Chapter 10: Day Nine

Ziva David watched as her partner slept. Part of her wanted him to wake up, while another part wanted him to snooze for a little longer. He looked so much younger when he slept…

At least he was not snoring yet. She had a feeling her knife would end up in his chair when he did. The man snored enough to awaken the dead!

Or was it new-born?

Rolling her eyes, she glanced at the finished report on her desk. She had been forced to finish it this morning instead of last night after the… incident. She had not enjoyed attempting to explain her partner's hand in the porn that had magically appeared on her computer, especially as Acting Director Wofford had pointed out Tony's lack of computer skills.

Without wanting to drop Abby into this mess, she had instead wondered aloud if it could be a computer grinch. After the Acting Director had corrected her phrase, the two of them had come to the tacit agreement that it was all some unfortunate misunderstanding and it would never happen again.

The snoring began. Ziva's hand began to inch towards her knife. How could one person make so much noise? It was deafening.

Taking aim, she threw the weapon at Tony's chair, smirking when it hit its target two inches from Tony's left ear. He woke up at once, looking all around in panic.

"Stop snoring," she ordered him, turning back to her own desk and looking for some work to do.

"That's the second knife you've thrown at me in a week," he complained.

"I have not hit you," she pointed out. "And I have not run out of knives. Yet."

She did not have to look at his face to know his eyes had widened in terror. She did so enjoy winding him up.

"I have a meeting," he announced.

She turned around to see him slowly rise from his chair. "With whom?"

"Acting Director Wofford. Something about porn mysteriously appearing on computers."

She shrugged her shoulders and tried to look innocent. And she watched carefully as he took his first step.

He looked down in shock. "Am I wearing lead shoes or something?" he wondered aloud. He tried another step. "It's not lead. It's –"

"Sand," she smiled.

He stared at her. "Sand? How am I supposed to walk in sand?"

"I grew up in Israel," she shrugged. "Lots of sand there. I am sure you will cope."

He immediately took off one shoe and tried to empty it over his trashcan.

"Or perhaps not," she decided.

Timothy McGee felt safe in Abby's lab. No matter how many times she threatened to kill him and dispose of his body without leaving any forensic evidence, he knew she would never go through with it. Unlike a certain Mossad Officer upstairs…

He didn't think Ziva would kill him. She liked him too much. But he knew she was capable of killing him and that scared him.

If she was going to kill anyone, McGee knew it would be Tony. The idiot didn't seem to realize that winding up an assassin was hazardous to his health. One day Ziva would snap, and not even Gibbs would be able to hold her back then.

It felt odd to be working in the lab almost permanently, but it was the safest place to be. Tony and Ziva were likely to destroy the squad room before long and he wanted deniability. Not to mention the risk of being caught in the crossfire was so high. Working with Abby was safe, ignoring the chemicals that could boil him from the inside out.

He smiled to himself as they continued to hack together. He enjoyed days like these. Nothing to worry about except the problem in front of him. Working with someone who appreciated his talents and encouraged him to greater heights. Not having to listen to Tony's running commentary on movies and women. Having Bert to hand as a stress relief.

"Yes!" The lab erupted into cheers as they found what they were looking for. That was another thing he enjoyed about working with Abby. Her enthusiasm. Her obvious delight when they succeeded. The few moments they would always take to celebrate between jobs.

They hugged for a short moment.

"Do you think they've killed each other yet?" Abby asked, pulling away and reaching for her next piece of evidence.

"Tony and Ziva? Possibly. But I can see Gibbs making them clean the blood out of the carpet on his return."

Tony DiNozzo continued to smirk as he stood outside the elevator doors.

The elevator was currently being used for one of Gibbs' conferences, although Gibbs wasn't in there. And there certainly wasn't a conference taking place inside the metal cage. Ziva was the only one inside and she was stuck between floors.

Other agents were grumbling as they had to use the stairs, but Tony found it all amusing. Abby had once shown him how to stop the elevator from the outside. It wasn't something that was easy to forget; his initial plan had been to trap Gibbs and Jenny inside when Abby installed another camera. But this was a much better use for his knowledge.

Five hours. She had been trapped for five hours now. Maintenance were busy dealing with a few other things, namely releasing Palmer from a morgue drawer that he had somehow got stuck in. Tony wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know how that had happened.

Which had lead to Ziva being considered a lower risk than Palmer. Ziva was merely uncomfortable; Palmer was in danger of freezing to death if he wasn't released by the morning.

Now Maintenance had arrived on the scene and were talking to his partner via her cell phone. He chuckled as he remembered she was definitely not claustrophobic but probably extremely ill-tempered. She liked having the freedom to move around and the freedom to drink her Berry Mango Madness. Neither was available in her new room.

The elevator began to make its way upwards and he stood back a little from the doors. The last thing he wanted was for her to kill him on sight. The familiar ping sounded and the doors slid open.

Ziva charged out in the direction of the women's restrooms.

Tony grinned.