Tony watched Ziva as she yawned for what had to be the fourth time in about ten minutes. That definitely wasn't a good sign. She also looked haggard, for lack of a better word. Which was also not a good sign. Ziva didn't tend to yawn for no reason like she was doing now. She didn't tend to yawn at all unless they had a week of back to back cases with no let up. But everyone yawned constantly at that point so ot didn't count in his opinion. No, Ziva was yawning and it was only the start of the day.

And there was another yawn. Which somehow made her look even more tired. Okay, he couldn't stand it anymore, he had to see what was going on.

"You okay?" He asked her quietly, trying not to draw McGee's attention.

She looked up at him and he noticed just how dark the circles were under her eyes. She hadn't even tried to cover them up with too much makeup. Too much effort or did she realise that putting more makeup on than usual (and, let's be honest, Ziva didn't wear a lot of makeup) would draw attention to her more? Whatever the reason, the dark circles were still alarming. He didn't like it.

"I am fine," she said softly, also so McGee didn't hear.

The fact that it was said without any venom concerned him.

"You're tired."

"I am no-" she began but was rudely interrupted by a yawn.

She frowned at herself, apparently not liking that her body betrayed her.

"Why don't you go down to Abby's Lab and catch some sleep?" He suggested.

It was just a cold case day, it wouldn't matter if she wasn't here for a half an hour or so. She'd be more productive if she was rested anyway. And Gibbs was in a conference call with the Director and some of the bigwigs that was going to go in for at least another hour so she wouldn't be missed.
Zuva shook her head stubbornly.

"I will be fine," she insisted.

He raised an eyebrow.

"You were literally nodding off over your keyboard."

"I did not nod at my keyboard. Why would I do that?"

"No, I mean, you didn't, I mean... you nearly fell asleep there," Tony said in exasperation.

"Yawning is not falling asleep. It just means that I am tired."

"Ah ha! So, you admit that you are tired!" Tony saod triumphantly.

Now Ziva looked really annoyed, though whether it was at him or at her was hard to tell.

Unfortunately that drew McGee's attention to them.

"Who's tired?" McGee asked, rubbing at his eyes. "I swear staring at cold cases makes your eyes ache."

Ziva glared at Tony, which was somewhat less effective due to the dark circles under her eyes. Hey, it wasn't his fault that McGee was now invovled. Okay, maybe it was but that was beside the point.

"Just go and take a nap," he said coaxingly, turning back to her.

"No."

She sounded so petulant that Tony almost chuckled. Almost. It wasn't helped by the fact that she even crossed her arms. He raised an eyebrow.

"I am too cold to sleep anyway," she huffed. "I cannot get into any heat into me."

"You do realise that that means you're sick, right?" Tony asked her sarcastically. "Well, that and not sleeping well."

"I am not sick," she insisted and then she sneezed. "It is just a cold."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Which means you are sick."

"I am not staying off work just because of a cold."

"You should. You are putting your coworkers at risk. Namely me."

You know, compromised lungs and all that. Though, a cold probably wouldn't do anything to them. He'd had several colds over the last two years and none of them had turned into anything serious. He just got a worse cold than normal, that was all.

"Which means that you should stay away from me," she said pointedly.

He looked down at her and the very small space between them and shrugged.

"Bit late for that."

"You were the one that came over here."

"I know."

"So you are obviously not that worried about catching my cold."

She blew her nose to prove her point. It was oddly delicate, not something he expected from her. Though Tony didn't know how he would have expected Ziva to blow her nose. It wasn't exactly soemthing you thought about. That and he never would have believed that a cold would have dared to invade Ziva David's body. He didn't know if that was brave or stupid of the virus.

"Did you sleep at all last night?"

She glared at him, not wanting to answer his question but he just stared at her.

"No," she grumbled. "Not well, anyway."

And not well for Ziva meant not at all for anyone else. Because Ziva had acquired the ability to be able to be perfectly functioning (without even looking tired) on basically no sleep. A leftover Mosssd ability. Now, she couldn't keep it up for more than two or three days maybe four at a stretch. After that she reacted like everyone else to no sleep but still, she had the ability. Which meant her current state was quite worrying. Maybe even more so.

"How about the night before?"

"I was fine!" Ziva said, frustration lacing her tone. "It has just been since last night!"

Yep, even more worrying.

"Yeah, I'm going to bring you down to Abby," he said, leading her over to the elevator.

"Come on, she has a nice futon you can sleep on."

"I don't need to sleep," she complained which was compeltely negated by the fact that she willingly let him lead her to the elevator.

"Yeah, of course you don't," he said, rolling his eyes at her behind her back.

Again, something she would normally pick up on but because she was basically a zombie, she didn't. Yeah, right about the not needing sleep.

"I don't!"

How was she even still capable of arguing with him?