Few days after working on a case at NCIS, Tiva went out about in the area to see Library of Congress, visiting McGee before having a nice quiet evening at Ziva's apartment on around late November 2006.
Chapter 5 – Operational Security
"Nice day for a drive, wouldn't you say?" Tony smiled at Ziva as she sat in the passenger seat of Tony's car. They had decided to spend the day together, and was aimlessly driving about after they had visited the Library of Congress building for the better part of the morning. Tony turned his attention back to the road, placing a hand on Ziva's lap.
Ziva nodded as she placed her hand on top of his. "I'm sure it would've taken some time before they had a copy of McGee's book in the archives," she said, chuckling. "I have got to say, that is easily the largest library that I've been in."
Tony nodded, flashing a smile to Ziva. "Largest in the world, as a matter of fact. The amount of stuff they hold in there – you've seen all those books in there – is just mind-boggling. I wouldn't be surprised that the day Timmy's book's been published they already had a copy categorized and filed away, way deep down in there," he said.
"Mount an expedition to find the book you need, sometimes," Ziva said. She held up a finger as her face turned to that of a questioning look. "I wonder if McGee's pecking away at his story again today," she wondered as she pecked away in the air, as if she was typing out a story.
Tony let out a chuckle as he looked at her with a sideways glance, and slowly raised an eyebrow in a devious-looking way. "Maybe, we could go and find out. I think he lives just down this way," he said, pointing with a finger down the road. "Couple of blocks that way, turn right, and we're there before we know it."
Ziva smiled, reading Tony's mind. "Let's find out. I'm just dying to know what happens with Agents Tommy and Lisa, or if he's writing a sequel. Get a sneak peek, if you will," she said, winking slyly. She had a mischievous smile on her face as she flicked her eyes to Tony's pocket where his phone lived, then back up to Tony. "Maybe you could call him."
Tony held up a finger as he turned down the street that McGee lived on. "Yeah, just a second, we're about there. I might have a better idea," he said. "Let's call from in front of his door." He smiled deviously at Ziva as he pulled the car up in front of McGee's apartment.
About the same time as Tony turned the corner to McGee's street, McGee sat down in his chair in front of his typewriter, he contemplated last night's typing marathon that he had been on, as he had been decompressing from the recent events. He stood at the counter as he waited for his coffee to percolate in the coffee machine, thinking for a few moments. He sighed and turned and padded back to his typewriter, and pulled a sheet of paper out of the ream next to the typewriter and stuck it into the top and turned the wheel a few turns, setting it up for the next page in his story. He let out a satisfied sigh as he made sure that there was a spot for his coffee, before walking back to the coffee machine. "Smells good," he said to himself as he waited for the machine to brew out the last few drops, then poured out a cup of coffee and put his usual sugar in the coffee and stirred it in. Satisfied that the sugar had been thoroughly dissolved into the coffee, he plopped the spoon onto the plate next to the coffee machine and picked up his mug and walked over to his chair and sat down in it, taking a sip as he walked.
Meanwhile, Tony and Ziva stood in front of McGee's apartment door, with their ears on the door, trying to hear what was going on inside. After a few moments of faint shuffling, they started to hear a distinct clacking sound filtering through the door. "Sounds like he's working on his story," Tony whispered quietly, then stood up, shaking his head, a small smile on his face.
Ziva stood up, following Tony, then folded her arms in front of her, leaning on the door frame, her eyes looking into Tony's. She could read his thoughts, and her eyes flashed with recognition as to what Tony was thinking. She nodded and whispered to him, "Let's call him, see what he does." She held up her hand toward her ear, mimicing holding up a telephone. Suddenly, she held up a finger and muttered in Hebrew, as the sound of a shredder started running. "Sounds like he's having a bit of a hard time writing," she whispered.
Just then, a door down the hallway toward the stairs opened and a portly man came rushing out toward McGee's apartment, fury etched on his face, muttering to himself, "Bzzz! Bzzz! All day, all night long, nonstop!" But he shifted his attention up ahead of him and stopped short at the sight of Tony and Ziva standing outside McGee's apartment door.
Tony's head swiveled toward the newcomer. "Yeah, we know, I'll take care of it," he whispered to the guy. He shooed him off. "Now, buzz off, if you don't mind." He turned back to Ziva as he slowly pulled out his phone and flipped it open.
The guy looked irritated, and snapped back at Tony, "You tell that guy, enough with the 'bzzz, bzzz, bzzz'! I've been hearing it all night and all morning!" he whispered back angrily, before turning on his heels and storming off in the direction he came from.
Ziva looked at the guy's retreating figure, then to Tony, chuckling slightly. "McGee's really been writing his story all night long, hasn't he?" she whispered the question to Tony.
Tony sniggered quietly. "That's McGeek for you. I'll see if I can goose him," he whispered as he quietly pulled his phone out of his pocket.
Back in the apartment, McGee let out an exasperated sigh as he jammed a new sheet of paper in his typewriter and stared at it for a few seconds, allowing his mind to start free-thinking about how the next chapter in his story would flow. After a few moments of contemplation, his fingers started to fly over the keys on his typewriter, and the typewriter clacked out the letters as McGee's thoughts flowed.
Ring-ring!
McGee yelped as the sound of his phone startled him and snapped him out of his storywriting. His fingers stood still on the keys of his typewriter as he listened again for the sound. His eyes flicked upward from the paper to the wall behind the typewriter, focusing on the face of the clock. Before he could register disbelief at where the time had gone to, the sound echoed through his apartment again.
Ring-ring!
"Hold on a second," he muttered to himself as he jumped out of his chair, knocking over a nearly-empty pizza box. He hurriedly moved various random sheets of paper around, from where he had been doing some research for his upcoming story recently. He let out a frustrated grunt as the phone rang yet again, insistently, and after he moved another stack of papers, spied the phone. He quickly picked it up and answered it before it had completed ringing. "Hello?" he asked a bit breathlessly.
"You know we could hear you working away on your story clear across town, McTypewriter," Tony's voice sounded over the phone. McGee could hear the chuckle under Tony's voice, and his brain took a moment to process what Tony had just said.
"Well -" But before McGee could get his first word out, the doorbell rang, startling him yet again. "Argh, it better not be my neighbor again. Let me answer my door," he said as he rushed over to the door and yanked it open, still holding the phone to his ear. "Yes, I know, I'm very sorry about the shredder. It keeps running on its -" He stopped himself as he looked up and found himself staring Tony in the face.
Tony smiled at McGee, letting out a slow chuckle as he took his finger off the doorbell, holding his phone to his ear with the other hand. "Bet you didn't expect us, did you?" he asked as he dropped the phone from his ear, flipping it closed as he slipped it into his pocket. He pointed toward the hallway where the neighbor came from. "I bet he's getting real irritated about your shredder. Maybe you should do something about it."
Ziva took a couple small steps up toward McGee and smiled at him, looking at him closely. "Your shredder does make this whiny sound that really gets on your nerves. If you wanted to wake up the dead, this would be a good way to do it," she said as she scrutinized McGee's face closely, noting the total surprise that he wore on his face.
McGee chuckled a bit nervously at the two. "Well it's just that I keep getting this writer's block when I'm trying to work on my story." He stood back from the door a bit, and waved them inside. "Why don't you two come in?"
"Sure thing," Tony said as he took a step toward McGee and clapped him on the shoulder, causing McGee to stumble slightly. He passed McGee and walked into the apartment, taking in the scene, noting the just-upturned pizza box laying on the floor, the overflowing shredder bin and garbage can. "Wow, looks like you pulled an all-nighter writing your story," he said as he pointed toward the manuscript neatly stacked next to McGee's typewriter. "Why don't you write your story on the computer, you know, like normal people?" he asked.
Ziva followed them inside, closing the door behind her. "We had a wonderful day at the Library of Congress. I'm sure your recent book is somewhere in there now," she said, smiling at McGee. Her eyes flashed over to the desk where the typewriter was situated, and she picked up a book. The book that McGee had written previously. "Anything new coming up after this one?"
"Uh, that's something I'm trying to figure out right now. I'd been working all night on this story. It comes in bits and pieces, you know. I'm just not sure yet what will happen," McGee said, his hands windmilling through the air as his eyes alternated between Tony and Ziva. "What brings you here?"
Tony chuckled. "Well, you know, since we were in the area, we thought we'd stop by, pay you a visit, see how you're doing in this little cave of yours over the weekend," he said. He pointed to the typewriter. "It does look like you've been at it all night long. Going through all that paper over there, and you've gotten a half-eaten pizza over there, and it's way past the five-second rule now. No wonder your shredder's overflowing."
McGee bent over and picked up the pizza box, deftly sliding the slices of pizza back into the lid, and then flipping it right side up again as he stood up again, then set it on the table next to the typewriter. "Yeah, I really should empty that," he muttered as he took the top off the shredder. "I just haven't gotten around to it, since the situation with my sister came up," he said as he let out a sigh. The bags under his eyes bore signs of the strain that McGee had been going through.
Ziva reached out and put a hand on McGee's shoulder. "We just wanted to make sure you were okay," she said, as she looked McGee in his eyes for a moment. She turned and held a hand out toward the manuscript. "At least you're able to write the story, get your mind off of what happened?"
McGee nodded as he composed himself a bit. "Yeah, I'm just glad my sister's spending some time with my dad, glad all this has been taken care of, that she's in good hands now," he said as he let out a sigh, his shoulders sagging a bit, as if relieved from a great burden.
"That's good to hear, we're glad everything worked out in the end." Tony stopped in the middle of the living room, looking around the room. He cracked his knuckles, waggling his eyebrows at McGee as if he was contemplating punching the lights out of McGee, and walked up close to McGee. Grinning at McGee, he said, "But, McGeek, we've gotta talk. All this stress on you, not so good for your heart." He reached up and tapped his chest. "Burying yourself in story writing, good idea. But let's not get too carried away with the story," he said as he slowly advanced onto McGee, then clapped his hand on McGee's shoulder.
McGee gulped and took a couple of steps back, stopping only because he bumped into a bookshelf behind him. "Whoa!" McGee said, steadying himself against the bookshelf. He was surprised at the change in Tony's voice, how there was a touch of disappointment in the tone. "Why, what do you mean by that, Tony?" He didn't understand at first what Tony was driving at.
Ziva picked up the copy of 'Deep Six' that lay on the table next to the manuscript, and opened it, flipping through the pages as she walked around McGee and Tony. "I haven't finished reading the book. Let's see what our favorite characters are up to this time," she said, chuckling at the passages McGee had written about the characters Tommy and Lisa. She paid the two men no attention for the time being as she read the book, then stopped on a page in a chapter she hadn't read yet, and let out a small gasp, her mouth widening into an O. "Oh, looky here. Tommy and Lisa having a little fling here, again." Ziva pointed her finger to a passage.
McGee's eyes followed Ziva as she paced around the small apartment as she perused through the book. He gulped, then worked up the courage to ask. "Wha-?" McGee started, but was cut short as Tony stepped up to him.
"Alright, now McGee..." Tony said as he stepped up to McGee and put an arm around McGee's shoulders and patted him on the chest a couple of times with his other hand. "Remember that little talk we had a few months back about us? The vow?" Tony flicked a finger between him and McGee and Ziva in the air.
Ziva snapped the book shut and looked up at McGee, her eyes questioning McGee, then as she tossed the book onto the table looked up at Tony, gauging his emotions, then returned her attention to McGee. Yet she said nothing as she watched McGee's every move, seeing the change in his eyes as McGee flashed back into the past.
McGee blinked as his mind flew into the past, finding the exact day and time that had happened, and he nodded once. "Uh, yes, I seem to recall that conversation," he said after a split-second. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, judging by the look of that stack of papers next to your typewriter, you've been at it for a while. Which brings me to the next point, what exactly are you writing in your new story?" he asked as his eyes landed on a stack of papers near the typewriter. He let go of McGee and walked over to his desk and picked up the sheaf of papers and held it aloft in the air. "Oh, what's this? Your new story?"
McGee nodded, smiling nervously. "Uh, yeah. A continuation on the Deep Six story line." He reached out and pointed to the manuscript. "I spent all night working on this. Well, trying to, at least." He sighed and shrugged his shoulders and continued on. "It's like every time I try to think of the next course of action, I hit writer's block and – well, you saw the shredder."
Ziva reached out and tore the papers out of Tony's hand and looked at the manuscript. "I wonder what you've been struggling with in your story writing," she asked as she thumbed through the pages.
Tony leaned over Ziva's shoulder, pointing a finger to some random lines he had been reading. "Oh, Agent Tommy's still there, looks like," he muttered to himself as he read further. He stopped at a word, and his eyebrows rose. "And Officer Lisa, still there also?"
Ziva looked up at McGee as she dropped the manuscript down by her side, still holding it. "And what if LJ Tibbs finds out that there's more to the picture between them than he should? Are they going to lose their jobs?"
McGee gulped, as his eyes were fixed on the manuscript. He tore his eyes from the manuscript and looked at Ziva. "Uh, that's the part I've been struggling with, actually. How to make them all fit within the story," he said.
"Let me see that," Tony said as he reached out for the manuscript, taking it from Ziva as she held it out for him. He cleared his throat as held the manuscript up in his hand and looked at the title of the manuscript, then said. "So it is the sequel to your story." He held it up in the air and waved it in his hand, causing the pages to flap back and forth.
McGee gulped at Tony, and averted his glare, looking sideways at Ziva, but feeling the sudden heat in Ziva's gaze as she tilted her head and her head and looked piercingly at McGee. He blinked his eyes as he realized that there was not going to be any support from her. Her face remained neutral except for the small smile she kept on her lips. He looked back to Tony and said, "Uh, yeah, that's the next installment in the series. I'm not quite sure what to call it yet. That's a hundred-eighty three pages so far in that manuscript so far," He said as he shrugged his shoulders.
Tony dropped his hand to his side, still holding the manuscript. He said, "Lot of words in that story. What if the real Gibbs comes over and finds it, and puts two and two together and realizes that what happened in the story could very well be happening right under his nose?"
Before McGee could answer, Ziva said, "Just a second, let me see something." She grabbed the book from the desk and opened it closer to the end, and read for a bit, then let out a gasp and said something in Hebrew, then said, "Apparently, there is a story line continuing for them. Looks like Tommy and Lisa are talking about getting married here in this book." Ziva snapped the book shut. "Because Tommy was a bad boy and got her pregnant, apparently."
"Oh, really?" Tony exclaimed to Ziva. He looked at Ziva, then rounded back on to McGee. "He did what?" He looked at the manuscript, holding it up in the air, and shaking it in the air a bit, then back to McGee. "They do continue on in this story?"
Ziva tossed the book back onto the desk and looked at Tony. "Only one way to find out, shall we?" She took Tony's hand holding the manuscript and brought it toward her, letting the pages flop open randomly.
"Uhm, yes they do," McGee said as he watched Tony and Ziva rifle through the pages of his manuscript. "Careful, I've not had a chance to put them in a binder yet, and don't wanna get the pages all mixed up," he said as he pointed to the manuscript.
Ziva shook her head and reached over and gave McGee a gentle head-slap. "Gotta think about what happens if our real lives are too close to the story line," she said.
Tony tossed the manuscript onto the table, and started to advance onto McGee. The manuscript teetered over the edge precariously, but Tony didn't notice because he had grabbed McGee by the shoulder and was about to open his mouth to say something.
But McGee cut Tony off and gasped as he pointed toward his manuscript as the pages started to slip and fall straight into the feed slot of the shredder that stood near McGee's desk, first one sheet at a time, then cascading into a thick avalanche of papers. The shredder whined as it started happily munching its way through the thick stack of papers, then as the rapidly-growing avalanche of papers started flowing, groaning under the thickness, then finally jamming itself, with the various sheets of paper cocked at odd angles to each other. McGee shrieked as he lunged past Tony to get to the shredder.
Just then, a faint voice sounded from somewhere above. "Hallelujeah!" the voice screamed out. "About time that thing died!"
Ziva looked up at the ceiling, shaking her head. She then looked back down at the machine, her eyes wide with surprise as the machine gave up the ghost. "Sounds like someone's happy that clumsy Tony made a boo-boo and broke the shredder," she said, stifling a giggle. "All those papers getting stuck in it at the same time."
This caused Tony to guffaw. "My bad, I should've been paying attention to where I was putting it," he said as he looked back at the shredder, and McGee's futile attempts to extricate the stuck pages of his manuscript from the shredder.
"My manuscript!" McGee quickly mashed his finger on the Reverse button, but the machine only groaned as it tried to reverse against the jam. He grunted in frustration as he tried to clear the jam, but only succeeded in making things worse. He tried pulling the paper out while he pressed the Reverse button, and the shredder gave a valiant effort at trying to clear itself, before it started to smoke, and it finally died for good. He let out a frustrated sigh and looked up at Tony and shook his head. "Now look what you've done. My manuscript's ruined," he said as he knelt next to the shredder.
Tony sighed and shook his head as he looked at the now-dead and smoking shredder, waving his hand in front of his nose. "Maybe it's a message from the gods to get yourself a better shredder, a quieter one," he said, chuckling at McGee. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, I'll go out and buy you one."
"Maybe it was meant to be," Ziva said as she walked up to McGee. She tilted her head to McGee and looked at him, with a more wistful look on her face and said, "You know, what if I said that Tommy and Lisa are too much alike to Tony and I, and maybe it's better that the story ends there, in that one book?" She flicked an eyebrow up to McGee.
"What do you mean by that?" McGee blinked at Ziva, then glanced over at Tony. He hadn't considered the possibility that he may have been writing too close to the truth than creating a work of fiction. "I mean, this is a work of fiction, I tried to make sure the characters aren't -"
"Op-Sec," Tony cut McGee off. "Have you ever considered that maybe the story comes a little close to breaking op-sec at times?" He reached up and tapped his temple. "The wrong person finds your story material, and they might be able to make inferences as to the who and what in real life," he said as he patted McGee on the shoulder. "I think you spend way too much time in this cave, the minute you get home from work."
McGee looked around his tiny apartment, crammed full of his electronics repair station, computer equipment, and typewriter. "I do get out from time to time, but this is my comfort zone when I get home. It's either write or work on computers," he said as he nodded and smiled at Tony. "Well, I guess start over on the story now."
"What if there's something telling you not to write the story as you intended?" Ziva asked as she looked at McGee. "Maybe not write about Tommy and Lisa anymore?"
Tony flicked a finger in the air once. "You see, maybe it's fate telling you something. Plus, what if that story line is too close to the real thing? El Jefe would not be a happy camper at all if he ever finds out about it." He tapped a finger on McGee's chest a couple times, and continued on in a soft, conversational tone, "And if he finds out you knew and didn't tell him, guess who risks losing his job?" He gave McGee a look that told him, that his head would be on the chopping block as well, not just Tony and Ziva's.
McGee blinked at Tony as he contemplated what Tony had just said to him. "Well, actually, I have a question to ask you. When Boss told me to stay in the bullpen, he tossed that book on his desk, and told me to read it. Do you think he knows?"
Ziva stepped up to McGee and said, "Very possible. I wouldn't be surprised if he did know, by the way he looked at you when he tossed the book on the desk." She shrugged her shoulders.
"That's right," Tony said. "Since we now know that it's likely that Gibbs knows, we'll just have be sure to do our best to not let him find out, and just make it look like we're partners on the job. Nothing like the characters in that story." He wagged a finger in the air, slowly shaking his head.
"But what about after work?" McGee looked at Tony and Ziva. "Would that matter? I mean, in Gibbs' eyes?" he asked.
Ziva looked at Tony, then back to McGee. "For all outside appearances, we're just friends," she said as she did air-quotes around the word 'friend'. She let out a small sigh, then continued talking to McGee. "As long as Gibbs sees this, and you're around us often enough, he'll just think that we're nothing more than friends outside of work."
Tony nodded in agreement with Ziva as he sidled up next to her and patted her shoulder. "She's got a valid point. Just do our jobs like normal, act like the special agents that we are, nothing more. Out here," Tony said, pointing his finger to the floor, as if pointing to their location, "where Gibbs has no say in our lives, that's where we keep the real deal." He pointed outwards, as if pointing back toward NCIS. "Back there, whole different story."
McGee's eyes brightened as he held a finger up in the air and smiled. "I think I understand. I might have just the idea for the new story," he said as he quickly took a step toward his table and scribbled a few words out on a piece of paper that lay scattered about his table. He looked down at the shredder, then back at the paper, shaking his head. "Maybe it was a good thing it happened," he said in a sotto voice.
Tony let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, maybe so. Take your mind off of things, go out, grab some fresh air." He pointed vaguely to the typewriter. "That can wait for a bit."
Ziva nodded. "I find that distancing myself for a short time from a task helps me to refresh my mind. Get a new perspective to do something," she said. "Like Tony said, maybe a walk in the park, or a trip to the museum, or even the Library of Congress."
McGee smiled. "Maybe I should do that. I could use some fresh air. What are you two planning on doing today, besides come over and make me lose my story?"
Tony chuckled and clapped McGee on his shoulder. "C'mon, let us buy you some food. We'll stop by and get you a new shredder. And figure out a way to make that thing quiet. I have a feeling that your neighbor isn't too fond of you," he said, stage-whispering the last part. He took a sidelong glance at Ziva, questioning, asking for her approval with his eyes.
Ziva's eyes shot back an affirmative look to Tony, and she turned to McGee and nodded as she smiled. "You name the place, we'll pay," she said.
McGee swiveled his eyes to the forlorn-looking pizza box, then back up to Tony, and Ziva, and after a split second, he smiled at them. "I could use something better than stale half-eaten pizza," he said after a moment.
"That's my man," Tony said as he patted McGee on his back. "Now, you might wanna get ready, 'cuz I don't think the world's ready to face you just yet." He pointed to McGee's boxers.
McGee looked down, then back at Tony, smiling. "You're right. Gimme a minute to get ready," he said as he quickly walked into his bedroom and closed the door.
Several hours later, Ziva snuggled into Tony's arms on the couch, watching the flames in the fireplace lick against the fake logs on the rack. "Good day today, I would say. If a bit chilly," she said as she craned her head up to Tony and smiled at him.
Tony shifted his gaze from the fireplace down to Ziva and smiled. "Yeah. It was good to see McGee and get him out of his shell for a few hours today. He looked like he needed it for a while, there," he said. "Of course he wouldn't admit that he'd need a break once in a while." He chuckled at the thought of McGee hunched over the typewriter, pecking away at his new story.
Ziva nodded. "I'm sure that McGee was happy to get out for a bit. Gives him a bit of a fresh perspective to try a new story line," she said. She held up a finger in the air as an eyebrow flicked upward on her forehead. "Also got him to realize about operational security, how it involves every aspect of our lives – even story writing."
"You saw that look in his face, didn't you, when we brought that up?" Tony asked. The look when McGee had realized how close he had come to breaking the secret was still fresh in Tony's mind. "Guess that gives new meaning to the phrase 'his story got deep-sixed' now, doesn't it?"
Ziva chuckled as her hand mimicked the papers falling into the shredder. "Straight into the shredder, as if it was saying, save me from this misery, zoop!" She shook her head at the memory of it. "Anyway, I am glad that we made things right with McGee. He certainly was happy to have gotten a much better model of shredder that is more resistant to jamming itself up."
"Yeah," Tony said, nodding. "If we could do anything to make life easier for the neighbors while at the same time helping McAuthor there out with getting him out of that writer's block, then so much the better." He absentmindedly twirled his finger along Ziva's arm as he looked at the flames in the fireplace, thoughtful. He let out a small sigh, and clicked his tongue. "I think getting him out helped change his perspective a little bit, so he could leave that mess behind and start a whole new different story line, was the best thing for him, to be honest. I'd hate to see him continue struggling, like it's connected to that situation with his -"
"I know," Ziva cut Tony off. She sat up a bit straighter, looking Tony in the eye. "What I'm thinking of right now, is what if Gibbs knows about us from that book? What if McGee's right, that Gibbs does know?" Concern was etched on Ziva's face; her mind was fraught with worry over what Gibbs might do if he found out the true nature of the relationship between them.
Tony sat up a little straighter and looked at Ziva. He hadn't considered that possibility until now. "Right," he muttered to himself as he put a finger on his lips, looking up at the ceiling, thinking of what Gibbs might say, all the possibilities, realizing that none of the outcomes would be good for them. "It could mean that we start looking for new jobs, like the minute he finds out," he said to Ziva. "So, how do we make this happen, that he doesn't find out?"
Ziva smiled at Tony. "Right, so the way we do this is just continue doing our jobs. Remember the book, the two characters?" Her eyebrow raised questioningly, as her liquid eyes looked deep into Tony's soul, searching for the answer, telling him volumes about what she was thinking. "It'd be simple, we go home separately most of the time, spend some time with McGee from time to time. As long as McGee can report back to Gibbs that nothing weird's going on between us in his eyes, then Gibbs will not have any suspicions about us."
"Well, as long as we're all on the same page, Gibbs'll see that we're just doing our jobs. McGeek, too." Tony held a finger up in the air. He looked at Ziva and smiled. "Shouldn't be that hard to do," he said. He pointed to the fireplace. "Otherwise, that's where our careers will end up because Gibbs has a stick up his butt about this Rule 12 thing."
Ziva chuckled. "And my father will be very disappointed in me because I would have damaged, if not destroyed NCIS' trust in me, and I would not be able to assist in anti-terror investigations anymore in this country," she said. She turned and sat astride Tony as she looked at him. "We can't let that happen," she whispered as she put her hands on Tony's face and caressed his cheeks.
Tony smiled as he reached up and put a hand on Ziva's, then put it on his chest. "Well, I'm in the school of thought, that if Gibbs finds out, he finds out. If he kicks us to the curb, then so be it. I'll stick with you, no matter what." He reached out and encircled his arms around Ziva and pulled her close to him. "You know I won't leave your side for anything," he said with a soft, yet gruff voice.
Ziva adjusted herself on Tony's lap where she was more comfortable, and snuggled up in Tony's arms, smiling as she looked out the window next to the fireplace. "I do know," she said. As she said that, she saw a shooting star streak across the sky. She let out a gasp. "Oh! Did you see that, Tony?" Her finger shot out toward the window.
Tony tore his attention from the fireplace and looked up at the window. "Thought I saw a flash through the window," he muttered. He blinked and looked out the window some more, but all he saw were the stars in the night sky. "Saw it out of the corner of my eye. Wasn't sure what it was," he said.
Ziva looked back at Tony and smiled. "I wish you could've seen it. That was a shooting star," she said. She turned to look out the window, her mind flashing through events of the past few days. "Amazing what we've gone through these past few days. Whatever popped up, we made it through."
Tony's eyebrow flicked upward for an instant, then settled down, and he cocked his head. "You can say that again," he said. "That case was a real head-twister for sure. Glad it all worked out for the better." He let out a sigh and settled himself a little deeper into the couch, adjusting Ziva on his lap, smiling up at her. "And happy that we finally got a chance to get away for a bit, spend a little time together for the day."
Ziva nodded as she looked at Tony. "Not often that we get to do that, these days," she said. Her eyes told Tony a lot about how she felt about the situation, but had an understanding behind it all, that it was the nature of the jobs they worked. "All of these cases popping up and never enough time to solve every single one of them."
Tony smiled as he held Ziva close, rubbing her back comfortingly. "Yeah, but the important part is, we're together, through it all. We make a good team, whether together or apart, on the job. That's why we've been handed the big cases lately, we've been doing so well."
Ziva looked up at Tony, smiling. "Mm. And at the end of the day, whenever opportunity presents itself, we spend the time together." She shifted her gaze out the window. "And somewhere out there, we might be able to find the answer to everything for ourselves," she said in a softer tone.
Tony followed her gaze out the window and let out a small chuckle. "And maybe the whole time the answer's right there under our noses," he said as he shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever the case, one day at a time, right?" Just as he said that, another shooting star streaked across the sky.
"Oh!" Ziva exclaimed in a soft, surprised voice. "Another shooting star!" She turned her head up to look at Tony, her mouth a small O as she took in a deep breath. "Right when you said that."
"I know, right?" Tony said, shaking his head. "What are the odds of that happening?" He looked around suddenly, then back to Ziva, as if he expected someone else to be eavesdropping. "If McGeek heard that, he'd be rattling off the odds right about now," he said, chuckling at his own joke.
Ziva batted his arm, and chuckled at Tony. "You're bad." The smile on her face faded, but not completely. "Somehow, some way, we always seem to just end up together at the right moment in our lives," she said.
Tony nodded and held her close, smiling at Ziva. "Just feels so... good... to be with you. Tell you what, though," he said as he let Ziva go and looked at her. "If we happen to make contact with each other at work, it's gotta be totally accidental, where Gibbs doesn't suspect." He flicked a finger in the air.
Ziva nodded. "Was thinking about that myself. If we get let go, I think my father will take me back in at Mossad, even if he might be disappointed in me," she said, finally coming to the decision how she would plan things in a worst-case scenario. "I'll bring you with me if I have to."
Tony tilted his head to Ziva. "Really? What would I be doing over there?" he asked. He hadn't really considered what he would do if he did indeed get canned, beyond looking for a job in the want ads or in the unemployment office. He reached up and scratched his head, twisting his face up into a look of consternation. "I hadn't even thought of where to look should I get kicked to the curb by the big man himself."
"Well, let's worry about this one day at a time," Ziva said, holding up a finger to Tony's lips. "Tonight, we just spend time with each other, shall we?" She leaned over slowly, a smile on her lips, and as she removed her finger from Tony's lips, placed a kiss on his lips.
Tony let out a chuckle as Ziva sat up from kissing him. "Very smooth, Ziva. Better than how Betty Grable would have kissed the Duke himself," he said as he caressed Ziva's cheek, smiling at her. "And right now, there is nothing more in the world that I would want to do right now, than to spend the night with you. If you don't mind?"
Ziva smiled up at Tony as she held him close to her. "That's why I'm not kicking you out for the night," she whispered up to him. "It's pretty late anyway. Let's just enjoy sitting in front of the fireplace and looking at the stars."
Before Tony could say something, a sudden flash of light streaked across the sky outside the window. "Whoa, another shooting star!" he said as he pointed to the window. The stars shone brightly in the sky outside the window; nary a cloud was in the sky.
"I saw that also," Ziva breathed out, enthralled by the spectacle that slowly made its way across the night sky. "It's so beautiful up there," she said in a quiet whisper as she snuggled up closer to Tony. "I'm glad I get to see this with you on a night like this."
Tony held Ziva tight to himself, rubbing her back gently, his senses jangling from the mere intoxicating presence of Ziva, the warmth of her body radiating into his. "There's nobody else that I'd rather be spending on a night than you," he said after a few moments, smiling at Ziva. Outside the window, the night was still, as the light from the stars twinkled in the sky brightly as Tony and Ziva held each other in their arms.