The sudden loud knock on the glass door startled Ziva. She looked up from cleaning yet another machine gun, to see two of her favorite cast member walk in.

"Alanna... Melissa," she greeted them. "Don't tell me that I forgot a session. I'm totally unprepared as you can see." Ziva waved her arm around indicating the pile of weapons needing cleaned and prepared for the following day's filming.

"You didn't forget, we just wanted to come by and visit for a bit." Melissa said with a smile. She was as sweet as she was beautiful, and by far Ziva's best student.

"Well, if you don't mind chatting while I finish cleaning these, then make yourselves comfortable."

"Thanks for the knife training last week, Zeev. Greg said it came out so good they're gonna use the whole segment. It's the longest screen time I've gotten so far and it's all thanks to you."

"Pardon me for saying so, but bullshit. It's happening because you're mesmerizing when you're in the Tara zone."

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Ziva, only they sound so much better with your accent." Melissa was constantly asking Ziva to say certain words and then giggling at her struggles to say them correctly. Ziva grinned at her and raised an eyebrow.

"And here I was thinking it was you that had the charming 'ay-act-scent'", she replied and sent the other two women in to a giggling fit.

"Geez Ziva, maybe you should spend some time with the dialect coach. You're horrible at that!" Ziva ducked her head and chuckled, thinking that if they knew just how good she was at that exact thing they'd be speechless. As she looked back up she caught a furtive look pass between the two women.

"Okay, I may not be great with accents, but I am quite perceptive. What are you two up to?"

"Listen, Zeev, you can tell us to pound sand if you don't want to talk about it but... we're wondering what's up with you and Norman? It's been strained and awkward between you two from the beginning, but lately it seems y'all are one breath away from either tearing each other's heads off or..." Melissa stopped and looked at Alanna who finished the thought.

"Or each other's clothes."

Ziva sat back in her chair and after a few seconds she looked back and forth between the two women who'd become surprisingly important to her. She weighed their words and couldn't dispute them. From her first day on set she'd locked away her emotions and had been all business. When Norman had tried to engage her in conversation, she'd responded as if he was any other cast member. She hadn't even told him where she was living and when he'd called her asking if they could get together she would only agree to coffee or lunch. She flirted with him, but then she'd also flirted with Andy, Greg, and Steven all equally as well. After a couple of months of this behavior Norman lost his temper and cornered her in the office of her training facility. The encounter had quickly grown heated; Norman knew he'd hurt her at the attorney's office, but felt she was overreacting and being stubborn. He just wanted to chance to spend time with her to adjust to Ziva and she was terrified that if that happened he'd decide he couldn't love her, so she kept putting him off. The one thing they couldn't control was their intense attraction and their time in the office ended with a sweaty, furious, primal fucking.

"It's... difficult when it comes to Norman."

"Because of your cousin?" Alanna asked and Ziva nodded. "Shouldn't that be something to bond over? You both loved the same person."

"I think I know at least part of the problem," Melissa chimed in. When both Ziva and Alanna looked at her with raised eyebrows, she continued, "I think that Norman has found himself quite attracted to you and that makes him feel guilty and confused. Guilty because he thinks he's being unfaithful to her memory and confused because you remind him of her so much. I've seen the pictures and while you aren't exactly twins, you could easily pass for sisters. And... I think you're upset for the same reason."

When their eyes met, Ziva felt that Melissa had reached straight into her soul and pulled the truth from where she'd buried it. "Jesus Melissa, if you ever get tired of acting you could be a therapist." She shook her head, looking down at the gun she held.  "I can only suspect that Norman is feeling that way, but you're right about me." She sighed and picked up a cotton swab and kept cleaning. "I'm very attracted to him, as are most women. I also understand he must be one hell of a man if Meg fell for him. Having lived the same life for the most part, I know what it cost her to let someone in the way she did him. The problem I have is thinking that he only wants me because of my link to her, and that once I let him in he'll change his mind and decide it's too weird."

Ziva completed reassembling the gun as she finished talking and Alanna abruptly stood up. "You're coming with us, lady. That's some heavy shit and calls for alcoholic beverages."

<------------------------------------------------------>

Norman watched Ziva, Melissa, and Alanna walk out of the training facility and head to the parking lot. The feeling of his life spinning out of control was overwhelming, and he wasn't sure how it had happened. Worse, he hadn't the slightest fucking idea how to get it back. Working this close to her every day, watching the cast and crew welcome her with open arms, and having to pretend to be unaffected when more than one of the men asked her out was testing his grip on sanity. Every day that went by blurred his memories of Meg into the present experiences with Ziva. He was so confused over what to do with these feelings and he wanted... no, needed... to talk about it with her but she was giving him the total cold shoulder.

"That's one fine ass trio of women right there," a voice said to his right at the same time that a hand gripped his shoulder.

"Hey Steven," he greeted his cast mate, who had also become a close friend. "You aren't supposed to notice now that you're engaged."

"I'd have to be dead to not appreciate those ladies." Steven chuckled. "So, you admiring all three rear views or just the Mediterranean flavoured one?"

"Am I that transparent?" Norman asked, shaking his head.

"Uh, yeah..." the other man scoffed. "Even Gimple's aware of your little crush. They've caught you on camera staring at her like a hundred times."

"Oh god..." Norman said with a sigh. "I don't know what to do."

"I doubt that, man. You know what to do, you're just holding back. I mean... I get it Reedus. No one knows exactly what you're going through, but she'd come closest, right? She knew Meg longer than you and has lived a similar life. Why not join forces instead of fighting it?"

"I'm not sure she wants that. I mean, it's kind of weird between us."

Steven chuckled. "Yeah, that's what happens when two people obviously want to jump each other's bones but are too stubborn to do anything about it."

"What're you two ladies discussing over here?"

"We're trying to figure out how the writers expect the audience to believe a woman as fine as Michonne would actually bump uglies with a man as ugly as Rick."

Norman laughed at the look on Andy's face. Steven was always quick with the one-liners and seemed to especially love poking at Andy, probably because he always acted outraged.

"Have I told you that you're an asshole yet today? No? Well you are... both of you."

All three were laughing now. "Hey, I was told to come get you guys. We're pulling together a poker game over at Michael's condo. We need you both there so we can take your money."

"Funny coming from a limey Brit. You know it's called Texas Hold 'Em, right?" came the growled response as Norman silently thanked his lucky stars that he'd have a diversion that night.