I know, I know! I promised to have it up yesterday but after re-reading it, I changed a few things. And remember that I'm german and that everytime I write something, I have to translate everything into english later. That's why it took me a while to wrap it up, but here you go;) I hope you like it. And btw, I love to read reviews :D


Chapter 4

Ziva walked down the street to the headquarter when she saw McGee driving up the driveway. She sighed, knowing that he would ask her why she hadn't waited for him at the hospital.

The car came to a halt next to her and sticking his head out of the window, Tim asked "Why did you just leave?"

"I've got a headache and needed the fresh air" she lied half-heartedly, knowing that he had of course noticed her earlier strange behaviour.

"Okay" McGee just nodded, knowing that she would talk to him if she wanted to.

She waited for the elevator to come and sighed when McGee walked up to her after he had parked his car. He looked at her and pondered the information Tony had just given him. That something was between Ziva and Tony that couldn't be described as friendship-only wasn't really a revelation for Tim. He wasn't blind. He was sure that everybody knew that who had seen them together. What he wasn't sure about was if he really liked that they were suddenly going down a path that could, if they tried the couple thing and it didn't work out, destroy the whole team. Ziva felt more than only slightly disturbed by the stares McGee was giving her but she decided to ignore them, thinking that he probably was trying to find a reason for her strange behaviour at the hospital.

The ride with the elevator was short but way too long for Ziva's likening. Dreading sitting face-to-face to McGee, she didn't step out and said "You know what, I'll go and see if Abby has something for us.", smiling a fake smile at Tim while the doors of the elevator closed. As soon as they were closed the smile faded from her lips and she rubbed her hands harshly across her face. When she stepped out of the elevator she was happy to see that Abby was nowhere in sight. Not a bad place to hide she thought and got down to the floor, sighing deeply and bringing her knees to her face. Only a few minutes later, she was lost in thoughts and never heard the footsteps that were coming closer and then were stopping next to her. She almost jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, is everything okay with you? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out." Abby said concerned. She studied Ziva's face for a few seconds and then stated. "You look like crap. What happened? Tony's alright, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is." Ziva mumbled.

"Then why are you acting so weird?" Abby asked.

"What, me acting weird has to do something with Tony?" Ziva snapped. Seeing that she had shocked her friend without a reason, she said quietly "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so rude. I'm just...I don't know" she rubbed her face harshly. If you don't stop doing that you will peel your skin off one day she thought dryly.

"Ziva, tell me what happened." Abby said.

The room fell quiet while Ziva was asking herself if she wanted to tell anybody what had happened. Then she decided to spill everything, knowing that her friend would at least try to help her without any judgement. "He heard me talking." Ziva elaborated as if that would explain everything.

"Yeah, I can see why this is bothering you", Abby said sarcastically. "And who heard you? And isn't that the reason you talk, so that somebody hears it? " she asked confused.

Ziva groaned when she saw that of course Abby couldn't know what that mattered and she added "Tony, at the hospital. He was lying in that bed and the nurse was all 'not a good sign, he probably won't make it' and that's why I thought he was going to die. And I talked and told him about my feelings and now he woke up and..." she stopped, not comfortable with giving so much away.

Trying in vain to supress the exited giggles that came out of her mouth, Abby squealed "Oh my God, Ziva! That's so great! Finally! You know, everybody around you two knew that..." The glare she got from Ziva stopped her speech. "Okay, I get that you are not really happy about spilling your feelings because you don't talk a lot about feelings and such stuff...but now that he knows you two can be together...although of course you don't know for sure about his feelings...but I can tell you that he's been drooling about you for a long time now...well,of course he hasn't said anything so that could mean...but on the other hand you haven't said anything as well until now..."

"Abby" Ziva said sternly, cutting off Abby's rambling. "I can go so you can continue talking to yourself if you want me to."

"No, I'm done." Abby quipped. "What are you doing now?" she asked.

"I absolutely don't know. What do you think why I'm hiding in here? McGee was with me at the hospital and now he's giving me those 'I-wonder-what-could-have-happened-between-them' noisy stares. And Tony tried to talk to me but I sure as hell didn't want to hear it, that's why I left and walked here from the hospital. I don't know what to do" she finished, feeling exhausted like she had just run a marathon.

"Why don't you want to talk to Tony?" Abby asked surprised.

"Because it's Tony." Ziva stated matter of factly. "You know, the Tony that probably doesn't even remember the name of the last girl he slept with. The Tony that makes fun of everything and everyone. He won't let me hear the end of that, I'll probably hide in here for the next years" she finished, making Abby grin at the last part.

"Well, my lab is your lab" she joked, stopping the giggles that had escaped her mouth when Ziva glared at her. "You know that there's another side of Tony" Abby said reassuringly. "He's that cute, charming, funny guy who can be annoying as hell sometimes but on the inside he has a soft spot, he can be sensitive and cares for the ones he love. And when you were gone and he thought that you were dead, you should have seen him. He was like a lost puppy."

"I know that he has those other attributes as well, Abby. But I just can't see him NOT teasing and harrassing me about that, you know? I'll just wait and I'm sure that he will forget what happened sooner or later." Yeah, right! That will surely happen. He'll just forget it the little voice inside her head taunted her. She took a deep breath, trying to overcome the sudden feeling of nausea deep in her stomach. "Thanks, Abby. I'll go now" with that, Ziva left the lab, leaving a stunned Abby behind.

"Oh, finally! They'll be so damn cute together" Abby murmured under her breath, a huge smile on her face.


Three weeks later Tim was at the lab, talking to Abby.

"You wouldn't believe the way they are acting" McGee said with a sigh. "Tony's been back to work for almost a week now and she's still avoiding him as much as she can. It's not like she's so distraught that she can't concentrate. When we're working on a case, she's giving her full attention. But there are no fights, no teasing, no flirting. She's... I think I would call it cooly polite. Even Gibbs knows that something is wrong. And I don't think that he'll just accept that kind of behaviour for much longer. He was shooting her glares that made ME afraid. And I'm not sure if I can stand it for another day as well. I wish we could do something. I mean, she can't just ignore him forever."

"Well, why don't we force them to talk?" Abby asked McGee and looking at her big smile he could see that she was up to something.

"What ever you have in mind, I'm game" he said.