Thanks for the reviews on CHP 9, Willow008, ZivaCentric, Deathus, and to everyone else for reviewing earlier! You guys are great! I hope everyone's having a terrific week and not working too hard ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS. I don't own its characters. I don't own the show... so basically my life has no purpose... just kidding.
Timothy McGee quietly inserts the spare key, leftover from his days of dating Abby, into the door of Abby's apartment while Tony stands nearby, his gun at the ready.
"Hurry up, Probie. How long does it take to insert a key into a door? Do I have to do everything myself?"
"Calm down, Tony. Abby's locks have always been a little tricky... Almost got it... There!" The door swings open, both agents nod at each other, and cautiously step inside with their guns at the ready. Tim moves to the kitchen and says, "Clear" while Tony does the same with the dining room. The only room left is the bedroom. This is room from which Abby had been kidnapped before and both agents look at each other uneasily. When neither Abby nor Ziva had showed up for work this morning, Gibbs had immediately sent them on the hunt, worried that someone with ties to Kort or Ray had attempted to kidnap Abby again to finish the project.
On the count of three, McGee swings open the door and both agents move inside, training their guns on various random objects in the room. Both, however, lower their guns in shock at the sight before them. The two women they had been so worried about are sleeping soundly in the bed, with Ziva spooning Abby, her arms wrapped firmly around Abby's waist and her face in Abby's hair.
Tony raises an eyebrow at McGee and grins suggestively while he reaches into his pocket for his phone. Tony quickly snaps a picture of the two women while McGee is standing uncertainly, not sure if it's a good idea to wake up Ziva. She'd probably come at him with the gun that was surely under the pillow once she realized McGee and Tony had practically broken into Abby's apartment. The decision was taken out of his hands, however, when Tony's phone began to ring shrilly.
Tony fumbles with his phone and drops it with a loud clunk, which wakes up Ziva. He answers the phone and watches Ziva's reaction to their presence carefully, in case she tries to throw something at him. "Hello? Hey Boss. No, everything's fine. We found them. They just overslept. They're nice and cozy. Yeah? Okay, I'll let them know."
Ziva growls. "What are you two doing here?"
"McStalker here had a key to the apartment left over from his days of dating Abby."
Ziva glares at Tim. "You what? Why would you two break into Abby's apartment? I do not understand."
"We were worried. It's 10 o'clock in the morning and you two never showed up for work. Gibbs thought maybe something had happened. You know how Gibbs gets, all mother-hen-like when his agents don't show up. The poor man was almost tearing out his hair."
Ziva only rolls her eyes. "I am perfectly capable of taking care of Abby."
Tony raises his eyebrows suggestively. "We noticed."
Ziva's retort is cut off by a moan from Abby. "Mmmm... Ziva? Where'd you go?"
Ziva smiles slightly and gently strokes Abby's arm. "I am right here... So are Tony and McGee."
Abby suddenly sits bolt upright and opens her eyes. "What the hell are you two doing here?"
"McGee used the spare key you once gave him to get in, Abby."
Abby glares at McGee and Tony. "TIMOTHY MCGEE! How dare you break into my apartment? Have you two completely lost it? Don't forget I can kill you without leaving any trace of forensic evidence! And, if this happens again, I'm seriously considering it! NOW GET OUT!"
Both men back toward the door slowly. "Look. Gibbs wanted me to tell you guys that you have the rest of the day off. You need your rest. Ziva, he gave orders for you to stay and watch over Abby in her apartment today until he finishes interrogating Kort and Ray to make sure there are no other accomplices involved in this."
Abby shudders. "Are you saying that someone's going to try to kidnap me again?"
"I will protect you, Abby." Abby smiles at Ziva, remembering how safe she felt in Ziva's arms last night.
"I know you will, Ziva." Tony starts making kissing noises and both girls look at each other. Ziva nods at Abby and they pick up the pillows from the bed and start hitting the men with them, until they have backed them right out of the apartment.
With a final click, Abby closes the door and mumbles something about getting her locks changed before she turns back to Ziva. "Ziva... I don't want you to feel like you're being forced to hang out here today, because that's not cool at all. Seriously, I'll be fine if you want to go home."
Ziva smiles and slowly cups Abby's face. "I want to spend the day with you, Abby. I am going to go shower."
Abby grins. "Ok'e doke! I'll go get the caf-pows and pancakes ready!"
When Ziva returns to the kitchen, fresh from her shower, she has to laugh. In front of each window in her apartment, Abby has placed a wooden chair from her kitchen table. She tied a string to both legs of the bottom of the chair and attached the other end of the string to the window ledge, so if some scary kidnapper tried to open the ledge, the string would be pulled and the chair would fall over and alert her to an intruder. She also, for good measure, tied spoons to the front legs of each chair, using string, so if someone cut the string and tried to move the chair out of the way, the spoons would make a noise as they scraped the floor, 'just in case'. Ziva only shakes her head in amusement even as she realizes Abby must be pretty scared if she would rig something that ingenious up so quickly.
Abby already has the table set and is grinning. "Ready to eat, Ziva?" She bounces up and down and twirls around a few times.
"Abby... Did you already drink a whole caf-pow? You are entirely too happy compared to earlier."
"Maybe... But you can only live once!"
Ziva smiles indulgently and they sit down to eat. Over the course of the meal, neither talks about last night. Instead, Abby chats about everything from how they can get back at Tim and Tony to installing new security alarms.
They spend the rest of the day watching Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Ziva's personal favorite, and playing board games like Scrabble. Neither woman mentions how wonderful last night was or their feelings. They're both too scared to do so because they think the other one doesn't care.