You only break if you let yourself.
There was nothing more Ziva could do in the moment than wipe the tears falling from her eyes and pull herself together as quickly as possible. She was strong, she was a warrior and most importantly, she was a mother and could not be like this in front of her babies. This could not bring her down, although it felt like her whole world was just blown up by nuclear bombs. For her kids, she had to pretend like everything was okay. Strands of her dark curls were clinging to her wet face and she tousled her hair back to remove them. Trying her best fake smile, she sniffed to rid of her stuffy nose and in her best voice, tried to convince her children that now was most definitely not the best time to be in New York City.
"But why? We just got off the plane?" Ty questioned, watching his mother's every move.
"Because I said so, yes?" Ziva sighed, frustrated that the elevator now landed on their floor again and they would have to finally exit. She grabbed both Ty and Isabella's hands once again and peaked out into the hallway. Clear. They descended down the hallway and to their room, Ziva fumbling to get the hotel key card with shaky hands.
"I got it," Ty offered and took the card from her, sliding it through small machine on the door and watching till it flashed green. Ziva ran her hands through his dark, short hair as a thank you before turning the knob to enter their room. Isabella's eyes were getting droopy, she hadn't slept on the plane at all from all the excitement, so Ziva picked her up into her arms and stripped back the covers of the first Queen bed. Laying her down, Ziva quickly rummaged through the suitcases at end of the beds to find her blanket. Once finding her daughters favorite cloth, she returned to her bedside to place it gently over her. Isabella was already asleep, thumb in mouth. Ziva smiled faintly, whispering "I love you" and went back to close their suitcases up.
Ty grabbed the TV remote off the bedside table, turning the screen on before flipping through the channels to find something worth watching. Ziva shook her head, making a mental note of how alike to his father he was before remembering that they needed to get out of this place as soon as Isabella was awake. She reached into her purse to find her cell phone and look up flights out of LaGuardia. Much to her dismay however, she had 17 new voicemails.
"Ben-zona," She muttered in Hebrew, deleting all of the messages and clicking on the Safari app to search for a flight home.
Ben-zona : son of a bitch.
-x-
"Ah!" An older woman shrieked, stumbling over after being knocked out of the way. Her husband spinning around to see what had caused her to fall over in the overly crowded lobby.
"Sorry," Tony yelled back, dashing through the crowds of people to make it to the front desk. "Scuse me," He tried, pushing a bigger man to the side and scurrying to get to the front of the line in order to talk to the receptionist.
"Hi, yeah, excuse me." The attitude in his voice dripping off before he finally pushed through enough people and to the large, wooden desk. Both of the receptionists were busy typing away on their computers as they helped the customers he had just barged in front of. Impatiently, he slammed his palm down on the small, silver bell that laid on the desk and aggressively kept hitting it.
"Sir, there are other cust-" The one receptionist spoke, but was cut off.
"Federal agent," Tony groaned, retrieving his badge and flashing it to the woman. "I need to know what hotel room Ziva Dinozzo is staying in." He pleaded and waited while the woman searched the computer.
"Room 1204. Is there-"
Tony took off towards the elevator again, cursing that he should have known she would've gotten a room on the same floor as he had. Absent in thought, he knocked the same elder woman over in the process.
"Hey Jerk!" Her husband shouted again causing Tony to stop in his tracks and stride back to the couple.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" He started, helping the woman gain her balance again, "But sir, how long have you been married to her?" He asked.
"56 years." The man replied, looking quizzically that the younger man.
"56 years?" Tony smiled and the man nodded, "That's outstanding. Sir, believe me. I'm in a rush because my wife of six years is up in one of those hotel rooms, crying over something stupid I did and all I want to do is make everything better right now because I want those 56 more years with her. I want to have what both of you have." He glanced down at his watch hoping it wasn't too late, "I wish you both many more years of happiness." He smiled, patting the man on his back and took off again, into the elevator.
He desperately kept pushing the close door button once inside, groaning at other people slowly taking their time getting in. Once no one else seemed to be getting on, the doors closed along with Tony's eyes as he waited to arrive on the 12th floor. Pushing his way through to exit the elevator, he ran down the hallway looking for room 1204. All of the room numbers in this area seemed to be in the double digits, so he took off around the corner finally finding the even room numbers.
1204.
"Zee," He banged on the door, continuously. "Zee, Ty, Bella? Come on, Ziva! Ziva, please I need to talk to you."
The door swung open and he winced when Ziva cursed in Hebrew, sneaking out of the door and closing it behind her "Shut up, you will wake them." Her arms crossed over her breasts, a defending stance that he hadn't seen on her in the longest time. She leaned her back against the door, waiting for Tony to speak again.
"I never in a million years wanted that to happen. I swear to you, Ziva." He tried, stepping closer to her.
"You swear to me? Hm, that is very interesting, Anthony. You swore a lot of things to me at our wedding and this was not on the list, if I remember correctly." She straightened her back up, moving as close as possible to the door.
"I was so drunk last night, baby. I don't remember a single thing that happened or even arriving to the bar. I just remember being at work, upset over you and the fact that I was missing Ty's birthday when he was so excited. I was so upset over us, Ziva. I knew I wanted to go get a drink and thought maybe it would take all the stress away and-" Tony was blabbing away now, almost in tears.
"Cheating on me and tricking your child that you are at work while missing his birthday are not ways to relieve stress, Tony." Her voice was stern, the anger flaring back up as the man in front of her continued talking.
"I didn't- God, Ziva! I promise on my dead mother's grave that I had no intention of cheating on you, ever! I love you! I love you so much, Zee." He reached out, tears falling from his eyes as he tried to stroke her cheek, but she turned her face.
"You had sex with another woman, Tony. I should have been in the back of your mind while you were obviously talking with her at the bar or wherever you met her. Hell, Tony. I should have been in the back of your mind the whole time you were fucking her if you do so called, 'love me'!" She made air quotes with her hands, gritting her teeth together to keep herself from crying anymore.
"Baby, I love you. Why don't you believe me? I'm so fucking stupid. I know that. But, I would never deliberately hurt you or our kids! I love you all, so much." He tried to touch her again, but she kept moving further away out of his reach and pushed herself up against the door. Tears were now visible on her face. She had broke too. "I don't even know if I actually had sex with her! I don't remember any of it."
"We did," A voice called from behind them in the hallway. Tony turned around slowly, his fists clenching at his side.
"Lisa, go. I told you to fucking get lost." He warned, pointing down the hall towards the elevator.
"We are done here," Ziva muttered, turning to open the hotel door, but Tony grabbed her waist with his hands, trying to stop her. "Tony." She groaned, fighting against him.
"Your husband and I did have sex. It was pretty great, actually." Lisa's voice stuck to the air like super glue and Ziva stopped fighting against Tony.
"Excuse me?" Ziva turned around, glaring at the woman.
"Lisa, go." Tony warned once more, keeping his hands on Ziva's hips.
"I know you heard me. You should've heard him when I took him deep, all the way down my throat-"
"You fucking whore." Ziva screeched through her teeth, lunging towards the woman with a tiger like scowl and pounced. Tony luckily had his hands on her hips still and caught her in mid-lung, holding her back with all of the strength he had to use against her. Ziva's feet hit the floor from the air, struggling against Tony holding her back, she screamed in multiple languages at the woman while reaching out with a claw like grip.
"Aw, thanks for protecting me, Tony." Lisa smirked, ducking from Ziva's hand flying towards her.
"Protecting you? I'm actually protecting my wife from getting murder charges while our kids are right behind that door." He grimaced.
"Ex-wife." Lisa tried to correct, sending Ziva over the edge again and towards her.
Tony finally over powered Ziva, pushing her back against the door and holding her in a death grip before any deaths would be caused. "She's not worth it." He whispered to her, his hands letting go as he felt the tension ease out of her.
She pushed him away from her, locking eyes with him as she grabbed the door handle, "Do not think of coming near us again." She threatened again, rushing into the hotel room again and locking the door behind her.
Tony furiously stared at the door, "Lisa. I will fucking hit you and I have never hit a woman before. Stay away from all of us." He advised in a gruff, turning his head slightly to watch her walk away out of the corner of his eye. He sighed, wiping the tears from his cheeks and leaned against the hotel door where his whole life was behind it. He slid down the door, covering his face with his palms and hoping this would all be a terrible nightmare.