A/N: Hey! So once again thank you all for reviewing, you guys are da bomb! Any who I realized that it would take Tony more than two years to get a teaching degree and find a job so I edited the first chapter so it says he got his teaching degree ten years ago. Just thought I would let you guys know in case you went back to that chapter and were like "Whoa when did this happen?" Okay so now that I've got that over with enjoy the next chapter of 14 Years!

Chapter Three

Tony glanced at his watch as he wrote the notes for the next day's lesson on the board. It was already four-thirty and most of the teachers and staff had already left, going home to see their families, but Tony had no family to rush home to, so he stayed. Just as he finished writing the last vocab word on the board, out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw her, leaning in the doorway of his room. Tony shook his head and blinked his eyes a few times moving over to another section of the board to copy down the next set of notes. He slashed a line under the title of the lesson but hesitated, his hand poised just an inch off the green slate. She was still there. Ever so slowly Tony turned his head and to his amazement she stayed there, a small smile on her lips and that familiar spark in her eyes.

"Ziva." He whispered, the piece of finger length chalk leaving his hand and breaking into a million dusty pieces as it hit the floor.

"Tony." She replied simply taking a few steps into his room.

Part of Tony, the larger part of him wanted to take the three or four large steps between them, hold her in his arms and kiss her like their was no tomorrow. But then the smaller, but louder and more rational part of him spoke up and sent those feelings packing.

Tony took a deep breath, "What-what are you doing here?"

"I live here now, and I um I heard you did too so I figured you know…"Ziva trailed off, sighing and rubbed a hand over her face. "We both know that we live and work in the same town now, so why don't we just skip the small talk?"

"Alright." He agreed. "How've you been? Tali said you two were in Israel for a few years."

"Thirteen years." Ziva specified.

"So you left a year after I did then?"

"I left NCIS two weeks after you did; I left America eleven months later." She explained her voice empty of all emotion.

"Why wait so long?" He asked curiously.

"You have absolutely no clue do you?" Ziva asked incredulously.

"What do you mean? What are you talking about Zee?"

"Tali, I'm talking about Tali. She's…" She paused taking a deep breath. "she's yours."

Smack! Two words and Tony felt like he'd been slapped in the face.

"Tali's…" As he tried to grasp the mere idea that he had a daughter anger began to well up inside him. "How long were you planning on letting me go without knowing? I mean it's already been fourteen years, what would you have done if you hadn't just happened to move to the same town as me? Were you going to let me go my whole life without knowing I had a daughter?"

"Don't even go there Tony Dinozzo!" Ziva retorted her anger flaring as well. "As soon as I found out I tried to call you, I tried to let you know but your number wasn't working. You left Tony, not me so you cannot try to blame this on me!"

"I lost my phone when I moved, but there's this thing called having connections to a federal agency, you could have used them." He said jerking his head as he spoke.

"What connections? There was no one left! You left, Abby and McGee were…" She trailed off tears springing up in her eyes. "…Gibbs just disappeared into thin air, Ducky quit. The only one left was Jenny and there was no way I was going to ask her to find you and then be interrogated as to why I needed her to in the first place. Sure she was a great director and at times a good friend but I couldn't ask her to do that after everything that had just happened. You left me with no options Tony, I was in between a boulder and a hard place."

"Rock and a hard place." He corrected.

"It felt like a boulder to me!" she yelled.

Tony sighed rubbing a hand over his face, "I had no choice but to leave, I…"

"No, you had a choice Tony. You left, you could have stayed but…"

"Don't you tell me that I had a choice! You don't understand what I was going through." Tony interrupted.

"Really? Why don't you enlighten me then?" She spat.

"Do you know what would've happened if I had stayed? Vance would've put me in charge again." Ziva opened her mouth to interrupt him but he kept talking. "Yes Zee that would have been a problem. One, Abby and McGee would have been replaced with meaningless probies and nothing would have been the same. And two when Gibbs left the first time I almost fell apart. Suddenly I was in charge of you, McGee, and Abby, I was responsible for three peoples lives and though I didn't have to worry about Abby as much, every time we went into the field, went to catch a perp I was scared. If anything happened to either of you it would have been my fault and that simple concept shook me to the core. When Gibbs was in charge we had some close calls, so what was going to happen if I was in charge? I couldn't go through that again especially now that I was in love with you. Losing you would have been…well there are really no words to describe how I would've felt."

"But you did lose me." She whispered. "You left, when I needed you the most you left."

"I asked you to come with me! I begged you to, but you refused to leave, to leave the city that sadly but truthfully, neither of us had connections to anymore." Tony countered.

"I could not leave, not so soon after what had happened. I was scared." A single tear rolled down her face, and he wished he could reach out and wipe it away.

"But we caught him Ziva, a little too late I'll admit but, we caught him. We were safe and I wanted to leave like that, with no worry." He explained staring into her eyes.

Ziva was silent for a while as she returned his gaze. "It didn't matter that we caught him, we just did not see eye to eye Tony, so maybe it was a good thing you left. We didn't have a chance to start something that was clearly not going to work out."

"You don't know that." Tony whispered to himself.

They were both quiet for a long time. Both wanting the other to either continue the conversation, or just end it. Tony looked around his room, his eyes subconsciously traveling to the desk where his own daughter had sat only a few hours before.

"What do we do now?" he asked looking back down at Ziva.

"Tali doesn't know anything about you, this won't be easy." She answered reading his mind. "We can tell her together or I can do it by myself."

"I'd prefer together." Tony replied. "When do you want to tell her?"

"Tomorrow after school? The longer we wait the greater the chance is that you will slip up in class."

"Are you saying I can't keep a secret?" He asked slipping back into the playful banter that used to be secondhand nature for both of them.

Ziva gave Tony a sad smile and a small kiss on the cheek, "I will see you tomorrow afternoon Tony."

"Bye Zee." He whispered.

Tony watched as she left the room. Once she was gone he sunk onto the floor leaning against the wall, head in his hands.

"Guess you were right about Rule twelve boss." He muttered, not really believing what he said. Even though breaking that rule hadn't turn out like he had imagined, those few blissful weeks all those years ago were amazing and he wouldn't have traded them for the world.

A/N: Hmmmm…..I sense a flashback coming on, how about you?