Tony was planning something; she just knew it. She knew her partner, in more ways than one now, and he was definitely planning something. The annoying thing was that she could not figure out what. Something she normally could do or at least get him to tell her but she had been unsuccessful at both. He was being unusually firm headed about this. Which was infuriating.
"You shouldn't let it bother you so much." He told her when he caught her frowning at him again.
"You are plotting. That never results in something good."
"It will this time!" Then his face fell. "I hope."
"That does not fill me with confidence."
She narrowed her eyes at him as he suddenly grinned at her. An incredibly big, almost jarring grin considering how worried he had briefly looked. Now she was starting to feel a bit of concern. Did he really think that that would work? Really? After all this time? That was simply ridiculous and surely, he realised it. She knew he did because he grinned even wider that he looked like he was in pain because his mouth was stretching so much. Definitely not helping his case.
"Just what are you up to?"
"Nothing. I'm up to nothing," he said quickly.
Because that was really going to convince her. Not. And he knew it because he promptly started talking about a redheaded woman, he'd seen at the coffee shop at lunch and wondered if they should set Gibbs up with her. He'd timed it perfectly to when McGee reappeared and promptly told Tony that he was not going to get involved in any hare-brained schemes.
"Neither am I," she said pointedly.
And there was that grin again!
Tony tried to be as inconspicuous as possible for the rest of the day. This was something that he did not Want Ziva to find out. No. Now way. That wasn't allowed to happen.
He had to be better at this, it was too important. You would think that after all this time that he would but it seemed like the sneaker he got the better Ziva got at thwarting him. Which was obviously a good thing for their partnership and all that - they knew each other extremely well - but it wasn't exactly good for this.
At least he had seemed to appease her this time. Or maybe it was just because she had that report for Gibbs still to write up. Something she'd been avoiding because Gibbs refused to let her use descriptive words when she described how she neutralised their perp. Yeah, he really didn't want to know but at least it kept her occupied.
Was this a cliche? He felt like this was a cliche. In fact, he knew that this was a cliche. It was in movies for crying out loud, that's how much of a cliche it was! Then again, a lot of proposal ideas were cliches. The big ones anyway.
And yes, that was what he was doing. A proposal. He was going to propose to Ziva. Where was he going to propose to Ziva? On a beach. Yes. On a beach. Possibly the biggest cliche of all. Well, maybe except the beach at sunset which would be amazing and all but knowing his luck they would manage to miss the sunset and he really didn't need another thing to worry about.
But even though it was overdone and such a cliche, he still thought that this was the best thing to do. It was just very them. Extremely them. How much time had they spent on beaches over the years? How many times had beaches helped them? So many. Too many to count. Of course, he had to include a beach in his proposal. It would be unthinkable not to.
He didn't go for the complete cliche route; he didn't choose their favourite beach (now that would be hard to choose and really wasn't worth the headache) nor did he pick the first beach they visited together (that was a crime scene for crying out loud). No, he went slightly different and found a beach they hadn't been to before. In their immediate area. Because of course there were beaches in the United States that they hadn't been to before, there were probably hundreds. He'd have to look that up at some point. To be honest, he was surprised that there were any nearby beaches that they hadn't visited yet, he would have said before that they visited them all but apparently not. Which was a shame because this place really was beautiful. And yes, he'd scoped the place out before this visit. Of course, he had.
It was nice and sandy so it looked pretty and nice to walk along. There were shells that he would sure Ziva would pick up before thinking that she was no longer a child and shouldn't have this urge to do so anymore. Not that how it looked mattered when he was going to be proposing over there on those rocks. There were rockpools there. Something Ziva loved and he had come to enjoy. Even if he still couldn't walk around them without looking like this ungainly giant. It was going to be good. It was. They loved each other, they had been living together for two years now and this was the logical next step.
Then why was his heart pounding in his chest?
Look, him and getting engaged didn't exactly have the best history. Oh, sure, the whole proposal part had gone fine before but it was the end of the engagement to the getting married part that hadn't gone well so he was pretty sure that it was forgivable that he was a bit jumpy about this. Of course, he knew that he wanted to marry Ziva. Obviously, he did. And he was pretty sure she wanted to be married to him to or else he wouldn't be asking. Right? No. He wasn't allowed to think like this. Not now.
The fact that there even was a now was something. Between their own history and his apparently inability to plan something behind her back, it was a miracle they were even in this position now.
And here they were. In position. Right by the big rockpools. A spot that didn't make him look like he had no balance with lots of big, flat rocks to safely stand on. He just had to be careful of the seaweed. Ocean on their right, rocks to their left. Lots of seaweed and shells and other beach paraphilia. He'd even managed to find a spot that had no trash flung around. An impressive feat in itself.
He just had to get her attention away from the rockpools at their feet and onto him. Wait, he also needed to get the box out of his pocket. Why did his hands suddenly feel too big to do anything?
Of course, all his fumbling around got Ziva's attention.
"Tony, what are you doing?"
No, no, no this was not going to plan. Ah ha! There was the box. The box with the ring in it. And now Ziva had her eyes on him. Perfect. It was coming together at the last minute. Story of his life. Right. Time to do it.
He looked into those gorgeous brown eyes of hers and opened the box.
"Ziva David, would you- Argh!"
Ziva looked at him, alarmed as Tony swore loudly and started hopping around on one foot.
"Something bit me!" He exclaimed before she could figure out what happened.
Bit? What on earth could have bit Tony on a beach? It was not like a dog had just appeared. And then she saw it and she bit her lip in an effort to control herself before she replied, Tony still hopping around dramatically.
"I think you mean nipped," she said with a chuckle.
That made him forget about his pain for a second as he gave her a confused look. "What?"
She pointed across the sand where something was moving extremely quickly away from them but not quick enough so that they couldn't see what it was.
"A crab? A crab bit me?"
"Nipped," she corrected.
"It was nice than a nip! That thing gouged me!"
"Are you bleeding?" She asked, bringing her attention back to his foot.
Which he was resting back on the sand in his distraction so it must have been more of a shock than him being in actual pain.
"Well, no," he said after checking his foot and rolling it in all sorts of angles.
"Then you are fine."
"I am not fine, it hurts."
"You are fine," she determined after looking at the foot himself. "Serves you right for being barefoot."
"We were romantically walking along the water's edge! Of course, I couldn't have shoes on!"
"Sandals exist," she said, pointing to her own covered toes.
He pouted at her and she could not help herself, she laughed and laughed and laughed. Because trust Tony to go and get nipped by a crab when he was proposing to her.
Wait. He proposed to her. How was that just hitting her? Tony proposed to her. He appeared to remember that as well.
"The ring! Where did it go?" He said in a panic, his arms flailing as he searched the loose sand. "That damn crab better not have-"
While he was cursing out the crab, Ziva shook her head and bent over to grab the box that was right by his feet. Amazingly it hadn't rolled or been kicked away.
Coughing pointedly, she held the small box up once she got his attention. His eyes widened almost comically.
"Give it here and let me do this properly," he said, holding his hand out.
But she did not hand it over. "I think me keeping this is the proper way of doing it."
"No, it really isn't."
She looked down at the ring and back at him, a smile on her face.
"It is for us."
He sighed heavily and thought for a moment before breaking out into a smile.
"I suppose it is." Then he nodded at her hand. "Does that mean you're going to put that on your finger?"
"I thought you were supposed to do that? Is that not how proposals work."
"Only if they go to plan," he grumbled. "Something that never happens for us."
She laughed at that.
"It really does not. Would you like me to put it on myself?"
"No! I have one job left, let me do it."
She tilted her head to one side like she was seriously thinking about her options (She was not) before shrugging and holding out the box.
"Okay."
Lunging forward eagerly he plucked the ring out of it and held out his hand expectantly.
"Your hand, my lady."
She rolled her eyes at him but did as she was asked. The ring was then slipped on her finger (almost the wrong one in his eager was but he saved himself at the last second). It glittered in the sunlight. It was going to be weird seeing something sparkle there.
"You like It?" He asked anxiously when she did not say anything.
She looked up to see his worried eyes and smiled at him.
"I love it." She drew him closer so she could give him a quick kiss on the lips. "And I love the fact that we are now engaged even more."
"Are we?" He grumbled good-naturedly. "I don't remember you saying yes."
Ziva couldn't help it, she laughed at that. She really had not said yes, had she?
"Well, yes. Yes, I will marry you, Tony."
She then gave him another kiss. Something he wasn't too impressed by as he pulled her closer to him. She could feel his stubble against her.
"Just give me a proper kiss, woman. Let's do something properly today."
And who was she to refuse that? Ignoring everything else around them, the smell of the seaweed, the crab slowly scuttling back, the splash of the wave, they sealed the deal with a kiss.