With box in hand Tony walks down the hall towards Ziva's room. Funny thing about Ziva was every time Tony knew he was going to be seeing her, his whole body was in a calm state of chaos and confusion. Sometimes his palms would get sweaty and other times they would be as dry as the weather outside. Other times he would find himself unable to help smile even more than usual. Today however there was something else going on in his thought. These thoughts all seem to center around one thing and one thing only. His mission to see Ziva in the dress he had in his hands. Reaching her room he brings his hand up to knock when he suddenly stops. A look of personal disappointment on his face and he rubs his fingers together feeling the moisture gathering on his hands. *Little coward* He says trying to rally the complete cool Tony everyone knew and sees every day.

Whipping his hands on his suit pants he brings his hands back up and knocks on the door two times. Standing in the hall with the dress Tony waits to hear her voice or for the door to swing open in which case he would flash his winning smile and walk in. Waiting for a silent two seconds Tony clears his throat and knocks again this time banging against the door three times and waiting. After a third attempt of knocking four times in a rapid fire style Tony sighed and started to wonder where she could be. Frowning at the closed door with the shinny numbers on it he turns and starts to head back to his room. Unaware of the horrible situation Ziva was in.

Ziva was good at her job. Hell she was good at almost anything she does, except for the occasional thing like advanced computer forensics and things like that Ziva was confident in her ability to do or withstand anything the world could throw at her. One thing she has yet to be able to fully shield herself from, Gibbs and his death stare of horror. The man could stop an entire militia from a thousand yards away without a rifle in his hand. All he would need is that angry look, which was pointed at her at this very moment. Having left her room only two minutes before Tony arrived at her door she was now standing in the hallway right outside the security room.

Not seeing a cup in Gibbs hands was already a bad sign. It meant he had been waiting. Ziva had a theory that you could gauge how angry Gibbs was by how many times he took a sip from his cup of coffee. She had not yet seen how mad he got when he ran out of coffee and had never wanted to test the theory. Stopping in front of him he stands up straight and tries to explain herself.

"Sorry I am late I was called down to the dress shop by Delinda. She asked from my help dealing with a customer and I helped. "This wasn't really a lie it was actually all true. Did the customer actually need to be taken out of the store? No by the time she got there Delinda had told her he had left but that was not something she was going to tell Gibbs.

"Where's Tony" Gibbs asked in a very calm and unshaken voice.

"He is not already in the room?" Ziva asks back in a confused tone and a scrunching of her right eye. "I saw Danny about 20 minutes ago when I was going back to my room after dealing with the dress store.

"No he's not" Gibbs says and then starts walking towards the exit. "Get in there and get working." He says as he turns the corner and disappeared from Ziva's sight.

Already knowing she was late she walked in and sat down next to McGee. Looking around the room she saw everyone but Tony. "Where is Tony?" She asks fixing her gaze on Danny.

Shrugging at the question Danny looks around the room as well and answers the question. "Not sure. We split when we left the parking lot after going to the girls' house. Last I checked I think he was going to head to his room to get cleaned up." Danny makes a face and continues. "The girls place really smelled and some of it sunk into our clothing. I changed to before I came here to tell you guys about Nikolay."

"Who is Nikolay?" Spinning over and making eye contact with McGee the guys start their presentation all over again. McGee could see Ziva was a little upset but wasn't really sure about the reason.

Looking down at the box as Tony headed back to his room he started to feel an itch. This wasn't a normal itch this was one of those itches that you couldn't reach. It wasn't even a physical one too. This itch was born from the combination of finding the dress in his room with a riddle attached and his mind constantly picturing Ziva wearing the dress. Finally succumbing to his inner desires Tony turns around and heads back down the hall. He wasn't going back to Ziva's room though. He was heading to the start of it all. The dress shop was in the East wing after all.

Reaching there in record time as his mind pushed him to go faster and faster Tony walked in with the dress in the box secured firmly under his arm. Looking around he spots the cashiers desk and heads over. Reaching the desk and seeing the woman on the phone he waits for her to finish.

"That special order has just arrived." The woman cashier says and then hanging up the phone acknowledges Tony with a happy friendly smile. "And how can I help you today sir?" She says and then sees the box. Hiding a frown she keeps her happy tone as she adds "Is this a return?"

"No actually I was hoping you could help me track down who sent this to my room. I think it might have been sent to my room by accident." Tony had started to think this as he walked to the dress store. It was a far more logical explanation then what ever it was he had duped himself into thinking.

Smiling and holding her hands out the woman takes the box and opens it up. Looking down at the dress her eyes grow a little wide as she exclaims. "What a beautiful dress." Checking the side of the box she types the small serial number and hits enter in her computer. A few half seconds later the information on the dress popped up on her screen.

"Are you rooming in suit number sixteen on the twenty third floor sir?" She asks looking over at Tony and away from her computer.

"Yes I am but I didn't buy this dress" tony says tilting his head to look at the screen.

Just as the woman was about to turn the screen so Tony could read what was on it they were both distracted by Delinda walking up to the desk. "Special Agent DiNozzo, are you sure your investigation lead you here?" She says with a smile.

"Actually this is a personal investigation." Tony says looking over at her. "Someone sent this dress to my room and I was looking in to see who." Looking back at the cashier Tony waits as the woman starts to read the information but is then interrupted by Delinda.

"Amy, why don't you go over to the dressing rooms and see if anyone needs some help. " Delinda said quickly as she pushes Amy away from the computer. Bring the screen back to where it was before Delinda minimized the screen and looks over at Tony with a smile. "Alright let's see that dress." She says and takes the top of the box off.

To Tony's surprise Delinda didn't look surprised that the five thousand dollar dress was sent to his room. In fact she looked disappointed. Her arms and shoulders seemed to fall a little and she let out a very sorrow filled sigh. "I really did hope she would just accept it." She says picking the dress up and lifting it in the air. "

"Who?" Tony asked now thinking he was going to find out who sent this amazing dress to him.

Looking over with the sad face Delinda explained. "Tony I am very sorry. You see this dress was not meant to go to your room. It was meant to go to Ziva's. As a personal gift for coming all the way from DC to help my husband on this whole murder case I wanted to show her how thankful I was. I looked around and thought that a dress would be a perfect gift. I showed it to her and at first she refused but then she finally ok. I guess when she took it up here she said to give it to someone else." Pouting and putting the dress back in the box Delinda continues to act sad and disappointed.

"See was following orders." Tony said seeing how sad Delinda looked. "We normally can't accept gifts from someone who is close to the case as it is still ongoing." Tony couldn't completely hid is little bit of excitement. He had been right. It was for Ziva but she wasn't going to accept it. Knowing that Ziva was always one for the rules he smiles and gets an idea. "But she can accept a gift from a good friend right?"

*My god this is almost too easy* Delinda thinks as Tony says his plan out loud. "Well I'm not the government agent so it's not really up to me on what is right, but if I had to answer." She had to pause because she was fighting back a smile at the moment. Finally letting the happiness subside she continues. "I would think it would be alright. Of course I guess you would have to also give her a reason to wear it…" This was the final piece of the plan. If Tony took the bait She would have to use ever once of will power to stop herself from dancing.

"You just leave that to me. If there is one thing I know it's how to get a girl out a dress. Can't be too hard to do the reverse right?" With those final humor filled words of confidence Tony puts the lid over the box and picks it up. Thanking Delinda for the help He then leaves and goes back to his room where he puts the box away and then heads to the security room to look for Ziva.

Watching Tony leave and waiting till he was gone Delinda takes her phone out and hits the call button. After it rings the call is answered and Delinda smiles even more as she starts to talk. "The operation was a success the Italian has taken the bait. Time for your attack Abby."

Sorry this took so long to get out. I have an exchange student staying with me and it has been sucking up a lot of my free time. Rest assured I am not stopping and this will be all falling together nicely as the story progresses. I hope you all enjoyed my new plot twist with the dress. As you can maybe tell the prize that they have won will play out later but for now I think you know what Delinda and Abby are up to. The only thing I have been wondering is if it will work….. :O Anyways hope this wasn't too painful to read. I had to write it at about 2 am and haven't been sleeping well. Still looking for someone to spend an hour or so to do some proof reading on my chapters. Thank you for the time you have given to read and comment I just love hearing from you! With that in mind please READ, REFLECTS, & REVIEW!