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“Looks like it will be a beautiful day,” Ziva said cheerfully.
Tony sniffed the cold morning air, and for the first time since getting out of the car ten minutes ago, paid attention to anything other than the few people surrounding them. The warm, orange glow of the sunrise contrasted nicely with the dark blue and pink sky above it. “It does,” he said, glancing at Ziva whose eyes were firmly trained on the entrance of the apartment building across the street.
“If our petty officer’s meeting goes to plan, we could all have lunch outside of the Navy Yard,” Ziva suggested.
The darkness had vanished almost completely, as had Tony’s grouchiness at the early wake-up call. Only Ziva could make him appreciate being awake at the dawn of a new day. “You know me, I don’t care where we have lunch, as long as we have lunch...” He narrowed his eyes at the man leaving the building. “That’s him.”
He felt Ziva switch to full attention next to him, just as Petty Officer Jackson looked their way. Tony draped an arm around Ziva’s shoulder, pointed at the ‘for sale’ sign on the third floor of the building, while lowering his head, smiling widely, and telling her to play along.
Ziva smiled just as widely, tilted her head upwards as if to look, and said, “Don’t lose him.”
“I won’t.” Pecking her on the cheek allowed him to glance at their target without raising suspicion.
The petty officer lit up a cigarette, looked left and right, and crossed the street. Thankfully he had only met Gibbs and McGee during the investigation, and they weren’t at risk of being made if they didn’t draw attention to themselves.
“I’ll give them a call, if it has two bedrooms, this might be the place, sweetcheeks.” Tony smelled the cigarette smoke getting closer in the crisp morning air, but kept his attention on Ziva’s face, knowing the man was now in her line of sight.
“It’s the perfect location,” she said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
As Jackson passed them, he glanced nervously at Tony. Tony made a show of looking at his watch and declaring to Ziva that they were going to be late for work. The petty officer lost interest and kept walking.
Ziva nodded at Tony, signaling she would follow his lead. When Jackson was about thirty feet ahead of them, they followed him, Tony’s arm still draped around Ziva’s shoulder, smiles plastered on their faces.
Jackson reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a phone, a sudden uneasy feeling settled in Tony’s stomach.
Ziva glanced up at him, and he instantly knew her ninja senses had been triggered too.
As Jackson slowed to a stop, Tony lowered his arm. Before his fingers had a chance to grab hold of his gun, he watched Jackson turn around, a furious look on his face as he looked straight at them.
“NCIS!” Ziva yelled, lifting her gun to aim, just as the sound of two gunshots scared the birds out of the nearby trees, leaves fluttering to the ground.
Tony pulled the trigger three times, and watched the petty officer crumple to the ground. Keeping his gun trained on Jackson, he approached carefully. An unusual tightness in his stomach drew his attention, something wasn’t right.
He frowned, narrowing his eyes, trying to stay focused on the body and the gun laying a few inches from where Jackson’s hand had landed, palm open.
A chill ran down Tony’s spine, when he finally realized Ziva wasn’t next to him, as she should be. He inhaled deeply, trying to push down the panic he felt hitting him like a freight train. Resisting every fiber of his body screaming at him to look back, he kicked the gun away from Jackson’s hand and stared into his wide open lifeless eyes.
“Is he dead?”
Tony blinked rapidly at the sound of her soft voice, and let out a shaky breath. “Yeah,” he said, feeling warmth return to his body in the early morning sunlight. He turned around with a quickly fading smile.
As he watched Ziva sink to the ground, clutching her stomach, so did his heart.