Ziva stayed silent. Knowing her eyes were useless in the dark. she used her sharp hearing honed from her many years with Mossad to sense any other presence in the room. She heard nothing nearby but reached into her desk to draw her gun just in case. She slammed the clip in with a click and held it ready. She picked up her desk phone and held it to her ear and frowned when she heard no dial tone. Cautiously, she stood up from her seat and moved out from behind her desk. Half of her was glad that her team-mates weren't with her, she was saved from any of Tony's inevitable movie references, but the other half of her wished at least one of her team-mates was around to help her decide what to do. No one at NCIS had told her what to do in cases such as these.
"Hello?" she called. "Anyone there?" No one answered straight away, providing Ziva with a reason to drop her guard. Her gun snapped back up into aiming position only a second later when she heard a voice.
"Hello? Who's there?" The unrecognisable voice asked. Even though she couldn't see, Ziva scanned the room with her gun, ready for any attacks.
"Officer Ziva David, now identify yourself!" she ordered the voice.
"I'm Jason Jackson, I'm just a janitor here."
Ziva relaxed slightly. "Well Jason Jackson, we seem to be having a slight power problem. You think you can follow the sound of my voice? I think it's wise that we stick together."
"I think so, where are you?"
"I'm in the middle of the room, by my desk, just keep moving towards my voice." Ziva heard footsteps and the occasional curse as the janitor knocked into desks and cabinets. Finally, she felt a body move towards her. "Jason?" Ziva held out her hand. "Give me your hand." After a little more fumbling, their hands touched. "Okay, that's good/"
"I'm scared"
"It's just a power black," Ziva answered.
"Huh?" The young man wasn't used to Ziva's malapropisms.
"Blackout," Ziva tried again. Jason snorted.
"This is just great; I only came in this late for the extra hours, now I'm stuck here."
"I'm stuck here too, Jason. Remember, you're not the only one." Once Ziva was sure that Jason felt safe beside her she let go of his hand.
"What do we do now?"
"I suggest we find Special Agent Gibbs."
"That man who shouts a lot?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Well how are we-" Jason's question was cut short by the emergency lighting.
Ziva smiled. "At least we have a little light now, that should make things easier." Ziva turned to Jason and studied his face. His features were unfamiliar to her and, although she was still fairly new, she had always learnt at Mossad to observe and memorise everything.
"So where is he?"
"Who?" Ziva asked, still thinking everything over.
"Gibbs?"
Ziva quickly snapped out of it. "Ah, he went into MTAC before the blackout, we'll start there." Jason followed Ziva like a loyal puppy as Ziva walked carefully up the stairs. Upon reaching the solid door, Ziva waited for Jason to reach her side.
"How do we know that he's still in there?" he asked as he watched Ziva attempt to open the door.
"We don't."
"But-"
Ziva interrupted Jason. "It's no use, the door's screwed shut."
"You mean bolted?"
"You're as bad as Tony." Jason didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or as an insult. "We need something to open this door with." Ziva squinted and scanned the large room, hoping to spot something in the dim light that would help them. "There." She pointed to a fire extinguisher on the far wall. "Grab that for me." Jason silently obeyed, jogging to the extinguisher and pulling it off the wall. He carried it back and handed it to Ziva.
"What do you plan to do with that?" Jason asked. Ziva smiled mischievously
"This is a carbon dioxide extinguisher," Ziva explained to the janitor.
"So?" Jason had never really paid much attention in chemistry classes.
"If we spray the door where the bolt is, it should freeze up, weakening the bolt enough to break open the door using the end of the extinguisher."
"If you say so." Jason took a step back, giving Ziva the room she needed to work.
"You know what this reminds me of?" Jenny began. They had been sitting in the dark for fifteen minutes before the emergency lighting had been switched on. Jenn had taken another look at Gibb's cut hand and, after deeming it okay, they had sat in a comfortable silence. Gibbs smiled at Jenn.
"What?"
"London," she answered with a smirk. Gibbs frowned as he tried to recall their exploits in London.
"That was a closet Jenn and we weren't locked in."
"No, but I did enjoy the close quarters."
Gibbs laughed. "You seem to forget I had two broken ribs at the time."
Jenny slowly raked her eyes over Gibbs. "Didn't appear to slow you down."
Gibbs just grinned, knowing their flirting wouldn't ever go any further. Gibbs turned to the doorway suddenly.
"What?" Jenny asked.
"You hear that?" Gibbs stood up and placed his ear against the solid door.
"I guess that door isn't as sound-proof as we first thought, Jethro," Jenn spoke as she too began to hear the banging sound from the outside. Gibbs took a couple of steps back, pulling Jenny with him. Gibbs felt Jenny jump into the air as the door flung open with a loud bash. Just outside stood Ziva, still holding the battered fire extinguisher, looking slightly out of breath from the hard work. Just behind her stood an unfamiliar man in a janitorial jumpsuit. Ziva blew a stray lock of hair away from her face.
"Director, Gibbs," she greeted.
"What took you so long?" Gibbs asked. Ziva opened her mouth ready with an excuse but Jenny beat her to it.
"What Jethro means is thank you for getting us out of here." She slapped Gibbs on the shoulder as a reprimand.
"How about we get out of here then?" Gibbs suggested. Jenn nodded and they stepped out of the room into the larger but equally dark squad room.
"I'm guessing the whole building is sans power?" Jenny asked Ziva.
"Look like," Ziva replied. "I've only found Jason here, so far."
"Tony, McGee, Abby and Ducky are all still in the building somewhere," Gibbs spoke.
"Let's not forget Harker," Jenny added.
"Tony was escorting him. He's probably already handed him over to the prison transfer van and is sitting up in the garage with McGee waiting for us to come rescue them," Gibbs reassured the group.
"Then where do you suggest we start Jethro?"
Gibbs thought for a second before answering. "Lets make sure Abby and Ducky are okay first. Abby's alone and likely has no idea what's going on, and it can't smell too nice in autopsy right now."
Jenn nodded. Ziva lifted up the heavy extinguisher. "And," she started, "we can use this to get through all those locked doors between here and the labs."
Gibbs nodded and smiled slightly at Ziva's plan. His first idea was to just shoot their way through the doors. "Me and Ziva will find Abs and Ducky, you two stay here in case the power turns back on and-"
"We'll need my security code, I know," Jenn finished Gibbs' train of thought.
"Come on, Ziva," Gibbs spoke without taking his eyes off Jenn. He tore his eyes away and pivoted marine style. Ziva easily kept in step with him as they made their way to the only available access from the squad room to Abby's lab. The stairwell.