Part 2

The noon hour, which in real life was actually a three to three and a half hour window, meant lots and lots of both foot traffic and car traffic as people ate lunch or got takeout at the local establishments, ran errands or just walked around or drove around. The weather this day was beautiful and fairly warm with a few high clouds against a brilliant blue sky and it had brought out many more people than usual for a muggy day in the middle of July.

DiNozzo had been suffering from cabin fever and thought getting out would help so he'd invited Ziva David to lunch at the corner deli, promising her that the menu had been changed and the servers replaced. She'd happily accepted and Tony was thrilled with the prospect of a private lunch with the still exotic former Mossad officer.

Ziva, after agreeing to lunch and wanting to share such a beautiful day, had then invited her good natured teammate, Timothy McGee. She knew Tony wouldn't be happy about it and it was one of the reasons why she did it. Tony had been acting weird ever since EJ Barrett and her team had showed up. Gibbs too hadn't been the same either, but Ziva suspected it was for very different reasons. Her Tony was attracted to EJ and even though Ziva and Tony weren't intimate, Ziva wasn't thrilled with Tony being intimate with anyone else. To keep the subject of EJ from getting too far into any conversation, Ziva decided McGee would be the perfect person to ahve along with her and Tony.

Tim had a sneaky suspicion that lunch would be with someone other than just Ziva, but didn't mind as long as he could bring along his favorite lunch person. He readily accepted Ziva's offer without mentioning his plan to invite someone else and headed for the forensics lab. A meal with Abby Sciuto was always a treat and he already knew that she didn't have plans and she didn't have any pressing work that couldn't wait until after lunch. He just needed to make sure that she did not do what he was doing, which was invite another person along to lunch. And why not? Because he knew it would be Cade or Levin, the new guys to the squad room. The news guys, who along with their team leader Erica Jane Barrett, had brought tension to the Navy Yard and McGee wasn't liking what their presence had done to his perfect little world. And to make matters worse, Abby had welcomed them with open arms and continually sang their praises. The two men were hunks. The two men were teddy bears. The two men were misunderstood. They were soooo nice. They were such good listeners. Crap! Tim didn't want to hear anymore about those guys and went to find them to make sure they were busy for lunch.

And as he headed for Abby's lab he smiled because he'd just found out that EJ and her men were out of the building. Yes!

Abby, who liked to eat lunch with Tim, also liked to spend time with her new friends. But alas, Cade and Levin were out of the building with EJ, their team leader. She thought it was probably a good thing since Gibbs hadn't been too happy lately. As for the others, they seemed to follow his lead and weren't too happy either. Except Tony and Tony wasn't not happy, he was weird and Abby suspected it was EJ's fault. But she didn't have facts and scientists needed facts to draw conclusions so she'd wait and get those facts from Cade and Levin. Now if she couldn't have lunch with them, and lunch with Tim was excellent, but maybe she'd invite someone else to come along. Ziva? Maybe. Tony? Maybe. Wait, she knew who to ask. It was perfect. She'd ask her favorite medical examiner. She knew that he'd been cooped up in autopsy since early morning and needed a break so after Tim left to go back to the 3rd floor she went to talk to Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard.

Ducky had been thrilled with the invitation, but suspected that lunch would be with more than just Abigail. In fact he hoped it would be with at least one other person because Abby was always so bubbly and high spirited and tended to go off on verbal tangents that made his head spin sometimes. Yea, lunch with Abby could be an adventure alright. Wait, Mr. Palmer could use a break too and he got on famously with the forensic scientist. At least then Ducky could be certain that there would be someone else with them.

Jimmy had other plans already and turned down Ducky's invite, but that was how the five people ended up eating lunch together at the corner deli. Tony invited Ziva who invited Tim who invited Abby who invited Ducky. Nobody thought about inviting Gibbs and nobody mentioned that fact. When they all showed up in the squad room at 11:55, Tony had glared at Ziva who smiled back and then locked arms with Tim to head to the elevator. Abby had taken Ducky's arm and followed leaving DiNozzo to wonder what had happened to his intimate lunch plan.

The deli had been redone a little with fresh white paint on most of the walls and new used chairs made of wood instead of plastic. The order counter had a new shiny covering and the big menu board was printed in English though some of the selections still seemed questionable if not odd. Ducky would have preferred they all eat at the café down the block, but he knew that the others didn't want to spend a few more dollars and since Tony had started the lunch get-together, the place had been his choice.

The covered table on the outside patio had been nice, especially on such a muggy though still lovely day, so he had been okay with the choice, even though they wouldn't have real plates, glasses or cutlery. He hoped that maybe Jethro would like to eat at the café or maybe the coffee shop between the bank and the dry cleaner later in the week, assuming the team wasn't called out on a case during the noon meal time. Or maybe he'd just ask Jimmy since the young man hadn't been with them this day.

Apart from DiNozzo's antics, it had been a pleasant meal, but soon after Ziva departed a napkin landed on the table as Tim announced that he was going to head back too. He looked like he had had more than enough of Tony and Ducky was so hoping the afternoon would go better for the younger agent than lunch had. Abby looked thoughtfully at Tim and just for a moment Ducky thought she might go with him. She'd finished her sandwich, but still had several bites of potato salad on the paper plate and he watched as she jabbed the plastic fork in just as Tim stood up.

DiNozzo stuffed two large salty chips into his mouth on top of the bite of sandwich already there and after a couple of loud crunches he asked Tim, "What's your hurry?"

End of part 2

Thank you for reading.