right, just for you wondering yes, the main pairing in the end will of course be tony and ziva!!! but this girls got a little bit more planned up her sleeve, (still thinking how though :P) and ding ding to those who got it right, its of course because her brother is called ari (meaning lion in hebrew)

disclaimer: still stands from chapter 1

The evening was drawing to a close, and everyone was hitting dead ends on the case due to severe lack of information, the crime scene had proved fruitless, the bodies were not giving ducky any information, and abby had IDed the slugs which wasn't proving very useful as they had no other information. Gibbs had dissapeared into mtac with the Director, McGee was allowed off early due to a doctors appointment so Ella was stuck with a whistling Tony and disgruntled Ziva. Making conversation with them had proved hard, Tony was in a world of his own and Ziva seemed reluctant to talk to her, so now she was trying to amuse herself by looking up random people on the internet, which wasn't really as fun as she had hoped. Then the elevator pinged and a very ordinary looking brunette stepped out looking slightly bewildered and overwhelmed.

"Hey, over here," Tony beckoned her across, "Found me ok then?" he smiled at her.

"Yeah, that lady at the desk was pretty helpful, um... hi" she gave a small wave to Ziva and Ella, Ziva chose to ignore it, making herself seem even more engrossed in her work, ella just gave back a small smile.

"Shall we go then," Tony questioned the newcomer, his eyes were on Ziva, both annoyed and confused at her reaction, before he lead the brunette back to the elevator. Zivas head lifted up and her eyes slowly followed their backs away, before she stepped up and briskly walked, almost running, away. Gibbs chose this moment to reappear in the Bull Pen.

"Whats all that about? and wheres Tony gone?" he'd hardly spoke to her since she arrived she was slightly taken aback.

"er.. well, Tony left with what i think's his girlfriend, and ziva ran off to somewhere when they left." Gibbs narrowed his eyes slightly and sighed,

"Can you go to the bathroom and tell her she can go home, and then come back her, i'll call abby up for you, ok?"

"um, sure i guess."

The bathroom happened to be very white, and was lightly fragranced with some flowery smell that Ella didn't like much, she turned the corner and found Ziva sttod over a basin looking into the mirror, puffy eyed and tear stained.

"Ziva... is everything ok?"

"Yes, Fine, is there a reason your here?" she snapped back briskley, annoyed at being caught crying, she was beating herself up inside, she never cried, and when she does, she gets caught by some little girl pretending to be worried about her.

"Gibbs sent me to tell you, that you can go home if you like, but, are you sure eveything is ok?"

"yes, perfectly, i wouldn't expect you to understand anyway." and with that she pushed her way past and marched out of the building scattering people to the side to let her through.

"So wheres this girl Gibbs? I'm only doing this to get on the Directors good side, now i'm wondering why, i'm not good with kids Gibbs"

"Abby, you'll be fine, i swear it, just don't get her addicted to that caff-pow too, ok?"

"Gibbs, you offend me, i'm not addicted to it..." this earnt her one of Gibbs' amused smirks,

"Whatever you say Abs." He then looked round and managed to see Ziva march straight past and into the elevator followed by a sheepish Ariela who made her way back to where Gibbs was standing.

"Whats got her in a huff?" Abby wondered out loud, "So then, you're Ariela, the famous wonderkid, follow me." Abby then just walked off leaving a bewildred 17 year old frozen to the spot, before she collected her thoughts and ran after after the white coated Goth.

The next day dawned just as crisp and cold as the previous and as gibbs walked into the Bull Pen he found a shivering McGee sat at his desk with his coat still on, Tony lazing around with a smug grin on his face and Ariela getting worked up at her computer because it wouldn't change the date to February second.

"Where's Ziva? She's late?"

"Don't know boss, she won't answer her cell either, i've tried about 10 times this morning." Tony replied quickly

"McGee you try her cell will you, she may not be in the mood to talk to Tony this morning." Tony looked rather affronted, but McGee instantly pulled out his cell and dialled her number."

"hey... where are you? Gibbs is getting annoyed?..." But then Gibbs snatched the phone from his hand mid-conversation and yelled into it.

"Look Ziva, get over it for now and get your sorry ass into work now... No Buts' Ziva, i said now... Look, i don't care about that, i want my full team here, got it!" Sure enough, half an hour later Ziva walked in, and sat at her desk, refusing to meet eyes with anyone.

"Right then everyone, Fire Arms test today."

"What about the case boss?"

"On hold for now, not that i'm happy about it. So get your butts down to the Firing Range now"

Both Ziva and Tony passed with flying colours, getting most hits on target, and Tony's praise over Ziva's technique making her smile for the first time in days caused a couple of raised eyebrows, McGee managed to hit all the targets, just not necessarily in the best place, and managed to scrap a pass. Gibbs naturally Got himself 100 much to everyone else's annoyance and Ariela passed just a few marks under Tony as a sniffle caused her to accidently shoot one target straight in the middle of the forehead. As there was still no advances to the case Gibbs called it a day after the exam and took everyone for a chinese, which Ziva managed to excuse her way out of. Ariela's intrigue in Ziva's mood deepened, and she was starting to wonder whether maybe she had another little project to work on, if her suspicions were correct that is. This could be a fun few weeks here in America.

i hope that was ok, i'm gonna work on my ideas for the case to try and make that more interesting. i already know how i want the tiva thing to be sorted out... but i'm still working on how to arrive there, and how shes gonna get the other two pairings together.

please reveiw, i gladly receive constructive criticism, tell me how you think i could have made this better, or any ideas that might help my story line :)