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Holding his breath, he slowly closes the door behind, fearing the click of the latch would wake the sleeping toddler. Already it took an hour to calm his daughter down to get her into her bed, and stay there, to begin with. But then the moment he tried to leave the room, she had woken up and started screaming for her Ima.
God it broke his heart.
Two hours and nearly midnight later, he walks into his current living room to find his TV is turned off and two cups of tea sitting on the coffee table. He turns t o look at the couch to find that his heart ha s stopped. Swallowing hard, he stares at the profile of her.
His partner.
“Ziva.” He breathes, his words causing her to snap her eyes to him as she quickly r ises to her feet. Their eyes meeting for the first ti me since their goodbye nearly three years before. He wills his heart to slow, thinking that this is just a dream. Maybe if he pinched his arm, he’d wake up?
“Tony.” She says softly, and he feels his stomach jump into his throat. He glances her up and down as she steps towards him, rooted in his spot. It isn’t true. It can’t be true, could it ? Was she really here in his hotel suite? She takes a step toward him, not pulling her eyes away from his, her lips move, but he can’t hear a thing. He can’t believe his eyes, his ears, could h e believe his touch? He wills his muscles to move forward, but he can’t seem to find the strength.
Another step.
No doubt she can see his heart beating through his chest, the pounding on its own was enough to make him light headed. He couldn’t break the eye contact to check his watch, wondering if this moment was hours or seconds, he honestly couldn’t tell anymore, but the time it t akes her to get across the room it feels like a lifetime has passed.
Before him, staring up into his eye s, he barely notices her raise her hand to his face, but never touching. Lowering her hand, she places it on his chest above his heart, and his breath hitche s . He could feel her ; she was really standing in front of him.
She is alive.
He raises his hand, fo lding it over her own and gripping at her fingers and fights back the tears that threaten to form. He has yet to break away from her gaze, but he notices the small tear forming and with a blink from her long lashes, it rolls down her cheek. Involuntarily, his right arm raises from his side and brushes it away and she smiles as she leans into the touch, resting her eyes.
He swears he just died and was sent to heaven.
He lets go of her hand, wrapping it around her waist and pulled her to him, pressing her flu sh against him. “Tony, I-” He silences her with a light kiss on her forehead before pressing his forehead to hers, brushing his nose against hers. He knew she wanted to explain herself, to apologize for everything she had done, but he couldn’t hear it. Wou ldn’t hear it. She is here and that’s all that matters to him. How could he be mad at her? How could he love her any less ? He lived his life without her, and he was more reckless and depressed in the last three years than he’s been in the last ten.
The tea rs that threatened to form from before make their way to his cheek and landed on her nose. She lets out a small giggle as the tear tickles the end of her nose and he feels something well up in his chest, one that he hasn’t felt for a woman in so long. She raises her hand to wipe away the offending tear, accidentally brushing his lips, and she pauses not daring to pull it away.
He removes his hand from her cheek and grabs ahold of hers, pressing her hand to his mouth. He opens his eyes enough to gaze into he r chocolate orbs and kisses her knuckles. She raises her other hand to his neck and rests her thumb on the edge of his ear. He holds his breath as she parts her wets her lips, her pink tongue just peeking into view. He follows as she lowers her hand away f rom his mouth and closes her eyes, leaning forward.
She kisses him.
He is almost taken back to the feel of her lips brushing against his before the thought passed and he presses his own to hers, welcoming her to him again. It’s been so long, he almost forg ot what it’s like to be kissed like this, the slowness, the softness, the moment when there was all the time in the world and it was only the two of them. God he missed this.
His hand moves from hers to her cheek again, pulling her forward and trailing th e tip of his tongue along the bottom of her lip. She opens up and grabs onto his cheeks with both of her hands, raising onto her toes to reach for him.
A moment passed before they pull back and rest their foreheads against each other, eyes closed and breat hless.
She pulls away from him, and his heart sinks deep into his stomach. He opens his eyes to her, noticing the glimmer in her own and the smile on her lips. She takes his hand and takes a few steps behind him. Getting the idea she had on her mind, he fo llows her to his bedroom, leaving nothing behind but a couple cups of cold tea.