AN: This chapter is a bit shorter, but no less important. Ziva just doesn't have much time before she leaves for FLETC. :) Updates will be a bit sporadic the rest of this week because I'm at yoga therapy training, up to my ears in homework and with limited Internet access. I've done some writing ahead, but I probably won't get back to daily updates until next Wednesday unless I get a lot further today than I think I will.
Chapter 11
Ziva stopped by the Navy Yard since her flight to FLETC didn't leave until the afternoon. The bullpen was empty, and she did not want Ducky trying to psychoanalyze her, so she headed for the lab.
Abby's music was blaring, the familiar sound bringing a smile to Ziva's face. When she had told Officer Ben-Gidon on the Damocles that a snake could not slip back into a skin that it had shed, she knew he did not understand. How could anybody in Mossad understand NCIS? Mossad was regimented, emotionless. NCIS was a collection of personalities, each bigger than the last. Nobody would mistake Abby for McGee or Ducky for Palmer. And Gibbs. Gibbs was bound by a code of honor stricter than even her father's. Above it all was Rule No. 1 - Never screw over your partner. She had forgotten that rule and hurt Tony. The events of the summer and of yesterday had seared it into her mind. Never again would she forget. Mossad and her father were no longer her life. Her life was here. As a smile spread across her face at the thought, she entered the lab.
Abby jumped up when she entered.
"Ziva! What are you doing here? What about FLETC? Don't tell me you changed your mind? No, wait! Don't tell me a case came up?"
"Abby, I am fine. My flight does not leave until this afternoon." Ziva leaned back against the lab table. "I merely wished to stop by and see everybody before I left. Since Tony and McGee are not yet in and Gibbs was not at his desk, I thought I would visit you and Bert."
Abby squeezed the stuffed hippo before handing him over to Ziva. "Tony and Timmy aren't in yet? Timmy should be here. Tony might still be with Brad getting pricked like a pincushion, but McGee should be here. Gibbs isn't going to like this."
"You do not think Tony had another attack?" Ziva frowned. "I thought Gibbs and Ducky were being overcautious. Perhaps I was mistaken?"
Abby shook her head so hard her pigtails whipped around. "I don't know what to think. Timmy's a sweetheart, but he only slept on his floor for me because that psycho was after me. If Tony's really OK, do you think Timmy would have let him have his bed?"
"But Abby, you volunteered him," Ziva replied, puzzled. "What did you expect them to do, share a bed?"
"Well, no." She shrugged. "I- I'm not sure what I thought."
Ziva smiled. "I know Tony and McGee have become much closer since I left. I did not realize they went running together. Although that would explain why McGee is looking so, so..."
"Good?" Abby smirked. "Timmy's looking downright hot these days."
"But it is not that hot today?" Ziva knew from the look on Abby's face that she had missed another idiom.
"Not temperature hot. Jump his bones hot." Abby wiggled her eyebrows. "Come on, Ziva. You can't tell me you haven't noticed."
Ziva realized what Abby was trying to say. "You want to date McGee?"
"No! I've done that before. Timmy's a sweetheart, and he's great in bed, but he's too scared of Gibbs to ever break Rule 12."
Ziva tried to remember which was Rule 12. "It is better to ask forgiveness than permission?"
"No, that's 18. Never date a co-worker." Abby smiled. "I think Gibbs means teammates, not me, Ducky and Jimmy. But McGee was so spooked when Kate told him about Rule 12 that he called it off. He didn't want to give Gibbs a reason to ship him back to Norfolk."
Ziva felt a twist in her belly. "I suppose I cannot argue with Gibbs on Rule 12, not after Michael."
"Oh, no. Ziva, I didn't mean to-"
"It is all right, Abby. I know you did not mean anything by what you said." Ziva forced a smile on her face. "I did not mean for us to get uptracked on McGee's body."
"Sidetracked, Ziva." Abby reached over to hug her, the exuberant squeeze loosening the knot inside the Israeli. "So, Tony and McGee."
"Yes. I have noticed it ever since they... they rescued me. They seem to understand each other without even speaking sometimes. Like last week..."
***********
The men walked back into the bullpen after investigating a dead petty officer at Pax River. Ziva had compiled everything she could find about Petty Officer Keith Zane into a file and she handed it to Gibbs as he walked past her desk. Gibbs pulled out his hated reading glasses and scanned it as Tony put out a BOLO for the petty officer's missing truck and McGee started pulling financial records.
"Ziva, the witnesses say they saw a tall sailor, Latino or Middle Eastern, running away from Zane's house," McGee said.
"I will pull a list of all the sailors at Pax River that fit that description." She turned back to her computer to key in the search terms as Tony walked over to stand behind McGee, arm behind him as he looked over his shoulder.
"Anything suspicious, McBanker?"
Ziva looked over to see McGee jerk his head the way Gibbs often did, so small it was barely noticeable. Tony's eyes narrowed. "Really?" He pointed to a point on the screen and McGee started tapping.
"Good call," he said a minute later.
Ziva's computer started beeping, so she looked back to pull up the results.
"Six sailors at Pax River fit that description, McGee," she said. "Only one is in Zane's unit."
"Petty Officer Marco Hernandez," Tony said.
"Yes. How did you...?"
"Hernandez withdrew $2,000 from his savings account the same day Zane got a deposit for that same amount," McGee said.
Ziva started pulling information on Hernandez as Tony gave McGee a high-five. "Good tracking, McSnoopy."
McGee just smiled at him and started typing. "Let's see what else I can find in here."
Tony reached around him to point at the screen; McGee just nodded.
**************
"Gibbs has always been able to say what he needs without saying anything. But Tony and McGee, they did not do that before. They could tell what Gibbs was not saying."
Abby cut Ziva off. "Well, yeah. You don't last with Bossman if you don't understand grunts and looks."
"But they only did that with Gibbs. Not with each other. It was as if there were entire conversations going on that I did not understand." Ziva bit her lip, trying to fight against the hurt she felt. "I have seen this many times since I have been back."
Abby wrapped her in a giant hug. "Oh, Ziva. I'm sure it's just that they had to lean on each other this summer while you were gone. Tony was so upset, we put in lots of time trying to track you down. I'm sure it's just that he and McGee now understand each other like Timmy and I do when we started geek-speaking. We don't even realize we're doing it. Just watch, it'll be back to normal once you're back here from FLETC and the team is all together again."
Ziva forced a smile to her face. "I am sure you are right Abby. I must be imagining it."