The Jeep rattled to stop in the driveway of Shawn Marner's last residence. "Home sweet home." Tony said. "Look Mrs. Steele. Did you see who are new neighbors are?"
Ziva woke with a start at the sound of his voice. She blinked and rubbed her eyes.
"Sara," He said. "The Liptaks are our new neighbors."
She stifled a yawn. "How convenient."
"It is, isn't it?"
She yawned again and stretched before she got out of the car. "Nice place." She said nodding towards the house. The setting sun glowed pink against the stucco of the one story ranch. A few plucky palms trees grew in the front lawn. The scent of damp vegetation hung in the humid air.
"Is it just me or are you a little creeped out by the fact that we're staying in a dead man's house?" Tony asked as they started up the drive.
"No." Ziva said truthfully. "Maybe we should check under the bricks in the fireplace."
"I think you're falling down on the job dear. There's no fireplace here."
"I was referring to the book, Silas Marner. Don't you ever read?"
"Sure. But I like pictures." They paused on the front stoop. "Should I carry you over the threshold my love?"
She pushed the screen door open and went in ahead of him. "We're not that happily married."
Ziva surveyed the home from a tactical standpoint: Eat in kitchen, square living room with a bay window, tomato red bathroom, screened in back porch.
She caught up with Tony in the master bedroom. He lay stretched out on the double bed. He indicated the flat screen TV hung on the wall across from the bed. "Does it bother you too that Gibbs and company can look into our bedroom at any time?"
"I promise to keep my panties on." She said dryly.
Tony looked at her with a wolfish grin and patted the bed. "It's a lot smaller than what we're used to."
"Were used to. Past tense. Over and done with."
"So you tell me."
X
Ziva set down the knife she was using to chop vegetables for dinner to rub her aching stomach. She'd slept most of the flight down, her head lolling on Tony's shoulder but somehow she was still exhausted. She heard the door click closed on their bedroom.
Tony pressed a little kiss to the nape of her neck. In response she picked up the cleaver and hacked forcefully through a carrot.
"What are you making for dinner?" He hoped that he didn't sound as wounded as he felt.
"Veggie lasagna."
"Want some help?"
"You can finish chopping these." She said. "It's making me dizzy."
He gave her a quizzical look but her expression said Drop it. He did. He took the cleaver from her hands. "McGee tracked down Swift's credit cards. Seems on her last day on earth she went to the hairdressers and the grocery store. Bought beer, M&Ms and tampons."
Ziva laughed. "McGee had a hard time saying 'tampons,' didn't he?"
"Sounded like he was choking." They smiled at each other and for a moment he felt like the past two months had never happened. "Something else. Abby says she and McGee might have something. Megan Liptak formerly Megan Whitcomb went to high school with James Liptak and Shawn Marner in Booth Bay Harbor, Maine. Oh." He said pushing the chopped veggies into a bowl with the cleaver. "Here's the lifetime movie part. Daughter Mary Liptak was born five months after they got married-at age eighteen. Shot gun wedding I'm guessing."
"There are firearms involved in weddings in Maine?"
He laughed. "No. It refers to the father of the bride forcing the groom to marry his daughter at gun point since she's pregnant and it's obvious she's had premarital sex."
Ziva shook her head. "Virginity is over rated." He met her gaze with a grin. She smiled wickedly back at him. "Unfortunately sometimes so is sex."
"We're not talking about me here, are we?"
"No."
"Good. Or bad. Because I was going to have to prove you wrong if you said yes."
"It was good while it lasted." Ziva said softly. "I'll give you that." She shifted uncomfortably and looked out the kitchen window to the Liptack family eating dinner on the back deck. "Look. Another happy family dinner."
Purple-faced Liptak's veins stood out on his neck like cords as he screamed at his wife. Meg, for her part, returned his full-blown verbal assault with a sullen stare. Mary quietly picked up her plate and went into the house.
Tony was starting to wonder if he should interfere when Meg tossed the contents of her water glass in his face and fled into the house. Seconds later a car screeched as Meg rocketed back out of the driveway in a black sedan with Mary riding shotgun.
"Kinda makes you feel all warm and cozy inside." Tony said.
Ziva grinned. "I think I know who I'm going to make my new best friend tomorrow."
X
"You up for a little B&E?" Camie asked.
Gibbs dropped his bag on Calloway's spare bed and looked up at her. She was fresh faced, fortyish and smiled with her eyes. "Depends."
"I'm not talking about stealing the crown jewels here." She said. "Dr. Burke, our ME. I think he's purposefully screwed over the investigation."
"Ya think Calloway? He declared them both accidental deaths and didn't do a proper autopsy."
She laughed. "Jenny said I'd like you." She jangled her car keys. "The bodies were released this morning for burial to Kent Funeral Home. Want to take a look?"
"You going to do another autopsy?"
"As much as I can with out slicing and dicing."
"Lead the way."
X
"I can sleep on the floor if you want me too." Tony said.
"You don't need to do that." Ziva sat reclined against the bed pillows. She looked up from her book. "Unless you want to."
"No. Not really." He lifted the coverlet and slipped underneath, suddenly conscience of just how small the bed was going to seem in the morning.
"I'm not angry." She said.
"I know." He reached out and spun the simple gold ring around her finger. "No engagement ring? I know the budget's tight but Gibbs could have found you a cubic zirconia or something."
"I don't want one."
"Ever?"
"Ever. You know that."
X
"Oh for crying out loud." Camie's aggravated whisper sliced through the dark.
Gibbs swooped his penlight in her direction. In the crypt like blackness of the embalming room, Camie held aloft what appeared to be a Chinese food take out container. "This is all that's left of Special Agent Swift." She said. "Her husband had mentioned keeping her on the mantel. I'd thought he was joking."
"Apparently not." He said. He played his penlight over the nametags on the caskets. "Found Marner."
"Fantastic. Let's open it up. Got a screw driver on you?"
"Nope."
"I thought you had one of those stupid rules about always being prepared."
"Just how much did Director Sheppard tell you?"
"Nothing I couldn't have figured out for myself. Can we save this conversation until after we commit our felony?"
Gibbs laughed. "Something tells me that's not the first time you've said that." He flipped the lid of the casket open. "It's not screwed shut."
Camie's flashlight illuminated Marner's waxy form. "I'll make you deal Gibbs. I'll undress the corpse but you have to buy me a drink later. A lot of them."
"Just when I think I've heard it all." Gibbs said.
"Hey there Shawn." She gave him a little pat on the cheek. "Sorry about the invasion of privacy here but we've got to do it." She unbuttoned his dress shirt and indicated his stomach with her index finger. "Look. This is what I noticed, this huge bruise over his stomach but sort of more towards his right side here. Doesn't make sense to me." She pressed on his ribcage firmly with her gloved hand. "And if you feel his ribs, they're unbruised and uncracked. Doesn't look like Liptak did CPR."
"He didn't." Gibbs agreed as he snapped photos for Ducky. "Done."
"Good. Okay Shawn." Camie buttoned him back up and together they flipped the lid closed. "Nightly Night."
X
Ziva lay next to Tony on the double bed that seemed to grow smaller with each beat of her heart. He lay face down the pillow muffling his soft snores. She had learned to ignore them months ago but tonight they only served to remind her that everything had gone wrong, no matter how much she had wanted it to finally be right.
She forced herself to lie still on her back although her body screamed for movement. Wouldn't want to find myself wrapped around you in the morning. It would be nice, though, jerk.
Unsuccessfully she tried to push away thoughts of what their future might have been like if they'd stayed together. Happy mostly. No. Content mostly, with the occasional airborne waffle maker and night on the sofa.
Tony shifted in his sleep and his hand came out to rest on her ribcage. She slid it lower onto her stomach and his fingers rounded over her belly. She scooted closer to him and plunged into a deep and dreamless sleep.
X Thank you for all of my reviews. Hope you liked it. Let me know what you think. ThanksJeanne