Lie Again

Noodles Fix All

Abby smacked him, effectively ruining the moment. "Of course you do, you idiot! We could all see it! Why'd you have to wait so long to figure it out?"

Her face fell. "And now it's too late, because she loves Ray. She's marrying Ray."

"And now you see the problem," Tony muttered.

For a few minutes it seemed Abby wasn't capable of saying anything else. But then she took a great, shuddering breath. "I guess that's it. You have to let her go and learn to live with it. You missed your chance."

"Thanks." He took a big gulp of his drink, willing it to go straight to his brain. He didn't want to think about this anymore.

"I'm sorry, Tony," she whispered. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

***

"I'll talk to their legal team as soon as we're done here. I think we can get you off with just a month or two of jail time and some community service if they cooperate."

Ray nodded, thankful someone understood that this mess took place within the confines of his job. He was just doing what his superiors told him, and then he made a mistake. Yes, he needed to pay for it, but he didn't want to pay with his life.

"I think that's all we needed to discuss today."

"Thank you." Ray stood up and shook hands with the lawyer.

The lawyer gave him a grim smile, and Ray wondered if a real smile would cost him an extra grand. "I'll call you tomorrow with our plan for here on out."

After an awkward pause, Ray nodded again and left the spacious office. He walked a few blocks from the fancy office building before trying to catch a cab.

He picked up Ziva's favorite takeout and then hoofed it to the hospital.

He was pleased to see her waiting for him (although, really, what else could she do, confined to a bed?).

"I brought lunch," he said, holding up the bag.

She grinned.

He set the bag down and opened up all the little boxes so Ziva could take her pick of the noodles and orange chicken. "I would've gotten egg rolls, too, but they were out."

"That's okay," she said, sticking her hand out for a pair of chopsticks.

He handed her a set and watched as her fingers closed over it. "My lawyer is going to talk to the legal team at the CIA and see if they can work something out."

"That is good news." Though her words were cheerful, he noticed that her face was not.

He wished that he just didn't have to ever talk about the accident again. He hated the way it upset Ziva every time it was brought up.

***

Ziva pushed all thoughts of Ray's screw-up from her mind and reached for the noodle container.

She expertly pulled out a tangle of noodles and was lifting it to her mouth when Ray's voice stopped her.

"Ziva."

"Hm." She turned her head ever so slightly and was surprised when she found Ray's lips on hers.

Why on earth should she be surprised? She's marrying him, for Pete's sake!

"Sorry," he said.

"Sorry?" she echoed.

"When you pulled out the noodles I thought of Lady and the Tramp."

"What?"

"It's a kids' cartoon about two dogs. They have a spaghetti dinner and accidentally pick up the same noodle. They end up kissing."

She frowned. First of all, movie quotes were Tony's thing, not Ray's, and second... kissing dogs?

Perhaps her confusion showed because Ray said, "Never mind."

She wasn't quite sure where to go from there. He was staring at a piece of chicken, seemingly closed off from her.

She scrambled for a new topic. "The wedding. When should we have it?"

He looked up and she saw guilt in his eyes. "We'll have to wait and see what sentence I get. Unless you don't mind the possibility of getting married in a prison."

Was he aware of how contagious his bad mood was becoming? Here she was, trying to think positive, and he was reminding her of the unfortunate reality.

"If you are not in prison," she ammended, "when should we have the wedding?"

He shrugged. "A year from now. Spring. Not too hot, not too cold. All the flowers will be in bloom."

"That sounds lovely." She could see it already, the explosion of color all around them as they exchanged their vows. "Where?"

"Maybe a park. Outside, preferably. But somewhere with an indoor option, in case it rains."

He already had everything planned out, didn't he? She couldn't be too mad; she was liking his plan so far.

Ziva felt a happy warmth in her chest as she considered an outdoor wedding. "We should pick a date sometime soon so we can start laying everything out."

"Anytime's fine by me. I don't exactly have a job to plan around."

She had to take a deep breath to avoid smacking him, but she managed. "Then spring it is."

***

Abby was absolutely squirming in her seat. She hadn't been so drunk last night that she forgot everything Tony confessed, oh no. She remembered every word.

Why did he have to burden her with this huge secret? She was dying inside! Sure, she had poked and prodded until he told her, but couldn't he have resisted a little more? Didn't Tony have a spine?

He really should have known better than to trust Abby with his secret. She'd eventually tell McGee, and Gibbs always finds out everyone's secrets, and who knew who else would find out from there.

By telling Abby, Tony ensured that the entire agency would know by Monday morning.

Including Ziva.

"Abby, you're up."

"Thanks..." She barely acknowledged the nun.

"Abby, you need to get a strike if we're going to win this tournament. You need to put your game face on."

Right. Game face.

Well, Tony had better find one, too, Abby grumbled to herself as she grabbed her bowling ball and heaved it down the lane.

Strike.

*****

Sorry if this chapter was all over the place. I don't know if I said this in an earlier chapter, but I'm at the end of what I actually planned out and I'm kind of just floating around for now until we hit the wedding and flash forward. Just stick with me a while longer and we'll see how it goes.

If you haven't already, check out my other NCIS story (which is actually Tiva, yaaay). It's called Magnets and you can find it on my profile.

Also, if you could take a millisecond to click the little star at the bottom of your screen... It seriously doesn't take any extra effort on your part but it means a lot to me!

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