He went over to her, having the intention to check on her. But arriving by her side, he couldn't help but notice that the back of her shirt had ridden up due to her leaning forward onto the table. And there, he found the marred beauty of her tan skin.

Two long ones as far as his eyes could see. One was much more faded than the other. Tony figured as much that the more faded scar was sustained when she was younger. She did mention before that her father had started training her at a tender age. The newer scar however, Tony just had a feeling that she had gotten it in that hell hole in Somalia. And he knew there were much more scars where that came from. He felt like he was invading her privacy and refused to delve any further into his thoughts. He reached out to pull her shirt down to cover her exposed skin, but was greeted with an unpleasurable reaction.

Almost instantly, as the tip of Tony's fingers trailed the end of Ziva's shirt lightly, she sprang up from the table. Swiftly, she spun her chair around and drew her gun from her hip, pointing the cool metal object against the chest of her supposed assailant.

"Woah!" Tony was utterly taken by much surprise, as he raised both his hands in surrender, trying to show Ziva that he wasn't posing a threat.

Staring at a barrel of a gun being shoved against his chest, he couldn't help but be reminded of the last time this happened to him. In Israel. Put at the bad end of the gun, by the same person. He took a good look at Ziva. Her breathing was laboured, her hands actually kept shaking alike how a bobble-head kept bobbling, and her eyes...her eyes were wild and it flittered all over Tony's face. Tony felt like every pore on his face was being scanned by her feral gaze.

This was so wrong. This was scaring him. He wasn't scared much for himself though. Yes, the wavering gun against the expanse of his chest was quite impeding to his judgement. However it was Ziva's behaviour that was scaring him. This wasn't Ziva. Hell, who was he really kidding? Ziva had ceased to be Ziva when she came back from Somalia. Everyone could see the subtle differences. She was a bit more tense, her emotions managing to occasionally escape to the surface. Trying to avoid any conversation about Somalia also spoke volumes about how she was handling it all.

"Ziva, can you put the gun down?" Tony said gently, back still straight against whatever filing cabinets were behind him.

"Please?" Tony tried again when Ziva continued looking at him in her dream-state gaze.

She seemed to have a problem recognising him. Tony had to be more aggressive to snap her out of it. "It's Tony, c'mon it's me. Ziva!" He raised his voice at her name.

Ziva flinched at the offending volume, as she slowly took in her partner's face. Tony could see recognition flicker over her countenance. Her eyes fell onto the object she had against his chest, and her eyes widened. She jerked the gun away and holstered it safely. Unable to meet his eyes, Ziva turned back in her chair, leaving Tony rubbing the spot where the gun might have bruised him a little. She hid her face in her hands, choking out a few muffled words. "I am so sorry Tony."

Tony's ears would have picked up her voice anywhere. He heard her quiet words and replied "Nah it's okay. Been in that position before."

That came out wrong. He had just wanted to let Ziva know that it was nothing, and everything was fine. But once his words were out, he regretted phrasing it in that manner. He didn't plan on making it sound like that. He stuttered "No I di- I didn't mean it that way, I wa-"

"No you are right. You have been in that position before. Because of me." Ziva admitted, dropping her head on the desk.

"I never meant to hurt you that day, in Tel Aviv." She realised they never exactly touched on this since she came back, and so she found it necessary to say so.

"But you did." Tony bluntly admitted.

He had the right to be at least a bit angry, and he had been masking the slight anger up for a long time. He was hurt by the lack of trust she displayed, yes. But what hurt more was having his partner actually draw her gun on him intentionally.

"I know. I deeply regret what I did that day."

"It would be nice if you could look me in the eye and talk." Tony spoke through gritted teeth, repressed anger appropriately showing its head.

Ziva was glad that he was angry. He deserved to be angry. She was silently drowning in guilt with the concern showered over her after being back from Somalia. He was being too nice to her. Everyone was. They all forgave her when they were supposed to be angry. She lifted her head off the table, to find Tony's face in front of hers, his hands gripping the edges of her desk as he leaned against it.

"I never said it, but I am very sorry for pointing the gun to your chest and blaming you for everything." She looked him square in the eye.

"I am sorry." She whispered, puffs of warm air reaching Tony's face as her face ducked down slightly and her eyes went south in shame.

That apology did it. Not much the spoken words, but the look in her eyes. Tony wasn't angry anymore. He couldn't. It was like every fiber of his being forbade him to stay upset at the ninja before him. He felt all negative feelings dissipate into thin air, as his eyes softened at the lugubrious look on his partner's face. He walked back behind the desk, stopping beside her.

"Hey." He got her attention by bringing a finger to her chin, tilting her face back up and towards him so he could look at her.

"You know I'll always forgive you." He put forth smiling, retracting his finger to tap it on the tip of her nose.

Upon that gesture, Ziva stared at him silently. Oh god I overdid it. She's gonna either cry or kill me, Tony fathomed. To his surprise though, she scrunched her nose, grumbling "Now my nose feels itchy."

Leave it to Ziva to come up with such replies at weird timings. Tony chuckled at her comment, causing her to break into a child-like giggle. It must have been the angels singing because that was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. Tony grinned widely in return, proud that he had made his ninja happy once again.

Caught with Ziva's bubbly mood being back again, Tony had pushed aside the need to question Ziva further about her troubled sleep and all. But part of him maybe knew why. And Ziva knew he would figure out some things for himself eventually.

But ultimately, she was relieved that she didn't need to have a conversation of a certain kind with him that day. She wasn't ready.

Tony, well, he didn't want to ruin the moment. He wanted so much to be the one to create more of such opportunities, opportunities to make her happy. He wanted to be the one to make her laugh.

And as many thoughts ran through his head, she was still giggling and scratching her nose.

He never did stop smiling that night.

TBC

I wanna do episode tags of Season 8! But which episodes? Help me! Which ones do you think can be developed?