Tony was annoyed. And he was sulking but he would never admit to it. Grown men, especially those who were Special Agents did not sulk. Especially over something as ridiculous as what he was currently sulking over. Well, in his mind it wasn't ridiculous. It was perfectly sane and normal to him. The problem was that Ziva didn't seem to think so.

Ziva had point blank denied him the opportunity to get access of photos of her as a child. Specifically, those in which she was playing on the beach, building sandcastles of all things. Sandcastles! This was why he needed visible proof. Didn't she understand this? Even she had to realise just how unbelievable it was.

He closed his eyes and tried to picture it. Which was harder than he thought because he had seen absolutely no pictures of her as a child. Like not even a little hint.

No, wait, that was a lie. Technically there was a picture of her, Tali and another boy from when she was maybe nine or ten? But she didn't keep that out and he had only seen it once. And briefly at that. Absentmindedly, he wondered where that picture was now. Maybe he could get a closer look at that of some point.

But it wouldn't be the same as seeing her build sandcastles. And from the sound of it, she was younger than ten in those photos. Which meant she was little. Really little. How was he not supposed to think of that? Ziva apparently thought that he shouldn't be. Because it was nothing weird it out of the ordinary.

Except of course it was. She really should have expected that he would have been curious about a comment like she had made about sandcastles. He was nosy about everything. She knew that. McGee knew that. Gibbs knew that. Hell, even Palmer knew that. Everyone knew how nosy he was. Especially when it came to his partner. So, he was doubly curious.

Hey, it was what made him a brilliant investigator so no one could complain. It just also came in handy for things that weren't investigative work as well. Though, technically this was investigative work. He was investigating the theory of Ziva actually being a normal child who built sandcastles on the beach.

"So, these photos..." He began, hoping that maybe she would be in a better mood now they were back in the office and tying up the loose ends on the case.

There was no way they were going to do all that work they did only for it to fall through in court.

"You are not going to see them."

Okay, not in a more open mood. Hmm. That was okay. He could work with that. He thought so.

"Oh, please."

"No, Tony."

Right, okay, time to backtrack a little. That wasn't even an exasperated tone. That was an already annoyed tone. Which was not safe for him.

"You don't have to be the one showing me them," he tried again.

Maybe she was just embarrassed or something? He could always just look at them without her there. Or someone else could give them to him and she wouldn't have to be involved at all. Yeah, that sounded weak even to his ears.

She raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

He opened his mouth but Ziva beat him to the punch.

"I told you that you are not going to ask my Aunt Nettie anything," she said very firmly.

"Oh, come on," he wheedled. "I won't take up too much of her time."

Ziva snorted disbelievingly at that. Hey, he could keep things short and succinct. He could! Despite a lot of evidence to the contrary... but he could!

Okay, maybe he couldn't but that didn't mean he was going to waste time when talking to Nettie. Not when there were things to plan and, other, related things to sort out.

"You will not take up any of her time. Because you will not be talking to her."

Well, that was just unfair. He huffed and crossed his arms.

"In fact..." she continued

But before Ziva could tell him (or there then him) with anything else, they were thankfully interrupted.

"Ziver," Gibbs called from above them. "Up here."

Tony made as if to follow Ziva as she went up.

"Not you, DiNozzo," Gibbs said. "Or you, McGee," when he noticed that McGee was half out of his seat.

"But, Boss-"

When the team was split up for thing, bad thugs happened. Didn't everyone know this by now? And, yes, his mind immediately when to the worst possible scenario but could you really blame him?

"She's just needed for some translation work in MTAC," he explained.

Oh. Well, that wasn't so bad. Made sense. Yeah. There was nothing wrong there.

He watched as the two of them disappeared into MTAC, Ziva asking, "What language do I need to be-"

"Perfect," he announced, making McGee look over at him warily.

But Tony just grinned at him and waved at him to continue doing whatever he was doing. That earned him a suspicious look but he didn't really care. He was too busy trying to think of a loophole to Ziva's instructions so technically She couldn't get mad at him.

Surely there was more than just Nettie over there. She had more family than that, right? She had definitely mentioned cousins and she hadn't told him not to contact them.

Yeah! He could do that. He could find a way to contact her cousins and go from there. That wasn't contacting her Aunt Nettie. Oh, how he enjoyed a good loophole.

He rubbed his hands together in glee. Oh, this was all coming together, wasn't it? Fantastic.

There was a sound from above and he panicked. He was pretty sure that of that was Ziva she would immediately know what he was planning. She was just good like that.

It should be fairly simple. He just needed to call someone over there, charm them (What he was best at) and then ask nicely for the photos. Maybe after a few calls. Build up a rapport and all that.

And then he stopped, face falling. How exactly was he supposed to get their phone numbers?