She could not believe that Tony was doing this for a second time. A second time. As in, more than once. The same thing was happening again. Again! And she was going along with it! She supposed that the first time had gone well and she wasn't even ashamed to admit it. Why should she be? She had ended up enjoying it, had she not? It turned out that even going to the beach in America was almost as fun as going in Israel. Almost because the weather was still far superior in Israel. But a beach was a beach and it was still her favourite place to be. The sun and the sand and the waves, they could calm her down and relax her like nothing else. Yes, even over running or sparring. The beach was just different. The beach made her happy. Not a lot of things made her genuinely happy like the beach did so she savoured that.
This time she had decided that she was not going to complain. Even though the temperature was not quite where she wanted it to be. It had not done her any good the first time and she doubted that it would the second especially since it was technically an even better day than the last time. That, and she was actually prepared and had a jacket this time so it would be more enjoyable. As long as they kept moving and did not stop, she would be fine. A brisk walk out in the fresh air was good for you. Ducky said so. Ducky was someone she trusted he knew what he was talking about.
"We should get going then," she said, gesturing at the sand. "Unless you have changed your mind?"
She found that she did not want him to change his mind and thankfully he shook his head.
So, they took to the beach. Or, the path going along it. Only some rocks separated the path from the actual sand and she could see up ahead there were steps leading down to it.
"Want to walk along the sand or the path?" Tony asked, spotting the same thing.
"Sand," she said instantly.
Even in shoes there was nothing better than walking along sand, in her opinion. He nodded his agreement and they took the steps down.
A dog bounded past them, a big clump of seaweed in its mouth and looking as happy as could be. The same could not be said about its owner who was running after it shouting "Put it down! Put it down!"
"I don't think that's going to work for him," Tony said in amusement.
"Neither do I," Ziva said with a smile.
The dog had surprisingly stopped running but was now teasing its owner, coming closer to him and then backing away when the man got too close. All the while with the clump of seaweed hanging out of his mouth. It looked like it was having a very good time. Its owner, not so much.
"Why don't we dip our toes in the water this time?" Tony suggested.
She immediately shook her head. That was not going to happen. As nice as this was, there was no way that she was going to get her socks and shoes off and put her bare skin anywhere near the bound to be cold water.
"It will put some hair on your chest," he teased but she just gave him a confused look.
"Why would I want hair on my chest?"
He shook his head at her. "It's just a saying."
"That means what?"
"It makes you braver."
"How does having hair on your chest make you braver? Hair is not a measure of how brave you are."
"You know what, it doesn't matter. It's too nice a day to analyse the English language."
"I'm starting to think it isn't really a language at all," she grumbled but let it go, feeling oddly obliging today.
"Well, you know what people say. English is just three languages in a trench coat pretending to be one," he said in a blasé tone.
She gave him a perplexed look. "Who says that?"
"Doesn't matter."
She shook her head again, she did that a lot when it came to this language. It could just be so infuriating sometimes. You thought that you had a grasp on it and then you said something and people gave you a confused look and suddenly no one knew what was being said anymore.
They walked along the beach together, just enjoying being there and each other's company. She noticed that Tony was not as, what was the word, hyper? No, Abby was hyper. Everyone agreed that. Tony was not as jokey (that was the wrong word too) when they were at the beach. He was more relaxed, not feeling the need to play the fool or something. Oh, he was still joking around and teasing her (and she was teasing him right back) but it did not seem as put on as it sometimes was in the office. It was rather nice to be in his company.
She was not sure why she was so surprised at this. They got on well together. They were partners, they kind of had to. But having each other's back and trusting each other with their lives was a bit different than getting along in non-life-threatening situations, she supposed. But still, they were friends, were they not? Then this should not have surprised her. Even though the idea of any of these Americans become her friends would have baffled her not so long ago. But yes, Tony was a friend. An odd thought. She shook her head to rid herself of it, it was that something that needed to be thought of too much
This beach did not have as many shells on it she noticed, distracting herself from such soft thoughts. Which was a shame, she always liked to bring back at least one. She had outgrown the need to bring back a bucketful but she still liked to pick a particularly nice one and bring it back. She wondered if Tony would tease her if she did that.