Title: Picking up the Pieces and Filling in the Gaps

Author: ChelseaDaggerCinderella

Summary: Tony and Ziva spend the four months between 'Hiatus' and 'Shalom' strengthening their partnership…and their relationship, but Tony still winds up working undercover for the Director, and Ziva has demons of her own to deal with. Can they come together to make everything alright again?

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS, although I'd like to. No infringement intended, Mr. Bellisario.

Author's Note:

Party II of Tony's Birthday Celebration…

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. As promised, I'm doing a back-to-back update to make amends for my month-long absence...so sorry. Now, I have no immediate chapters stored, so give me a week to try to get something together, okay? In the mean time, nothing spurs me on like an avalanche of reviews.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this part. I think they'll be one more part to Tony's part, but like I said, I haven't written it yet. Hehe.

So, if anyone was confused, this chapter should start to clear it up, and if not, then, WishYouWereHere13, you should check out MIA58's review to the last chapter...it sums it up nicely.

Thanks again, everyone!

Mwuah!

"Happy Birthday, dear boy!" Ducky said as he came to clap him on the back, very Grandfatherly.

"Thanks, Ducky," Tony said with a great big smile.

"I daresay, by the expression on your face, that the surprise was successful then?" the Englishman assumed.

"Well, I, being the great detective that I am," he said, his head inflating exponentially.

"—Had absolutely no clue," Ziva said pointedly, finishing his sentence before his ego left no more room for the party.

Tony guffawed and shook his head cockily. "Well, I did—"

McGee rolled his eyes at Tony. "—worry about Gibbs killing you for losing your cell phone all day—"

"—preventing you from noticing, speculating, theorizing, or even gleaning a microscopic hint that it was all just a ruse to lure you here…" Abby finished, in the capstone to a chorus that seemed peculiarly rehearsed.

"And to keep you from discovering the big secret, of course," Jimmy pointed out proudly.

Tony thought for a moment, and then straightened his shoulders stubbornly. "I've been had," he realized in shock. "Played, tricked, flummoxed, swindled, scammed, hoodwinked, deceived; taken for a ride; made the butt of a caper, I have! Alright, who done it?" he asked, in mock detective mode.

"Well it was a team effort," Jimmy supplied helpfully.

Ducky shook his head at the boy in playful astonishment and came around behind Abby and Ziva. "Yes, Mr. Palmer, it was. Though I daresay that some," Ducky began, hinting not-so-subtly with his eyes to Abby and Ziva, "…did more than others."

They all chuckled happily, enjoying the lighthearted fun.

"Well, aren't I a lucky guy," Tony said, toasting Abby and Ziva in thanks.

Abby gave him a hug and a kiss and then sped off towards the stereo on a mission. "Can we get some music in here?!?!"

"Abby, that system is very sensitive!" McGee said as he rushed off after her.

"Hey! I programmed the music very carefully, Abby!" Jimmy protested as he, too, took off.

"Oh, dear," Ducky chuckled and sighed. "Well, I think I'll go and find wherever Jethro ran off to." He placed a hand on Ziva's shoulder in a fatherly gesture of affection as he went. "An excellent job, my dear."

Tony caught Ziva's eye as Ducky left, their gaze a conversation only they were privy to. He took a step towards her, a cocky smile plastered on his face.

Ziva shot him a reproachful look at their proximity and took a step back. She made a sweeping gesture with her arm in order to cover the awkwardness of her parry and winked at him. "Your public awaits," she said grandly, smirking.

"My public, huh?" He grinned at her. "Gotta say, right now, I'm a little more interested in the private," he intimated.

She shook her head and slapped him on the back. "That comes later," she whispered cheekily. Then she pushed him into his crowd of adoring worshippers with gusto.

"Tony seems to be enjoying himself," Ducky noted keenly as he came up from behind Gibbs at the bar and signaled the barman for a drink of his own. "Scotch. Neat."

"Mmhm," Gibbs mumbled idly. He brought his beer bottle to his lips distractedly.

Ducky shifted from foot to foot, sensing something amiss. "Abby and Ziva certainly seem to have outdone themselves," he added as he nodded his thanks to the barman and palmed his drink thoughtfully.

Gibbs took another swig and then slowly turned his gaze towards Ducky, scanning the room with his astute stare all the while. The two men were in the rear of the establishment taking up space at the short end of the bar that ran parallel to the front wall, which, of course, afforded them a relatively clear view of the entire place. Ducky sighed. "I know that look, Gibbs."

Gibbs cocked his head and shrugged. "And what look would that be, Duck?"

Ducky leaned in close, his voice hurried and a tad harsh. "You're up to something, Jethro," he said plainly, a pointed finger directed straight at Gibbs. "The way you're looking around this place," he added distastefully. "It's as if you're—on a stakeout." Gibbs said nothing, leaving Ducky with the distinct impression that he was not too far off the mark. "Good lord, Jethro, it's a party! One would think you'd never relaxed before."

Gibbs took another sip of his beer. "Just keeping a watchful eye, Duck…"

Ziva and Abby watched from their vantage point at the bar as a very happy Tony caroused with his friends.

"You'd think he'd never had a birthday party before," Abby commented, amusement evident in her voice.

"Every day is a new adventure," Ziva said with a laugh, watching as across the room Tony held court with a number of old buddies—some from the force, and one or two members of his college fraternity. He was waving his arms wildly, smiling broadly, and soaking up the spotlight. "He does love telling a good story," she admitted, a crooked smile on her face as the group laughed heartily at Tony's words.

"Wow," Abby said, impressed, as Tony put his arm around McGee in a genuinely brotherly way. "I guess he's really into this party," Abby said. "He's being genuine with McGee…"

"He is not always an ass, Abby," Ziva scolded lightly. "You of all people should know that," she said with a wink. "Are you not usually Tony's personal cheerleader to those who think he is a…" Ziva trailed off, not sure of how to put it exactly.

"Bastard?" Abby asked with a laugh.

Ziva quirked her head to the side. "I suppose that works." The two women shared a look and then burst into laughter.

"Good times!" Abby toasted, lifting her drink in the air. Ziva smiled and did the same, the glass clinking together gently. "Though some would say, and by some, of course," Abby said conspiratorially, "I mean me—because who else really knows, right?—that these days you're pretty much that man's personal cheer-leader, if you know what I mean…"

"Abby!" Ziva scolded, only marginally scandalized.

"Oh, come on, Ziva!" Abby argued, turning to face her friend with a very determined expression. "I'm the only person in the world who knows about this relationship," she said, throwing her arms up in the air, winning her a warning look from Ziva, whose eyes were all about sending the message: way to not draw attention, Abby! Abby tamed her gesticulations and turned to whisper conspiratorially with Ziva, "All I'm saying is that I would have thought you'd want to actually talk about it more with me considering the circumstances." Ziva took a long pull from her beer and squirmed, a little uncomfortable with the touchy-feely girl-talk thing. Abby pounced on what she perceived as a weakening in Ziva's reluctance. "Especially considering that I'm someone you can wholly and confidently confide in…"

"I do not doubt your loyalty, Abby," Ziva said quickly, wanting Abby to understand that it was not a matter of non-confidence that kept her mum on the subject. "It is just…not something I am accustomed to partaking in."

"What?" Abby asked, almost obtusely. "Girl-talk?"

Ziva shot her a playfully exasperated look. "Yes…girl-talk" she said, sounding strained as she blew out a long breath. She felt painfully awkward as she admitted it, and even more so as Abby scooped her up in a giant Abby-like hug that jostled her so much that beer sputtered out of the bottle, sloshing over her hand and down her arm.

"Oh, Ziva!" Abby said, in that it'll all be fine now that I'm here voice of hers. "We'll get you spilling those relationship beans in no time," she said, grabbing napkins from the bar and wiping off Ziva's arm. "That's a Sciuto-promise, Ziva David!"

Ziva couldn't help it; yes, she felt a little foolish, but Abby was so excited and so determined to be the type of friend Ziva could never remember having, that Ziva felt herself melting on the spot. She smiled brightly at the happy Goth and the two women laughed lightheartedly.

Abby reclaimed both of their beers from the bar, handed Ziva hers, and toasted her friend happily. "Cheers!" she said.

Ziva raised her own bottle with mirth. "Salud," she said, taking a sip of her beer.

Abby swallowed hard and shook her head, amusement evident on her face. "You're spending too much time with him, Ziva," she said, smiling good-naturedly.

Ziva flashed a small, personal smile, and looked up and across the room, locking eyes with the man in question. Tony shot her his own personal smile, tilted his beer towards her almost imperceptibly, and winked, his happiness warming Ziva's insides. "Not possible," Ziva told Abby. "Just not possible…"

"Awwww!" Abby crooned from beside her, getting even more excited. "See! Girl-talk!"

"I'm calling you out on that one, DiNozzo!" Ray said decisively. "It may be your birthday but you should've stopped while you were ahead, bro."

Tony laughed and smiled. "I only speak the truth, my friend."

Matt McNulty, Tony's old partner from his time in Baltimore PD, laughed to himself. "It sounds absolutely absurd in every way…but if anyone was gonna get himself locked in a steel box for half a day—it's this fool right here," he told the group, doing his best to catch Tony in a head-lock. It was a half-assed head-lock as Matt was a head or two shorter than Tony, but the brotherly affection was there none-the-less.

The crowd laughed, but they still weren't totally convinced.

Half the group, McGee included, balked at that statement, but the younger Agent went to bat for his friend. "While I refuse to dispute the notion that Tony is often enough filled with hot air," he said, looking pointedly at Tony,—who flashed a who, me? look—before continuing to address the group, "He does speak the truth this time."

Ray, Tony's frat brother, smiled and shook his head. "Nope, sorry, man, I'm not buyin' it."

Matt clucked his tongue and hissed. "I don't know, man, I'm on the fence here." He turned to his fiancé, Maggie, who had been watching the entire exchange in amused fascination, and threw his arm around her. "What do you say, babe?"

She sighed dramatically and spun her straw around in her nearly empty glass contemplatively. "I don't know. From everything you've told me about him…" Tony looked at Matt in fake astonishment and gave him a playful punch to the shoulder, a move that Matt reciprocated, and all of which made Maggie laugh even harder. "He is decidedly a prankster." She gave Matt a kiss as he put a triumphant arm around her shoulders. "I say make him prove it, babe."

Ray chuckled and nodded appreciatively in Matt's and Maggie's direction. "Nice," he complimented the pair. Then he turned to Tony smugly. "You heard the lady," he directed.

Tony laughed, a little stunned (but amused), and looked at McGee conspiratorially. "After that entire story—"

"…And the sworn word of two federal agents," McGee piped up, in sync with Tony's act.

"We still don't believe a word of it, DiNozzo," Ray declared.

Tony thought about it for a moment, smirking all the while, and shot a glance over in Ziva's direction, watching as she laughed with Abby at the bar—his living proof that they'd gotten boxed in. Well, if he wants to play it that way… "Care to make it interesting then?" he asked his two friends.

"I thought your stories were supposed to already be interesting, DiNozzo," Matt quipped coolly.

McGee couldn't help a brief chuckle, but when Tony cut his eyes to the younger agent sharply, he covered it up with a poor excuse for a fake cough. He looked back at his friends, serious…but amused. "I'm serious, guys. How much you wanna put on this?"

Ray, Maggie, and Matt all looked at each other. "Excuse us," Ray said, motioning for his two new friends to gather in a conspiratorial huddle. They whispered for a few moments and when they returned to the conversation they looked determined. "Fifty bucks each and a dare of the winners' choosing says that you, Anthony "Sex Machine" DiNozzo, are absolutely full of crap."

Matt and Maggie sniggered. "Sex machine?" he asked Tony, astounded.

Tony, for his part, just ignored them and stuck out his hand. "Deal."

"Deal," the opposing trio chorused together before laying their money out on the table.

"McGoo?" Tony asked, as he reached for his wallet and did the same.

"Already there, Tony," the younger agent said as he threw down his own money.

"Alright then," Tony said, clasping his hands together in anticipation. "What kind of confirmation do you losers want?" he asked, laughing all the while.

"You said your partner and you got locked in," Matt said.

"I did indeed," Tony agreed, now grinning, and shooting another surreptitious glance in Ziva's general direction.

Matt nodded. "So, if we get independent confirmation from your partner, you win."

"BUT," Ray added, smartly. "There will be no exertion of DiNozzo influence; so you don't get to say anything. Agreed?"

Tony nodded. "Agreed."

"Alright, then," Ray said. "Where is this guy anyway?"

"Yeah, I'm anxious to meet the new me," Matt threw in with a wink.

Tony and McGee laughed. "Well," Tony started, enjoying the set up to what he knew would be an interesting moment. "The new you is over there," he told Matt, pointing across the room to the bar.

The trio looked over to the area Tony indicated. "Which one, DiNozzo?" Ray asked.

"Well, you see that really tall blonde guy with the big teeth next to the two women laughing?"

"You mean the guy next to the chick who looks like death and her…friend?" Maggie asked him.

"You mean that dark skinned beauty with the tough-looking exterior?" Ray clarified.

Tony swallowed hard and nodded.

"That's your partner?" Matt asked. "That dude?"

"No, actually," McGee said, coming stand over their shoulders. "His partner's the dark skinned beauty with the tough-looking exterior."

"DiNozzo, you DOG!" Matt cried, earning him an elbow to the stomach courtesy of his fiancé.

"Easy, McNulty, it's not like that," Tony lied easily, motioning for Ziva to amble in his direction. I'm not gonna feel guilty about that one. Consider it a trade-off; I don't rough him up for ogling my girlfriend and he can stand being lied to.

Ray whistled suggestively and turned to grab Tony by the shoulders. "Well, might I suggest that you make it like that, bro?" Tony clenched his jaw and ground his teeth, hoping to control the urge to deck his old, old, friend. "And if not, do you mind if I try?" Yes, Tony internally screamed as visions of his frat brother falling all over Ziva flashed before him. Touch her and die, Corbett! Ray whistled again and slapped his leg. "Damn, that is one fine piece of—wait, where'd she go?" he asked, turning back around to look at Ziva and finding her not there.

"Looking for me?" Ziva asked, appearing like a mist behind the group of men, and sending Ray, Matt, and Maggie through the roof.

"Holy Crap!"

"Whoa!"

"Damn!"

"How'd you do that?" Ray asked, both spooked and impressed at the same time.

Ziva smirked imposingly. "Trade secret," she said simply.

"Must be some trade," Matt decided.

"Oh, you have no idea," Tony said, unable to keep the pride from his voice.

"Ziva David, meet Ray Corbett, Matt McNulty and his fiancé Maggie." Ziva nodded to all of them. "Ray's one of my college frat brothers and Matt's my old partner from Baltimore," he added. "Guys—" Maggie cleared her throat. "—And lady—this is my partner."

They all shook hands, smiled, and nodded at each other. Ray stepped up last and held Ziva's hand a little too long in Tony's opinion, but he worked hard to let it go.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ziva," Ray said, playing it up for all it was worth—and pushing Tony's patience.

Matt looked appraisingly at Tony and noticed the tension that was rolling off him in waves. Ray went to say something else, but Matt, in all his wisdom, cut in before Casanova could get the chance. "So, we've, uh, been hearing a lot about you, Ziva. Can I call you Ziva?"

She nodded. "Please."

"Our boy here told us a whopper of a story about the two of you and a shipping yard container." Matt chuckled. "Gotta say, it was pretty far out there; none of us can exactly imagine it happening in, ya know—reality." The group laughed lightly.

"We were hoping you could shed some light on the events," Maggie supplied, also cutting off Ray before he could add his two cents.

"Well, I suppose I could be of assistance," she began coyly. Ziva looked over to Tony with a knowing look and quirked her eyebrow. She laughed lightly and looked back at the trio quite seriously, and realistically, quite knowingly. "What's the bet at?"

Everyone took a moment to look around for a spell and then broke out in large grins, some nodding in appreciation. "You're good," Ray noted, impressed.

Ziva gave a dry chuckled and took a step forward for the sake of show, and whispered, almost evilly, "Not really."

Gibbs watched their interactions carefully, noting when they looked at each other and their body language when they did so. He was listening to his gut—and he wasn't happy.

As he vigilantly observed Tony and Ziva, and took almost calculated pulls from his long-necked bottle of beer, he took some time to ponder his suspicions. He wasn't blind to the way they acted around each other; the attraction was always there—had been, since day one. He was also reasonably certain that their time spent undercover as married assassins—über horny married assassins, thanks to Tony's interpretation—hadn't jump-started the chemistry between his two agents so much as it had marginally satisfied the compulsion, essentially delaying what appeared to be this inevitable pairing…until now, it seemed.

But whether or not they would jump each other's bones wasn't the question. It also wasn't his true concern. Agents had slipped before, given in to the attraction that develops between people who spend a great deal of their time together working in high-octane situations that pump up a person's blood…and libido. Gibbs knew—he'd done it.

Yes, he'd given in to that pull before, but he and Jenny had taken it many steps further than just a momentary lapse in judgment or control. It hadn't been a one-time thing, and it hadn't been just a by-product of adrenaline and circumstance. If Jenny hadn't made the decisions she had, things would have been different; he would've been different. He would've been happy, he realized sadly, before shaking himself out of his reverie and returning to his more pressing musings.

Tony and Ziva weren't he and Jenny. But they were partners, they were members of his team, and Damnit, they were breaking his rules—which meant they were also lying to him. A small part of him wanted to root for them, wanted them to be happy; but the rest of him was saying that that two of them were testing dangerous limits, and taking things too far.

Ducky tut-tut Gibbs's behavior from beside him. Ducky, too, saw what Gibbs was seeing in the interactions between Tony and Ziva, but unlike his seemingly stone-faced companion—who saw only the problems and the drawbacks and conflicts involved in such a coupling—Ducky opened himself up to the positives of such a relationship, his friends' happiness sitting atop the list. Yes, Ducky understood that conflicts existed in such a union; it wasn't as if he were a blissfully romantic fool who took nothing else into consideration. He just couldn't seem to understand why Gibbs was so utterly against it; almost as if he were forcing himself to refuse even the slightest possibility of a relationship between the two agents being anything but a disaster. "Would it really be such a detriment, Jethro? I daresay happiness has been in short supply around here lately," he argued, referring to the causalities the team had suffered recently—Gibbs's trauma and departure, the terrorist bombing, the dead agents…Ziva's injuries.

"They're lying to me, Duck," he explained, through almost clenched teeth. Gibbs wasn't one for displaying his emotions unnecessarily; he wasn't furious, but he was most definitely less than pleased. Pissed, tweaked, and perturbed were adjectives properly indicative of his mood and mindset.

"And we all know how you feel about that…" Ducky said, drily.

Gibbs showed his displeasure with Ducky's blasé attitude by slamming his beer down on the bar…hard. The beer inside sloshed around and made slapping noises against the glass walls of the bottle, a visual representation of the storm-tossed waters ahead, made so by the storm of displeasure churning inside of the time-worn agent.

"Just take a moment to decide, Jethro, what you take greater issue with: Tony and Ziva as a couple, or the fact that they've obviously been able to keep it from you for however long it may have been going on?"

"That's exactly my point, Duck," Gibbs said aggressively, his eyes cutting back over to the happy couple and the crowd they held court with across the room.

"Yes, they lied, Jethro. They broke your rules and kept secrets. Does it make you trust them less? Have they lost your faith? Have they disappointed you?"

Gibbs didn't answer any of the questions Ducky posed. They weren't meant for answering. Ducky's goal was to get him to stop and think. Both men knew that; they knew each other well. Ducky spared a final glance at his friend before making his way to the door, his job done.

Gibbs sighed inwardly, knowing that Ducky had hit on some of the softer points of his argument. Yes, they lied, but they hadn't betrayed him. It wasn't as if he didn't still trust both of them to have his back, and thus far they hadn't shown him that their affair, or whatever it was, was interfering with their work—obviously, as it had taken him until now to realize it. No, he hadn't lost faith in them, and though he took great issue with the deception, they hadn't disappointed him. But it would have to be dealt with.

And sooner rather than later.

I'm going on a "Learn to Cook Family Recipes" outing tomorrow so I'm not checking back in until I get home tomorrow. Who wants to wow me with an onslaught of reviews, huh? Really spur those creative juices? Ha ha. What do you think Gibbs is going to do, huh? What would you like him to do? Let me hear you!