"Everyone ready to stuff themselves with turkey tomorrow and watch the big game?" Tony asked as he stretched.

"I do not understand you Americans and your obsession over American football," Ziva said with an eye roll.

It wasn't even a very interesting game in her opinion. She had tried watching one with Tony, or rather he had made her watch a game. It wasn't entertaining at all.

"Hey, it's in the name. Of course, we love anything American."

"How very self-centred."

"It is the American way."

That made Ziva snort. It did seem, in some ways, that Americans were very self-centred but maybe it was just a cultural thing. Or a D.C thing. You did tend to get a lot of self-centredness when there was a large concentration of politicians and wealth no matter what country you were in.

"Are you even cooking a turkey, Tony?" McGee asked.

"Not a chance," Tony said emphatically. "I do not want to be eating leftovers until Christmas. What about you, McGee?"

"Mom normally cooks the turkey," he replied. "Not that I'm going to taste it this year."

"Oh?" that caught his interest. "Avoiding the family get together?"

"Dad's stationed overseas," McGee explained. "UK to be exact. No McGee family Thanksgiving this year."

"Not even with any other family members?" Tony fished.

"No one else to celebrate it with. Sarah's going to a friend's house this year."

Ziva privately thought that he was not mentioning something (or someone) but decided not to call any attention to this fact. McGee's family was none of her business. Or Tony's for that matter no matter what he may think.

Her partner now turned to her and gave her an expectant look. Which confused her as she did not know what he wanted her to say. So, Ziva just ignored it.

Tony did not appreciate that apparently and very pointedly cleared his throat.

"Frog got your tongue, Tony?"

"It's either 'cat got your tongue or 'frog in your throat'," Tony explained automatically.

"Same thing," she dismissed.

They both meant that you could not speak, yes?

"Not really...," Tony said in exasperation.

"Both stop you speaking!"

"Yes, but not in the same way. One means you've got a dry or scratchy throat and the other means you're too shy to say anything," McGee explained for her.

"Thank you, McGee."

It was nice to have, well, nice friends. Much better than the annoying one right in front of her.

"How does a cat even get your tongue anyway?" she asked, pointedly looking at McGee.

Tony did not pick up the hint as he answered anyway.

"It doesn't."

Ziva threw her hands up in exasperation. "Then why do you use it as a saying?"

"Well, it's... you see... We just do!" Tony said, folding his arms.

Yes, because that made a lot of sense.

"But that isn't the point," he said hurriedly, obviously not wanting to explain these strange American idioms anymore.

Which was fine for her because the more she heard of some of these the more confused she got. Why on earth would different animals mean different things when it came to speaking?

"Well, what do you want?" she asked irritably.

"It's more like what do you want?"

"Excuse me?"

Tony was making even less sense than usual, which was impressive but didn't help her at all.

"Don't you have anything to ask?"

Ziva gave him a suspicious look. Had she missed something? Some sort of social cue?

"No."

"Really?"

"Blurt it out, Tony," she said irritably.

"Spit," he corrected. "And seriously?"

"I am serious that I will hurt you," she threatened, pointing her pen at him.

He raised his arms up in self-defence.

"No stabbing with things you shouldn't be able to stab people with," he said quickly.

"Does that mean I can stab you with things that are designed for stabbing?"

"Not in a Federal building," McGee interjected.

Spoilsport. Tony heaved a sigh of relief as she reluctantly put her pen down.

"Ask your question, Tony," McGee instructed, sounding fed up.

"Last time I checked, I was the Senior Agent, Probie," Tony told him pointedly.

McGee just rolled his eyes at him.

"Whatever," Tony grumbled and then looked at Ziva. "Don't you have questions to ask?"

"Excuse me?"

That did not clear anything up.

"You know," Tony waved his hand about, gesturing aimlessly. "Questions about the holiday? Things to be confused about?"

"Why would I be confused?"

Was she supposed to be confused? Was there something she was missing here?

"Because you were confused about Hallowe'en!"

"Ah."

Now Ziva understood. She shook her head. The reason why she had been so confused about Hallowe'en because there were so many strange activities. That was not the case with Thanksgiving.

"So, fire away with them," her partner encouraged.

Ziva shrugged. "I do not have any."

"What?"

"Thanksgiving does not confuse me."

Tony gaped at her. It was most unattractive.

"You are going to catch bugs," she warned him.

"Flies," he corrected, shaking his head. "But close enough."

Ziva rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. They did not need another argument about American sayings.

"Thank you," she replied sarcastically.

Okay, maybe she liked to be the one with the upper hand. Not that it mattered because Tony ignored her.

"Out of all the holidays, Thanksgiving is the one that doesn't confuse you?" he asked incredulously.

"It is not the only one that doesn't confuse me," Ziva told him with an eye roll. "Neither Memorial Day nor New Year's Day confuse me either."

She was not completely stupid when it came to American customs, despite what Tony might think.

"Yeah, but they're pretty self-explanatory and there's not a lot to them," Tony dismissed. "There's a bit more to Thanksgiving than drinking or remembering the fallen."

"It is about giving thanks for surviving the first year in America, is it not?"

"And having a harvest," Tony added. "Pilgrims really didn't know what they were doing most of the time and were just winging it. So, they really were very thankful for the harvest."

"They were a bit more organised than that," McGee complained.

Ziva gave him a blank look.

"The Pilgrims had wings?"

"What? No! People don't have wings, Ziva!"

"You said they were 'winging it'! How do you wing it without wings?"

Okay, she was breaking the promise she had made to herself about not arguing about American sayings. They were just too confusing.

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. Ziva didn't understand why, she was the one who was getting exasperated here, not him, what with all these strange sayings that Tony was coming out with.

"I meant that they were sort of making things up as they went along as there was no real precedent for settlers in America. You know, because they were the first ones."

"Why did you not just say that in the first place?"

"I did, you know what? Never mind."

Tony sighed heavily in exasperation. Ziva did not know why, she should be the one who was frustrated because he wasn't speaking plain English.

Thankfully, there was a few moments of blessed silence. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few moments. Tony really couldn't stand any sort of quiet.

"I just can't believe you understand Thanksgiving of all the holidays."

Ziva inhaled and exhaled slowly. She would not get mad. She would not get mad.

"If there is one thing that Jews understand it is a good feast after rising above something terrible that has happened," she said seriously. "Most of our holidays and traditions are around just that."

Tony gave her an odd look.

"One of these days you're going to have to explain Jewish customs and traditions to me."

"I would be glad to."

And she would. Even if she didn't follow them all to the letter. Or at all in some cases. How on earth was she meant to celebrate Sukkot, for instance?

"So, this is just one more feast of thankfulness that you're adding to your calendar?"

That got Ziva frowning. "I am not American. Does that not mean that I cannot celebrate?"

She had been quite happy for the day off, even though she wasn't celebrating. She wouldn't even know how to celebrate Thanksgiving. She knew it involved a lot of food; she just didn't know what except for turkey. Which was somewhat obvious considering that all food shops were offering deals on them. Anyway, like she said, she was not American so surely that would her be inappropriately appropriating a culture that was not hers?

Tony's look of confusion implied that he did not know the answer to that. Good thing he didn't have to as Gibbs did it for him.

"You are this year. It's for family and everyone's coming to my place."

He then unceremoniously sat down at his desk without looking at them. Well, it looked like that was taken out of her hands.

"Thank you, Gibbs," she said gratefully.

May as well start her thankfulness early. Was that something she could do for Thanksgiving?