Work Text:
When Nick has run into her he was very surprised, she wasn’t supposed to be in the state, much less the country. Turns out she hadn’t gone back yet. She was afraid, and that was something Nick could relate to. He had been trying to convince her to go to them, when they became really good friends. They started hanging out, and she had made promise to not tell anyone who he was spending all his time with. She was trying to convince him to not waste his time and that he needed to tell Ellie how he really felt.
“How can you tell me to not waste time, when you are still here, 4,000 miles away from your family? Your Tali? Do they even know?” Nick asked, he was tired of her being hypocritical, telling him to tell Ellie when Tony didn’t even know she was alive. “Ziva, if you want me to tell Ellie, you’re going to have to tell Tony first.”
“The two are unrelated.” Ziva said.
“I know they are unrelated, but if you think that telling me I’m wasting my time, while you’re sitting here wasting time that you could be spending with Tony and Tali is going to get me to change, your wrong. I understand the fear, you’ve been gone for a long time. You’re afraid your daughter might not remember you, that Tony is going to be mad. Ziva, who have to give them a chance. Tali isn’t going to get younger. I have time.”
“Neither of us have time, Nick.”
“I know,” he sighed out. They both sat in silence knowing that was the end of the conversation they had almost everyday. Nick was thinking how Ziva would’ve understood if he had canceled on her for Ellie, but it was convenient. He really was being a wuss and he knew it too, which almost scared him more. So instead of going to sushi with Ellie, he told that he was sort-of seeing someone, which he wasn’t. He was just wasting what little time they had with Ziva. It’s not like she wasn’t good company it’s just that they both knew what they really should be doing with their time. “Let’s make a deal, you fly to Paris and tell Tony the truth. In five days, I call him and tell him if you haven’t. I tell Ellie, and if in five days I haven’t you call her and tell her the truth. Deal?”
“Deal,” Ziva said and they shook on it, “five days.”