Chapter 23: Bad Feeling In The Air
Disclaimer: ...If I owned it...wait, I've said that one...huh, I'm out of witty disclaimers...well, you know how it ends.
Author's Note: Look! It's another chapter! Already! ...I was home sick today and was too incoherent to write a Model U.N. Position paper...I blame Walker, he puked in the chemistry classroom Wednesday...jerkface.
Oh, and this isn't all Tony/Ziva; there's about a paragraph at the end that sets up for a future Gibbs/McGee/Beau chapter.
Enjoy.
The alarm rudely woke Tony early that morning. He growled as he extracted his arm to hit the button to turn off the alarm, but didn't make an effort to move from the position he currently occupied.
His arms were wrapped tightly around Ziva, pressing her to his bare chest.
Damn that clock!
Damn the sun!
Damn work!
Damn morning!
Why couldn't he just relax here, in his lover's arms, for just a few more hours.
But no, Gibbs had told them to go to that kid's house today.
Why did they have to go? There wasn't going to be a damn thing out there.
Wow. He sure was cursing a lot this morning.
But, damn it!, he was angry!
He gently shook Ziva and whispered, "Zee, we gotta get up. Hey, Zee, we gotta go work."
Eventually she groaned and pried open her eyes.
"Hey, good morning," she smiled a sleepy smile.
"Not really."
"Why not?" she frowned.
"Because, I'd really rather stay here in bed with you than go out on some wild goose chase."
"You don't think we'll find anything?"
"Do you?"
"No."
"See?"
"But, it's our job," she sighed.
"We could just not and say we did," he joked, rolling over onto his back and pulling her on top of him.
She laughed for a moment before sobering up and looking at him with a focused look, "And what if there is something there?"
"You've always gotta ruin it for me, doncha?" he teased.
"You usually take care of that on your own," she teased back.
"I guess we should get up...shower...get dressed...maybe find all of our clothes from last night..." he smiled, looking around the room at their scattered clothing.
She smiled back and shouted, "I call first shower!"
"Can I come, too?" he followed her.
She shut the door in his face and laughed, "Find your clothes, hairy-butt."
He chuckled at the childish behavior of their in-house assassin. He knew that she was the youngest member of the team, but most of the time she seemed so weathered and worn that she had more in common with Gibbs than McGee.
He sat down on the edge of the bed to ponder his lover and extracted a sock from beneath the sheets of the bed. Thinking about last night, he laughed. He couldn't believe the events of the past 24 hours.
She came out of the bathroom, now fully-dressed; he dropped a kiss onto her lips in passing and went in to take his own shower.
She wondered around the room, picking up various articles of their clothing that had been carelessly discarded last night. She couldn't believe that this was happening, and it didn't really bother her at all that it was going so fast; it was the most comfortable she had been in a relationship in a long time.
Tony hadn't pressured her, everything that had transpired was a mutual decision.
They were partners, at work and in love.
Tony came out of the bathroom and asked if she was ready to go, she nodded. They headed downstairs and he stopped at a computer to get the map McGee had emailed him. He printed it off and they drove back toward Judson Hill.
They passed Judson Hill and kept driving. They turned off the main road and drove for a little while before the road ended...in a creek.
"Oh come on! I know I read this map right!" Tony groaned, slamming his head against the steering wheel.
"Let me see the map," she demanded, taking the map from him and looking it over.
"See, we were on this highway then we turned off here and I kept driving...there's no creek on this map!" he shouted, pointing at the map.
She kept looking over the map, "Turn around."
"What?"
"Turn around and go back to see a road sign," she demanded.
"Okay, okay," he complied.
He drove for a while back down the road he had came until they found a road sign.
"See!" she said, "The road on the map is Jackson Road, this is Jack Creek Road...huh...Jack Creek Road."
"Shut up," he grumbled, driving back toward the main road.
"So, where do I go from here?"
"Keep going the way you were going."
"For how long?"
"About a quarter of a mile."
"Okay," Tony found the road and they turned down it, "How far do we go this way?"
"About five miles."
"Are you serious?!"
"Yeah."
"Boondocks! Forget Virginia. This is the freakin' boondocks to beat all boondocks! This is just- I can't- WHO LIVES OUT HERE?!"
"Apparently David Cooper and his family lived out here," Ziva replied.
"You are such a smart ass."
"You love my smart ass."
"...I don't know if its your smart ass that I love..."
She elbowed him in the ribs and he jerked the steering wheel. She grabbed the dash and the top of the window and shouted, "Damn it, DiNozzo!"
"That's what you get."
"Are you trying to kill us?"
He laughed maniacally and she slapped his arm.
"Hey! You want me to really wreck it this time?" he teased.
"Shut up and drive...or I will."
"God, no!" he said, putting both hands on the wheel and focusing on the road.
"Hey, Ziva?"
"Yeah?"
"Are we there yet?"
"You're the one driving."
"You're the one with the map."
"So...are we there yet?"
She looked at the map, "Almost."
"How far?"
"Hey! Wait!"
He slammed on the brakes, "What?!"
"Here. Turn left."
"Okay," he turned the car onto a gravel driveway and up to a fairly nice one-story house.
They parked the car and walked up to the front door, they knocked and called, "Federal agents! Anybody here?!"
After waiting a few minutes, they started around back; their hands on their guns and checking in every window that they passed.
They repeated the process at the backdoor, then went and checked the barn and toolshed.
Finding nothing and no one, they returned to the house.
"Go do! That voodoo! That you do! So weh-hell!" Tony said, pointing at the door lock.
Ziva walked up and began picking the lock, "You know, it wouldn't hurt for you to learn how to do this."
"Well, you just do it so well," he smiled a charming smile.
"You're pathetic," she said, opening the door.
"And you're amazing," he said walking in.
They cleared the house and then began a room-by-room search for anything that could lead them to David.
Early that morning, a phone call awoke Gibbs.
"Yeah, Gibbs."
"Gibbs, it's Beau. We've had a hit on the bolo. Some off-duty Rangers saw the truck in an abandoned barn. They can't say for sure if David was there, but they say that the trailer was there. We're going out there. Meet us in Hector in two hours."
"We'll be there."
They hung up the phone.
"McGee!" Gibbs commanded. McGee awoke instantly.
"Yeah, Boss?"
"Get ready. They've found him."
As they exited the hotel they were met by an offensive wall of suffocating humidity. The bad feeling in Gibbs's gut was reflected in the still air.
A.N.: Look, ma! No songs! Yeah, I wrote this one and was too sick to think about extra stuff like song lyrics; so this one has no song lyrics.
Oh, and about my stomach ache, I'm feeling a lot better now.
I am so jealous! My uncle is going with his friends to the space shuttle launch and they're getting to go as close a civilians are allowed to be! Lucky! But he's sending pictures so maybe it'll be okay.
Oh, and the thing that Tony said before Ziva picked the lock was from Blazing Saddles.
Hey, don't worry. Teddy bears aren't made from real bears...just their fur and noses. Man, I love Homer Simpson.