No Matter What

“Did you leave this note on here?” Tony asked Ziva, holding up the small pink piece of paper in his finger tips.

“No, maybe it was from a secret admirer,” She answered with a light laugh.

“If you wanted to take me out, you could’ve just asked,” Tony smirked.

“Don’t flatter yourself there Tony,” Ziva snapped back.

“McGee!”

“What DiNozzo?” He answered, glancing up from his computer screen briefly.

“Did you plan a date for me and you tonight?”

“Why would I want to take you out into public?” McGee retorted almost in the same manner Ziva had.

“Well then who…” His eyes scanned the room, finally resting on Natalie who had been hiding behind her computer and desk.

He stepped with casually over to her desk, leaning up against the edge of it while she pretended to be preoccupied with her computer screen. His eyes checked her over, going from top to bottom, noticing every detail from the thread count on her grey wool pencil skirt, to the tiny little specks of copper eye shadow that covered her eyelids. He was going to take his sweet time with this one.

“Miss Natalie….” He began in an almost stern tone.

She kept continuing with her “work” as she answered, “Yes Mr. DiNozzo?”

“Don’t do that, you know you make me feel old,” He whined.

“You are old Tony,” Ziva added sarcastically from her desk. Tony turned his head towards her and shot her a dirty look.

“She’s right,” Natalie said. “You are old.”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that,” He said with a signature smirk on his face. He placed the pink sticky note down on top of Natalie’s keyboard, causing her to stop what ever it was that she was doing and look him straight in the eye.

“I know Ziva hates me and Probie would only take me to some geek convention,” Tony began to ramble off. “Which leaves you Nat, to be the only one to have written that note.”

Natalie straightened herself up and sat up a bit more in her chair. “And what if I did?” She asked in an almost rhetorical fashion, batting her eyelashes a little for effect.

Tony opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it seeing Gibbs come walking down the stairs right about Natalie’s and McGee’s desks.

“DiNozzo, you’re with me!” Gibbs shouted. “We’re going to Virginia.”

“Alright Boss,” Tony answered, trying to hide the fact that he was a little disappointed to leave after just figuring out that he and Natalie were finally going to get some time together.

He looked her over one more time as she sat at her desk before running over to his own to grab his small black backpack from behind his desk, trailing behind Gibbs to the elevator.

As the doors shut, he saw her smile again at him only this time; he shot a smile back at her, making her heart melt. A ding signaled the doors were shut and the elevator began to move.

“Are you going to ever ask that poor girl out, or what DiNozzo?”

Tony stood there, a little dumbfounded at first. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Are you going to ask Nat out, or are you just going to let her get away from you?”

“But you—“

“Take her out tonight DiNozzo,” Gibbs said, placing a hand on his shoulder to show that he really meant what he was saying.

“Thanks Boss,” Tony smiled, pulling out his phone from his pocket.

Natalie’s phone buzzed on her desk a few times before the screen lit up with the name: Hunky Monkey as Abby and she often referred to him as.

I’ll pick you up at 8 tonight gorgeous. Can’t wait.

Natalie just stared down at her phone and felt a huge grin grow on her cheeks. After all that time she had been waiting, she finally got what she wanted.

Ziva saw her blushing like a school girl at her desk.

“Tony finally got the balls to ask you out?” Ziva asked, getting up from her desk and heading for Natalie’s.

She nodded her head. “Yep.”

Ziva chuckled, “It’s about time!” Natalie just smiled even more.

“You better go tell Abby.”

“Right!” Natalie answered, completely forgetting about her best friend downstairs. She put her computer to sleep and rushed over to the elevator, hitting the button repeatedly thinking that it would make the elevator come faster.

McGee walked away from his desk and stood next to Ziva who was still at Natalie’s desk.

“She’s so excited,” He commented.

“I know,” Ziva smiled. “She has no idea what the real Anthony DiNozzo can be like though.”

“I don’t think he’s going to dump her on the street,” McGee said. “The way he looks at her is different than any girlfriend he’s ever had.”

“And he’s had a lot of girlfriends,” Ziva chuckled.

“Natalie’s different.”

“Maybe she’ll turn him in to a chivalrous man,” Ziva wondered.

“Tony? Be a gentleman?” McGee stared at Ziva like she had magically grown a fourth head. “You’re kidding, right?”

“A woman can dream McGee,” She sighed. “A woman can dream.”

“Is that really what women dream about?” He asked, again, looking at her like she was an alien.

“Among other things,” Ziva answered. “Yes.” She turned on her heel and began to head back to her desk.

“Women are so complicated,” McGee commented under his breath.