Five o'clock the next night, Anthony Dinozzo looked at himself in the mirror. Rocking a new black tuxedo with a classy white tie, he smiled. He didn't know why he was acting like this was their first day, but technically it was. However, there was no "dating" going on in the picture though. Putting on his watch, he checked the time again to make sure he was right on schedule. He had to pick up some flowers before getting Ziva, a dozen roses should do the trick to please her. Tony quickly fixed his tie again before making his way out the door and picking up the flowers.
At about five minutes before six, Tony arrived at Ziva's apartment complex. Deciding to take the stairs up to her apartment, he headed up. He wanted to be right on time, not a few minutes early or late. When he reached her door, he knocked on it gently. He could feel himself tensing up and becoming nervous and he didn't know why. Ziva always had some type of effect on him.
Within a few seconds, Ziva opened the door leaving Tony Dinozzo's jaw to drop. She was dressed in a tight, white dress that had a slit up the leg giving a perfect angle for her long, tan legs. On her feet, she had black heels where her toes peeped out and revealed her red toe nail polish. Her brunette locks were curled perfectly and hung down onto her shoulders.
"Hello," she smiled widely at him she opened the door and saw the look on his face.
"Hellooooo is right!" he laughed, "Wow- Zee…. Y- you look stunning!" his smile was from ear to ear.
"Thank you Tony! You clean up well too," she winked at him before walking back into her apartment, grabbing her wallet. Ziva headed towards the door where Tony was still standing.
"Oh!" Tony exclaimed, realizing he still had one hand behind his back hiding the roses, he brought them forward. "These are for you!"
Ziva grabbed the roses from him, smelling them and smiled "Aw, thank very much Tony," she blushed "Do I have time to get a vase for them before we go?"
Tony nodded and Ziva hurriedly went and found a vase in her apartment. She put some water and the roses into the vase and set it in the middle of her kitchen table. Smiling, she ran back over to the door and left with Tony. Throughout the car ride to the restaurant, they sang along to the radio. When they arrived at the restaurant, Tony quickly got out of the car and ran over to Ziva's side of the car. He opened the car door slowly for her and lent his hand to help her out. After shutting her door Tony and Ziva linked arms, walking into the restaurant. They got to their reserved seat, sat down and looked at their menus. Tony ordered a bottle of wine for the two of them to split.
"Wow, Tony. This place is very elegant!" she laughed.
"Would you expect anything less of me Ms. David?" he smiled back.
"Never!" she continued looking onto the menu.
A few minutes later a waiter came over and took their orders. While waiting for their food they made small talk and reminisced on old memories working with their team.
"I've gotta say, the best feeling in the world was bringing you home from Somalia," Tony said with a smile as he looked into her eyes across the table. His hands rested on hers in the middle of the table.
Ziva smiled shyly at him, "The best for me…" she began to choke at remembering the moment and felt tears welt up in her eyes, "when the covering over my head was taken off and the first thing I saw was you. That would make you my prince in shining armor" she giggled trying to make the moment happier.
"Knight, knight in shining armor." Tony laughed "Ziva David I'll come anywhere and anytime for you" he grabbed her hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing it tenderly. Ziva felt her heart flutter at the contact and watched as he laid their hands back down on the table.
Shortly after their food came and Tony made a few jokes, as usual while they were eating.
"This pasta is delicious Zee! You have to try it!" Tony held out his fork to her with some pasta.
"Okay..." Ziva went to grab the fork from him, when he moved it away. "Tony! What? Do you want to feed me?" she asked sarcastically.
"Yeah!" He held the fork back out. Ziva couldn't believe how unbelievably cheesy this was, she was perfectly fine feeding herself. She moved her mouth to the fork and took a slow bite from Tony's fork as they connected eyes. When Ziva was done taking in all of the food on his fork, she began to chew and kept eye contact with Tony. He's watching me so continently.
As they ate, Tony tried to keep his mind off her leaving and the only thing he could think of doing was to keep telling jokes. He loved to hear her laugh, so it kept everything off his mind even when half the time she didn't understand his jokes. A few times, Ziva's legs rubbed up against him underneath the table which made his skin shiver at the feel of her bare legs touching him.
After they were done eating, the waitress came and picked up their plates. They sat in silence, staring at each other with a loving glance. Ziva sipped her wine and giggled as he watched her lick the slide of the glass. God, she turns me on so badly he thought to himself.
Tony looked away to keep from getting himself hot and bothered. But, what he saw startled him. He looked down a few tables and noticed the two men he had saw the other day at Ziva's apartment in the van. He stared at them intently, they were definitely following him. He just wanted to get himself and Ziva out of this place with them not noticing. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a waiter brought two candles, lit over to the table and set them down infront of him and Ziva. He shared a confused glance with Ziva when suddenly a huge cake was placed on their table and a bunch of other waiters and waitresses joined.
One of the waitresses began to yell, "Can we have your attention?!" The whole place went quiet while Tony and Ziva sat there, wondering what the hell was happening. "We would like to wish these two congratulations on their engagement!" Everyone began to clap. Ziva and Tony's eyes became large as Tony tried to stop the waitress. "We would like to wish you a lifetime of happiness and-" she looked down at Tony.
"We-we aren't engaged…" he looked back at her.
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" the waitress told everyone in the restaurant the show as over and told the other waiters to get the cake. "We were told that a newly engaged couple would be celebrating here tonight, but we never got a name! We just looked around for the couple who looked in love…and we saw you two the whole night,"
Tony and Ziva quickly glanced at each other awkwardly.
"I'm so sorry! I have to go find the couple who is engaged" she laughed and walked away. Tony and Ziva stayed staring at each other.
Deciding to make light of the moment, Tony laughed "Damn, that cake looked good. I shouldn't have said anything." Ziva giggled at his remark.
Their original waitress came over and gave them the bill. Ziva got out her wallet and Tony gave her a weird look. "Seriously Ziva, you don't need to bring money when you're with me"
"Yeah, but-" Ziva tried to protest.
"No buts!" He gave the waitress the money and bill. "Come on, let's go out and walk by the water" he smiled and Ziva followed him out of the restaurant.
They walked along the canal way slowly, as a breeze began to blow in the air. As they strolled along, in silence, they watched the boat lights on the water.
Breaking the silence, Ziva spoke, "Thank you for taking me out tonight" she looked down as she walked.
"Of course. I'm glad we did this, before…you, you know" he didn't want to say the words. Their hands brushed against each other twice and finally Tony got the courage to grab her hand as they walked. Ziva didn't pull away, instead she intertwined her fingers with his exactly like they did in the car the night on the way home from Berlin.
"I know. I thought for sure the other day after I told you I was leaving, you would push me away." She sighed as they walked along hand in hand.
"Push you away? Never. " He laughed and held onto her hand tighter.
"Tony, you know we push each other away." She looked over to him. They started to approach a bridge over the water and the breeze began to pick up. Ziva felt goose bumps form on her body from the chilling breeze. She took his hand in hers and picked it up over her head so his hand was wrapped around her shoulders and let go of his hand. His hand draped over her shoulders and held her tightly. He smirked at how sneaky she was at making a move.
"I don't mean to push you away, Zee-vah. You on the other hand, love to push me away." They approached the bridge and Ziva stopped walking in her tracks, looking out over the water. She looked up at Tony and the lights from the boats shined on her face.
"I only push you away because I need you to pull me closer," she stared at him. She was being vulnerable in this moment and she didn't care.
Tony stared at her for a moment, taking in what she had just said. The words floated through his head, she need him. He lowered his hand down to her hip from her shoulder and used his other hand to grab the other side of her hip. Pulling her closer to him so, their bodies were now pressed up against each other. "Close enough?" he smirked looking down at her.
Ziva smiled up at him. She was now realizing how close it was for her time to leave.
"Stay." Tony pleaded while he held onto her hips tighter and pushed her into him. He didn't want to let her go in this perfect moment. He didn't want to let her go ever.
"I won't be there for long, Tony. I just need some closure." She knew he was having a hard time with this.
Closure? Closure from Adam, bastard. He thought to himself. "You always say you won't be there for long" he looked away from her stare.
"I'll be back, Tony. I promise." She said at just a whisper while her hands wrapped around his neck.
And that's when Tony took a chance and never looked back. He whispered, "I love you" and leaned towards Ziva, His moist lips gently touched hers and he kissed her with everything he had in him. To his surprise, she didn't pull away. She only kissed back, harder and trying to deepen it. This was the passion they had missed out on all of these years. As they stood on the bridge, in the glow of the moonlight and boats, they fought for dominance of the kiss. Their tongues collided and Ziva felt his hands in her hair. But she was frightened when she felt Tony's lips and hands in her hair stop moving. She opened her eyes to find Tony dropping to the ground. Two men were running away from the scene where they had been standing. She got down next to Tony, yelling his name. He was still breathing and looking up at her. On the ground she noticed a puddle of blood begin to form. Looking on Tony, she saw knife sticking out of his side.
"Tony! Stay with me!" she held onto his hand as she grabbed her phone trying to dial. "SOMEONE CALL 911!" she shouted at people she saw walking along the canal in front of where they were standing. She dialed Gibbs and told him to come. Tony's breathing was starting to become more rapid.
"Zi…Ziva.." he coughed out. "Don't worry about me," he kept staring at her. Even in his worst moment, he couldn't deny how unbelievably beautiful she was.
She rolled her eyes, he always put everyone in front of his own health. "Stop. I'm going to worry about you." She kneeled over him and worried about the wound in his side.
"Bye, Ziva." He choked out as he felt the pain in his side worsen.
"What? Tony? There is no goodbye right now. Don't fucking do that to me!" she shouted out at him. He always knew how to piss her off.
"Yeah, Ziva there-there is" he shrieked from the pain that his side was causing him. "Go to Israel…. Be with him"
"What the hell are you talking about Tony?" now she was getting furious and she tried to pull the knife out of his side while holding onto his hand still.
"Adam. You love him, go be with him." He couldn't hardly breathe and he barely choked out the words. Ziva began to cry.
"Tony, I don't love him. He was a mistake." She stopped pulling at the knife and felt herself collapsing on him, crying. "I love you."
Tony smiled back up at her with the only energy he had left. Ziva leaned down and planted a kiss on his lips. He could taste the salt of her tears as they poured down her face. The sounds of the sirens echoed in the background and Ziva laid crying on Tony as he barely could bring himself to breathe. Ziva felt someone pull her off him and turned around to find Gibbs. Gibbs held onto her as paramedics grabbed onto Tony and got him onto a stretcher. McGee came over and Gibbs agreed with him to go look at the security tapes in the restaurant to see who the two men were.
Gibbs silently drove to the hospital as she cried, helplessly. As they reached the hospital, Tony was put immediately into surgery. McGee eventually showed up, along with Abby and Ducky who sat in the waiting room with Ziva and Gibbs. Ziva sat in the chair, crying and feeling sick.
A few minutes later, Gibbs walked away. When he returned, he was with a doctor. Ziva stood up and walked towards them. "So?" she questioned looking at Gibbs.
Gibbs felt his heart drop, as he stared at the once so strong Israeli in front of him. He shook his head when he heard a shriek and felt a body drop to the ground. Ziva felt to the ground, violently crying on her knees. "I love him. I love him" she kept repeating.