Seeing as the first was so short, I have decided to upload the second one as well. Enjoy!

II. Hope is a Good Breakfast

They sat at a table in the courtyard of the hotel, Ziva picking apart a croissant and Tony watching her. "Is there a problem, Tony?" She smiled as he leaned back in the wrought iron chair and grinned.

"Not at all." He chuckled.

"You have not touched your toast." She nodded to his plate.

He smiled, picking up the piece of bread and taking a bite out of it. "Happy?"

"Yes." She grinned, pulling her phone out of her jean pocket as it rang. "McGee." She grinned.

"Ziva, the boss wants to know when you'll be back. He says that now the case is over you can get an earlier flight." McGee said over the telephone as she clicked the speaker phone on.

"Our flight is tomorrow morning, is it not?" She asked, looking at her watch.

"Yeah, but I can get you seats on a plane tonight, you'll need to be at the airport by 4pm Venice time." He said and yawned.

"Problem with the time difference, Sleepy?" Tony smirked.

"Yeah, you two get to have fun in Venice whilst I am stuck in MTAC just living in Venetian time."

"We are working, McGee, not having fun." Ziva said, grinning at Tony as she spoke.

"If you say so." Gibbs said down the phone. "McGee, why is there no visual?"

"I…didn't think it was necessary, boss." The agent said. "Ziva, turn your laptop on." She lifted the screen up and hit the button to enable the video chat, moving around the table so she and Tony could see the image of McGee, Gibbs and the Director on the screen, along with the MTAC geeks along the side whom Tony loved to play pranks on.

"Good Morning." Jenny smiled as the two agents leaned around the table so they could both be in the camera's view.

"Good Morning, Director." They said in unison.

"Sleep well, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.

"Like a baby." Tony replied quickly, regretting his fast response.

"How 'bout you, David?" He asked.

"Er, good, thank you." She nodded. "How did you sleep?"

"Better now we caught him." Gibbs shrugged. "McGee has you booked on a earlier flight tonight. We write reports and debrief when you get back, then you get the weekend off." He nodded and smiled.

"Good work out there." The Director nodded. "Agent McGee will send you your flight info." And with that the screen went black.

"Too bad we don't get one last night in Venice." Tony sighed, eating the last bite of his toast finishing the dregs of his coffee off.

"Yes, too bad indeed." She paused, standing up. "Although I have not fully regained my memory of last night, the parts that I do remember were very good." She smiled. "Ready?"

"Mmhm." He stood up next to her. "You know, we still have nine hours till we need to be at the airport."

"What are you suggesting?" She smirked as he unlocked the door to their bedroom.

"And you say my mind's always in the gutter." He laughed

"I do not believe that I have ever told you that your mind is in…the gutter?" She frowned and placed her laptop on the sofa.

"It's an expression." He said, shaking his head. "Never mind. No, what I was suggesting is we go and sightsee. Together."

"I do not see why not." She smiled, starting to scrape her hair back into a ponytail.

"Leave, your hair down. I like it down." He said quietly and smiled, removing her hands from the top of her head.

"It is not practical down, it gets into my eyes." She stared into his face as he held her hands by her side, analysing every movement of his features as he did the same with her, each searching for a flicker of doubt.

"Well," He said after a long moment. "We can't have that now, can we? A compromise, then; half up, half down."

She swallowed and nodded, still not averting her eyes from his.


"You realise that we cannot do this ever again." Ziva stated as she lay in Tony's arms.

"The dreaded rule 12." Tony laughed quietly, without much humour.

"And of course Gibbs will know as soon as he sees us that something happened."

"If he doesn't already, you saw the way he looked at us earlier when they called us." Tony sighed. "I swear that man can read minds." They both chuckled sleepily.

"We never did go sightseeing." Ziva looked at the little bronze clock on the nightstand. Half twelve. They had tried to tidy the room up when they got back, but that just resulted in the room growing more messy, particularly the bed that she had just finished making when Tony pushed her down onto it.

"There's still time if you want." He kissed her temple, allowing the scent of her lily-scented shampoo to brush his nose.

"I just want to stay here." She rested her head on her chest. "We have a long flight, we might as well get some sleep." Her voice softened dreamily as she started to drift off. Tony looked at their entwined hands, her thin, elegant but powerful fingers wrapped around his. Her hands were softer than he expected. He always thought that she would have hard, cold hands to fit their chiselled appearance, but they were the complete opposite, warm and soft, with silky smooth skin. He found it ironic how the daintiest hands he had ever held were also the most violent. He allowed himself to doze off to sleep with thoughts of lilies and porcelain hands.