I’m fighting for you, Tiva.

Okay, I had to ramble below the cut becasue the tags will get far too long. I was thinking about this during my rewatch. Tony seems protective over Ziva in these types of situations. I mean, they are partners so of course you would worry. But Tony specifically asked Ziva if she would rather be partners with Tim instead.

They only lost Kate nine episodes ago. Tony was on the roof with her and Gibbs when she died. McGee was on the ground. We know that Tony had some feelings for Kate. How far those feelings went, we can only theorize.

Tony is slowly becoming attached to Ziva. You can tell by the looks they give each other. The way they bicker and tease one other. Their playful banter suggests that they are comfortable with each other, and they’ve only been working together for a couple of weeks. (I’m guessing based on the number of episodes). They also didn’t start off on the best of circumstances considering that it was Ziva’s brother, Ari that shot and killed Kate.

I know this moment between them is meant to be a joke because Ziva was spending so much time with Tim at the beginning of the episode and Tony feels "emasculated," but he basically says that this whole thing is DANGEROUS AND ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.

Deep, deep down, he thinks that she may feel safer with McGee instead of with him because he couldn't protect Kate, and he would not be able to live with himself if that happened again to someone that he cares about.

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