New Year's

"I can't believe we're stuck here on New Year's because of a stupid serial killer! Can't they take holidays too!" Abby complained from the squad room having no more evidence to go through as Tony glanced down at the clock and saw that it was ten o'clock.

There was still two hours until the ball dropped and it was officially the New Year. This wasn't as important to him as it had been in the past, because in the past he had promised himself every year that the following year he would be spending it with the girl of his dreams (or in earlier years he would try to find whoever that was). This year he had her and he was still spending it with her, regardless of where he was (whether it was work or home) and that was all that mattered to him.

Tony and Ziva were definitely not taking this for granted. They had each other no matter where they were and knew that they had each other's backs wherever they were and that was the best part of it, though there were sometimes downsides to working with the person that your heart belonged to.

There was that moment in the middle of the week where Tony thought his heart completely stopped when he walked into the room to find someone pointing a gun straight at Ziva's heart while she stood motionless and staring at the person. That was a difficult time for them, but he had gone quietly and managed to take out the suspect following Ziva's eyes for any sign that the person had heard him or was going to shoot her, which was definitely a good thing to have.

Tony was working very hard, because even though he was with Ziva at work for New Year's, he would rather be at home enjoying himself a little more. She was also working very hard. But, they were not complaining the way that Abby and McGee were, because they knew that whether it was work or home, they would be together and they were going to be happy about it. This was where Gibbs rules came in handy; not taking anything for granted and not wasting good.

"Abby, we have work to do," Gibbs reminded her. "If there are criminals involving the Navy or Marines, then someone's got to catch them so their families can rest easier, no matter what the day of year."

Tony looked up. This was a lot coming from Gibbs, but he must have been tired of hearing her and McGee complain that they were spending New Year's at work. Tony knew he was tired of hearing it and Ziva was also tired of hearing it, judging by her expression every time Abby brought it up.

"Gibbs is right, Abby," Ziva said, still typing on her computer. "Besides, we have each other and we are a family."

Everyone's eyes landed on Ziva, who was still working on her computer. She didn't look at any of them and there were two among them that were smirking about this. Gibbs was smirking and chuckling to himself, finally seeing some of the changes in Ziva that were caused by whatever her and Tony had going. Tony was smiling because he knew it was the truth and it also meant that Ziva had just opened up a tiny bit for the others (hardly a fraction of what she had done for him).

"She's right," Gibbs said. "Besides, we'll spend it together in MTAC watching the ball drop. You'll all get your New Year's still. But, you've got to work now, we've still got just about two hours."

They worked silently for two hours, including Abby who had no idea about the rest of the investigative process. She worked with her evidence and with their evidence and helped the team to find a suspect. It was five minutes before midnight when they finally had a break in the case and had someone that they could go find in the morning.

They all filed into MTAC. Tony and Ziva took seats near the back and McGee was down front with Abby, but separated by several chairs. Gibbs was in the middle. McGee pulled up the video of the large ball over New York City. In the back Tony took Ziva's hand and looked into her eyes until the countdown started. Yes, they had wanted to do this at home, but they could adjust and make it work at the office, even if it was breaking their own rules, again.

Their eyes met the screen when the countdown began and they watched it changed to a New Year. They met each other in the middle in a kiss, that the others could not see. They were not reckless with the kiss, since Gibbs, McGee, and Abby were below them and bound to look up at some point. They pulled quickly apart and looked each other in the eyes, silently telling the other that they loved each other.

After a short moment, they heard the others getting up and they glanced around them. They were all leaving, without even looking up in their direction. Except Gibbs, who noticed how obviously close his two agents were to each other. He smirked and spoke up to them.

"Go home, you two. There's nothing more we can do until morning," Gibbs said. "McGee's already put out a BOLO on the guy."

They nodded and watched Gibbs leave, before locking each other in a far more passionate kiss before they went home, celebrating their New Year in their own way with their strange family somewhere nearby.

A/N – More fluff, because fluff is as important to a story as the serious stuff. We also see some of their realizations as things are not going exactly as they planned. They're right, of course, as long as they're together it doesn't matter where they are, everything is great. Leave a review!