Thanks for the wonderful reviews guys. Much appreciated. Please note this chapter contains some content that some people may offence at. This was not my intent but was the only way I could write an Italian/American accent. I wanted it to be humorous and hope that is how it comes across to you.

And now on with the tale….

Chapter four

Tony waited patiently outside the men's room for a full minute before Ziva finally and reluctantly opened the door and stepped out to stand beside him. She looked at him coyly beneath her sooty eyelashes and murmured to his intent stare, "What are you going to do with me now, Tony?"

Tony shrugged, sticking his hands back in his pockets and crossing his ankles at the same time as he leaned against the door jamb, a stance that Ziva knew only too well. Tony was comfortable with himself and he'd found her without having to look too hard or too far. Maybe deep down this is what she'd really wanted; to be found. Or was it to be rescued? Ziva knew she was in deep, deep trouble and even though she was reluctant to accept help from any of her friends, especially Tony, she was quickly accepting that she needed them, whether she liked it or not.

And she certainly wasn't happy that she needed Tony.

But even so, she still had things to do; things to find out before she could ask for help, and having her trusty side-kick literally pasted to her side wasn't what she'd wanted right then. A plan began to form in her head and she smiled at Tony as though he'd won.

Tony grinned down at her, his success at locating her so quickly oozed from him in waves. "I guess I've got to take you back to the yard now, unless you have something else planned – that I should know about. Why are you here and not at work, Ziva? It's not like Gibbs to let you go on a week day. You got a dentist appointment, or something?" he queried.

Ziva grinned at him as she reached around him to push open the ladies door. "Or something. Do you mind if I visit the bathroom before we go, Tony?"

Tony's brow creased with puzzlement, but he did not move from his spot. "Ziva, you've been in the gents for at least a quarter hour. Why didn't you go then?"

Ziva pushed past him, her own features creasing in disgust as she made her way in to the ladies bathroom. "You have got to be kidding me, Tony. Men's bathrooms are among one of the most disgusting places I've ever been."

Tony's, "Don't be long otherwise I'll come in and get you!" fell on deaf ears as the door slammed in his face.

When he turned around to lean back on the door jamb again, Tony came face to face with the café owner. "You notta gonna do her no harm are yo, mister? I call the policia." His stilted Italian/American almost made Tony chuckle, until he looked down at his hand and saw the small pointed vegetable knife tucked against his palm.

Tony really did chuckle as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his id badge. "No problems here, my friend. The nice lady in there," he tipped his head towards the door behind him, "is my partner, only she don't wanna go to work today."

The elderly owner nodded knowingly, "Ah, I see, I see. She gonna get fired from jobbe if she noah go to workee?"

Tony nodded, trying to remember how long he'd given her. More than long enough he'd figured as he gestured to the man watching him intently. "Gotta check she hasn't skipped out on me, otherwise it'll be me getting my ass fired instead of hers."

The old man chuckled as he too followed Tony inside the ladies room and as soon as he felt the breeze sweep across him from the open window, both Tony and the café owner stood looking up it in astonishment. Eventually it was the café owner who murmured quietly, "I think missy is one dead laydee."

"Dead is right, my friend. She damn well will be when I get my hands on her," growled Tony as he spun around and headed out after her, knowing that his pursuit was just about to become a hell of lot harder now that Ziva really was on the run, not only from whoever was after her in the first place, but now Tony too. And at that moment as he scanned the busy street outside, he hoped with all his heart that she was going to be in the only other place that he knew she'd probably hide.