Tony slams his fist on the button of the elevator repeatedly, eventually hitting it so hard that the pain curls its way up his spine. Ziva runs in, just as he hits it one last time. "Oof, that one hurt." She comments as the doors close.
"No it didn't." Tony snaps, pacing inside the cramped space. "Didn't we get our fill of secret agendas and lying and manipulation during the previous administration?" He growls, not really caring at that point if anyone was listening. He just needs to talk. Vance lied to them. Straight faced. Tony's sick of acting as though he isn't upset, as though he doesn't care that Vance was a lying, two-faced bastard who had cheated them without batting an eyelid.
"Look," Ziva begins, turning to him imploringly, "I too had hoped things would be different by now."
"I'd like to go up and give Vance a piece of my mind." Tony says.
"The way you're losing it, I don't think you have enough to spare!" Ziva tells him nastily. Tony ignores her.
"I'd like to take that toothpick of his and shove it up a SECNAV's cigar."
Ziva chuckles rudely, watching him pace like a tiger in a zoo. "You have had enough of this job then." She says, still laughing, but Tony can hear the underlying note of bitterness toward the man who sits in power.
"I like the job." Tony snaps. "I don't like the politics. I wasn't kidding about that part earlier." Here Ziva can hear the old, sarcastic Tony, and she hates it.
"If you had ever had done…Military training then maybe you would have learned to follow orders." She spits out the last two words, and Tony feels the last string of control he had snap like taut rope.
"What, like you?" He all but shouts, turning to her, fire in his eyes. "We were given a direct order not to engage. I recall that you were the first one to throw a punch!"
"It was a reflex!" She retorts, her voice rising dangerously.
"Hmm, really? Then what happened after? The last thing I remember before the lights went out was you kimbo-slicing through a room full of guards. Was that a reflex?" He asks it calmly, but it's the message placed behind the words that pisses her off.
"Yes! It was!" She snarls, leaning in toward him as though to make her point clearer. "Gunshot went off; I saw you…" she stops here and draws in a shaky breath, feeling it rattle in her ribcage along with her pounding heart.
They stare at each other in silence, and then Tony breaks it. "I'm tired of pretending." He speaks softly, but Ziva still flinches at the anger still audible in his normally crass tone.
Ziva watches him for a moment, and then whispers back, "So am I."
"It's dinner theatre for an audience of one." The doors open and Ziva's heart plummets through her chest and back down to the lab as she realizes what he meant when he said that. "Let the curtain go down." And he marches out of the elevator, purpose in his stride, leaving Ziva standing there, feeling like a fool – an open-hearted, weak minded fool for thinking – even for a second – that Tony meant what she had.
She knew better than to hope for miracles.
This was an insanely good episode, and I loved the way when they were being attacked by the guards, Ziva was so protective of Tony and vice-versa. Just wanted to let you all know that the story will be put on hold until I at least get ONE review. Just thought I'd tell you :)
no white horse for me