I don't think I've ever felt this bad in my entire life. This chapter took me forever to write, I just never seemed to be satisfied with it. (to be honest, I'm still not satisfied, but JESUS, this cannot wait any longer)
Lena, if you're lucky, I'll be finished by Christmas. Feel free to punch me tomorrow at school :P
My sincerest apologies to everyone who's still reading.
Discalimer: Yeah, I guess I still don't own anything.
Chapter IV
I'd only been awake for about three hours and I already felt like going back to sleep again. It had taken forty-five minutes to convince my mom over the phone that Lena and I were okay. Of course she wanted me to come back home with the next flight, but Ziva had explained to her that we needed to stay while the investigation was still going on, because of all people Lena and I might have uncovered a drug connection to the Navy – completely by accident and without even doing a thing. Eventually my mom had given up arguing with Ziva to everyone's relief, but she'd still been more than a little concerned. And I didn't blame her, because, honestly, this was madness. A bunch of drug dealers posing as members of a student exchange program? That sounded more like one of Tony's movies than something that could actually happen.
After hanging up, Ziva dropped onto the couch next to Tony with a sigh. "Well… that was difficult."
"Sorry," I said, eyes on the floor. "My mom can be… hard to deal with."
Both agents' eyes were on me then and I looked up under the intensity of their combined stares. "Be glad to have one," Tony finally spoke, "She seems to love you a lot."
At that moment I could have kicked myself, remembering that Abby had told us about Tony losing his mother when he was little and Ziva's mother being killed in Israel.
"God, I'm so sorry, I didn't think I-"
Lena's hand on my shoulder stopped me from saying anything more. "I think it would be good if you shut up."
"Right. Sorry."
"And stop apologizing. You sound like me, for crying out loud!"
We both had to chuckle then, causing Tony and Ziva to smile as well. Suddenly Tony spoke up again, "How come you two are so calm? Aren't you scared at all?"
I considered that for a moment, but Lena answered before I could even open my mouth. "Of course we're scared. But I guess we trust you to.. y'know… protect us."
"You are some Very Special Agents after all, right?" I teased with a look in Tony's direction. He smirked back at me and I saw Ziva look away to suppress a grin. Once again I stared a moment too long, thinking about what a great couple they'd make, before the ringing of a phone cut through the silence in the room.
"DiNozzo?" Tony answered, getting up. "Yeah? Okay, we'll be right over." He hung up and looked at Ziva, who was already standing as well. "Boss wants us at the office, looks like McGee found something." With that he headed for the door and was promptly stopped by Ziva calling his name.
"What do we do with them? They cannot stay here unattended." She crossed the room with a few quick steps.
Tony hesitated for a moment. "Uh… How about one of us stays here?"
"Are you volunteering, Tony?" Ziva purred, taking another step closer, her hand sliding beneath his jacket. I felt my jaw drop at that and heard Lena's silent gasp from next to me. Tony seemed just as surprised as me and my friend because his mouth opened and closed a couple of times without him saying a word, his eyes darting to her lips twice. When she took a step back again she was triumphantly holding up his car keys. "I'll keep you posted on the case," she said patting his cheek with affection before waving to Lena and me – still standing at the other side of the room wearing dumbfounded expressions – and leaving the apartment. Once the door shut behind her, Tony still stood frozen for several seconds before looking at us.
"Did you guys just see that?"
Lena smirked shamelessly at the agent. "Oh, we saw that, alright."
"Ziva's an evil genius," he murmured while slowly walking back to the couch.
"So… Tony" I started, slowly pacing in front of Ziva's bookshelf "And you're telling me again that you do not feel the least bit attracted to that woman?"
He cleared his throat, but his expression stayed calm. "Did Abby tell you to ask me this?"
Lena was quick to answer in an innocent tone, "No, of course not. But the evidence points against you."
"Exactly," I continued, "For one; you might not notice it, but you keep glancing at her."
He was going to argue, but Lena was faster, "Second," she held up two fingers, "You seem pretty comfortable in her apartment."
"That doesn't count, " Tony chuckled, but it sounded nervous, "I've known her for years."
"Do you know where to find all the dishes and groceries in McGee's apartment? You've known him longer than Ziva," I questioned, biting my tongue to keep from grinning.
"Of course I do."
"Really?" Lena asked. We were now both circling him like two sharks. He dropped onto the couch in defeat.
"No."
Lena and I high-fived before sitting down as well. Now that we had him weakened, I was sure it would be easier to get him to confess something.
"I will ask you again now," Lena said in a low voice, "Do you or do you not have feelings for Ziva?"
Tony shot us a sideways glance, but kept staring at the turned-off TV. "I… I don't know," he admitted and it took all my willpower not to squeal. He was going to talk. He turned to look at us, "Are you happy now?"
"Not quite," I said, frowning at him. "How can you not know?"
"Would you two stop asking me questions?" he seemed upset, "Ziva and I are friends, okay? Would I take a bullet for her? Yes, I would. Without thinking about it but I'd do the same for McGee or Gibbs."
"I'm sorry," Lena said gently. "But… the two of you just seem so… couply."
"If I had a dollar for every time anyone said that to me… wait, what are you doing?" he stared at the cell phone in my hand. My fingers froze mid-text and I saw Lena sigh next to me. It looked like Abby wasn't going to ever receive that message. Tony snatched the phone from my hand and scrolled through the conversation. I got up and quickly walked out of his reach.
"I can explain that," I whispered.
To my surprise – and utter relief – Tony stared to laugh. "Okay… looks like Ziva's not the only evil genius." He looked at us, "You're interpreting far too much into every single one of our actions."
When he handed me the phone back, I read what he had sent Abby.
"Your little spies got busted. –Tony."
The reply came almost instantly.
"Totally worth it. xx"
I grinned to myself and put the phone in my pocket, where it would stay until I'd give it back to Abby. The three of us were silent for a long time before Lena shifted in her seat and cleared her throat. Tony and I looked at her, waiting for her to speak. "I think you should ask her out," she finally said.
I nodded immediately and with great enthusiasm, but Tony merely chuckled in disbelief. "Don't you ever give up?"
"Nope," we said at the same time. He took a deep breath before he spoke again.
"Look, I know what it must look like to you. You're what, fifteen? This must be like a TV show for you, where two co-workers seem to have feelings for one another for years without realizing those feelings are mutual and in the end they live happily ever after, blah, blah, blah. Well, I hate to inform you that this is the real life."
"Says the one person in this room who has spent more time quoting movies than brushing his teeth?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
He was silent for a long time after that and I wasn't sure what to make of it. Maybe he was thinking of a good reply, maybe he was a little mad or maybe he was actually considering asking Ziva out. I really hoped his thoughts headed into the direction of the third option.
"Look," Lena started again when the silence just got really frustrating, "We're not dumb and I know that you're very much capable of making your own choices but I think in this case you're just too close to this whole situation to see it clearly. Maybe if you take a step back you'll see what everyone else sees." Tony didn't seem to get it.
"Everybody thinks you're dating already, so you might as well do it for real," I told him, giving him the most serious expression I could manage. "I mean would you rather… regret not asking her out for the rest of your life?"
"You know what? I'm not doing this." He got up from his spot on the couch and left the apartment without even one last look into our direction. I knew we'd gone too far.
…
I don't know how much time passed, but neither of us talked for a while. It was awkward and I really felt bad for the whole situation and so did Lena, apparently. We had screwed up big time and we knew it. Who were we to tell a grown man, not only a grown man but a grown man who was a freaking federal agent we'd only met the day before, to ask his co-worker out. We were terrible, terrible people. When the door to the apartment opened, neither one us dared to look up.
"Girls?" someone called out, "Are you there?"
"Living room," Lena called back.
Agent McGee entered a minute later and gave us a worried look. "Tony told me he needed some air and sent me to keep an eye on you… What happened?"
"Tony hates us," I groaned and hung my head.
"And why would he hate you?" McGee's voice was amused.
Lena let out a deep breath. "We told him to ask Ziva out."
McGee's jaw dropped as soon as the words left my friends mouth. "You… you told him..?"
"Yeah," I mumbled guiltily. The agent stared at us in disbelief, not really knowing what to say after that. "Would you please say something? Yell at us, tell us we're idiots, I don't know… just talk!"
And then McGee started to laugh. He laughed so hard, his head turned bright red and tears started to form in his eyes. It was contagious and soon Lena and I couldn't help but giggle as well.
"Hey, someone had to tell him the truth, right?" McGee said breathlessly after laughing for what felt like ten minutes straight. "He stopped listening to Abby or me a long time ago, he's probably just annoyed that the thing between him and Ziva is still that obvious."
Lena smiled at the young Agent. "So.. you don't think he hates us."
McGee shook his head. "No. He likes you too much. Besides, now he has a reason to pull one of his feared DiNozzo pranks on you."
"Like gluing your fingers to your keyboard?" Lena asked innocently. Of course Abby had told us that story. McGee just rolled his eyes with a half-smile.
"You wouldn't laugh if anything like that happened to you."
"I'm not too sure about that… I think I'd just laugh a lot."
McGee chuckled before he took a seat on the couch and got his phone out of his pocket to play Angry Birds Space. Personally, I've never been a huge fan of that whole cranky birds killing pigs scenario. But watching the geeky man next to us softly swear whenever he missed was hilarious.
…
It was already dark outside when the door opened and Tony and Ziva came walking in, both smiling brightly at us, with Chinese take-out in their hands. McGee, who had fallen asleep while watching the movie we'd decided to see, stopped snoring and slowly opened his eyes.
"What time's it?" he asked groggily before stretching his arms.
"Time for food!" Tony told him with a grin and disappeared into the kitchen. Lena and I realized at the same time that this was probably the best moment to apologize to him, so we followed the Senior Field Agent silently.
"Uh…" I started awkwardly, leaning against the counter. Tony didn't look at us, but I could see from where I was standing that he was suppressing a grin. "I guess we… shouldn't have said the things we, well… said."
"Great start," Lena hissed sarcastically and I elbowed her in the side.
Tony tortured us with his silence for a couple more minutes before he finally acknowledged our presence with a grin in our direction.
"McGee already sent me a message telling me about your bad conscience."
"So you know that we're really, really sorry?" Lena stated, but she made it sound like a question.
With a frown on his face, Tony continued to put the delicious-smelling food on different plates. Without thinking about it we helped him, patiently waiting for a response. He didn't say a word until all the food was ready to be carried into the living room where McGee and Ziva could be heard laughing about something. Tony sighed heavily and looked first at me then at my friend.
"As much as I hate to say it… you might actually be right."
"What does that mean?" Lena asked slowly, raising an eyebrow.
"Me and Ziva… to say that I've never thought about a possible 'us' would be a lie. In fact there used to be a time when not a single day passed without me considering it." He raised a silencing hand to shut me up before continuing, "This is just really complicated. I know Abby told you about Somalia and everything, but I don't think she quite gets the emotional complexity between Ziva and me. I don't even think I get it."
"Do you think she would reject you if you asked her out?" Lena's voice was soft but filled with curiosity.
Tony's eyes wandered to the ceiling, where they stayed. "That's the thing. I used to think that, but lately I'm not sure anymore. I actually think she would say yes without hesitation." He laughed softly, "Or she would try to strangle me with my tie."
"Don't get mad again," I said with the faintest smile, "but to me this sounds like it's worth a try. Honestly."
Neither of us had heard Ziva enter the kitchen, but suddenly she was standing next to Lena. All three of us almost jumped out of our skins when she spoke. "What is worth a try?"
"The seafood dish you brought," I said automatically, although my voice was a bit too high to sound relaxed and nonchalant. "Lena hates seafood, but Tony and I are trying to convince her to at least taste it."
Ziva's eyes narrowed and she looked at every one of us with suspicion before she seemed to decide that I was telling the truth. Or she at least decided to just let it go for the moment.
"Well, McGee and I would also like some, if by any chance, you decide to share. You have been in here for quite some time now."
"Of course, sweetcheeks," Tony said sarcastically, but it still sounded affectionate. He handed her one of the plates and she disappeared, but not without sending him one last look over her shoulder, that looked very much like she was going to interrogate either him or us about what we had actually been talking about.
Once we were sure Ziva was out of hearing range, the three of us all sighed with relief. "Well… that was close," I said.
"Seafood? Are you kidding me? There is no way she bought that one." Lena crossed her arms over her chest and bit her lip.
"Let's worry about that later," Tony said with a smile, handing me and Lena stuff to carry with us to the living room, "I don't know about you, but I'm starving."
Now that he said it, I felt my stomach growl. I could definitely use some food as well, but before we left the kitchen, I still decided to say one last thing.
"Tony?" he turned to look at me, "I think you're really going to regret it if you never ask her. Just sayin'." With that I walked past him and left the room.
…
McGee had already left some time ago when Lena and I finally decided to retire to the guest room and call it a night. We were lying next to each other with the bedside lamp turned on and stared at the ceiling.
"Do you think he'll ask her out?" I asked, speaking in German, just to be sure.
"I sure hope so," my friend answered absentmindedly. "I bet they'd both be happier."
"Yeah, definitely." I yawned, "And can you imagine Abby's reaction?"
"She would freak out."
"Absolutely."
We both chuckled and fell silent, sleep slowly but surely overcoming us. I don't know if it was a dream or wishful thinking, but I'm pretty sure the last thing I heard was Tony's voice.
"Zi, I think we need to talk…"
I'm honestly trying to wrap this up. One chapter to go. :)
