Hope everyone had a great holiday! Here's to continuing this 2 year long story, haha.
-x-
"Hello?" Ziva reached for her phone quickly, answering as quietly as she could to not wake the children. It was only quarter to nine, fairly early in the morning for anyone to be calling, let alone a number she didn't recognize.
"Hey, Ziva. It's Mark." He replied, too cheerful for this time of the morning and Ziva shut her eyes, imagining beating him to a pulp.
"Hello. What seems to be the problem?" Her tone dripped with annoyance and pretentious from the lack of sleep she was getting nowadays.
"No problem, I just got into my office and wanted to call you before I had patients come in today." He explained.
"Oh," Ziva still wasn't understanding why he was calling and waited a moment, a painful silence taking over.
"So, I was wondering if maybe you would be free for lunch or dinner sometime? I'd love to take you out…" Mark said, crossing his fingers on the other side of the phone.
"Um…" Ziva bit her lip, thinking of the last time she went out with this man. It was completely chaotic, not to mention that Tony almost killed him when he found out what his exact intentions were when they went out. But that was then and this was now… Tony was no longer here to plan and make decisions with. In fact, Tony was no longer here at all. "Uh, yeah. Sure. I have to work during lunch hours this week, but I could ask a friend to watch the kids for a while during dinner hours any night…" She felt a pain rip through her already sore head, a sign that maybe she shouldn't go through with anything.
"Okay, awesome. What about tonight?" Mark asked.
"Tonight sounds wonderful." Ziva answered with little enthusiasm.
"That's great. I'll pick you up at six?" He was eager now and she swore she almost hung up the phone when she thought about what she was actually doing.
"Actually, I'll meet you wherever you want to go. I cannot have someone come here…the kids and-" She stopped herself from saying anymore, unsure of how long it would take her to cancel this meeting….eh, well, date that she had planned.
"That's fine. I understand. How about six at Menaggi's Italian Restaurant?"
"Okay. See you then." Ziva hung up the phone quickly, bending over when a brief nausea hit her.
"Mommy, was that Daddy?" Ty's voice suddenly came through the hallway of the kitchen, his body strolling out from the dark shadows of the house and into the light of the kitchen. He feet padded lightly against the oak floors, his stuffed bear curled up into the side of his body while he made his way over to his mother, still bent over.
Ziva looked up, dread in her eyes that she had to try and figure out life alone. She sighed, pulling Ty towards her, picking him up and standing upright again. "No, honey. I'm sorry." Kissing the top of his head, she watched as he frowned and decided that there was never going to be a way to get out of this mess that Tony had caused because no matter what, he would always be their father. Heading over the refrigerator, Ziva picked up his sippy cup and filled it with white grape juice before making her way to the living room with him in her arms. She gently sat on the couch, his body falling into her lap and taking the sippy cup from her hands to drink. The TV was on low, early Saturday morning cartoons playing and the sounds of her sons giggles wavered in the background of the constant thinking that took over her mind.
She had just accepted a date offer with a man she never liked to her almost ex-husbands favorite restaurant in the D.C area. The odds clearly weren't in her favor, but were they ever? Digging herself out of her thoughts, she decided to ask Ty a question.
"Would you like to go play with Uncle Tim and Delilah tonight for a little while?"
Ty shook his head, leaning back into her arms and snuggled closer. Ziva sighed, "Uncle Tim told me yesterday at work that he had some new action figures…" She tried, knowing well enough that her kids has the identical stubbornness of her and Tony.
"Okay." Ty nodded, eyes glued to the TV. He figured that something tonight must have been important to his mother and he should go see Uncle Tim's new action figures. Maybe Mommy was going to see Daddy, so he could come home.
"Okay?" Ziva peered down at him, wondering why that was suddenly so easy. She kissed the top of his forehead when he didn't make any other reaction towards her question before moving to get up. "Well, let me go call him and figure out a time."
She returned back to the kitchen, dialing McGee's number and waited for him to pick up. "Hello, McGee."
'Good morning, Ziva. How are you doing?" His reply made her smile. He was always worried about her state of mind.
"I am alright. Ty just woke up and Bella should be awake shortly. How are you?" She tapped her fingers nervously on the granite counter beside her.
"I'm good, just trying out a new game." He chuckled.
"I had a question for you, McGee. Feel free to say no and if you do not want to, that's completely understandable-" She sounded frantic, worrying him and so he interrupted her.
"Ziva, what is it?" He asked, worried that she was close to going off the deep end from everything that had happened.
"Would you be able to watch Ty and Bella tonight while I go out on a date?" The words felt like poison coming out of her mouth as she bluntly stated them to her friend.
"A date?!" McGee exclaimed, dropping his game controller, shocked that something like this was coming up so soon for her.
"Yes. McGee. A date, where two people go out-"She tried explaining, cut off by him again.
"Yeah, I know what it is, Ziva. I just thought you wouldn't…you know, be ready for that type of thing so soon." He remarked, unsure of how many happy pills she might have been taking.
"I am not… I think. I don't know!" She threw her hands up in the air, her body language not visible to McGee so, he couldn't understand what was going on with her.
"Then why are you going on it?" He was utterly confused, Delilah sitting beside him wondering the same.
"I just… I wanted to get out of the house and maybe see if I am ready to… move on." The words burned her tongue. No, she didn't want to move on. She never wanted to move on from the love of her life.
"Okay." He didn't feel like going into the topic anymore, knowing that she would change her mind as soon as he came to drop the kids off. "My niece and nephew are more than welcome to come over tonight. I always have a good time with those munchkins!" He laughed, Delilah yelling hello to Ziva in the background.
"Hello, Delilah! And munchkins? Tim, my children are not Oz…" She bit her lip, wondering what he meant.
"I know that…" He laughed, "It's an expression. They're little, so you can refer to them as Munchkins."
"Yes, but they are not midgets… they will grow. Those munchkins in Oz were adults at that size…" She placed her hand on her hip as she thought about the movie, remembering when Tony had made her watch it.
"That's- no, nevermind, Ziva. What time are you going to drop them off?" He rolled his eyes, happy that she wasn't able to see him and probably cut off his arm.
"Around five thirty, is that alright?" She exhaled deeply into the phone, Tim knowing that she was debating the night.
"That's fine. See you then." He hung up, before turning to Delilah and filling her in on more of the drama that surrounded their NCIS family.
-x
"Why would she agree to that?!" Delilah was stunned. Ziva hadn't been herself since everything happened five months ago with Tony and she was shocked that Ziva would want to even think about going out with another man.
"I don't know. It's unlike her, that's for sure." Tim shrugged, setting his game controller down.
"Do you think someone told her that Tony has been seeing that woman?" She winced, realizing that maybe Ziva was doing all of this as revenge.
"No, I don't think she knows that." Tim wondered, covering his face with his palms as he thought about how screwed up his two partners were.
"Maybe you should tell her… just in case she thinks that going out on a date will bring Tony back." Delilah reasoned, placing her hand on Tim's back.
"I guess. Damn, it's going to kill her." He sighed, turning to hug Delilah.
"Sometimes we have to find out the worst in order for the best to come…" She stated, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"I just hope they both don't bring these two…" He made a face at her, laughing when her eyes became larger.
"Oh god, they wouldn't… would they?" She laughed in an afraid tone, dropping her head to Tim's shoulder. "We are in for a treat, Tim. A real treat…" She sighed.
