Soundtrack: Morningstar by Nat King Cole

It felt like years since Tony had gotten some proper sleep, with last night at Ziva's and travelling the night before…

Very much like the day seven years ago where he officially finished his work with Gibbs, Tony loosened his buttons and pulled off his tie and shirt as he walked through his hotel room.

Realizing that he hadn't plugged in his room key and the room was still dark, he backtracked and did so. When Tony turned around he almost jumped out of his skin.

"Zi," he whispered, exasperated, "A little warning here, I'm not as young as I used to be."

She graced him with a ghost of a smile, barely registering his state of undress. She looked like she wanted to speak so Tony remained silent.

After a moment she said, "I'm not sure what to do."

Tony took a deep breath before responding.

"Ziva, you made a difficult decision that ended up being a bad one. But had the stakes been as high for any member of my team, we would've made the same call. Nobody blames you."

"James does," Ziva breathed, "Agent Grey's son does. And all those people who died in the attack on NCIS, that's on me."

"You don't know that," Tony immediately defended, "We haven't found any evidence correlating the two as of yet."

"I know they are connected in my gut, Tony."

Tony walked towards Ziva and kneeled before where she sat on the couch. She refused to make eye contact but he could see the moisture in her eyes.

"I'm tired of being so weak," Ziva said in frustration, staring directly at him.

Tony raised his hand to stroke her cheek lightly, before letting out a dry laugh, "Funny… I was about to tell you how I was tired of you always being so strong."

She looked down at him with her eyes watery, and took a steadying breath. There was barely space between her and Tony and she felt the mood suddenly change.

"I feel like we barely know eachother," Ziva breathed.

"I don't," Tony looked intensely serious, "I know the way you talk, the way you walk. I know the way you laugh, how your nose quivers before you cry. I know everything I need to."

"Not everything," Ziva replied earnestly and rather self-consciously.

Tony froze and looked directly into her eyes, gathering whether or not he had misunderstood.

"I fully intend to resolve that someday, Zi," he said calmly.

She graced him with what can only be described as a loving smile.

"I should go," Ziva said softly, breaking the moment.

"Mmm," Tony replied distractedly, not moving.

"Tony," Ziva said gently, putting a hand against his chest lightly.

Tony held her arms and pulled her up slowly with him, brushing a hand through her hair before releasing her completely.

"May I join you?"

A hoarse and artificially confident voice spoke from behind him. James turned around to see Ziva hovering hesitantly behind the bar he was sitting at.

He considered turning her down but somehow ended up nodding in acceptance.

"Here to see me?" He asked in what sounded to him, a detached voice.

"No I just saw Tony," Ziva replied.

"Ahh," was all James said.

After a few moments of thick silence Ziva spoke again, "Tony told me of your relationship with Agent Grey"

"We had no relationship," James deadpanned.

Ziva remained silent for she had no appropriate response. She could not apologise, it would achieve nothing.

"You know that necklace you gave Tony?" James asked unexpectedly, "Why did you get it for him?"

Ziva was taken aback by the question but contemplated the answer nonetheless.

"Because he's my friend and in his own way is a perfect balance of nature," she said honestly.

James mused for a minute before asking, "Do you think he would've made the same call as you?"

"No," Ziva replied immediately, "Tony is sentimental and would always rather save a life than take one."

There was a pause before Ziva spoke again.

"But I think you would have made the same call."

James felt several emotions, namely, rage. Then came bitterness, and then finally, begrudging admiration.

"I admire Tony for many things," James mused, "but in matters of the heart we are similar."

He sighed deeply before continuing, "I would have made the same call."

"So what now?" Ziva genuinely asked, "We have both been side-lined."

James put his scotch glass down and turned to face her…

"Gibbs," Tony greeted as they met in front of the elevator.

Gibbs inclined his head at Tony, pressing the elevator button.

"So no Jem and Ziva?" Tony asked, conversationally.

"I haven't heard from Ziva," Gibbs grunted in response, annoyed.

"She thinks its best to take and step back, and for the time being, I agree with her," Tony stated.

Gibbs raised his eyebrow in a silent question.

"She came by my hotel last night," Tony explained while trying not to cringe as Gibbs' eyebrows raised even more.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped out of the elevator.

When they entered the bullpen, the most curious thing was taking place. The entire room was empty save the distinct figures of James' and Ziva's backs facing them as they leaned over the desk before them.

Gibbs and Tony slowed to a stop glancing curiously before them.

Ziva turned, nodding at them, "Gibbs, Tony..."

James nodded too, though he didn't say anything. More surprising to Gibbs was that Tony immediately went to James' side.

"Watcha got Jem?" He asked quietly.

James' eyes softened as he replied, "Ziva and I were in early this morning..."

More like late last night, Tony thought to himself observing their day-old clothes.

"...I got the file that Ressler requested last night. I got McArtles employment dates and it turns out he was stationed in the same location as Theresa when she was a rookie," James looked at Ziva encouragingly.

"And then I reached out to some of my remaining contacts in the UK and found out that they lived in the same area and both used to frequent the same bar, The Lucky Clover,

Ziva continued.

"There's something else though," James said, "Ressler mentioned Gowan, the maintenance man?"

Gibbs nodded, silently prompting him to continue.

"Samuel Gowan was one of McArtle's alias'," James stated, blankly.

"He's the father of Theresa's kid?" Tony gently asked.

James merely nodded in response.

"What'd we miss?" Tom, asked as the rest of Tony's team entered the bullpen.

Ziva quietly explained what her and James had found and when she finished, silence rung through the room.

"So Samuel Gowan and McArtle are the same person?" Tom enquired.

"Looks that way," Tony replied.

"Is no one going to comment on the fact that neither of the people providing the answers are actually supposed to be involved in the investigation?" Ressler asked after a moment.

"Well if you have something more to add, feel free to send them home," Gibbs said, as he began to walk back to the elevator.

"Where are you going, Gibbs?" Tony asked, already feeling exhausted.

"Feel like its about time to go see Abby."

If anyone was still half-asleep that morning it was completely blasted from mind at the rock music playing in Abby's lab.

Gibbs called Abby's name over the sound of the music. A moment later the noise stopped.

"Gibbs!" Abby exclaimed energetically as McGee continued snoring in the background, "I haven't even called you yet."

She broke off as she saw the rest of the teams and her face broke out into an even more genuine smile when she saw that everyone was together.

Tony gave a diamond-studded smile in response as he walked over to McGee and shook him awake, "Probie, how did you sleep with the music blasting like that?"

McGee grunted and stood up sleepily.

"We've been up all night going through the photos of McArtle, Peter got us," Abby answered for him.

"So you couldn't get any new angles from the video footage from the day of the attack?" Tom asked.

"There was no magic to work with," McGee defended, "But then Peter sent us some intel on McArtle."

"Wait, how did you get those pictures so quickly?" Abby asked.

"It's better not to ask with him," James said gently, earning a shy smile from Abby.

Tony nodded in agreement while Gibbs impatiently asked what they found.

"Well at first, we ran facial recognition to find any APHIS match, but there were no hits." McGee said groggily.

"So then we started going through them manually," Abby explained as she started clicking away at her desktop.

"I felt like we were missing something major so I went through the profile we'd built on Shariff to see if there were any connections between him and McArtle."

"Didn't Shariff go to university in South Africa, though?" Tom interjected.

Ignoring him, McGees added, "Which McArtle also attended for the last year of his degree," McGee added.

"So the pictures I gave you had useful intel?" Peter prompted.

"No," Abby said decidedly.

"Well kind of," McGee said at the same time.

"Abby," Gibbs called, more annoyed now.

"It told us that McArtle was fond of rugby," McGee told Peter by way of an explanation.

"So we looked for Rugby pictures from that year at the university they attended and..." Abby smiled proudly as everyone looked up at the screen.

It was a picture of a rugby team, both Shariff and McArtle were smiling proudly after their win.

Abby and McGee were surprised when everyone looked uncomfortably at James and ZIva, both of whom had paled somewhat.

"Ok. What'd we miss?" Abby asked worriedly.

"Well Abs," Tony began gently, "We just found out from James and Ziva that McArtle was actually the father of Theresa's child. And now we found out that he was pals with Shariff."

Abby still looked confused as to why everyone was looking at Ziva the way they were.

"This was all to get revenge against me," Ziva murmured, before turning on her heel and leaving.

Tony was about to follow when James stopped him, determination suddenly shining in his eyes.

"Look at the bigger picture," he said to Tony, sternly.

Tony raised his eyebrow in a questioning glance as Gibbs spoke behind him.

"We find McArtle, we get Shariff and Ahkman."

Read & Review x