hello my little marshwiggles!

Thank you for the review and follows, and I'm glad you liked the Christmas episode. wow, imagine if NCIS did a Christmas episode full of fluff and aired it on Christmas day! kinda like the Dr Who Christmas special! :D OK, focussing...
so, here is the next installment. I'm not too sure about this chapter, so your reviews would mean A LOT to me on this one.

Chapter 18

"FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Tony didn't know what he was walking in on when he came to pick Ziva up for dinner that night. But when he heard Tali's voice from the other room, he knew that there was something along the lines of World War Three going down. And he was just about to walk straight into the firing zone.

"Tali, come back here!"

He heard Ziva's voice from further back into the apartment, but the words did nothing to stop Tali's path straight to her room. Tali did not even acknowledge Tony as she pushed past him, slamming the door to her bedroom loudly.

"Ok then," Tony said mostly to himself. Walking into the kitchen he saw Ziva sitting on the sofa, her eyes closed taking a few calming breaths. She was still in her dance gear, and Tony was pleased with himself that he only noticed how well her trousers hugged her ass after he noticed how miserable she looked.

"What was all that about?" he asked motioning in the direction of Tali's room, then leaning down to peck her quickly on the lips. Ziva's eye remained closed, but she let out a sigh. There was a silence as Ziva tried to find the right words.

"She wants to move in with her boyfriend. I said I wanted to meet him first," Ziva said, paraphrasing the past half an hour's argument. But in reality, there was far much more to it than that…

Half an hour earlier

Ziva had just finished off her day at the studio, and as she pushed open her front door, there was nothing she wanted to do more than collapse onto the sofa and not move for an age. Her competition class had been particularly stubborn today, and not one, but two of her soloists had pulled out, just days before the competition. Ziva couldn't blame one of them, if you had a broken foot, you had a broken foot, and even if she screamed herself black and blue, it would still be broken. The one that really annoyed her was the little girl whose mother had fallen out with one of the other mothers, and now refused to take her child to the competition. That was the only part of her job that she didn't like. These women thought that they were in some reality television show, not real life. But at moments like these, Ziva wished these characters were as pretend as the ones on TV. That way, she could just press a button, and they would be gone. But real life didn't work like that, and despite the fact she loved her job and would not trade it for the world, she was more than ready to return home for the night. And the thing was with these competitions, a thing that this mother failed to understand was that with all the money that had been ploughed into entry fees, was non-refundable. Ziva was desperately trying to find someone to fill in. So, somewhat reluctantly, she had chosen Abigail to be her other soloist. A decision that she later grew to regret. Abigail was a talented dancer, there was no doubt about that, but she was just so irritating. There was just didn't seem to want to dance for all of the right reasons. That, and she was incapable of showing any emotions while dancing. Walking in, she radiated confidence and happiness, but when she began to dance, it became about technique and getting from A to B, rather than telling a story. Which drove Ziva insane. She had given Abigail a lyrical set, but was seriously considering choreographing something different for the competition on Saturday. But the only thing was it was Thursday. Giving Abigail a day to get the new routine down. And that was only provided she managed to choreograph something that she herself deemed worthy of putting on a stage. There was also the added pressure that her group dance was going down-hill.

Having said that, it hadn't been all that day of a day. Somehow one of her couches had learnt of her engagement, and between classes they had surprised her with cake and presents. Her personal favourite was a silver wristband with "Property of Ziva David, touch and die" engraved on it. She was even more excited to see it on Tony that evening…

Ziva could feel a head ache coming on as thoughts came crashing into her mind. Trying to shush all of the voices and music she massaged her temples firmly. She knew that she should be getting off her bum, Tali mentioned that she would be home for dinner, so she would have to start cooking at some point. But at that moment, the sofa was so comfortable. And speaking of the devil, Tali entered the room.

"Ziva, I'm moving in with Finn," Tali said, not ever greeting Ziva. Tali had clearly thought that the best way to announce this piece of news was quickly, to make the pain go away quicker. Like a band aid.

"What?!" Ziva said, her eyes shooting open. Now she was awake, "who is Finn?"

"My boyfriend," Tali said, refusing to look Ziva in the eye but flopping down on the sofa next to her.

"You have a boyfriend?" Ziva said before she could stop the words coming out of her mouth. Maybe that was a bad move. She knew that Tali had boyfriends in the past, but she was unaware that Tali was dating someone at the moment.

"I do. And I am moving in with him."

"Tali, what is this all about," Ziva said slowly. There must have been something that had brought this on, it wasn't just a decision that people make irrationally. And even if it wasn't an event that brought this issue up, it must have been something that was brewing for a while now.

"I am twenty-three, I can do what I want!"

"Can I meet this man?"

"Don't you get it? I'm moving out, what more is there to get? You don't have to meet him!" Tali said standing up, talking as if she had not heard Ziva's words.

"Tali, is it too much for me to ask to meet this man?" Ziva said, trying to calm Tali down, as her sister's voice grew higher and higher in pitch and volume. But Ziva's fiery nature, just like Tali's, was hard to choke down, and that combined with the bad day she was having did not help the situation.

"Why do you have to? Don't you trust me?"

"Tali, don't be like that…" Ziva started, pushing herself to sitting. But she was cut off by Tali.

"Don't be like what? I am twenty-three years old Ziva! I live with my big sister, and I have a part time job with at my big sister's studio. I am basically a failure in life, who relies one hundred percent on her family."

This declaration shocked Ziva for a moment into silence.

"Tali…"

But Tali wasn't finished.

"It's alright for you, with your perfect job and your perfect Tony. Ima is doing well and even Ari has a girlfriend."

"Ari has a girlfriend?" Ziva said, and then she could have kicked herself. Of all the details she chose to pick up on, that was the one?

"Do you only care about that?"

"Tali, you're being stupid-"

"Oh, so now I'm a stupid failure thanks sister," Tali laughed humourlessly.
"I never said that," Ziva said, now on the defensive, "you are so annoying, why can't you just grow up?"

There was a silence as Ziva's words resonated off the walls.

"Tali, that wasn't…"

"I'll be packing."

"Tali, come back here…"

"FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Tony silently sat where Tali had been a few moments ago, not wishing to disturb Ziva's thinking space. But DiNozzo's were not generally known for their subtly.

"She is twenty-three…"

"I know she is! But it doesn't mean I don't care for her!" Ziva said raising her voice. And then she realised that it was probably this temper of hers that got her into this hot mess to begin with. She took a deep breath, "sorry."

Tony didn't say anything, but waited for Ziva to speak. He knew by now that at times like this, if he were to just wait it out, she would crack. She was kind of like Abby, in that strange way…

"She said she was a failure. Did I make her feel like that?"

"Should I go and ask her?" Tony said, and before Ziva could answer him he walked out, content on finding Tali.

In the short distance between the living room and the bedroom, he had to think up his battle strategy in double time. Should he be the mad fiancé, angry that she dare hurt his Ziva? Or should he be the cool older brother, calm and supportive? Whatever his decision was going to be, he was going to have to make it quickly.

He pushed open the door to Tali's bedroom, hesitantly but solidly and took in the sight before him. He had only even been in this room once, and that time he was so scared about losing Ziva that he had not paused to take in the finer details. It was a fairly small L-shaped room, with a large metal framed desk taking up most of the space. That combined with the large bed meant that there was very little other space on the floor, which was where Tali was sat with a large suitcase lying open in front of her, trying to wipe away the tears as they fell.

"What do you want?" Tali said, frantically trying to keep her voice at a set pitch. But despite her greatest efforts, the wobble that came with the tears was still there.

"Well, that is a good question," Tony said good naturedly, sitting himself down on her bed and making himself at home. He had never failed to do that, "I want to marry Ziva. I want to buy her a big nice house. I want grow old with her, and maybe make a few mutant dancing ninjas along the way." Tali smiled at his final sentence.

"What do you want?" he said, his voice suddenly changing to be serious. Tali took a breath and stopped shoving clothes in her bag.

"You know," she started, not looking at Tony but laughing, as if to and at herself, "I used to think that when I was twenty-three I would be in control of my life. I thought I would have a steady boyfriend, a job, I would have found something I really wanted to do in life," she paused to laugh and dry her eyes, "it turns out I'm still just as clueless as I have always been."

"And moving out of here is the answer?"

"Any other ideas?" Tali shot back, and Tony got a glimpse of how the two sisters were the same. They both had that fiery wit and quickness of tongue that made Tony smile.

"You must know something you want to do. Something that you enjoy," Tony said.

"Does being a professional couch potato count?" at Tony's look she changed her answer, "yes, I do. But it will not happen in a million years."

"What will not happen?"

"I want to sing," Tali said, as if conveying some dirty secret.

Tony didn't know whether he was surprised by this or not. Tali was a good singer, he had heard her on several occasions when she was just singing around the house. And Ziva had mentioned that Tali used to want to sing, until she gave up her dream.

"Then what is stopping you?" Tony asked.

"Who am I to succeed singing?" Tali said dryly, and Tony finally found the root of all of Tali's insecurities. Failure. She was scared of being a failure to herself, her family, him. No matter how she looked externally, no matter how much confidence she exuded, she lacked in the confidence where Ziva clearly had it in swathes. Ziva had started her own business at a young age, and now had dozens of people working under her. Tony could only imagine what it would be like for Tali to live under the weight of that expectation.

Choosing his next words carefully, he spoke, "Well, the worst thing that could happen from trying is that you do not succeed. Which will be, the same outcome as not trying in the first place. So, basically, you may as well try?" He knew that his points weren't the most eloquently put together, but he hadn't had to give too many motivational speeches in his time. Especially to girls about what they should do with their lives. The closest thing he'd had to this was getting his old wingman psyched up before a big game. Which didn't even come close.

Tali was silent for a few moments, and Tony feared that he had overstepped the boundary that they had so tenuously drawn. But when she spoke, his fears were erased.

"Thank you, Tony."

hmmmm... :/ thoughts?