all had their feet up in the table in front of them. As Tony's words left his lips he leaned to catch a glimpse of McGee and Ziva looked at him from the corner of her eyes. Tim blushed a little and refused to meet both of his partners gaze. "She's alright, thanks for the concern. We had dinner last night and we had a pretty good time."

"You are seeing her again?" She spoke up before Tony had the chance to reply with a joke or, better yet, a movie reference. "She seems to make you happy."

"I will see her again," He stretched to grab his bottle of beer. "Not tonight, though. I promised Abby I would stop by. She's still pretty mad at us but she says she misses us."

"It's only been two days," Tony interfered.

"She does not want to see us?" Ziva pointed at Tony and herself as she asked. McGee sipped his beer. "She just thinks you two are… busier. I'm sure she'll get in touch, come on, it's Abby."

"Why busier? Do we have any plans for tonight, Ziva?" He lifted his brow and opened his eyes wider, a secret code to ask her to play along.

"Of course, Tony! We have to save the world tonight, you do not remember?" Tony groaned in surprise and Ziva hid her smile by sipping her beer. Tim rolled his eyes and stood up, grabbing the empty boxes and bottles and walking to his kitchen. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you both keep referring to yourselves as a "we", I'll make sure to ask Abby."

Ziva shook her head and Tony rolled his eyes as they listened to McGee's echo. When he came back he discretely sent them signs to make them leave and after avoiding them for a couple of hours, they left his place with the promise (or warning?) of coming back. Tony convinced Ziva to give him a ride home and she agreed. Despite of Abby's thoughts, she had nothing left to do that day and she didn't want to be home so soon. She started to take the long road, making sudden turns here and there and she was actually driving like a normal person. Tony's first reaction was to worry but then he caught the hint, he lowered the volume of the radio and took his sight to her. "So you wanna watch a movie? I did promise to enrich your life with some movie culture earlier."

She took a minute or two to reply and to think about what she was doing. This couldn't lead somewhere good. If they started to hang out together every day it would be harder to keep the walls up and she couldn't let herself bring them down. It was for the best. "At your place?"

"Best movie collection in town, you know that."

"Fine."

Just like that, they found themselves in Tony's apartment around fifteen minutes later. It took him another fifteen minutes to decide which movie they'd watch for the night, at the end choosing a title Ziva had never heard before. In the meantime, she got the popcorn inside the microwave and grabbed two cans of soda from his fridge. It wasn't until Tony stopped arguing with Ziva about the popcorn (he didn't like butter-free popcorn, he wasn't even sure why he had bought one of those) that he finally played the movie on the T.V and they sat shoulder to shoulder in the couch. Ziva crossed her legs and placed the popcorn bowl in the space between her knees. She let herself forget about everything and take the moment in. They rarely had movie nights and it was something they both really enjoyed, even if they didn't talk at all. She had made Tony promise he'd stay quiet while the movie was playing and, in return, she'd let him fill her with information and facts about it once it was over.

She really missed them. At some point she stopped paying attention to the movie and she realized how much she missed those kinds of things. Not just the movie nights, she thought. She missed them, she missed the Tony and Ziva thing. Things had definitely changed after their conversation in the woods or, even worse, after the Adam situation. She wasn't sure where all those actions came from. She wanted to give them a chance, to finally search for their happy ending but she couldn't. Instead, she lifted those walls that seemed impossible to take down. She had missed her chance, once again. It wasn't fair for Tony to be there the way she was; so close, so touchy, so domestic, no. He had made it clear, nothing's awkward between friends. That's what they were, friends. Thanks to her, nothing more.

"Tony," he didn't look away from the T.V. "I need to be… somewhere tomorrow morning."

"Uh-huh."

"So I will call you tomorrow."

"Uh-huh." She gave up. Attempting to hold a conversation with Tony while a movie was playing was useless. She stood up, grabbed her bag and walked out the door. She didn't look back to see if he noticed her leaving, it was better if he didn't. Maybe that meant he wasn't getting any twisted messages from her actions. It was a bit of relief. She got in her car and started driving, about five minutes later her phone rang. She didn't have to look to see who it was.

"Why did you leave?" She could hear the movie still playing in the background. He didn't sound upset, another relief.

"I told you, I have some things to do tomorrow."

"Well, you could've stayed for the end. You didn't mention any plans for tomorrow."

"I forgot about them," she wasn't sure if she could lie properly while driving. She was about to find out. "I am seeing an old friend. I will probably be busy for the day."

"Aw, well. I'll have to find something to do by myself. " Score, he didn't suspect.

"Sorry. I will try to find some space to call you, I have to go. I'm driving."

"Have fun, goodnight."

"Bye."

She hung up and she felt a bit bad for lying. What else could she do? She needed to put some space between them, she needed to remind herself the walls were right there where she had built them. She would text Abby in the morning, she was her only choice. She had no idea how she would survive this time off and if someone was creative and smart enough to give her some answers, that was Abby.