Far Away

Another Day

Ziva cautiously peeked out the curtains. As far as she knew, her father wasn't aware that she had moved apartments, that she wasn't living in the one he provided, but he could have eyes anywhere.

She wasn't taking any risks.

She'd already stopped using her other accounts, instead using backup accounts that even her father didn't know about. She rented the apartment under a fake name (though what did the landlord care as long as he had her money filling his pockets?) and disabled her old phone (but she kept it because it had all of her pictures and messages from a previous life, a happier life).

She would've liked nothing better than to return to DC, but what would she do there? There was no way for her to rejoin NCIS without her father's help, especially without him knowing.

And maybe Gibbs could be of help in this situation, but she was furious at him for a number of reasons.

She wasn't to ask for his help, no way.

Satisfied with what she saw (or rather, didn't see), Ziva let the curtain drop closed again.

The apartment darkened but not so much that she couldn't see what she was doing.

She hated being pent up like this, but at least now the apartment was the cleanest it had probably ever been. Hours of scrubbing and sweeping left her with a reasonably comfortable living space that, even better, no one knew about.

She just wondered how long she could keep it that way.

***

"I have to get back on the ship tonight," he said with a sigh. His eyes followed the waitress, but only because she was carrying a tray of beers and he wanted one so badly it almost hurt.

"It will be okay. You will get to another port in a couple of weeks."

"Easy for you to say. At least you can wander around whenever you want." He heard her inhale sharply on the other end and gave himself a good slap upside the head. "Sorry. I didn't mean that. I should've thought..."

"Yes, you should have."

It was quiet for a long moment, and he wasn't sure if she was actually still there. "Ziva? Did you hang up?"

"No. I should have, but no."

"Oh." He was glad she didn't hang up, and made a silent promise to tread more carefully in the future. "So... now what?"

She didn't answer right away. "What did you do yesterday afternoon?"

"I went to the Oceanarium and the musuem as you suggested. They were both very nice."

"Hm."

She seemed distracted, even more distant than just the miles. He wondered if it had something to do with all the voices he heard in the background, like she was taking his call in the middle of a busy street.

"Ziva? Whatcha doing?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing. Just... walking."

"Walking where?"

"Street."

So he had been right, but there was no sense of victory, just confusion. Why was she walking in the street? What street? Why was she distracted?

He was at a loss as to what to say next. "The weather is nice here. How's the weather there?" he asked lamely.

"Fine. Warm."

Probably blistering then, by Tony's standards.

"Anything exciting happening?"

"No."

Okay, she was being just as difficult to have a conversation with as Gibbs when he was in one of his moods.

"Ziva, help me here..."

"Help you with what?"

"The conversation?"

"Oh." She went quiet again.

He sighed and attempted to tune into the voices in the background. It required more focus that he had available, so he gave up.

He listened to the sound of her breathing, closing his eyes and trying to imagine her sitting next to him.

"You should come visit me sometime," he said as soon as it popped into his mind.

She laughed. "How am I supposed to do that? You do not even know when or where your next stop is."

"Maybe, but I can let you know as soon as I..." He trailed off, realizing the problem with that plan. "Except I won't be able to tell you because I won't have signal."

"Let me know as soon as you get into port, and I will see what I can do," she said.

He smiled stupidly, his hopes already soaring higher than the kites over on the beach. "I promised you we'd have lunch some time. We'll find a way to make it work."

"I hope so."

That had to be the happiest he'd felt since before LA.

"I heard a rumor that we'd be stopping in Greece next. That's a quick flight away from Tel Aviv."

She didn't answer immediately, and his spirits sank considerably when he realized she was talking to someone else on her end.

And then it felt like someone had knocked all the air out of him when he realized that it was another man.

*****

Dun dun dunnnn....

Here comes jealous Tony. Get ready.

Yeah, so... cliffhanger. Look at me, getting this done so early in the day.

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