Please let it go to voicemail, he thought, wincing as he heard the phone pick up and her voice answer in a bleary tone. "Abby? Are you ok?"
"Um, its not Abs, actually, Ziva," he said, grimacing through his words. "Just your friendly neighborhood NCIS agent."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. What makes you think something's wrong?" he countered. This was not how this call should have gone, he thought.
"Its after two in the morning here, Tony," she supplied.
"Did I wake you up?"
She paused before answering, sitting up on her elbows and rubbing her eyes clear from sleep with one hand. "Not really, no." Nightmare, yes. You woke me up from a nightmare. Not from sleep. "I assumed there's an emergency for you to call from the office at this hour?"
He sighed. "Yeah. There is. Its not an emergency per se, but... I needed to tell you something."
Ziva remained silent, combing her hair out of her face with her fingers.
Tony continued, clearing his throat. "I um... I'm sorry about how we left things," he said, not sure if that was the correct thing to say. He had never been adept at apologies- especially not when they were important enough to mean something.
He heard her sigh across the phone line. "Thank you for saying that."
"I mean it."
Ziva lay back down on her bed, closing her eyes. "I wish we had spoken longer the other night. I ... I think perhaps I wasn't clear when -"
He interrupted. "No- it was my fault, Ziva. You were plenty clear. You've got to do what's best for your family and your employer and your country. There's more riding on where you live and who you're with than just my ego."
"Would you let me finish?" She barked. "I said I wasn't clear because it seems that you think I came to Israel to marry Michael, you bolt."
"Dolt," he corrected, absently. "And you mean you're not there to marry him?"
"No."
Tony frowned, resting his elbows on Abby's desk and rubbing his eyes with his free hand. "Then I'm definitely confused. Why did you leave?"
Ziva rolled onto her side, hugging a small stuffed elephant to her chest.
She had slept with stuffed animals when she was younger. As she grew older and into her role with Mossad, she had thought herself too adult to enjoy the comforts of childhood. But when Abby, Gibbs, Tony and McGee had insisted on taking Ziva to her first county-fair, she had squealed with delight when Tony handed her the stuffed animal he just won. She had thought to leave him behind this trip, but after her spat with Tony, she had felt the need to have a tangible reminder of their friendship on-hand.
Ziva was silent for a second as she gathered her thoughts. "I had a fight with my father today," she said, her tone changing the subject slightly. "Afterwards, I had a fight with Michael. It was not an enjoyable day."
Tony leaned back in Abby's chair, closing his eyes and resting his head on the back of her chair. "Are you ok?"
"Physically, yes, I am fine," she sighed. "I just wish Tel-Aviv and DC were not so far away. I would like nothing more right now than to be on your sofa with a stupid movie and you annoying me by quoting all the lines."
He frowned; Ziva admitting weakness was something he rarely heard- and if she was admitting to needing his presence, then either they were further into whatever relationship thing they were doing than he had thought, or she really was struggling to keep her composure in front of her father. In this case... probably both.
"I wish you hadn't left at all," he supplied.
"I had to handle this in person," she said softly. "I believe Michael was more upset than Papa when I told him I wouldn't marry him."
Tony grinned. "I understand that completely – I'd be pretty pissed, too, if someone said that the hottest woman I'd ever met suddenly wasn't goona marry me."
"Tony-" she chastised.
"Seriously, Ziva, you've got to see his perspective. He's spent the last – how many years? - thinking that you and he were going to get hitched, he'd get a promotion and a nice raise, and you'd be the beauty on his arm at all the fantastic super-spy balls."
She felt herself grinning under his words. "I do not think that was his problem, Tony."
"I do. I know how I felt, just knowing you were marrying someone else- I can only imagine how he feels to know you just broke your engagement- technicality or otherwise."
Her voice dropped to just above a whisper. "How did you feel?"
"Like my world just got ripped apart," he said softly. Since when did I forget how to dance-around these sorts of questions? Since when did I become honest and up front!? He thought to himself.
She was silent, not sure how to reply. Her instinct was to say Me too but it seemed so insignificant.
She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. And repeated the process again.
"I miss you," she managed to say, breaking the awkward silence.
The words hit Tony like a ton of bricks – and yet they managed to lift a weight off his shoulders and he felt himself relax.
"Well that's the best news I've heard in a while," he replied, grinning. "Here I am missing you and thinking I'm crazy for it..."
"Well you are definitely crazy," she teased. "But not for that."
Tony chuckled. "So fought with daddy, huh? Are you still employed? Or now on house-arrest at Mossad brain-washing-central?" His voice was light, teasing.
"I am still employed," she replied. "He said he would try to make my position there a bit more permanent."
"Is that a good thing?" Tony asked cautiously.
She frowned, pulling the phone from her ear for a moment and glaring at it, as if he could feel the daggers from across the water. "I do not know, Tony. You tell me!"
How did this go from a snuggly phone call to a snippy phone call? He thought as he opened his mouth to reply. "I know that I would like nothing more than to have you here with us – with me – for a long, long time, Ziva. But I don't know how you feel about it."
This is about more than NCIS, I think, she thought as she let his words roll over her. "I would like that as well," she said.
They sat quietly again, reveling in each other's presence on the phone. "Why are you still at the office?" she asked, having finally done the mental-math and realized how late it was.
"I'm waiting on some evidence from Abs."
"It won't wait until tomorrow?" she asked, knowing that unless it was life-or-death, Gibbs encouraged his team to have down-time when they could get it, knowing it was far-between.
Tony shrugged. "It could."
"Then go home, DiNozzo," Ziva said firmly. "It is Tuesday- you should be running."
"I can't go running," he replied. "My running partner left me to yell at her father and break off her engagement!"
Ziva chuckled. "Some things come before running, Tony. Being officially-single again is one of them."
"Oh really?"
"Yes. Really," She said smoothly, her voice laden with joviality. "I think now is a good time to make sure I am free, should an appropriate suitor come along."
Why now? He thought to himself. OH just ask her, DiNozzo! "And why is now such a good time, Zee-vah?"
She shrugged, knowing he couldn't see her. "Engaged women should not spend weekends on secluded islands with their best friends unless those best friends are their fiancees," she said, tossing his words back at him from earlier in the week.
"So next time we go to the Cobb's Island, we have to be engaged?" The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them and he gave himself a quick slap to the forehead. Stupid DiNozzo. Stupid. Stupid Stupid.
She chuckled, hearing the 'thwack' as he smacked his head. "We can discuss it the next time you invite me to the island," she replied.
Well, that wasn't a "Hell no," Tony thought, relieved she hadn't laughed in his face. He wasn't a marrying type of guy- or at least that's what he had always thought. But the idea of Ziva marrying Michael had spawned some jealousy-fueled images of a David-DiNozzo wedding in his mind that hadn't gone away in days.
"I should start to plan that trip now," he said, chuckling alogn with her. "When do you get back?"
"A few days," she said. "I have a few more – how do you say – loose ends to tie up here before I leave."
"Let me know if you need a ride from the airport."
"I will be fine, but thank you," she replied. Besides- the idea of spontaneously visiting him when she returned ... well it had been one of the only things keeping her sane this week.
"Zi?" he said, having again broken the comfortable silence that kept creeping into their conversation.
"Mm?" she murmured, loving the way he shortened her name. Had the diminutive rolled off anyone else's lips, she would have been forced to remove their reproductive organs with her fingernails. But from Tony, it gave her a feeling of protection for reasons unknown.
"I really am sorry."
"I know," she said. "Me too."
"You're coming back?"
"If that's really what you want," she replied.
"More than you could imagine! McGee is driving me nuts. Agent Hallow has no where to sit because Gibbs won't let her use your desk. Ducky is pouting because Vance is being a dick..."
"So you want me to come back to keep the peace at the office?" she asked, smirking as she did so.
"Well yeah! You guys haven't solved peace-in-the-Middle-East, but...somehow when you're here, everyone's nicer," he said.
"I see."
Tony cleared his throat. "I want you to come home, Ziva," he said, emphasizing the word. "Come home. "
