Hi, from the number of reviews, I'm guessing people liked the last chapter. Just a disclaimer, I'm not a med student, I'm a History major, so I know squat about back problems. For the sake of the story, Tony's back didn't enjoy the couch the previous night, it's really painful and he can't move much, if at all. I apologise if something is incorrect with what I've said here, I usually don't like to take creative licence with stuff that's supposed to sound real. I can however tell you that the stuff about horse tranqulisers in this chapter is accurate, I read an article about it. With that little teaser, I invite you to enjoy, and keep up the reviews.

Ziva showered quickly, cursing her new found need to talk about stuff, particularly feelings. She was fairly certain that if she'd kept her opinions to herself, she'd be having a much better morning than she could have hoped for. Instead, she was left with a whole lot of Tony's typically confusing and contradicting psychobabble. Hearing him talk about Dana had been particularly painful, she regretted ever mentioning the woman.

'Tony, you can take a shower now. I stopped by your hotel room and picked up your stuff, it is in the boot of the car.' Ziva said in a brisk voice as she entered the kitchen to put on some coffee.

'Sounds nice.' Tony mumbled in a small voice, Ziva frowned and peered over the breakfast bar at her partner, hunched up on the floor.

'What are you doing down there Tony?'

'Wishing that the ground would open up and swallow me whole, if you must know.' Tony replied, it hit Ziva and she groaned at her own stupidity.

'Your back?' she asked, Tony made a noise that she translated to mean yes. 'Okay, just wait there for a minute.' She told him, Tony nodded.

'I've seen this movie before.' Tony mumbled to himself as Ziva left the room again. 'Oh god, Ziva was right, they are going to be my dying words.'

Ziva entered the bedroom where Rivera was still secured and released him from the chair, she placed her gun against his back and guided him into the bathroom, the window was high up and only a foot tall, he wouldn't be slipping through that. 'Here, you have thirty minutes.' Ziva told him. 'If you try to escape, I will remove one of your thumbs. Are you left or right handed?'

'Uh, left?' Rivera replied, Ziva smirked and looked at his hands.

'I will take your right thumb, and your left pinkie for lying to me. If you so much as try and open that window, I will know.' Ziva told him. She locked him in the bathroom, and for good measure, used a chair to jam the door handle in place.

'Tony, can you walk?' Ziva asked, Tony opened his eyes blearily, coming face to face with Ziva, who was kneeling in front of him, looking worried.

'Maybe, it's pretty bad.' Tony replied.

'You are too big for me to carry, so you will need to walk.'

'I wouldn't want you carrying me anyway, too weird.' Tony replied, Ziva grinned.

'If you can get your hairy butt to the bed, I will give you a massage, and maybe some horse tranquilisers.'

'Well as fitting as horse tranquilisers might be, given that I'm hung like one, I vote for just the massage.' Tony replied, then he did a double take. 'Why the hell would you have horse tranquilisers?'

'One of my first missions, my partner was seriously injured. We stemmed the bleeding, but he was in a lot of pain, and we had a six hour drive to escape the area. So I used horse tranquilisers on him, and he managed fine. However it is a dangerous practice, too much, and it is fatal.' Ziva explained.

'I can walk.' Tony decided. Ziva and Tony slowly managed to get him to his feet, however he appeared to be doing his best to imitate the Hunchback of Notre Dame, with the way he wouldn't straighten up. Instead he had his arms wrapped around Ziva's middle as she led him into the bedroom. She got him onto the bed and began to unbutton his shirt, which garnered a rueful smile from Tony.

'What?' Ziva asked Tony, noticing his expression.

'Oh, I just imagined that the first time you took my clothes off in a bedroom, I'd enjoy it a lot more.' Tony replied, making Ziva grin as she got him onto his stomach.

'Who says this cannot still be fun, Tony?' Ziva murmured as one of her hands slipped underneath him to reach for his belt buckle. Tony wondered what wonderful dreamland he'd just entered, it seemed too good to be true.

'Wouldn't that work better if I was on my back?' Tony asked as she removed first his belt, then unzipped his jeans.

'Not with Rivera in the house Tony.' Ziva told him. 'Your pants ride too high, they will get in the way of your massage.' To demonstrate her point, she only pulled his jeans and boxers down a few inches, so the top of his ass was showing. The next thing Tony knew, Ziva was sitting on the back of his thighs, and something cold was on his back, making him twitch, which hurt.

'What's that stuff?'

'My body lotion.' Ziva replied. 'It will have to do, I have no real massage oils.'

'I like it.' Tony replied.

'Hmm.' Ziva replied as she began, eliciting a happy moan from Tony as she worked her way along his back. 'I am going to need more body lotion, your hair is getting in the way.' She told him at one point.

'You know, some women think my body hair is sexy.' Tony replied, defensive.

'Who are these women? Monkeys?'

'One of them was runner up Miss Virginia, she was three points away from competing in the Miss United States competition.' Tony retorted.

'How long ago was that?'

'Maybe nine years.' Tony muttered.

'Well since then you have grown more hair, so that does not count.' Ziva told him.

'Does too.' Tony replied in what Ziva called his kindergarten boy voice, he seemed to adopt it most often when squabbling with McGee.

'Quiet Tony, I need you to relax while I do this.' Ziva ordered.

'When did you have time to learn this stuff anyway?'

'It was an undercover operation.' Ziva replied.

'What a shocker.' Tony retorted, Ziva got him back by pinching his side. 'Hey! Ow! Did the ninja just pinch me? You're losing your touch.'

'If you keep talking, I will give you the tranquilisers.' Ziva instructed Tony, who mumbled something under his breath about human rights and revoking citizenships, before he fell silent and began to properly enjoy Ziva's ministrations.

By the time Ziva finished, Tony was dozing quietly. She patted his hair and closed the door behind her.

Ziva turned her attention to the bathroom. As she removed the chair from the under the door handle, she reminded herself of the layout of the bathroom, the sink was located to the left, and the toilet to the right, behind the door. Next to the toilet was a basket with a few newspapers and a couple of old copies of Sniper Monthly, the bath and shower head were located at the far end. If it was her, she'd use the ceramic cover of the toilet's cistern as a weapon, and probably locate herself near the toilet, so she could get in a good swing at the person entering before they noticed her weapon. Of course, Rivera was not her, as far as she knew, he was your garden variety corrupt government official, the fact that his sister was a drug lord probably expedited the process of his corruption. The point being, he was not a fighter, however Ziva had found a renewed interest in life of late, she wasn't about to screw that up by underestimating Rivera.

Ziva pulled out her gun and opened the door, letting it swing open, she then ducked back outside into the hall. Moments later a confused Rivera appeared, holding the cover to the toilet cistern. Ziva decked Rivera and cuffed him once again.

'Now, what were you going to do with this?' Ziva wondered out loud, picking up the cistern lid. Rivera mumbled something rude in Spanish, Ziva rolled her eyes and put the toilet back together.

Gibbs wasn't surprised to see the car outside of his shack. He had a pretty good feeling he knew whose car it was, but to be safe, he shouldered his rifle and pulled out his handgun as he made a covert approach towards the lonely building.

Gibbs entered through the laundry door at the rear, here he found Rivera, bound, gagged and secured to a chair. He glared up at Gibbs, who paid him no heed as he continued into the house. His first stop was the bathroom, which showed signs of recent use. As he came upon the bedroom, Gibbs stopped and stared for a full minute at the sight of DiNozzo, with half his ass hanging out, snoring like a freight train. He shook his head and closed the door, praying that Ziva hadn't touched his bourbon as well, it was going to take some serious work to get that image out of his head.

He found Ziva sitting at the breakfast bar with a map of the local town in front of her. He holstered his gun as she met his eyes.

'Gibbs.' Her tone was cool, almost icy.

'David.' He replied in much the same vein.