Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! :)

Tony followed Ziva down a long hallway, she stopped, reaching into her coat pocket, she pulled out a set of keys, shaking them in her hand, finding the correct key. She slid the key into the deadbolt lock and opened it, moving inside.

Tony moved to the doorway, peeking inside. Ziva was nowhere in sight, "Hello?" He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. He looked around, he was surprised, it was clean, nearly empty and it severely lacked a woman's touch. The living room consisted of a large LCD television, a sturdy, dark-stained wooden coffee table, a black recliner and couch and a large black cabinet packed with what to looked like thousands of DVD's, "Uhh."

"What's wrong?" Ziva asked, appearing out of a hallway, "You remember anything?"

"Uh, no, I was just expecting your place to look different."

"What?" Ziva looked around the room and laughed, "This is your place, Tony."

"Oh...uh." Tony quickly smacked himself on the back of head and moved over to the cabinet and started surveying the rows and rows of DVDs.

"Why did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Slap yourself on the head."

Tony shrugged his shoulders, "No idea, just felt like the right thing to do, why?"

Ziva smiled, "Just wondering, do you..."

"I like movies, huh? I sure have a lot of them."

"Like?" Ziva scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"What?"

"You can quote any movie, Tony. ANY."

"I can?"

"It's annoying."

Tony turned his head away from her, "Sorry."

"Tony." Ziva sighed, "I was joking."

Tony shrugged his shoulders.

"Look, while I'm gone, look around, pack a few things."

"What? You're leaving?" Tony's head shot around, looking at Ziva.

"Yes, for a little awhile...I need to get a few things, I was not expecting company."

"Oh...okay, but..."

"I will be back." Ziva slipped past Tony.

Tony reached out, grabbing Ziva's hand, "Ziva."

Ziva turned, looking at Tony's hand holding hers, then up at his face, "What is it?"

Tony wrapped his arms around her, giving her a hug, but quickly pulled away, backing away from her. Ziva just stood there, her arms glued to her sides, "S-sorry...I, I guess I've been spending too much time with Abby."

"Why do you think I hate you?" Ziva abruptly asked.

"W-what?"

"I read your notebook, tell me, why do I hate you?"

Tony shrugged his shoulders again.

"Come on, tell me."

"Oh, I dunno, you're my partner and this is the longest conversation we've had since my accident...no words, not a single word for over a week and every time I look at you, you look away and then theres..."

"I don't hate you, Tony, you are..."

"What, a burden?! Believe me, I know and I know I did something to you, and I...I..." Tears started to stream down Tony's face, "I would give anything to able to remember it, so I could make it right, fix it, but I can't remember and I hate myself for it!"

"There's nothing to fix, you didn't do anything wrong, Tony." Ziva pleaded, taking a step towards him, "You can believe me."

"How can I? Look at me, outside of work, not one call, not one letter, email, nothing...not a god damn soul cares about me...hell, Abby didn't want me to know, but I over heard; my father won't even come visit me." Tony lowered his head, shaking it, "Jeez, how big of an asshole am I if my own father doesn't want to see?"

Ziva stepped to Tony, slapping him across the face, "Shut up!" She pulled her hand back, realizing what she had done, she raised her hands out, trying to comfort Tony, but he backed away, raising his hands into a defensive manner, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you, it's just that, don't say things like that, people care about you."

"Yeah? Like who?"

Ziva clinched her fists, but instead of hitting Tony she moved to the door, "ME!" She opened and slammed it so hard some of the plaster above the door fell off the wall. She hurried down the hall and made it outside, she stopped next to her car, she leaned forward against her car, her face in her hands.

"Are you okay, Sweetie?" An older woman's voice called out.

Ziva turned, seeing a bundled up woman, holding a little dog, she sighed, "Why do men suck?"

"That's not the question you need to be asking yourself, Sweetie."

Ziva squinted at her, "What do you mean?"

"You need to ask yourself, 'why do you love this man and is he WORTH it?'"

"Who says I love this man?"

The woman smiled, "Good luck, Sweetie." She took a few steps away, but stopped, turning back towards Ziva, "Oh, in my experience, a man sucking is never a bad thing."

Ziva started to open her mouth, but couldn't seem to think of anything to say. The woman waved and waddled happily away, bringing about a much needed chuckle from Ziva's lips.

Ziva looked up at front door of Tony's apartment building and just smile. She pushed herself off of her car and raced back to the door, flinging it open, she ran down the hallway to Tony's door and went to knock, but saw that the door was open, she pushed the door open, "Hello? Your door was open. Tony?" But there was no answer, she searched throughout the apartment, but he wasn't there, "TONY?!" She called out in a panic, "Where are you?!"

Author Note #1 - Lingerie shopping is harder than you'd think ;)

Author Note #2 - Wrapping stuff sucks...

Author Note #3 - But seeing the look on their faces when they open it, complete and total awesomeness.

Author Note #4 - Squirrel!