"I think I preferred magic as an explanation," Tony grumbled as Abby explained fully what exactly had gone on.

According to science, anyway. They still had to catch their guy and demand for his version of events. But that would probably line up with what Abby was saying. It usually did. As Abby always said, science never lied.

Though what had happened had really seemed like magic and had got all of them scratching their heads until Abby figured it out. Not that it was easy to understand. Or maybe it was because Abby gave them an incredibly long winded explanation. Which is what tended to happen of she didn't have Gibbs to keep her on track.

Magic was definitely easier to give as an explanation rather than explain all that again. He had tried to tease Abby by saying that but that had definitely backfired.

Abby was all for magic and the supernatural but not when it interfered with her precious science. He got very thoroughly scolded for even suggesting it, much to the amusement of Ziva.

"Shut up," he hissed as Abby moved from scolding him to ranting at him, turning around as she did so.

"I did not say anything," Ziva said, sounding far too amused.

"You didn't have to."

"Then why did you say that I was?"

"You were about to."

"I was not."

"You were."

"Was not."

"Was too."

Abby coughed pointedly and they both shut up but not before exchanging glares.

"So, no magic?" Tony asked Abby, trying to distract her.

Which worked but not exactly to his benefit as she then launched into an even more detailed explanation of what exactly she had done to get the evidence. And, to top it all off, Ziva was smirking again. Which Tony could do Nothing about roght now because if he didn't look attentive enough to Abby's explanation then she would probably hit him with something.

Eventually, even her rambling explanation came to an end and Tony could stop nodding at set points in his effort to demonstrate he understood (which he half did. Sort of).

"See? Science, Tony. Definitely not magic."

"Definitely not," Tony agreed, not wanting to set her off again.

"Science is far more superior than even magic," Abby informed them, nose in the air.

"Of course," Tony reassured her.

He did not need to be any further on her bad side.

"What were you saying about preferring it to be magic?" Ziva panted out as she held their suspect against the wall.

Their suspect who was dressed as a magician right down to the cloak with moons and stars on it and was still struggling despite having just been tackled by a ninja. Ziva. He meant Ziva. Who was defintiely not dressed lile a ninja. Maybe she would for Hallowe'en? No. No. His mind was not going there. It wasn't going to the place that whispered that adult costumes tended to be less than appropriate and... No. Case! There was a case! And they had their suspect.

"No one can hold Jeffrey Sparkles the Magnificent!" Their suspect declared, very much bringing Tony back to the present.

"Yeah, well, I think you'll find that we can," Tony informed him in a disgruntled tone, rubbing at his shoulder.

Sparkles the Magnificent here had shoved him into a wall when he had tried to do some sort of trick to get away. It hadn't worked, obviously. Well, not on the way he wanted. He didn't disappear. But shoving Tony out of the way had given him a chance to run. Right into Ziva's arms.

Had there ever been such a satisfying moment as that? There hadn't. Especially when Sparkles realised had been caught and the look of annoyance on Ziva's face terrified him. Tony was pretty sure the man's spirit temporarily left his body. It almost made up for everything he had put them through. Almost.

The man somehow still thought it was a good idea to keep on struggling. Of course, he wasn't anywhere close to getting away as Ziva had a very firm grip on him (And the guy wasn't the strongest) but still. It was annoying.

"Let. Me. Go!" He said, wriggling like he was some sort of fish.

"That kind of defeats the point of us putting you under arrest," Tony informed him.

"You can't do that."

Ziva gave him a shake. "We are federal agents. We can do that."

"No, you aren't."

Ziva and Tony exchanged incredulous looks with each other.

"Did you miss us saying that we were NCIS?" Tony asked.

He didn't see how, they had both shouted it incredibly loudly.

"That's not a real thing."

Ziva and Tony exchanged long-suffering looks. One of these days they weren't going to have to persuade people that they existed.

"We are," Ziva said through gritted teeth.

"The N stands for Naval. As in the Navy," Tony added, feeling sarcastic today. " As in the people you committed crimes against."

"Well, well," the guy said frantically eyes darting everywhere before he looked triumphant. "I'll just disappear!"

With that purple smoke started pouring from him which was extremely alarming. The face Ziva made was priceless. Tony wished he had a camera to catch it but he was a bit too busy coughing to even think about it. What was even in that smoke? It was catching in his throat and the inside of his nose felt gritty.

When the smoke cleared, Ziva was still holding the guy, now looking extremely pissed off, her cheeks stained with purple. There were even bits of purple in her hair. The guy, who was looking shocked that he hadn't managed to escape, was covered in the purple stuff. Head to toe covered.

It would be hilarious if the whole situation wasn't so frustrating.

"Is it too late to ask for a lawyer?" He asked in a squeak.

"What's going on?" Abby asked, standing over McGee in the bullpen as they dragged Sparkles along to the interrogation room.

"Magic," Tony informed her in a thoroughly fed up voice.

"And where's Ziva?" McGee asked, looking around.

"Washing off the magic."