Of course I don't own any of the original characters, stories, concepts etc. of NCIS or otherwise, they belong to their respective owners. However, any characters and/or storylines that I have created for this story are mine.
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Making Up for Lost Time
Chapter 10: No Regrets
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A/N:
A little remark to everybody commenting on changing Ziva's hair: It's not like I gave her a buzz-cut, people, calm down, please!
Also, I'd like to bow in the general direction of Austria, thanking WannaBeLikeZiva for being such an excellent beta and supplying some great ideas which made this chapter possible as it is!
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"So, Ziva, can you tell me something?" Tony turned, resting his head on his forearm.
"Hmm," she purred.
"Is it really true, that blondes have more fun?" he asked, grinning as wide as he could and promptly receiving a slight punch to his forearm. "Ouch!" he fake-protested.
"I don't know, maybe I need some more reference material?" Ziva conceded.
"All you had to do was ask!" Tony stated enthusiastically and leaned forward to capture her lips with his. After a few seconds he wrapped his arms around her, rolled onto his back and pulled her with him, so she ended up on top of him. Straddling him, Ziva half propped up, returning his intent gaze.
"Does this remind you of a certain undercover mission we were on a while ago?" he chuckled.
"Please tell me that it isn't your knee this time," she retorted, playing along.
"Maybe you should check, just to be sure?" he suggested, both of them almost bursting into laughter.
Ziva shifted her position a bit, then leaned down to kiss him, slowly lowering her body back onto him.
"Well, it sure doesn't feel like a knee," she moaned into his mouth.
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Almost an hour later, Ziva and Tony still lay alongside each other, his arms snaked around her from the back, holding her tightly. For once Tony was the one who woke first, taking in her presence. He held her even tighter, smelling her hair, noting that, even now, her new, straight and blond hair smelled incomparably like Ziva: wild and exotic, yet also gentle and even more like home to him.
When she stirred at the slight movements he'd made, he started laying a trail of kisses, beginning behind her left ear, working his way to the hollow of her jaw.
"Do you regret we didn't get up the courage to admit our feelings sooner?" he asked her out of nowhere.
She moved away a little, so she could lie on her back and look at him. Tony started drawing small, imaginary circles onto her abdomen, seemingly lost in thought, but still returning her gaze.
"Maybe we needed something to force our two oversized egos into action?" Ziva suggested.
Tony smiled at her. "I guess we did. And I'm really glad we finally managed to sort things out between us."
He took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he wanted to tell her. "I'm happy for every hour we are together," he said. "I love you, Ziva."
"I love you, too," she replied without a moment's hesitation.
Tony's smile became even wider. He was more than happy about her words. And it reminded him of something he had been thinking about. "Ziva, there's something I wanted to ask you ..."
Ziva looked at him questioningly, waiting for him to finish his thought.
"... we will need some new IDs sooner or later, won't we?", Tony asked her.
"Sure, I actually was planning on contacting a freelance counterfeiter whom I know from a mission back at Mossad to get a set of throwaway IDs to use to get a message to Gibbs back home."
"Well, I'm not wild about these IDs being of the throwaway kind, but I was wondering if you could ask the counterfeiter to give us IDs as a married couple?" he asked her, placing a kiss on her lips.
After he broke the kiss, she lifted herself up, following his upward motion and soon restarted their passionate kiss where they'd left off. When she pulled back after a moment, she looked into his eyes, verifying she had really heard him correctly.
"So what do you say?" Tony asked.
"I say yes," she replied, grinning at him.
Tony smiled at her, telling her that she had understood his question correctly.
"So, are you ready to go on our honeymoon?" she wanted to know.
"Well, right now I'm ready, not for our honeymoon, but rather for our wedding night!" Tony stated.
"Yet again?" Ziva asked, slightly faking disbelieve, stroking Tony's, no, her husband's, ego a little bit and sank back down into her pillows, encouraging him, "Bring it on!"
Of course, Tony needn't be told twice.
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