I am sorry it took so long and is only such a short chapter. Apologies.


"Do you think I'm a nerd?" Tim suddenly asked when they were done clearing the dinner table. Ziva turned around and frowned at him.

"Where is this coming from?" she asked him, closing the fridge as Tim sighed and reached up to rub his neck.

"When we were doing the interview earlier, the guy kept making these comments…" he answered, frowning down at Jethro when the dog pushed his empty food bowl through the kitchen until it was standing in front of his feet. "You already had dinner." Tim informed him and took the bowl, putting it back in its place, Jethro giving a low whine before trotting off, probably in search of one of his toys. "So, do you think I'm a geek?" he asked his girlfriend again, watching as Ziva shrugged.

"Yes, I guess." she told him, surprised by Tim's resigned sigh. "But that's not a bad thing." she assured him as they made their way to the living room.

"No?" Tim raised an eyebrow. "Because I keep getting the message that it is."

Ziva flopped down on the couch and turned to face him. "Well, to me, being a geek, a nerd, is about… passion." she said, furrowing her brows. "It's about liking something, having something grab your interest so that you start engaging with whatever it is. You learn stuff about it - in your case, technology. And honestly, we would have been lost on a lot of cases if it hadn't been for your knowledge." she told him, leaning over to press a quick kiss to his lips. "So no, I don't think being a geek is something bad. You could argue that I am one, too."

"You? A geek?" Tim smiled in amusement as Ziva narrowed her eyes at him.

"I am passionate about weapons." she reminded him. "So, if we employ my definition of having something grab your attention and making you learn things about a certain subject in an amount that surpasses the interest of other people then yes, I am a geek." Ziva stuck out her tongue at him, relieved to see Tim smile as he remembered the minutes long rant she had launched into when she had been reading one of her magazines the other day, or how her eyes lit up when she got her hands on a new throwing knife and found it perfectly balanced.

"Yeah, maybe you are." he allowed, wrapping an arm around her shoulder to pull her close. "Though weapons aren't usually geek territory." he added, making Ziva chuckled.

"Maybe not." she allowed. "But if I am a geek, then you are one, too. You are a geek, my geek, and the only one who gets to tease you about that is me. Anyone else who does will have to answer to me." Ziva said with conviction, giving him a soft smile.

"Well, better send out that memo, then." Tim laughed, pressing a kiss to her forehead.