"So, was that like 'see you later' like 'goodbye' or 'see you later' like 'hey, I'm going to see you at a later date'?" Tony asked cheekily, trying to sound all nonchalant.

"Are you, uh, having trouble understanding simple English?" Ziva purposely led him on, smiling.

"Just answer the question." He replied, giving a slightly playful look but it was betrayed by the seriousness in his tone. Ziva in turn played along, raising her eyebrows and keeping silent. Her very subtle smile was gracing her lips as she continued with her report, while Tony continued to stare holes into her.

"See you tomorrow." Ziva bid as she got up to leave as soon as work ended.

"So I guess that was a 'see you later' like 'see you straight after work'?" Tony joked from across her desk.

Ziva threw a smirk at him and ignored his question. She continued on her way to the elevators and waved a playful goodbye at Tony. This made Tony very intrigued. Was she really going to meet Damon Werth? There was only one way to find out, and so Detective Tony DiNozzo came into play.

As soon as the elevator doors closed, Tony bolted from his seat grabbing his things and he rushed down the stairs. He hid himself well as he watched her make her way to her car. At least, he thought he did. Ziva was much more attuned to her surroundings, and it helped that she knew Tony very well. She knew that he wouldn't just give up like that after she had been all so mysterious, and so she had expected him to follow her. And she was going to play along. She got into her car and drove away, and not long after as predicted, She could see Tony's car from her rearview mirror. He hid himself behind several cars, that was clever.

Tony had after all been a detective before. This was routine, and he knew he had this mini operation of his covered. He followed closely as Ziva showed off her crazy driving skills, swerving in and out of lanes and making sharp turns. This was starting to be a problem as Tony was slowly finding it hard to keep eye on her.

Ziva had been driving aimlessly at first, since Tony was following her. She tried random swerving and sudden turns, but Tony's car never ceased to appear somewhere behind. It was getting frustrating, this chasing game. And so Ziva tried to shake him off once and for all. She timed herself precisely, and sped up past a traffic light right before it turned red, causing Tony to be stuck behind. She took a few turns after that to make sure Tony hadn't been able to follow her. Eyes searching, Ziva gave herself a pat on the back as Tony's car was nowhere in sight, and she drove off to the bar she was supposed to meet Damon at.

Tony was pissed. His detective skills had let him down. Or maybe Ziva's driving skills were far too crazy for the average agent. But Tony wasn't just any average agent. He was one Very Special Agent Tony DiNozzo, and he had more than one trick up his sleeves. He drove back to NCIS, and was relieved to find that everyone on the team had gone home already. He pulled out a search on the GPS signal of Ziva's phone on his computer, and found her to be at some bar not far from where he had lost her. Against contrary belief, Tony had his ways around the computer. He just wasn't as efficient as McGee. But he was definitely efficient enough for this. He just wanted to make sure Werth didn't do anything to Ziva, having had a bad first impression of him when he got punched in the nose. He could trust Ziva, it was Werth he didn't trust. He was being her protective partner, it was his job to worry. And thus he set off for the bar.

"Ziva! Over here!" Damon called out from a booth at a corner as his eyes fell upon the Israeli as she entered the bar.

"Hey." Ziva stated as she sat down.

"First of all, we need drinks. After the day we had, we need drinks." Damon said with a smile.

"Go ahead, order. I think we need it too." She agreed.

The waiter came back with a big glass of beer for both of them and they chugged their first beer of the night, slowly relieving the tension they felt for the day as the alcohol coursed through their veins. Standing in front of a jack-knifing truck did tend to fray one's nerves.

"So...what's up with you?" Damon initiated the conversation.

"Nothing is up. Or down, or left, or right." Ziva replied, obviously starting to loosen up with the help of beer.

Damon had noticed that she had currently been tenser than she was the last time he met her, a year or two ago. This behaviour piqued his curiosity and concern. "Come on Ziva. Did something happen recently?"

"Nothing happened." Ziva replied defensively.

Compared to her normal self, she was by now less in check of her emotions. But she wasn't intoxicated enough to go talking about her summer experience.

"You think I didn't notice the way you were acting when we were standing in front of the incoming truck?"

In her slightly drunk state, Ziva was still sharply aware of what he was implying. Hence, she dodged all she could. "And how, exactly, was I acting?"

"You weren't scared. That's not it at all." Damon said it like a statement.

Ziva gave an exasperated sigh. "Then what was it?" This wasn't going as planned.

"You looked like you were waiting for the truck to hit you. For a very split moment there, I saw something in your eyes. You, Ziva David, wanted the truck to hit you."

Ziva uttered not a word. She tried to deny it to herself, but she failed. Damon was right. As she stared at the jack-knifing truck screeching against the brakes and heading towards her, she wondered what it would feel like if she died. No dark past, no unspoken secrets, no nightmares, no nothing. How great would that feel? But that thought went away when she told herself she couldn't think that way. Death was the easy way out. And to her, it seemed like something only a coward to do despite the fact that she secretly wished for it at certain times.

"You cannot possibly see things in people's eyes." She said, but she knew that wasn't true. Tony once said that her eyes wouldn't shut up.

"You know very well what I meant Ziva."

"I do not know what you are talking about.

"I'm just trying to help you. You've been dodging all my questions so far. I just...wanna help you. Like you helped me those years back." Damon admitted.

Ziva knew well what he was referring to. It was after the case where the team first met Damon Werth.

Flashback

The case was over. The team would probably never see Marine Corporal Damon Werth again, much less keep in contact with him. Gibbs had dropped by the hospital ward where the Corporal was sleeping in, and on the table beside the bed, he left a medal for the Corporal. To some extent, Gibbs felt like he deserved it. Then, Gibbs had left. What he didn't know was that Damon Werth had one more visitor. Ziva David.

Ziva had waited for Gibbs to leave the hospital before going up to Corporal Werth's ward. It was needless to say that they both had made some sort of connection during the case. It was unusual, but not entirely impossible. It seemed that they were fairly intrigued and slightly drawn towards each other. A unique relationship had started to grow between them and Ziva wanted to help it grow into a proper and strong friendship. It was always good to make friends, and for this man, she was compelled to help him. She didn't know why. But help was always gratefully accepted by those who needed it and she thought she'd help by being his friend. Someone that he could talk and relate to. After all, despite her young age, Ziva probably had much more experiences than most military personnel did.

As she layed her hand upon the door handle of Damon Werth's ward and opened it, her eyes fell onto the resting figure. Or at least, the previously-resting figure because his eyes were staring at her. She brought her eyes up to meet his directly and he spoke up "I didn't really catch your name yet. Obviously you know mine."

"Ziva David."

"I recognise you, especially your eyes." That was fairly explainable, since all he did was stare into her eyes before when he was high on steroids. Ziva was silent as she made her way to his bed side.

"This medal, did you leave it here?" He continued.

"No. It was Gibbs." She replied, watching him trace the outline of the medal.

"Did I do that to you?" He gestured towards the bruise on the side of her face.

"Yes. You injured Agent McGee's hand and broke Agent DiNozzo's nose too."

"I am really sorry for doing all that to you guys. You must think I'm nuts huh?"

"Not exactly."

"I just...I can't forget. I want to, but I can't." He wasn't referring to anything in particular, but Ziva knew what he meant.

"I understand."

"How?"

"Mossad. I think I have gone through worse things than you have."

"Well that explains it."

"But in any case, if you need to talk, or you just need a...friend, here is my number." Ziva explained, passing her name card to him with her number on it. With that, she headed for the door.

"Thank you, Ziva." Ziva smiled and went home.

It was maybe about a week later when she got a call on her phone. "David." She answered with a cadence of monotony.

"Ziva?"

"Damon?" Her tone was a bit incredulous. He had actually called her.

"Yeah, umm can we meet up? I think I need somebody to talk to."

"Sure, just tell me where and I will be there.

End Of Flashback

"Take it like I returned the favour. Just tell me what's going on. Talking helps, I should know. And I think you know it too." Damon coaxed.

TBC

HAHA Cookie-Stories beta-ed it for me. And insisted that I mention it here HEHEH :D