"Dammit dammit dammit dammit!"
Ziva could hear the cursing before she even pushed the ladies room door open, and she braced herself for whatever was waiting on the other side. What she found, however, made her pull up short and stare:
Abby was standing in front of the mirror, one pigtail caught in her studded leather cuff, cursing like a sailor at her reflection. "This is not the day for this," she muttered, still not noticing the newcomer. "I'm already behind, and Gibbs wants that laptop, and - I can't believe I did this! And no way am I going out there and -" She turned toward the door, reluctantly deciding that she might have to venture outside and ask for help, and was surprised by the sight of Ziva. "Ziva!" She automatically tried to put her arm down, succeeded only in nearly yanking a clump of hair out of her head, and cursed again.
"You need help," Ziva said matter-of-factly, moving into the room and reaching for the other woman's arm. "Stand still."
"Yeah." Abby bit her lip and gave her caught arm another, even more frustrated, yank. "This stupid -"
"Hold still, Abby!" She grabbed Abby's arm before she could do any more damage to herself. "You have little enough hair without pulling the rest of it out in frustration, motek. Be still." Gently, she began unraveling the hair that was wrapped around a diamond-shaped stud on Abby's wrist. "How did you get yourself into this predicament? Your hair is -" She pursed her lips and tried unwrapping hair in another direction when her first effort didn't seem to help. "- very firmly wrapped up in here."
"God, I don't know," Abby groaned. "I was just fixing my hair and I had the elastic around my wrist, and I don't know, it must have dragged the cuff up when I tried to get at it - ow!"
"Sorry." Ziva lowered the strands she had been able to loosen with that last tug and focused on the rest of the tangled chunk. "You are closer to being free now, at least." She frowned in concentration and went back to work. "You are not yourself today," she reflected without looking up a few seconds later.
Abby looked at her in the mirror and sighed. "I know. I'm just having a - a terrible horrible no good very bad day."
"All that?" Ziva looked up in surprise as she freed the rest of the hair and smoothed it up to re-tie the pigtail it had come from.
Abby quirked a smile at Ziva's unfamiliarity with the phrase and held still as she watched her friend style her hair. "It's the title of a book. A kid's book. About a boy and his bad day."
"I see. And you are having one of these days today? There." Satisfied with her work up close, she stepped back to get a better look at it. "I do not have quite the touch that you do, but I think it's passable, yes?"
Abby leaned toward the mirror and lifted one hand to touch Ziva's handiwork. "Not bad. And yes, I'm having a very bad day." Despite her grumpiness, she leaned forward to give Ziva a hug. "Thanks. This would have been so embarrassing, to walk out there and ask, like, Gibbs to untangle me - oops," she broke off as she tried to withdraw her arms and found her wrist now caught in Ziva's hair. "Oh my god, you've got to be kidding me!"
"What?" With more length to her hair than Abby had, Ziva was able to turn her head slightly to see the problem. "Oh, no. Abby!"
"I'm sorry!" Abby wailed, trying to free herself and getting nowhere. "I'm never wearing this cuff again, I swear!"
"Ziva!" The bathroom door cracked open and Tony's face appeared from behind it. "You in here? We need to go check that storage uni - oh ho!" he broke off, catching sight of the two women with their arms around each other. "Listen, ladies, I'd love to get this on pay-per-view, but Ziva and I need to work. So maybe some other -"
"Shut up and get in here!" Ziva hissed furiously.
Taken aback by the eager invitation, Tony looked over his shoulder, expecting to see someone else behind him who had been the object of her statement. When he saw no one, he turned back to them and asked, "Me?" Belatedly, he noticed that they hadn't moved apart even with the door open. "I mean, always glad to be of service to two -"
"Tonyyy!" Abby whined, stomping her foot.
"Ok, ok. What's up?" He released the door and took another step into the room.
"We're stuck!"
He raised his eyebrows. "In here?"
"Together!" both women said at the same time. To demonstrate, Abby thrust out her arm to show him where Ziva's hair was caught.
"Ouch!" Ziva protested, sidestepping to avoid having her hair yanked out by the roots. "Tony, get my hair out of her cuff before she makes me bald!"
He looked from one woman to the other. "Really? No, seriously?" he pressed when they both just glared at him.
"Yes!" Abby snapped, exasperated.
Tony grinned. "Thank you, oh lord, for the bounty of which I am about to partake - ow!"
With grim looks, both women lowered the hands they had just used to smack him with.
