Making Mistakes

To respond to some of your comments: I know Tony has seemed less mature to some of you in the recent chapters than in the earlier ones. And that wasn't exactly my intention, but it bothered me in the earlier parts of this story that there was a power disparity between Ziva and Tony—a victim/savior dynamic that didn't work for me for them. So Tony needed to get screwed up a bit. I think when (hint, hint) they get past this they'll be on more equal ground, which will work better for them. Also if they weren't estranged in the story at the beginning of Mother's Day, there wouldn't have been anyway to continue to work this in to the canon. This chapter picks up in the middle of Mother's Day, right after Gibbs orders Tony to take Ziva to Arizona. This won't be the only chapter for this episode.

By the way, I accidentally drove through Rock Creek Park today when I got lost trying to get out of Mt. Pleasant. I've been there before, too, and for the record it really doesn't seem that sketchy!

Tony braced himself as he walked to the break-room where Ziva had headed a few minutes ago for coffee. It had been a few days but they hadn't talked about Damon. Well, Ziva had tossed out a comment about him dating when he came in excited about the Kurosawa retrospective, but he was pretty sure she'd been kidding.

When he found her, Ziva was making polite but clearly uncomfortable smalltalk with Dolores from Human Resources, but the other woman left quickly when she saw Tony. There was something about crying with joy in front of a relative stranger that made further interaction awkward.

"Hey," Tony said hesitantly.

"Hello," Ziva responded politely, raising an eyebrow in question.

"Gibbs told me to find you and head to Arizona to track down the investigator Joanne hired," he said in a rush. Tony watched as Ziva's eyes widened in alarm.

When she spoke, though, her voice was unaffected. "If only McGee did not get such motion sickness," Ziva said lightl. "Perhaps the next time someone has to fly we could buy him some of those wrist-band things to fight off nausea."

Tony grinned. "Or get him some pot."

Ziva shook her head at him, but Tony didn't miss her smile. "Let's get going," she said in amused irritation.

He followed her back toward their desks.

*

Tony let Ziva drive to Dulles; they had to get there quickly if they were going to make the only direct flight available and whatever his complaints about her driving, he couldn't deny she went fast. They raced through security, not stopping to talk until they were belted into their seats.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

Ziva turned to him. "Yes, Tony?"

He shrugged. "I was remembering our last flight. That pesky girl." Tony smiled. "She had you so wound up about us being together."

"I was not wound!" she protested.

He grinned. "We'd just slept together. You weren't a little wound up?" his eyes darkened and he saw Ziva blush as she caught his double meaning.

Ziva looked away. "This is not the place for a personal conversation, Tony."

Tony watched her thoughtfully. The plane began to take off. "Can we at least talk about Gibbs?" he asked, his thoughts drifting to the other thing consuming his day.

She lifted her head warily. "Does it bother you that he...helped, the other night?"

"No," Tony answered quickly. "It's just...when we got back from the first run-in with Joanne, I saw him in the bathroom." He paused. "It seemed like he was crying."

Ziva frowned in sympathy. "He must have been remembering Shannon and Kelly."

Tony nodded. "I figured." He leaned back in his seat. "It's strange, I can't imagine him with a wife and a kid."

"Well, he's a different person than he would be with them," Ziva pointed out. "We are all changed by the presence or absence of those we are closest to."

Tony raised an eyebrow, wondering exactly how she applied that to herself.

"Don't you think you would be different, if your mother had not died?" she asked.

He snorted. "Absolutely." Tony looked away, pensive. "Though I'm not sure exactly how." He glanced back to her. "What about you, who do you think you would be if your father hadn't been around?" He saw her flinch and realized he'd pushed the conversation further than she'd intended it to go. "Never mind," Tony said quickly.

"It is alright," Ziva said slowly. "It's true, I would probably not have joined Mossad if it were not for him. Though I would still have been in IDF, so it is hard to say." She glanced away. "My mother certainly would not have raised me to see the world the way he did, however."

Tony nodded. "But as far as Gibbs goes, what do you think? Is the case getting to him?"

Ziva shrugged. "It depends what we find in Arizona. If Joanne was simply involved by accident, then it should make no difference to the case. I suppose we will see." She glanced down at her watch and flinched.

He grinned. "It's a long flight, but I brought along a little something to make the time fly by."

Ziva rolled her eyes, then laughed as Tony produced a portable DVD player and two Kurosawa DVDs from his backpack. Right on cue, a flight attendant announced that electronic devices were permitted.

Tony didn't argue when Ziva pulled out her copy of the constitution to read instead of watching his movie. But he grinned when she put it away half an hour later and settled in to watch Seven Samurai.

*

One corpse and two drives through the desert later, Tony slid into another plane seat. The local LEOs had let them fax their reports and evidence in to Gibbs, so at least he and Ziva could go straight home when they got back to DC. He closed his eyes, but he was still tense. It took a minute to remember why. He turned to his partner. "Why would say you were going in, not we?"

Ziva hesitated. "We are not a we, Tony. It is nice that we are talking more, but..." she trailed off.

"We're still partners," Tony protested.

She shrugged. "I did not mean to offend you with my language, Tony."

He sat back. "Look, I had an appointment with Dr. Harper yesterday." He could feel Ziva tense beside him. "She helped me see that I do want to find a way to get past all this, Ziva." Tony's eyes pleaded, for what neither of them was sure.

Ziva pursed her lips, then a certain light twinkled in her eye as she opened her mouth to respond. "I am not joining the mile high club with you on this flight, Tony."

He laughed, delighted, and saw her eyes fill with answering warmth.

"Which other movies did you bring?" Ziva asked grudgingly.

Tony's eyes lit up. "Have you ever seen One Wonderful Sunday?"