A/N: Well, I wrote this at 2am in the morning, so sorry if there's spelling and grammatical errors. Anyway, enjoy.


Worry Pimple

Ziva woke up with a start. All her instincts went into high alert instantly, but soon realised there was no need. Her phone was ringing. She picked it up hastily and answered simply, "David here."

"Zee-vah!" Tony's voice greeted from the other line. He sounded tired.

"What do you want, Tony?" she asked.

"Well, you know what Gibbs said. I just got off the phone with McGeek, he seems alive. Just making sure you were well. I assume you'll be going on your run soon, then?" he replied. Ziva rolled her eyes. Ever since a suspect, Robert Cahalo, had threatened to kill one of their agents, Gibbs had made them call each other at separate time intervals. She thought it was paranoid, especially since she could defend herself.

"Yes, I will leave now. Call me if anything happens," she said. "Goodbye, Tony."

"You know I will. Have fun," he said in a cheerful tone. She hung up and got dressed to go for her usual run in the morning.


About half an hour later, Tony was sitting at his desk, dialling Ziva's number. Instantly, she picked it up and said robotically, "David."

"Good to hear you're still alive," Tony said. He heard her breath hard and guessed she was in the middle of running. "We found some evidence as to where Cahalo could be hiding. McGee is just trying to get some more facts on that particular whereabouts. I can hear you're still on your run, so I won't keep you busy."

"No, no, don't hang up," she insisted. Tony stopped mid-action, wondering why she sounded desperate to stay on the phone with him. Maybe Gibbs wasn't overly-suspicious after all... "Tell me about the evidence and location," she quickly said. Tony hesitated but did as asked.

"Well, we found some sort of hair in the apartment of the murder, but when Abby inspected it she found that it was a material sometimes used in wall padding. There aren't many places that are made from that, so that's why McGoogle is Googling –" Tony was cut off by a sudden short thump and Ziva yelping slightly. "Ziva? You there?" he asked loudly, not allowing himself to jump to conclusions too quickly. McGee looked over curiously and slightly alarmed.

"Yeah," came back Ziva's voice slightly strangled as if she were choking. All his alarm bells went off.

"Ziva? Ziva, are you okay? Talk to me!" he demanded when there was no reply. McGee automatically began tracing her location.

"Tony, there's –" She coughed again and made a shallow breathing noise. He heard a loud noise that sounded distinctly like vomiting.

"I have the location," he said. Without even consulting Gibbs, Tony and McGee rushed out of the room, with Tony assuring her that he'd be there in a few moments and telling her not to move.

They arrived there in record time. Tony sprinted to the sidewalk where he saw Ziva sitting on a par bench. "Ziva!" he yelled. She turned around and shook her head, smiling. He stopped, confused. "Are you okay?" he asked, walking towards her.

She nodded. "I'm fine Tony," she said.

"You didn't seem fine before," he suspiciously said.

"Yeah, we were really worried," McGee added as he caught up.

"You overreacted," she said. Tony noticed her voice was a little coarse. "Nothing happened, really." He narrowed his eyes.

"You had better tell me this instant..." he let the sentence hang. She rolled her eyes and began walking to the vehicle they had drove in.

"I'll tell you when we get back, but I really need some water," she said. Tony and McGee shook their heads in disbelief.


After sculling down a bottle of water, Ziva smiled and looked down at Tony and McGee, who were impatiently waiting for an explanation. "You two are such drama..." She hesitated. "Kings?"

"Drama-queens is actually the traditional phrase," Tony said. She shrugged. "Are you going to tell us why there was a thump, you started choking, and then you vomited?"

"Well, somebody ran into me while I was distracted," she said. "But they apologised, so I didn't mind much."

"But what made you choke and vomit?! I thought somebody had attacked you!"

Ziva laughed. "The choking happened afterwards," she replied. Tony glared at her and she went into further explanation, "That was when the bug went down my throat."

McGee burst into laughter. "You mean, Tony got so worked up about you swallowing a fly?" he said. He walked back to his desk, still shaking with laughter. Tony narrowed his eyes.

"I had every right to be concerned," he muttered.

"Oh, you worry pimple," she teased.

"The expression is worry wart, Ziva. I'm a worry wart." He quickly realised his mistake and stumbled over his words. "But, you know, that's - that's not what I am." He crossed his arms, resembling a five-year-old having a tantrum.

Ziva walked over to where Tony was sitting and patted him on the head. "Tony, it doesn't matter whether you're a wart or a pimple, you still worry too much."