Tony and Ziva unexpectedly met each other again, this time it would be at NCIS in Washington DC sometimes on September 2005
Chapter 2 – Only Time Will Tell
As Ziva walked across the lobby of the Embasario Hotel and walked down the hallway toward the elevators, she was lost in thought, her mind going back over the recent events that led to her standing at the top of the stairs looking down at her dead half-brother. She turned the corner toward the elevators, and as she did so, she almost ran into someone that had been standing there leaning against the wall next to the corner. She took a quick step back, and let out a gasp. "Tony!? What're you doing here?" Ziva asked as she composed herself.
Tony pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against, nodding at Ziva. "Sorry I didn't mean to startle you," he said, holding his hands up in the air for a brief moment, then dropping them to his sides. "Gibbs called me, asked me to check on you and make sure you are alright. He wasn't sure where you had gone for the night, thought that I might find you here. So, I came out here to see if you need anything."
Ziva let out a sigh, then nodded to Tony. "I'm doing fine. How long have you been waiting for me?" She turned and smiled tautly at Tony as she tilted her head at Tony.
Tony smiled as he shook his head slightly. "Oh, not too long. At least it's stopped raining half an hour or so ago. Can't trust the weather for the rest of the night, though."
Ziva let out a short chuckle. "Tell me about it. It had only stopped raining a few minutes after I had left NCIS." But she had seen the look in Tony's eyes – the questions that his eyes held – and before Tony could say anything, she held up a hand. "Not here, not now," she said in a softer voice. "Care to come up? Maybe it's better we talk in private."
Tony nodded, a small smile on his lips. "Sure. Lead the way," he said, holding a hand out in front of her toward the elevators.
Moments later, they entered Ziva's hotel room, and dropped their bags on the floor next to the entry way. "Wow, what a day," Ziva whispered to herself as she kicked her shoes off and walked over to the bed and flopped down on it, letting out a long, tired, yet relieved, sigh.
Tony followed, letting the door close behind him and flopped himself into the chair next to the bed, letting out a satisfied sigh. "Yeah, tell me about it. For a man who's a stickler for orders, he sure can't follow his own orders at times," he said, letting out a wry chuckle.
Ziva sat up on the bed and looked at Tony. "Gibbs?" Her accent was somewhat pronounced, tinged with emotion. "The profile only showed a hint of who he is, how he operates. Gibbs is a more complicated person than what the profile shows."
"Oh, your dossiers you've gathered on us, for Ari." Tony nodded from his seat. "Do tell, what was Ari's purpose with them, actually? To get to Gibbs?"
Ziva contemplated that question for a moment, framing her thoughts, then nodded. "Yes. To cause him pain." She suddenly got up off the bed and walked toward the bathroom. "I need to shower. I'm tired and need to rest."
"Sure thing, I can wait out here." Tony nodded at Ziva as he picked up the remote to the TV, noticing the tiredness in Ziva's face, and her eyes.
"It wont be long," Ziva said as she turned and walked into the bathroom, and closed the door behind her. But she didn't quite push the door all the way closed, and the door slowly opened just a crack, barely enough for Tony to be able to see Ziva moving around, but not exactly what she was doing in there.
Tony sat in the chair for a moment, looking at the bathroom door. He could see through the crack occasional pieces of Ziva moving around, doing he was not sure what. He heard snatches of Ziva's muttering, and the muted sounds of Ziva undressing and preparing the shouwer, and called out gently, "Are you alright in there, Ziva?"
Ziva looked up at the mirror, at the reverse image of Tony peering through the crack in the doorway. Memories started flashing through her mind as she looked at his face. Suddenly, she felt woozy, overcome with emotion, with the realization that this was the very same Tony that had always been there for her whenever she was in dire time of need. "Yeah, I'm fine," Ziva replied back, swallowing a dry lump. "I'll be fine."
"Alright, just making sure," Tony said. He sat back and turned the TV on, and made sure the volume was set low enough to hear what was happening in the bathroom, and flipped the channel until he found something to watch. "They tell you what time you're flying out?" he called out.
Ziva called out as she started the water to the shower, "I haven't yet received instructions. I should be receiving them either tonight or tomorrow."
"Sounds good," Tony said, and returned to the TV. He could hear the onrush of the shower water starting, and the occasional sound of Ziva talking and singing to herself in Hebrew, sometimes with an angry voice. Suddenly, Tony's mind was flooded with memories of Ziva's voice back in Naples, as they talked on the drive on the highway between Naples and Mount Vesuvius, her face as she sat across the table from him in the small family-run restaurant. He chuckled to himself, thinking, that's the same Ziva I know.
"Ah, much better," Ziva breathed out the words as she opened the door with one hand, the other holding her towel around her midriff. She turned and looked bemusedly at the priceless look on Tony's face as he looked at her. "Enjoying the view?" she asked. She smiled at him, but her eyes showed something else entirely – exhaustion.
Tony raised an eyebrow at Ziva and smiled as he looked her up and down. "Uhm, the view's fine from here." His eyebrows flicked upwards once, and a small smile formed on his lips. "Feeling much better now?"
Ziva smiled. "Much. Thanks for asking." Her shoulders drooped from exhaustion as she sat on the bed.
Tony tilted his head to Ziva. "Heard you in there, talking and singing in a different language. Hebrew, right?"
Ziva nodded. "Yeah. And a little bit of Arabic." She bit her lips.
"A little cursing thrown in here and there, too, I bet." Tony chuckled as he waved the remote around in his hand. "How many languages do you know exactly?" His face contorted in a puzzled, inquisitive expression.
Ziva let out a short, tired chuckle. "A fair few." She shook her head slightly, exhaustedly. "Just... trying to put my mind together, you know? A lot to think about."
Tony got up from his chair and turned the TV off, and sat on the bed next to Ziva. "Try me, talk to me."
Ziva took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. "Well." She kneaded her hands together for a couple of seconds, then looked up at Tony. "I've been here for a few months, on a mission. I think you know what it was," she said.
Tony looked at Ziva with a surprised look on his face. "So you weren't here on a pleasure trip, then? Were you here on Daddy's orders to follow your half-brother around to make sure he doesn't cause mayhem?" Tony's voice was slightly flippant. "I mean, it's all one big family over there in Israel, right?"
Ziva sighed and shook her head. She looked around at Tony, taking a few moments to compose herself. She hadn't invited Tony in here just to start an argument with him, so she held up a hand to Tony. "Yes, I was ordered by the director of Mossad, who happens to be my Abba, to handle my half-brother. That meant I had to follow him, and maintain contact with him." She took a breath and let out a sigh, holding her hands up in the air, then dropping them back down on her lap. "My Abba had suspicions that he had gone rogue -"
"Your Abba suspected?" Tony asked, cutting Ziva off. "He killed one of our people and hurt another one of ours, he was torturing Gibbs."
"- and I was supposed to keep him in check, handle him by any means possible. Those were my orders," Ziva fired back. She let out an exasperated sigh. "When he went after Gibbs, I realized he was the one who shot your agent. He went after Abigail, and he sent that person to die, trying to throw us off his tracks. He was nowhere near the area."
"How did you know where he was?" Tony gave Ziva a hard stare. "He knew all the details, how long it took to complete a trace, how to keep himself from being found, and yet you knew where to meet him."
Ziva nodded briskly, but briefly. "Because I had to provide him with dossiers on everyone he might interact with. Didn't I tell you that before?"
Tony slumped on the bed. "You know, I don't really remember you telling me that. Refresh my memory again? The rain might've washed a bit of it away," he said, screwing his face up as he whirled his hand around near his head.
Ziva shook her head and fixed Tony with a look on her face. "I never knew why Ari wanted the dossiers on everyone - Gibbs, McGee, Kate, even you. I didn't realize his end plan until I heard what Ari had said at Gibbs' house, in the basement." She sighed and shook her head. "To hear that he had joined with the Hamas terrorist group so he could wreak pain on our country. And I had to be the one to stop him." She tried her hardest to not break down in tears, and took in a deep, ragged breath.
"So, now what? You go back and tell your director – your Abba that Ari is now dead?" Tony held his hands out, cocking his face to the side, his eyes full of questions.
Ziva slumped in the couch. "Yes. My Abba told me to handle him. Using any means possible. But, to kill my own family, because I was told to handle this in the way the Mossad expects you to do when a person goes rogue? Hardest thing to do." Ziva shook her head slowly.
Tony clicked his tongue and grimaced. "Wow, sounds like your daddy played you two against each other." Tony shook his head and muttered to himself, "What a manipulative..."
Ziva gave Tony a sharp look. "Manipulative? My Abba?" She scoffed as she shrugged. "I don't know. I could see Ari being this way – look at what he's done – but my Abba?"
Tony raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders. "Way I see it, it's all one big family fight over there in Israel, anyway. I mean, why can't everyone get along with each other over there?"
Ziva let out a sigh. "Small country, several other countries not liking us. What's more to say? The Hamas show no signs of letting up with their campaigns to destroy the Israeli state."
"So, Ari becomes the mole and goes rogue because of what? Something happened that he saw?" Tony asked. He reached up and scratched the back of his head.
Ziva nodded. "This happened shortly after we met in Naples those years ago. After his mother was killed, he changed. He apparently saw no problem with joining the terrorist cell and going rogue, even though he had been trained in the Mossad. Something in him had changed. He was not the same after that."
"Ah, I'm starting to get it now." Tony nodded as he listened to Ziva talk, to vent about how she had come to the realization that Ari was not the same person that had entered the very same doors of the Mossad that Ziva nad passed through, as he was when she last saw him at Gibbs' basement. "Still, must be kind of hard for you to do what you were not ordered to."
Ziva put a hand on Tony's. "It's always been implied within the Mossad. That you may be asked to take the life of a family member. But, know this, for not seeing you during this time, I am sorry. But I had been thinking of you from time to time over these years." Ziva smiled wanly at Tony. She flipped the covers back, and looked at Tony. "I'm tired. I need to rest. If you don't mind, you could sleep in the chair next to me. Or however you want to sleep." She waved a hand vaguely toward Tony.
Tony shook his head. "I'll sleep on top of the covers, and let you sleep under the covers. The chair's not gonna be so kind to my back. That is, if you don't mind?"
"M'kay," Ziva muttered to Tony as she slid under the covers and settled in to bed. "'Night," she said as she sighed contentedly after settling down under her covers.
Tony flopped down on top of the covers next to Ziva, but closer to the edge than to the middle. "Ah, now we can get some rest. Don't mind if I watch TV?" He turned toward Ziva.
Ziva gave Tony no response, but momentarily, she started snoring in her sleep.
Tony let out a short chuckle to himself, then turned to watch a bit of TV, before falling asleep himself.
Early in the morning, Tony stirred awake, the sound of crying and muttering in a foreign language jarring him to his senses. His eyes clicked open and he turned his head to look at Ziva. He realized that the TV had turned itself off, and the room was dark, so he moved a bit closer toward Ziva a bit so he could see her a bit better in the dark, and whispered to her, "Ziva, you alright? Hey-hey-hey, It's okay, I'm here," as he gently put a hand on her arm and rubbed it gently.
"Just hold me," Ziva whispered to Tony, tears falling from her eyes, as she turned toward Tony and wrapped her arms around him and snuggled up deeper in Tony's arms.
"I'm here," Tony whispered as held her close to him. He glanced at the bedside clock before returning his gaze to Ziva. It read 4:45 in the morning. He let out a soft sigh as he held Ziva in his arms, and watched her rest in his arms.
Ziva slept peacefully in Tony's arms for what seemed to be an eternity to Tony. But after a few minutes, she stirred slightly, and craned her head up toward Tony slightly, and smiled gently. "Tony? Are you imagining me being naked, like what you did with imagining that you had phone sex with Kate?"
Tony let out a short chuckle. "Ziva, that was a spur of the moment thing. Those two years with her as my partner was... good. But we never did anything because she was always about work. Very reserved but a very nice person to work with."
Ziva smiled up at Tony. "So the phone sex thing was what? Just a fantasy of yours that you've had with her?"
Tony held up a finger in the air. "Ah-ah, Ziva, that's not what it was. The way your mind works after you lose a good colleague is weird. In your mind, you become more than a coworker when you enjoy working with them." Tony's eyes clicked toward Ziva. "Hmm, do you realize that you look beautiful?" Tony smiled gently, he just could not stop looking at her.
Ziva turned over to face Tony. She looked up in his face for a moment, then said with a slight chuckle, "Tony, I can hear you thinking. Are you thinking about the same things I am?" She reached over and started twirling the hair on Tony's arm, a small smile forming on her lips.
"Maybe I'm thinking of something other than work. A little something nicer?" Tony asked the question playfully, wagging his eyebrows.
"Well, I still remember our time together years ago. I still don't regret one moment of it. No matter what changes we go through, my feelings for you do not change." Ziva continued twirling Tony's arm hair, looking up in his face. Her eyes sparkled with happiness and relief that she was finally with Tony again.
"Oh yeah. I wouldn't regret it, either." Tony reached over and held Ziva in a hug. "What do you say, we got time until tonight I think?"
Ziva chuckled. "Sure, this is better," she said, before planting a kiss full-on on Tony's lips.
Tony's eyebrows raised to full mast as he pulled Ziva closer and kissed her passionately. "Now, that's nice," he half-whispered to Ziva.
Ziva pushed herself up a bit, pulling her head back up for air, and reached out to Tony's face and stroked his cheek. She broke for air and said in a husky voice, "How about picking up what we left off last time?"
Tony chuckled, nodding his head, and said, "Yeah, we can do that." He adjusted himself into a more comfortable position on the bed.
Suddenly, Ziva was on top of him, looking down at Tony. She smiled gently to him as she leaned forward to Tony to where she was laying fully on Tony and kissed him more gently on the lips, then broke for the air as she looked at Tony, "It's really good to see you, have the pleasure and savor it with you." Ziva leaned back to give Tony a full on kiss on her lips, and showed Tony how much she wanted to make love to him.
Several hours after they had fallen asleep from the love making activity, Ziva woke up to the morning light filtering through the window. She turned her head to look at the clock, noticing that the time was 11:09. Damnit, we overslept, she thought to herself as she pushed herself up and sat upright. She turned back to look at Tony, who was still asleep. "Tony, wake up. We're late." She prodded his shoulder a bit, just enough to cause him to stir awake.
"Yeah." Tony stirred awake, then pulled the covers off and stood up, his muscles creaking in protest. He stretched, grunting with the effort. "Think we overslept. I think a shower will help wake us up. What do you think?" Tony asked Ziva, reaching out for her hand.
Ziva took Tony's hand and allowed him to help her up off the bed. "You go ahead and get started. I need to get my stuff for the shower."
"Sure thing." Tony turned and plodded over to the bathroom and closed the door behind him just enough to grab a towel from the rack behind the door. "Got some towels here," he said.
Ziva smiled and walked toward Tony, carrying her toiletries. "Found what I needed. Now I can get cleaned. Those little hotel soap things are hardly enough to get you cleaned."
Tony chuckled. "You mean these little things?" He picked up the tiny soap bar. "I would have to agree, but did you know that those these things are taken from the hotel quite often? People do steal 'em, believe it or not."
Ziva scoffed and took the soap bar from Tony's hand and tossed it onto the sink counter. "I will not be using that. I have this instead." She held up a loofah brush and her body wash.
Tony waggled his eyebrow and pointed to the loofah brush. "I suppose that would perk your skin tone right up, hey?"
Ziva smiled suggestively at Tony and winked at him, smiling at him. "Maybe you'd like to find out?" she asked, her tongue flicking at him at the end, as she stepped into the shower.
"I can't see why that'd be a bad idea," Tony chuckled to himself as he undressed and stepped into the shower after Ziva.
Eventually, in the early evening, as Tony and Ziva settled into the booth of a pizzeria that happened to be close to the airport, Ziva looked up into Tony's face. "So, now we finally get a chance to talk. What have you been doing sine the last time we saw each other in Naples?" Ziva tilted her head toward Tony, a small smile on her face.
Tony spread his arms out in the air a bit, before resting his arms on the table. "Ah, well, a lot of things. After that protection detail, I worked the beat for a while. I think I told you that before." Tony's face was puzzled for a moment, then he reset himself. He continued on. "Anyway, I got into Homicide, worked there for a year and a half or so, until I got put on this one case with my old partner in the Baltimore PD."
Before Ziva could respond, the waitress came. "Here we go, your pizza's here." She expertly cleared a space on the table for the pizza and set it down carefully between the two. "Careful, that's hot, you can use this to get your slices," she said, using the serving spatula she brought with the pizza to point toward the pan, then held the spatula up, before laying it down on the table.
"Ah, yes, thanks. This pizza looks scrumptious," Tony said as he reached out for a slice, and used the spatula to get a slice for himself.
"It does indeed. So, where does Gibbs come into the picture?" Ziva tilted her head to Tony, picking up a slice of pizza and taking a bite.
Tony chuckled slightly. "Well, he was working undercover on the same case I was working on, and I never knew. I thought he was this person we were looking at, and so I came up on him and tried to make an arrest, and he just took off running. Gave chase and ran him down, arrested him. That's how I found out who he was." Tony scoffed. "Before that day I had no idea that NCIS even existed. He ended up offering me the job and helped me solve the case. Here I am, five years later." Tony raised his eyebrow, holding up four, then five fingers and smiling at Ziva.
Ziva smiled back. "Interesting back story. Makes sense why you work for him now. Do you enjoy it there? Long hours? What's Gibbs like?"
"Yeah. The work is fun. Interesting. Gibbs can be a pain, at times, and I'm pretty sure he runs on caffeine. But once you get past all that, he's an alright guy." Tony smiled. "He means well, I think. You do know he's a Marine?"
"Yeah I read that in his profile." Ziva said. "It said, 'former Marine', though?"
Tony chuckled shook his head. "No, the Marines believe that once a Marine, always a Marine. It's hardwired into people like Gibbs. You never stop being a Marine even if you've left active service. It's that discipline that they carry with them for the rest of their lives."
Ziva's eyebrows flicked upwards. "Ah. So their mentality is drilled into them with the training they go through."
"Yeah." Tony nodded, then sat up a bit straighter, setting the slice of pizza down. "What did you see exactly in my profile? You said you profiled everyone, including me, right?" Tony raised his eyebrow, biting his lips, wondering exactly what was in his dossier.
Ziva nodded. "Yeah, as part of my job." She paused for a moment, thinking of what went through her mind at the time. She looked up at Tony and said, "Because Ari had asked me to. But when I saw your name in your profile, I couldn't believe that this was the very same person that I had met in Naples. I hadn't known your last name very well, and now I knew it. Only when I saw you at the bullpen could I start to believe it was you after all."
Tony smiled. "Yeah, it's me, in the flesh. The work over at NCIS is, let's put it this way, has a new angle on things, makes it much more fascinating to work for, than I could ever dreamed of while working with Baltimore PD. Anything else you'd like to know?" Tony waggled his eyebrows.
Ziva smiled softly and nodded. "No steady relationships, I noticed in your profile."
Tony shrugged. He said dryly, "Yeah, well, speaking of relationships. Not too long ago, I met this fine woman while working over at Baltimore PD, and I thought everything was going just fine. Until the day she just stood me up at the altar." Tony shook his head. "After that happened I just decided to just not try anymore and put all my energy into work, and that's basically how I ended up working for NCIS."
"Wow." Ziva raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "I don't get why things seem to not work out with you and women. Why can't they see that you have all the fine qualities that a woman could ever want? I don't see anything wrong with you at all." Ziva paused for a moment to look at at Tony.
"So how'd you end up with the Mossad, anyway? You have to take some sort of initiation or oath to get in?" Tony asked Ziva.
Ziva chuckled and shook her head. "I got into the Mossad last year when my Abba became the deputy director. It happened right after I got out of the IDF. The same day I left the IDF and came home, my Abba sent me straight to Mossad training."
"Oof, didn't even give you a chance to catch a breath. Straight out the door into the wild," Tony whistled to himself. He clicked his tongue and said, "Sounds like your old man's a hard person to please at times." He picked up his slice and took a large bite out of it.
Ziva chuckled to Tony as she took another bite of pizza. "That's who he is. In the Mossad, you can never afford to let down your guard, not even once. And with him pretty much in charge of the Mossad, it's certainly been a challenge."
Tony smiled and nodded, then looked at Ziva as she took yet another bite of pizza. He picked up his own pizza and ate another bite as he thought for a few moments, wondering about her family. After a moment, he asked, "I was just wondering, how's your mother doing?"
Ziva grew still, then slowly put her pizza down on the plate. She slowly looked up at Tony, sadness in her eyes. She said, "Oh Tony, my Ima died shortly after I got back from Naples. My Ima and Abba had a big disagreement with each other, because my Ima did not want me to go to the IDF, but wanted me to be a singer. But my Abba insisted, and sent me to the IDF. My little sister Tali had a hard time about it. So, my Ima took Tali and went to Jordan. She, my Ima, got killed while she was there, and Tali happened to escape the blast." Ziva shook her head slowly. "Ima was just there at the wrong place and wrong time."
"Oh, wow," Tony said, surprise in his voice. "So, after that, where did Tali run off to, then?"
Ziva swallowed hard and shook her head. "I found things out much later. It happened while I was in the Mossad, like I said before. She had a falling-out with Abba and she took off, wanted to go to the music school that Ima would take her to often. Not too long after, she was killed by the suicide bomber."
"That's so sad to hear. I',m so sorry to hear that you lost your Ima and sister, and may they rest in peace." Tony reached across the table and grasped Ziva's hand and held it in his, then put his lips to the back of her hand.
Ziva looked up from her pizza, letting out a sigh. "Thank you for your kind words," she said. She took a sip of her drink, then set it down, looking at Tony, a final thought sinking in. "Have you noticed that every time I've had a time of need, we seem to always end up together? I don't know what it is, but it seems like destiny's at play here. I can't explain it rightly."
Tony held up his pizza slice after he took a bite, nodding as he did so, breaking off the long cheese strip that had drawn off of the slice. He gulped the bite, then said, "You know, you're right. I didn't notice that until now, when you pointed it out. It's like there's something out there that keeps bringing us together from time to time, even if we've spent months and years apart, living our lives, totally unaware of how the other is doing, huh?" Tony pointed to him and Ziva several times in rapid succession as he set the slice down on his plate.
Ziva smiled. "Well, the only way we could find out is if we somehow keep meeting each other like this. Then, maybe we could figure out something, come up with some sort of way we could possibly be together again?" She raised her glass for a drink.
Tony chuckled. He said, "Well, maybe we should figure out a way to keep in touch. Maybe we'll just leave it to the cosmos to figure out what the best time would be for us to come into contact again?"
Ziva laughed. "Maybe so. Look at how well it's worked for us. Right now, I'm just not sure what the future holds for us. Particularly because I have no idea if or when I'll ever be back." Yet, as she said this, she knew that she had a plan in place, and she intended to follow through with it, and hopefully change the course of things in her favor. She just was not ready to reveal it to Tony; she felt it was not the right time or place to reveal her hand to him just yet.
"Yeah, well, I guess it's best to just take it one day at a time." He clicked his tongue and tilted his head to Ziva. "Just, it's amazing how things seem to just work out when it's the right time for us to be together. And from here on, I think I've come to the understanding that it's only a matter of time before we would possibly see each other again." Tony smiled at Ziva, as he looked at her.
Yet Ziva didn't respond, at least not immediately, to what Tony had just said. She had heard him, yet she sat in her chair, as if in a trance, deep in thought, as she considered what her next steps would be once she arrived back in Israel, with Ari's body. A mix of emotions coursed through her mind as she thought about how she would execute her plan that she had laid out for herself to carry out.
"Hey. Earth to Ziva calling." Tony's voice reached Ziva's ears. He snapped his fingers a couple of times. "Looks like I lost you for a moment there."
Ziva blinked as she sat up a bit straighter and looked at Tony. "Oh, sorry I spaced out for a moment." She waved her hands away from her temples, as if her thoughts were floating away into space. "Just a lot on my mind. Just not sure what's going to happen next. I'd imagine a debriefing when I get home, of course." She stopped and sighed, then put a hand on her forehead as she looked at Tony. "Preparing myself for what to say to my Abba when I get back. Other than that, I was thinking of us. How we've seemed to just bump into each other randomly over these years, now." Ziva chuckled at the thought.
"Well, I'm glad I'm not that person to have to tell the director what happened. Especially seeing as he's also your daddy." Tony clicked his tongue and cocked his head sideways. He shrugged his shoulders. "Hopefully you'll come out of it okay."
Just then, Ziva's phone rang. "Ah, that'll be the phone call I've been waiting for," Ziva said as she answered the phone in Hebrew. A few words were exchanged, then she hung up the phone. "My flight's later tonight." She smiled at Tony.
"Ah, that's good to hear -" Tony got cut off by his own phone ringing. "Wonder who that could be," he muttered to himself as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the display. "Ah, that'll be Gibbs," he said as he answered the phone.
Ziva nodded and smiled, but said nothing as she took a bite of her pizza.
"Where you at, Tony?" Gibbs' voice drifted out of the speaker and into Tony's ear, cutting clearly through the din of the restaurant.
"Just finishing up dinner. What's the word, boss?" Tony said as he took a sip of his drink. He winked and smiled at Ziva.
"Gear up. We got a plane on the tarmac waiting for us, we're leaving tonight," Gibbs said. "Don't wanna be late for the funeral, do you?"
Tony chuckled. "Certainly not. Thanks for the heads up. I'll see you at the airport," he said.
"Hey!" Gibbs called out, before Tony could hang up the phone. "Ziva there?"
"Yeah, she's here, wanna talk to her?" Tony nodded as he answered Gibbs.
Gibbs let out a short chuckle. "Nah, just a heads up to her that we'll be going wheels up in a couple of hours."
Tony nodded. "Yeah, I'll tell her. See ya there," Tony said as he hung up the phone. He set the phone down in front of him on the table and let out a sigh as he looked at Ziva. "Well, guess it's time for us to get on the road." Yet, his eyes told Ziva a whole lot more than he could convey with words alone.
Ziva looked at him, her eyes telling him untold amounts of information, how she had enjoyed being with him, how she had gotten the chance again to be with the one person that counted in her eyes. "Yeah, it's that time. Better not delay any further." She smiled at Tony and put a hand on his cheek. "Let's hope for a next time that we see each other again," she said.
Tony slowly nodded as he reached up and took hold of Ziva's hand and held it close to his mouth. "I'll never let go of you as long as I live. Let us leave it to destiny, or faith, or whatever you want to call it, to bring us together again."
Ziva smiled at Tony. After a long moment, she said, "Only time will tell."