Chapter 30

"You know putting off the wedding planning isn't going to make things easier?" Director Vance's wife said with a smile.

Ziva looked up and saw Abby and Mrs. Vance standing there, smiling at her and with their hands full of what appeared to be loads of bridal magazines and things. Ziva was aware that a lot of her friends were getting to be impatient with her, because she had not planned one thing for the wedding that apparently already had a date and invitations sent out. Ziva hadn't picked the date or sent out any invitations but she had been so glad that it was at least at this amazing place that she had wanted to have it. Ziva had figured since she was Jewish and Tony was Catholic, it would be better to have a neutral wedding at a place where everyone could feel included and welcome.

"I just… I don't know." Ziva said as waited for her friends to be with her.

"Ziva, everything will be perfect. You and Tony have already been through everything bad, so that means you are due for things to finally go right! I mean think about it, when you first joined NCIS as the liaison officer, no one thought there was a chance but secretly I knew. I could see that you two were interested in each other, the way you two joked and looked at each other, you just refused to admit it." Abby said with a huge grin on her face. "Ziva, I am so glad that you two are finally admitting how you feel about each other."


Director Vance wasn't sure how he was going to do this, but he had bent so far on so many rules this was one that he couldn't. Ziva and Tony can't work together, not now that they are engaged and certainly not after they get married. One of them will have to be transferred and Vance was not looking forward to talking to Gibbs about this, especially not with all the bad things that had been happening and all the worry that was going around. Vance had to admit he was also secretly worried about Ziva and he didn't think she would take this well. He had decided to just put her on another team, she would have more experience in the field than anyone else and he had already made it clear that she was the senior field agent on that team, but it would be hard for her to learn to work with a new team and not be able to rely on her old team that she already had a working groove with.


Gibbs knew that Vance was worried about something and if he really thought about he could tell what this was all about, he knew he was going to lose one of his team members and he had a feeling he knew which one it would be. Gibbs hated having new people brought on the team and when Ziva was sent to a new team, than Gibbs would be forced to look into new applicants and considering what had happened the first time they had tried to replace Ziva when they had thought she was gone for good, he didn't enjoy the prospect, at least this time he knew that Tony wouldn't be flirting with the new women applicants or overjoyed at the process the way he was before, maybe that would make it easier. Gibbs knew that he would have to talk Vance into holding off, at least until after they got things under control with this creep coming after Ziva and until after the wedding, especially since he could see Ziva was looking for any excuse to call of the wedding because she was scared it would hurt to many people.


Ziva smiled later that night as she sat at the kitchen table with the dinner that their neighbor had dropped off. Tony was playing footsie under the table with her and it was clear he knew there was a lot on her mind and that she was a bit distracted. Tony finally set his fork down and reached across the table to hold onto her free hand.

"Talk to me Ziva." Tony said softly.

"One of us will be forced off the team. We have been working together so long, I don't think I could handle working for someone else." Ziva said softly.

"Hey, look, I don't think you will be leaving the main headquarters, so you can always run stuff by us and add your input on our cases. As long as we are together, we can handle anything they throw at us." Tony told her with a grin. "At least you won't have to work with McGeek." Tony said scrunching up his face as he teased her by teasing McGee again. "I mean, you get away from total confusing computer speak constantly. I think he forgets how to talk to us humans, and just thinks we are computers, since that is the extent of his personal life. You know if he could marry a computer, I think he might."

Ziva couldn't help it, she burst out laughing and she could see that it was the desired result her fiancé was looking for. Although Tony had his issues, he did have his amazing moments where he really knew how to make her feel so much better. She knew she loved him and she couldn't imagine her life without him, she needed him in her life, and that was something she knew for sure.


He had a brand new plan and he had to admit it was a brilliant one this time. He was going to back off for a while, let them think something had happened or maybe he had changed his mind, but he wanted Ziva and her little protectors to slowly get comfortable. He knew that if he waited until she got back into the groove of things with her work schedule and her personal life not having so many protective agents involved in it, he had a real shot at getting what he would need. He knew she was getting married and as much as he would prefer to make sure that the wedding didn't happen, he had no choice but to handle this the way he wanted to, later than he wanted and with them letting their guard down slowly. He was going to make sure that his plans finally worked out, and he knew he could be patient, he had already waited a big amount of time, he didn't have to worry about waiting to much longer, he knew that.