Okay, he couldn't wait long. In his defence, everyone knew that he was an impatient person. He wasn't proud of himself, but Tony went out and got apples for Ziva the very next day after mentioning them. Come on! Who would pass up a freshly baked apple pie? Especially when Ziva was going to be the one baking it. It was the perfect combination. One that he was going to make happen. As soon as possible.

Which meant that today he was going to go and find apples. The best apples. For the best apple pie. And yes, he had never tasted an apple pie baked by Ziva, nor had she ever baked one before but he was sure it would be amazing. His mouth watered as he thought about it. He was going to have to get some fantastic ice cream to serve with it. Maybe some of the fancy stuff. Really splurge.

It was extremely easy to track down the apples he was thinking about too. They were pretty much everywhere at this time of year. Everyone seemed to be making apple pies. They were in every supermarket. Every market stall. Hell, he even saw some gas stations selling the baking apples, not that he would ever touch those with a ten foot pole. There was no way that those would be proper apples.

The best place for such things were the farmer's market. The best place for fresh produce so obviously that was where you would be able to get the best apples. That was the logical way about going about it, onviously. And he was very logical.

No, the hard part was not finding the apples. The hard part was deciding on whicj ones to buy and how many. There were just so many choices. How was he supposed to know how many apples you could get? Did he have to just get cooking ones? Could you use other ones as well for a different flavour? Would they even cook right if they weren't cooking ones or would they end in disaster? And he didn't want to ask any of the stall holders, he would just end up looking silly and like he didn't know what he was doing. Which he didn't but that was besides the point.

Oh, he wondered if Ziva needed any more cinnamon. That went into apple pies, didn't it? Were there other spices? He wasn't actually sure.

There was definitely more than just apples in there or else there was no way it would taste so good. It would just be like apple sauce in a pie crust and it was deifntiely way better than that. Though, apple sauce could be good. He bet homemade was fantastic. He wondered if Ziva knew how to make apple sauce as well? He was going to have to buy a lot of apples, wasn't he?

How many apples could he carry? Would that be too much? Apples were heavy though so it could end up being less than he thought. Did Ziva know how many apples a pie needed?
Focus, DiNozzo. Focus. Apples, he came here for apples. Ah, those ones looked good.

"How many apples did you get?" Ziva asked in a mixture of exasperation and amusement.

"Um," Tony scratched his head, a sheepish expression on his face. "A lot?"

He felt like a guilty child.

"Three bags," she said, shaking her head.

That was a lot of apples. Just what had he been thinking? Except, you know, with his stomach.

"I might have got too many."

"Never mind, I can use them all."

"You can?"

It was a lot of apples. She nodded.

"Yes. I will just make as many pies as we can get out of the apples."

Tony was about to say that that was sure to be a lot when he caught himself and shut up. What was he doing? You didn't look a gift horse in the mouth like that!

She threw an apron at him and he caught it in confusion.

"You are helping me, are you not?"

He should have been expecting this. You didn't set foot in her kitchen without getting a job of some sort. And he was not going to stand around watching her. It would put her off and then none of them would get apple pies.

"Uh, sure," he said, pulling the apron over his head.

It wasn't like she was giving him much of a choice.

The pies and tarts and other treats were soon made. The next hour or so was spent eyeing the clock and putting trays in and taking them out of the oven. It was quite a bit of work but work she enjoyed. There was something so satisfying about the whole process. Making something from scratch that would be thoroughly enjoyed. She eyed her eager partner who was the perfect example of this. She was extremely flattered that she thought so much of her baking. Even if it did lead to him buying an extraordinary amount of apples.

'Ding!' Went her timer and Tony lunged for the oven.

She pushed him away as she slipped on her oven mitts and started taking things out. The first of many.

"Be careful with those," she warned him, realising that his hand was hovering over the mini apple tarts she just set to the side.

"They are just out of the oven."

And apple was particularly molten when it was cooked. Wothout fail, she always burnt the roof of her mouth if she did not let them cool for long enough. Which was longer than you thought. She wanted to save Tony from that.

"I will. I'm not stupid." Tony had replied, an innocent look on his face, hands pointedly behind his back.

She knew what was going to happen as soon as she turned her back, despite her warning him not to. There was nothing she could do to prevent it. Well, technically she could have tied Tony to something, kept him out of reach but Gibbs had informed her once before that that would be a fire hazard. So, there was nothing really she could have done to prevent this.

"Hot! Hot!"