I do not own NCIS or any part thereof.

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 7 "OUTLAWS AND INLAWS."

Okay. Here's the dealio - I flat out think Tony should've bent down and given Ziva a chaste little kiss to wake her up. I thought that the first time I watched the episode and the feeling has only gotten stronger with each subsequent viewing. Not a lustful or demanding kiss but a kiss just because she looked so sweet and innocent, even after she woke up. She just deserved a "wake-up" kiss, doggone it.

So yeah, this is a piece of nothing really but I had to do it.

Enticing Invitation

Tim came in and saw Tony standing by Ziva's desk. Their female teammate had her head down, obviously sleeping, her dark hair spread out around her. The peaceful expression on her face made her seem so very young and innocent. He'd never connected those modifiers with Ziva before but today they fit perfectly.

As he came closer he saw how Tony stared at her. It was a look he'd seen many times since their return from Somalia especially when Ziva's attention was focused elsewhere. A look combining want and pain and tenderness but on this morning, when she seemed so much the beautiful, carefree young girl they all knew she'd never had the chance to be, the fierce element of protection it usually held was missing. This morning he could swear Tony was going to lean over and kiss her and say "wake up, sleeping beauty."

Hesitating, he waited, hoping Tony would give in and just do it. If anyone knew how Tony really felt about Ziva it was him. They'd spent the summer together and he'd lived through the downward spiral of his partner's life right alongside him. Had worried for him after the news of Ziva's "death" had precipitated an almost total disassociation. If his flesh had only started rotting Tony could have been a zombie in one of the movies Abby loved so much; no connection to the life around him, lost in his own private little hell of grief and guilt. And this wasn't even taking into consideration the startling confession Tony had made during their captivity.

Tim shook his head. So much purple prose. Now he was thinking like a writer not a friend. Walking up beside Tony he told him it was obviously a trap and watched the smartass Tony persona emerge instantly.

"And what kind of man would I be if I refused that enticing invitation?"

After succinctly letting Tony know he was being suckered, Tim made his way over to his own corner. As he watched Tony pick up a Sharpie and start toward Ziva's face Tim couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he'd only been a few minutes later? If Tony would have responded to the "enticing invitation" in a different way?

Ziva muttered a threat and Tony pulled back and started some kind of idiotic spiel about immigration and Rush Limbaugh and the American dream. Tim knew he was just donning his emotional camouflage. Knew one day Tony be unable to resist waking the sleeping beauty in their midst. He only hoped it would be sooner rather than later.