Pivotal Moments

A/N This one is a tag for Knockout (6x18): Tara gets Ziva thinking.

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March 2009: DC

Ziva looked Tara over carefully, wondering what she'd said that had Tony so jittery he'd practically run out of the room when she'd come to take over. It was no secret that strong women intimidated Tony, strong and sexy women even more—but Ziva generally preferred to be the one intimidating Tony.

Tara glanced over and saw Ziva watching her, raised her eyebrows as if to ask why she was so interested.

"And what is it you do?" Ziva asked Tara politely.

Tara glanced sideways coyly, then back at Ziva. "Let's just say I take care of men."

Ziva nodded, not flustered in the least, all the more sure that Tara could have sent Tony reeling in a matter of seconds. Tara tilted her head questioningly. "You, too?"

"Not for this job," Ziva said delicately.

"So who is it you're taking care of these days?" Tara asked coquettishly.

Ziva opened her mouth to say no one, but it wasn't exactly true. Michael had flown out to meet her in Chicago the weekend before. He had become increasingly annoying long-distance, with his near daily phone calls and paranoia that she was reporting to her father no matter what she said, but having him close had turned out to be an entirely different story. They'd been involved long enough now that he knew what would make her laugh, knew just how to touch her--

Rather than try to explain, she opened her phone to the pictures she'd taken of him in the hotel that night, teasing him that a 12 year-old girl they'd brought whose cellphone had been used in a crime had pictures of her boyfriend on her phone.

Tara studied the picture a moment, then looked back up at Ziva. "Good looking guy, you two serious?"

Ziva shrugged. "He does not live here. He travels a lot."

"Long distance relationships are impossible," Tara responded knowingly.

"Relationship? I do not know." It was a question she'd rather avoid. She knew Michael thought of what was between them as a relationship, but she'd started out thinking of him as her partner, in Mossad and then in their duplicity. Even now, she wondered if her time with Michael had any emotional meaning for her like it seemed to for him.

"Maybe you should be looking for something a little closer to home," Tara said suggestively.

Ziva paused, trying to come up with a response that didn't admit that she still wondered once in a while what her relationship with Tony meant as well.

Fortunately, Vance knocked and entered, then relieved her. As Ziva slipped into the hallway, she was surprised to find that Tony hadn't been the only one thrown by Tara's presence today.

***

She didn't have another moment alone with Tara until late that night, at the safe house.

"So, what's Tony like as a partner?" Tara asked calmly.

Ziva glanced at her. The woman clearly had ulterior motives, and was making no secret about it. She gave the most obvious answer. "He's competent, but very playful—almost childish."

"And is that all?"

Ziva forced herself not to squirm under the other woman's gaze. "Why do you ask?"

Tara shrugged blithely. "After talking to him for a while, it seemed like he was having trouble with women these days, so I thought I'd scope out any interested parties."

Ziva pursed her lips. Could she really have missed something like this? She had been preoccupied with Michael, she supposed...

"Would you be?"

"I'm sorry?" Ziva glanced up, surprised.

"Interested." Tara raised her eyebrows.

Ziva paused a moment, evaluating her possible responses. "I told you I'm seeing someone," she said slowly, as nonchalantly as she could. She glanced at the window. "I must check in with McGee," she said, rising and moving to look out. "I will be down by the car." She let herself out without turning around. She could almost feel Tara's smirk as she left.

In the chillier air of the night, Ziva caught her breath, waving McGee inside once he'd reported no change in street traffic—and that Tara had teased Tony about the condom in his wallet having expired. McGee shook his head as if confused, but after he went upstairs Ziva found herself musing on Tara's insights.

Tony had certainly matured over the years she'd known him, and he hadn't talked about women by name since Jeanne, but she knew he went on dates fairly frequently—he still told them when he had plans, with that irritating smirk, and she knew his body language more than well enough to know he wasn't lying. So was it really possible he wasn't having any luck? Ziva jumped as the phone in her pocket vibrated, and she pulled it out, sure Tony had caught her thinking about him. No such luck: Michael. She pushed the button to still the phone but didn't answer it. She was on duty, she told herself. She couldn't be distracted right now.

***

The next day, Tara safely headed back to Chicago, Ziva found herself headed down to Autopsy to pass some papers along to Ducky.

"And they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks!" Ducky was telling Palmer as she entered.

"Is your mother teaching the Corgis tricks, Doctor?" Ziva asked.

He turned. "No, my dear, Jordan is teaching me to Salsa." Ducky danced a few steps across the floor, taking Ziva's papers and setting them down before twirling her across the room.

"Not bad," she said, laughing, when they stopped, "for an old dog."

He laughed. "Here, I have pictures!" He waved for Palmer to pass the stack back and the younger man grinned affectionately as he passed the photographs to Ziva. She smiled as she glanced through them, at Ducky and Jordan, in a kilt and a ballgown respectively, dancing together.

"And when do we get to see your friend?" Ducky asked teasingly.

Ziva smiled. "It just so happens..." She pulled out her cellphone and held it out to Palmer. He pulled the pictures up and she chuckled as he and Ducky crowded around the tiny screen.

"Not bad," Palmer said, clearly impressed by the shirtless picture of Michael.

"Most impressive," Ducky said, raising a lascivious eyebrow at Ziva.

She smiled and held out her hand for her phone. "Here are your photographs, Ducky."

Palmer returned the phone to her, in turn.

The doors to Autopsy swished open, and Tony entered.

"What's up?" he called over to the group.

"We were just sharing pictures of our significant others," Ducky called back.

Ziva tensed, but before she could choose either fight or flight, Palmer whirled and headed out the side door.

Ducky sighed. "He still gets upset sometimes about Michelle, I forgot."

Tony looked confused. "Then who did you mean by 'we' when you said--" Before he could finish, Ziva brushed past him and left as well.

Ducky looked up at Tony nervously. "Never mind, Tony. What did you need?"

From the doorway, Ziva caught Tony's businesslike answer and relaxed. She knew there was something wrong with her instinctive secrecy about Michael when it came to Tony, but she also knew she didn't want think too hard about it. Nor did she want to think about the flutter in her stomach when the elevator doors had opened that morning to reveal Tony standing a touch too close to Tara. The woman was gone, but the questions she'd asked lingered unpleasantly in Ziva's mind.