Okay, this one is extra long. It verges on ridiculous. I apologize if it's boring. But I wanted to one that involved the two of them working (sort of), so here goes.

Thanks for reading, all the same.


Ziva jumped out of her skin and right back into it when Gibbs' voice boomed from right behind her, "We're heading out. Grab your gear."

She had not noticed him move behind her while she sat perched on the corner of Tony's desk. Though, she couldn't exactly call it a goof-up because she had been talking casually to McGee at the time. Gibbs had cut her off mid-sentence and made no sounds of entering the bullpen at all, and she supposed that it was an honest case of behind caught off guard. She had missed McGee's expression tightening into a hard, determined but curious stare at the sight of their boss standing behind her - Though, she had been flipping through her text messages as she spoke to him.

After her heart stopped pounding in her chest, she noted with faint irritation that she had lost her Mossad touch.

But then again, Gibbs was just as trained as she was and was the only one who could sneak up on her with no effort at all.

She drew in a deep breath before hopping off of Tony's desk with his faint chuckle lingering in her ears.

Ziva moved to grab her things and saw out of the corner of her eye that Tony was having issues with the jacket of his suit. She rolled her eyes a moment later upon realizing that he had locked the sleeve in a drawer. It wasn't particularly surprising since Tony was notorious for strange, childish maneuvers, but it was ridiculous all the same. He very loudly tugged on the jacket in hopes of drawing it out with no avail, and he begun fervently searching his pockets for the key to the metal drawer. All the while, he grumbled under his breath about Tuesday mornings and too early.

Gibbs and McGee paid him no mind - this was normal behavior, after all - and left the bullpen.

Ziva was quick on their heels, and as she passed him, Tony glanced up at her just long enough to flash her a sheepish grin through his annoyance and call out, "I'll catch up. Don't you dare leave without me."

"Better hurry," she taunted before realizing that the elevator was starting to close.

She barely wedged her body through the crack between the closing doors. The forward motion propelled her body into her boss' shoulder, and after she had her footing again, she gave him a shifty smile in apology. The grey-haired man gave her a vaguely irked expression but shrugged it off like one hundred-twenty pounds didn't just hurtle at him and took another gulp of his coffee with natural casualness.

Her shoulder was still against his, and she was about to step away when Gibbs suddenly frowned and lowered the cup from his mouth with overdramatic slowness. She paused mid-movement and turned to face him with a raised eyebrow. His face mirrored hers almost identically, and there was an ounce of suspicion in his gaze that made her feel queasy because these days, the thing she had to hide was directly connected to the both of them. Ziva was aware of McGee's eyes on her as well, and he wore his signature lost puppy face.

Gibbs leaned down to her shoulder with his eyes still trained on hers and his forehead inches away, and she stiffened involuntarily. Ziva wasn't sure what he was doing and was genuinely taken back when the marine took a good whiff of her blouse. He straightened a beat later and gave her a hard stare that almost threatened to make her cringe.

Almost.

Ziva held her ground like the hardheaded trooper she was and gritted her teeth while waiting for him to speak.

"You smell like DiNozzo," he said slowly to her.

It was a statement, not a question. No answer was expected.

His words sent a wave of fear through her that disappeared after she dragged air into her lungs.

She tried to keep her face even, and much to her surprise, it was easier than she remembered. Tony could read her like a book, but Gibbs was a few steps behind him in that respect and that was the difference between the two men. Tony knew her emotions while Gibbs knew her thoughts. In the back of her head, she realized that she gotten so used to displaying her feelings over the past few weeks that she had forgotten what it was like to hide them.

But the ability was seared deep into her being, and she fell back into it with ease.

The baby blue eyes were steely but otherwise emotionless, and he was trying to read her like she was trying to read him. Neither were getting anywhere, and Ziva wasn't sure what point there was in trying to read Gibbs when he only ever showed what he wanted to. She figured that she should reply to his accusation, but she couldn't think of anything that she could possibly respond with, so she merely shrugged and looked towards the doors with a strange feeling stirring in her chest.

McGee didn't dare try and change the subject, and Ziva felt him shifting uncomfortably next to her.

She could also hear the gears turning in both their heads, and it echoed and bounced off the metal elevator walls and made the sound so much louder. It was taunting her, testing her nerves. Ziva was half-convinced that the both of them knew.

Hell, she was convinced that the both of them knew.

The thought made a mixture of exhilaration and fear and carelessness flow through her.

It was a strange combination indeed.

...

"All set, boss," Tony murmured into a cup of coffee as he glanced around the park around him. It was still early in the morning, but the sun was a vibrant variant of its afternoon self, bright and blazing and relentless. He felt just the slightest bit uneasy because the park was much too open and crowded for his liking, and upon catching Ziva's eye from a few yards away, he knew that she was thinking the same thing. He hoped the day would go smoothly. It was only Tuesday, damn it. They still had the rest of the week to deal with.

Gibbs barked in their ears, "Keep an eye out."

Tony pulled himself from his thoughts and strolled casually over to a bench. He spread out an arm and brought his coffee up to his lips. The caffeine was definitely needed - Between Ziva, work, and the ridiculous undercover op that was leading him to nothing but dead ends, Tony was starting to run on no fuel. In actuality, he had been running without fuel for weeks now. He vaguely wondered if Ziva started to notice yet.

Raising his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun, Tony spotted something peculiar in the distance. Instantly, his body stiffened, and he held back a groan. It couldn't be - He squinted, knowing that it could easily be mistaken for the sun getting in his eyes, and his suspicions were confirmed. Tony shook his head with queasiness starting to overtake him and gazed at his surroundings again, this time paying closer attention than before and picking out the ones who were watching his every move.

He stared to think on his feet because this wasn't part of the plan. There were too many of them for the team to take down - that was a given. Besides, he wouldn't be surprised if they each were armed with better weapons than their measly sidearms. There was only one choice but to bail out, and he didn't think these buffoons were on to them yet - and shit.

A bald man hidden behind a pair of reflective sunglasses took a seat on the bench next to him. Tony slowly curled his extended arm back to his body while the man gave him a toothy, sinister grin. Tony returned it with his heart pounding against his chest.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" the man asked.

Tony knew straightaway. He was one of them.

His eyes darted to the man's coat for a quarter of a second, and he could see the faint outline of a gun within, one with a lot more firepower than the two tucked in his shoulder holster combined. He started wishing that he called in sick for the day at the sight of it. Regardless, he grinned in return, "Nope. No problem at all. I'm just waiting for my girlfriend."

He pointedly looked around and was relieved when he spotted Ziva giving him a curious look. He could play off of that easily. Tony turned to the man and gave him the cockiest grin he could muster up given the sticky situation, "There she is. Have a good day."

It took everything Tony had not to run away like a straggly teenager. He forced himself to walk over to Ziva casually with Gibbs demanding an explanation in his ear. Tony ignored the ear that was starting to ring and dropped his coffee in a trashcan as he passed it. Gibbs immediately stopped barking because that was the distress signal.

Tony half-noticed that Ziva masked her confusion very well - so well that he almost couldn't tell that she was confused at all. When he reached her, he brushed his lips against her smooth cheek and wrapped his arms around her slender frame like he did on a nearly daily basis. Her arms snaked around his chest naturally, and he silently thanked her for that.

Dropping his lips to her ear, he brought a hand up to stroke the lobe with two fingers. He murmured into the microphone at his wrist, "We're surrounded. My two, four, six, nine o'clock. One on the bench at seven. Possibly more. They're on to us. We have to regroup."

Ziva stiffened in his arms and her fingers clenched around his forearm for a brief moment before she composed herself again. Pulled away, she brought a hand up to cup his face. Her thumb skated back and forth against his cheekbone in a loving manner, but her eyes were hard while she searched his face. "Snipers?" she asked with a slight smile that would look natural to an onlooker.

Tony had not realized how good she was at this. Or perhaps he had forgotten.

He played with her hand thoughtlessly while nodding, "Possibly. They may have scopes. I couldn't tell. We have to get out of here."

With this, he took her hand and tugged her toward a more crowded area of the park. She didn't say anything about the situation, but the way she clutched his hand told him a different story. He let their hands swing between them casually, like they were another couple seeking solace in the morning rays.

He sent her a strained but exhilarated grin. Ziva gave him a half-smile and shrugged with one shoulder.

He understood what she was trying to say.

Ridiculous for a Tuesday morning.

He was starting to think the same thing.

Tony swallowed hard and tried to reevaluate the circumstances. He didn't see any of the men following them, but things never were what they appeared to be. Out of the corner of his eye, he used a metal trashcan to catch sight of McGee following them with a large distance of separation. McGee's face was the perfect painting of a man on a mission, and Tony snorted in amusement at his probie.

It was a full fifteen minutes of walking under the hammering sun before the quartet regrouped in the parking lot of the park.

"Looks like you're right, DiNozzo," Gibbs grumbled as he approached the waiting trio. He pulled his microphone from his wrist just as he came to a stop in front of them. The trio yelped at the sound of thumping in their ears and simultaneously yanked out their earwigs. Gibbs paid them no mind and continued, "They're not following us."

Gibbs had decided to be a daredevil and walk in the direction of the markmen to get a headcount.

"I figured that, boss," Tony quipped while shedding the jacket of his suit, "since none of us got shot."

The older man gave him an impatient look, and Tony shrugged innocently.

"How did they know that we would be here?" McGee wondered aloud, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

"That's what we're going to find out, McGee," Gibbs snapped, now irritated with his team and the entire situation. He moved to the other side of the car, to the driver's seat, and the air of closure in his voice made the team breath a sigh because they were finally going to get out of the summer heat.

McGee was already at the passenger's side, and Tony decided not to argue for it. It wasn't worth it today.

Despite his desire to jump inside the vehicle and plant his head against an air vent, he patiently opened the car door for Ziva, motioning for her to get in with a lazy sweep of his arm. She gave him an amused and skeptical expression with a glittering in her dark eyes that made Tony tilt his head to one side tiredly as if to say, "It's the least I can do."

The moment he shut the door behind her, he let his facade fall away and breathed a heavy sigh. Things were really starting to wear him down, and while he went over to the other side of the car, he ran a hand through his hair and fleetingly daydreamed of a nice shower and cool sheets.

He was tired, sweaty, and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep for a day or two.

A week, if he could.

But it was a luxury that he wouldn't be able to indulge in, so before he took his spot in the back of the Charger, Tony put his game face back on with more difficulty than he would prefer.

Of course, it got worse.

He was buckling himself in while Gibbs sped out of the parking lot. McGee's voice tactlessly rung out in the whistling of the air conditioning with intentional smugness seeping into his words, "Nice stunt you pulled with Ziva, Tony. I wouldn't have thought of doing something like that to throw them off your trail."

There was something in his voice that hinted that he was trying to say more with his words than what was really there, and it made Tony want to bang his forehead into the headrest in front of him.

He fucking hated Tuesdays.

He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them roughly before giving Ziva a doubtful look with her mouthing "later" at him. Tony let his composure fall to pieces and shot the back of McGee's head a dirty look whilst vowing to make the probie suffer at a later date. Tony was too tired and too hot to think of an explanation of McGee's sudden bluntness, but he knew that he wasn't liking it one bit. He would normally be plotting of a way to avenge himself, but even that seemed a little too strenuous at the moment.

Even trying to think of a retort that wouldn't raise alarms was proving to be difficult.

He went to his go-to strategy consisting of arrogance and smugness because it was all he could come up with in his dog-tired state, but his voice didn't cooperate with him, and it was like he completely admitted their entire relationship.

Dully, he said, "It's a talent, McGiggles. I'm talented at wooing innocent women. My face is mesmerizing and irresistible, you see."

He leaned the side of his head on the window and shut his eyes because damn it, he was too exhausted for this bullshit. He didn't particularly care about keeping their relationship quiet because they were actually making it work, and since Ziva wasn't covering for him, he didn't think she cared very much either.

But even with his eyes closed, he could feel a characteristically spine-chilling and steely gaze on him through the rearview mirror.

...

"All right. Let's get this over with so we can go home and cuddle on the couch," Tony grumbled while stepping out of the car and rubbing the sleep from his baggy eyes. The entire day had proved to be just as dragging as he had initially thought, and their last stop of the day was right smack in the middle of metropolitan D.C.

The city normally had a way of breathing life into him, but not today.

His entire body slumped, at odds with the bustling, and the poorly-concealed irritation that had been present since the mishap in the morning was threatening to burst from his every pore.

Ziva had feared this back at the Navy Yard and insisted that he let her drive.

He must have been ready to drop dead because he was crazy enough to agree.

What was even crazier was that he was actually able to take a twenty (supposed to be forty in the rush hour traffic, but she was driving, after all) minute power nap that didn't help in the least.

Ziva teased him in an attempt to lighten his spirits while coming up next to him on the sidewalk, allowing herself to get closer than she would allow herself to when in the company of their coworkers, "Is there no room for sex in that plan?"

In spite of everything, Tony's gaze floated down to meet hers and the tension in his muscles eased a fraction. But only a fraction. He gave her a strained grin and appreciated her attempt to calm him. He leaned close to her face while murmuring in a tired voice that betrayed him, "There's always room for sex, sweetcheeks."

And in that moment, almost like he planned to burst their bubble of intimacy, a man burst from the door of an apartment building and took off down the street at a breakneck speed that even Ziva would have trouble keeping up with. Tony dumbly blinked in confusion before recognizing the man. Fury filled him, and he couldn't help but groan out loud, "Are you kidding me right now?"

The sprinting man was the suspect they were going to bring into custody.

Ziva was quicker in her realization and had not paused to marvel in the ludicrousness of their day thus far, and she had already taken off after the man and was already halfway down the street.

Tony spit a loud curse to whatever deity was playing games with them before starting to sprint after the two.

"I'm getting too fucking old for this!" Tony snarled in frustration from behind her as she rounded a quick corner.

She ignored his ill-mannered complaint and didn't bother wasting her breath in a reply. She pushed her legs faster, thankful for the fact that she had been on a tougher training regimen the past few weeks. A part of her noted that this was a good chance to see if the training was making an impact on her criminal-catching prowess. Though, her increased stamina more or less had to do with Tony and the extra miles she had been putting in, but she pushed the thought aside when she recalled that the man they were chasing was a physically built Marine who just got off tour.

The man was bound to be in better shape than she was and that was definitely saying something.

But at this point, she was just happy that she wasn't wearing anything dressy.

Ziva heard Tony's loud footsteps against the pavement behind her, and she was surprised that he was keeping up. Not only was he exhausted, but if she remembered right, he hadn't eaten lunch because he foolishly decided that a fifteen minute nap was more of a priority, and he wasn't exactly as in shape as she was. He was more fit than most men his age, yes, but going at the speed they were, it was a wonder that his lungs didn't give out.

She winced at her thought.

It was best not to jinx it, given the kind of day they were having.

They had already gone at least half a mile and the suspect showed no signs of slowing down. She hoped that Tony would keep up. It would be that much harder if she had to catch the Marine by herself.

Suddenly, an idea made an appearance. She wheeled a corner and took off down an alley, running perpendicular to the suspect, and she shouted over her shoulder, her voice rasping and not like hers at all, "Keep on him, Tony!"

Ziva wasn't sure if he heard her, but she didn't want to waste time by checking over her shoulder, so she simply prayed that he did. She also prayed that the Marine would take a right like she assumed he would.

At this point, Ziva felt the burn in her lungs because they had definitely gone at least a mile by now and only a few minutes - not more than four or five - had passed.

Getting a cramp right now would be disastrous, and much to her dismay, the familiar tightness appeared just above her hip bone.

All the same, she pushed herself harder and faster because this had to end already. It was dragging out too long and far for her liking, and it would be an understatement to say that she was relieved when she saw the opening to the main road. Once she reached the sidewalk, she let herself slow into a walk, and Ziva drew her gun with her chest heaving and sweat pouring into her eyes.

It was the middle of summer, and even though it was late in the afternoon, the humidity and heat lingered on. It was more apparent than ever.

Ziva was hoping with everything that she had that the suspect made a right ontoher street or else Tony would have to chase the man down alone.

And she knew for a fact that Tony wouldn't forgive her if that happened.

Ziva let her body slouch in relief when the Marine turned the corner and almost ran right-smack into her. She held her ground humorlessly and pointed her gun up at his face, smiling in a sick sort of glee when she imagined what she could do to him to get revenge for the ridiculously long chase.

The man wheeled and nearly lost his footing in his abrupt stop. He scrambled on the ground to run in the other direction when Tony turned the corner, red-faced with his gun drawn. Tony's eyes widened in relief, and his shoulders slumped at the sight of her before he brought back his focus and glared at the Marine with a deathly glint in his eye.

"Get on the ground!" Tony snarled. Ziva winced at the sound of Tony's voice - She would hate to be that man right about now. He barked, strangely sounding like Gibbs, "Put your hands behind your head!"

Tony took a single step forward and suddenly paled into a pasty shade of white and motioned for her to finish the job. He looked like he was about to collapse and to Ziva's relief, he didn't. He did, however, double over, his chest visibly heaving from the over exertion of the chase. A moment later, he let his hands fall on his hips with his face pointed up to the blue sky and eyes shut. His pulse was throbbing against the side of his neck and temple, and even from her spot a few feet away, she could see every beat of his heart. Tony was still gasping for air, and Ziva felt concern bubbling up within her.

The scarred lungs probably weren't helping his cause at all.

For Tony's sake, she wasn't gentle when she put the handcuffs on the Marine and yanked him to his feet by the collar of his shirt. The man made a gagging sound that she pointedly pretended not to hear, and she twisted the man's arms in a way that knew would inflict the most pain, and as she passed Tony, she paused briefly enough to bring a hand up to pat his chest.

"I'll cook you pasta tonight," she reassured him in a murmur.

Tony let his head lull down to meet her eyes, and with sullen and broken-down eyes, he nodded wordlessly.

If the exhaustion on his face wasn't apparent before, it definitely was now.

The swirling pool of irritation and disbelief and exasperation and frustration and utter exhaustion was shining very obviously in his bright eyes. He hadn't bothered to calm himself yet, to bring himself back to his playful, boyish, unprofessional self, and right then, right there, Ziva could see how much he wanted to crawl into bed and never come out. His eyes were a mess of emotions that he normally didn't reveal until they were behind closed doors, but for whatever the reason, Tony had brought down his shields and shared these emotions with her under the sweltering summer afternoon heat in the middle of the city.

Perhaps, he was too exhausted to realize that his mask was off.

Perhaps, he was too tired to care.

Perhaps, he never cared about it at all.

He gave her an achingly tired grimace before suiting up and placing his mask on again like the stubbornly determined bull he was.

She patted his chest one more time before motioning for him to start moving. And with his brave face back on, Tony obediently walked alongside her and back to the car that was more than a mile away without complaint.

And while they walked, it was almost like he wasn't ready to collapse at all.

But they both knew the truth.