"Jenny?" Tony called as he walked up the walk to her front door, which was slightly ajar.
"Come in!" she shouted in return. He pushed the door open to find a mess. Cloths, buckets and brushes were everywhere. "Thank you so much, Tony," she began.
"Wait, you asked me over here to help you paint?!" he asked. She smiled sheepishly.
"I'll owe you one?" she asked hopefully.
"Huh, huh, huh," Tony fake-laughed, "I thought… no," he said.
"Please?" she begged. "I just hoped…" Tony looked down into her eyes. She could see the second his refusal turned to acquiescence. Her pout turned into her brightest smile, which he returned. "Okay," he said, "but you owe me BIG. And I mean BIGGGG," he said using his hands to emphasize exactly how much 'big' was. She laughed out loud.
"Thank you, Tony," she replied.
"Ziva, thank you for meeting me today," Roy said as they made their way back to her place, where they had met to start their run that morning.
"Thanks for suggesting it," Ziva said with a smile. "It was fun." Roy leaned toward her, took her hand and pulled her gently toward him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed him to kiss her the way she had wanted him to the day she met him. He deepened the kiss, moving her toward the door. She pulled away and shook her head. "Roy, please stop," Ziva said. "I'm not ready for this." He pulled back and looked at her.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I knew we had a connection, and I guess I just moved too fast," he explained.
Ziva threw back her head and laughed. "There is no ‘too fast' for me," she admitted. "But I have sort of gotten involved with someone else," she explained.
"Oh," Roy said as he backed away from her. "I didn't realize…"
"Trust me, it was unexpected," she added. "And it's not like I knew you would be back!"
"You're right," he said. "I should have known you wouldn't just wait around forever. I've waited all my life to meet someone like you, and I thought our connection was something really special."
"It was," Ziva said, resting a hand on his cheek. "It really was… Is…," she amended. "I don't know." They were silent for a moment. "I just need some time to figure things out."
"Can we date, or at least spend some time together?" he asked with a charming smile. She smiled back at him.
"That would be nice," she agreed. "Come inside," she motioned toward the door. "There are some things we need to discuss."
He followed her inside and took a seat at her kitchen table.
"It is so weird that this happened when it did," Ziva explained. "If you had mentioned this whole vampire thing that day when we met, I would have immediately dismissed you as an idiot. If I had never met the other person I've been involved with, I wouldn't have learned about that whole world and would still have freaked out when you suddenly reappeared. But I did meet someone else," she said quickly. "So you see, meeting him made it possible for me to be with you now, but it also made it impossible for me to be with you now because I still want him."
"I think I follow that," Roy responded slowly with a grin. "So, are you going to tell me who my competition is?"
"No," Ziva said. "I don't want this to turn into a parking match between the two of you. I have to sort these things out for myself."
"It's ‘pissing match'," he corrected with a chuckle, "and I understand. This is your game. I appreciate you letting me play. But I need to know the rules."
A gentle breeze tickled Maggie's face. She leaned comfortably against Jethro's side and turned to face the warm sun. He used his legs to propel the porch swing back and forth, as he hummed a random melody. Maggie smiled. She had been doing a lot of that over the past two weeks. The comfortable near-silence was interrupted by his pager. He groaned as Maggie pulled away from him so he could go inside and respond to the page. She followed him through the French doors into the kitchen, where she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the table to wait.
"Let's get dressed. Just got a tip over the hotline," he said when he came back in the kitchen.
"Duty calls," she responded with a smile as she rose from her chair, took one final swallow of her coffee and went to the bedroom to change clothes.
"I'll meet you there," Gibbs said. He kissed her softly on the mouth, and then turned to leave.
"Right behind you, bossman" she replied as he left.
"Wow," Noah said as he stared at Director Shepard. It was the first time he had seen her in casual attire, and there was something very appealing in her paint splattered jeans, tank top and sandals.
"Very funny, Agent Diamond," she said in response to his greeting.
"I wasn't joking," he continued, causing her to smile.
"Does anyone know what's going on?" McGee asked as the entered the room.
"Apparently something came in on the hotline, Probie" Tony stated the obvious.
"Where's Sullivan?" Gibbs barked, as he looked around the room at the rest of the team.
"I just got her on her cell phone," Abby answered. "She's on her way. Ten minutes tops."
Maggie stepped off the elevator. Gibbs rolled his eyes.
"Gear up," he said gruffly.
"Uh, boss, where're we going?" McGee asked.
"Triple homicide. The bodies were found in the back of an RV registered to marine Lance Corporal Scott Owens," he informed them quickly, and then rattled off the address. "Let's roll, people. Time's a-wasting"
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.