Yay! Another chapter!
Thanks to my reviewers (there were a lot of you this week!) - Troubled-Angel-26, JessicaRae95, starie78, Bohogal1998, DS2010, S (she'll make it - it just make take a bit to get her out of trouble!), A (good guesses, but Ziva might not see it that way!), HappyGuest (you're right!), didodado (Welcome!), xstargirlx123, Fan (she most definitely will regret it!), dawnmarie1971, Fashionista-girl, and KrisShannon. Thanks to fiftyshadeswritergal who, as always with these chapters, has given me fabulous editing help. She is responsible for sparking a phone call between Ziva and her siblings in this chapter, which I very much enjoyed writing and that I hope you will enjoy reading.
Speaking of reading...
...
Despite her hopeful wishes of the night before, Ziva was not feeling any better in the morning.
She was feeling worse.
It was obvious from the second she had woken up and looked at the clock. Her favoured wake-up time was 5:30, or 6:00 at the latest. Right now it was 7:30.
Ziva dragged herself to her feet and over to the mirror. She looked at the cut. Despite the attempt with the sanitizer the previous night, the wound was now even more swollen and leaking pus from one corner.
"This is bad," she muttered to herself.
"Ziva, time to get up," Gibbs hollered from downstairs. "You've got a meeting with Jackie at Duck's house in an hour and a half."
Oh, that is bad! Jackie will want to ask me a bunch of nosy questions - for a full HOUR today! And then Ducky will want to poke me for another while and there is no way that he will be willing to skip changing the bandage himself. Only two days ago he was saying that it should be feeling better soon, that is was nearly closed. He will know that I did not listen and then he will lecture me and then Gibbs will hear him and say, 'What's the matter, Duck?' and then Ducky will tell him. Gibbs will be mad and probably spank me for "endangering" my health and then I will hurt even more. Gibbs will see me as weak and Jenny will be angry that I hid it from her. I got into this by not listening to Ducky in the first place. It is all my fault and now I have to keep hiding it or I will be in trouble! Besides, I am not weak.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
"Ziver! Get up!" Gibbs said from the other side her closed door. "Breakfast is ready."
"Yes, sir!" she called, wincing as she quickly turned toward her dresser. But as she was getting dressed, her mind was oh-so-busy. Telling Ducky about the pain was out of the question, as was letting him discover for himself how badly infected her side was. Telling Gibbs was even more unfathomable. So now she had to figure out a way to deceive - she preferred the word "trick" - both of the men.
If only she was able to realize how much the two sacrificially loved her, maybe her response would have been different.
But Ziva had no interest in seeing the situation from anyone else's perspective. That could inconveniently make her feel guilty.
Now how can I keep out of trouble?
"ZIVA!" Gibbs bellowed from the kitchen. It was the third time that he had called her, and it was obvious that his patience was gone.
It was only 7:45. What a great start to the day!
"COMING!" she yelled back equally as loud. She heard him grunt in frustration - probably due to what he deemed as "sassiness".
This is not starting right, she mused, repentant of that one flash of temper. But her repentance was more plain regret that now it would be harder to find a solution without Gibbs seeing her as "acting out" or being moody. She was well aware of what he would suspect, and to pull one over on him would require all of the sweetness and charm that she could muster. She pocketed her phone and hurried to the stairs. Gibbs was just starting to come up, a glare on his face.
"Good morning, Gibbs!" she said cheerfully, hiding her winces as she skipped down the steps, attempting to disarm him. It seemed to work a little. His face softened.
"Oatmeal's on the stove. Abby brought by some fruit."
"Really? When?"
"Last night."
"I did not hear her," Ziva said, going to the fridge and find a dish of freshly sliced pineapple, a cup of hulled strawberries, and what looked to be a second cup of peeled mango.
"You had already been in bed for an hour. She was headed back home after a benefit potluck for parrots or something and had fruit leftovers."
"I wish that I had heard her," Ziva mumbled.
"I'm too boring for you?" Gibbs asked.
This is good. He is actually joking a bit with me now! And this fruit has given me a great idea on how to keep away from trouble! But back to our conversation...
"You are not boring, Gibbs. I just ..."
"Miss the others?"
"Yes."
"I thought so. That's why I told Abs to get them all over here for supper tonight. I told 'er Tony owes you a pizza. He can cover the food and I'm sure that Abby and Tim'll have a game or something. Tony likes those dvd thingies, so you could watch one of those if you wanted."
Ziva felt her conscience twinge. Gibbs was planning - or letting Abby plan - a fun night for the team.
For me!
"I'm proud of you, Ziver. You're doing good."
It was definitely an exaggeration in Ziva's mind. There was no way that climbing out of windows, disobeying him and Jenny repeatedly in half a dozen ways, refusing to eat, and having as big of an attitude as she could muster would count as "doing good", but she had never received encouragement like that from Eli. Even though it was more of hopeful encouragement to do better in the future, she appreciated the kindness.
She did not appreciate how the kindness made her conscience feel. Her stomach twisted a little - did guilt make her side hurt even worse? - and she closed the refrigerator door.
"I am not very hungry, Gibbs."
He shook his head firmly.
"You WILL eat. Take a few strawberries or a couple bites of oatmeal, but you are not leaving before you eat something." He noticed how her eyes lit up mischievously and sternly shook his head. "And we will leave on time, young lady. So eat or else. I've already eaten. I'm going to go upstairs and shower. When I come down, I'm going to trust that you'll have had some food."
"Okay," Ziva said softly. She was in too much pain and guilt to protest further.
"You feeling fine, Zi?"
"Yes!" she protested. "Just ... thinking of something that I want to do later." Gibbs gave her a look and she immediately protested, "You will like it!"
He smirked and headed upstairs to shower. Ziva grabbed a small cereal bowl and helped herself to some of the oatmeal. A dash of cream and several strawberries later, she had a delicious start to her day. Grateful that Gibbs was upstairs and out of hearing distance she made a quick call. When she hung up she was smiling smugly.
Tricking Gibbs and Ducky will be no trouble at all!
...
On the car drive, Ziva's cell phone rang. She leaned back in her seat and answered, "David."
"Hi, Ziva!" Abby and Tim chorused on the other end.
"Good morning, McGee and Abby," Ziva said happily, cheered by the voices of her friends. She saw Gibbs smiling from the corner of her eye.
"We are missing you and Boss at work, but Tony is doing a good job," Tim informed her.
"But we still came in early together to play a prank on him anyway, because it is fun and we haven't got anything big going on," Abby giggled.
"What did you do?"
"We put super glue on his keyboard, stole his stapler, and put an ivy plant with olive oil smeared over the leaves onto his desk."
"Why would you do that with a plant?"
"To make it look like poison ivy!"
"Did he fall for it?" Ziva asked eagerly.
"All of it!" Abby cackled exuberantly.
"He freaked out over the poison ivy, demanding that Abby 'scientifically remove it, along with all the oil on my desk!'" McGee mimicked Tony's frightened squeal.
"And his hands got caught on the super glue and his face went red, he was so upset!" Abby chimed.
"And he still hasn't found where we put his stapler!"
"Where did you put it?" Ziva asked, enthralled by the story.
"We taped it underneath of his chair. He's already looked all through the lab and the desks in the bullpen, but he'll never think to look there!"
"Was he angry at you?" Ziva asked, reveling in the idea of her partner being so masterfully fooled.
"Of course!"
"Then why do you sound so happy?"
"Because he pretended to be Gibbs! I've never seen anything so hilarious!" Abby laughed. "He head slapped McGee, marched us to my lab, then said that we were in 'time-out' until he found his stapler."
"That does not sound fun."
"Ziva," McGee said, "what do you do when two people are ganging up on you?"
"Separate them," Ziva answered promptly.
"Yeah. But Tony got us to sit down together - still with our cellphones - in Abby's office, next to her computer and candy dish. We're going to watch a movie until something comes in that we actually need to do or Tony gives up and admits that we won!"
"Just don't tell Gibbs!" Abby staged whispered.
"I will not," Ziva promised. Gibbs looked over at her curiously and she smiled charmingly.
"Tell Abs and McGee to behave themselves," Gibbs said with a long-suffering eye roll.
"We heard him," Abby said with a sad sigh, that quickly brightened as she responded, "But we are! Tony told us to stay down here and don't cause any more trouble for him. We aren't. We are listening. Tell Gibbs that!"
"They say that they are listening to Tony," Ziva dutifully reported. Gibbs just sighed.
"I bet they are," he muttered.
"What movie do you want?" Abby asked Tim on the other end. As Tim began to check Abby's computer for the selection, Abby continued the conversation. "Are you excited about getting together tonight, Ziva?"
"Yes. It sounds fun. I wished that I had heard you last night. I would have liked to have seen you."
"Me too. But did you get the fruit?"
"Yes. I ate some of the strawberries for breakfast."
"Great. Anything special you want tonight? Gibbs said Tony will bring pizza. McGee was saying that he would bring the drinks. What do you want me to bring?"
Ziva thought for a moment. "Cookies. Chocolate chip cookies."
"Then tons of chocolate chip cookies we shall have!" Abby giggled. "See you later, Ziva!"
"See you, Ziva!" McGee added.
"Bye," Ziva replied before stopping the connection.
"Good talk?" Gibbs asked.
"Yes," Ziva said contentedly. She was excited to continue it that evening. She was interested in how long it would take for Tony to find his stapler.
...
Ziva huffed and puffed, shifted and sighed, rolled her eyes and refused to answer a lot of the questions, but she did stay through the whole counseling session.
"You don't have to answer all of my questions. Just know that I am listening to all of your answers," Jackie told her. Ziva tried it out, interrupting Jackie a few times to see if she would actually stop and listen. If she had not listened, Ziva would have rejoiced in reporting the therapist a liar to Gibbs, but no such luck. Ziva tried revealing outrageous facts about herself - "I am an assassin who has killed more people than I can remember" and "I started officially training with weapons when I was six" - but Jackie remained unflappable.
"And how does that make you feel that your parents let you handle weapons so young?" Jackie asked, leaving Ziva to try to wiggle her way out of a question that she had prompted.
"You know, we've been talking an hour now," Jackie finally said. Ziva snapped around to look at the clock. Fifty-nine minutes and thirty seconds had passed since they started talking.
"We can talk longer but if we do, that needs to be your choice."
More than anything, that convinced Ziva that Jackie was a good person. This was someone who knew how to keep her end of a deal. She would not have minded if the did go over in the future ... within reason and as long as it was within her control.
"I cannot talk any longer today. I have plans that cannot be postponed, but ... thank you."
"Oh, my pleasure!" Jackie said sweetly. "I hope that you enjoy your plans."
"I will."
"Not meaning to pry, Ziva, but are you feeling okay? It like your were grimacing with pain several times while we were talking."
Ziva's eyes widened with protest. "No, no! I am fine! I was just ... thinking."
"Good."
The two women walked out to Ducky's kitchen where he was regaling Gibbs with the history of the surrounding area.
"I will let myself out," Jackie told the men, motioning for them to sit back down. "See you all on Tuesday. I'll look forward to talking to you again, Ziva."
Ziva could feel everyone weighing up her reaction so she carefully measured her words. "Thank you, Jackie. See you then." She had to hide her smirk as she saw how Gibbs' eyes widened with pleasant surprise.
He was not expecting me to be so nice! Ha!
Jackie waved cheerily and exited.
"Ziva, dear, how about you and I step into my office and I can change your bandage," Ducky said with a gentle smile.
"Ducky, I would love that, but Gibbs and I are running late."
Gibbs frowned suspiciously. "For what?" he barked.
"I made a reservation. Ducky told me about a wonderful tea place near here and I called this morning and reserved a spot for us for their brunch."
"You reserved a table at the Jefferson's?" Ducky asked with delight in his eyes. "You two will enjoy it very much."
Ziva bit her lip as she realized that Ducky would have liked to have come as well. "Ducky, I forgot ..." But he cut her off, quickly realizing what she was thinking.
"I am so glad that the two of you will get to do something enjoyable together without anyone else distracting you. What time is your reservation?"
"It is at 10:30."
"Goodness! You have hurry. You will barely make it with the traffic. Go, go, go!"
"You should have told me, Ziver," Gibbs grumbled but it was clear that he was happy about the fact that she wanted to spend time with him. Her conscience pricked her a little.
I can never let him know that this started out as a way to keep Ducky from giving me a check-up.
Ziva decided to push off the feeling of guilt and focus on anticipation. Despite the deception taken to get her there, she was looking forward to having all of Gibbs' positive attention on her and her alone.
"Hurry! You do not have any time to waste!"
Ducky shooed them out the door. Ziva released the breath that she had been holding. Now she had until Tuesday to get herself feeling better without Ducky's interference. Everything was going according to plan.
And if she got some muffins and tea in the mix, who was she to complain?
Now her biggest struggle was not hide her winces as potholes and stop-and-go traffic kept giving her jarring shots of pain.
...
How do you think game night will go? What will happen with Ziva? Let me know your guesses in the comments! Thanks for reading!