"Why do you want to do this, Tony?" Ziva asked in exasperation as Tony grinned somewhat maniacally as he parked the car.
Honestly, it should concern her at least a little bit but, unfortunately, he had done weirder things so this was really nothing in the grand scheme of things. Should he be concerned at that? Probably but he was having too much fun to care.
"Because it's a Hallowe'en tradition!"
"I thought Trick or Treating was a Hallowe'en tradition?"
It was why they had a big bowl full of candy by the door, for children to request upon showing off their costumes. Which sounded pleasant for a few children but being made to do it all night? Ziva had informed him that she thought that she'd prefer to interrogate a particularly stubborn suspect.
"It is. For children. This is a, ah, well, a more mature tradition."
That got him a raised eyebrow.
"Not like that!" He told her.
Which was a shame but even he didn't think getting on in a Haunted House was a good idea. Nope, definitely not. That was something he was not into.
"Pity," she drawled and he wasn't sure if she was being serious or not.
"I meant that this is just as much for adults as it is for kids," he explained.
"Okay..."
Now that was a sceptical tone if he'd ever heard one. Why was she so sceptical? Did she not trust him?
"You'll have to experience it to get it," he decided.
"I think I will be okay."
"Oh, come on!"
She looked at him and then sighed, throwing her hands up in the air. Yes! He had won.
"Okay, fine."
[xxxxxx]
Ziva shook her head in fond amusement as Tony explained the concept of a Haunted House. It wasn't a difficult one to understand but she still failed to see the appeal of it. Really? Getting scared for fun? Over fake and imaginary things? It was rather odd. Real things could be far more scary. This was not going to be scary. Definitely not. But she would humour Tony because he seemed like he really wanted to show her this Haunted House.
"Do you really think this is going to scare me, Tony?" Ziva asked, raising an eyebrow.
He did not really think that this would scare her, did he? With all the horrors she had already faced in her life, she really doubted that a place filled with fake spiders and snakes and people jumping out at you was going to scare her. Annoy her? Probably. But scare her? No way. She did not know what Tony was thinking.
At least it would waste some time and had the promise of being amusing. Ziva idly wondered what would happen if she did not react all scared like the people in this house were expecting? Would they be annoyed? Would it be ethical to try and scare them? Show them how it was done?
As if he could read her mind, Tony shook his head.
"No terrifying the poor workers," he said firmly. "You're meant to be scared, not them."
"But surely it would add to the atmosphere?"
"No."
Well, that was no fun. She sighed as she allowed Tony to lead her in.
[xxxxxx]
Okay, Tony was now very much regretting dragging Ziva into a Haunted House. It seemed like a good idea at the time! Either she was going to be exasperated say the whole thing and be would be entertained by her scoffing or she would actually be scared and be got to hold her close. Win, win. Though, if he was being honest with himself, the last one was wishful thinking. But, still, it was a possibility. A slim one but still a possibility.
Except, it didn't go like that. Why did he think it would go like that? Because he was stupid, that's why. Very, very, very stupid.
It turned out that a highly successful and trained assassin did not do well when she was jump-scared. Who would have thought?
Because, to her, sudden movements never meant anything good. Sudden movements meant danger. Sudden movements meant threats. And did you know what assassins did with threats? They made them not be threats. Permanently.
To be fair, Tony really should have removed all of Ziva's knives from her person before they went in. Or, most of them because even after all these years he didn't know where one particular one was hidden. But still. Fewer knives on Ziva David was always a good thing.
Too bad he didn't think of that before. He re Not that he really had a chance to think due to the fact he had spent most of his time trying to stop Ziva from accidentally hurting someone.
Did you know if you startled a Mossad Officer the lesson doing the startling was liable to be pressed up against a wall? Or taken a swing at? Or tripped up? Because, yes, all those things happened. Or at least attempted Multiple times.
Thank whatever God was up there that he could read Ziva well enough to recognise the signs or else things could have been a lot worse. Most of the time he was able to hold her back from actually touching anyone or at least drag her away before she did any serious damage.
[xxxxxx]
"Sorry about your hand," Ziva said regretfully as Tony wrapped his hand in a bandage.
"It's fine, just a scratch," he reassured her, inspecting his handiwork.
It was rather untidy, considering he had to use his left hand. She tutted at him.
"Let me," she said, not waiting for a response as she undid his work and then redid them more neatly.
She was happy to see that his cut wasn't bleeding as hard as she thought it was. She had forgotten in her horror that hands tended to bleed an awful lot no matter what the injury.
Injury. That she had inflicted. On her partner. Tony.
"Hey, hey," Tony said, with his unerring ability to read her. "It's my fault for grabbing the blade end of the knife."
"You should not have had to."
"And I should have brought us back out the first time you tried to pin someone up against the wall."
"No, I should have been able to control myself."
"You were being snuck up on and people were acting all threatening. Of course, you were going to react."
"But I should have known better."
"Hey," Tony tried to soothe her. "You didn't get anyone."
"Except for you!"
That was far worse than getting someone creeping up on her. They would have at least deserved it. Tony did not.
"Eh, I'm fine. And you probably wouldn't have even hurt anyone anyway, they're all in padded or inflatable costumes. The worst that would have happened is that someone would have deflated."
That did not make her feel better, even if the image of someone involuntarily deflating was quite amusing. Not amusing enough to make her feel less guilty.
"I can't believe I took my knife out in a Haunted House," she said, shaking her head. "To hurt someone."
Talk about an overreaction on her part. She simply wasn't thinking. She registered a threat and reacted like she had been trained.
"You technically didn't brandish your knife at anyone," Tony pointed out, inspecting her handiwork on his hand. "You just took it out of its holster and it didn't go any further."
"Because you stopped me. By grabbing it."
Grabbing the blade. To stop her. Because she didn't stop herself. Couldn't. She had reacted purely on instinct. Why did she have to react like that?
"Didn't want anyone to see. Don't think Gibbs would have appreciated picking us up from the local lockup due to using weapons in a Haunted House."
They both took a moment to shudder at the thought. That was not something that they wanted to even try to explain to Gibbs.
"He would not. Thank you."
He waved her off. "Seriously, it's fine. No harm done." She raised an eyebrow. "No real harm done," he amended.
She sighed again.
"Though, maybe leave the knives at home next time."
She gave a weak laugh.
"I don't think there should be a next time, Tony."
He thought for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah. Probably for the best. Haunted Houses aren't all what they're hyped up to be anyway."