"I have come at a bad time, no?"
"No," Maddie smiled warmly at the woman at Tony's front door. "You're timing is perfect. We just finished dinner and I was… I was going out to get us some dessert."
"Mads, who is it? The movie's about to start," Tony suddenly appeared in the hallway behind Maddie. When he saw Ziva, he froze, "Oh. Hey, Ziva. Whatcha doing here?"
"I came to talk to you, but I see this is not the correct moment, so I shall just go," Ziva hooked her thumb over her shoulder indicating her path of exit.
Reaching out, Maddie gently pulled Ziva into the apartment, "No. You should stay. Talk to Tony. I'll get out of your hair."
Tony forced a smile, "Yeah, it's cool. Just give us a minute, okay?"
Ziva nodded and threw a smile at Maddie as she moved into the apartment, but she stayed just close enough to hear the conversation between them.
"I thought you were staying tonight," Tony whispered.
"I was," Maddie whispered back. "I thought you'd want to help Ziva. I thought you were a good friend."
"Low blow and you know it."
Reaching out, she caressed his cheek, "Yeah, it was and I'm sorry, but you need to be here for her. Tony, every day last week you complained that she wouldn't let you in, wouldn't let you help her. Well, she's here now so go help her."
"You are the best," he moved the hand on his cheek to kiss her palm. "I'll call you when she leaves?"
"Okay, I'll be at Meg's," standing on tiptoes she gave him a quick peck on the lips before leaving the apartment.
Taking a deep breath, Tony turned and headed for his living room. Entering the room he realized that Ziva was glancing through the photos spread all over the coffee table. Before the doorbell had rung, Maddie was working on putting some recent pictures of the two of them into an album. The pictures and album had just been abandoned on the table, where Ziva discovered them.
A small smile lit Tony's face when he realized which two photos, Ziva's fingers were currently resting on; they were his favorites of the lot. The first had been taken a few weeks before at a riding competition that Maddie had been in. Maddie was astride her horse and he had reached up to kiss her good luck. Her friend Meg snapped the picture just before their lips met. He loved the look of joy and love they were giving each other. The second picture had been taken at the car show that they had gone to just the week before. One of the exhibitors had a red Ferrari 308GTSi just like Magnum had driven and somehow Maddie had charmed the owner into letting Tony take a picture actually leaning against the car. However, Tony had decided that she should be in the picture as well and the result was Tony leaning against the car in the classic Tom Selleck cocked-hipped, crossed-legged pose and Maddie leaning against him. His arms were wrapped around her waist and her arms were crossed over his. It was cheesy, but very much them.
"How long have you been dating," Ziva asked without looking up from the photos and proving that she knew he'd entered the room.
Crossing to the couch he gave her a smile, "That is a really easy question with a really hard answer and it all depends on your definition of dating."
Ziva looked up, "Alright, how long have you been fucking the college girl?"
"Hey," he reached out and grabbed the two pictures from under her hand and started shoving everything into the album. "It isn't like that. Clear? I love her."
"Oh," Ziva blinked at Tony for several moments before falling silent as she turned away from him. "I should leave."
Tony sighed, "No. I'm sorry, Ziva. I want you to trust me."
"And yet you don't trust me," she scoffed as she pointed to the album Tony held.
She was right. If he wanted her to let him in, to help her; he needed to do the same. He needed her to understand that his kindness didn't come from a sense of duty, but because he valued her as a friend. He sat on the couch and opened the album, "Maddie's got a thing about albums. She's got a couple from when she was a little girl with pictures of Kelly. The week after… after what happened, she invited me over for dinner to see the albums and cook me dinner. Unfortunately, she can't cook and I ended up with terrible food poisoning. I was sick for about three days. She felt so bad that she came over with movies everyday and took care of me. We found out we had a lot in common, liked the same movies and cars and TV shows. Although, most of those she's only ever seen in reruns or on DVD, but it doesn't matter much. She always says that maturity-wise we're about the same age and she's right."
Ziva sat next to Tony listening to his tale of the evolution of his relationship with Maddie from friendship to love. The pictures filling the album's pages echoed his words.