'NCIS' Season 16 Air Date, Spoilers: Wilmer Valderrama and Emily Wickersham's Characters Getting a More In-Depth Love Story?

Dedicated fans who have been shipping Wilmer Valderrama and Emily Wickersham's Nick Torres and Eleanor Bishop may be getting what they have been wishing for so long from “NCIS” season 16.

“NCIS” showrunner Frank Cardea, in a quick interview by TV Line, teases that season 16 will be the beginning and lead-up to a closer relationship between Nick Torres and Eleanor Bishop. Cardea compares the long buildup between Valderrama's Torres and Wickersham's Bishop to Tiva – an old NCIS couple fan favorite that features NCIS Agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) and Israeli femme fatale Ziva David (Cote de Pablo).

Some fans who aren't totally on board with Bishop and Torres becoming an official “NCIS” couple in season 16 may worry that Cardea's reveal may be a bit premature. But Torres and Bishop already have a history of flirting and going undercover as a couple in the past, which means that “NCIS” season 16 will have a foundation to build off between the eventual romance of Nick Torres and Eleanor Bishop.

In addition to Torres and Bishop getting shipped in “NCIS's” future plans, fans of the series may have gotten a soft acknowledgment that “NCIS” season 16 won't be the show's last. If “NCIS” season 16 will still build up the Torres and Bishop relationship just like Tiva – which took almost 10 seasons to develop and culminated in season 13's heartbreaking finale – fans can expect the same amount of care and buildup for Torres and Bishop's eventual romance.

For the extreme hardcore “NCIS” fan who is totally not on board with Bishop and Torres' budding relationship because of Gibbs' (Mark Harmon) rule number 12, “NCIS” season 16 will hopefully remind them that DiNozzo and David's love was never stopped by being co-workers.

Fans of CBS's crime procedural drama can look forward to “NCIS” season 16 airing its premiere episode less than a month from now, on Sept. 25.