Tiva Short Stories

Breaking Free and Breaking Rules

"What's the case? Do we have any leads... Where is everyone?" I said as I yawned, entering the dark office.

"What is wrong with you! Why did you tell me to meet you in the bullpen? Its 1 AM!" I shouted at Tony, who was leaned up against the wall and chuckling.

"You'll see"

"Ziva where did we first meet?" He asked. 

"Why does that matter?" I sneered. 

"Just answer it"

"Here." I shrugged, and with a smile said, "I asked if you were having phone sex"

"I'd really hoped you would forget that part, but moving on" He laughed and walked toward me. 

"Check my holster" He demanded. 

"Why?" 

"Just do it" He grinned. 

I slid my fingers into his holster and found nothing in it, then trailed my fingers up his shirt on his bare chest. I wrapped  my hands behind his neck and kissed him. He pulled back, 

"What was in it?"

"Its empty"I sighed and tried to pull him back into an embrace. 

"Exactly! I have no knife with me, rule number 9 broken," He announced and clapped.

"What?" I said shaking my head. Tony walked over to his desk and pulled out a coffee mug. 

"Next, you see this coffee? See how its perfectly hot? Perfectly good coffee?" He proceeded to pour it on the floor.

"Rule 5, don't waste good, broken. And I'm not cleaning that up, rule 45, clean up your messes, broken" He said excited. 

"Do you have a point or are you just going through man-o-pause? Having a midlife crisis? Because I want to go back to bed" I sighed and yawned again. 

"I'm sorry, you'll see soon. Rule 6 broken, I'm apologizing" Tony grinned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. 

"You see my phone? " He took out the battery and threw it in the trash. "Im unreachable , rule 3 broken"

"Tony! Have you lost your mind?" I yelled. 

"No." He chuckled. 

"Crazy people always say that."

"And finally rule 12" He got down on one knee and pulled out a small velvet box. 

"When I met you, all I had was this job, it was all that mattered to me, but now, you are the only thing that matters to me."

"Tony" I gasped. 

"Screw the rules. Screw each and every one of them. Ziva Ester David, I love you."

"I love your smile and your laugh and how I can't walk around our apartment barefoot because you leave your knives on the floor. I love the way you clean your gun when you're nervous. I love the way you smile at every baby we pass on the street. I love that you drive fast and I love the fast food wrappers you keep hidden under your seat in your car even though we decided to eat healthy on New Years that you think I don't see. I love the way you look in tight jeans, and the way you look in lingerie, and above all the way you look in nothing at all. I love that you've had 9 different house plants over the last year and that none of them have survived for more than a week. I love that talk in hebrew in your sleep."

"I love you."

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"I promise to spend the rest of my life with you"

"New rules, our rules."

"Rule number one, I will love and cherish you for the rest of our lives"

"So what do you say?"

"Yes!" I said rapidly, tears running down her face.

He pulled me into a deep kiss, running his hands through my messy bedhead. 

"But rule number 2 of us, no more waking me up before 2 in the morning." I laughed. 

"Deal"