A/N: This is another story I couldn't manage to get posted and found last night. I'm sure we all remember the scene where Tony goes into the women's room and finds Ziva and I'm sure we all wanted him to do more than just stand there and make comparisons between Kai and Ziva. I'm pretty sure I was part of the collective scream heard around the world by Tiva fans. To get some of my frustrations out, I wrote this, it's a little bit of a regurgitation from the show, but with Ziva's POV. I hope you like it and if you don't, you know the drill. =)

When the bathroom door opened, Tony was the last person she had expected to see. Since her return she could sense the hesitance among them. And not just between herself and the senior field agent, but with McGee, Abby, Ducky, and Gibbs. Her time in the desert wasn't something she'd easily forget. Because, all the training in the world had never prepared her for the torture she'd endured at the hands of Saleem and his men. But she'd made a promise to herself long ago, never to be broken, regardless of her own selfish wishes.

He'd checked the stalls, telling her that she knew how Kai would get the job done, before moving back to the entrance and turning the lock. She watched him carefully, it was a move she'd made many times before. Cornering him in the men's bathroom, not giving him an escape until she had told him what it was that seemed to weight heavy on her shoulders. And now, it seemed that he was about to do the same.

But there was one thing she'd learned about this man, over the years: he was far more intuitive than he'd ever admit. Maybe it was a facade to safeguard him from the ugly realities of the world they faced every day. Maybe it was a way to safeguard himself from other realities as well. And so, in an effort to maintain this... precarious... balance they'd managed to find with each other after everything, she threw him off his game. She wasn't ready to address the giraffe in the room ... or was it elephant? She could never remember those idioms.

The last few weeks had not been easy. She'd all but denounced her homeland, and the life she'd lead before and to have Tony ask her, albeit for insight into their suspect, the way her heart sped up and her palms began to sweat, thinking about her former life, wasn't something she was ready to deal with. And so, she'd played the card she'd always played with him.

"Who am I getting, Agent Dunham?" Purposefully, she mispronounced their colleague's name.

The confused look on his face, told her that she'd been successful. The art of misdirection when it came to dealing with Tony, had been just that. Because in the end, he was an agent, a trained investigator and he'd follow the crumbs she dropped until he too was tired of playing along. But he did play along and she enjoyed a flash of the past. It felt like it once was, it felt as if the last few months hadn't happened. The comfort level had returned though briefly.

"Why would you want Dunham? I thought we were talking about Pak Su Ji."

"Dunham's from Texas, I like Texas... what is that saying, anyway? He cleans up nice!"

He scowls. "Not that nice," he paused searching for a retort. "I thought he was kinda creepy."

"Oh come on. Stop being such a big brother," she told him. He visibly bristled at this and she felt a momentary jolt of elatedness. Tony was jealous. "He's a field agent, a nomad. I've had enough of that in my life." Images of Michael, Mossad, and countless scenes from her past life flickered before her. "I came to NCIS to... settle down, to... make a home for myself." This was the first time she'd said the words aloud and they felt strange and comforting all at once. "The last thing I need, is a Chad Dunham... however," she told him.

His eyebrows shot up, thoroughly engrossed in what she would say next, "What?"

And there it was. The look of anticipation written plainly across his face. She laughed. It was the first time, since receiving her approval from Vance to be an agent, that she'd felt... giddy. And if she'd had any doubts about the tension that still existed between them, the electricity, the chemistry, the attraction, they were all erased with that one look from him in that single moment.

She recovered quickly. "Well, to answer your question, how would I get him?" She looked up at him and said, "brute force is always intriguing."

"And who exactly are we talking about right now, Pak Su Ji? Or the Texas Longhorn?" he asked.

She laughed softly and headed for the door. Flipping the bolt, she turned the knob and was half way out the door when she turned and said, "Neither." She smiled all the way back to her desk and was thankful the case took off, not giving Tony any time to corner her again. Because next time, she might not be able to turn him around in circles. Next time, she may just have to show him firsthand how she intends to get him.