Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own.
A/N: Thanks for the amazing reviews and all the wonderful questions and comments for this story so far. My writers block has been driving me absolutely crazy, so I'm sorry if this chapter isn't that good.
Answers to your questions
A guest asked: Will Tony go back to his place? Well, you will find out about that soon, but not in this chapter.
Hailey asked: Will there be extended chapters? I'm not entirely sure what you mean by extended, but if you mean longer and more drawn out chapters, then I would say that most chapters should be pretty long.
Spitfire303 asked: Where did you get the idea from? If you're referring to the story – Well I always kind of liked the idea of them meeting under different circumstances, and at different times. I always wondered what their relationship would be like if that was the case.
Special thanks to KillingWithAPaperClip for reviewing and letting me know about my grammatical errors for the earlier chapters. I actually hadn't even realized they were there (Lol), so thank you for telling me. I went back and corrected them, so I think their all fixed now. :)
Chapter 14 – Where Are We?
Cindy Harbo Franklin Bailer Scott was the thirty-seven year-old daughter of Calvin and Anna Harbo. Four years ago, she married her third husband, and hadn't tried to make contact with her parents since. To Ziva's slight surprise, Cindy was one subject Anna didn't have much to say about. Anna did, however, say that Cindy had no children, and that both of her husbands' deaths seemed a little…strange. If you think falling into a giant kiln and being cooked up like the witch in 'Hansel and Gretel' (1st husband), or, hung by the neck on a close line right between socks and delicates (2nd husband) is…just a little strange. After marrying her third husband, Lionel, she moved to Maryland, and now, suddenly, she has decided to throw a party for her parent's 40th wedding anniversary; and now Tony and Ziva were driving on their way to that party.
"Zee-vaah, you said turn left down Green Mill Road, stop when you get to the fork, and then go right. That is exactly what you said," he declared for about the fifth time in two minutes. The windshield wipers whipped back and forth making a squeaking sound that made him want to rip the damn things off the car completely.
"No, I said go down Green Mill Road, stop at the little 'V' thingy you call a 'fork', and make a left," Ziva emphasized from the passenger's seat.
"Let me see the map."
"Tony, you can barely read your own hand writing. I doubt you'll be able to read this." She flung him the map anyway and crossed her arms.
They had gotten off the main roads a little while ago, and onto more bumpy and less traveled ones. The ride had been going smoothly until about fifteen minutes ago when it started down pouring, and Tony finally had to stop the car.
She watched the little raindrops splash against the window, and turned to him when he started the car back up again. "What are you doing?"
"Uh…I'm starting the car, Ziva."
"Yes, I can see that, but have you figured out what you did wrong?"
"Ha! What I did wrong? The only thing I did wrong was listen to you. We were supposed to make a left at the fork."
"That is what I said." Ziva rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. The party starts in a half an hour and we're an hour away; there's no way we'll make it on time," he looked at his watch.
His girlfriend chuckled, almost evilly. "Stop the car."
"What?"
"Stop the car," she ordered again, a little more forcefully this time. Tony obeyed her command. "Now get out."
"Ziva…"
"Get out!"
"Okay." He quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and stood silently on the side of the road. She's finally snapped hasn't she? She's finally had enough of me and is going to leave me here on the side of the road to die of starvation and a broken heart. God, I knew I shouldn't have clipped my toenails in bed last night; she hates it when I do that, he thought to himself.
Ziva went over to the driver's side and got in, and rolled the window down. "Tony don't just stand there, get back in."
Oh no, she's driving? "Uh…I actually think I'd be safer staying right where I'm at."
Ziva shrugged. "Hmm, suit yourself." She started the car and took off before he even reached for the handle on the door.
"Hey!" He yelled at the car. The car suddenly stopped and started going in reverse. A few seconds later, he was met with her smirking face. He got in, slamming the door shut. "Thank you", Tony grumbled grumpily (try saying that ten times in a row).
"You didn't really think I was going to leave you back there, did you?"
"Well…why didn't you?"
A tiny smile was brought to her lips as she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He figured that she would respond with some snappy comment, but instead she just shrugged and said, "Because I would have missed your company."
They pulled up to the house a short time later, in fact, they were five minutes early.
"Ugh, I think I'm gonna be sick." Tony squatted on the ground, having a hard time standing up. He knew her driving was bad, but that was awful.
Suddenly, Ziva swung her arm around his shoulder to help him up. "Come on, up you go."
The house was gorgeous from the outside. It was painted white with green shutters, and there was a balcony in the back of the house that over looked the lake.
Ziva rang the doorbell. "Tony, will stop fidgeting? You look fine."
"Well, of course I do, I am Anthony DiN…" The door opened and Tony stopped talking.
A woman with brown eyes and blonde hair pulled back in a clip stood in front of them. She wore a fancy red halter dress that made Ziva feel underdressed in her black dress pants and purple sweater. "Oh hello, do come in. I'm Cindy, and you must be Tony and Niva." Her teeth looked like breath mints or…Chiclets.
"Uh…no, it's Ziva," Ziva corrected.
The other woman tilted her head to the side and gave Ziva a funny look. "Huh…oh well.."
"Honey, your Dad wants to know where the beers are," a man said as he walked into the room.
"This is my husband Lionel."
Lionel was a short man with glasses and thinning black hair that had a long white patch right through the middle like a skunk. "Lionel Scott. It's nice to meet you." He stuck out his hand.
"Anthony DiNozzo, and this is my girlfriend…"
"Ziva David." Ziva gave him the friendliest smile she could muster. He in turn gave an appreciative glance at her figure. Ziva could see the veins in Tony's neck bulge at Lionel obvious leer, so she slipped her hand through his effectively calming him. However, the way that Cindy's eyes looked Tony up and down did nothing to calm her. In fact, a foul stew was brewing inside Ziva that was threatening to explode if this woman so much as sneezed on him.
"Lionel dear, just tell Daddy that we have no beer and that he will just have to settle for wine. I refuse to keep beer in the house. It absolutely sickens me to even see the stuff. Anyway…mother and father are in the lounge if you wish to join them. Dinner will be served shortly. Excuse me why'll I go check on it."
"That woman makes me want to take a paperclip to myself," Ziva whispered to Tony.
He fought the urge to laugh, but replied, "Be nice, Ziva." She scowled at him.
When they walked into the lounge, they spotted Anna siting stiffly on the couch. She looked positively bored out of her mind. Cal's discomfort seemed a little less noticeable as he leant against the mantle sipping his drink. "Ziva, Tony!" Anna greeted brightly, getting up from the couch. "Thank God you're here. I don't think I could stand anymore of this; and what the hell kind of music is she listening to? It sounds like we're at a funeral home. I did not raise my daughter like this." She shook her head.
"Anna, things have changed", Cal spoke up.
"I'll say."
"It's been four years since we've seen her last."
"And whose fault was that?"
"No ones, Anna. No ones."
Ziva didn't want to interrupt the couple's conversation, but thought that it may be best, so she changed the subject. "So…where are the other guests?"
Anna and Cal both looked at her and let out a sigh. "Just you two."
Ziva looked confused at their answer, and Tony swallowed rather loudly.
Cindy strutted in to the room with her arms half raised in the air as if to say 'look at me.' "Ah, now that you're all acquainted, dinner is served."
The dining room table was covered with all kinds of half-good looking, half-gross looking, half-overdone, half-underdone, looking foods. Tony, the man who would eat just about anything worthy of the term edible seemed greener in the face than usual. (Not that he turned that color often). "Well, dig in, as you people say," Cindy chuckled.
"You people. What is that supposed to mean," Ziva spit through her teeth in Tony's ear.
Tony poked at the suckling pig with his fork. "I don't know, Ziva, but…did that pig just blink?"
Ziva was still in the middle of deciding what on the dinner table would not give her food poisoning when Cindy wandered over to her. "So…how long have you and Tony been together?"
"A month."
"A month!" Cindy spoke rather loudly causing Ziva to drop the salad tongs in her hand, which made a clatter.
She turned sharply and glared at the other woman. "Is there something wrong with that?"
"No, no. It's just…the way you two act around each other, so comfortable with one another, you two seem like you could have been together for years."
"Years!" Seriously, years? Does it really look like Tony and Ziva have been together for years? "Well, why do you say that?"
The blonde laughed. "Please, I've had three husbands. I think I know what love looks like."
"Or murder," Cal murmured as he walked passed them.
"What was that?"
Cal froze in his spot. "I said, I'm gonna get your mother for dinner."
"Oh, anyway, it just surprises me that you have not been together longer. I mean the way that he looks at you, as if he has never seen a woman before, and it excites him; you excite him. Have you two had sex yet?"
"Oh, dear Lord," Anna sighed as she took her seat next to her husband at the table.
"I'm just being curious."
"You're always curious."
"For your information we have…not…yet. But I don't see how that is any of your business." Ziva hoped she wasn't blushing. She would rather sniff Tony's socks than be caught blushing.
"Where is that handsome man of yours anyway?"
"He had to hit the head," Cal said in the middle of chewing a hard dinner roll.
Cindy gasped. "He hit his head."
Ziva snorted at the woman's mistake.
"Sweetheart, Cindy, why don't you have a seat." Her husband pulled out a chair for her to sit down in.
"Well, why haven't you had sex yet?"
"Get me the hell out of here!" Ziva's insides were screaming. Why won't this woman just shut up?
"You know if you two are having problems my husband is a sex therapist." Cindy announced proudly, and the whole room went silent. (Don't you just hate when that happens?)
Tony walked into the room a few second later. By the look on everyone's faces 'hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,' came to his mind. "What did I miss?"
I'll try to update soon. Thanks for reading!
P.S. – I know this is old news, but did anyone see the Season 10 preview?
Holy crap, did that look epic! I swear the sounds that came out of my mouth were not human. I am so frickin excited!