A brief note: first - I'm sorry to Statler - I didn't update in two's this time mate! Been struggling through a bit of writer's block at the moment. Secondly - yes, that writer's block has left me with a chapter I'm not altogether too happy with, so if you have any advice on how to clean this chapter up, or move on from here, let me know. But for god's sake don't expect sappiness or endless declarations of love - as people have noted, I don't write that. Thirdly, thankyou all so much for the reviews you've written in, it's been, and hopefully it will continue to be an absolute pleasure to write for you, and log in to my email to see these wonderful reviews. For more responses to reviews, see the end of this chapter:

(NB: the response to some of the reviews may or may not contain hints of vague ideas about what may be in-store for the NCIS team)

The NCIS team returned to their hotel, exhausted. After hour upon hour of sifting through debris, they'd finally discovered trace elements of C4 plastic explosive scattered throughout the widespread traces of ANFO. The finding of the C4 was a critical moment in the investigation, as each batch of the plastic explosive was tagged with certain chemical agents to allow identification and tracking of the movement and use of the dangerous goods. With luck, DiNozzo hoped that this would be one step in the right direction towards finding those responsible.

Tony had had a nice long hot shower and finally felt relaxed for the first time in twenty-four hours. As he stepped outside the shower, he realized he'd left the towels on the bed and, figuring he had the hotel suite to himself, thought nothing of walking out of the bathroom, naked as the day he was born. The one thing DiNozzo didn't count on however was coming face to face with Ziva who had been waiting for him; for quite some time from the look of it due to the impatient look on her face.

It took all of about half a second for her to realize that her partner was stark naked. She had to give him credit though – he didn't seem fazed by the situation. He just offered her a grin and said, "Mind handing me that towel?"

Grinning salaciously at him, she ran her gaze up and down his body, winked at him and rose slowly reaching out for the towel, which she offered to him. Rising up onto her tiptoes she whispered into his ear, "Is it cold in here, Tony?"

Chuckling to herself, she enjoyed watching the expression on his face change from confused to worried as he quickly wrapped the towel around himself before discreetly checking to see if she was right.

Re-establishing the DiNozzo cocky grin he secured the end of the towel so that it wouldn't fall down and sat down next to her. "So what brings you to my suite aside from a desire to see the "Big D"?"

Seeing Ziva grin and start to open her mouth to retort he hastily added, "Don't start on that."

Ziva replied, "They have the movie channel here, I would have thought the "Big D" would have already figured that out. I just wondered if you would let me watch a movie with you, I just need to put my feet down."

Tony automatically said, "Up."

Confused, Ziva stood up and gestured, "Where do you want me to sit?"

"No, I didn't mean get up Zee-vah," Tony said, exasperated by the Mossad officer's continual confusion of English idioms, "I meant the phrase is put you feet up."

"Oh," she said, sitting down next to him again, her thigh touching the bare skin of his own thigh where the towel had ridden up slightly. Both of them swallowed unconsciously at the unintentional seemingly intimate moment they were in, however neither moved away.

"Well?" Ziva asked, after a few moments of silence while they both tried to recollect their thoughts.

Tony had been about to teasingly accuse her of suddenly wanting to spend time around him after seeing him naked, but suddenly he saw the vulnerability in her eyes and he realized. After her sister Tali's death, and all the other bombings she had worked in Israel, this one had hit close to home and she likely just needed a mindless evening of movies and his stupid trivia to make the situation more normal. So Tony said, "You just want to spend more time around me after you've seen the "Big D" in larger than life form."

The normal banter had returned, and Ziva smiled again as Tony stood up and told her to put a movie on while he got dressed. Entering the lounge room he found Ziva sitting on the couch with the opening credits to the latest James Bond film rolling. Sitting down comfortably next to her he, as if by accident, once again put his arm around her but when she didn't move it, he left it there.

The two sat in silence as the last of the opening theme music died away until Tony finally said; "You know this is the first movie that doesn't have the gun barrel scene near the start of the movie? It's not a usual Bond film move, but I like it."

Ziva chuckled.

McGee barged into DiNozzo's hotel suite, saying, "Tony, wake up we need to meet up with Dunn who-" and that was as far as he got.

His eyes widened as they took in the scene before him. The TV was on mute; ads for movies flashing across the widescreen as the two top agents slept. Tony was sprawled rather comfortably along the full length of the couch. Ziva was half wedged between Tony and the back-rest of the couch, and half lying on his stomach, her legs entwined with his and her head resting underneath his chin.

Moments later Gibbs burst into the room saying, "Have either of you two seen Ziva, I can't find her-".

McGee tried to shrink into the background as he wondered what would come next.

Author's Notes (continued)

As I've said, thanks to all those who have reviewed.

In response to some; I must confess, I have written previous tales about the NCIS gang as Delta-6 alluded to. Unfortunately I decided I didn't like the direction they were headed in, and the fact I had no idea where they were ultimately going, and scrapped them. I have learnt from this, but ultimately still have no idea where this story is going. I write as the thoughts come into my head.

To Lyn1410G, thanks for the lovely review and PM. God knows as an Aussie it's sometimes hard to recognize that our lingo isn't universal, but as james-louise suggested, writing in a little Aussie lingo to confuse the NCIS team would be a pretty good idea - so my plea to all the Australian readers is to give me some suggestions for some dialogue!

A Melody of Spring, I'm pleased to see that not everyone wants to see sappiness from these two very strong characters. I can assure you that despite some of my hints in the story, it won't end with a thousand declarations of love and unicorns dancing in fields of sunflowers whilst all ends happily ever after. An ending which is more in line with a real NCIS episode is something I'll be aiming for.

Sunshine Coast Local: god knows it'd be rather nice to be recruited as a writer for NCIS. What I would give to be working alongside Cote de Pablo (reowr!) and Pauly Perette. Pleased to hear you like the story and thanks for the lovely review.

M E Wofford: I have no idea how you do it - you seem to review everyone's stories and yet you always seem to be ready to give me a lovely review the moment I update! Either you're magic, or you have a small team of elves working in your basement with a high speed internet connection. Either way, thanks very much for all the brilliant reviews!

Sason: I'm sorry. I'm currently living in Melbourne and have been for the last 8 months, and if this story doesn't get updated it's because some cursed Melbourne-driver has probably run me off the road. You people drive like you learned in bumper-cars! You people are insane! I'll be glad to escape back to Brisvegas in another two months! Still, it's better than Sydney where you can't even see the road because of all the riot fires started all over the place. I'm JOKING Sydney and Melbourne people - don't stab me.

djEskimo: many thanks for the continued support. If you have an Aussie phrase that you'd like me to throw in to confuse Tony, and especially Ziva, please let me know.

Hudson911: with regards to your suspicion. I hadn't really considered it until you mentioned it. Originally this was just written to humanize the victims a little more, and I would refer to it only briefly later as a tie-back to the beginning, but I'll re-think where that sub-story could go now.

mtee1958: crazily enough - I don't think saloon is actually an Aussie word. I should have used sedan which is a little more well known in the Australian language. I'm almost sure the term saloon (meaning sedan I THINK) comes from England, or maybe America - god knows.

Delta-6: always nice to be noticed! I'm sorry I never helped you further on with your story and left fan-fiction for a significant period of time so never even saw if it was posted. You'll have to PM me if you've written it because I've love to read it.

Am I a Devil or an Angel: the current attack isn't meant to rival the horrors of 9/11, as at the moment I've written the body count is 522 from memory. I don't really plan to eclipse a very real tragedy with a work of fiction, but at the same time I won't rule out the body count rising or being substantially inflated due to another incident that may or may not occur, which may or may not affect the NCIS/Australian team for the worse. (that's an author's hint dear readers)

Oh my god, at this rate my response to the reviews will be longer than the story. To all those I haven't replied to yet, I will attempt to do so in the next chapter!