AN: Set after Season 4 finale
"How did your polygraph go, Zee-vah?"
Ziva looked up at her overly curious partner and smirked. Which, of course, only made him more curious. It served him right with the way he had been acting all mysterious recently about this girlfriend of his. Or his maybe-girlfriend. He still hadn't said much about her despite all of her and McGee's prying. Even Abby had asked to no avail. He had been awfully close-mouthed since that whole fiasco in the hospital. Drug dealers, suspicion and then Tony seemed to pull away from them. Ziva didn't like it.
"You failed it, didn't you," he tried to goad but that didn't work.
"I never fail polygraphs," she scoffed.
The very idea was ridiculous. Her unable to control her emotions and physical response? Really? Definitely not. She was far better than that. Her training was far better than that. Not that that satisfied Tony. In fact, he was currently giving her a suspicious look.
"Why do I feel that that speaks more of your ability to lie than anything else?"
She just deepened her smirk and said nothing. There was nothing else really to add to that, was there?
"Right." He sighed. "Mossad ninja."
Exactly. Well, she was a Mossad Officer but Tony always said that a ninja was one, cooler and two, more skilled. So, she supposed it was an okay nickname. As long as no one else used it.
Ziva shrugged. "It went well."
She was safe to keep working for NCIS. Allegedly. Thankfully. She really didn't want to leave. Though, she was going to have to talk to someone about those polygraph questions. There were barely any decent ones at all. And all those questions about the Director? Smelled like a witch find. Ridiculous waste.
"Of course, it did," he sighed and then he squinted at her. "Don't polygraphs measure physical responses?"
"Yes."
That was why they were hooked up at multiple points, after all.
"How on earth do you control your sweat?"
What on earth type of question was that? Who asked that sort of thing? Oh, that's right. Her partner.
"I am not McGee."
She did not let herself get worked up. Controlled her emotions. It was as simple as that. Pretty basic training in Mossad really. If she could not do that, what type of Kidon Officer was she? She would have been dead on her first operation.
"You certainly aren't," he leered.
She rolled her eyes at that but inwardly she was pleased. He hadn't been doing their usual flirting/teasing thing recently. Ziva was surprised by how much she missed it. It was almost comforting, as weird as that sounded.
"How was yours?" she asked, more out of a courtesy than anything else.
Americans were big on that sort of thing even though it was very obvious that Tony had passed as he was sitting right in front of her.
"Okay," he shrugged. "I have no secrets."
Ziva scoffed at that. Everyone had secrets. That's the way humans were made. They may not be important ones but a person always had secrets. And in this line of work you definitely had them. Tony more so than others. All those secret meetings with the Director? Definitely some secrets there.
That, and she knew her partner. Knew how to read him. So of course, she knew (not thought) that something was going on. Something that definitely was not a good thing. She did not like the feeling that she did not and could not have his back. How could she when she knew nothing?
He was uncomfortable and unsure. Not confident at all which was especially strange for a man who usually oozed confidence. He covered it up, of course. Tony was very good at covering up and/or ignoring his emotions. That was almost more his thing than hers.
"Well..." he drawled when Ziva didn't say anything but trailed off into silence.
This was all getting a bit awkward. Which Ziva did not like. Time for a subject change. She wanted to ask him something anyway.
"I have a Scrabble night in a few days," she said. "Would you like to join me?"
Tony raised an eyebrow and gave her a look of mock shock.
"I'm finally getting invited to one of your mysterious game nights? Wonders will never cease."
"They are not mysterious, they are scrabble playing," she said in exasperation. "And it is my turn to host again."
There had been a bit of a mix up between a few of them about what order they were in. This is what happened when Ziva's work life basically took over her life and couldn't attend several meetings. The schedule got all messed up. However, they had determined it was her turn again (and drawn up a new schedule) so she could invite Tony. Amelia and Francisca had been getting annoying about it. That, and her partner had been very distant lately. Acting a bit strange too. Not to mention the meetings up in the Director's office. He never came back from those smiling and he didn't joke around sometimes for hours afterwards. It was all quite worrying. Almost as worrying as when she thought there was something medically wrong with him.
Then she realised that he hadn't answered her so she looked at him expectantly.
"What?"
"Would you like to come?"
This was even more behaviour. She would have thought that Tony would be more enthusiastic about his response. He had been going on and on about not being invited. But a thought struck her, that had nearly been a year ago, now that she thought of it.
"Ah, no. I'm okay. I'm busy."
Just then his phone rang. He looked down at the caller ID and immediately left his desk, presumably to go somewhere quieter. She watched him as he deliberately turned his back to the office and frowned.
She had never told him what day the game was on. How did he know that he'd be busy?
Bah! Secrets!
