A/N: I am back! It feels good to be writing some more of this story, after so many weeks. I decided not to do a chapter on Enemies Domestic because I knew it was too centred on Vance and there was no Tiva, really. Even if I did write something it would have been, like, three lines long. So here is a new chapter. Sorry it's late, but I had a friend over and not to seem mean or anything but she's the type of person who would think I'm a real freak for writing fanfiction, but you don't want to hear about my boring life. On with the story!

"Agent Gibbs seems like a capable investigator," said the DA. Ziva felt it was a conversation starter. She barely knew the woman, but she knew enough to knew that if she did know her then she wouldn't like her.

"There is none better," Ziva replied. Ziva truly believed this. It was one of those things that no matter what happened and how much you are betrayed, you can always believe in it. That, and she hoped it would be enough for the woman to let her do her job.

"And, um, Agent DiNozzo?" the woman prodded.

Ziva rolled her eyes while looking through her camera lens. "He is...also capable." She took another photo.

The Israeli turned her back to the woman and opened the closet with her foot and the flash on her camera went off three more times.

"And, uh, single?"

Ziva was a little stunned. "Excuse me?"

"Well, I just noticed that he wasn't wearing a ring."

Oh boy. Here we go. Ziva respected that Tony was a womaniser and she knew that he was quite attractive in some ways but she hated getting involved in his love life. She sighed and simply examined the photo she had just taken.

"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry, are you and he...?"

"No!" Ziva stopped her before she could say any more. "No, my relationship with him is strictly professional and barely that," she continued as she slipped on a pair of rubber gloves.

The woman wasn't so sure anymore that she should advance on Agent DiNozzo. Agent David had been far too quick to answer her. It seemed like she was leaving something out. But still, Agent DiNozzo was certainly very handsome. She wouldn't pass an opportunity like this up easily.

"So, you wouldn't mind if I, uh..."

Ziva turned around, and had the sudden urge to slap the woman. She was becoming extremely irritating. "We're in the middle of an investigation and you a trial," she said, as nicely as she could.

"I know, I just like to keep my options open." She smiled and Ziva returned to her work.

"Did you know that the majority of people meet their spouses at work?" she continued.

Ziva bit her tongue. An interesting yet slightly unsettling fact, she let out a little laugh.

"Not something I have high hopes for." She was telling the truth. While the people she worked with meant the world to her, she was at NCIS to be an investigator. It just helped to have people you look forward to seeing when you get there.

...

Ziva hated this feeling.

The feeling that something in her never-quite-perfect world wasoff balance. It was the one thing that stopped her life from being calm and easy. It was like a bug on a windscreen.

And now, this feeling was back. It seemed almost like someone she had known a very long time that controlled that one thing that was wrong in her life. It followed her everywhere. And now, it had made Tony that one wrong thing.

She and McGee had decided that one of them had to talk to him, and since they were in the observation room together and interrogation had not yet begun, Ziva figured this was a good time. After all, she believed that she saw through him more than the others did; saw him for what he truly was, under all the goofiness. But this wasn't him, this was somebody else. Somebody new and unfamiliar, who had taken away the Tony she knew and had come to love.

With her opinion that the DA was annoying remaining unchanged, she shut off the microphone so they could talk.

"Thanks," Tony said. "I was gettin' a headache."

"Really?" Ziva asked, shocked. "This is usually your favourite part, getting to watch reality TV at work, as you call it."

"Well, people change, Ziva," he said seriously, not looking up from the file in his hand."

"Yes, but—" she took the file from him so she would have his undivided attention—"not that quickly."

Tony didn't move; didn't seem affected by that statement. So she continued.

"And yet, here we have this new Tony, who arrives early, stays late, turns down advances from beautiful women, and has not made a single joke in the past...what? Two days!"

That seemed to get the job done.

"I haven't?" Tony asked, sounding a little surprised.

Ziva just said, "Hm." Tony assumed it to mean, "Do you see my point now?"

"Are you sure?" he clarified.

"Huh," was all he received in reply. Ziva looked at him as if to say, "When am I wrong about these things?"

Tony could practically feel Ziva inside his head. He wanted it to stop before he had to have one of those touchy-feely moments where he talked about his emotions.

"Well, we are in the middle of a case," he said.

"Has not stopped you before!" Ziva replied, irritated that he had closed himself up again.

"Well it's stopping me now!" he snapped. "And I'm sorry if you're losing sleep over it but I can't be responsible for everyone's feelings."

Now we're getting somewhere, Ziva thought, although part of her hated seeing Tony like this and knowing that she had caused it, but she knew it was for the greater good.

"Everyone," she said calmly. "For example..."

"You! And McGee, and the Brenda Bitners of the world, everyone!"

Ziva tried to remember. "Brenda..."

"Yeah," Tony said. "Bitner. The girl who posted online that we were in a committed relationship last year."

Now Ziva knew exactly who he was talking about. "Yes. Yes, but if I remember correctly, the only thing you were committed to was a one night stand."

"That's right." He paused, knowing deep down that opening up to Ziva was the right thing to do. "I just found out that she checked herself into a depression treatment facility or something after she wrapped her car around a tree. Nice one, huh?"

"And you feel responsible?" Ziva asked gently.

"No. I mean I barely knew the girl. I'm just sayin'..."

"Well clearly she was a troubled woman."

"It's clear now, isn't it?"

Ziva had to try and say something that bugged him again. That was the way to get information out of him, which is why intimidation never worked as an interrogation technique for him, like with Saleem in Somalia.

"Mm. So it must be unsettling to think that you didn't notice at the time. Especially since your job is to help people who are in trouble."

"I don't know why this has gotten under my skin like this," Tony said, looking at his reflection in the glass. "I mean of all things. Maybe instead of having a mid-life crisis I'm having a mid-life crazy."

That was it. Tony needed to understand that he was worrying everyone, and that they needed him to be himself, otherwise the team didn't work. What the MCRT had that so many others didn't was a perfect balance. They had a fearless leader, who was always the one to go to when in trouble, and who always had the right call. There was the geek, the assassin and there was the joker. They were all so different and it made them almost invincible.

Ziva grabbed Tony's forearms and forced him to face her straight-on.

"Look, she began sternly. "You are not crazy, OK? You are just...growing up." The idea of a man his age learning to grow up now was funny in some ways, but both were in too much of a serious mood to see that. "Now some lessons are more painful as we grow older," she continued, "when the stakes are higher. But, you need to find balance. And yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, you need to treat people more respectfully, especially when it comes to matters...of the heart." Ziva lowered her voice, so as to end on a gentle note. "But you need to be who you are."

Wow. Tony hadn't realised Ziva was so...he couldn't even find a word for it. She had always seen right through him, but he didn't realise she had seen so clearly.

"Who am I?" he asked, wanting to give her what she was asking for.

"You are Tony DiNozzo," she said, a smile playing at her lips at the sound of his name. "The class clown. And that is why we love you."

Tony knew what he had to do now. He had to be the Tony that Ziva and the team loved.

...

He planned to come back with a bang, with a little help from their Petty Officer, he had planned the ultimate surprise.

As the confetti flew around the room and the music started, Tony couldn't help but smile at the way Ziva pulled out her gun as if it had been a bomb or something. He waited for her to realise it had been him, which she did as soon as she caught his eye.

"You," she said breathlessly. She didn't show it, but she was relieved, no, overjoyed to have her Tony back. She would always say how annoying he was but whenever he was gone she missed him the most. She let the awaiting smile creep onto her lips, and looked right at her partner, who was grinning right back, and she knew she was in the right place.

A/N: I really liked this episode. Jerry (AKA the missing P.O.) seemed to have the right ideas about the team. You know, McAbby, Tiva...would have liked to see some conversations about that. It would have been like the Tony/Ziva elevator scene where they talk awkwardly about Deep Six without looking at each other (it might be in the episode 'Smoked'). Anyway, a review would be the best thing ever! Happy Holidays!