So, finally the next chapter :)

I feel bad that I don't update faster and I'm always amazed that some author's update daily.

But I don't have that much free time, so thanks for being patience with me.

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS.

Chapter 7

The rest of the drive to NCIS was spent in silence. Since Tony didn't want to have a conversation from the beginning, he didn't make an attempt to start another one then, either. The chance that this would bite his ass later on was too big. If this meant that they wouldn't say another word to each other for some time, then so be it.

Ziva's reason to be silent was another one. She wouldn't mind to continue their conversation and try to solve their problems. Just not now. She had to wait for the perfect opportunity for her next attempt and try to express her words better. Meanwhile, she thought about Tony's words again.

He was right, they were no couple. Officially, they could do whatever they wanted to do, but nevertheless, there was a kind of agreement between them since Dearing. An unofficial and unspoken agreement. Nobody dated somebody. Because of this unofficial and unspoken agreement she felt as if she had cheated on him. But Tony apparently didn't care about her night with Adam. At least he had told her that Adam was not the reason for their differences and even while she didn't think that it left him cold, she believed him.

He often told her that he was there for her. He has been at her side in some of the hardest times in her life. But she didn't want to accept it. Accept him. She had ignored him over and over again and had left him in the dark about her plans and actions. She hadn't made it easy for him and nevertheless, he always had come back to her over and over again. She should be glad that he still wanted to be her partner after all. To have a partner, who pushes you away over and over again and is working rather alone in difficult situations, is not exactly the ideal of what she thinks is a partnership.

Ziva looked at Tony. He was concentrating completely upon the streets and didn't notice that he was being observed. Or maybe he just didn't comment on it. They should be at NCIS any minute. Maybe it was time to ignore the words and to let the actions speak. She and Tony had to trust each other again before they could speak about it. From now on, she would show Tony that he could count on her. She would try harder again. Allowing him to an even bigger part in her life and telling him more.

When Ziva turned away from Tony again and looked out of the window, she noticed that they already were at NCIS and Tony was parking the car. Had she been lost in her thoughts that long that she didn't notice that they were already there?

Silently they got out of the car, grabbed their bags from the trunk and walked in the direction of the main entrance. Tony considered whether he should say something to her after all, but couldn't think of something that wouldn't eventually lead them to the conversation again that they already had in the car. He saw a woman who stood at the reception. She seemed familiar to him. This figure and this blond hair… He rummaged through his memory when the meeting at the supermarket on Saturday suddenly occurred to him again. Was she really here? What did she do here?

"Elena?" Tony asked a little bit hesitantly. Maybe he was mistaken.

The woman turned to him confused. No, he was right, she was it. He already had gotten to know these blue eyes. Tony's mood improved with every second. "Hi, I don't know if you remember me? I'm the guy who had no special license for the shopping cart."

Elena had to laugh out loud as she remembered their encounter in the supermarket. "Yes, sure. Tony, right?"

"Exactly. Did the lemons last?"

"Yes, we actually have still some left. The people rather wanted beer that evening. Typical, I could bet that if I wouldn't have brought the lemons, then everyone would've wanted a cocktail."

Ziva stood a few feet away from them and observed the whole scene. She wasn't sure what she should think about this woman. She didn't like it at all how open they were with each other. The last thing she needed was one more person in this game. There already were too many. He seemed to have realized that she was still there. "Hey, err… Ziva. Why don't go ahead. I will be up in a minute." Without waiting for her to answer, he turned to Elena again. Without making a big fuss, Ziva scowled and went off to the elevator. They didn't need another disagreement at the moment.

"What are you doing here? Not that I'm not pleased to see you again. Are you visiting somebody?"

"I'm here because of my brother. Colin Warren."

"Your brother is an NCIS agent? How small the world is, through," Tony answered.

"He works in the IT department. He will probably not experience so many exciting things, but this is alright with me. That way I won't have to worry about him."

"Should I take you to see him?"

"Surely you have more important things to do then taking me to see my brother."

"But that wouldn't be as much fun as taking a wonderful woman to see her brother," Tony replied charmingly.

"Alright, if you think so."

"I insist on it!" Tony looked at the Officer who welcomes the visitors. „Hey Dave. I take over from here."

"Alright, Tony."

"You ready?" asked Tony and offered her arm to her.

She smiled at him and accepted his arm. "Ready".

It was already 10:43pm when Tony went home. They still couldn't find anything useful regarding the case. In other words, they still had no suspect. At least his mood was better than in the morning. Elena's brother, Colin, was a nice fellow. When the three talked briefly, they joked a lot. However, he had arranged to meet Elena for coffee sometime. He wanted to get to know her better.

When he came back to the bullpen with a bright smile on the face, he was immediately grilled for information by McGee. Ziva had kept silent, but gave him questioning looks throughout the day. As if she tried to find out something. They briefly spoke about the case, but that was already about it what they spoke with each other. Tony wished that the situation wouldn't be so complicated. He missed his partner, his best friend, but she had to learn that she wasn't always alone and that she had to involve her partner in her decisions. Of course she wasn't the only one to blame for their current situation. He definitely should've told her earlier about Jo.

His mood fell again when his car didn't want to start. He was on the verge of calling a cap as Ziva appeared. Even though he didn't want to spend even more time alone with her, he accepted her offer for a drive home. He only wanted to go home and be with his daughter. The drive was uncomfortable and they didn't speak a word with each other for the whole drive to his apartment. Ziva said goodbye to him with the promise to pick him up tomorrow morning again. To avoid a discussion, he agreed.

He opened the front door and saw his daughter sitting next to Luisa on the couch. Both were lost in the movie they were watching.

"Hey, you are still awake." Tony walked over to them and kissed his daughter on the forehead.

"Shush, dad! The best scene of the movie will be on shortly." She didn't look at her father once, but watched intently at the screen and waited for the scene.

Tony chuckled and bent forward to give her one more kiss on the forehead. "Sorry".

Tony withdrew to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He heard quiet steps behind him. When he turns around he saw Luisa standing in front of him. She looked tired. He should send her home, so that she could lie down. "School starts later tomorrow. That is the only reason why I allowed her to watch the movie."

„Don't worry, I'm not angry. To tell the truth, I am glad that I can see my daughter today. I haven't seen her as much as I want to lately. Maybe I should take a vacation."

"Her school vacation starts in two weeks. This would be a good time for a vacation. Then you can be with her as much as you want to."

"I'll ask for some vacation time first thing tomorrow."

"Good to know. You're a great father, Tony. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. And now excuse me, please. This old lady has to lie down."

Tony smiled at Luisa softly. "Good night, Lu."

"Good night."

He took his glass of water and joined Jo on the couch. If Tony remembered the movie properly, it should be ending in the next ten or so minutes. Tony had no doubt that his daughter had her love for movies from him. He remembered when he watched all Disney movies with her on the weekends. These were good times. At that time Luisa had just shaken her head, but watched two movies with them.

At that time it wasn't as complicated like today. The days were shorter and his Captain had always paid attention to the fact that he went home on time. Because the Captain had children himself, he knew how it was to be at home so rarely. Especially when they were still so young. However, this had changed when he had gone to NCIS. Though Gibbs was also solicitous of the fact that he could spend a lot of time with Jo, but the hours were longer, nevertheless. At that time Jo had needed a while to get used to the fact that her daddy wasn't home as much as he used to. She hadn't liked it at all that she couldn't see him as much anymore.

Meanwhile she had got used to it, however, he was not sure whether that was something good or bad. While he worked, she was at school and afterwards she mostly went to one of her many courses outside of school. She was very active and took pleasure getting to know things. She loved to get to know new things and he was thrilled that she was so open for new things.

Tony was torn from his thoughts when he felt something heavy on his upper arm. He looked down and saw that Jo had fallen asleep and her head landed on his arm. Without disturbing her in her sleep, he bent forward to reach the remote on the coffee table. He switched off the television and slowly got up. He wrapped his arms around her back and legs and picked her up. Gently, he carried her to her bed and covered her with the blanket. At least she had thought ahead and had already put on her pjs. She had learnt to put them on after she had fallen asleep in front of the TV over and over again. She changed before, so that he just would have to carry her to bed, without waking her up again to change. He kissed her on the forehead and sneaked out of her room.

Tony, however, didn't go to bed yet. He sat down on the sofa and thought of the events of the day. The day had started well. He had had a lot of fun when Abby and Ducky had been here there on Sunday for dinner. But he had felt a little bit uneasy when he had seen Ziva this morning. He hadn't known how he should behave around her. Especially with all these words they had thrown at each other. He was glad that they could behave so civilized and forget about their argument for the time being. The team had it hard enough at the moment and the others shouldn't be burdened with their problems.

He was completely confused when they were called up into Vance's office. He was definitely glad that Parsons was finally gone. Though he hadn't torn the team apart or transferred one of them to another team, he had provided for the fact that the team didn't get away unscathed. All the things he had uncovered and in all wounds he had poked around led to the fact that the team now felt vulnerable. At the same time he didn't know what he should think of this Team Manager. This Team Manager would certainly make things more complicated and more troubling for the team. That was something, Tony was sure of. Parsons didn't send him to them without a reason. But on the other hand, he felt a little bit sorry for the new Team Manager. You can either get on with Gibbs well or absolutely not. There was nothing in between and when you consider that Gibbs already didn't like this new Team Manager, things could only get worse for this new addition of NCIS.

Tony was glad that the team had a case again. Cases sometimes lasted long and also could be nerve wracking, but they were still better than paperwork. It was good to work on a real murder scene again. Listening to Ducky and his stories and annoying McGee.

After they had finished up, he had been too slow and had to drive back to NCIS with Ziva. Unlike her, he hadn't liked that at all. While she had been keen to talk to him, he had wanted to avoid it under all circumstances. But, as usual, he had been unlucky. He always had bad luck when it came to things like that. It was unbelievable that she still thought that her One Night Stand with Adam was the only thing to blame for their argument. He admitted that it hurt him, but what hurt him even more, was what had been the reason for this One Night Stand. The fact that she had felt alone, although he had told her that she was not alone. He also had shown her that he'll always be there for her, but obviously it hadn't been enough. He hadn't been enough.

After she finally had gotten a reaction from him, he had told her what really was wrong in his opinion. He had told her everything and he hadn't cared if he told her something he didn't want to, because it felt so good. After that, the mood had dropped to a new low again. None of them had spoken more than two words throughout the day. The longest conversation Ziva had with him today was when she asked him if she should drive him home. That was all.

While they had their conversation in the car, he didn't even thing of the fact that he didn't tell her about Amelia, but in the end, he too, was to blame for their current situation. While he knew that he should apologize to her, he hid behind his hurt feelings and every time he thought of it again, he justified himself that he wasn't the only one who had done something wrong. As long as she didn't apologize to him and saw her wrongs, he won't feel sorry for his actions regarding the knowledge of his daughter's existence. But after the couple of conversations with Ziva, which were loaded with emotions, he cooled down. He thought a little bit clearer again. They both had done something wrong and maybe he should apologize first. He couldn't stay mad at her forever. He couldn't hide from her forever.

One of the highlights of the day had been Elena. She had brought him to other thoughts somehow. Let him forget about all of his problems for a couple of minutes. He liked her. He liked her enough to meet up with her. He was even relatively sure that Elena and Jo would get on well. He could hardly wait to see her again.

Tony emptied his glass, switched off the living room lights and went to bed.

To Be Continued...

So, next chapter will have the new Team Manager in it and lets just say, Tony won't be happy to see who exactly is the Team Manager.

I'm happy about every Review :)