'Click, click'
Tony frowned at his screen. The page had refreshed but there was nothing on it. Nothing new anyway. Oh, there were a few emails that needed answering but they could wait. Because there was one email that was far more important and when it came through it was going to need his immediate attention. No distractions whatsoever.
What if he was typing out that reply to the Evidence Locker people and the email came through and he couldn't get at it immediately? That would be a travesty. An actual travesty.
You know what? Maybe he was getting a bit too dramatic about this whole thing. And yes, he was aware that he was thinking that for the God knows what time over the past few days. But was it going to stop him? Of course, it wasn't. He couldn't stop anything now anyway, even if he wanted to (which he didn't), this last step was completely out of his hands.
One more refresh just to makes sure. Dammit. Still nothing. Come on! Should it really take this long? Had something happened? Should he risk another call to Nettie. Though, that really would be madness. No, he wouldn't do that. Yet, anyway. Not when he was so close.
He hadn't been imagining things, right? She had said that she was going to send those photos to him? He didn't just dream that up? No, his calls list said otherwise.
Sighing heavily, he leaned back in his chair. He was just going to have to be patient. He hated having to be patient. He wasn't good at being patient. He was far better at being impatient. He had no choice right now. He was just going to have to wait and that was that.
It was made even worse by the fact that he didn't know how long he was going to have to wait. It was out of his hands.
He couldn't even call over to McGee to check if it was possible to know if an email had failed to send to you or not. The whole point of being in early was so he was in before anyone else. Not that McGee would be much help, he had been extremely adamant in not being any more involved in this whole plan than he already was.
Which, admittedly wasn't a lot. All he had done was provide Tony with the phone number. Okay, technically that could count a facilitating this whole thing but still. McGee's part in his was very minimal. His own part, however well, that had been crucial, hadn't it? Although, none of this would have occurred.
His phone rang and he briefly got ninja like reflexes as he snatched it off his desk. Why was his ringtone so loud? He was pretty sure that Ducky and Palmer could hear that down in the morgue!
Note to self, the next time he was on a super-secret personal mission put his phone on silent! It was not worth the risk of someone possible overhearing. And by someone he meant Ziva. Obviously. Who else would be super-secret scared of like that? Okay, and Gibbs. But somehow Gibbs knew everything so Tony suspected that a silent ringtone wouldn't help matters there.
"Hello?" He greeted quietly as he answered the call.
And then he realised he didn't even know who was calling because he hadn't checked the screen when he'd grabbed it. He had just assumed that it was Nettie because he was expecting her to call. But what if it was someone else? Then all of his panic would be for not.
It turned out it wasn't because the caller was indeed Nettie.
"Shalom, Tony."
"Nettie!" He greeted, feeling incredibly relieved. "How are you?"
"I am fine," she said distractedly. "I was just wondering if you received my email?"
"You sent them already?" He said hopefully, spinning around on his chair so his was facing his computer again.
Clicking on the refresh button for what was hopefully the last time today, Tony frowned when the only new email was a reminder on when this year's sexual harassment seminar was. Hopefully they would have a case on that day. No new email from Nettie, however.
"I did," she confirmed.
"Are you sure? I've got nothing here."
"I am sure I did," she muttered and there were some clicks from her end. "Where is it? I am sure I sent it... hit that send button..."
"Is it in your Sent Items folder?" Tony asked.
Hey, he knew some things about computers.
"Where is that?"
Tony blinked and took the phone away from his ear to look at it in confusion.
"Tony? Are you there?"
"Yes, yes, I'm here," he said, quickly returning to his phone.
"Good. Now can you please tell me where this 'Sent Items' folder is?"
"It should be under your Inbox," he told her, clicking back onto his email to make sure what he was saying was correct.
There was some more clicking. Why was she clicking? She just had to look.
"I do not see it."
"Really?"
She should see it right there, shouldn't she?
"Give me a moment."
Well, he couldn't exactly do anything else, could he? But he stayed quiet not wanting to break her concentration. There was a lot of clicking and heavy sighing from her end.
"Ah, it is in my Outbox folder. Does that mean anything?"
"I think it means they are waiting to be sent."
That sounded about right anyway. Then he remembered something.
"Which means they haven't sent yet," he added. "Something's stopping them from being sent."
"Are you sure? Surely if things come in to your Inbox, then they should go out in your Outbox?"
"I guess..."
"But that is not what that means?"
Tony shook his head and then remembered that she couldn't see him.
"I'm afraid not," and then he tried to wrack his brain for what caused emails to stick in your Outbox instead of being sent.
He was pretty sure that McGee had explained it to him at some point. Maybe he should put McGee on the phone to talk her through this. It was more his forte anyway.
But, of course, McGee would just refuse and they'd still have a problem. Bit could he refuse the entreaties of a helpless, 9ld woman? Not that Nettie was any of those things but McGee didn't need to know that.
"Should I just resend them?" Nettie was now saying.
It sounded like she was more talking to herself than actually asking him a question. Which was just as well because he still didn't know what to do. Oh, why did they have to have problems? Could it not have just worked the first time?
"Maybe just start again?" Tony suggested carefully. "Slowly so nothing is left out?"
"But I did not leave anything out!" She said indignantly.
"Of course, you didn't" he said hurriedly. "But maybe doing it again can-" He stiffened as he heard footsteps approaching. Very familiar footsteps.
"I have to go," he hissed into the phone.
"But Tony, you did not tell me of you could-"
He didn't catch the rest of what she said because he hung up extremely abruptly. Was it rude? Yes. But when it came to being ride or putting himself at risk of Ziva's wrath, he was going to choose being rude every time. At least this time he had Nettie's number so he could apologise to her properly.
The phone was quickly put down on his desk as he looked up to meet the extremely suspicious eyes of his partner. He gulped briefly before giving her a wide smile.
She didn't have to know what was going on.