"You do not need to worry, Tony. I will not be alone. I will be with you." She snuggled into his side, laying her head on his shoulder.

Tony breathed a sigh of relief, a rolled slightly onto his back, making them more comfortable.

He was worried Ziva might challenge him on his insistence that she not be alone. She was so independent and sure of herself.

Frankly, Tony felt Ziva would be the one to take care of both of them, but he didn't dare let Ziva in on that thought.

"Ok." He kissed Ziva's forehead.

She lifted her face and they soon were too lost in each other to worry about anything other than being together.

Chapter Ten

"Good morning."

Ziva kissed Tony softly on the lips. "I don't wanna' go to school today, Mom." Tony whined.

Ziva chuckled. "It is not good to play hockey, Tony. We have too much work to do."

Tony laughed. "Well, since I can't ice skate, I guess it's a good thing we're not playing hockey."

Ziva looked at him quizzically. "What does ice skating have to do with staying home?"

"Playing hooky, Ziva. Not hockey. Hockey is a sport. Hooky is, well, it is an activity, but I don't think it qualifies as an Olympic venue just yet."

Ziva yawned and rose from the bed. Tony grabbed her hand. "Not yet."

Ziva looked at Tony with an amused expression. "Yes?"

Tony pulled her back down on the bed and embraced her. He kissed her neck tenderly, little butterfly kisses.

Ziva closed her eyes in sheer bliss. If someone had told her three months ago that she and Tony would be together as a couple, she would have scoffed at them. It seemed so unrealistic that they would ever get on the same page; she had resigned herself to a life alone.

Now, her life was taking a completely different turn. She was not accustomed to "making plans" with her personal life beyond the next week.

But being with Tony had totally changed her perspective. She found herself thinking of "we" more often than thinking of "me" or "you."

She felt that they were doing a good job of keeping their relationship quiet and out of the workplace. If McGee or Abby had noticed that they were practically living together, they had made no indication.

She thought she once saw Gibbs smile at her knowingly. But when she looked again, his attention had been focused on something else.

Which reminded her that they really did need to get into work. Reluctantly, she pulled away from Tony's embrace.

"Tony! Work! Fun later." Ziva admonished her.

Tony sighed, gave her another quick kiss, and rolled out of bed.

NCIS

Gibbs sent him and Ziva to go have another talk with Maple. McGee had found an email sent to him recently from Dearing. This put Maple's statement that he hadn't heard from Dearing in over a year in the "liar" category.

The drive was long, traffic a nightmare as usual.

"You know, it doesn't matter what time you get on the road here, there's always a million cars!" Tony griped.

"Maybe there is a back way?" Ziva suggested. She didn't really care about the traffic. It was a nice break to get out of the office.

"Let's talk about something other than this wacko. Hey, let's talk about fixing up the house. What do you think should be done first?" He glanced expectantly over at Ziva.

Ziva considered for a few moments. "Well, I guess that would depend on what your priority was: being comfortable, or being ready to entertain."

Tony grinned. "Well, comfort is a top priority. But I guess maybe we should look at the more public areas first. We can always do the master suite later."

Ziva privately thrilled at Tony's "we" in the conversation. "I think then, Tony, that maybe you should look at fixing up the kitchen and living room area. I would expect those two places would be where people tend to gather more, yes?"

Tony nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. I cook a little, but I am nowhere in your league. Do you think it's something we need to contract for, and a do-it-yourself kind of project?"

Ziva burst into laughter. "Do-it-yourself? I have never seen you with a screwdriver in your hand. Are you trying to tell me that you are…handy?"

Tony grinned. "Well, I have been told that I am good with my hands. Really good."

Ziva whacked him on the arm. "Very funny. Really, Tony. When would you have time to do all of the work?"

Tony kind of shrugged his shoulders and looked at Ziva. "You do not mean to have Gibbs come and do it?"

"Well, no, I guess not. Not for something that big. But I will ask him if he knows a good contractor." He looked at Ziva.

"I really want your help with this, Ziva. You have a better eye for this than I do."

Ziva sat in stunned silence. She shook her head. Seven years ago, she had been a ruthless assassin, whose only concern was getting the job done. There had been no concern for fashion, for appearance, for relationships. They were all unnecessary obstacles that got in the way of her business.

She didn't even recognize that old version of herself. To be told she had a sense of fashion and decorating was absurd, but she secretly enjoyed it.

NCIS

Fortunately, Abby and Ned caught a break. They actually found a cell number that had been recently used by Dearing and still seemed to be active.

Dorneget, the Probie, apologetically informed Gibbs that they would have to wait for Dearing to make a call to get a fix on his location.

Gibbs just raised his eyebrows, whipped out his phone and punched in the numbers.

"Why didn't I think of that!" Dorneget berated himself.

As expected, Dearing pick right up and congratulated Gibbs.

For the first time, the call lasted long enough to get a trace. An old warehouse that was located in Georgetown.

Tony and Ziva had returned, with little information from Maple. He still maintained that he had received no legitimate contact from Dearing. He had seen the email, but it made absolutely no sense.

"He was said he basically ignored it, as it talked about their time surfing together." Tony explained to Gibbs. "Since they had never been surfing, it confirmed for him that Dearing had some splinters in the windmills of his mind."

Ziva looked at Tony, confused. "When did windmills become part of this case?" Ziva whipped her head around and saw Gibb's smile.

"Never mind, Ziva." Tony smiled. "Just an expression."

Ziva shrugged and glared at Tony.

The team headed to the warehouse, hoping it would reveal itself as Dearing's bomb factory. They were disappointed to find it empty, except for a watchman, who just happened to have a briefcase full of money.

The watchman denied any knowledge of Dearing, but told them that the boxes in the warehouse were picked up by a truck. He also admitted that he had received a text to meet a limousine that very night.

Gibbs immediately called Vance, to suggest that all Fleet exercises be cancelled.

In the meantime, McGee had been able to hack into the company's accounting system and found the work order, from Dearing's company.

This time, Gibbs and Dr. Ryan confronted Maple with this new piece of information. Maple acted shocked. He claimed he had not authorized the purchase. While questioning Maple as to what the parts could be used for, Dr. Ryan became convinced that the parts were to go into making torpedoes shells that would explode before leaving the launch tubes, thereby causing major damage to the ship and its personnel.

NCIS Headquarters- Autopsy

Every waking moment, the team was concentrated on their new elusive target: Harper Dearing. But there was another piece of business that was still in the works- Jimmy's Bachelor Party.

Once Jimmy had finally decided on Abby to be his "Best Woman," he began to dread this special rite of passage. Abby was a little too rambunctious, and Jimmy was concerned that it might become a fiasco.

Palmer had been bugging everyone what they thought Abby was up to regarding his bachelor party. He even asked Ducky if he had heard anything. When Ducky let it "slip" that she wanted the big saw, his brain went into hysterical overdrive.

He convinced himself that the party should be postponed, especially since they were all so busy with the current case.

Tony didn't really think too much about it. Since he wasn't the Best Man, he resigned himself to waiting it out and just being a spectator. Not that Tony really "wanted" to be the Best Man, he told himself. After all, it was not like he and the autopsy gremlin were best buds.

But they did have a closer working relationship than most knew about. And he did invite Jimmy to the annual Tap Dance competition.

Tony didn't mind that Abby had been chosen. Now, if it had been McGee…Tony shook his head. Really, like he truly had the time to plan a party?

Tony let his thoughts wander. He actually was looking forward to the wedding. A chance to get away, to be dressed up and in a social setting with Ziva, to share that dance that turned the tide on their relationship…

Tony's brain suddenly registered fear. What if this Dearing guy ruined everything and they couldn't get away for the wedding? But he and Ziva had danced at the wedding. Ziva "told" him so when she was laboring to give birth to their first child, in that other life he lived so briefly after hitting his head.

He wondered if his telling Ziva about buying the house sooner than he was supposed to was now interfering with the whole timeline. What if he totally screwed everything up?

He looked up at Ziva, who caught his movement and smiled at him.

Tony relaxed a bit. "I guess it's now totally in your hands, DiNozzo." He thought to himself.

Sorry for the delay. DAR had its annual Congress this past week in DC, so was downtown all week. Then the storm came through and we lost power until 4pm Sunday. Thrills and chills.