Part 1

Summer Games

Chapter 20

Tony buried his face in his hands and started thinking about how stupid he was during that. He needed someone to talk to, and that person was currently thousands of miles away probably eating lunch, so after thinking about everything for hours and how he could fix it, he called someone who could probably help him just as well.

"McGee." He answered tiredly, wiping his eyes as he pressed the phone to his ear.

"Hey, McGee." Tony said.

"Tony, is there any reason you're calling me at," he looked at the clock. "2 in the morning?"

"Wow. 2 already?"

McGee groaned. "What is it?" he practically whined. He turned on the lamp beside his bed, sitting up in his bed.

"Well, you see Ziva and I got into a fight." He began before McGee cut him off.

"Wait, wait, wait. Please don't tell me you called me in the middle of the night to settle a dispute between you two about the best sex position."

"Since when does your mind go straight to sex?" Tony asked shocked.

"Well, it is two in the morning, Tony. Do you guys stay up this late to discuss books?" McGee returned, and his eyes started drooping again, causing him to pick up the pace in the conversation. "So, what was the fight about?"

"She wants to be a teacher." He replied impassively.

"Ziva already is a teacher, Tony, at the school on the base. She teaches the kids with special needs."

"I know. I know that, but her boss, this Dr. Chandler guy, had the nerve to offer her a permanent job there throughout the year, teaching the special needs class." Tony explained, and McGee nodded.

"But she's coming back to NCIS with us, so what's the big deal?" McGee wondered.

"The big deal is she wants the job at the school!" he nearly exclaimed, and the poor man on the other line rubbed his temples. That volume was a few decibels too loud for him at the time of morning.

"Really?"

"Yes! She wants to be a teacher. She says she loved being an agent, but she really wants to be a teacher. I don't understand that. I mean, she doesn't want to work with us anymore. We're not gonna be the same team, Tim. She's leaving the team."

"Did she specifically tell you she wasn't coming back to NCIS when Gibbs gets back from Afghanistan?" he asked.

"No, she said she needed time to think about it. She wants to wait until Gibbs comes back to make the final decision, and she's angry with me for automatically assuming she was coming back to the agency, and I told Vance she was without asking her."

"You're not her husband, Tony, and even then, you have to ask her how she feels about the job."

"Well, Ziva didn't tell me about the job offer."

"Then, how did you find out?"

"She told me."

McGee sighed. "You're not making any sense, Tony."

"Ziva told me after I went through her text messages." Tony clarified, and he could hear McGee's groan through the phone.

"You went through her messages?" he demanded.

"Well, her phone was right on the coffee table, and the vibrating noise it made when she got the text was a little annoying, and she was in the shower, so I just picked it up." Tony defended himself.

"Obviously, you did more than pick it up!"

"I just accidentally opened the message, and then I accidentally read it."

"You have a problem with snooping, Tony. I can't believe you went through her messages. That's a total sign of distrust."

"Hey! I trust Ziva!" Tony insisted.

"You saw the message was from her boss, right?"

"Right."

"What, did you think the two of them were having some scandalous affair in the teacher's lounge before and after she would meet you for lunch?"

"No, I just-" Tony paused when he thought of an answer to say to McGee. He didn't know exactly why he looked on Ziva's phone. They were still discussing that, and Tony noticed they hadn't even gotten to the real fight between him and Ziva yet.

"You just want to know everything that's going on with her all the time."

Tony was about to disagree when he suddenly realized that McGee was right. He sighed, thinking about it, letting go of the phone in the process before bringing it back up to his ear. Tony could practically the smirk on McGee's face because the probie was right. "Is that so wrong?" he finally asked.

"I don't think it is, but Ziva might. You wanna be a part of her life, so you try to make yourself privy to all the other details in it, but you don't notice the important thing."

"What?"

"Even though you don't know every little detail about her life, you're the biggest part of it. Your big head takes up too much space."

Tony smiled. "I don't want her to leave NCIS. We need her on the team. She's my partner, in the field and off. Together all the time. It's supposed to be great."

"It sounds a little annoying to me."

"What?"

"You two would get tired of each other. Have you learned anything yet, Tony? You have to give yourselves room to breathe! You can't spend every waking moment together. You'll end up wanting to kill each other, and I don't really wanna have to drag Ziva away in handcuffs."

"Why do you assume Ziva would kill me?"

"Because you're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"You're holding on to her too tight. You're afraid of losing her, so you never wanna let her go, Tony, but keep this up, and you two will be tired of each other in a couple of months." McGee explained.

"I'll never get tired of her."

"You say that now,"

"No, I won't!" he cut him off.

McGee tried a different approach. "Let me ask you something, Tony." He said.

Tony listened and was willing to give it a shot. "Go for it, Probie."

"During the summer, you had your job, and she had yours. She got off work earlier than you did, so when you would walk through the door, no matter what apartment you were at, she made you some dinner and was smiling at you."

Tony painted the picture in his head. He loved everything about coming home from work. She made all the stress and anxiety worth it.

"She'd always ask you how your day was, right, and depending on the day you had, she always knew how to comfort you or keep you smiling."

"And then I'd ask her about her day." Tony added, his voice barely above a whisper.

"It was great, wasn't it? Almost like you wanted to have an eventful day, so you'd have something to tell her about when you got home?"

"Exactly."

"Now, how can you enjoy the feeling of telling each other about your day when you shared the exact same day? If you both come home tired or hungry or angry or revengeful or happy?" McGee asked, and he left some silence for Tony to think about what he was saying before he finally heard Tony's voice.

"You're right." Tony admitted, and even though McGee could have held it over his head, he didn't because Tony needed him right now. This was a serious conversation, something that didn't happen every day between the two of them.

"There is no doubt in this entire universe that Ziva loves you, and you love her. There's also no doubt that she loves her teaching job. Have you ever even seen her teach?"

That subject was coming up again. He knew he told her he wanted to see her in action at one point, but nothing was ever really discussed beyond that. They just met for lunch dates after she finished teaching that specific lesson, and the kids were eating their lunches in the cafeteria. Tony was thinking that maybe it was time to actually go through with it.

"I know you said she was waiting for Gibbs to come back," McGee continued, "but I think she's just waiting for you to come around."

"What do you mean?"

"Your opinion matters more to her than anybody else's. I mean, sure, ours matter, too, but yours matters the most. She needs your support in this, Tony. She wants you to be proud of her for this."

"I promised her I would support her when she came to be with the idea at the beginning of the summer, right before our fight where we went on our break."

"You mean, when you two broke up?" McGee asked.

"We were on a break!" Tony specified, and McGee laughed.

"Ross and Rachel were arguing about that for eight years on Friends."

"Well, it took us eight years to figure this out." Tony said.

"And you still haven't completely, but I think you know what you need to do from here, Tony. She talks about teaching a lot. She loves it, and think about what she's doing, Tony. There are kids in there who don't know how to tie their shoes. A lot of them are in wheelchairs. She has one kid who has to take the class not because of a mental disability, but because she's in and out of cancer treatments. She's still working for the navy, just their children. She's giving them confidence, and she's making them smile. Do you really want to stop that just because you have this aching desire to be with her as much as you can be?"

"Thanks, McGee." Tony replied. "I didn't really think of it like that."

"No problem, but here's a tip. Check the clock before you call me next time you have a relationship problem."

"There's not gonna be a next time."

"Yes, there will be, but you two can get through anything."

"So, how are you and Delilah going?" Tony asked, trying to keep up their conversation after a moment of silence, reflecting on what McGee had just said to him.

"Tony?"

"Yes."

"It is now past two. I have to get up at seven to start getting ready at work. So do you. This call was about your relationship. Can we talk about mine when the sun is out and normal people aren't in bed?" McGee asked.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay."

"Good." McGee sighed. "I'm glad I could help. I hope you call me about how you and Ziva worked everything out tomorrow when you go and see how great she is with the kids. All I'm expecting is your first-born son to be named after me. Now go to sleep."

"No promises about the first-born son thing, McRumplestiltskin. I kind of like the name Michael or Anthony or Zachary or Alexander."

"Tony."

"Timothy's never really been on the list of favorites. No offence."

"Can't you just let a joke go? I'm tired. I'm hungry, and I'm not being paid for my relationship advice. Besides, you know I have no problem with the middle name being Timothy. Michael Timothy DiNozzo. I think it has a good ring to it."

"Stop planning my future children, and go to bed. I'll buy you and Jimmy a beer at the bar sometime this week. That's all the payment you're getting. Good night, McGee."

"Good night, Tony."

Tony was finally able to get to sleep. He knew everything would be alright by lunchtime the following morning, and perfection would be reached when Gibbs came home.

It has now been 20 chapters, and I am so proud of myself for sticking to the daily updates. I also want to thank all of you who have read up to this point. I really appreciate the response to this story, and I will not take it for granted. Thank you so much for all of your reviews, and if you go to my profile page, you will see how I am planning on turning this into a series.

Please stay tuned for Chapter 21, which will be up tomorrow morning, and please leave me a review. I always love reading those, and I'm sorry if I don't get back to you immediately when I read a review. Just know, that I read all of them, and I'm very thankful for each one.

Love you all!

NCIStiva3