Author's note:

So, thank you all for the response on the previous chapter! I'm so happy that you loved it! Now, we finally reach The Talk. I'd like to say that the talk is laid out to the three chapters. I don't like the types of talks when everybody says everything in a minute. I think that the conversation needs the deep, so don't worry – both Ziva and Tony want to say something but it needs time and you'll see that in another two chapters. Thank you for your patience and ongoing support of this story!

Disclaimer:

I do not own NCIS or the characters.

Sleepover in the Hammock

Chapter 10 – The Talk

Tony paced back and forth around his apartment absolutely nervous because Ziva wasn't still there. He knew that he didn't specify the time when she should come but it was ten p.m. and she was nowhere to be seen. He began to fear that she won't come because she wanted to forget what happened between them and put things back where they were. But he knew that he couldn't go back – it was too much for him – he had every second on the night they spent together in the hammock burnt into his memory.

Her smooth skin which he caressed with his fingertips, her hair which were so soft when he ruffled them, her flushed face and lust-filled eyes which he had the chance to look into; her moans, gasps and noises she made when he tried to seduce her, her lips and how they moved against his mouth when she finally surrendered to his seduction attempts, her scream which carried his name when she climaxed – he just couldn't forget about it ever in his life. At least he didn't have to fantasize about what it would be like to have Ziva David in his arms completely satisfied after wonderful sex.

He loved her – he was sure about that now. Before what happened he thought that he was falling for her but now his heart screamed with love for her so intensively that he began to afraid of a heart attack. He had a lot of time to think about it during the afternoon and being in love with her was the only option he could think of. But he was pretty aware of the fact that he couldn't tell it to her just like that. He wasn't sure if she ever thought about the possibility that she could be in love with him.

He needed talk to her, know that she didn't want to forget it, know that she wanted move forward in their 'relationship' if he could call it like that, know that she felt as confused as he. But still she wasn't here, although he hoped that she will come. She has to. Because he didn't have any other plan how to solve the situation they were in. He flopped down on the couch and raked his hair in frustration. Where the hell was she?

Ziva stood in front of Tony's doors finally determined to knock on the door but in the last second she retreated. She knew it was late but she still hoped that he was waiting for her. It took her fifteen minutes to find the courage and get off the car to enter his building and take the elevator up to his floor. Now she was trying to bring herself to knock on his door so he could open the door for her and she could enter his apartment. During that another fifteen minutes passed.

She totally lost her composure because of her own feelings. On the one hand she wanted to go to his apartment and talk to him about what happened between them and on the other hand she was completely scared because she couldn't imagine what could happen in the case they wouldn't find any compromise about their 'relationship' if she could call it like that. But there was also a third side of all of this – her libido. Everytime she closed her eyes the memories of the last night appeared in front of her and she got turned on by it.

She couldn't ever forget his mouth on her neck as he sucked on her pulse point, his hands on her stomach and thigh caressing her there, the way he fingered her and completely satisfied her, the way he moved in her and supported himself on her hands, the way he embraced her after the amazing sex they had as they fell asleep together in each other arms and even his uncertainty about her wanting him was a little bit cute after all.

The way he treated her all evening and night caused growing of absolutely new feeling in her. Before the last night happened, she knew that there was an attraction and maybe a little bit of love but she didn't want to admit that it could be more than friendship because their friendship meant the world for her. But after the last night she wasn't sure about that anymore. She thought about it a lot during the afternoon and she realized that she was falling for him very, very hard.

But everytime she wanted to knock on his door she knew that she wanted to do it for wrong reasons. Her desire for him overpowered her and all she wanted was to throw herself at him and fuck him senseless. But she knew that they had to talk first so she always retreated from knocking on his door. OK, you can do it Ziva. She stood up against his door again. You can do it. You can resist the temptation. You were able to resist it for years so why the difference now?

She took few deep breaths and finally knocked. Tony who was sitting on the couch in that moment, snapped out his head. Maybe it was her? Maybe she really came? He hopped up from the couch swiftly and immediately cursed himself for being so eager. He had to look that he wasn't waiting for her like some lonely puppy. "I'm coming!" he called in the direction of the door while he grabbed some book from his bookshelf and put it on the table opened, so it could look like he was reading.

He adjusted himself, stretched his muscles and went to the door. He waited for a second before he opened and his eyes lay upon Ziva. Ziva tried to hold herself back but in the moment she saw him, she knew that she lost it. Before he had any chance to say or do something, she took the step closer and hung her arms around his neck as she pulled him down for a kiss. Her tongue immediately demanded the entrance and he opened his mouth fully to her completely engrossed in the kiss.

He pulled her body closer to her and into his apartment as he tried to close the door behind her while she moaned into his mouth. His knees nearly gave away under the intensity of the kiss and hers buckled too so he shoved her forward and closed the door with her body. He immediately followed her and pinned her against the door while his hands gripped her waist and began to pull out her blouse from the jeans. She wandered with her hands across his body not sure where she should put them because she wanted to touch him everywhere she could reach.

Ziva hooked her right leg on his hip and he got the hint quickly. Without breaking the kiss wondering how his lungs could stand the kissing without even breaking for a moment, he stepped back a little from her and she jumped on him and wrapped her legs around his waist. He, of course to be able to support her, crashed her immediately on the door again and they both groaned at the contact of her pelvis with his growing crotch. He broke the kiss and they finally sucked in some oxygen into their burning lungs.

Tony glued his mouth to her neck and tried to hold her up by gripping her thighs while she raked his hair and leaned her head back against the door with closed eyes as she moaned gratefully. "Tony..." she managed to say knowing that this was completely wrong – this wasn't supposed to happen. They were supposed to talk not to try devour each other. Tony stopped sucking her neck and grazed her skin with his nose from the swell of her breasts up to her jaw.

"I know. The bedroom." He said hoarsely his mind fogged with lust and desire still trailing soft kisses from her jaw back down to her breasts while he used one of his hands to unbutton her blouse. When the blouse opened, he began to admire her breasts wrapped in the black bra like if he saw them for the first time. Ziva took advantage of this moment of his distraction and tried to tell him that this wasn't appropriate right now. "No... we have to stop."

But instead of doing that she tucked out his shirt and didn't care about undoing the buttons – she ripped it open without hesitation and let the buttons flying in all directions. Tony just stared at her as she attacked his chest with her mouth and despite all of the pleasure he was experiencing, he finally realized that what they were doing right now was wrong. So he put her back down on the ground and stepped away from her breathing heavily.

She looked at him surprised but knew that he understood, just as she, that they had to stop. He gripped the edge of his armchair trying to calm himself down. "Then why we aren't able to stop..." he whispered but Ziva heard him clearly. She took a step towards him wanting to assure him that everything's going to be OK. However, he took few steps back, raised his hands trying to prevent her from coming closer and practically yelled at her. "NO! Don't come any closer!"

Ziva looked at him confused and took another step towards him. "Tony..." she began but he quickly cut her off. "No, go on the other side of the room, please. I need some distance." He pointed out in the direction of the corner on the other side of the living room trying to get his libido under control. She did as he requested even if it broke her heart. But she was too hyped up so she fidgeted around his living room for a while until she ended up on the farthest end of the couch and buttoned up her blouse.

She began chew on her thumb and looked over at Tony who was sitting in the corner and had his head in his hands while he rubbed his face in complete desperation. She cursed herself for that she had to throw herself like that on him, that she wasn't able to control the passion he awakened in her. After few minutes she couldn't stand the silence. "Tony?" she asked him softly afraid of what was happening to him. He looked so miserable and all she wanted now was to hold him and console him. Yeah, but in more than one way...

"Just give me a minute." A reply came from him and she calmed a little bit. He still wanted her here, he still wanted to talk. "You know what the funny thing is?" she asked him not awaiting his reaction. "At least our bodies know what they want." That caught Tony's attention and he looked at her pensively. "So you don't know how do you feel about this whole thing?" he asked her carefully. She bit her lip and wondered whether to be sincere with him or not.

"Honestly, Tony? No, I do not know." She watched his face fell. He didn't know why he was so upset with this because all he wanted to say was 'Me neither'. But before he had any chance to react, Ziva continued. "But the good thing is that I know why I do not know how I feel about this." He shot her an incredulous look. "Sound like utopia." He stated casually and looked at the ceiling. She chuckled because he was right. "Can you at least come here to sit down with me, instead of sitting on the floor? I do not want to chase you around your apartment."

He turned his head over to look at her and wondered if he would be able to control himself if she would be so close to him. Then he stood up and sat down on the couch too – but as far as he could. "Thanks." Ziva said gratefully and took deep breath to prepare herself for what she wanted to tell him. "I really do know why I feel so confused about it. And I think that the same goes for you. At least Abby told me so." She played with her hands in her lap and occasionally looked over at Tony who was listening to her attentively and nodded understandingly ignoring the mention of Abby – at least for now.

"There has always been the attraction between us. But we also really care about each other because we have been through a lot of things together." Tony smiled at the memory when he laid his eyes upon her for the first time and let Ziva continue. "And now we are afraid of our feelings because we both felt something more last night." She looked at him for confirmation, so she could be sure that her estimation of his feelings wasn't wrong. When he nodded, she smiled satisfied and went on.

"We are scared of screwing this up, of destroying our friend-" Tony quickly cut her off because he really didn't want to hear that. "Don't say the F-word, please. We're not that anymore." She sighed, tucked her legs under her and turned around to face him. "Yes, you are right – we are not that anymore. We are more than that but we are scared of doing the next step – to call it a relationship." He mirrored her position because he was feeling better and he sensed that she really came to talk and not to just have sex with him.

"And it is natural that we feel like this – so confused and scared – because we are friends, we work together and we both are not good at the whole relationship stuff. Truth to be told, we are horrible at it." Tony chuckled at it because she was right – so right that it almost frightened him – he thought that he'll have to force her to talk and now she was sitting in front of him and telling him this. He looked at her again mesmerized by the way she ran her hands through her hair in nervousness.

He wanted lighten up the mood so she wouldn't look so miserably. He raised his hand and tucked her hair behind her ears. "Hey, we almost got married." She smiled sweetly when she felt his fingers to touch her hair and closed her eyes to savor the moment but opened them and looked at him puzzled. "I mean – not together but separately." Tony quickly added trying to clarify that he pointed out the fact that he almost married Wendy and Ziva almost married C-I-Ray while their friends didn't get to this point at all. Besides Gibbs of course.

She waved her hand at him in understanding. "I know what you meant. But what I want to say is that even though neither of us is good at the whole relationship stuff, there is this chance and we should take it." She looked at him and gulped nervously because she was getting to the sensitive part. He smiled at her encouragingly and she sighed in relief and continued. "We know each other for years and maybe even better than our other love interests from the past. So we already know what the other needs and..." she trailed off as she became even more nervous because he still didn't say anything.

But he was still smiling at her obviously waiting for her to finish what she had in her heart, so she rather continued. "What I mean is that we should try it. I think that us being in relationship is worth the shot. And I do not know what about you but I would never forgive myself for not at least trying it." She wasn't sure from where this speech came from but finally she was able to express what she was feeling. She just hoped that he felt likewise but she wasn't able to look him in the eye.

Tony was looking at her not quite believing her words. He felt like if all his dreams came true. She is proposing serious relationship with me... What one night in the hammock can change... He was grinning like an idiot and thought about what to tell her. He just couldn't express his joy. But there was still one issue that was bugging him for quite a while and he had to think about it, so he risked it and finally spoke. "Can I ask you a question?" he asked her almost shyly.

She looked at him with raised eyebrow – she was expecting a lot of reactions from him but this wasn't the one. "Yes?" she replied when she realized that he was waiting for her permission to ask his question. Tony bit his lip. "Did you really want to marry Ray?" She looked at him unbelievingly – this really wasn't a question she expected from him ever. Why does he want to know that? She began chew on her thumb and wondered how to answer him. "Is it important?" she finally asked after few seconds of silence.

Tony watched her reaction on this question. He wanted to know not only because he was curious but also he didn't know how much she was committed to her relationship with C-I-Ray. "Yes, it is." He replied and waited. Ziva ran her hands through her hair for millionth time in just few minutes pondering what to tell him. Actually, she was asking this question to herself quite often, especially when she felt lonely. But if it was important for Tony, it also meant that it was important for their possible relationship and he had every right to know the truth.

"No. I guess not." She told him quietly and saw him smile broadly. "Life with the CIA agent? It does not sound workable." She continued more confident but another question from Tony caught her off guard. "And if you had married him, do you think that we would have ended like this?" he asked her carefully knowing that he had to shock her with such question but it was bugging him and he needed to know. "Are you asking me if we had slept together, even though I would have been married to Ray?" she asked him for confirmation.

"Yes," Tony nodded, "I'm asking if you had given into the attraction you were talking about." Ziva looked at him thoughtfully. So he wants to know if I would be able to cheat on my husband? However, she already knew the answer. "Yes, I think that probably we would have ended like this." She replied with such sincerity that Tony was surprised by her confidence. He grinned at her and wanting lighten up the mood again, he nudged her playfully. "And how I would have come to it, huh?"

She looked at him confused. "What do you mean?" Tony sat back and threw his hands in the air. "Hey, you would have been a married woman! I have some scruples, you know?" They laughed together. "You wouldn't have had a chance, trust me." She teased a little bit and he grinned at her because he knew that she was right. He leaned in wanting to kiss her but she was now the one who asked a question. "And if you had married Wendy, would we have ended like this? I mean if things had gone like they went."

He pulled back – now he was really caught off guard. Ziva met Wendy – once – and he did all he could to keep them apart. And she has never showed any interest in his relationship with Wendy but because he asked her a question which was rather personal, he knew that he will have to answer her too. He chuckled nervously and pouted in contemplation. "OK, for first – if I had married Wendy, I would have never joined NCIS thus we would have never met. For second – a few months after your arrival, I would have been a divorced man."

She looked at him unbelievingly. "You seem pretty sure about that." Tony just shrugged his shoulders. "She wouldn't have understood this. Do you remember our first undercover operation together?" She smiled at the memory of them being married assassins. "Sure." she replied, "How could I, my little hairy butt?" She poked him with her finger playfully. Tony chuckled at the nickname glad that she still remembered it.

"Well, that would have been the last drop, trust me. She wouldn't have understood what it is like to be an agent." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "But if I had married her and had joined NCIS and we had stayed married long enough, which I think that we hadn't, I think that we would have ended like this." He told her sincerely hoping that she really believed him because he meant it. "But you don't have to be worried about that – she is closed chapter for me." He assured her quickly sensing that she needed to hear some reassurance.

She smiled at him by her Mona Lisa smile and returned his objection. "And how I would have come to it, huh? You would have been a married man! I have some scruples, you know?" she mimicked his voice trying to stay completely serious and hold back the laughter. He grimaced at her and stuck out his tongue but began to laugh with her. They both felt so free right now as the weight of their doubts finally disappeared.

Still laughing they inched closer to each other until they met in the middle of the couch with faces only millimeters apart. Ziva looked up at Tony and batted her eyelashes on him as he smiled lovingly at her. "So are we really going to do this?" Tony asked her seriously as he studied her face and his eyes slipped down on her lips so he moistened his own. She smiled at him sweetly and locked her eyes with his. "Yes. I think we are." She confirmed confidently. He leaned down to her and caught her lips between his own as they sealed the beginning of their relationship with a kiss.

The End of Chapter 10

So, did you like it? I really hope so… ;) Let me know in a review!