A/N: Tiva road trip. Not very happy with this, but hey, I made it to day 21.
Day 21: Write about a winter road trip.
Ziva hung up the phone with the Sheriff's Department. Their evidence and key witness were a 5 hour drive away. On a Friday. She was not looking forward to this.
She updated Gibbs with the latest details, he threw the car keys at her. Good thing she didn't have any plans this evening.
Ziva looked across the bullpen, where Tony was going out of his way to not be noticed. She sauntered over to his desk.
"So, will you come with?" she asked.
"I would rather be violently stabbed to death," he said with a pinched expression.
She made a face at his unwarranted hostility, and said, "I'll get my knives, then."
When she sat back down at her desk and turned off her computer to get ready to leave, he looked at her with some semblance of remorse. "Take the Probie."
"Need him here," Gibbs said. "Enjoy your road trip, DiNozzo."
"Oh, come on! I had plans, and they didn't involve dying on an icy road in a mangled car wreck," he whined, but packed his stuff anyway.
As they rode the elevator down, Tony sent a few texts while pacing like a caged tiger. She decided not to press him on it. They were about to spend 10 hours in a car, she didn't want to make his mood any worse than it already was.
Ziva couldn't help but wonder how serious the date he had to cancel must have been for him to act this way. She ignored the way her chest clenched at the thought, and rubbed her earlobe instead as they made their way to the car.
Tony pulled the passenger door shut forcefully. Ziva put the key in the ignition and debated for a moment whether to just start driving and ignore his foul mood, or talk about it, after all. As much as his incessant talking occasionally got on her nerves, the times he went quiet and broody were a lot more unbearable.
She turned in her seat to face him. "Look, you do not have to come if you have other…plans."
Tony looked at her, but kept quiet.
"It is a simple interview, at the Sheriff's Department, I don't need backup." She watched his blank expression. "I promise I won't tell Gibbs," she said with a covert smile.
Tony huffed. "Yeah, and then you'll go and get into some kind of trouble, or you'll end up putting the witness in the hospital, and it'll all be my fault," he complained.
"Fine," she bit back, started the engine and peeled out of the parking lot.
After 30 minutes of dead silence, Ziva cracked her neck and took a deep breath. She connected the iPod Abby had given her years ago to the car stereo, and Tony glared at her. He hadn't been shy in the past about letting her know exactly how he felt about the Hebrew bands she sometimes listened to.
Her fingers twitched, and she gave him a hard smile as she pressed play.
From the corner of her eye she could see the surprise on his face as Frank Sinatra blared from the speakers. He let out a bark of laughter.
"Since when do you listen to Ol' Blue Eyes?"
She shrugged, not in the mood to tell him after the way he'd been behaving. It wasn't her fault his plans had been ruined, she had even given him an out.
He leaned back in his seat, and started crooning along, and just like that, she regretted her choice of music. Because chatty Tony was—sometimes—annoying, quiet Tony was unnerving, but crooning Tony…crooning Tony made her stomach flutter.
And the thought of having to sit next to him singing, with that voice of his, with nowhere to run to, knowing he was dating again, that was too much.
She gripped the steering wheel tighter and drove a little faster.
He stopped singing two songs later when snow began to drift from the sky, and said with a smile, "Hey, Ayrton Senna, we wanna get there in one piece."
Ziva slowed down, and frowned at his mood swings. She turned to look at him a moment before focusing on the road again.
"What?" he said in an amused tone.
"Two Sinatra songs and you're over cancelling your date?" She kept her voice neutral, not wanting to pick a fight over something that wasn't her business in the first place.
She felt his eyes on her, and couldn't help but clench her jaw.
"I'm sorry about earlier, it's just, this job really messes up your personal life, doesn't it?"
"What personal life," she quipped and he breathed out a laugh.
Ziva glanced at him again. "I really wouldn't have minded going by myself. You didn't have to miss out on a hot date." It wasn't a complete lie, she definitely would've preferred his company, but not if it was going to make him miserable.
Tony squinted at her with a lopsided grin, and her stomach did that fluttery thing again.
"It wasn't a date," he said after a few moments of silence. "There's a Buckeyes game tonight, I was going with my frat brothers. We haven't been able to meet up, all of us at the same time, in years."
Tony was staring out the windshield melancholically, and that made Ziva feel slightly worse than imagining him on a date.
He sighed heavily. "I guess I was just looking forward to relive my youth, feel young again."
"Psh, you are still young, Tony," she chided.
"My body is starting to disagree with you."
Ziva quickly gave him the once-over, then said, "Your body is fine."
Tony smirked. "That almost sounded like a compliment."
She smiled, and he leaned back in his seat again, humming to the music.
"Perhaps we can find a sports bar later, and you can Skype your friends?" she said after a few minutes. "It won't be the same, but it is better than nothing."
"And you'll watch with me?"
"Yes. No, well, I can sit somewhere else if you like. It was supposed to be just you and your frat brothers, right."
"Do you promise to throw peanuts at the screen if they lose?" He was grinning at her now.
"I do." She smiled, and continued, "I will even cheer and boo when the situation calls for it."
Tony tilted his head, and said, "Huh, I guess you were right, after all."
Ziva frowned and glanced at him. He looked her up and down slowly.
"Looks like I do have a hot date tonight," he said, then started singing "I've got you under my skin."
