By 7:45pm, Tony's kitchen was bursting with food, and the apartment smelled like Napoli – the entire city. There were seven kinds of pasta lined up on the counter – spaghetti, fettuccini Alfredo, carbonara, ziti, and three lasagnas (one traditional; one with no pork, for Ziva; and one vegetarian with whole-wheat noodles, much to Tony's disgust, for Palmer). There was a huge antipasto and multiple loaves of garlic bread. Jess and Tony had been shopping and cooking since mid-afternoon, when Gibbs had let them leave in order to get ready for the party. Gibbs had originally offered to drive Jess home to prepare, but when it became clear that Jess wasn't comfortable leaving without Tony, Gibbs had dismissed him as well.
"I really hope everyone shows up," Tony said, a flash of uncertainty in his expression. In fourth grade, Tony's parents had reluctantly allowed him to host a party, and Jess had helped him plan an amazing jungle-themed adventure. His father had promised to mail the invitations on his way to the airport the week before, but he was pre-occupied with a business deal and forgot. Tony and Jess sat in Tony's back yard for three hours, waiting for kids who never came. Tony's dad had admitted the mistake a week later when he found the invitations in his briefcase, but it was still ten years before either one of them threw a party again.
"They'll be here," Jess said, with a flick of Alfredo sauce at his face. "They've got ten minutes yet."
At that moment, they both jumped, and then laughed, when they heard a loud knock at the door. Tony went to answer it, and found Abby, McGee, Ducky and Palmer all standing there with grins on their faces, carrying a variety of wines and desserts. A minute later, Gibbs walked in with a bag of custom-blended coffee – "Italian blend", he said, as he smiled at Jess and tossed the bag to Tony. Ziva was the last one to arrive, with a bottle of wine and a look on her face that seemed to indicate that she wasn't there totally of her own volition. But whatever disagreements or preoccupations might have been on peoples' minds as they walked in the door, they were instantly swept away by the overpowering smell of garlic in the apartment and the sheer volume of food.
It was nearly four hours later when the last of the pasta dishes had been cleared, packed up, and split between the guests to take home as left-overs. The meal had been one of stories, jokes, case discussions, and an alphabet game or two. Gibbs had done terribly in the "name a movie that starts with this letter" game, although Palmer had totally given Tony a run for his money, much to everyone's surprise. Ziva and Jess had exchanged jokes in three different languages – often laughing uproariously – until the others began to protest. Gibbs and Jess had spent more than a few moments during the evening chatting privately at their end of the table, while Ducky was deep into a story or Tony was regaling everyone with a tale of his youth. Tony found this amusing, and teased Jess about it a couple of times in the kitchen, with a little sing-song version of, "Jessie's got a boyfriend … Jessie's got a boyfriend …"
When it was time for dessert and coffee, Jess headed into the kitchen to pull it all together. Ziva followed with the last of the wine glasses.
"Thank you," Jess said, as Ziva handed her the glasses and started arranging napkins on the dessert platter.
Ziva glanced back into the dining room, where Abby and McGee were teasing Tony about Purple Man – a comic book character that Tony had recently revealed was his childhood hero. Ziva turned back to Jess. "You've known Tony since childhood?" she asked, with a glint of disbelief in her tone. "You've actually been friends since you were children?"
"Yes …" Jess answered, cautiously. "Why?"
"Well," Ziva laughed. "He's … he's TONY."
"And …?" Jess challenged.
"I just don't see how you could have lasted all this time," Ziva continued, the wine she'd had making her unaware that she was stepping into quicksand.
"Why?" Jess asked innocently.
"Well," Ziva said, "the childish jokes, the ego, the sexual innuendo …" She waved a hand back in Tony's direction.
"Look, Ziva," Jess said, pushing her temper into the background, "I know you've done a dossier on Tony. I know that you have more information on him than anyone in the room – except for me. You know which buttons you can push to take him down a peg." Ziva acknowledged the statement.
"You know how to play to his insecurities," Jess said. "He told me about the 'dinner where everyone was invited but Tony' thing …"
"Miss Kennedy…" Ziva interrupted.
"Jess," Jess corrected her.
"Jess …" Ziva started again. "If you have something to say, just say it. Stop beating around the bush – it's 'bush', right?" Jess nodded. "Yes," Ziva said. "Stop beating around the bush and just tell me, clearly, what you mean."
Tony and Gibbs had both shifted their attention to the scene in the kitchen by this time. Tony saw Jess smile. To anyone else, it would have been a nice, common, non-committal smile. But Tony knew it was her "the gloves are off" smile. He got up and headed for the kitchen.
Jess looked Ziva full in the eyes and spoke calmly. "Tony has been my best friend nearly all my life. He's had my back since I was nine and is the most important person in the world to me. If you ever do anything to intentionally hurt him again," she paused so that the full effect of the words would not be lost, "I will kill you." She smiled. "Is that clear enough?"
Ziva returned the stare. It took a few seconds for her to answer. "Yes," she said. "Crystal."
Jess held her gaze for a moment, and then her entire face went instantly from steely resolve to Betty Crocker hostess. "Great!" she bubbled, with a smile to Ziva. "Coffee?"
Ziva politely refused and turned to walk into the dining room.
Jess continued to pull the dessert tray together, and Tony walked past Ziva and into the kitchen.
"Jessica …?" Tony said, with a light, but accusatory look on his face.
"Yes?" she replied, innocently, not looking up from the dessert tray.
"You just gave Ziva the 'I will kill you' speech, didn't you?" he said, trying to sound serious, but failing badly.
She paused, then looked up, guiltily. "Yeah."
He shook his head and gave her a light headsmack and then a kiss on the forehead. "Brat," he said. She tried to look contrite as she handed him the plates and forks.
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
The next morning, Jess and Tony woke up at about 8 o'clock, each one just a bit hung over from a long night, a lot of food, a little too much wine, and not enough sleep. They sat in bed and did a little recap of the previous night's events.
"I can't believe you're going to go on a date with Leroy Jethro Gibbs," Tony said, for the third time.
"God, Tony … give it up." Jess rolled her eyes and tried not to take the bait.
"No, seriously," Tony continued. "That's like me dating …"
"Paula?" Jess said, with a sideways glance.
"Kind of," Tony replied, carefully. He was just now realizing that he was in dangerous waters. He mentally berated himself for bringing this up when they were both too tired.
Paula Cassidy had never been Jess' favorite of Tony's girlfriends. The two women got along okay, but Jess never really thought Paula took Tony seriously enough. She treated him like he was disposable. And every time Paula left, Tony would do a couple of days in self-pity mode. Jess never minded picking up those pieces – Tony had certainly done it for her enough times – but she hated that Paula looked at it all as a game that she was winning, and not as a possible actual relationship. Tony really liked Paula, and it bothered Jess that Paula couldn't or wouldn't see that.
"Actually," Tony said, trying to make his point clearer, "it's more like me dating Ziva."
"How do you figure that?" Jess asked, with a furrowed brow and a little bit of anger starting to work its way to the surface.
"He's … I don't know, Jess. He's just not your type." Tony said, with more condescension in his voice than he meant to be there.
She looked at him incredulously. "Are you saying he's out of my league?"
"NO," Tony said, forcefully. He tried again. "He's been married three times."
"And so that makes him … what? … unsuitable in some way?" Jess said, a little more loudly than she'd intended to. "I don't exactly have a clean and virtuous past."
"It's not the same thing," Tony said, trying not to get angry.
"It's exactly the same thing," Jess countered. "Everyone's got a past, Tony."
He ignored that opening and moved on. Stupidly, stubbornly moved on.
"But it's Gibbs," Tony said again, as if that would make it clear.
"And …?" Jess said, now totally frustrated. Then the lightbulb went off.
"It's the boss thing, isn't it? You don't want it to be uncomfortable at work – me dating your boss. Or, rather, what happens if I STOP dating your boss."
"That has nothing to do with it," Tony said, tired of the topic, but not willing to give in. "And besides, it's not like that's never happened before. The whole 'dating and dropping the boss' thing."
"Back atcha, pal," Jess said, tossing back the covers and standing up. She looked at him and down at the bed. "And it's not like this is the first time you've been in bed with the boss' girlfriend either."
"Ouch," Tony said, as he winced.
Jess sat back down onto the bed, the fire gone. "I'm sorry, Tony. I can't believe I just said that."
Tony smiled a small, weary smile. "Totally deserved, and incredibly overdue," he said. "You've been holding that back for a while."
"Nine years," she said, with a rueful laugh. "Although I will admit that my dad did deserve it at the time. He cheated on mom, and then his mistress met you and cheated on him. There's some symmetry there, I guess."
She sat against the headboard and drew her knees up against her chest, dropping her chin to rest on her knees.
"It's just dinner, Tony," she said, staring straight ahead. "I'm not marrying the guy. This isn't some convoluted version of 'Sabrina' we're playing out."
"I know," Tony said. "It's just … weird. I don't know if I'm more protective of you or of Gibbs."
"Really?" Jess said, now totally amused with this topic and Tony's confusion.
"Seriously… I mean … it's GIBBS," Tony said again. "Second-B-for-bastard. That kind of scares me a little bit."
"Don't think I can hold my own?" Jess said, with a smile.
"You, I'm not worried about," Tony teased. "I'm worried about HIM never being the same again."
She was just about to smack him over the head with a pillow when they heard the unmistakable crash of a breaking window.
