Hey! Sorry I didn't update yesterday. Things are crazzzy at work. This chapter's kinda filler-ish, but I promise next chapter with be good, especially in terms of Tiva-ness. Thanks to all of you who have reviewed! Your ideas and encouragement are wonderful (shout-out to VivaZiva for the piggy-back idea). Anyway, hope you like it… even if you don't, por favor review!

Disclaimer: NCIS no es mio

Ya! Empecemos!

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"Alrighty, Zi, let's get this show on the road," Tony exclaimed as the rain finally stopped.

"Tony, there is no road… We are in the middle of the forest. And what show?" Ziva muttered tiredly, confused over yet another American idiom.

"Sweetcheeks, it's just a saying. It means let's go!"

She was comfortable leaning against Tony's shoulder and didn't want to have to walk again, but she knew if they were going to make it back to the car by dark, they would have to leave now. "Fine, Tony. We shall go," she conceded, pushing off of Tony's lap with a wince as she put pressure on her bad wrist and twisted her bruised, possibly broken, ribs.

"Easy does it, ninja. Wait here a sec, I've got an idea." Tony gently eased his way from behind his partner, careful not to jostle any of her injuries as he slipped his backpack out from under Ziva's leg.

"Here, I need you to carry this. It's not too heavy, right?" he asked, making his way around to Ziva's back and placing the straps on her shoulders.

"No it is not too heavy, but why will you not carry it? Will we not go faster with you carrying the extra weight?" Ziva shot him a questioning face.

"Well, seeing as I'll be carrying you, I'd say that qualifies as the extra weight," Tony replied cheekily as he bent down to help Ziva to a standing position.

"Tony, that is unnecessary, I can—"

"Sweetcheeks, don't even waste your breath arguing. We have officially an hour and a half to cover 4 miles, and while I am fully aware that you are capable to covering the distance, I also know that you would be more comfortable hitching a ride on my back, and we will make better time."

Ziva grunted in consent as she reached her feet and leaned against Tony's chest for balance.

"Zi, I'm turning around now. Try and lock your arms around my neck," he requested, rotating his body slowly in an attempt not to knock his partner off-balance.

He gently leaned forward with Ziva's arms secured around his neck and swiftly lifted her up from the back, gripping her muscular thighs with ease. Normally, DiNozzo would make a cheeky comment about their current bodily positions, Ziva's front to his back, his hands merely inches from her butt, but given their present situation, he decided that avoiding a pissed off, hurt Ziva was probably more beneficial to them both.

As the started off, at a pace that Ziva had to admit, was indeed much more rapid than their previous gait, and Tony began to ramble about how this reminded him of a scene in some action movie or another, Ziva zoned out, left to her thoughts as her partner's easy chatter provided a comforting background noise.

"I cannot believe I accepted Tony's help like this. This is ridiculous, I am capable of walking. But I suppose this is more efficient. And we do not have time to waste. And this is not so bad…" she thought as she noticed the toned muscle of Tony's back and mid-section. "Wow, he must be working out. I am impressed. Harah! Ziva, you should not be thinking this way. This is the way DiNozzo thinks.

Hmm, Tony did not even make a snide comment about this situation. Odd. Maybe he has matured in the past 3 hours. Ha, who am I goating…no, calfing?....Some baby animal…. He just pities me. Pathetic. But nice, I suppose. I think Tony might actually care about me. As a person. He was surprisingly comforting in the cave. It felt… good." Ziva surprised herself with this thoughts. Accepting comfort from another person felt good? When did she become so soft? But it was Tony. She was comfortable with Tony. He was her best friend, she realized.

"Yet I know almost nothing about him. Lie. I know all about the women he brings home every weekend. And roughly every movie he has seen in the past decade. And that he takes his coffee with a disgusting amount of sugar. And when he lies, in addition to looking town and to the left, his right ear twitches slightly. And when he thinks I am not looking, he sneaks glances at my ass. I let him get away with it because I do not mind so much.

But I do not know anything about his past. And he now knows more about my childhood than anyone I have ever dated, actually anyone besides my father, on this planet. I will ask him about it. Maybe it will make the time go faster."

"Tony, tell me about yourself," she abruptly cut him off, mid-sentence recounting the plot of yet another action, rescue film.

Tony grunted, surprised at his partner's question, "Whaddya wanna know, Zi? I'd say you know me pretty well. We've been partners for over a year now."

"Yes, Tony, I know you like everything but mushrooms on your pizza, and that you keep two pairs of boxers in your top drawer, yet only one set of clothes; that you hate to swim, but love to run; but I know nothing of importance, like you now know about me. Tell me about your childhood. What were your parents like?" she probed, briefly flashing back to a moment almost a year ago, trapped in the metal container when Tony first asked her about her father.

"I didn't have parents. I hatched," Tony smiled cheekily, really not wanting to have the conversation. He looked over his should, only to be met with Ziva's "I can kill you with office supplies and leave no trace" glare, and he knew she wasn't in the mood to joke.

"Fine, what do you wanna know?"

"I do not know. Anything. You know more about my childhood than my own mother. Tell me something interesting."

"Well," he started off hesitantly, "My dad and I never really got along. And my mom left us when I was a kid… probably was the smart thing to do married to bastard like that. Anyway, there isn't a specific event that tore apart my relationship with my dad.

More like a series. I suppose I was always letting him down, choosing to pursue sports instead of school work, going to a public university instead of a private Ivy League. I think I reminded him of my mom, she was always more down-to-earth, less caught up in the high class world we lived in that he obsessed over," Tony sighed, waiting for Ziva to respond. When she didn't, he continued.

"I remember once when I was 12, I chose to play in our championship basketball game, instead of attending his boss's Christmas party. Dad drank a little too much and came home a little too angry. We got into an argument that left me more or less unconscious. That was the night he basically disowned me," Tony finished quietly.

Not knowing quite what to say—Ziva was never very good with expressing emotion through words—she wrapped her arms more tightly around his neck and dropped her chin to his shoulder, attempting some form of an awkward embrace.

The pair stayed like that for a little while, as Tony continued on their way back to the car.

Ziva suddenly caught a flash of moving color between the trees. Whatever the object was seemed to be slowly coming towards them.

"Tony, do you see that? It looks like a jacket of some sort. There's another person here! Maybe they can help us."

"Not likely, Zi. I have a bad feeling that jacket is our bad guy."