Chapter Eleven:

Purposefully losing


Ziva and McGee stormed into the bullpen ready to rip Tony into tiny pieces just like Gibbs had done to them on the ride back to the NCIS building. Instead, the found Tony and Max discussing which magazine they liked better. Playboy or the magazine with the word 'cars' somewhere in the title.

"Personally, I prefer cars because…they don't talk." Max said right as Ziva walked by. "Cars also know to avoid kicking a guy in the bread basket." He sneered as Ziva moved behind her desk.

Ziva glanced up, her eyes blazing. She moved out from behind her desk and got right in Max's face. He allowed this, tensing, ready for a fight.

"Ziva," Gibbs said and smacked her on the back of the head. "Sit down."

Ziva blinked, offended that after being provoked, Gibbs yelled at her. She took his order though, and reclaimed her seat.

Max glared at Gibbs and headed out of the bullpen.

"Where you goin'?" McGee called after him.

"Bathroom. Feel free not to join me," Max called sarcastically. "Because I don't swing that way.

"What's up with him?" McGee asked Tony.

"I don't know…I thought he liked you better than he liked me but before you showed up he was all buddy buddy with me. And now he's, well, not being very friendly." Tony replied with a frown.

"It's Ziva." Gibbs replied. "He might be quite mature for a teenage boy but he's-"

Ziva cut him off, "Still a teenage boy. One I dented the pride of." She sighed. "I suppose I'm going to have to apologize." Ziva frowned.

"No. You just have to repair the damage. As soon as the kid gets back we're going down to the gym." Gibbs said.

Tony, McGee, and Ziva all stared. After a long moment it slowly dawned on the three of them.

"Ziva just has to lose!" Tony cried.

"That's so simple." McGee commented, awe struck.

"It will have to be fairly realistic or the child will never believe it and even more damage will be caused…Gibbs, this is very risky." Ziva said slowly, making sure he understood.

"Yes." Gibbs said simply before ruffling through his bag.

"I guess that means I'll just have to do a good job…of doing a really bad one." Ziva muttered and began mentally preparing herself for what she had to do.

Purposefully losing was not one of her strong points.


Alex arrived back at the desks and found everyone waiting for him.

"We're going down to the gym. You can borrow some of Tony's clothes." Gibbs said after examining Alex closely.

Alex was several inches taller than Tony, who was about six-foot-one. But Alex had a slimer and more athletic build so Tony's clothes would should fit him fine.

Alex nodded and followed McGee to the elevator.


Once reaching the gym level, Ziva split off from the rest of the group and headed for the women's locker-room.

Alex continued to follow McGee. Tony tossed him a more than ripe pair of shorts and a rather clean shirt after Gibbs shot his a look. Alex glanced around for a private place to change; finding none he simply turned around and quickly changed out of his shirt.

Dropping the button up shirt on the floor, Alex tugged Tony's t-shirt over his head and down his torso, not quite ready for the team to see his scares…at least not the ones on the front of his body.


Gibbs watched Max turn around to change. Was he embarrassed by the large gun-shot wound centimeters from his heart, or was he simply trying to his himself from the others, not wanting them to see the damage done to his young body. Gibbs didn't know the answer but was determined to find out.


Alex followed Gibbs out to the gym and headed straight for a punching bag. McGee heading for an exercise bike and Tony headed for a treadmill. Ziva was already on an elliptical and Gibbs began jogging around the track that circled the large room from the outside.

Alex waited until after Gibbs was halfway around the track before closing the door, effectively closing off the only window Gibbs would have had in.

Ziva hopped off her machine and crossed the room to stand in front of Alex on the mats.

Both waited for the other to attack, when none came Tony cleared his throat and said from the safety of his machine, "Well, this is exciting. Good job whooping his butt, Ziva!"

When Ziva turned her head to sneer at Tony, Alex used her distraction to dart forward and drop her to the ground. Jumping up and away Alex waited for Ziva to stand.

She was now madder than a hornet and ready to make the next attack. After doing a summersault into a standing position Ziva glared daggers at Alex, who just grinned wickedly.

"Problem, Ziva?" Alex asked sweetly as he wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

"None at all." Ziva replied in a deathly calm voice.

At her tone, McGee stopped biking and glanced towards the doors nervously, half hoping Gibbs would re-appear.

"Good." Alex said with a boyish grin as Ziva lashed out with her fists. One connected with Alex's jaw and his head spun.

Shaking it off, Alex renewed his own attack and managed to land a punch in Ziva gut.

Ziva didn't even blink she simply took a step back.

Both fighters watched each other warily, not knowing what to expect next when all of a sudden the fire alarm went off.

Alex glanced up and away just as Ziva sent a kick in his direction.

Unfortunately, Alex had been expecting both the alarm and the kick and managed to grab on before twisting and sending Ziva face first into the ground.

Before she could stand up Alex made a break for the door. Not the one that lead to the track and the elevator, but the one that lead outside.

"Max!" McGee called, confused about what had just happened.

Gibbs burst in just as Alex burst out. All Gibbs saw was the door banging shut, but McGee's shout had been enough to alert him what was going on.

Running to the door, Gibbs threw it open, followed closely by McGee. Tony had stopped to help drag Ziva to her feet before they too followed their boss out the door after the mysterious kid who confounded them all.


I'd like to say one quick thing about the last chapter...

Ziva was planing on letting Alex get her. That was why she let Tony "distract" her.

But Alex made her so mad she decided that it wasn't worth it and waited until he was "distracted" by the alarm and attacked for real.

So basically, Alex did beat her…in a way…if you look at it the right way…

He didn't stick around to have her stand back up so he might not have won in the end. But for all intents and purposes Alex beat Ziva!