A/N: For Your Royal Highness who's having a bad week.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once again Gibbs had declined the offer to go out and eat with his team. There had been a brief debate on why they even had to go out (McGee had thought the cafeteria would be just fine) however it was decided that it would be more fun to have a celebratory dinner somewhere else (Tony didn't want Elsa suddenly dropping in to analyze them).

After more debate it was decided that they would take both cars. Abby had found a bar not far from a restaurant and wanted to go dancing afterwards and Ziva was hesitant due to having to be up so early for their session with Elsa the next morning. Tony gallantly offered to take his car as well and then they could decide what they wanted to do after dinner.

The ride over to the restaurant was quiet in Tony's car. Both were trying valiantly to think about anything other then each other. Both were failing miserably. Tony was thinking about how he could convince Ziva to just give in to their "homework" and kiss him and Ziva was thinking about how many ways she could keep herself from doing just that.

"You sure you don't want to go dancing after dinner Zee? It could be a lot of fun." Tony finally asked having caved in to the temptation of breaking the silence.

"We will see Tony. We do have an early session tomorrow and I don't want to show up tired and out of sorts."

Tony's head whipped over to look at his partner almost fast enough to give him whiplash, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"What? I know I got that one right." Ziva said defensively. "Can you please watch the road before you get us both killed?"

Tony turned to look back out the windshield. "That's why I'm shocked Zee, you got that one right. You rarely get them right. I still think it would be fun to go out afterwards. You never know what we'll catch Abby and McGee doing." He said with a leer. "Besides you don't have to drink."

"We'll see how dinner goes Tony. Although if you really want to go, I could just take your car back to the camp and you could go with Abby and Tim."

Tony winced at the thought of Ziva driving his car. He trusted his partner with his life, he trusted his partner with the keys to his apartment (they had been exchanged solely in the case of an emergency) however he wasn't so sure he trusted her enough to let her drive his car without him in it. "Tell you what Zee, if you still want to go back after dinner, I'll take you back."

Ziva smirked. "You just do not want me driving your car."

"If you didn't drive like a crazy person, perhaps that wouldn't be an issue. As it is, if you want to leave I'll take you back. Besides, we're here." He said pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant.

They got out of the car and headed in. Abby and McGee had already arrived and had saved some seats in the back corner booth. Conveniently the only spaces left were a bench that Tony and Ziva would have to squeeze into.

Abby smiled when she saw Ziva slide in with Tony right next to her. Once again, he had to put his arm around her in order to fit them both into the booth comfortably and Ziva had relaxed into the space created next to his shoulder.

"Took you long enough to get here." Abby told them after they had sat down. "You should have let Ziva drive Tony." She smiled at the grimace that flashed across his face.

The conversation flowed easily as they waited for the waiter to show up to take their orders. Tony and Abby kept the others laughing with ridiculous stories from their college days, they naturally tried to best each other with the stories getting more and more ridiculous before Tim finally called them out for exaggerating.

Ziva was having a good time. She had forgotten how relaxing it could be to be out with a group of friends not having to worry that they may get called into work. She found Tony's arm around her comforting and she honestly wished that the circumstances were different and that somehow they could be together. She quickly gave her head a quick shake to send those thought elsewhere. She and Tony were co-workers and partners, and that's the way things were, no matter how much she may have wished otherwise.

Tony noticed Ziva give her head a quick shake but decided not to call her out on it. It may not be something she wanted everyone to know about however he would make sure to ask her about it later. It was easier to get her guard down when it was just the two of them.

The waiter finally came to take their orders and a silence descended upon the group once he had left. It was a comfortable silence that could only be achieved by a group of friends. Until Abby broke it.

"So, I want to hear about your counselling sessions." She asked Tony and Ziva watching the way they immediately tensed up with her question. "I think they could be fun and I'm kinda jealous that you guys get to go."

"You're more then welcome to have my spot." Tony muttered. "Crazy stalker shrink." He mumbled just loud enough for Ziva to hear causing a small smile to appear on her face.

"What's the big deal?" McGee asked. "Partners see shrinks all the time. They help you work on trust and stuff."

"Do you think we need help trusting each other McNosey?" Tony asked somewhat snidely.

"Hey, don't pick on Timmy." Abby protested. "I'm the one that asked the question. You don't get to be annoyed with him."

"It's fine Abby." McGee quickly inserted.

"No it isn't." she insisted. "Tony's being mean, and he shouldn't be." She said her arms crossing in front of her chest. "Say your sorry Tony."

Ziva had to smile at this one. It wasn't often someone besides herself and Gibbs ever stood up to Tony and it was refreshing to see Abby defending Tim. Especially since he was turning bright red at the attention. "Abby is right Tony. You should apologize to Tim."

Tony turned to shoot a glare at Ziva. Traitor. She was supposed to be on his side.

"Fine. I'm sorry Tim." He said somewhat sarcastically. He then turned to Ziva. "If you want to tell them about the counselling session, please feel free to go ahead." He felt somewhat vindicated at the look of panic that suddenly crossed her face.

"Yeah Ziva," Abby started in again "What are the sessions like?"

Ziva looked like a deer caught in the headlights. The last thing she wanted to talk about at a celebratory dinner was their counselling sessions. "They are waste of time." She finally answered not wanting to say anything that would let Abby and Tim know something was off.

"I highly doubt that Ziva." Abby countered. "If they were a waste of time they wouldn't make you go."

"Not true Abby." Tony swiftly intervened. "They made us do the trust game, you know the one where you fall backwards and your partner catches you."

Abby's entire face lit up. "I love that game. Except when you get dropped. Then it's not really so much fun."

"I do not wish to discuss therapy while we are celebrating." Ziva interrupted.

"It's not therapy Sweet Cheeks." Tony inserted. "It's partner counselling sessions. We are not in therapy."

"Whatever." She responded waiving her hand. "Perhaps we can discuss something more celebratory."

Thankfully the waiter chose that moment to show up with their food and conversation was stopped long enough for them to start eating.

It wasn't long before Abby noticed that Tony was eating off both his plate and Ziva's, and strangely enough Ziva was not stopping him. She nudged Tim's leg under the table and gestured to the two of them. McGee looked less then impressed.

"Tony, why are you eating both your dinner and Ziva's?" she finally asked trying to draw attention to what he was doing.

"Ziva never finishes hers." He replied with a shrug as if this were a fairly common occurrence.

Abby looked to Ziva. "It's true." She explained. "This way at least everything gets eaten. He may be a pig, but it can be useful."

"Hey, I resent that. I'm not a pig. It's not my fault you can barely eat anything. Although, you really need to try my chicken." He added. Abby watched as Tony speared a piece of chicken on his fork and transferred it to Ziva's mouth. She just barely kept her mouth from dropping open. He was feeding her in public and not one of them thought this was odd. She looked to McGee again who kept eating as if this was an every day occurrence. For all she knew it was an everyday occurrence. She shook her head and went back to her food. They really did belong together.

Dinner was consumed and dessert was ordered, Tony insisting that Ziva needed to order dessert so that he could have half of it. Tony's arm had been re-draped across Ziva's shoulders as they sat waiting for their meals to digest.

"So, are you coming dancing with us or not?" Abby suddenly demanded. "If this is a true celebratory dinner you have to come dance at least a couple of songs."

"Abby, we have an early morning tomorrow. You are lucky that you do not have to get up as early to visit a counsellor." Ziva told her trying to find a way out that wouldn't offend anyone.

"Nope. Not going to work." Abby told her. "It's only 9 o'clock. It's not late at all. Pretty please?" she asked not at all opposed to begging to get her way.

Ziva looked at Tony trying to gauge his reaction. She knew that he wanted to go out, and sure enough he gave her his interpretation of puppy dog eyes and she knew she was sunk. She would have to go out for at least a couple of songs. She sighed and turned to face Abby. "A couple of songs. No more."

"Yeah!" Abby exclaimed hugging Tim in her excitement. "This is going to be fun."

They finished their dessert and headed back out into the night towards the club that Abby had found. They entered the club together McGee throwing his arm around Abby's shoulders casually while they took stock of what was going on. Tony and Ziva exchanged amused smirks certain that their Goth lab tech enjoyed the slight protection that McGee was giving her.

They headed a little further into the club and it wasn't too long before Abby was dragging McGee into the crowd to go dance.

"I think we just got ditched Zee."

"I knew this was a bad idea." She responded as someone bumped into her knocking her off balance and into Tony. He quickly put his arms out wrapping one around her to steady her.

"How many drinks have you had?" He teased her knowing full well that she hadn't consumed any. "Maybe we should go find a table." He yelled into her ear as the further into the club they got the louder the music got. He kept an arm around her and started weaving through the rather large crowd trying to find some type of table area. They hadn't gotten very far before Tony felt an arm on his shoulder and turned around to see an ecstatic Abby beckoning them to come dance. He allowed himself to get pulled into the crowd pulling Ziva along with him.

She had absolutely no idea how she ever let herself get talked into these things. She felt herself being pulled into the crowd by Tony, who was in turn being pulled by Abby and she looked around to see if she could spot Tim. She finally spotted him and had to smile at the look on his face. He was surrounded by women and looked supremely uncomfortable. She decided to go save him and disconnected herself from Tony's arm. She tossed him a smile as he turned around to see what was going on and headed over to where Tim was.

She quickly grabbed his arm and dragged him away from the women into a slightly more clear area where they could talk without yelling too loud.

"Having fun?" She asked him and laughing at the face he pulled. "Why did you agree to come then?"

McGee simply shrugged. He could hardly tell her that he was there on a secret plan to make sure that she and Tony hooked up. "Uh, Abby wanted to come." Was the best explanation he could give. He felt himself start to turn red when Ziva threw him a knowing smirk. He wanted to protest what he knew she was thinking but didn't dare in the off chance that Abby found out. He shrugged his shoulders and grinned back at her. At least Ziva wouldn't tease him as much as Tony would.

They turned around to watch Tony and Abby dancing. They were both clearly having a great time trying to out do each other on the dance floor.

"You know," Ziva suddenly said close to his ear, "We could just leave them here." Tim turned to look at her as if seeing her for the first time. She was right. They didn't need to be here. If Abby and Tony wanted to dance the night away they could go home in Tony's car later. He turned to respond and watched as Ziva caught Tony's eye and they locked gazes for a minute. He rolled his eyes just as some guy shoved Ziva and she went sprawling into the crowd. He watched horrified as her face caught someone's elbow and she took a nasty blow before going down.

Tony watched as Ziva got knocked down and was over to his partner as fast as he could move. He wasted absolutely no time in reaching down, scooping her up and carrying her out of the club as fast as he could Abby and McGee following along behind him. He was out the door and to his car before he stopped to look down to see if she was conscious.

Abby had never seen Tony move so fast. He had been over to Ziva and scooped her up and out almost before she could blink. She had barely seen what happened before Tony had been over there rushing her out. She quickly followed him concerned about her friend.

"I'm fine." Ziva managed to tell everyone from where she was held in Tony's arms. She had barely managed to process what had happened before she found herself in Tony's arms being carried out of the club. She took stock of her injuries noting that she would probably have a bruise on her temple the next day but would otherwise be fine.

"Really." She told them noting the concerned looks on their faces. Tony gingerly placed her down sitting up on the hood of his car. She rolled her eyes. He really must be concerned if he placed her on his car.

"It's a bruise that is all." She insisted again at the looks they gave her.

"Um, maybe you should take a look." Abby told her pulling a mirror out of her purse.

Ziva looked into the mirror and let out a curse. She would most certainly have a bruise however it was going to be bigger then she had thought. Her eye was swelling up nicely and her temple was already changing colours.

"Let's get you home." Tony said gently pulling the mirror out of her hand and walking her around to the passenger seat. She let out an agitated sigh when he went to buckle her in however stifled the protest that wanted to make its way out. She hated that she was causing the look of worry on his face.

Tony was willing his heartbeat to go back down to normal. He swore he lost 10 years off his life when he saw her go down in that club. He wanted nothing more then to get her back to the camp safely and ice her face. She was going to be fine and that was all that mattered.

The ride back to the camp was silent, punctuated by Tony asking Ziva random questions to make sure that she didn't have a concussion.

"Who stared in the Tim Burton classic Edward Scissor Hands?"

"With or without a concussion I do not know the answer to that question." Ziva answered tiredly. "However I do not have a concussion."

They made it back to the camp with Abby and McGee right behind them. Tony went to carry her back up to the room however she waived him off insisting once again that she was fine. Honestly she didn't know what had come over him. He never showed this much concern when she was injured in the field. Nor should he. If they exhibited this much worry over injuries in the field they would never get anything accomplished. It was dangerous.

Tony watched as Ziva made her way up to her room. She was playing it off as if it were nothing but he knew it had to hurt, and he still wasn't sure she didn't have a concussion. He wasn't sure why he was feeling quite so protective. If he had scooped her up like that in the field Gibbs would have shot him, not to mention Ziva. He shook his head and followed after her.

The walk up to her room was silent. They had managed to loose Abby and McGee along the way. "I am fine Tony. You do not need to walk me inside." Ziva insisted at her door.

"I know." Tony said reaching up a hand and lightly brushing her temple. "You're the crazy ninja chick."

She smiled lightly. "I will see you in the morning." She told him before opening her door.

"Hey Zee?" he asked

She turned around and quickly before he could think about it he placed a feather light kiss on her bruised temple. "Sleep well." He said before turning around and heading into his room across the hall.

Ziva watched him disappear into his room and brought her hand up to lightly touch the spot he had just kissed. She felt butterflies in her stomach and allowed herself a small smile before entering her room for the night.