Unfortunately, she could not keep her eyes on Tony all of the time. Work saw to that. She had to look at her own computer and notes, after all. Which meant that that was time not looking at Tony. At least she could still sense him. Detect movement from out of the corner of her eye.

She could do neither of those things when she had to make a trip downstairs to both Ducky and Abby. Thankfully Abby was busy or she would probably be pestering Ziva about the photos as well. She knew that Abby knew about them, she wasn't stupid. McGee knew which meant Abby knew. At least McGee knew better than to ask her. But Abby did not. The only reason Ziva suspected that she had not been interrogated by the scientist was mainly because one of her machines was acting up and maintenance had to be called in. Something Abby did not particularly enjoy. Too many people handling her "precious babies". Which meant that she was not going to leave the lab. In fact, Ziva suspected that she would be spending today hovering over the maintenance men's shoulders, making sure they did not do anything "hinky". This suited Ziva just fine because it was one less person to bother her. She had her hands full enough with Tony as it was.

She tried not to come across as too impatient as she waited for Ducky to finish up what he was saying as he explained his findings to her. It was not Ducky's fault, after all. No, it was Tony's. All Tony's. And also, Aunt Nettie's but mainly Tony's.

"Are you alright, my dear?"

She was brought out of her thoughts by Ducky's concerned voice.

"Hmm? Yes, I am fine, Ducky," she assured him.

This did not seem to help.

"Are you sure? You looked very out of it for a moment there."

"No, everything is good."

It was not but this was not something she wanted to speak to Ducky about. He was very good for talking about other things but not this. He tended to not approve of violence. Even if it was well deserved in her opinion.

He gave her a long look before chuckling.

"I don't suppose this is anything to do with some emails Anthony has received."

She turned her head quickly and narrowed her eyes at him.

"How do you know about that?"

All he did was chuckle again! Come on! Even Ducky!

"My dear girl, you and Anthony haven't exactly been discreet about this little disagreement of yours. In fact, you have been quite loud."

Of course, they had. Argh, how could she have been so stupid. She knew how bad gossip was in this building. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"Which brings me to my next point," Ducky continued. "Was it really wise to leave Tony unattended?"

She had a sinking feeling about this.

[xxxxxx]

Tony didn't know what he did to get so lucky but there was no way he was going to complain. Definitely not. Ziva had to go downstairs for not just one report but two. Two! And one of those was from Ducky so she was sure to be down there a while. Unless Palmer was the one handing it over to her and then she would be quick but there was still Abby's report so he wouldn't lose hope yet!

Of course, as soon as she was out of sight he moved quickly. Not wanting to waste any time.

"You're going to regret this," McGee said without looking up.

"What? I'm working. Just working."

That got him a scoff.

"Yeah, right."

"Well, what do you think I'm doing, McGoo?"

"Something you're not supposed to be doing."

"Who, me?" Tony clicked on his screen. "I'm just opening my emails. Am allowed to open my emails, aren't I? They're my emails."

Then his eyes lit up.

"Whatever you're thinking, the answer is no," McGee said, still not looking at him.

"I haven't even asked you anything yet," Tony said in an offended tone.

"Exactly. Yet."

"Oh, come on, McGee! Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Somewhere far, far away from Ziva."

"I was just thinking that if you, say, I don't know, hacked into my emails and opened the one from Nettie then technically I haven't opened my email from her. Ergo, avoiding Ziva's ire."

"No."

"Oh, come on. It's a good plan!"

"No. And I'm pretty sure Ziva doesn't want you looking at the pictures that are attached to the email so even if I opened it for you, you would still see them. She will still be angry."

"But she couldn't be because I would have done what she told me."

McGee looked over to him only to roll his eyes.

"I don't think that's how that works."

"Of course, it is. It's all in the semantics."

"And you really think that semantics are going to save you from Ziva's wrath?"

"...Yes?"

McGee snorted and returned his concentration to his computer.

"Yeah, I don't think so. I'm not helping."

Tony huffed. Honestly, some people. It looked like it was all up to him then, wasn't it? He could do this himself. Yeah, he could. He looked around, making sure that Ziva hadn't suddenly reappeared after all that

"You're going to have to be quick," McGee said, sounding far too amused. "Ducky and Abby can only keep her down there for so long and she'll be wanting to get back up here quickly."

Tony glared at him. "If you aren't going to help then you don't get a say in how I do things."

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

McGee seemed remarkably unconcerned about this whole thing as he got up from his desk with spam papers and promptly disappeared. But he did have a point. Tony made one final check before he screwed up his courage, closed his eyes and double clicked the email in front of him. There. It was done. He did it. Had he?

He carefully opened his eyes and couldn't help but gasp. Even if it was a bit dramatic of him.

Pictures. So many pictures. Okay, it was more like ten pictures but still. Ten pictures!