Chapter 11: Day Ten

Ziva David took a slight detour when she arrived in the squad room. Instead of heading for her desk or even the one Tony had stolen, she headed for the men's restrooms.

She was rather fond of these. They were much better than the female restrooms, although Jenny had put some lovely hand cream in them, much to the delight of almost every woman in the Navy Yard. No, the superiority came from not having groups of gossiping women standing around.

And it was also the same restroom her teammates used. It was the perfect spot to coerce Tony or give McGee an encouraging talk. Gibbs' reaction was her favorite – he acted as though she was allowed to be in there. Although she doubted she would ever find him in the female restroom, he certainly did not mind her using the men's.

She was not here this morning to use the restroom. Her hands were clean and she was not aware if any of her teammates were inside. She had come here to place something on the door.

It was a simple sign she had made the previous night. 'Out of Order'. Three little words that struck fear into the heart of everyone, especially when they were on an elevator or a restroom door.

She had come up with her plan the night before. She had been cursing Tony for trapping her in the elevator until her dash for the restroom had inspired her.

Not that Tony normally inspired anything, with the exception of murderous thoughts. But her desperate desire for the restroom had given her an idea.

Given all the coffee Tony was drinking at the moment in an attempt to emulate Gibbs, he was using the restroom more often. And given the current problems in this particular men's restroom that Maintenance never seemed to be able to get on top of, it would not surprise anyone to see her sign.

She stuck her sign to the door before going in herself. She had one more thing she needed to do to make this work…

Tony DiNozzo was exceptionally happy. It had something to do with the Probie being in the squad room for once. He had forced McGeek to come up after his computer had started to make some very odd noises. He was the Senior Field Agent, the person in charge in their glorious leader's absence. Surely he could not be expected to use a computer that was attempting to impersonate a jet engine?

Ziva was also present, completely ignoring him for once. He wasn't sure what to make of it but decided it was probably a good thing. Given what he'd done to her yesterday, he had half-expected her to fire a missile at his car or something.

But he had woken up to find his car in one piece and where he'd left it. Before moving off, he'd checked the brakes. He didn't trust Ziva as far as he could throw her right now. He'd also checked for bombs – a habit after someone had blown up his car.

He never could be too careful. And he wasn't going to let anyone else destroy a classic car.

"Probie!" he demanded. "What's taking so long?"

McGee huffed. "There's nothing wrong with it," he claimed.

"Then why does it sound as though it's about to grow wings and takeoff?" Tony asked. "I'm scared to sit by it; it might explode. And how am I supposed to work with that sound in my ear?"

Ziva giggled, Tony guessed at the thought of his computer exploding. He sincerely wished she hadn't roped Abby into something.

"It's running a spyware scan. I installed it on Gibbs' computer a few months ago and he's never complained," McGee pointed out, moving away from the computer in question.

"Spyware? So you've put something in there to spy on me?"

McGee sighed while Ziva rolled her eyes.

"Even I know it is checking for spyware, Tony. It is not spying on you!" Ziva replied.

He shrugged his shoulders in response and pulled a face as she left the squad room, presumably to collect another Berry Mango Madness.

"So I have to put up with that sound forever?" Tony wondered aloud. "Do something about it, Probie!"

"I can't do anything about it," McGeek protested. "But it'll finish its scan soon and then it will shut up."

"That's it?" Tony was surprised.

"Well, it's a scheduled scan so it'll do it again this time tomorrow," McGee admitted.

Tony immediately turned his best Gibbs-glare onto the young Probie. "Make it stop."

"I can't," came the reply. "It's mandatory for all computers to have up-to-date spyware installed and for it to be run every day. Without fail."

Tony continued to glare at McGee.

"You can ask Abby, if you want," McGee spluttered. "It's true! It's regulation –"

"You bet I'll be asking our mistress of the night," Tony growled. He had to put up with this every day? How had Gibbs not succumbed to the urge to put a bullet through the computer?

McGee nodded and appeared to calm down. Tony reclaimed his chair and surveyed his kingdom.

"Maintenance are so behind at the moment," he noted. McGee nodded in agreement. "What's broken? The back elevator, one Interrogation room –"

"The urinals on this floor," McGee interjected.

Tony groaned. "Still? I asked Acting Director Wofford to –"

"Maintenance fixed them but they broke yesterday."

Tony groaned again. "Great. On the topic of really annoying things, the girl at the coffee shop has been giving me really odd looks lately. We've been flirting for months and all of a sudden she's giving me the cold shoulder."

"Maybe it was something you said," McGee offered. "Didn't you tell me that women go through funny phases from time to time?"

He shrugged his shoulders, sipping the last dregs of his coffee. "Restroom break," he announced. "Go back to Abby and get her to flirt with Peter."

"Peter?"

"One of the Maintenance guys," Tony clarified, standing up. "He's got a soft spot for her. I want those urinals fixed."

He headed towards the restroom, not bothered with the Probie anymore. Abby would do the job; she would get everything fixed in record time.

He spotted the sign on the door and sighed. It hadn't been on there yesterday when the urinals had broken. Which meant…

Ziva.

She had to be planning to slip him more laxatives. Why else would she put the sign up? Making a mental note to watch her and his drinks very carefully for the next few days, he entered the restroom anyway. He made his way to the first cubical, remembering the useless urinals.

There was clearly nothing wrong with this toilet.

Ten seconds later, he discovered how wrong he was when his urine went everywhere.

Clingfilm.

She had stretched clingfilm across…

She was dead.