He didn't look away; in fact, if anything, his face reflected even greater determination.

“This, us,” he said, his voice strong, “we are worth the risk. We need to be worth the risk.”

She gulped, then squeezed his hand. “Yes.”

“Yes, as in you'll go on a real date with me?” he asked, his eyes sparkling.

She chuckled, “Yes, Tony, I will go on a date with you.”

“Will you just tell me where we are going?” Ziva asked for the hundredth time since they had gotten into the car.

“It's a surprise,” he insisted, smirking.

He knew how much it was bothering her to not be in the loop. But truth be told, he was really enjoying this. Too much probably. He glanced over at her and saw her adorable pout. Clearly, she wasn't as unhappy as she was pretending to be. She could fool anyone else, but not him. He could read her like an open book, he had always been able to. And that was also why the sparkle in her eyes didn't go unnoticed by him. She was excited. And annoyed. But mostly excited. Though, of course, she would never admit that.

“We're almost there,” he told her.

“Fine,” she huffed, making him laugh.

They rounded another corner before Tony eventually put the car into park. He got out of the driver's side and opened the passenger side door for Ziva. She smiled at him when he offered her his hand.

“You are taking this quite seriously,” she commented.

He raised his eyebrow in question.

“Being the true gentleman, yes?”

“Only the best for my lady,” he replied, winking at her.

He was surprised to see her blush slightly.

She looked around, taking in their surroundings. The area seemed oddly familiar to her. But she couldn't quite put her finger on it. When Tony tugged on her hand to lead her to their final destination, she went willingly. That was until she finally figured out where they were going. She came to a sudden stop, glancing back and forth between the door in front of them and Tony.

“Really?” she questioned, though she couldn't help but smile a bit.

He shrugged, “I don't see why not.”

“Did you not say 'real date'?”

“Yeah. So?”

“This is..,” she started, but he cut her off, “The coffee shop where our new beginning started. Where we toasted to new beginnings. I think it's only appropriate that we come here for our first date. I..hold quite fond memories of this place.”

“But it is late. Are they not closed?” she asked, the confusion written all over her face.

“Well, you see, I'm a man of many talents, and I managed to arrange something,” he said, winking at her.

She laughed and playfully slapped his arm. “You are unbelievable,” she exclaimed.

“And you love me for it.”

He regretted the words as soon as they had left his mouth. Couldn't he just shut up for once? They were by no means ready for the l-word. He had probably screwed this up before it even really started. He didn't dare to look at Ziva, but instead trained his gaze on the pavement. However, his eyes shot up when he felt her lips on his cheek. He looked at her, perplexed, but she just shrugged and winked at him. His heart skipped at least two beats. There were so many things he wanted to say to her. But he knew this wasn't the time to push his luck. So, instead, he lead her into the coffee shop without further talking.

“Thank you for tonight, Tony, I had fun,” Ziva said, smiling at him as she leaned against her door frame.

He put his hand on the frame right next to her head and leaned in closer to her. Her breath caught in her throat at the close proximity.

“Anything for you,” he whispered, his voice husky.

She tried to even out her breathing, but found it to be impossible. Instead, she adverted her gaze, looking at the floor instead of him. When she looked up into his eyes again, she didn't miss the change of color, the way his eyes had darkened. It wasn't lust. With him she could tell the difference. No, this was something else. This was seriousness, something meaningful, something she wasn't ready to admit to herself. At least not quite.

Her gaze moved from his eyes to his lips and back up again. And this time, when their eyes locked, she was unable to deny the overwhelming urge to feel his lips on hers. As if on cue, Tony dipped his head and before either of them knew what was happening, their lips were locked in a breathtaking, almost desperate kiss.

When they broke their first kiss, neither of them were quite able to form any coherent thoughts, so Tony did the only thing that appeared to be logical to him; he kissed her again. Their second kiss was much softer than the first kiss. While the first kiss had been an outpouring of longing that had been buried for far too long, the second kiss was an outpouring of genuine love and emotions.

She rested her forehead against his when they eventually broke the kiss, both trying to catch their breath.

“I, uh, I should probably get going,” Tony mumbled.

“No,” she whispered, her eyes fluttering open.

“No?”

“No,” she confirmed.

“Ziva, I should really,” he tried to explain, “I mean..it would be the right thing to do. I..I should really go.”

“The right thing to do is not always right,” she insisted.

“Then what is right?” he asked.

His voice had taken on an almost desperate edge. He did not want to screw this up. At all. It was the last thing he wanted to do. And he knew he would never be able to forgive himself if this didn't work out between them.

“You should stay here,” she whispered, her lips only millimeters from his.

“I should?”

She hummed in response before gently touching her lips to his yet again.

"Well, then will you answer my question?"

"I just did."

"The other one."

"Which was?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Why do you assume something is wrong with me?"

"You're eerily cheerful. It's not normal."

"Why is being cheerful eerie?"

"Because you aren't cheerful."

"I'm the most cheerful person on the planet."

"No, you're not, Tony," Ellie's voice cut in.

This time Tony did look up, only to see Ellie Bishop walking into the bullpen.

"Let me tell you that I am, in fact, the most cheerful person in this room right now," Tony said.

"McGee is right though, you are eerily cheerful," Ellie commented.

"You too? Seriously?" Tony complained.

"Look, I'm just..worried," McGee said, shrugging.

"Worried? Because I'm cheerful?"

"You haven't really been this cheerful in a while and I guess it just surprised me."

"Well, don't be surprised because as I said, I'm the most cheerful-"

"You done bantering? We got Daisy Miller in interrogation," Gibbs' voice cut them off.

"On it, boss," Tony announced, jumping up from his chair.

He was just happy to have an excuse to get out of there. The questions were driving him nuts. Since when was being happy a bad thing? He wished he could have just told McGee the truth but he had promised Ziva not to say anything. And he would stick to that promise. For her sake and for his.

Five hours later, they had finally wrapped up the case. The wife had done it, just like Tony had predicted. Now, he was in front of Ziva's apartment complex, trying to smooth down his dress shirt as he rang the doorbell.

"Tony?" Ziva's voice rang through the speaker.

"Yeah, hi," Tony replied.

A buzz sounded and Tony pushed open the front door. Within seconds he was up the stairs. A huge grin spread across his face upon seeing Ziva leaning against the door frame of her apartment. He picked up his pace and when he reached her, he immediately wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her in for a hug.

"How was your day?" Ziva asked as she pulled back to look at him.

"Same old, same old," Tony replied, smirking as he leaned in to press a small kiss to the tip of her nose, making her giggle.

"Do you want anything to drink? Eat?" Ziva questioned as they made their way into the apartment.

Tony sat down on the couch and patted the spot next to him.

"No, I'm good. Come here," he said.

She smiled and sat down right next to him, their shoulders and knees touching. He took her hand in his. Ziva's gaze was fixed on their hands as he interlaced their fingers.

"I missed you today," Tony said.

"I missed you, too," she replied, smiling at him.

"I've been thinking..," he started but she cut him off: "That is never a good thing."

"Miss David, Miss David, always the charming one," he teased as they both laughed.

"McGee wouldn't shut up about me being 'eerily cheerful' today, and it kinda got me thinking," Tony explained, his thumb drawing nonsense patterns on the back of her hand.

"About us?" she asked, though it sounded more like a statement than a question.

"Yeah."

"I've been thinking a lot about that too lately. Especially today."

"McGee was right about one thing, you know. I am really cheerful. And I haven't been this happy in quite a while."

"Me neither," she whispered.

"I know it's mainly been me saying we need to take this slow, but I think it might be time to shift from first gear into second gear," Tony said.

"That's an interesting metaphor," she giggled.

"I'm a man of many talents," he retorted, winking at her.

"Well, I have a certain love for metaphors."

"Is that so?"

She nodded, a small smirk playing on her lips.

"Well, on a scale of one to ten how much do you love this particular metaphor?" he asked almost carefully.

Without a word, Ziva pulled her hand from Tony's and got up from the couch. She could feel his stare on her as she walked to the other side of the room to where her CD collection was. Without a second's hesitation, she pulled out one of them, then turned back around. She held it up and looked right at Tony.

"You know how you listen to a song for the first time and you find yourself on a two way street? You either hate the song or you love it. I loved this song from the beginning," she said, smiling fondly at the CD in her hand, then looking back at Tony.

"It is not as easy as it appeared though. The road has three turns. You cannot stop listening to the song and never lose interest in it. Or you lose interest and never listen to it again. Or you listen a lot to it in the beginning, but then you stop listening to it, and when you hear it again after a while you are instantly hooked again and you ask yourself why you ever stopped listening to it," she continued, taking a few hesitant steps toward Tony.

"You made the turn. And then you made two more turns and are on the street you now know you should have originally been on. You love the song and will never stop listening to it because it is such a good song. But of course you do not want to take a wrong turn again, so you have to pay attention to the road ahead of you. After all, you do not want to lose interest in the song and end up on yet another street. So, you go slowly at first, paying more attention to the staying on the road than to the song," she paused, "but then you realize that you will never see the rest of the journey down the road if you do not shift gears."

"You really do love metaphors," Tony whispered, his throat tight.

"I do," she confirmed.

She came to a stop in front of him and handed him the CD.

"Which street?" she asked carefully.

"The same," he replied, his eyes meeting hers.

She smiled. "Good. You cannot shift gears if half of the car is missing after all."

He smiled right back at her. "So, we will shift gears then?"

Her name on his lips was what finally broke her. She bit her lip to keep it from trembling and willed the tears to go away. But it was too late, a single tear rolled down her cheek. She raised her hand to quickly wipe it away but of course he had noticed. He reached out and closed his fingers around her wrist, pulling her hand down. At first she tried to pull away again but upon looking up into his eyes she couldn't bear to lose the contact. She had been longing to feel his skin on hers again. That familiar, gentle touch. A touch that made her feel whole and alive and the one touch that she had found she couldn't live without.

She looked up into his eyes and had to fight back her tears yet again. The look in his eyes was one of pure vulnerability. And the fact that she had caused him to feel like this tore her heart apart. She shouldn't have left, she shouldn't have..

"You're real," Tony whispered, pulling her from her thoughts.

She gulped. God, how it hurt to hear his voice like that. He didn't deserve any of the things she had put him through.

"I came home," she whispered back, her own voice cracking.

"Home," he repeated quietly, more to himself than to her.

"I..I wanted to tell you earlier. But..," she started but trailed off when his eyes met hers again.

"Then why didn't you?" he questioned.

She gulped audibly but couldn't form any words.

"I've been waiting for you forever, Ziva. I missed you like hell and I've been waiting for your return ever since I left you in Israel. I put my life on hold for you. And you didn't even think about letting me know you're back in town," he hissed, his voice taking on a dangerous edge.

Not dangerous in the sense that she was scared of him. But dangerous in the sense that she felt like it might take a bad influence on their fragile relationship. Or lack of relationship. Whatever you liked to call it.

"It is not easy, Tony. Coming home was the right decision. The only right one I have made in a very long time," she began to explain.

He exhaled loudly. Maybe she was actually here to stay. Maybe this was actually a good thing. A fresh start. For the first time in over a year, he actually felt like he could dare to be hopeful again.

"But once I came here, I felt...insecure," she admitted.

He knew exactly how much it took for her to admit that. And honestly, he gave her credit for it. But it still didn't explain why she didn't contact him. Didn't she know that she could trust him? That she could feel safe with him?

"I did not know what had happened in my absence. Things could have changed. And I was not ready to face that," she explained.

Tony looked at her, his eyes finally settling on hers. What he saw there nearly broke him apart. She looked so scared, so insecure indeed. Maybe Anna had been right when she had talked to him the other day. She had told him about her own experiences with coming home, how hopeful she had been and how deep she had fallen. It made sense that Ziva was feeling insecure. They hadn't really been in contact since he had left her in Israel. So, she had no way of knowing how things were back in DC. Maybe she had been scared that they had all moved on?

"Things didn't change," he assured her quietly, taking a step closer to her.

His hand that was still holding onto her wrist slowly let loose and he wove his fingers through hers instead, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

As his words registered with her, Ziva let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. He hadn't moved on. He had indeed been waiting for her. Something she hadn't even dared to hope for. He deserved so much better, someone who wouldn't just get up and leave him and come back into his life out of the blue.

The ghost of a smile spread across Ziva's face as she looked down at their interlocked hands, then back up into his eyes.

"Does this mean you are..," she started but he cut her off: "I am not ready, Ziva. This past year..it was hell. I can't just pretend like nothing happened."

His words hit her like a ton of bricks and she wanted to slap herself for getting her hopes up in the first place. She should have known, she should have not assumed that..

"I'm not saying no, Ziva. I'm saying I need time. I think we both do," he continued.

He gently touched her cheek with his free hand, making her look at him again.

"After everything that has happened, we deserve to take some time. Don't you think?" he whispered.

Her heart skipped a beat when he flashed her the smile she loved so much. She nodded slowly. They really did deserve some time. And he was right, it wasn't a good idea to just jump into something right now.

"I want to do this right, Tony. But I do not know how to do it right," she said, voicing her greatest fear.

Sure, she had made the decision of coming home. And she didn't regret it. But she was done making mistakes. She had been busy making mistakes her entire life. Now that was in the past. She would learn from them, but not make any new ones. And that included making things right with Tony. Because God, this was the one thing she just couldn't mess up.

"I have no idea either, Ziva. But we will figure it out," he assured her with a smile.

"We always do," she replied, smiling right back at him.

"Um, sorry to interrupt but, uh, here are your drinks," Anna suddenly said from behind them.

They both turned around and couldn't help but grin when they saw two cups on the counter. Anna grinned right back at them.

"One all black coffee with a secret little packet of sugar; and one green tea with two tea bags, one and a half packets of honey," Anna said, winking.

Ziva took her tea and turned to Tony.

"To new beginnings," she toasted, holding out her cup.

"To new beginnings," he echoed as he touched his cup to hers.