[florerr]

I can't see them continuing only offscreen... With them I'm certain that they will become an onscreen couple at some point, preferable within the next few episodes...

Ellie only had "public relationships so far, and I can't see her keeping something like that a secret for long... And Nick is nothing like Dinozzo used to be either...

[My Kind Of Crazy]

ah ok. yeah I would love to see them as a couple on screen too

[Jasper1975]

I am still hesitant to think they will do anything with it yet. But I hope I am wrong. Given they might be turned off from doing anything about it at the moment because of the team dynamic which was the barrier for Tony and Ziva in some ways...

But it was pretty blatant there with Ellie and Nick. So, who knows.

[My Kind Of Crazy]

I think they are going to continue to try and hide it at first at least in the office, but hopefully they will show scenes of them together out in the field or something of them together,

[florerr]

I'm fine with outside of the office interactions, as long as we get confirmation that they're together...

This episode made it kind of obvious that everyone except Gibbs knows that there's something going on between them... Besides Gibbs has changed so much over the years, I can't see him forcing the same rules on Ellie/Nick as he did on Tony/Ziva...

[My Kind Of Crazy]

yeah he has kinda relaxed on the guidelines some

[shinebrighterxx]

I don't think Gibbs necessarily enforced that rule (he certainly didn't follow it), it was more Tony that followed them like they were laws. Although maybe he was & that's another reason why Abby & McGee broke up. I doubt Gibbs would care about any of them dating, providing they were happy then or now . But he has eased off on he rules now so definitely shouldn't care now

[florerr]

I don't think that Gibbs had anything to do with Abby & McGee breaking up tbh... Abby always did her own thing when it came to dating...

.. And yes, Tony followed the rules as much as possible, and Ziva had weird rules about dating coworkers as well...

[maplezbear]

Agreed with everything that has been said

[shinebrighterxx]

Agreed about McAbby. I think that was all on them (& as much as I love them & would've happily had them end up together that they weren't right for each other romantically long term). I don't think Gibbs would've interfered either had they continued dating. I think its all on Tony & Ziva why they didn't get together (well its on the writers, but you know what I mean). Tony just hid behind Gibbs' rules, even when he had evidence showing Gibbs didn't follow his rules or always do the right thing. Which was a shame but Nick & Ellie can learn from that. Ziva's already told him not to & to tell Ellie how he feels Hopefully that happened in this episode or around about now & they move forward in a relationship

[Jasper1975]

Originally Posted by shinebrighterxx (View Post) I don't think Gibbs necessarily enforced that rule (he certainly didn't follow it), it was more Tony that followed them like they were laws. Although maybe he was & that's another reason why Abby & McGee broke up. I doubt Gibbs would care about any of them dating, providing they were happy then or now . But he has eased off on he rules now so definitely shouldn't care now

I agree that Tony tended to cling to them. Only when things changed after they quit, and when Ziva initially went to Israel did he consider changing things. And once there, we know it did change for them. I actually do not know if they had gone for it before... What Gibbs would have done because I think he saw like everyone (not McGee, since McGee seemed to be oblivious to it) that something was going on with them and you would get the looks that Gibbs truly did see the bond, and knew they were playing with fire. And maybe had gone there behind closed doors.

Although when Tony went there with EJ. Gibbs went berserk. And tried to use the "do not date anyone on the team" even though EJ had her own team. But they were working the case together. Tony did it anyways.

I think Gibbs would have been more tolerant about Ziva. But I do not know for sure...

And I agree. I do not think Abby and McGee broke up because of the rules. It so happened that McGee had just gotten the promoted to full time agent at the Navy Yard location. Later, we would find out that Abby has rules about how long she dated until she disregarded it for Burt.

So I could see them running into that, and also I think he was into her, more than she was him at the time. And so she sorta ran from it, and therefore, they broke up. But it was not a Gibbs sanctioned breakup.

Things have changed. So if Ellie and Nick went there. I do not know. But as long as it did not interfer, but I can see some more running from it before the trigger is pulled, and they go for it.

[shinebrighterxx]

I forgot about EJ, so maybe he would've stepped in if Tiva had happened while they were on the team. But I think with EJ Gibbs was more mad because of how he'd found out & that Tony was keeping something from him. Tony would've been clinging to the fact that EJ wasn't on the team, & she told him it was ok.

Then agreed with what you said about McAbby

Gibbs is a different person now. Plus if he had any idea that Tony & Ziva had feelings & worse that he may be why they stayed apart he'd change things up. He's already thrown away at least one rule, & seems to treat people different as his old system wasn't working. I can't imagine Rule #12 is a thing for him now. Then providing Ellie & Nick don't hide things or let their relationship get in the way of their job, there shouldn't be an issue

[florerr]

Hm, good points... I'm still not sure about EJ, I always felt like that Gibbs had issues with Tony & EJ, because he didn't fully trust EJ... With partially good reasons as it turned out...

I still think that Tiva happened back in s3 offscreen, when Ziva was still in Mossad-spy mode and everything was fair game... But afterwards they became strictly co-workers until Israel...

And while I'd love to put all the blame on Tony, Ziva had weird dating rules as well... Gibbs only strengthened their already existing tendencies...

Gibbs was already way more accepting with Ellie & Quasim, and I don't think that he would mind Ellie & Nick getting together as long as the work gets done...

[shinebrighterxx]

EJ is a different situation, there were lots of things going on there which influenced things & how Gibbs reacted

I don't remember Ziva having dating rules?

[florerr]

I don't think that she had rules per se... Only that her love life was a mess... She didn't want to date Tony, but got together with the CIA-guy who turned out to be a shady guy on a whim... And when her dad died, instead of trusting Tony, she had a one night stand with Adam...

She tended to keep her emotional distance with the team, either seeking out "strangers"/"outsiders" when she needed emotional support, or just closing off herself completely...

If not for Tony going after her in s11, I'm not sure that she'd have been willing to go for what she wanted...