Haai. Thanks for my sweet reviews on the last chapter! I'm glad y'all liked the smut J
I would also like to apologize (once again, I'm afraid) for the gap between updates. I've just had a lot of trouble writing lately, there's really no better explanation for it. I hope everyone understands.
Disclaimer: disclaimed.
Take this sinking boat
And point it home
We've still got time.
-Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova, "Falling Slowly"
The sawdust stung her eyes, and Ziva gripped Tony's hand tighter as they made their way down the creaky wooden staircase. The sound of sandpaper on wood was familiar in her ears, and as soon as the older man came into view, her breath caught in her throat. He would surely be upset…it had been a long time.
"Gibbs?" Tony called, and Gibbs nodded in response without looking away from his work. But when the sound of footsteps ceased, and Tony and Ziva stopped at the end of the stairs, unsure of how to proceed, Gibbs looked up.
It took a lot to startle Gibbs. They both knew that. But the shocked and awed expression on his face presently would have to go down in history, for his face was quite a sight to see.
"Ziver."
"Hello, Gibbs," she greeted, and to her surprise, his arms came out to beckon her into his embrace.
Her cheek met the scratchy fabric of his jacket, and the smell of coffee and wood-smoke engulfed her senses, and she couldn't believe that she'd gone so long without any of them. It was like the final puzzle piece had fallen in place.
"I missed you," he murmured, sounding so un-Gibbs-like that for a half a second, Ziva wasn't sure she had even heard him correctly.
"I missed you too," she replied. "So much."
"See, that wasn't as bad as you thought it would be," Tony grinned and threaded his fingers through hers as the two of them made their way down the snowy street. Stopping for an evening coffee had been Tony's idea, and though the chilly breeze made him shiver down to his boots, he would never trade the sight of Ziva with rosy, red cheeks and snowflakes in her hair, an air of contentment about her.
"Not at all," she replied. "But he seems…different, than I remember."
"McGee thought so too, when I mentioned it to him. Speaking of McGee, you need to see him too."
She began to swing their hands back and forth as the walked, pondering the ever-growing list of people she wanted to see.
"How bout you just come to work with me tomorrow morning? That way you could do everyone in a day. Things are about to get crazy with the wedding anyway."
She smiled up at him. "Okay."
"Speaking of the wedding, there's something I've been meaning to ask you." He stopped walking, and turned to face her straight on. Her eyes widened at the serious look on his face, all sense of joking gone.
He wasn't…
"Will you do me the honor of being my date to the wedding on Saturday?"
She let out a nervous chuckle, and heaved a sigh of relief. "Of course, Tony."
His smile returned, but only slightly at the look on Ziva's face.
"What?"
"It is nothing, Tony," she assured, and tugged at his hand so they could continue walking.
"Ziva, c'mon. We're done with this, remember?" he pleaded, and pulled her back to him.
She took another shaky breath. "I just...just now, I thought…"
It clicked. "Oh."
She bit her lip.
"You thought I was about to propose?"
"Well, you were acting like you had something huge to ask me!" she retorted, and smacked his arm playfully, and he laughed.
"Asking you to the wedding is huge!"
She rolled her eyes. "You knew I would agree to be your date, Tony."
"I know, but we'll be in public, ya know? And before you…you know, we never really…" he trailed off.
Instead of replying, she stood on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his nose. "It will be fun, Tony," she whispered. "And your nose is freezing!"
He chuckled, and slid his hand down to her waist and pulled her closer. "Maybe you should come warm me up." He smirked.
"Crazy man…"
They reached the coffeehouse eventually, and as they entered, he joined their hands again, and his thumb stroked the expanse of skin on her finger that was meant to hold and certain expensive ring.
"And when I propose, you'll know." He whispered, and she could do nothing but grin.
Ziva left the NCIS office the next morning in perfect spirits and a growing hickey on her neck from a certain Senior Field Agent who just had to give her a rather lengthy goodbye in the elevator.
"I'm gonna miss you," he had said, and Ziva laughed.
"I will be there when you get home."
"I know…" his eyes shone. "It's just…"
"I know," she repeated.
Tony returned with a telling grin on his face, and chose to politely ignore the stares of his co-workers as he sat behind his desk.
"She's lovely," Ellie commented. "I can see why everyone likes her."
"She's pretty great, yeah." Tony replied, lingering smile and all.
Gibbs muttered something about Vance and left shortly after, and the bullpen returned to the regular office lull of various dings and machine whirs. Each agent was focused on the work in front of them, so much so that the ringing of Gibbs' desk phone was lost on all of them.
Tony registered it when Ellie's head shot up, and she looked at the phone, unsure. After scanning for their fearless leader and finding him still absent, Tony stood, and hurried over to catch the phone on the last ring.
"Agent DiNozzo."
"Hello, this is Dr. Trent from the Inova Fairfax Hospital, is Leroy Jethro Gibbs there?"
Tony looked around again. "Uhm, no, not at the moment. But I can take a message."
"Please just have him call when he can, I have his test results."
"Test results?" he said aloud, and then mentally kicked himself. "Um, yeah, I'll have him give you a call."
"Thank you, Agent DiNozzo."
The Doctor hung up quickly, before Tony could ask any probing questions, and the flash of silver hair out the corner of his eye had him fumbling to return the phone to the receiver.
"What was that about?" McGee asked, but he refrained from answering when he heard an awfully familiar throat-clear behind him.
"What are you doing at my desk, DiNozzo?"
"Uhm, nothing, Boss. Just call Dr. Trent." He replied. "Whatcha got?"
Gibbs plunked the stack of papers down onto his desk, and Tony barely caught the heading of the one on top before his head was smacked and he was ordered to get to work.
"Boss?" he questioned, looking from the paper to Gibbs and back again. "Are those-"
"Nothin, DiNozzo. Now, I want those bank records." He shuffled the papers out of Tony's line of view, and he spun on his heel without another word.
It was nearly nine before McGee and Tony trudged into the elevator to head home for the day, and Tony was ready to answer his question before he even asked. The Gibbs debacle had clearly been bugging him all day, and it was obvious that he'd been itching to ask about it.
"What was that phone call about, Tony? And the paper? Does it have to do with-"
"Yeah, something's definitely going on with him. Apparently he's been having tests done or something."
McGee frowned. "And his meeting with Vance? The stack of papers?"
Tony sighed. It had been bothering him too. "I think he's retiring, McGee."
Dun dun duuuun. I'm not gonna make any promises about the exact date of the next update, because of my inability to keep them as of late (oops!) but I will strongly hint that I will have the entire week off of school next week, and I will probably not be leaving my house, so you should probably check your email then. Just saying.
How did you like this chapter? I've been slowly easing back into writing recreationally…I think it's been so hard to write Tiva stuff because I've been focusing on writing so much for school, and it can get a bit overwhelming, if you know what I mean. But, I've just finished my second to last big essay for the semester, so things should start to ease up in that department.
Thanks to all of those who've been reviewing consistently, and to all who read my oneshot "Together." It means a lot!
There are about 4 more chapters left in this, so it's beginning to wind down. I'm kinda sad about it, to be honest.
Anyway, leave me a review on the way out and let me know what you thought!
-Laura