A/N: THANKS FOR ALL THE GET WELL SOONS, THEY DIDN'T WORK. BUT WHAT EVER. MORE TIME TO WRITE. LAST NIGHT I HAD A DREAM ABOUT TONY AND ZIVA, I HAVE BEEN WATCHING NCIS FOR YEARS AND THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED. SEE WHAT THIS FANFICTION IS DOING TO ME!!! I CAN'T EVEN THINK STRAIGHT ANYMORE. ANYWAY.... HERE'S THE NEXT CHAPTER. SO R&R, BLAH BLAH BLAH YOU KNOW THE DRILL.

DISCLAIMER: ALTHOUGH I DO HAVE SOME OF THE MOST AMAZING READERS IN THE WHOLE WORLD... I WOULD RATHER OWN NCIS. LOL. SORRY GUYS, BUT YOU ALL KNOW YOU WOULD SAY THE SAME THING IN MY POSITION. ENJOY!!!

Chapter 7: The Maze

Tony woke up the next morning mildly disappointed. He was facing the outside of the bed, meaning he wasn't wrapped around Ziva. He flipped over to find her missing. At first he panicked and sat up, but then realized it was already 605, and she had probably had got up to go running. She had mentioned she missed that while riding the horse the day before, so she probably found a trail and went. Remembering the riding expedition, got him thinking about the previous day's events. He smiled as he recalled...

The therapy session was crazy. The rest of the team had blamed him for causing unneeded tension at work. He had denied it at the session, but he knew it was ture. But come on, who could get through a day of work with out having some fun.

The shrinks had said they would be talking about what was mentioned yesterday today. He was mildly worried about that. He had called Ziva a murderer. The looks on the faces of the shrinks told him they didn't know why she worked for NCIS. He smiled to himself... he was going to have some fun with that.

Then he remembered what else they would be talking about... their homework. He wasn't sure what to make of the homework. He had written the team was like a family to him. Gibbs was the father, Jenny was the mother, McGee was the annoying little brother and Abby was the hyper teenage sister. But then he got to Ziva... Where did she fit in. He liked to think of her as family, but he really hoped most family's didn't think some of the things he thought about Ziva. He cared for her deeply, but he didn't want that to come out during a therapy session. Not very... romantic, and definitely not his style. Next to her name on the paper, all he had written was I wouldn't be alive without her. Although the manifest content of that statement was she had saved his life before, which was true, latently, he was saying he couldn't live without her. Hopefully no one figured that out.

His thoughts then drifted towards the horseback riding. That was interesting. They had ridden along the path the "cowboy" guy had pointed out for almost forty-five minutes when they had come across a clearing in the woods around them. It was very pretty. It was perfectly symmetrical. They has spent a few minutes wrapped around the beauty of the place before they turned around and went back. They hadn't talked about anything very important, but they had talked, and that meant more to Tony then he could care to admit. They didn't do enough of that.

The 'fitness training' had been totally pointless. They were all in pretty good shape, just because of their work, and Ziva, of course, had done better that all of them at all the cardio. work. Besides that it had been very boring. Of course they had goofed off, but they would have done that no matter where they were.

That reminded him of Walmart. That had been nice, seeing Ziva let loose for a few minutes. She deserved to have fun sometimes, and it was nice to see her smile. Her smile... she should smile so much more often.

Ziva chose that moment to enter the room. She was wearing the gym clothes and was covered in a thin layer of sweat.

"Hey sweetcheeks." Tony greeted her in a whisper, "I was worried for a second there... wait a sec... isn't the gym locked up over night.... never mind. You picked the lock."

She grinned at him. "Yes, and I need to return them before anyone notices they are missing. So I am just going to.... Oh my gosh, look." She pointed out to the rest of the team. They were still asleep and wrapped around each other, Gibbs and Jenny, McGee and Abby.

"Heh. Blackmail." He said as he got up silently, got out his phone and took a picture of McGee and Abby. He had turned to do the same to his bosses, but thought better of it. "Maybe that wouldn't be the best idea."

"Probably not, now I'm going to take a shower," and she walked over to the girl's bathroom door.

"You know, we could save water and..."

"No." Ziva said testily.

Tony sulked, but went to the other bathroom to shower as well.

When Ziva finished her shower she got out to mildly regret not spending more time shopping the day before. She had had fun with Tony, no matter how childish and demeaning it had been, but now she was lacking part of her usual morning routine. She got over it quickly, though, deciding it was completely worth the fun. Besides, they would only be a few more days...

Tony exited the shower feeling full of energy. After doing some more thinking he and realized some thing, and it gave him a good feeling about how today would turn out. The sound of the rest of the team waking up caused him to smile a little bigger than he normally would this early in the morning. "Rise and shine everyone! It's going to be an amazing day today," He said excitedly, "I can feel it."

"If your gut is telling you something, DiNozzo, you're probably just hungry." Gibbs greeted him.

"Good morning to you too boss. Probie!" He shouted, overexcited to see his fellow employee, "Sleep well? Good! How about you Abby, Boss, Jenny? Nice to see your all awake." They all stared over at him like he was crazy.

McGee look over to the boss and whispered, "Boss, I think he's finally cracked." Tony glared at him, but the smile spread across his face again when Ziva walked out of the bathroom to the stunned faces of her coworkers. She looked at them, her brow coming together in a questioning way.

"Umm... what is going on...." But she couldn't finish.

"Zee-vah! You're finished!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door. "Come get breakfast with me." She was too shocked to do anything, so just let him pull her towards the door. She turned around blinking rapidly, looking for an explanation. The rest of the team merely shrugged and continued to wake up and start the day.

Abby, McGee, Gibbs and Jenny entered the cafeteria and looked around to find Tony and Ziva sitting together, Tony chattering nonstop, Ziva staring at him across the table, one eyebrow raised, looking at him like he was crazy.

Breakfast was eaten in complete silence, except for Tony's constant babble. Everyone was quite relieved to finish and get out of there.

The first few hours of the morning was to be dedicated to 'team bonding'. No one was particularly happy with this, but they didn't have much of a choice.

They walked along a short trail leading away from the main part of the camp to a large open area with a giant building in the center labeled as an obstacle course, Tony still talking consistently the whole way. There were many other people arriving at the field aside from the team. When Tony finally looked at his surroundings, his mood dropped slightly. "What. The hell. Is this? You have got to be kidding me. An obstacle course! What are we, twelve?"

"Not just an obstacle course, but a maze as well." Said a fat man approaching them. "You can't see very well until you begin, but there are walls set up, so you can only get out a certain way."

"Why do we have to do this?" Gibbs asked demandingly.

"You will be divided into partners according to who you work the most with. Each pair will be tied together. It will teach you to listen to each other, work together and respect your coworkers decision." They looked at him unconvinced, but didn't argue. The sooner they were done with this the better. "Okay, it looks like Gibbs will be paired with Jenny, Tony with Ziva, and Timothy with Abby." They reluctantly allowed him to tie them together. There was only a few feet of rope between them. "You will have an unlimited amount of time to finish, but the sooner you are allowed to leave. Good luck teams. You may start whenever you are ready. And don't forget to have fun." He walked away leaving them to their problems.

The pairs glanced at each other. The unspoken words allowed each person to know this wasn't just a bonding activity anymore. This was so much more. This was war.

The rope greatly hindered their coordination ability, but they disregarded this fact and charged into the maze.

AS I SAID ABOVE, THERE WAS ANOTHER CHAPTER. I HAVE MUCH IN STORE FOR THE TEAM OVER THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS, SO STAY TUNED. I SHOULD HAVE ANOTHER CHAPTER POSTED IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS, BUT I AM MILDLY BUZY WITH THE HOLIDAYS AND EVERYTHING. R&R AND ALL THAT JAZZ!