Making Exceptions

Thanks for all your reviews so far; communication with people besides my housemates and immediate neighbors is wonderful! And we're on to Jack Knife!

Oh, and the actual name of the hotel from Kill Ari 2 is the Embasero. I checked the youtube clips of that scene today to be sure. (The letters were too blurry to read until I knew from your comments what they were supposed to be.) Points to LittleCatt, JulietADeveraux, KristieM, team ziva, Chocolatery, Delta-6, Mariah4568, and Hellspirit for knowing an even more excessive amount of NCIS trivia than I do!


Somewhere a phone was ringing, but then it cut off, so Tony didn't open his eyes.

The next thing he knew something warm and heavy was sinking onto him. He didn't need to open his eyes to know what. Ziva. He smiled. Her lips fluttered at the corner of his mouth and he lifted his lids just enough to let her know he was awake. She kissed him again, lightly, chastely.

"McGee says to wake up, there is a case," Ziva said softly, her voice still husky with sleep.

Tony gave her a mock-sad face. "Please don't ever say McGee after kissing me," he teased.

Ziva laughed. "We have to get up now, Tony." Somewhere in the apartment, his phone started ringing.

Instead of rising, Tony snuggled against Ziva, wincing as he realized how stiff he had gotten overnight. He slid an arm around her yielding back. "This is nice," he murmured, yawning.

Ziva relaxed against him, but when the phone began to ring again a minute later, she pulled away in alarm. "Mc-"

"Ziva!" Tony warned.

With a pointed look, Ziva sat up. "He does not know we are together. He thinks he has to wake you, too."

Now Tony was up and darting for the phone. "Right!" He grabbed it off the table where he'd left it beside his keys. "DiNozzo," he tried to answer as though he'd just woken up.

"We've got a case," McGee responded with more genuine exhaustion. Then he snorted. "You'll never guess what I just said to the boss. He told me to wake you and Ziva and I thought he meant you were sleeping together...totally tripped over my words."

"Yeah, Probie, what were you thinking?" Tony watched Ziva roll her eyes at his stilted tone and shrugged dramatically. "Anyway, I'll see you soon." He hung up the phone and shook his head at Ziva, then rushed to get dressed. It was only as he pulled on his shoes that he realized McGee hadn't made the wrong assumption. Gibbs had known about the date and probably had thought they'd be together. Tony frowned to himself as he tied his shoes. He wondered whether he could get a Rule 12 exceptions clause in writing.

*

Two hours and a crime scene later, they walked into the bullpen and found a wonderful sight. In unison the pair set down their coats and put away their weapons, deliberately leaving the drawers ajar so no noise would wake the sleeping McGee.

The stood together over him for a long, gleeful moment.

"What should we do?" Tony finally asked.

Ziva cocked her head thoughtfully. "The time we were on stakeout when you told me you had done nothing was one of the more effective pranks you have pulled."

Tony nodded equivocally and reached out, poked McGee's arm. When he got no reaction, he poked harder. Then he turned to Ziva excitedly. "What if we took him downstairs and put him in a morgue drawer? Naked? I don't think he'd wake up."

She rolled her eyes. "No."

They looked back at the sleeping agent.

"What if--" Tony started, his eyes alight, but then McGee's lashes fluttered and they froze.

"Try to look innocent," Ziva whispered with a deadly smile.

"Always," Tony murmured back.

*

Tony tensed when he heard Ziva call ex-Corporal Werth by his first name. And he didn't miss the resentful tilt of Ziva's head when she caught him looking at her with proprietary eyes.

By the time they made it to the evidence garage, he was downright anxious. Anxious enough to nag her about cleaning the truck's cab and to interrupt her conversation with Werth. He knew as soon as the words were out of his mouth that calling her a marionette was sure to piss Ziva off, but jealousy was sinking in.

She gave him a single ominous glare as she slammed her way into the passenger seat of Werth's car and Tony sighed heavily.

"What?" McGee asked as he climbed into their van with the audio surveillance equipment.

Tony shook his head. But as he spent the rest of the afternoon wondering how she was handling being patted down, worrying about Werth's driving, he never forgot the delighted tone she'd used to say Damon.

*

Later that evening, Ziva tried to catch her breath as she watched Gibbs and Fornell cuff the leaders of the hijacking ring. Then she whirled as she heard McGee and Tony approaching. "Are you alright?" she shouted, a hint of panic in her voice as she ran her eyes over them checking for injuries.

"Us?" McGee questioned.

"We heard the flat," she explained. She looked to Tony. His eyes were boiling with anger that lanced straight through her. "Just the bang, I was worried."

"No, we're fine," McGee answered quickly, eyes darting between his teammates. "I'd better go help with the arrests."

"I'll come too," Ziva said diffidently, breaking Tony's gaze. Without a word she followed McGee.

Tony's eyes lingered on her back.

*

"Just answer the question!" Tony finally said, wanting a straight answer about Ziva's intentions with Werth.

Her teasing expression felt away, became a look of reproach. "Not here," she said commandingly. "Not here, Tony."

His teeth clenched as he bit back a reply about flirtation on NCIS grounds and her behavior all day. "Fine," he finally snarled.

*

Tony was leaning against her car waiting when Ziva got there an hour later.

"Is this 'not here' enough for you?" he demanded at once.

Ziva bristled at the hostility in his tone. "It has been a long day. Perhaps this should wait."

"A long day?" Tony said, incredulity dripping ironically from his words. "It that what you call it?"

Ziva looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Are you angry because I did something dangerous or because of Werth?"

"I rescued you!" Tony hissed, knowing even as he said it that he sounded petulant.

"I am not a princess," Ziva answered, irritated now. "You do not get to keep me in a tower safe from harm."

"I don't want to lose you!" He was nearly shouting, but his voice began to crack on the word lose, and the tension broke with it.

Ziva softened and took a deep breath, moved to lean against the car beside him. "Do you know what I was doing standing in front of that truck? It was a test. For me. In Somalia, I was ready to die. If Saleem had walked in and put a gun to my head, I would have closed my eyes and let him shoot. I stared down that truck today and my heart was in my throat. I couldn't breathe, let alone close my eyes. Tony, I did not want to die. And even if I had, to me that was worth knowing."

Tony squeezed his eyes shut, remembering how close the truck had come to her body. "That's great, but I can't keep pretending to take this lightly. Don't put yourself in danger. Don't dangle other men in front of me."

She winced. "I did not mean to tease you. But I am not your puppet. I have come this far on my own."

He nodded. "I know." Then he hazarded, "But, when you were being friendly with him...did you mean it?"

Ziva's expression grew more serious than Tony would have liked. "There is something simpler about talking to him, it is true," she said finally. "He has been broken by his past too."

"And I haven't?" Tony's tone was harsh.

Ziva blinked at him in surprise.

"That's what you're saying, isn't it?"

She frowned, confused. "Tony, I don't--"

"Ziva," he said, rising and standing opposite her as he began to speak urgently, "it scared me half to death thinking that you wanted to die when I found you. But only because in those five seconds between them shoving you into that room and me seeing the absence in your eyes, I had realized that for the first time in months, I didn't. You weren't there to see it but I was just as ready to die when we got on the plane to Africa. I was just as badly broken."

She swallowed hard, silenced by the thought of Tony dead at Saleem's hands had things gone differently.

"You don't want to die any more and that's great. Really. But mostly because I wasn't kidding or exaggerating when I said I couldn't live without you. What scares me now is that if I get any more involved and anything happens to you..." He didn't need to finish the thought.

Ziva's eyes were wide as she tried to absorb what he was saying. It was too big to deal with, this love he had for her. And the sudden knowledge that she was responsible for his happiness, in fact his life, was overwhelming.

"I have to go," she said at once.

Tony stepped back in fear. "What?"

"I just--" she held up a hand. "I need time to think about this, Tony."

He was still wary, but he backed up so she'd be able to get her car out.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Ziva said firmly, fighting her own sudden anxiety to give him the reassurance he needed.

"Sure." Tony was still uncomprehending as he watched her get into the car and drive away. As he saw her taillights leave the entrance to the Navy Yard, he finally turned to walk to his own car, remembering fondly how close he'd felt to her when they woke up that morning and wondering if he'd admitted too much.