Ziva walked quickly back to her desk. She looked impeccable, but Tony looked slightly more disheveled. His hair was sticking up and his clothes were on loosely. Plus, he had an inexplicable thin cut running the length of his cheek.
Ziva sat down and busied herself with her paperwork. Tony mirrored her but had to adjust himself first. He had dressed hurriedly.
McGee had been watching them since they came in. "Guys, what's going on?"
"Nothing at all," Tony said quickly.
"Nothing. All is well." Ziva said at the same time.
McGee opened his mouth to say something else when Abby skipped in. She had black skinny jeans on with a black tulle tutu over them.
"Abby…where is your shirt…?" McGee asked, staring openly at her black lace bra.
"Oh! That," she said with a wave of her hand. "I'm joining a nudist colony with the nuns that I bowl with and I'm practicing. I'm 'acclimating' myself to being exposed in front of random people. Not that you guys are random people!" she exclaimed, flustered. "Just, the other people walking around. Well, I've seen them all before but I haven't gotten to know them personally and so to me, they are random people. Well, technically, strangers—"
"Wrap it up, Abs." Gibbs said as he walked in, sipping his coffee. When he lowered the cup, he almost choked, a very un-Gibbs-like reaction. "Abby…where is your shirt?" he said, mimicking McGee's question asked just minutes earlier.
"I just explained!" she said adamantly. "Didn't you hear that?"
"I thought you were talking about something else," he said.
"Like wh—" she stopped suddenly. Ziva and Tony, who were trying to make themselves as invisible as possible, were startled by the sudden silence. Tony looked up and the second he did, he wished he hadn't.
Abby nearly had a heart attack. "Tony! What happened to you!" she shrieked. "Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god!"
"It's not a big deal, Abs. I slipped and fell wh—"
She didn't answer as she darted downstairs. Five minutes later she was back, breathing hard. She had three little tape bandages stuck to her finger. She stuck them on his cut, pulling the edges together. She put both her hands on either side of his face and kissed the cut three times, once on each bandage.
"Feel better?" she panted.
"…much," Tony said, shocked. "…I…have to get back to work now. Thank you…"
Ziva was silently laughing mercilessly behind Abby's back. Gibbs was just staring expressionlessly. And McGee, well, McGee had an extremely confused look on his face.
"Okay, guys, seriously, you two disappear for twenty minutes and then come back, Tony all messed up and Ziva looking like she dressed in a hurry. There's a long cut down Tony's cheek and both of you are acting suspiciously like you did something wrong." McGee blurted.
Tony didn't dare look at Gibbs' face. He kept his eyes on the Petty Officer's credit card bills in front of him. Ziva was leaning back in her chair with her feet kicked up in the air on the desk, staring over Tony's head.
God, she was sexy.
Abby gasped. "No, you DIDN'T!"
"Oh, I'm pretty sure they did." There was only one mouth that tone of voice could come from. And it was pretty damn scary.
"DiNozzo, David. Elevator, NOW."
Ziva got up first and walked ahead of Tony. Gibbs followed them silently.
Once the elevator's power shut off, it was quiet as a tomb in there. Gibbs sipped his coffee, his third of the day.
"Wow, Boss, three cups in one—"
"Shut it, DiNozzo," he snapped. "Don't talk unless I talk to you." He turned to Ziva.
"Officer David, we'll start with you. DiNozzo, you are not here. If you speak, if you so much as BREATHE too loudly, I will have your head downstairs in my basement, nailed to the front of my boat.
"Officer David, what happened?" he said.
Tony noticed Ziva relaxed a little. She'd been expecting a tongue lashing spoken in extreme volumes.
"I was pacing in an empty interrogation room, thinking and trying to straighten my thoughts out. Tony came in and apologized for his rude and uncalled for behavior earlier this morning. He was about to leave and I stopped him." She paused and looked at a spot just above Gibbs' left ear.
"And?" he pressed.
Tony opened his mouth and Gibbs pulled out his gun and pointed it at his head. Tony squeaked and shut his mouth.
"We had some relations," she said. Gibbs stared. "Fornications," she said, trying to clarify without embarrassing the hell out of all three of them. Gibbs raised an eyebrow. She sighed in defeat. "Sex." She said.
Outside the elevator, McGee and Abby looked up at the elevator. It sounded like Gibbs was shouting at the top of his lungs.
"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHAT YOU DO IN PRIVATE BUT YOU WILL NOT, I REPEAT, WILL NOT, SCREW AROUND WHEN YOU ARE AT WORK! ARE WE CLEAR?" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Y-yes, Boss," Tony stammered.
"Crystal clear, sir!" Ziva said sharply.
"Good," Gibbs said. He flipped the switch and the elevator hummed back to life. The doors whooshed open. He stormed out but the pair was still inside the doors.
Abby's mouth was open. McGee's face was red for suppressing laughter.
Ziva knew, in the pit of her stomach, that her career here at NCIS was over. By the end of the week, she'd be on a plane back to Mossad.
She looked at Tony, who was staring at her too. There was no doubt they were thinking the same thing. So they did the only thing they could do.
Tony grabbed her arm and yanked her to him. She didn't wait for Tony, she slammed the door-close button and pressed her lips fiercely to his. She could feel him smiling, but she could also feel his tears against her cheeks.
