Chapter 11

The night had been relatively calm for both Tony and Ziva as they both needed sleep after an eventful week. However, the calm was not too last much longer.

"No... abba, no," moaned Ziva as she twisted about under the covers.

"Ziva," said Tony as he reached behind him and turned on the nightstand light. Reaching back across he tried shaking her awake but it didn't work. "Ziva, wake up!" he almost yelled as he shook her out of whatever she was dreaming about.

"ABBA!" screamed Ziva as she suddenly bolted up, waking herself from her nightmare. It didn't take Tony long to figure out what it was about. Being mindful of what might happen if he scared her, he sat up beside her anyway.

"Ziva," whispered Tony as he carefully wrapped his arm around her, causing her to jump a bit. Turning toward him, the only thing she could do was break down in his arms.

"I keep seeing his face, all the time," cried Ziva.

"It's all right," he told her as he wrapped his arms around her, comforting her as much as possible. "Shh, it's all over now." Tightening his hold on her, he was able to coax her to lie back down, with her laying her head on his chest. Turning off the light, he pulled her closer to him as he pulled the blanket up a bit higher.

"I just want them to stop."

"I know sweetcheeks, I know you do," he whispered into her hair as she continued to cry. "Shh, I'm here now." And this was how it was: Ziva crying and Tony trying to comfort her. After a while she calmed down enough to fall asleep in his arms, where she stayed the rest of the night.

After another eventful night, Tony was the first one up again. Not wanting to disturb the peaceful scene of the love of his life lying in his arms but remembering what had happened during the night, he carefully extracted himself from around Ziva and quietly got out of bed, tucking the covers back around her so she could sleep more. Putting on his robe he walked into the kitchen to make something for them to eat for breakfast. Suddenly, his phone started to vibrate.

"Hey McGee, what's up?"

"Just checking in to see how things are with you. I heard about what happened the other night. Is Ziva okay?

"Yeah, she's better. But we had another rough one last night."

"What happened?"

"She woke up screaming to a nightmare about what happened to Eli that night. Took me a while to calm her down."

"How is she now?"

"She's still sleeping, which is a good thing."

"You've got to do something to distract her from thinking about it too much before it consumes her."

"I know, but how."

"If she's feeling up to it, maybe take her down to the Tidal Basin and walk around for a bit. I think the cherry blossoms are still in bloom."

"That sounds like a great idea Tim," smiled Tony. "It'll really cheer her up."

"It's a half day today, so what if I pick you two up in about an hour and drive you down there, and then pick you up a couple of hours later."

"Great idea. In fact, I've got an idea to make your idea even better."

"What's that?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out later, McNosy."

"Okay, see you in an hour then."

"See ya." Hanging up, Tony began to throw together his idea without giving away any hints.