Ziva was carefully considering McGee as he started up his computer while putting his bag and coat away. He had no coffee with him this morning so he was either running late this morning (for him as he was still on time, unlike her partner) or felt like he did not need coffee. All of them always needed coffee recently so it was more likely to be the former. Hopefully this did not mean that ne was in a bad mood this morning, though, he very rarely was, because she wanted to ask him a question.

She somewhat impatiently waited until he had sorted himself out and was clicking away at his computer.

"McGee, what does 'warmed over death' mean?"

He looked up and blinked at her, looking quite unsure of himself.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

"The saying, 'warmed over death'," she repeated. "What does it mean?"

"In what context?"

"It has multiple meanings?"

McGee shook his head. "Not really but it does only make sense in certain ways."

"Ah. Well, someone said I looked like it."

"Someone said you looked like death warmed over?" He asked incredulously.

"Yes."

Why was this so shocking to him? The way it had been said to her had made it sound like a common enough phrase, she just wasn't completely sure what it meant. Hence asking McGee. She certainly was going to ask Tony; she wouldn't hear the end of it for weeks.

McGee coughed. "It means tired. That you look tired. Really, really tired."

"Then why say that I looked like death?"

"Um... maybe you looked really tired to them?"

Ziva frowned. If that was so, it was a bit of an exaggeration to imply that she looked dead. Maybe if she was very ill, sometimes that could make you look like someone on Ducky's autopsy table. Trust her, she knew. She still hadn't got used to these blasted D.C winters. Awful, horrendous things that they were.

But still, being a bit tired or overworked did not make you look like a dead person, in her opinion.

"But dead people don't look tired, they look dead!"

They looked quite peaceful, if anything. Like they were sleeping. Is that why that was a saying? But just because it looked like someone was sleeping still did not mean they looked tired. Oh, English still annoyed her even after all these years.

"It's meant to describe how tired you look," McGee tried to explain. "So, uh, you must have looked really, really tired."

He gave her a sympathetic look which Ziva was more than a little disgruntled about. No one liked it being pointed out how awful they looked. And she was no exception.

"I was tired," she begrudgingly admitted. "But that did not mean that I looked dead."

"It's just a saying, Ziva."

That did not mean she had to be happy about it.

"And warming dead people up just makes them explode," she added irritably.

Before McGee could reply to that blunt statement he was interrupted by the 'ding' of the elevator.

"Who's dead?" Tony asked as he came in, slightly late as usual.

But she noticed that he had four coffees with him. Oh, thank God. Had she ever me tinned how good of a partner Tony was? Because he was.

"Nobody."

"I just heard that someone died. Do we have a case? Is Gibbs already gone?"

"No one is dead, Tony," McGee said with a sigh.

"Then why are you talking about death?"

"I was just explaining that something someone told Ziva meant see looked really tired." Ziva shot him a dark look, making him stutter. "Of course, you don't look tired to me. I mean, not now, I-"

"Quit before you dig yourself into a deeper hole, Probie," Tony advised him, making his way over to stand in front of Ziva's desk and look at her critically.

"Can I help you, Tony?" she asked irritably.

"You do look a bit tired, sweetcheeks."

That comment was not helpful. It was also the last thing that she wanted to hear. Even him holding out a coffee to her did not make it any better. Even though she needed the caffeine. However, she did not like admitting that she needed the caffeine.

"I am not tired."

His eyebrows shot up briefly.

"Didn't say you were. Just that you looked it."

Before she could respond to that, he turned his back to her and sat down at his own desk.

"We are all tired," Ziva said defensively.

"That's true," said McGee.

"It's been a long few weeks," Tony agreed, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head. "And we're still going."

"We have to," Ziva said simply.

Because they did. Even if people died, if they were betrayed or if tragic things happened (and all three had happened), they just had to keep going. They were alive. They were well. They had jobs to do.

Tony sighed heavily. "Yeah, we do."

That sigh wasn't a 'Why did I choose this job' sigh. No, of course it wasn't. They all knew what this job entailed. But sometimes, sometimes, they had to realise that they weren't superheroes. They didn't have extraordinary powers. They got tired. Run down. Disillusioned with the world. It just didn't normally happen at once. Or hit as hard as it had been like it had recently.

Ziva was just glad that it wasn't only her feeling like this. Now that she looked at them properly, Tony and McGee also looked tired. Dark circles under their eyes and all. Perhaps they didn't look like a dead person but they certainly didn't look healthy either. Was this what Amelia meant?

They all sat in silence, contemplating this. Ziva didn't know about her team but right now she was starting to feel the weight of what had happened in recent weeks. Oh, she had been aware that they had been big events but they had had to press on.

"Think we'll get an easy case today?" McGee asked hopefully.

Tony snorted and was about to answer when Gibbs came storming in. One look at his face and Ziva determined that that answer would very much be a no.