A/N: This is a tag 9.02 Restless, and thus contains spoilers for the beginning of season 9. I somehow managed to morph my story to fit with the canon story line. Obviously, if you have not seen the episode, I'd hold off until then. I hope you like it, it was one of those stories that needed to be written. It wasn't going to stop brewing in my head until then.

A soft tapping echoed throughout her quiet apartment. Visitors at this hour were uncommon, but not unheard of. Ziva lifted her blanket off her lap and threw her book on the end cushion. She was not surprised when Tony used his key she had given him "for emergencies only" to let himself in.

"I did not know you were stopping by tonight." Ziva mentioned as she rotated on the ball of her foot and fell back onto the couch.

Tony kicked off his shoes and plopped down on the other end, tugging the blanket to cover his lap. He lunged forward for the remote before Ziva's foot expertly stopped his further advances to operate the television.

"I was enjoying the quiet, you can listen to music if you would like, but no TV."

Tony nodded and settled back into the couch throwing his head back to rest on the oversized cushion.

"Do you want to join me for a night of mud wrestling spectatorship? I'd thought I'd let McGee use his tickets, do you think Gibbs would want to go, or he could ask Max. Never mind, stupid question."

A lasting smirk turned into a genuine smile when Ziva responded, " I would be honored to join you, I was quite fascinated by the description."

"Do you think you would want to participate?" Tony reached out and teasingly poked her.

"Maybe" Ziva nodded.

At this thought, Tony's imagination got the better of him.

"I'll let you think about that for awhile, I am going back to my book, let me know if and when you want to talk about why you really came over here."

Tony shifted to the side and closed his eyes. It had been months since the night of Franks funeral, was it 3, 4, Tony wasn't sure. A lot had happened in that time. After their drunken night together, Tony was unsure of where his relationship with Ziva stood. He knew they talked a lot and shared a lot, the contents of which still remained a bit fuzzy. He looked at that night as a chance to rant and complain, and take comfort in the fact that they had each other's backs.

This summer was where the details and his memory are not back just yet. Dr. Cranston did a lot of explaining to help him understand his predicament, to help him grasp the consequences of his actions. He wasn't sure if his own personal processing was all that complete. The logistics, the sequence of events, the players, while floating around up there somewhere, he's still not sure of the why or the who, and for that matter, who he is anymore. He does know one thing for sure, throughout it all, his team never stopped trying, though frustration levels were high, they were there, Ziva was still concerned, even if she had a funny way of showing it.

Ziva took solace in the fact that he was seeking some connection, she had begun to worry after the incident that he was closing himself off, trying to figure things out on his own. She watched him carefully; she could tell that whatever he had been through since they closed the case a few hours ago had caused him to seek her out. She wasn't particularly sure why, but decided, in the long run, that it was best to just be there, if only to be silent.

"I thought you were reading your book."

"How could possibly know what I am doing, your eyes are closed?"

"I can feel you staring at me, I have some spidey senses of my own you know."

"I was just wondering if you were okay." Ziva reached over and patted his knee "I know this summer has not been the nicest summer."

Tony locked eyes with her, "I don't think I've had a good summer in years, I was sent to live on a boat, I spent a summer looking for you, I trekked across the America's searching for Paloma, and now this. I just want to have a good summer. The last time I remotely had a good time during the summer was when Gibbs was gone, that was a good summer."

Ziva visibly stiffened at the mention of Somalia, but softened easily as a flood of memories washed over her. She had to agree that her first summer living in America was pretty great. She got to enjoy the DC area. Her and Tony spent their rare nights off watching movies and making dinner together.

"How was your summer? How was your trip to Central America?"

Ziva took a sip of her forgotten glass of merlot before responding, "It was rather uneventful, I think we were all a little worried about what was going on with you. Central America was short, but I got the advice I needed."

Tony nodded. She would tell him when she was ready to share.

"I have to spend some time with Tim, I have been too hard on him these past seven or eight years. He's a good guy, he doesn't deserve my abuse."

"What makes you think you have been abusing him?" Ziva questioned as she stretched her legs out onto the couch.

"Well you know, the McNicknames, when I joke about his dates, and of course his geekiness."

"Ahh, I see, well, I do not think it was all abuse, I think Tim sees a lot of it as a sign that you care about him, that you want to know about what's going on in his life."

"How nice of you to put a positive spin on it." Tony smiled and grabbed Ziva's foot that was touching his side and began massaging it. "Well I think I am going to start making it up to him, take him out to dinner, find a way to apologize, you know."

"Well I do not think Tim wants your pity, something simple will probably do." Ziva closed her eyes and moaned in appreciation; she had not had a good foot massage in a long time. "That feels amazing, where did you learn how to do that?"

"A man never shares secrets…ahhh…Ziva…stop."

Ziva used her other foot as a weapon to dig into his side.

"I'm not telling you, would you like your other foot to be pampered as well?" Tony winked and switched feet.

Ziva nodded in appreciation. They never really did need a lot of words to understand each other, and tonight was no different. Just partners enjoying the other's company. Their relationship still had a lot of layers that neither of them wanted peel back, but they were getting somewhere, and that's what was important.

Thank you for reading and reviewing. I love hearing your thoughts, or even simple, "I loved it" or "What were you thinking?"

Thank you,

- Meg