Tony had been far too amused to give her any proper explanation about his rabbit comment, except the fact that rabbits were a big thing at Easter. And she called knew that because they were all over the place. On posters, as toys, you could apparently even meet the Easter Bunny but Ziva really wasn't sure how that worked. Weren't there already petting farms or zoos or something that let you do that? And bunnies couldn't talk. Why would you want to meet one? She used her better judgement and didn't say that thought out loud. McGee point blank refused to say anything to either of them regarding holidays- resolutely pretending to do work (despite them not having an active case). Probably for the best (for everyone's sanity) but, again, it meant that she didn't get any explanation. This seemed to be a recurring theme for these American holidays and she did not like it. Tony was far too amused by this. Partners were supposed to help each other, were they not?

Thankfully, McGee was actually a nice person and decided to explain.

"Bunnies and chicks and lambs are all associated woth Easter simply because Easter is in Spring and that's when all the animals are giving birth."

Ah. That did make sense then. And who didn't like lambs and chicks? It also explained the deluge of said animals as toys in the shops.

"Some people even say that the chocolate Easter eggs are left by the Easter bunny," Tony decided to throw in there.

That comment completely short-circuited her brain.

"What?"

Bunnies definitely did not lay eggs. They were mammals, not birds or reptiles. They didn't even eat chocolate (did any animal?). They ate carrots and lettuce and the like. Not even milk. As far as she knew anyway.

"Would it not make more sense for a chicken to bring the eggs?"

At least they lay them! Ok, not chocolate ones but at least that would be more relevant than bunnies.

"Yeah, kind of a Father Christmas but for Easter," Tony continued, ignoring her disbelief. "Some malls even have a guy dress up in a rabbit costume and give out Easter eggs to kids."

"That sounds horrifying."

Before Tony could agree or disagree with her the elevator dinged and Abby carefully came out, very unlike how she usually did (which was normally a lot bouncier). The reason behind her rather slow walk was evident quite quickly.

"Rabbits?" McGee said blankly, recognising the bundle of fur in her arms. "You have rabbits?"

"Bunnies," she corrected as she stopped in the middle of the bullpen and looked proudly at her bundle. "Aren't they adorable?"

None of the team replied to her as they were far too busy staring at her in disbelief. Why did Abby have bunnies? Actually, where did she even get the bunnies? This was a federal building for crying out loud!

"Abby, why do you have rabbits -" Tony began.

"Bunnies."

"Rigjt, bunnies. Why do you have bunnies in the office?"

"Well you see, Sister Rosita bought them for the Easter Services, for the kids, she thought they could have a Easter petting zoo or something, especially since the donkey was so successful for Palm Sunday. It was absolutely adorable by the way, she got him from a place that rescues abused or retired donkies and he was the sweetest thing though he did have a bit of an attitude but could you really blame hi-"

"The point, Abs," Tony managed to interrupt after making the most amusing of faces for each of his precious attempts. "Do you have one?"

Abby turned to him, almost dropping a bunny (was it really different to a rabbit), and nodded. "Yes. The point. I do have one."

"Then can you please get to it?"

"Don't you want to here about Ashton?"

Ziva was pretty sure that the confused look on Tony's face was mirrored on hers. Ashton? What or who was that? Had they all missed something in Abby's rapid-fire explanation? It was possible, Ziva was still getting used to following Abby's conversation - it was definitely a skill you had to learn here - but she would have thought Tony would have understood her.

"Ashton?" Tony repeated.

"Yeah, Ashton!"

Tony touched his finger tips to the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath.

"And who exactly is Ashton?"

Abby gave him an injured look. "The donkey, Tony, keep up!"

"You named a donkey Ashton?"

"After Ash Wednesday! He was born on it so it was fate!"

"Uh huh."

"Anyway," Abby said pointedly. "As I was saying before I was distracted -"

"You distracted yourself!"

"Anyway! The nuns wanted to make a kind of Easter petting zoo, they got chicks and bunnies and all sorts for it. It was going to be really cute. You could bottle feed the lambs, hold the chicks. There was even going to be a 'Pin the Ears on the Bunny' game. Not an actually bunny, on a bit of paper," she added hastily at Ziva's disturbed look. "The Easter version of 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey'."

"That does not explain why the bunnies are now here," Ziva said slowly.

"Oh, it turns out at least three of the nuns are allergic to bunnies. Horrible rashes, swollen eyes, the whole lot. Sister Rosita came out in full on hives. Not a good look. You couldn't even see her eyes!"

"So you took them from her." McGee stated.

"Well, of course, McGee! They couldn't just stay there!"

"And you thought here would be better?" Ziva asked but she was ignored.

"They can't stay here either!" Tony hissed, looking all around him - most likely for Gibbs.

"They're going to stay down in my lab."

"Ah. Lab bunnies."

Abby clutched the closer to her and glared at Ziva. "I'm not going to run experiments on them, Ziva!"

That wasn't what she meant but there was no point in correcting Abby when she got like this.

One of the bunnies decided that it did not like being in Abby's arms and thought it could do something about it. Mainly, jump from her arms onto Tony's desk. They all stared at it. It twitched its nose at them.

"Uh, Abs..."

"Grab it, Tony!" Abby said urgently. "Before it-"

And it jumped into his lap, making Tony push his chair away, scaring the creature and making it jump to the floor. Abby apparently forgot that she had other bunnies in her arms and moved one of her arms to grab her escapee.

"Uh oh."