Title: The Right Time: Early Morning
Author: StormInMyHeart
Pairing: Tony/Ziva (what else!)
Series: The Right Time
Category: Romance/AU
Rating: K+
Summary: A set of vignettes each at a different time of day...
Spoilers: None really, although all episodes are fair game.
Disclaimer: Not mine. I just borrowed them for a few minutes.
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Early Morning
God, it was still hot outside.
It was only 0530 hours, and already you could feel the sun burning down, heating up the ground, and raising the temperature both inside and out. Who's brilliant idea had it been to honeymoon in the Caribbean in the summer, anyway? Oh, yeah, now he remembered. It had been *his* brilliant idea. He sighed. Well, soon enough it would all be behind them...
Right then, Ziva waltzed into of the kitchen dressed in a - he wasn't quite sure what to call it - a provocative collection of fabric and holes. Relatively see-through fabric, no less. He studied it thoughtfully, just trying to figure out how all those different pieces were held together. She saw him staring at her and just laughed.
"It's ventilation," she explained. "In this kind of weather, you like to have a little 'air conditioning.'"
On second thought, maybe the Caribbean in the summertime wasn't all that bad...
"Are you going to finish that papaya any time soon?" she asked, gesturing to the forgotten fruit he held in his hand.
He quickly resumed chewing, a drop of juice leaking down his chin. She picked a guava fruit out of the basket and bit into it.
"You keep surprising me, you know," he confessed. "Now where did this... dress come from again?"
"Well..." she replied. "You wouldn't charter a private jet for us, so I had to pack lightly. Ultra-lightly, actually." Her eyes twinkled with laughter. "Still, I could have spared myself the trouble," she continued. "So many of my clothes never even left my suitcase."
"Saves us some time packing to go home," he retorted. Then he sighed. Their time alone was now down to just a few hours.
She noticed his look, saw his shoulders drop just that tiny little bit. And she knew he was thinking of home, of having to face everyday life again, of facing extended time apart on a regular basis. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, forcing him to look at her.
"Time we can spend on other things," she told him. "I think I'd like some of that papaya, too."
Her tongue flickered lightly, then found the trail of the papaya juice. Raspy taste buds danced on raspy beard stubble.
"Come back to bed," she whispered.
"But you're already dressed," he pointed out.
"There are lots of entrances, though," she said teasingly, and brought his hand to her bare midriff.
He kept his distance and narrowed his eyes, studying her in that dress. Some of the slits were in rather strategic positions.
"Lots of exits, too, I'd say..." he teased back.
She followed his gaze down.
"Well... It's a maternity dress, really..."
If there ever was a conversation stopper, this one was it. You could actually see her words travel to his mind, and the reactions they provoked in different parts of his body. First, his eyes widened. Then he stopped breathing. Then he stopped moving altogether. She could actually see the lump grow in his throat, before he swallowed it down.
Meanwhile, his thoughts were racing. Okay, she'd missed a pill, one day. But they'd taken care of that. Wait. But still, condoms weren't as reliable as the pill. But still... Oh, God, what if she hadn't noticed right away that she'd skipped a day? Good God, it could have been a day or even two before she'd noticed. He still remembered her, sitting there, frowning over the aluminum strip. Counting on her fingers.
"Something wrong?" he'd asked.
"Hmm, it looks like I forgot one," she'd admitted.
He'd seen his plans for the immediate future go up in smoke at that very instant. To his relief, she'd hastily added "But it shouldn't be a problem. Here, the instructions state that one day is no problem. We just need to use an extra method for precaution. Just to be sure... I'm sorry, Tony, it's just that day and night - well, it all kind of blends together, here..."
Okay, think. What had they been doing before she'd made the discovery? Okay, think, think, *what* had they been doing? Hmm, well, no need to wonder about that. Oh, this was no use…
"What do you mean?" he finally managed to ask. Barely.
"What do you think it means?" Teasingly. Oh, this was going to be better than she'd hoped for. He just remained speechless, silent, motionless. Not knowing what to say, what to ask next. Finally, she could contain her laughter no longer.
"I bought it on sale, silly man!" she laughed.
He stared at her, not sure what to make out of that explanation. If it was an explanation. The look on his face made her shake with laughter. Tears welled up in her eyes. Did that mean it was safe to start breathing again?
"Umm, Ziva, sweetheart. Please, have mercy," he begged.
Obviously, that was not the way to get her talking. A new salvo of laughter was the only result. Oh, he looked so helpless, so... lost.
"Oh, Tony, I am sorry..." she giggled. "It's just that I stumbled on this sale of special creations by some top designers. This little beauty was seventy percent off, and that was a good enough reason to buy it. And it makes a great beach cover up," she rationalized her purchase.
"And... that's it? Nothing more?" he asked, still not completely recovered.
"Well... No," she replied.
"You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days!" he reprimanded her, but the relief on his face was unmistakable. "So, just to make sure: you're not pregnant?"
"Umm, no. At least..." For a moment, she hesitated, but when she saw his no-nonsense expression, she quickly went on. "At least, not to the best of my knowledge. And that's the only answer I can give you."
She'd turned very serious, all of a sudden. Tony looked at her. Now that his thoughts and emotions were slowly falling into place again, he started to realize she might've misinterpreted his reaction.
"Ziva, sweetheart, it's not that I don't want to have children. Don't ever think that. It's just that, well... If you do get pregnant, could you just break it to me in a somewhat less... abrupt... way?"
He was encouraged by her slowly returning smile.
"So that I can at least get the chance to clear the furniture out of the way before I start whirling you around in my arms..."
There. Now she really gave him that delightful smile.
"Consider it a deal," she grinned, and squeezed his hand. "Now, are we going to go pack, or what?"
Her mischievous grin always aroused him.
"I'd go for 'or what!'" he said in that velvety deep voice of his, and pulled her into his arms.
What followed was an interesting field trip, on which he discovered all the advantages of the dress for himself.
No wonder it was hot outside.