This was originally supposed to be posted in my collection, The Long Road to Love, but I thought this two-piece set was deserving of its own separate story. It is centered on the thoughts of the characters right as Gibbs and Tony leave Ziva in Tele Aviv. This chapter will be from Tony's POV, and the second will be from Ziva's POV. The lyrics are there to guide my thoughts and for inspiration, feel free to skip them if you feel like it. Please read and review; your thoughts are always sincerely appreciated. Enjoy! -Ash

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, Michael Weatherly or Tony DiNozzo although if I could find a guy like them I would certainly claim them as mine. I also do not own "What Hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts.

I know if I could do it over
I would trade, give away all the words that I saved in my heart
That I left unspoken. What hurts the most, is being so close
And having' so much to say and watching you walk away
And never knowing what could've been

And not seeing that loving' you
Is what I was trying to do.

-"What Hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts

Part 1: Three

Boss, one short?

Three words settle among the silence that befalls three men. Three words that form both a question and a statement depending on who is interpreting them. Three words that leave his mouth three seconds after his boss boards the plane. Three words that explain that she will not be taking her rightful spot beside him. Three words that echo in his mind while his other half is left behind in the jet stream.

That left three agents aboard the plane, headed back to NCIS headquarters, to explain those three words to the three other agents who had not made the journey. Those three words would halt whatever story Ducky was in the middle of reminiscing. He can see the blank, dumbfound look that falls onto McGee's face and how he will stare at her empty desk; one abandoned desk, amongst three occupied ones. The tears that are bound to cloud Abby's dark eyes are too much from his to bear, and the plane hasn't even left the Tele Aviv airspace yet. For the third time their close-knit team had suffered another loss; first Kate, then Jenny, and now Ziva, each loss coming at almost exactly a year apart. That doesn't even account for Gibb's retirement and being further fractured by Vance's own agenda last year, splitting the team in three different directions. One could question how many more blows their thick skins could take. But this time, this was different. This time the only one to blame was him.

Because he couldn't mind his own business, for his curiosity forever gets the best of him. Because he had poked, prodded and pushed more that he should have; more that he had the right to. Because he had stopped trusting her. Because she had stopped trusting him. But most of all, because he cared too much and she just didn't understand that.

He should have known better than to interfere in her personal life. Instead of merely teasing her in their normal jest, he insisted on investigating. He should have known when to relent when it came to her mysterious boyfriend, her weekend trip to Tele Aviv just weeks after returning to D.C, and the uncharacteristic lunch breaks. For once in his life, he should have listened to McGee but he had been so caught up in the mystery of what she was hiding; so he had continued to snoop where he didn't belong. He should have let her have her freedom. She was free to date whomever she pleased, without him knowing every detail; hell, he had done it with Jeanne.

However, he had not given her that courtesy. The part of him that knows her not only as his partner, but as the woman who has become his best friend cared too much to let her keep her secrets. Especially ones as destructive as everyone knows knew they were. So as much as he would like to say he would have done things differently, he knows he would have made each calculated move all over again.

Because he is her partner. Because, despite what she said earlier today, it is his job to protect her. Lord knows she doesn't need defending, but it doesn't change the fact that he would lay his life down for he in a split second. Because he wouldn't lie to her, even to save his worthless ass. Because he would risk his job for her; he did it once and he would do it a hundred times over again.

But it is for all these same reasons that she won't be coming back to Washington D.C. with him. It is for all these reasons that she isn't sitting beside him at this very moment. Maybe if he had been able to explain his feelings, his motives, and his actions better things would be different. Maybe if she wasn't so stubborn she might have listened with an open ear. But things aren't different. He cares too much, his actions blinded by love, and she is simply blinded by the hurting to understand it.

So here he sits, one of three agents, on a flight back to D.C; three words echoing in the silence, guilt by innocence weighing on his heart.

A/N: Please let me know what you thought. This took a lot of time, and I'm still not sure it turned out just right.