Lie Again

Empty Chairs

So what was taking him so long?

She had heard his car beep when he unlocked it at the end of their call, so she knew he was being honest about leaving. It shouldn't have taken him this long to get to the restaurant.

Ziva hated to be the kind of girlfriend who checks in constantly, but she felt like his routine tardiness gave her no choice.

She dialed his number, listening to the other end ring and ring and ring. His voicemail kicked in, Ray's calm business voice telling her to please leave a message.

She didn't trust herself to leave a voicemail, so she hung up and tried calling again.

This time a computer-generated voice told her that the number was no longer available.

Ziva stood up quickly, jostling the table and drawing stares.

"Sorry," she whispered, grabbing her purse off the table and striding toward the door.

"Miss?" a waiter called after her.

Ziva didn't stop. She couldn't waste another second.

***

Tony opened the door and smiled. "You made it afterall-"

The look on Ziva's face made all jokes flee his mind.

"What's wrong?" he asked in a softer voice. He glanced around her into the hallway. "Where's Ray?"

He was definitely unnerved when tears jumped into her eyes. Ziva never, ever cried, unless something was terribly wrong.

"What's going on?" He stepped into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind him. The others didn't need to listen in.

"He called to say he was going to be a little late, just a few minutes..." She wiped at her eye, and Tony glanced away, taking the moment to admire her black dress. If she wasn't breaking down in his hallway, he'd probably make some kind of joke about it. Ziva the Bond girl.

"So he stood you up again?" Tony tried to stay calm for her sake. He didn't need her blowing up on him for bashing Ray.

She shook her head. "No, he said he was coming. I waited for forty minutes and then I tried calling him. I thought maybe he got caught in traffic..."

"There's hardly any."

"I know that. I checked. I called him and he did not answer. I called him again and... and I was told the number was unavailable."

Okay, so as much as Tony loathed Ray, that was fishy. Even Ray Cruz wouldn't stoop so low as to disable his own phone to throw Ziva off his trail.

"Maybe if you'd come to my party instead-"

Ziva shoved him, much harder than he was expecting. "I do not need this from you, Tony. I came here for your help, not to have you make light of the situation."

"I'm sorry," he said, almost mesmerized by the tears streaming down her face. He couldn't think of a single time he'd seen Ziva cry like this. "What can I do to help?"

"I... I do not know."

The door opened and the rest of the team spilled out before Tony could make up an excuse to keep them inside the apartment.

He glanced at Ziva again, his heart clenching as he watched her hastily wipe tears from her cheeks. Her night out wasn't supposed to go like this.

"What's going on?" Gibbs asked, immediately going to her side.

Tony ran a hand through his hair. "Ray was abducted somewhere between the Pentagon parking structure and Marcel's. His cell phone was disabled."

Gibbs seemed to search her eyes, looking for details she couldn't offer him. "We'll find him."

Tony wished he could've been the one to make reassurances, but that wasn't important right now. He just needed to get Ray back and make Ziva stop crying.

*****

Les Mis reference, anyone?

Okay, obviously I took another detour here, but I'm thinking it will serve the story well. Plus that means I get to work on this fanfic a little longer, hahaha.

I'll try not to leave you in suspense for too long.

Ooh, and note the pictures at the top. That season three photoshoot is probably my favorite. The entire cast looks gorgeous.

Anyway...

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