All roads lead to Paris

Part 20

The coffee machine didn't work, again. Ziva was about to lose her patients. She punched with her hand against it in order to make it work again. It made some noise but didn't let her have what she wanted. She sighed. This day was already exhausting. She tried one last time to repair the machine, but it made it worse. Now it was leaking, the hot coffee mixture dripping out and flowed all over the kitchen counter. "Come on?! REALLY??" Now she was really upset about everything going wrong. She jumped over the mess the machine made, grabbed a towel and pressed it against the point where the coffee dripped out. She was about to cry because of her anger when the front door opened. Tony saw her troubling in that situation and ran to her to help. He unplugged the machine and it immediately stopped leaking. Ziva let go of the towel and took a deep breath starring at the mess on the counter. Tony said, with a soothing voice: "Hey, are you ok?" She didn't take her eyes of the chaos in the kitchen but answered: "Yes. I'm okay." Tony looked at her going to the kitchen cabinet and took out some more towels to clean the counter. He didn't know what was wrong with her but her actions and her ignoring him made him nervous and he started being worried. He grabbed her arm to stop her from wiping the liquid away. He repeated himself: "Hey? Are you really okay?" She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. She felt everything breaking down in herself and tears rolled down her cheeks. Tony took her in his arms and hugged her tightly. Her crying intensified, so Tony stroked her hair. "It's okay Ziva, it's okay." She grabbed his shoulder over his back to pull herself closer. She needed this hug more than anything else in this world in that moment.

After a few minutes she stopped crying. Tony's hug soothed her. She wiped her tears away and put her head off of his shoulder. Her look was anywhere but at Tony's face, she was too ashamed of that situation. Tony cupped her cheek with his hand, and she turned her head up and locked her eyes on his. A few seconds they just looked at each other before Tony asked: "What's wrong? What happened that you are crying about a broken coffee machine, huh?" Ziva smiled still with a sad look in her face. Now, that Tony said it out loud she realized how dumb her reaction was. "I just have a bad day. I don't know if that is what you call Karma, but it seems like the whole world is against me today." "I would be interested in what you did to deserve bad karma but that's not important, so: what did happen? And don't try to bypass my question." As Tony was talking, Ziva had taken some towels and cleaned the kitchen counter. She handed him one of the towels before answering his question: "Well, the first thing that happened was that I ran out of shampoo this morning, then I broke one of the picture frames while cleaning the living room. I wanted to take a break and do my research but miss Mendez destroyed that for me." They knelt to dedicate to the floor. Tony asked: "What did she do now? Did she send you a death threat, or what?" "No, she had the audacity to be part of a school project Tali was in." He looked up and said sarcastically: "Really? How dare she..." Ziva looked at him with questioning eyes and asked ready to throw some hands: "Why did you say that like that? Are you protecting her?" Tony tried to not look at her while trying to get him out of this position: "Well, no. I'm not 'protecting' her, more like assuming that it is what she wanted to do. You know, she has a daughter as well, maybe she didn't even want to be near Tali, but near her own daughter." As Tony finally got himself to look at her face again, he found an unsure look on her face. She bit her lip and thought about what he said. Not willing to admit it but knowing that he's probably right she said: "I guess your opinion might be true. But it ruined my day anyway."

They finished cleaning and went to the couch to continue their conversation. "And then the coffee machine broke, right?" "Yes, and it freaked me out." "I can relate, machines that don't do their work are frustrating, but I wouldn't have cried about it." She looked at him with a threatening look in her eyes. His face changed to one full of fear. "You don't want to kill me now, do you?" She grinned, still with that look in her face. "I don't make my choice yet." Tony said nervously: "I hope you won't because I still want to live, and in best case, live with you and Tali." The last sentence melted Ziva's heart, but she didn't show that. She just said: "Then you have to behave otherwise I can't promise anything." Tony, still feeling uncomfortable said: "Okay... so, why did you cry?" Ziva sighed and Tony regretted his question, but she answered: "I was just overwhelmed by everything. I mean what happened in the last few months, the last years is just so very confusing and so much has happened. I'm just realizing that now." "I can't imagine how difficult this must be for you." She looked at him and saw a worried Tony, but first of all she saw him being there for her. He grabbed her hand and rubbed it slightly. "If you need help dealing with all of this, I am there for you. And if my help isn't enough, I'll find someone who can help okay? You don't have to deal with this alone, you have me, Tali, our family. You are not alone." She smiled. Him mentioning her as a part of his family made her so happy that she could cry again. She didn't let the tears through and said: "Thank you, Tony." "I thank you for being here with me. That is nothing I would take for granted, ever." Her smile got even bigger. She thought about how she could surpass him for a second and then said: "Well, that's what you are doing when you love someone." The bomb she dropped made Tony's heart explode. "Ziva David, did you just confess that you have feelings for me??" They looked each other in the eyes and Tony could see that she was not interested in answering his question. Before he could even say a word, her lips were on his and their hands on each other.