Work Text:
Ziva left the dimly lit bullpen to go grab some coffee, it was late in the night and they had all been mulling over casefiles and dead-end leads for hours. She was exhausted, they all were.
The public and the media were pressuring them for answers that did not exist, the case had been theirs for seven days now, exactly a week, and it felt like they had gotten absolutely nowhere.
Ziva was overworked and over-caffeinated but most of all she was angry. At herself for not being able to figure it out, at the police for taking so long to call them in, at the unsub for being such a sick bastard, she was angry and frustrated at everything and everyone. Not that she would ever show it.
The agent jumped when a hand landed on her shoulder but immediately relaxed as she recognized Tony behind her.
“Hey, you okay ?”
“I’m f-” Ziva stopped herself, it was only Tony, she didn't need to pretend, “no, I am exhausted.”
Agent Dinozzo simply opened his arms, giving Ziva the choice to go for a hug or not because they were at work and Ziva - as much as she liked to ignore protocol - was quite particular when it came to their relationship and work/life balance; or lack thereof.
She hesitated but ultimately buried herself into Tony’s embrace, the world was too much of a nightmare right now to refuse.
Tony tightened her arms around his friend, he hated seeing her like this but knew that besides holding her tight there was nothing he could do to fix it, not right this instant at least.
“I’ve got you, you’re alright, just breathe Zee’.”
Tony hoped his words would reassure and calm Ziva down, but they had the exact opposite effect as the youngest of the pair simply burst into tears.
Still they stayed silent, tucked away in the corner space behind the stairs, holding on to each other as if they were the last people on earth.
For a minute the world was good, no killers or victims or grieving families, just them.
Tony gently wiped her tears away as Agent David straightened up with a carefully constructed mask of neutrality on her face as if she hadn’t just spent the last ten minutes crying her eyes out. They should probably talk about this, about them. But they won’t, they never do.
Ziva hated feeling so vulnerable but it was to be expected considering the job she had signed up for, no matter how good she was at compartmentalizing it always affected her at one point or another - it was supposed to, once the job stops affecting you, that’s when you need to leave.
Both agents immediately went back to work as if nothing had happened, this occurred more often that either of them would care to admit.