I'm back

I'm back! I don't own NCIS though I suppose I own the idea for this – however, if the writers of NCIS want it, they are most welcome to it.

NCIS rules all.

Xox Mel

ENJOY!!

XXX

Chapter one: Lisa Vidad

"Grab your gear" came the familiar voice of Leroy Jethro Gibbs as he marched into the bullpen, dressed in what could only be described as his favourite outfit. Though Gibbs never showed any preference to what he wore, this was the one he wore most often, - light brown suit with a black shirt and a white T-shirt underneath, just visible along the neck line.

Tony jumped up and all but exploded in excitement, this was his favourite part.
"Where are we going?" he asked straining to hide his enthusiasm.

"To Quantico. A woman's been dumped on the Naval base there."

"I'll call Ducky." Ziva piped up, the first thing she'd said all morning.

"No McGee, you call Ducky, Ziva, DiNozzo; you go ahead and meet us there."

Ziva contemplated arguing but decided she may as well live with it. Today, well all week really, Ziva was in a particularly bad mood with one Anthony DiNozzo. The week prior, Tony and herself had -to put it lightly- had an argument.

It was stupid, really; He had said something to her that had been misconstrued, she was talking about her family to him, opening up to him, and he had said that he would never marry a Jew -somehow completely forgetting that Ziva was Jewish.
Ziva had taken that badly as she - at that point - had been incredibly close to telling him how she really thought of him so she yelled at him and called him a racist, this caught him off guard and they had been fighting ever since.

Tony felt bad, he knew that nothing could make it better, even if he did apologise, he knew she would never forgive him. He had tried on numerous occasions but to no prevail - she pretty much ignored him, she would act in front of Gibbs but in a way they both knew he wasn't fooled.

XXX

Tony and Ziva were first on the scene, they flashed their badges to the navy personal and headed toward the naked victim. She was young, in her twenties, with black, curly hair that looked familiar. According to her ID that was probably fake as it was the only thing left next to her, her name was Lisa Vidad.

After inspection from Ducky, Palmer and Gibbs, the body of 'Lisa Vidad' was driven back to NCIS.

XXX

"Hey Abs." Gibbs walked into the lab carrying a caff-POW in one hand and a bag of evidence in the other.

"My knight in shining armour!" Abby said in her chirpy voice as she reached for the drink and took a sip "Well my boss in silver hair." she corrected with a smile.

Gibbs let a small laugh pass through his nose as he rolled his eyes and passed Abby the bag of evidence.

"What do you need done?" she asked, already inspecting the clear bag.

"First I need you to ID our Jane Doe. There is something hinky about this name tag thing."

Abby smiled, she had worked with Gibbs long enough to understand him, he worked on his gut, and if it said something was hinky, then something was hinky. She had had the same feeling about the nametag herself. This person was either very, very smart or very, very dumb.

"And test that evidence." he said, already on his way back to the bullpen

"Yes sir!" She called after him, snapping into a military salute.

XXX

"Ziva... Ziva." Tony was trying to snap up Ziva's attention so he could apologise to her but she was still ignoring him.

"McGee." he decided to try a new approach. "Can you tell Ziva I'm sorry."

McGee shot Tony a confused look, he had never expected Tony of all people to apologise first, and so soon, it had only been a week.

"Sure" he finally answered and turned to Ziva and exhaled, he felt stupid, Tony could just tell her himself.

"Ziva, Tony says he's really sorry."

Ziva looked at McGee and then took a swift glance at Tony and then back to McGee.
"Tell Tony he doesn't look that sorry."

McGee turned to Tony to pass on the message but was cut off by him, already responding to Ziva's statement.

"Tell Ziva I am sorry." he shot her a glance that was halfway apologetic, halfway angry,

"Tell Tony that I don't care. I try to help you but you never want to talk to Me." she quickly responded, her gaze not leaving Tony's eyes. They were locked in a staring competition, neither looking as though it was going to stop at any stage.

"Tell Ziva that I want to talk now."

"What so you want to talk now so I should just talk?" The conversation was getting confusing and more heated by the minute.

Tony sighed. He had nothing to say to that, he knew he had been a real jerk the past few weeks, Ziva only wanted to help him and he shot her down, then, when she opened up about her father it was his turn to help her and he failed.

"I'm sorry, Ziva. I don't know why this means so much to you."

She thought about that for a minute then sighed. He was right. Why did this mean so much to her? Why would him saying he would never marry a Jew get her so worked up?

"Neither do I." She broke away from Tony's gaze and continued writing. This was not like her to run away - or in this case, ignore - her problems. A few years ago she would have just shot him but NCIS had brought on something she never thought she could have - Emotion. She could feel happiness, anger, compassion, jealousy, love. Everything she had heard about but never thought she would be a part of.

Tony moaned quietly and turned to his computer, there was one more option.
He opened up a new email page and typed in Ziva's email address. Tony and Ziva often emailed each other from across the bullpen; it was something that Ziva had started while reading McGee's first book - Deep Six. She would often send him paragraphs of Lisa's lust for Tommy or of Tommy's womanising antics. Eventually it became a way of teasing each other while Gibbs was unaware and sometimes they would discuss their cases. And even when Tony was having trouble with Jeanne, Ziva's emails became a way of communicating and comforting him.

'Ziva,' it began 'I'm sorry for what I said, I really am, I wasn't thinking. Somehow-- I have no idea how-- I forgot that you were Jewish and you don't count in that rule…' at that moment Tony came to a sudden realisation, was she just worried that he might not want to marry her? Was this about something different then what he initially thought? Did Ziva like him? He backspaced the last part and hit the send button before he could make things get any worse.

Ziva opened her email and read through the small apology, her heart pounding against her chest as he admitted he forgot she was Jewish, however the feeling was quickly taken over by heavy scepticism.

"You forgot?" she called across to his desk.

"I have no idea how. But Yeah, I did."

At that moment Gibbs walked into the bullpen and -sensing what he had walked into- he walked straight past Tony without slapping him on the back of the head for emailing during investigation time.

"What have we got so far?" he called to his team, though his eyes were locked on Ziva, her eyes a million miles away with a slight hint of confusion behind her features.
McGee was first to pipe up.

"Okay, the girl's real name is Anna Richards, she lives in New York but was in DC for a few months visiting her family, here is the address she was staying with her Aunt and Uncle. A Mr and Mrs Knight." McGee passed Gibbs a piece of paper. And glanced at Tony, he was watching Ziva, her face slowly coming back to reality.

"Tony, go talk to her family, they may already know, they may not. Take David." Gibbs knew in the back of his mind that maybe letting them go together was a bad idea but if there was the slightest chance they could work out whatever drama had been going on during the 45-minute drive then it was worth it.

"Sure boss" Tony said, jumping up and grabbing his coat. "Ziva" he called, pulling her back into reality.

"Yep. Coming" she jumped up quickly and ran to catch up with her partner, every trace of the confusion she felt gone.

XXX

"I'm sorry, Tony," Ziva piped up after about 15 minutes of silence. "I took what you said a little too personally and I know it's a sign of weakness but I'm sorry."

Tony was slightly shocked, there was no way he was expecting Ziva to apologise to him, there was no reason for it, he was the one who had said the wrong thing, not her.

"Ziva. For one thing, I'm not Gibbs and for another; Please don't apologise, you've done absolutely nothing wrong."

For the first time in over a week, Ziva smiled. Tony joined in, he was happy he had his partner back, it was like a part of him was missing but he only noticed it was missing when he got it back.

"So" Tony began after a few more minutes of silence. "Did you miss me?" he smiled
Ziva rolled her eyes in disbelief, how could he already be joking?
"Not really" she smiled.

"Yeah well you still checked me out the other day when Gibbs made us have that work out session."

"Oh yeah" she returned to her usual teasing self. "The way you rolled around the floor in pain was a real turn - on."

Though it was only gone for a week, he hadn't realised how much he'd missed her sarcasm.

The pair talked for the next twenty minutes until they reached their destination, Tony pulled the hand break and sighed.

"Here we go." He muttered underneath his breath.
Ziva sighed as well, knowing what he was referring to, what if the family didn't know their niece was dead?

Ziva was first out of the car and around the opposite side before Tony had gotten out.
They both walked the pathway together, taking careful steps to postpone this painful part for at least a few seconds more.

Ziva had more experience in this area and she was fairly desensitised to death but she never enjoyed telling kind people they had lost something precious. Again. NCIS had brought on compassion, everyday she was loosing her old murderous self and gaining a new, more human persona.

Tony sighed and knocked on the front door. "Here we go," he repeated, this time to both of them.

XXX

"That wasn't as bad as I was expecting." Tony sounded surprised as he got into the driver's seat.

"How bad were you expecting?" She asked, also surprised but for a totally different reason.

"Well," he began "I've done a few of these and they are never pretty but this one was not as bad. They seemed to take it alright."

Ziva shivered, the cold of the car hit her harder than usual after the warmth of the Richard's house.

"Are you alright?" Tony asked, already removing his jacket to force upon his partner.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just didn't bring a jacket."

Before she could even finish her sentence, his jacket was being wrapped around her shoulders, she tried to rip it off but found that it was being held on, she turned to face him and make a comment about killing him if he didn't take his jacket back but all of a sudden she found herself close enough to Tony's face that she could smell his breath. It was cool, kind of a minty tint to it.

Her head was swimming; he was so close. Close enough to touch. Close enough to taste.

"Please take the jacket." Tony pleaded, suddenly aware of the awkward closeness he had brought on. Before either could think or pull away, Tony was moving his face forward, enclosing the inches between them.

XXX
Thankyou for reading… I haven't written anything in ages so it would be great to know what you all think – I'll update soon! Meanwhile, there's a little blue button that would just LOVE to be pressed: D:D!!

Xox Mel