Ziva had to admit to herself, she really hadn't been concentrating this evening. Hadn't really been paying attention. She just waited her turn and put her tiles on the board and made appropriate noises when people were talking. The next thing Ziva knew was that the game was over. It was one of those strange times where time passed quickly but if you checked your watch it felt like time was passing so slowly.

But now the game was over and everything was getting packed away. Ziva felt like she was coming out of a daze. She didn't like that feeling. Whatever. At least the night was over and she could go home. Everyone else was probably glad as well, she definitely was not a good guest this evening.

"Hey, you good?" Amelia asked gently as she handed the scrabble box over to Francisca (they all had their own boxes now).

"Yes."

Amelia tilted her head to one side, the look on her face saying that she didn't believe her.

"Why?" Ziva added, a bit more defensively.

"You have had you like head in the sky this whole game," Raphael said, shaking his head. "You made a poor opponent."

"Cloud. She had her head in the clouds," Amelia corrected almost absentmindedly- used to even worse mangling of idioms. "But you have, Ziva."

"Yet, she still managed to beat you," taunted Francisca.

Amelia decided to be the better person and ignore her.

"My mind is... elsewhere," Ziva replied with a shrug.

"Oh?" Francisca asked in interest.

"With work," Ziva added before the older woman could get any ideas. "Work has been busy."

"But you are not at work right now."

"I haven't been able to... switch my brain off. It has been a busy few weeks."

Few months really but the past few weeks had definitely been the worst.

"No, no, no," Francisca contradicted. "You do not get so distracted over such a silly thing as work." The last word was said with an impressive amount of disdain.

Ziva raised an eyebrow. "And you know what I am thinking?"

"You have a boyfriend, don't you?"

The woman did not have to look so eager. Nor did everybody else.

"Is it Tony?"

"No!" Ziva spluttered.

Why did everyone always think she was dating Tony? And it wasn't any of their business if she was dating someone anyway. Americans liked to pry too much.

"It is Tony." Francisca said triumphantly and everyone actually nodded in agreement with her.

"I am not dating Tony!"

Definitely not. Why on earth would she date Tony? Her partner. There was Rule Twelve for a start and, well, they wouldn't exactly be compatible, would they? The very thought was ridiculous.

"I am not dating Tony," Ziva said very firmly.

That thought should go out of their heads right now and never, ever return. No. Just no.

Yes, he was funny. Yes, he was attractive (she wasn't blind, after all). Yes, he was fun to flirt with. Yes, he always had her back. But no. She was not dating Tony and would never date Tony.

"Why do you think I am dating anyone anyway?" She asked in exasperation, hoping to put all this speculating to bed once and for all.

Still not mentioning Michael. Ziva did not think what they were doing was dating in the traditional sense of the word anyway.

"You have missed a lot of games recently."

"That is because I have been working."

"Nobody works that much." Raphael said with a scoff.

Ziva snorted at that. Clearly, they hadn't met Gibbs. Or her father. She doubted either of them had ever worked normal office hours in their lives.

"Well, I have."

That came out more snappish than she meant. But that was what she was feeling snappish. Well, she was feeling other emotions; sadness, grief, betrayal, anger, but they were not emotions she liked dealing with. So, she didn't. Hence the snappishness.

Of course, in Ziva's mind she had some very good reasons for being snappish - Michelle Lee's betrayal (and ultimate redemption?), Tony constantly going on at her, McGee not getting rid of those photos and had she mentioned the incredibly long work hours? Any one of these would make a normal person snap and Ziva had to deal with all of them. Not that she could tell anyone here of her reasons. Nor did she want to. All that mattered was that she was tired and didn't want to be around people currently.

Okay, yes, she was a little, what did Amelia say, tetchy? But, could you really blame her? Between everything that has been happening at work and then, of course, because of work she missed Liu's farewell party and, well, she was thinking of Michael. She didn't miss him, of course she didn't miss him. But she was wondering what he was doing and if he was safe. Which was stupid as he was a Mossad Officer and what they did was never safe. That was normal for them. Nothing really to worry about. Bah, America really had made her soft. What a thought.

Amelia raised an eyebrow and frowned. "Okay, then."

Ziva sighed. That had come out wrong. This was why she should have just stayed at home.

"It is just..." she faltered, wanting to say what had been going on but she knew that she couldn't. "A lot has been going on," she finished lamely.

She did not blame Amelia for getting annoyed at her. She was annoyed at herself. That explained nothing to them.

Amelia nodded. "That's okay."

But there was something off about her voice which meant she was not okay with it. Ziva sighed again. This was all going wrong and she didn't know how to fix it. She was finding that she didn't know how to fix a lot of things.

"Sorry, Amelia," she said softly. "I didn't mean to snap."

An apology defined didn't fix things but maybe it would be a step in the right direction.

It did get her a small smile from her friend.

"Oh, go and get some rest," Amelia instructed. "You look like warmed over death."

Now, what on earth was that supposed to mean?