Alex stood on the balcony watching the MCRT team, watching Tony. It had been about two months since they had been back from Israel. Tony had finally healed and his arm was out of the sling. He and McGee and Gibbs continued to work as a team. All three missing Ziva. Alex felt a presence behind her and nodded to Gibbs as he stepped next to her.

Gibbs looked at Tony then back at Alex. "How is he doing?"

Alex looked at Tony then looked at Gibbs and she shrugged. "He's doing ok. As you know he likes to joke when he is upset. He misses his partner." Alex looked at McGee. "They both miss her."

Gibbs sighed quietly. "I know they do." Gibbs looked at Tony and then at Alex. He was debating whether or not to tell her what Ziva wanted him to do. Choose between the two of them. He didn't think he ever would tell Tony. It would break his heart. Tony would tell him that he should have chosen Ziva. That he wasn't worth it. Gibbs would never be able to convince Tony that he was worth that and much more to him. After all this time, Gibbs knew that he thought of Tony as his son, and since he had already lost his daughter, he was not giving up his son, no matter how much he cared for Ziva.

Gibbs phone rang. "Yeah, Gibbs. Ok, we are on the way." Gibbs looked at Alex. "See you later Marine."

Alex smiled at Gibbs. "HooRaa"

Gibbs walked down the stairs and was heading toward his desk. "Got another dead petty officer." Both Tony and McGee groaned.

"Another meth overdose?" asked Tim.

"You know as much as I do McGee."

McGee looked at Tony. They stood there with bags in their hands and paused at their desk. "Tony, I think its time."

Tony and McGee looked at Gibbs and McGee started the conversation.

"Boss, we think its time to fill the empty chair."

Tony nodded. "The personnel files are starting to pile up on the desk."

Gibbs looked at both of the men and picked up a stack of files and put them on the empty desk and walked away. Tony went over to the files to pick them up. "No, not now." Tony put the files back down.

"We need to go through them and pick a woman agent. We need a female agent."

"Those are only female agents. Let's go."

Over the next month

Tony and McGee interviewed different candidates for Ziva's position. They had thought they had found one, but she came out of the interview with Gibbs crying. 'Strike One' was Gibbs only comment. It was not going well. They had another one come in, but she was not the dare devil they thought she was.

Tony and Alex were sitting at Marco's having dinner. Tony had Alex's hand in his and was playing with her fingers and staring at her. Alex tilted her head. "What?"

Tony just smiled at her. One of his real smiles. One that showed how much he loved her. She had helped him deal with Ziva staying in Israel; made him understand that it wasn't his fault. "I know things are changing. I know that I want you in my life forever." Alex smiled at Tony when he said this. "I know that what we have is rare. I am going to do everything I can to make it work."

Alex looked at Tony, she was getting a little concerned. Tony wasn't usually this introspective. Something was wrong. Tony looked at Alex. "We found out today, got it confirmed. Gibbs told us." Tony paused.

Alex took a deep breath. She thought she knew where this was going. "You found out about Ziva today, didn't you?"

"Yeah, Abby, McGee and I had been doing research. Gibbs came in and he told us what happened."

Alex linked her fingers with Tony, moved her chair closer to him. "Do you want to talk about this here or do you want to go home?"

"Let's go home. I will tell you all about it then." Alex and Tony got up and left. The drive home was quite. Tony drove to his condo. Once he had pulled up to his parking place, he went around the car and opened Alex's door. He took her hand and helped her out of the car. Hand in hand they walked toward his building.

They entered his apartment and Alex asked if he wanted a drink or just coffee. "Coffee please. It's a complicated story and I need to focus. I need to decide what to do." Alex walked over to the coffee maker and made a large pot. Once it was finished brewing she loaded the tray and walked over to the couch. Once they served the coffee and were comfortable Alex started.

"Ok, start talking." Alex said to Tony as she sipped the coffee. "Tell me what's going on. What are you planning to do."

Tony took a deep breath. "Alex, you know I love you right. Nothing is going to change that, but we, McGee, Abby and I are concerned that we haven't heard from Ziva. They have started to hack into Mossad." Alex closed her eyes when Tony said this. She should have known she would be leaving the lawyer behind when she walked in the door.

Tony gave a small smile to Alex. "I know, its wrong on so many levels, but I learned that an operative was lost in the desert. We needed to know if it's Ziva. We needed answers."

Alex just sighed. "Did you find your answers?"

"Yeah, we did. Abby had the laptop from Ziva's apartment. The files were in Hebrew. We knew that we needed to find out what Mossad knew so Abby and McGeek went to work. We found out she was on a mission and was on the Damacles. A boat out of Acaba. We learned that it went down in a storm in May." Alex watched as Tony's eyes got wet with tears. "I lost my partner Alex. I know we had problems, but she was my partner. I should have been backing her up."

Alex moved to sit next to Tony. "Tony, telling you that Ziva made her own choices isn't going to make you feel any better. Once she was involved with Mossad again, there was nothing that you could do. She could have walked away."

Tony leaned back against the couch and closed his eyes. "I know. She knew that her father set her up, but she chose to stay and work for him. I know that. But," he looked at Alex, "it doesn't make it any easier."

Alex curled up next to Tony. "I know. So I guess the question is what are you going to do now?"

Tony looked at Alex, sat up, and said, "I am going to need your help."

Tony the Elephant sat in the corner wondering what was going to happen next.

First, thanks for sticking with me over the last few months. I know that I am behind in writing and this is a very short chapter, but with the new job and everything else I have not been able to write. I do want to thank dbn2372 for at least trying to keep me on track. I don't think I would have even written this without his asking, so thanks. I promise the next chapter won't be so long to wait and will be longer.

Thank you for all the comments, followers, favorites and PM's. It means a great deal to me.

All mistakes are mine and since I didn't win that big power ball last month I still don't own.