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Safe Haven: Chapter Eight

Tony's POV

I watch through the window of Chava's room, taking in Ziva and her daughter. Smiles and tears cover their faces. Ziva turns her head towards the window and shoots me a dazzling smile that lights up her whole face. As she looks at me, I remember our conversation that took place when we woke up this morning.

FLASHBACK

Sunlight streams in through the window, waking me up. Just as I am about to get up and stretch, I feel someone snuggle into me. Looking down, I see Ziva's face pressed into my shirt. (The staff moved extra beds into Chava's room a couple of days ago when they realized that Zi and I both weren't going anywhere.)

'When did she get over here? I don't remember her falling asleep snuggled into me. DiNozzo! Who cares? Ziva is next to you! Very true, very true.'

I look down at her again, seeing her curly brown hair falling over her eyes. A small smile is plastered on her face and her hand moves down to grab mine. As we intertwine our hands, I pull both of us up so we are in a half-sitting position. Taking my free hand, I start to stroke her hair and pull it out of her face.

Her beauty always amazes me. Her hair is gorgeous and wild and it smells like lavender. Her lips when they are stretched into that untamed smile, that only comes out once in awhile, stops my heart.

And her eyes, oh her eyes. They speak volumes. They sparkle when she is genuinely happy. They get darker when anger flies through her veins. They get slightly wider when she sees something that scares her and then they turn to stone shortly after. Just her eyes could bring me to my knees when she looks at me with such determination and concentration. When her chocolate eyes meet mine, they take my breath away.

The eyes that I am thinking about flutter open. Slowly, they adjust to the brightness of the sunlight. When they finally open wider, she sees our intertwined hands. At first, I think she is going to yank her hand away, but she just looks me in the eyes and squeezes my hand.

I feel like this is the time to tell her my feelings, even though she stills has her daughter to worry about. Peering deep into her eyes, I start to pour my heart out to her.

"Ziva. I fell in love with you a long time ago and I never had the guts to say it. I know that it's a bad time with Chava and all, but I want to show you that I am in love with you. You take my breath away every day just by walking through the door. You are amazing in everything you do. You..."

I am interrupted when I feel a pair of lips on my own. When Ziva pulls away, I sit there stunned. After I snap out of it, I turn to see Ziva's radiant smile.

"Can I take that as an 'I love you, too?'"

Ziva's smile gets wider as she nods her head.

"You know, this reminds me of the movie Made of Honor." I am about to go on and tell her about it when her lips meet mine again.

"Shut up, Tony," she mumbles against my mouth.

"Yes ma'am."

She takes her free hand and yanks my ear. I wince as she pulls away from me. Her stony stare tells me not to call her ma'am.

"Sorry, sweetcheeks."

She lets go of my ear and lays her head back on my chest as I begin to stroke her hair again. After a while, I lean down to kiss her forehead and ask her a question.

"Ziva David. Would you do me the honor of going out on a date with me?"

"Yes."

"Good. Let's go down to the cafeteria and grab some grub. I am starving!"

End of FLASHBACK

When I snap back into reality, Ziva's once-and-awhile smile is still there shining up at me. I send her a smile back and, without looking to see if any of the team was around, blew her a kiss.

"AAWWWWWW! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT!" Abby's excited voice filled the air.

I turned around quickly to see Abby and Gibbs standing in the hallway. I can feel myself get beet-red as I walk up to them, head down, and away from the window. When I don't feel a head-slap after awhile, I look up to see Abby smiling widely and Gibbs taking a sip of his coffee. Not a moment after I looked up, I was mauled by Abby in a bone crushing hug. Peering over her shoulder, I look at Gibbs with a confused look. He smiles a bit and takes his coffee away from his lips. Right on cue, a head-slap smacked me upside the head without hitting Abby.

"Bout time DiNozzo."

"Boss?"

"Ah. We all knew it was gonna happen someday."

"So, rule number twelve?" I ask hesitantly.

"Just leave it out of the office."

A big smile erupts onto my face as I pick Abby up and twirl her around. My laughter fills the air as I stop spinning her and kiss her on both cheeks. Her face is one of pure shock as I set her down and turn back to Chava's room. Ziva is standing outside Chava's room, closing the door. I race down to her and sweep her off her feet, much like I did with Abby. Again I get met with a face of shock but this one has some curiosity mixed in with it.

"Tony? What is going on?" she questions when I finally put her down.

"Gibbs is going on, that's what! No more rule twelve, Zi!" I put my hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes.

"Are you serious?"

"Dead serious!" I watch as her face lights up in a smile again and engulf her in a hug. When we separate, I tilt her chin up and plant my lips on hers. After a few blissful seconds, we pull apart to the sound of Abby clapping and cheering. I pull her into one more hug and pepper her forehead with light kisses. A little while later she wiggles out of my grasp and walks over to Gibbs.

Abby and I shift off to the side as we watch Ziva stop a little ways away from Gibbs, like she is debating whether to do something or not. Suddenly, she flings herself at Gibbs and hugs him fiercely. He seems to be taken off guard for a moment but then embraces her and kisses her forehead.

"Thank you, Gibbs."

"You deserve happiness, Ziver."

I take that as my cue to begin to make my way over to them. I see Ziva's smile get even wider if that is even possible. Gibbs unwraps his arms from around her and nudges her over to me. When we meet each other, I put my arm around her waist. Gibbs turns to me with a stern yet happy-ish face. "You hurt her, I'll kill ya."

"Wouldn't expect anything less, boss," I reply as he sticks out his hand.

I take his hand with my free one and shake it firmly, while looking him in the eye. He sends me one of his Gibbs' smiles and turns to Abby. He leads her out towards the elevator as she puts both thumbs up and smiles at us. Ziva and I stand there watching them leave in silence.

A.N. Hey guys. I figured out my schedule! I not going to do much on the weekdays but on the weekends, I am going to write as much as I can and post as much as I can! I also want to say that I am having some writer's block right now for this story and I wanted Tony and Ziva to get together sooner rather than later. I think this is my favorite chapter so far! Thanks to everyone who reviews! I would love to get forty reviews when this is finished but that isn't for a while now. P.S. I am currently writing a book right now and it is romance so if this eve seems extremely sappy, it's because I a in that mind-set.