Title: Opportunity

Rating: T, I suppose

Spoilers: Anything up until "Truth or Consequence"

Summary: An opportunity presents itself to Tony and Ziva, will they take it?

Pairing: Tiva, of course.

Disclaimer: If I owned them, Tiva would be a reality and not just something I'm writing about.

Chapter Three

Ziva glared at Tony, dropping the blankets on the bed and turning to face him.

"You wanted to talk," he said, sitting on the floor at the end of the bed, feet stretched out, "So talk."

She sighed, allowed herself to unclench, and sat beside him, her back against the bed. She said nothing as she watched the flames dance in front of her eyes. The room was considerably darker even though they'd only been there a few minutes and the light cast off by the fire made her feel... she did not want to think about what she was feeling.

She glanced over at Tony, taking in his profile in the warm glow of the fire. He was handsome, that much she could not deny, but she'd know that for years. What she had recently learned was that he had grown up. He'd become a man in the few months that she'd been in Somalia, instead of a teenage boy in a grown man's body. And from what she had been told by McGee and Abby (who would be vehemently deny saying anything) she was the reason that he had suddenly changed his behavior.

"Are you going to say something?" Tony asked, "Or are we just going to sit here and pretend to have a conversation?"

"You are different."

Tony sighed, "Didn't we go through this last year, in Cartageña, Probie?"

"I do not mean that you look different, Tony, I mean that you have become a different person," Ziva explained, "I noticed before I left that you were... I do not know the word."

"Mature?" Tony supplied.

Ziva laughed, "That is pushing it, Tony."

She noticed his smile out of the corner of her eye but she also noticed that it did not reach his eyes. She wished that she could make him smile and really mean it.

"Anyway, I need you to know that I have also changed, Tony," she continued, "And even though we have known each other for nearly four years, there are still things about me that you could not possibly know. Things that would make you not want to know me, Tony."

He frowned, turning slightly to face her, shaking his head, "I don't think that's possible, Sweet Cheeks."

She shook her head, "I have done things, things that would make you believe that I am a horrible person. I am –"

"Ziva, listen to me, whatever you've done, and I know that you've done some ... not so great things, you need to know that I'm still going to be here for you."

Ziva did not respond for a long moment, staring at the fire in front of her. Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest and she had many more questions floating around in her head but she did not know if she should ask them. She did not know where she wanted their conversation to lead.

"How can you still trust me, Tony?" she asked, "After what I've done to you, after the things that I have said, I do not understand why you trust me... I would not trust you if our roles were reversed."

"You're my partner, Ziva."

That was all he said. Ziva shut her eyes, letting her head rest on the foot board of the bed. The thoughts in her head were weighing heavily on her heart and it made her head hurt. After all of her training as a Mossad operative, she had broken the number one rule and allowed her feelings to cloud her judgment.

"When Abby told us that the Damocles had sank, and that there had been no survivors, I thought I was losing my mind," he said softly, "I thought that she had to be mistaken because you were a ninja, you couldn't possibly be dead. But we had no evidence proving otherwise."

Ziva opened one eye to see Tony with his eyes closed, his head against the bed just as her's was.

"When Jeanne left, I was pretty sure that that was it for me," he continued, never opening his eyes, "I was sure that I would never feel that way again because I wouldn't let another woman make me feel that way. Or at least that's what I tried to tell myself. But deep down, I knew that, even though I'd thought I'd been in love with Jeanne, there was someone else who could easily do twice the damage that she had done. And my gut was right. When I heard the words no survivors come out of Abby's mouth, my heart stopped beating."

Tears suddenly burned in Ziva's eyes and she was glad that Tony's eyes remained shut. She blinked hard.

"Tony, I-"

He held up a hand to stop her, "Please, Ziva, just let me finish."

She didn't say anything then and he continued.

"It took a few weeks for us to get everything in order, for Gibbs to convince Vance to let us go after Saleem. But it wasn't a rescue mission, Ziva, because we obviously thought that you were dead. I just wanted to – I wanted to kill the men that had taken you from us, from me," his voice broke on the last word, "And I was prepared to die in order to get that done. But when Saleem took that bag off of your head and you were sitting right in front of me... I thought that I might already be dead and that I was just imagining you there."

Tony shook his head, "And then you said something and suddenly my heart was beating again and I didn't care about anything but getting you out of there. And I didn't care if you never forgave me for what happened with Rivkin, as long as you were alive, you hating me was something that I was prepared to live with."