Ziva slowly leaned closer. He felt his heart beat faster and leant closer, trying to minimize the distance between them...

How he got there? Damn good question!

It all started out as a pretty normal morning. Tony was nearly late, and when he arrived at the bullpen, McGee was already picking on his muffin. He bit back a comment, and nodded to Bishop, knowing she wouldn't hear him anyway. Sometimes he wished he had a retreat like that, but he knew that if he started listening to music in the office, boss would slap him crazy, and he knew it would probably just distract him. He remembered the one time Abby had used her tax refunds to buy everyone on the team an IPod. He smiled thinking about how he had come into the office singing along to a song out loud and how Gibbs had looked at him.

He couldn't even remember which song it had been, only Ziva's face, as she tried to tell him to cut it off. Damn, now he was thinking of her again. But he was over her right? Hadn't he said so to Mcgoo yesterday? It hadn't been his day, and he might have gotten a little emotional talking to a suspect. He was lucky it had been McGee, not Gibbs watching behind the glass.

Anyway, McGee had pulled him aside while they were watching Gibbs break the main suspect a few hours later, and had gone all dr. Phil on him. Telling him how he hadn't been himself lately and a lot of crap, and how they were his family, and how they were worried about him and how he could talk to them if he wanted to. It didn't sound like something his favourite little probie would say, and at some point McGee admitted Abby had kind of put him up to it, but that that didn't mean he didn't kind of agree with her. Then he said something that hit home with Tony though: "I get that you miss her. We all miss her. But you need to get on with your life. Its what she would have wanted too, you know." With those few well-chosen words McGee had done it. All the walls Tony had built since Ziva left shattered, piercing his heart and mind, leaving him utterly defenceless. He knew it showed on his face. All the emotions he'd been trying so hard to burry inside of himself surfaced leaving him feeling weak and empty. McGee could see it on his face, and was shocked by Tony's reaction. He had meant for his words to get Tony thinking, but he hadn't expected them to shake him so badly. He could see Tony trying to get his emotions under control, trying to find composure again and also saw a resolution in his eyes. He knew he was lying when he said he was over her, but it was a start. And he knew that if Tony worked hard on trying to convince him it might actually become the truth. That night when he had come home Tony had put all his pictures of Ziva onto the windowsill, where he also kept the pictures of his dad. The windowsill was where he put people he couldn't face every time he looked across the room, but couldn't put away either. The windowsill was his personal draw. It was his first step of letting go, it was his acceptance. That night he'd had a horrible nightmare that had woken him up in the middle of the night, sweating and completely out of it. It had taken him nearly half an hour to calm down again and tell himself that it was just a dream, because Ziva didn't scream for help like that, she could take care of herself, right?

"Grab your gear. Locals found a dead petty officer in the Potomac." Gibbs walked into the Squad room.

"Drowned, boss?" McGee asked. "Shot" Gibbs answered, and Tony and McGee grabbed their stuff and pulled Bishop with them who had only just realized what was going on.

When they arrived at the scene, Palmer and Ducky were already there, examining the body. The victims name was Thomas Lance, Petty Officer stationed in Quantico.

"Got a time of death for me Duck?"

"Difficult Jethro, the cold water has made liver temperature impossible and water is excellent at preserving a body. I might be able to give you a clue once I've finished my examinations."

"Cause of death?"

"Well, I can't say anything for sure before the autopsy but I'm pretty sure the bullet in his brain has something to do with it."

McGee was taking pictures, Bishop and Gibbs went to talk to the locals, so Tony ended up helping Ducky and Palmer bag all the evidence and get the body into the van.

"So what do we know about our victim?"

Flashing a picture up on the screen, Bishop said: "Petty Officer first class, stationed in Quantico, recently divorced, one child Sara, ten years old."

"Yeah, and from what I can tell it was an ugly divorce, the wife took pretty much everything he had including custody of Sarah, claiming he was often drunk and not fit to be a father."

Tony added. "My moneys on the wife Boss."

"Course it is, Tony" McGee sighed. "Always is. But maybe you should consider that he would have much more reasons to go after her. She took everything from him, not the other way round. Also, he was shot with his own gun, and how many soccer moms d'you know that can take a marines gun, ex-wife or not?"

"I think I can answer that, Tim." Ducky came into the squad room. "Jethro, I need to show you something."

"On my way, Duck." Gibbs said. "Bishop, I want you to call the ex-wife and the petty officers CO and ask them to come in so we can as them a few questions. Check for other associates who might know or have had something to do with the petty officers death. McGee go and check if Abby needs help. Tony you're with me."

Bishop was left alone in the squad room, and was about to dial the ex-wife's number, when someone stepped into the squad room alone. Bishop didn't know the woman and it was strange that she wasn't accompanied by anyone, because non-NCIS agents always needed to have an agent with them while moving around the building, and this woman didn't wear a badge. The woman looked around the squad room, and when she looked at Bishop, Bishop immediately felt like she knew her, although she couldn't quite place her. She was beautiful, and when she held out her hand and said hello her smile was genuine, but something about her was off. It was like something that was missing in her, a haunted look in the woman's eyes, and then it hit Bishop.

"You're Ziva!" She said. "You used to sit at this desk, you used to be an NCIS agent, right?"

The women-Ziva-walked around the desk, and, now standing close to Gibbs desk looked at her old desk and nodded. She was about to say something when Tony walked into the squad room….

A few minutes earlier in Autopsy

"So what's app duck?" Tony said, mimicking Gibbs deep voice. He and Palmer high-fived, but quickly turned away, adapting an expression appropriate at the deathbed of your best friend when Gibbs stared them down.

Turning away, Gibbs nodded to Ducky, who walked around the Corpse and said: "Well I still can't tell you when he died, but I can tell you how he died. Jimmy here found a deep cut in his abdomen, barely visible, but consistent with the amount of blood loss. It's really unlucky that it was deadly, a few inches to the left and it wouldn't have been."

"So you're saying it probably wasn't an intentional kill, more someone trying to defend themselves?" Tony asked. "But that doesn't make sense. Who accidentally kills someone and then shoots them?"

"Someone angry." Gibbs said "Someone who knew the victim, and intimately. Someone who might not have wanted to kill him but… Someone who knows how the police operate! Dinozzo, find out if the wife has a record."

"Sure thing Boss. You're thinking she knew we'd blame the wife, right?"

"Yes Dinozzo, now get going."

So that's how Tony ended up going back to the squad room. He was about to ask Bishop if she knew if the wife had a record, when he saw the woman standing next to Bishop. She had her back to him, but he would have recognized her anywhere. He stopped dead in his tracks, and Ziva whirled around. She was just as beautiful as Tony remembered, but she looked older, and somewhat haunted. Upon seeing Tony though, her eyes lit up even though he could see the fear in them. Neither of them said anything for nearly a minute, they just looked into each others eyes, and Tony was reminded of the time after her imprisonment in Somalia, when she had stood there, helping him and McGee solve a case, and how they'd done the same thing, just stared and how McGee had fidgeted next to them, just like Bishop did now. Then Ziva looked away, and said "Hello Tony." She nearly whispered it, like she was scared of his reaction.

"Hey Ziva" he answered, almost as carefully. An awkward silence filled the room, and after a moment Bishop cleared her throat, said "I'm gonna go tell the others" and shuffled away quickly. Tony was left alone with Ziva, who just kept staring at her hands, and this freaked Tony out even more then the fear in Ziva's eyes, or the haunted look or her not wearing her necklace. And all that was bad enough. Because Ziva didn't get scared, and she always wore her necklace, and she was never the first to look away, she always won their little game, but most of all, there were hardly any awkward moments left between them, they always had something to talk about. And even if not, it was never AWKWARD.

At some point Tony couldn't take it anymore, and so he said the first thing that came to mind:

"So, how was your year?" It worked, Ziva smiled, and finally looked up.

"I've had better ones. How was yours?"

"It sucked." Tony stepped closer " I-the team-, we missed you." And there it was again. Ziva wasn't even back more then five minutes, and Tony was already pretending he didn't care that much. Already playing along again.

"I missed you too."

"So, what are you doing here?" Tony asked, trying to sound casual.

"Couldn't live without you, I guess." Ziva answered, a small smile playing on her face.

Hearing that, Tony couldn't help himself, and pulled her into an embrace.

At first, she froze, like she'd done during her early days at NCIS, but then she melted into his arms, and for a moment all Tony could think about was how good she smelled, and how this moment should never ever pass.

"I'm so sorry, Tony", Ziva whispered, and for the moment, he knew that was enough. She could explain everything later, right now all that mattered was that Ziva was here, in his arms, in which she fit so perfectly.

"ZIVA, YOU'RE BACK!" Abby came running into the squad room, closely followed by Gibbs, McGee, Ducky and Palmer, with Bishop tagging behind, obviously unsure of what to do. Tony and Ziva broke apart, and Ziva turned around just in time to receive Abby's bone breaking hug. Abby didn't seem to think anything weird about Tony and Ziva's hug, but he could see Gibbs narrow his eyes, and McGee raised his eyebrows questioningly at Tony while giving Ziva a small hug.

After everyone had said hello more or less warmly-Ducky was very cold, obviously angry, just like he'd been after Gibbs retirement a few years back- they were all ready to settle down and catch up when Gibbs said:" So this case is going to solve itself, is it?"

They quickly got up again and Bishop went up to Gibbs to tell him about what she found going through the bank records-which was nothing unusual- and that the wife was of the grid, not answering her phone and not having shown up to work today. So McGee and Gibbs went to look at the wife's house and Bishop went to the conference room to talk to Lance's CO.

"So, where are you staying?" Tony asked her when they finally had a moment alone. She shrugged.

"I'm going to check into a hotel later, I guess. Unless," she snorted "Gibbs lets me crash on his sofa for a few days." Tony, pretending to think that over for a few seconds said, with what he hoped was a casual voice: "You could always crash at my place if you want to. WE could watch a movie, get some takeout, you know. Only if that's ok with you of course." He hastened himself to add.

She smiled, and looked relieved to be asked. "That would be very ok with me." They smiled at each other for a while, than Tony forced himself to look away.

"So, which movie d'you wanna watch?" He asked. "You pick." Ziva said.

"No." Tony answered, "I want you to pick."
"Yeah, right." She snorted. "And get grief from you for picking the wrong movie? Forget it."

"What?" Tony asked, pretending to be hurt. "I do not give people grief if they pick the wrong movie!"

"Dream on my dear, dream on."

He narrowed his eyes at her and she laughed. "Oh, right, you don't give people grief over it, you just don't let them pick a movie."

"So feel honoured."

She snorted once more, but didn't reply. So they just stayed in a comfortable silence for a few moments, until Abby came to pull Ziva away for a tour of the building, even though nothing had really changed. Tony smiled. No, that was wrong. Things had changed. Ziva had left, and ZIva had come back. Things were changing right now. He hoped they kept changing for the better.