Knock.
Knock.
Ziva David groaned and buried her face deep into the cold pillow, pulling both her arms and her legs closer to her body in order to conserve the most heat she possibly could. She didn't really have the energy to yell at whomever was knocking at her door, so she tried to ignore it as best as possible, groaning like a caveman at every knock that came.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock. Knock.
They came faster and faster before they stopped, pausing for a second, that Ziva smiled at, "Your Prince Charming is here to awake you from your slumber, Sleeping Beauty!" Tony's voice came through the door and she just groaned even louder, turning to look at the brown, beat-up door. She didn't move from her spot, however. Tony paused once more, "And I slayed the dragon at McDonald's and got us some food, open up."
Letting out another loud groan, she reached her hand over to the bedside table and fumbled around blindly for the key, capturing her tiny fingers around it. Once she had it firmly in her grip, she chucked it at the door, sliding through the crack at the bottom before burying her head back into the pillow.
She heard Tony fumble with the key in the lock, the door opening right as she turned in the covers, so that her back was facing her partner.
He closed the door behind him and then dropped the key onto the bedside table, stopping in front of Ziva.
He grinned as she muttered, "I am not hungry."
"Sure you are..." He smiled, leaning the back of food down in front of her face, dangling it there and swinging it back and forth, "It's yummy food...breakfast burrito with sausage....eggs...cheese..." He grinned, knowing that cheese was one of her few weakness', "Ooey...gooey...cheese..." He bent down towards her, so that his lips were nearly touching her ear, "...melts in your mouth..." She groaned and then snatched the bag away from him, sitting up slightly and grabbing a burrito before chucking the bag back at him.
He caught it like the basketball player he was and then grinned down at her as she sat up against the pillow, realizing, at the moment, that she had managed to roll herself to the other side of the bed.
No wonder the pillow was cold.
She pulled the sleeves up on Tony's sweatshirt and then unwrapped the burrito, taking a bite out of it. Tony smiled as Ziva paused to look up at him, swallowing the food she had in her mouth and patting the bed next to her, "Please sit." She quietly said and he kicked off his shoes and then climbed onto the bed, jiggling Ziva around a little, but not enough to fully move her.
She pulled back part of the comforter and sheet, gesturing for him to crawl under, "It is cold." She commented.
He nodded as he slid under the covers, shaking the burrito as he slid in next to her, "That's why you gotta eat this fast. Nobody likes cold eggs."
"I bet that homos like cold eggs." She smiled, taking a bite and Tony chuckled.
"Hobos, Ziva, not homos."
She rolled her eyes and wiped her face with a napkin.
"I see you like my sweatshirt." He grinned, and she looked at him before turning away, feeling the blood rushing to her cheeks, "Couldn't resist me, could ya?"
"I was just cold." She snapped, "It is freezing in here without the heater."
"Well no duh, Sherlock." He laughed, "Though now you look American."
He gestured to the red sweatshirt, the famous Ohio State Buckeyes logo in the front, the word, unknown to Ziva, 'buckeye' written on the back, gray accenting it down the sides.
"Well it is warm." She nearly spat and Tony put his hands up, knowing that he needed to stop the conversation right now, either that or something would end up somewhere he didn't want it to be.
Sighing, Tony reached into the bag and pulled out two jugs of orange juice, shaking them up and handing one of them to her, after removing the cap. She just looked at him as she took it. He put a finger up and dug in the bag some more before finding what he was looking for, the straw.
Smiling, she took it, unwrapping it and slipping it into the plastic, jug shaped carton of orange juice, "Toda."
They sat in silence as Tony drowned the orange juice, reaching into the bag and pulling out a carton of chocolate milk, setting it in between them as he took another bite of his burrito, "So..." He started, "We got surveillance on Corrado soon." He commented and she looked at him, raising an eyebrow as she took a bite of the breakfast burrito, swallowing it.
"You and me?"
"And Jason." He scoffed and Ziva sighed, "Look, I know that you don't wanna be with him, and I can't blame you, but hey, before, it was you and Jason."
She paused, the burrito just inches from her mouth, pulling it back and looking at him, "Thank you." She gave him a small smile and he nudged her playfully in the arm with his elbow.
"Hey...you're my best friend." He said, "I wanna look out for you."
All she did was smile as she took another bite of the burrito, chewing slowly as she thought. Just best friend.
Just friends.
She nearly shuddered at the thought.
She didn't want to be only 'best friends'. Could he honestly not see, with that rock head of his, that she felt so completely different about him? Differently than the way he saw her? She swallowed and Tony took another bite of his burrito.
"We need to call Gibbs today." He said, "Cause I've been thinkin'..."
"About a woman?"
Tony paused, his face paling slightly as he snapped his head to look at her. Did she know? Could she possibly know that he had been thinking about her all morning? Well, besides the minute or two he took to think about Corrado and Gibbs and the plane he was supposed to get on to Italy.
He chuckled nervously, "About Corrado. And the case."
She nodded, taking a sip of her juice before setting it back down on the beside table, "Gibbs told us to take the rest of the day off, which I thought was kinda bogus considering that this is Gibbs, this is a dead marine-"
"Former marine." She corrected and Tony rolled his eyes.
"Fine...dead former marine and a terrorist. He's like, Gibbs! He's all...obsessed with catching terrorists."
"Much like my father." She muttered, but she didn't think that Tony heard her.
She was almost grateful.
"So anyways, I thought it was odd."
"And what else did you think? What was Gibbs' reasoning to giving us the rest of the day off?"
Tony paused for a moment, "I don't know." He admitted, shrugging, "I thought we should talk to Gibbs, you know, like before Jason gets in there."
She nodded, "When does this shift start?"
Tony glanced at his watch, situated on his left hand before dropping it, "In about thirty minutes." He said, swallowing the wad of food in his mouth rather noisly, "The shift goes until about lunch time, then it's Russel and Jason's turn...then it's Terri and my turn after dinner."
She nodded, "And this changes every day?"
He nodded back, "Yup. But trust me, I won't put you alone with Jason again."
She just smiled, unsure of what to say as she sipped her orange juice, sucking the rest of it out through the straw.
Tony looked at her, studying her face, her flawless olive toned skin, her deep chocolate brown eyes, her small lips that he wanted to capture with his oh so badly...he moved his eyes back to her own, fixating on them.
She was right.
He was entranced by a woman's eyes.
He felt as if he could see right through them, their thoughts, everything.
And right now, he saw sadness, her eyes slightly tinged with a red coloring.
His mind raced back to last night when he woke up once again to the faint sound of crying...sobbing coming from somewhere. The redness in her eyes showed that she had been crying...but Ziva...Ziva never cried.
I mean, she was just...Ziva!
But the sobbing he had heard last night had sounded awfully like a woman's, and Terri's voice definitely did not match the description. He carefully lifted a hand up and ran his fingertips on her cheek, tucking back the hair behind her ear, which was in the hood of his sweatshirt. He had to admit she looked great in it, almost better than he did, "Were you crying last night?" He questioned softly and she snapped her head so hard to the right to look at him that the hood fell off of her head.
"W-What?" She managed to say, her heart racing.
"I...heard sobbing last night. I thought it was-" He was cut off by Ziva.
"No." Her answer was short and quick and he sighed.
He knew it was her sobbing.
She knew it that he knew that it was her sobbing.
And he needed to know was why.
He scooted closer to her, their thighs almost touching, "What else did he do to you, Ziva?" he questioned and she shook her head.
"Nothing." She said, simply, taking in a deep breath, "He did nothing."
"Then why were you crying?"
"Why is it any of your business?" She demanded, looking him deep in his green globes.
"Because you're my partner."
She shook her head, "Not a good enough reason."
"Best friend." He said, quickly, and she stared at him.
"Fine." She spat, "I was crying."
"You still didn't answer my question." He paused, almost for dramatic effect, "Why?"
"That is none of your business."
"I made it my business."
"Well get your nose out of it."
He sighed and gave her a small smile, "You would get that one right."
She couldn't help but give a small smile back, "I was angry." She admitted, looking down at her lap, "For many reasons. One of them what happened at dinner." She looked back up at him, "Now." She shortly said, "We will change the subject, or you will take your white horse, Prince Charming, and leave."
He grinned, "Fine." he said, throwing his empty foil that once contained a burrito and shoving it into the McDonald's bag. He grabbed his carton of chocolate milk and stared at her, "I have grandparents here." He finally said.
"Are you going to visit them?" She questioned and he shrugged his shoulders, taking a sip of his milk.
"Maybe." He let out an 'ahh' in refreshment as he brought the carton back down from his lips, grinning his famous DiNozzo grin, "I would love for you to meet them." Ziva smiled at him, trying hard to keep the laugh that was threatening to escape inside her mouth, "See where I get my crazy genes from."
"And messy genes?" She laughed and he furrowed his eyebrows together as Ziva grabbed a napkin, carefully dabbing his upper lip with it, "Chocolate mustache?"
He smiled, "It's my best look, dontcha think?"
She rolled her eyes, "Hardly."
Ziva took her empty foil and threw it into the bag along with Tony's mustache, "Thank you for breakfast." She said, handing him the bag, "Now take out the trash."
He grinned and then stood from the bed, the McDonald's bag in his hand, "Thanks." He paused in front of her bed, just grinning at her, for no reason whatsoever.
She couldn't help but smile back as she gestured towards the door, "Go, I must get dressed."
He nodded and crossed the room, opening up the door, "See you in twenty minutes, Zi." He called over his shoulder.
She nodded and he went to leave when she called his name, stopping him, "Tony?"
He turned around and faced her, "Yeah?"
"I am...sorry for the way that I acted last night." She admitted, looking down at her lap for a second and then back up at him, "It was uncalled for, and you were right."
"Of course I was."
"I will see you later, my prince."
"I bid you adieu, fair princess." He smiled, bowing dramatically before exiting the room, leaving Ziva to smile happily to herself.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tony decided that he wanted to walk with Ziva to the 'watch' room, as he named it, just in case Jason was already in there. He didn't want Ziva to be alone for a second with that bastard. He knocked on her door with his knuckle, "Zi, you ready?"
A few seconds passed and Ziva opened the door, and for some reason, she looked incredibly sexy. "Yes." She said, walking in front of him. Tony took this time to check out her...lower half. She was wearing jeans that fit her way to perfectly, and his sweatshirt only exceeded her hotness, and Tony was practically licking his lips as he watched her walk down the hall. He scolded himself, "Stop it, DiNozzo. She is your p-a-r-t-n-e-r. Not your girlfriend. You're loosing it!"
He almost ran into her when she turned the handle, walking in slowly. Tony rolled his eyes when he saw the FBI agent sitting there, three cups in a holder. He stood, holding them, walking over to the pair. "Uh, morning." He said. Ziva only glared at him as she walked around, making herself comfortable in one of the three chairs. Tony half smiled as he followed her, taking the chair next to her. "Am I gonna get the silent treatment all day?"
Tony scoffed, "Probably."
Jason rolled his eyes and walked over to Ziva, holding one of the cups in his hand, "Can I talk to you for a second?" He said. Ziva only looked up at him again, "Please?" Sighing, she quickly stood from her seat, and he led her to the corner of the room, where Ziva knew Tony was still in earshot.
"What?" She snapped.
"I know you are...upset from what happened last night..."
"That is one word that comes to mind." She replied.
"...And I know that I was out of line. I had a few drinks before we went to the restaurant, and I shouldn't have treated you that way."
Tony had to stop himself from walking over and punching the man. "No, DiNozzo. You're her co-worker. Not her over-protected-jealous-psycho wanna be boyfriend. Cool it."
Jason turned the cup in his hands, "I'm sorry. I don't act like that. And I want to make it up to you." Ziva looked up at him, his blue eyes begging for forgiveness, "I got you tea."
"Fine." Ziva said plainly, taking the tea from him. She walked around and sat in her chair again. Tony turned to her and mouthed "You okay?"
Ziva smiled and nodded at him before taking a sip of the hot liquid, letting it run slowly down her throat. The three sat in a awkward silence as they watched Corrado sit and read his morning paper, answering several phone calls, one even to his Mom.
Jason let out a hard sigh, "I'm going to the bathroom." He announced, standing from his chair as Tony rolled his eyes at him. Tony then quickly moved over closer to Ziva, and, now he could smell her intoxicating scent, which added with the OSU sweatshirt drove him more insane. He took a deep breath in of her, and then spoke softly, "So what did he say to you?"
Ziva was almost asleep, and for once, she was warm, "Hm?"
"What did he say to you, Zi?" Tony asked, this time slower.
Ziva raised and dropped one shoulder, "Just that he was sorry and that he 'didn't act like that'."
Tony scoffed, "Bullshit."
"Tony!" Ziva replied.
"Ziva, I'm telling you. That guy is trouble."
"I know that. I did not say that I was dating him."
"Are you going to?" Tony asked, maybe a little too quickly.
Ziva snapped her head back in his direction and stared him in the eyes, "I do not know."
Tony, now aggravated more than ever, moved back to his original spot and put the headphones around his neck, "He'll never change. He'll promise you the world until he gets you in bed."
Ziva let out a sigh and leaned over closer to him, "I have no intention of dating him, Tony. It was nice that he apologized. Now you need to..." She stopped and thought, "Freeze."
Tony rolled his eyes, "I am freezing."
"No no no that is not what I mean. Did I make another American idiom mistake?" As he turned to answer her, Jason walked back from the bathroom.
"Yeah, Zi. You are making a mistake." He commented, and Jason looked between the two before turning back to the monitor. Two hours rolled by, very slowly, and Corrado was just coming back from grocery shopping, which Terri and Russell followed him. "You know, besides the whole terrorist thing...this guy lives a boring life." Tony commented. Jason and Ziva both just looked at him, as if he was speaking in a different language. Tony sighed, and was actually annoyed with both of them, "I'm going for food." He said, standing from his chair, and walking, quickly out the door.
"What's with him?" Jason asked.
"He is just...tired. And cold."
"Ah, yeah." Jason said, standing from his chair. "I know the feeling. Are you cold?" He asked.
Ziva shook her head and looked up at him, "No, I am fine. This jacket is warm and I have the tea you brought me. Thanks." He nodded and walked around the room before walking back to the table with the three monitors, staring at the one in front of Ziva. He leaned down closer, as if he was staring at the monitor.
"What's he doing?"
Ziva furrowed her eyebrows and backed up a little, because he was way inside her 'bubble', "He's putting away his groceries." She replied, as if it was obvious.
Jason put his large hands on her shoulders and began to message them slightly, "You sure you're not cold?" Ziva ripped her body away from him and started to stand, when he pinned her down.
"Jason let go of me." She said through her teeth, trying to move from his grip again. He was strong, very strong, and from the position she was in, she couldn't fight him off. "Get off!" She yelled, still struggling under his grip.
"Ziva, if you would just give me a chance to show you what I can do," He leaned down to her, lips lips touching her ear, "How I can make you feel." She tried again to move from his grip, kicking her legs in every direction, but his arms were holding her down tight, "Relax." He whispered, and then proceeded to kiss his way down her neck, moving her straightened hair in the process.
Tony was barely able to turn the handle to the door because of all the snacks he held, and even had three sodas wedged under his chin. "Alright Zi I got you debbie cakes and..." He stopped when he was finally able to look up, and saw Ziva struggling under Jason's grip, "Get off of her!" He yelled, dropping everything he had. He made it over to them in two steps, punching Jason in the face, causing the FBI agent to fall backwards. Tony pulled Ziva up and lifted her chin, so that she was looking into his eyes, "You okay?" He asked, just as he did the night before.
Ziva sighed, "I am fine Tony."
Jason stood, "Who in the hell do you think you are?" He asked, holding his face with one hand. Tony let go of Ziva and took a step towards him.
"I'm Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo." He said and then pointed to Ziva, "And that is my partner. Touch her again and I will kill you." He said plainly, "That's twice. There won't be a third."
Jason laughed sarcastically, "You think I'm afraid of you pathetic NCIS agents?" A step closer, "I'll do whatever the hell I want. It's painfully obvious that you want her just as much as I do." A step closer, "There won't be a 'third strike' because I'm about to hit a home run."
Tony heard enough when he used all of his strength to swing at the man again, but Jason ducked to avoid impact. The two men started to fight, when Ziva realized that it'd gone to far.
She grabbed Tony's arm, carefully, so that she wouldn't get in the middle of them, "Tony, stop it." Tony backed up, mostly because Ziva was pulling on his arm, his breathing was rapid, mostly from anger. "Stop." She reiterated.
"Ziva he..." Tony started but then stopped and pointed to the door, looking at Jason, "Get out."
Jason scoffed, "Gladly." The door slammed and Tony sighed. He was very thankful that Gibbs and Fornell gave him the task of 'shift assignments'.
Tony turned to Ziva, grabbing her chin with his hand again, "You sure you're okay?"
Ziva smiled only slightly, "I am fine, Tony. He just...had a grip on me. I could not move."
Tony dropped his hand, "I shouldn't have left you alone with him. I'm sorry."
Ziva sighed and put her hand on his face, "It is not your fault." She wanted to kiss him, not only for looking so damn sexy but also for defending her, but she only dropped her hand and returned to her seat. Tony let out a sigh and sat in the chair next to her, putting the headphones around his neck again listening as Corrado crunched on chips.
Tony looked over at Ziva, and then quickly back at the screen.
One thing was for sure.
She was not going to be left alone with that bastard again.
He really would kill him.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4 Hours Later…
"Tony!" Ziva shook her partner's arm, trying to wake him. She groaned, "Tony wake up!" Finally, he opened his eyes and took his feet off of the table.
"What?" He groaned.
"I need you to translate something for me." She said and then typed on one of the computers for a few seconds before heavy Italian could be heard through the speakers. "What is he saying?"
Tony yawned as he listened to the audio, "They're talking about how delizioso last night's chicken Parmesan was." He waved, signaling with his hand that he wasn't interested in it, before he sat up again, "Now he's saying that he has to go meet some guy named Carlos Benvenuto."
"We need to follow him, Tony. This could be part of the cell." She said and stood, before Tony grabbed on her wrist.
"Whoa, whoa, where are you going?"
Ziva furrowed her eyebrows together, "To…follow Corrado." She said slowly.
"You're not going alone."
Ziva sighed, "Tony I can take care of myself."
"No, Ziva." He said sternly. "I'll go with you."
Ziva rolled her eyes and walked into the hall, when they were met by Russell, Terri and Jason. Tony instinctively took a step closer to Ziva, as if he was her guard dog.
Breaking the awkward silence, Terri spoke first, "Where you going?"
"Corrado is leaving and we want to follow him."
"No, you two stay and watch, we'll follow."
Russell shook his head, "Not liking it. If Terri and I follow him again, he might see us and get suspicious."
"I agree." Jason said, and then turned back to the NCIS agents, "I'll go with Ziva."
Tony laughed sarcastically. "I don't think so."
"Who died and made you the boss?"
"I don't give a damn who did, but you're not going with Ziva."
"Tony…" Ziva warned, grabbing on his hand and squeezing it lightly. She could not figure out why the simple gesture sent thousands of electric jolts through her body.
But it did.
"I have a plan." Russell said proudly, "Agents DiNozzo and David will follow him, and maybe you could be a happy couple that's in love or something?" Tony and Ziva looked at each other and then he continued, "Terri and I will be on the streets. Terri can be like at the paper stand, and I'll be at the coffee shop. That way, we'll have plenty of angles on him."
Jason clapped loudly, "Brilliant plan! Now what am I supposed to do?" Jason asked.
Tony laughed, "Why don't you go practice interrogation techniques on yourself or something?" He waved his hand again. Jason rolled his eyes.
"Why don't you shut the hell up and go fu-"
"Scott!" Russell yelled, stopping the agent instantly. "You will be doing your favorite thing, stuffing your face at the hot dog stand."
"He needs to stuff his face with something." Tony mumbled, and Ziva elbowed him lightly in the stomach.
"We do not have a lot of time." Ziva commented.
"Right, lets go then." Terri said, "Russ and I will go out the back, Tony and Ziva, the front, Jason..." She stop and thought, "Do whatever."
Tony and Ziva smiled as they walked down the hall and down the stairs, waiting in the lobby for Corrado to leave the building. When they heard him leave, Tony put his hand on the handle, and Ziva grabbed his arm, pulling on him. "Let him get a little ahead, Tony." She said softly. Tony looked down at her, and they was just as close, (if not closer) as they were in the bathroom the previous night. He could smell her minty toothpaste from her breath and the smell of her shampoo, honeysuckle, he guessed.
He grinned, "Hey Zi." She only looked up at him, "If I bite your arm will I taste honeysuckle?"
Ziva rolled her eyes and opened the door, stepping out into the cold air of Italy. She immediately pulled the sleeves on Tony's jacket down over her hands. He enjoyed the view from behind, but decided since they were supposed to be married, that he could look at Ziva's backside anytime he wanted, clothed or not clothed. His mouth practically watered at the thought.
Not clothed.
He brought himself back to reality and jogged a couple of steps to catch up with her. "Ziva act natural." He commented, for she was staring a hole through Corrado, who was about a block ahead of them.
Ziva looked up at him as they walked, "And do what?"
"Kiss me like you mean it." He practically growled. Ziva looked up at him in confusion, "After all, we are a married couple."
Ziva sighed, if only she could kiss him like she wanted to, "Agent Johnson said nothing about us being married, Tony."
"He said 'happy couple'."
"A couple can mean a couple of people."
"That's in love." He added.
Ziva rolled her eyes, "I am not kissing you." She commented. I might not want to stop. Her brain added.
"You didn't seem to mind when we were undercover."
"I was new at NCIS. I did not know you very well. I have learned my lesson." Tony rolled his eyes.
"Fine." He said. The two walked in an awkward silence until they saw Corrado look back, his eyes right on them. Tony quickly wrapped his arm around Ziva's waist and kissed her on the cheek. She looked up at him and he motioned with his eyes in Corrado's direction.
"Why did you do that?" She said through her teeth, a 'fake' smile on her face.
"Corrado was looking." He said simply.
Ziva rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the burning on her face where his lips made contact with her skin. And the fact that his strong arm was around her waist, and it was a ridiculously perfect feeling. Soon, they made it to the paper stand, where Terri was reading a paper, her back turned to Corrado as he passed. Tony and Ziva checked for traffic and crossed the street, his large hand slipping down to hers and their fingers intertwined.
Tony groaned, "Where is this guy going? We've been walking for like...10 miles."
Ziva furrowed her eyebrows together, "We have not walked even one mile, Tony." She replied.
"You know what I mean. It feels like we've been walking for 10 miles."
Ziva raised and dropped one shoulder, "I do not mind it. The sun is warm."
"Oh, yeah, well that's true. Compared to that...freakin' freezer we've been sleeping in."
Ziva chuckled as they heard in their earwigs, "Turned down an ally."
"Follow, do not approach." Terri instructed. Jason and Russell slowly followed the man down the ally, where he made an exchange for drugs. Tony and Ziva sat down on a bench, Tony rubbing his feet through his shoe. "Drugs? We walked all this way for drugs?"
"We did not know he was buying drugs." Ziva said. Her left hand was now cold, and she only wished his large hand was holding hers again.
"Heading back to the hotel." Was now said in their earwigs. Ziva stood, "Come on, Tony."
"Oh no. I'm waiting for a car."
"Tony, lets go." She said, holding her hand down to him.
"But I don't wanna walk." He whined.
"Fine. Sit there." She said, walking quickly away from him.
"You're not walking by yourself either, missy." He said, taking two very large steps to catch up with her.
"I told you, Tony. I can take care of myself. That this morning was just a...mistake."
"I know you can take care of yourself. But with me around, you don't have to." He grinned and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "I'll look after you."
Ziva chuckled and looked down at the sidewalk as they walked.
"I know you will." She mumbled.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was almost warmer outside of the hotel than inside the hotel, but they suffered through it anyways, the rest of the day spent taking shifts on Corrado, trying to research if the man he was supposedly dealing drugs with, Carlos Benvenuto, was actually dealing drugs and not just Intel.
The day went by slowly, but ending with Russell going out to pick them up some take-out spaghetti from a local restaurant for dinner.
Each of them ate in their separate rooms, by themselves. This way, there were no conflicts or arguments over who ate with who.
At around 2200h, Tony jumped off his bed and pulled on a pair of sweatpants, discarding his sweater for a t-shirt and sweatshirt. He opened the door slowly and looked up and down the hall, his footsteps padded as he started knocking on everyone's doors, Ziva's first, of course.
Terri, Russell, Ziva, and Jason all came out confused, except Jason's look was one more of pure annoyance than anything else, considering that he hoped that the person opening up the door was a woman by the name of Ziva.
"Meeting. Discussion, actually. Now."
"About what?" Terri questioned.
"Corrado." He explained, "Now gather up all the notes and meet..." He paused, "Whose room is the warmest?"
"Well..." Russell spoke up, "Your room gets the most sun during the day, so I would assume that that is the warmest of all of them." He said and Tony shared a look with Ziva, who still looked extremely incredible, even though she had changed out of her perfect jeans and into a pair of black sweatpants, similar to the ones that he was wearing. They hugged her hips yet hung loosely on her form. Tony glanced up at Jason, who was all but licking his lips as he stared hungrily at her, as if she was a piece of meat.
"Great." Tony nearly spat, his gaze still on Jason, "Let's go there." He tugged gently on Ziva's sweatshirt, and she looked at him, "Come on, Zi." He said, quietly as he placed his hand on the small of her back, leading her into his room. The FBI team followed, and Tony kicked some of his clothes away, Ziva sighing as she broke away from Tony's light grip on her and started picking up the clothes, making sure that all the creases were gone before neatly folding them and placing them in one of the drawers on the dresser.
Terri and Jason stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, in front of the dresser as Tony lounged on the bed, a frown placed on his face as he looked at Jason. Russell had gone to get their notes and some more chairs, as Terri crossed the room and took the seat in the corner, slightly near the bed.
Tony patted on the bed as Ziva closed the drawer, "Hey, sweetheart, you can sit with me." He patted the comforter once more and she didn't even think twice; she walked over to him and climbed under the covers, resting dangerously close to Tony. Their feet touched under the blankets and, even through the cold, felt the electricity run through both of them. Ziva sighed and buried herself deeper in the covers, breathing in Tony's scent deeply.
She turned to her side and closed her eyes briefly before opening them up and looking up at her partner, "Your bed is much more comfortable."
"Then you can sleep with me." He grinned, speaking in a teasing tone.
"Mmm..." She smiled, "Maybe." She just closed her eyes and buried herself deeper into the pillow. Tony's eyes met Jason's and he grinned his famous DiNozzo grin as Jason just rolled her eyes and looked the other way.
Russell appeared moments later, and Ziva opened her eyes, sitting up slightly as he set down two chairs, a laptop on his lap and a notepad full of notes.
"So what do we know?" Tony questioned as Ziva sat up fully. She just wanted to get this over with...she was extremely exhausted from the events of the day.
Terri sighed as she reached over and snatched the notebook out of Russell's hands, flipping a couple of pages, "Corrado arrived late..." she glanced up at the two NCIS agents, "You need to figure that out from your boss. Like...why." She emphasized and then sighed as she flipped another page, "Someone else was living in the building that Corrado's inhabiting at the moment before, but we barely have a facial recognition since the security footage quality sucks." She scoffed and Tony smirked as she continued, "We sent it to our forensic scientist, but he hasn't been able to get anything back to us."
"We can send it to ours." Tony volunteered, "She's fast like lighting." He grinned, "Pumped up on caffeine."
"Great." Terri said, even though it seemed sarcastic as she chucked the notebook at Jason before walking back to her seat, plopping down nearly angrily in it.
Tony and Ziva shared a look as Jason flipped through the notebook some more, skimming the pages carefully, trying to look for anything that seemed relevant, "Well the drug thing today was new, there's a start." He finally said, leaning forward from his position in front of the bed, looking dead at Ziva. His eyes were difficult to read, but the deeper she got, the closer she got to Tony. There was something about him, something about his eyes that made her entire Mossad senses go on red alert.
And she didn't know why.
Maybe it was just because of his forward actions with her, she honestly didn't know, but she didn't like it.
Something felt off.
And she needed to know why.
Badly.
"Yeah..." Tony said, pondering to himself while he spoke, "So...a terrorist that buys drugs..."
"Many terrorist cells have done that." Ziva commented, breaking her odd stare with Jason and looking up at Tony, "Mainly just small drugs though...like cigarettes, nothing like cocaine."
"Drug dealers normally don't deal cigarettes." Tony pointed out, "Unless Corrado's really an underage teenager looking for a way to get high."
"So he might be working undercover." Russell spoke up.
"The drug dealer?" Terri questioned, furrowing her eyebrows together.
Russell nodded, turning his attention to the woman, "The cigarettes that he got could actually be a message."
"The paper that the tobacco is wrapped in?"
He nodded once more, "Exactly."
"We need the drug dealer." Jason said, and then turned to Russell, "Russ, you go and see if you can hack into the Italian Police's security footage from the streets around 1500h, when we went undercover. See if you can get any sort of angle on our drug dealer."
He opened up his laptop, quickly, "Got it."
"Then send any footage of the mystery man we got to-" he started, but then stopped as he watched Tony and Ziva. Ziva had her eyes closed, obviously fighting to stay awake as she nuzzled her head into Tony's side. DiNozzo looked down at her and smiled before looking back up at Jason, the same stupid grin on his face.
"Uh...Jason?" Russell asked, and Jason broke out of his trance.
"Send it to Fornell and the lab back at..." He took in a breath as he watched them, Tony carefully running his fingers through her soft, brown, straight hair, "...the FBI."
Terri, from where she was sitting, rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair.
Tony looked back up from Ziva and at Russell and Jason, "You can always send it to our forensic specialist, Abby. She's a whiz. I swear-" He laughed quietly, probably for Ziva's sake, "She never sleeps." Jason noticed that his voice level dropped a couple of octaves, and Tony felt small fingers wrap around his thigh, a ghost of a smirk dancing on her lips as she rested her head on his side.
Jason tried to keep the growl down as jealous coursed through his veins. How can this goddess possibly fall for this...this...IDIOT! He stood abruptly, "I think that's all we have for right now." He desperately tried not to spit at Tony.
He just grinned at him, causing his anger to grow, "You wanna take her back to her own room?" He demanded and Terri rolled her eyes as she stood up.
"Jace, let it go." She sighed.
"Don't 'Jace' me," He turned to her, "Terri. Don't you have a night shift with DiNozzo?"
She nodded, "That's right. And you will go back to your room for the night shift. And sleep. Alone." She moved closer to him, her voice barely a whisper, "And you won't think about that Israeli chick, okay?"
Before he even had a chance to respond, she brushed past him and out of the room, leaving Russell, Jason, Ziva, and Tony there.
"Again." Jason said, crossing his arms, "Are you gonna take her back to her room?"
He looked down at her and then shook his head, "That would disturb her...which would be rude." He said in a sarcastic 'happy' tone.
Russell looked up and between the two men before quickly closing his laptop and standing up, the chair sliding back and making a crud sound on the ground, "I'm just gonna....go and do this in my room." He hurriedly said before all but bolting out of the room.
"Leave." Tony spat, his voice low and sinister.
He laughed, "Or what? You're gonna hurt me?"
"Don't tempt me."
"I'm so scared!" he mocked him, sarcastically and Tony wanted to slam him into the wall. Too bad Ziva was near his side. He didn't want to wake her. Just the thought of her sleeping in the same bed as him tonight was intoxicating.
And he truly couldn't wait.
"Get. Out." He said through gritted teeth, "I've got work to do, you've got sleeping to do. Alone."
"You're sleeping alone too tonight, why are you talking?"
He looked down at Ziva, "I'm not sleeping alone tonight."
He laughed and then nodded, "Right..." He started towards the door, pausing in the doorway after he opened it up, "Oh..." He called over his shoulder, "...and just so you know....I'm not going to stay away from her, I don't care what you try." Before Tony had a chance to respond, Jason left, closing the door behind him.
Tony narrowed his eyes at the door in front of him, the anger boiling through his veins.
If it wasn't for Ziva being next to him, he would have decked him one right there.
But he was making sure of one thing; he wasn't going to let Jason even think about touching Ziva.
He was going to make sure that he stayed away from her.
Even if that meant pulling out his SIG and taking a shot at him.
Four in the chest sounded nice.