It was a late night in the bullpen. The MCRT team had been in the office since 4am for an emergency call, and it was now nearing 11pm. Gibbs was up in MTAC discussing the case with Vance, McGee and Bishop were finishing paperwork, and Tony was dozing off in his chair, with his feet on his desk. Not only was it late, but it was also quiet. There had been minimal talking since they returned to the office about forty minutes ago.

"Boss has been up there for a long time." McGee said.

"Yeah, he has." Responded Bishop, with an inquisitive face.

McGee and Bishop continued on like that in small talk for a while, discussing paperwork and the pounding rain that was outside.

"It's pretty nasty out there."

"Yeah, it is. Doesn't look like we'll be getting out of here anytime soon tho-" McGee stopped his thought mid-sentence.

Ellie looked up from her pile of papers on the floor and saw a woman standing there that she did not recognize.

"Hi" Ellie got up off the floor. "Special Agent Bisop," she said as she held her hand out for a hand shake. "Can I help you with something?"

The woman was just beginning to open her mouth to speak when McGee approached her.

"Ziva." McGee said, and he and Ziva immediately embraced eachother.

"McGee, it has been a while."

"Yes, it has. How are you, what have you been doing, what brings you here?"

"I just thought that I would visit." Ziva nodded her head at the sleeping Tony. "Some things never change, yes?"

Tim chuckled. "No, no I guess they don't."

"Is Abby in?"

"Yeah, she's down in the lab, I'll walk down there with you."

Tim and Ziva headed to the elevator

Special agent Ellie Bishop was confused. She knew who Ziva was, but the way the team talked about her or-didn't, she didn't think she was ever going to come back. Ziav and McGee were catching up, so she did not get the chance the say anything other than her introduction when she first walked in. For a brief second, Bishop thought about waking Tony up and telling him so that she could ask him questions, but McGee returned up the elevator before she even finished the thought. Ellie scurried over to him.

"That's Ziva, the one whose place I took?"

"Yep, that's Ziva."

"What is she doing back, why did she leave?"

"The answers to both of those questions are very complicated. I haven't told Tony yet, I'll hear about that once he wakes up and finds out that she's here."

"Why?"

"Tony and Ziva have a…complicated relationship."

"Ah."

Just as they finished their conversation, Ziva, Abby, Ducky, and Palmer materialized from the staircase. Abby approached talking to and about Ziva at a mile a minute. The group of people in the center of the room stood and talked like that for a while, before they announced that they were going home, because the next day was Friday, and then the weekend. They all said their goodbyes, Abby making Ziva promise to return to the Navy Yard the following day so that they could catch up comfortably in the light of day. Shortly after the group disbanded, Bishop gathered up her stuff and was on her way out, and McGee announced that he was going to MCTA to see what was going on with Gibbs and Vance. This left only the tired Ziva and the sleeping Tony.

Ziva pulled Ellie's chair around to the front of her desk and she sat in it. She wanted to wait for Gibbs to return before she headed off for the night. Just then, at midnight, Tony's desk phone rang, violently springing him awake.

"Special Agent Dinozzo."

…..

"Right. Thanks. Got it."

And then he hung up the phone. He stretched his arms up above his head and rubbed his closed eyes. When he opened them, he swore he was still dreaming.