Far Away

Phone a Friend

I can already tell you that this chapter's going to be shorter. I still have a lot of homework and I'm exhausted. Hopefully you'll still enjoy it.

*****

He had barely taken a bite of his food when his phone rang.

"You should probably get that," Ziva said. "It might be important."

He doubted it, but he still checked the screen. "It's Abby."

"Answer it." 

"Do you want to-"

"No." 

He didn't get to think much of it, because the ringing got on his nerves and his finger automatically slid to answer.

Abby's face popped up to fill the screen. "Tony!"

"Hey, Abby..."

"I'm so glad you picked up, we've been dying to hear from you."

"I haven't had signal."

"I know. That's okay. We can talk now."

He glanced across the table at Ziva, who seemed very interested in her food.

He wanted to eat his food. "Is it okay if I eat and talk?"

"Of course. You don't have to ask."

"So what's up?" he asked, taking a large bite of his lunch while waiting for her response.

"Nothing really. I dunno. It's really different without you and Ziva."

"Miss you, too, Abby." 

She grinned. Then her eyes widened. "Is that Greek I see behind you?"

He turned around to see what she was talking about. "Oh. Yeah, probably. I'm in Souda right now."

"Crete, right?"

"Yep."

"That's awesome. Did you just get there?"

"Earlier this morning."

"How long are you there for?"

"Three days."

"Wow. I'd love to see Crete."

Tony glanced up as the waitress approached and offered to refill their drinks.

Ziva quietly declined for the both of them. 

On his screen, Abby's eyebrow raised. "Who was that?"

"The waitress?"

"No, not the waitress. That sounded like Ziva."

Tony looked over at Ziva, unsure what she wanted him to do.

She sighed and said, "Hello, Abby."

Tony flipped the camera around so Abby could see her. "Ziva! You're in Crete, too?"

"I flew over to visit."

"Oh wow. I wish I could do that. Oh well. How's Israel?"

Ziva stiffened, and Tony said hastily, "Let's talk about you. How are you? How's McGee? Gibbs? Ducky?" He refocused the camera on himself, watching Ziva for another second to assess whether or not she was okay. He knew that she didn't want to talk about her month away.

"Um, sure. I'm fine," Abby said. "McGee's fine. Gibbs is fine. Or at least he's mostly fine. I think he's a little annoyed with the agents Vance gave him, and everything's still a little tense."

Tony nodded, at a loss for what to say next.

"I should go..." Abby glanced over her shoulder at the big clock on her wall. "Enjoy Greece for me, okay? Take lots of pictures. And I expect a postcard."

"Sure thing, Abby."

They exchanged goodbyes and then Abby hung up.

Tony sighed and stared at the last of his meal.

Neither of them said anything for a few long moments.

"Want to go see the sights?" he asked eventually, tossing his napkin over his plate.

Ziva shrugged and made that face that said, "Sure, why not?"

They squabbled over the bill (Tony won) and then got up to leave. 

"Anything in particular you'd like to see?" Tony asked as they headed down the street.

"Nope."

"Great." He swiped a free map from a vendor and they peered at it as they walked.

After arguing between the all-day Land Rover safari and a museum, they agreed on one of the historic sites, which they could get to via Land Rover. Win-win situation, at least in theory.

*****

Really sorry about the length (or rather, lack of). Hopefully tomorrow's update will be longer...

Should we go into more detail about their little excursion in the next chapter?

Vote and/or comment...