Once again disclaimer's in chapter one. This one's a little more plot orientated Next one has more tiva. promise. Have Fun!
THREE
Ziva was the first to wake. She felt Tony's soft breath on her neck. Still sleeping, he nestled his head into the crook of her neck. His hand swept upwards from her stomach, to her ribs, to cup her left breast. He raised himself up over her and pressed his pelvis deeply into her lower abdomen. She yelped when the strength of his arousal dug into her belly.
"OW!" he shouted as her knee connected sharply with his groin. He blinked and looked groggily around the room. He lay face down in their bed, Ziva squashed underneath him.
"I've told you before." She said, her voice muffled by his body.
He rolled off, his legs drawn up. "You like the top." He wheezed.
"No-"
"No free feels?"
She growled. "No. Don't just slip it in while I'm sleeping. Especially when we're not dating."
"It wasn't me." He said. "Well it was but I wasn't awake. I'm not responsible for what it does when I'm not awake."
She smacked him in the face with her pillow. "What's your excuse when you are awake?" Her voice was light, as if she wanted to laugh.
"Hey. Ziva. Your breasts…"
"Drop it Tony."
"They feel weird. They're huge-not that I didn't like them before-but they're huge. And kinda hard. Did you…"
"Did I what?"
"Nothing…can we drop this now?"
X
Clad only in his boxers Tony stood framed by the open refrigerator sucking orange juice from the carton.
"Tony!" Ziva said sharply. He whirled, mid chug, to meet her angry glare. She brandished her toothbrush at him, her eyes narrowed into little slits.
He continued to drink despite her obvious disapproval, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. Satisfied he set the carton with the remaining inch of juice back on the shelf. He wiped his mouth. "What?"
"That's disgusting!"
"What? You kiss me. You lick…"
"I kissed you." She said. "Doesn't mean you can drink from the carton."
"Noted." He indicated the toothbrush she clenched in her hand. "You gonna clean the grout with that?"
"No." She waved it at him. "Mine's the only one in the bathroom. Where's yours?"
"I forgot mine. That's joint custody."
Ziva handed it to him. "Keep it. I'll get a new one."
"Suit yourself," he said as he pulled it from her grasp.
She poured them each a cup of coffee. "What have you got planned for today? Going to get your ass handed to you by real live combat instructors?"
"No. You taught me well." He smiled. Some months ago he had consented to let her teach him what he termed your crazy ninja skills. Ziva was still the undisputed master but he could hold his own. He caught her smiling and knew what she was thinking-that the brutality of the activity usually culminated in something that made them each forget every bump and bruise. "How about you? Going to ride around in your house frau mobile and look for bad guys?"
"I'm going to run down Swift's last day on earth." She said. "And make friends with Mrs. Liptak."
Tony set his empty cup in the sink. "I'm going to see what I can dig up about Marner before he went to the big pot luck in the sky." He paused, holding the screen door open. "No kiss good bye?"
She stood on tiptoe and kissed him lightly on the lips, her touch feather soft but steady. She looked up at him. "For show."
"I know." He said. "We're not that happily married you and I."
X
"Dr. Buckley I presume." Agent Calloway's stentorian tone reverberated off of the tiled walls of autopsy.
Buckley looked up from his cadaver, Stryker saw in hand. He flipped up his face shield and did his best to glare at her through his coke bottle glasses. "Not you again."
"Sad but true. Would you like to try for the truth this time?" Calloway asked.
"I told you the truth." He lowered his face shield and flicked the saw on.
Gibbs yanked the power cord from the overhead socket. He snatched the saw from Buckley's hand. "I love these things."
"Yes. It's my favorite type of saw." Calloway stated. "You gotta love anything that can slice through a skull like a hot knife through butter."
Buckley cleared his throat. "Swift had injuries consistent with a slip and fall. She had no outward signs of struggle or defensive wounds. Marner died of a heart attack."
"Explain the bruising over his abdomen. And the fact that you never sent any blood samples to the lab." Calloway said.
Buckley raised both hands defensively. "There was no need. Preliminary findings indicated he died as the result of a heart attack."
Gibbs hefted the saw in his hands, testing the weight of it. "We need you to turn over everything you have on Marner and Swift."
"If it will get you off of my back, gladly." Buckly removed two thin file folders from his desk and thrust them at Calloway. "Here."
They were in the car before she spoke again. "He's in on it. Whatever it is."
"Ya think?"
"Yes. I do. I just said that. Cripes you're a pain in the behind! Anyone ever tell you that?"
"All the time but usually the metaphor's more colorful." Gibbs flipped open the autopsy files in his lap. "These are incomplete at best: A copy of the death certificate and a couple of photos. Who the hell hired this guy?"
"I think that's a whole other investigation." Calloway started the car and swung right out of the lot. "C'mon. We have to send those to your ME. And I need another cup of coffee before we go talk to the next mouth-breathing teammate of mine."
X
By midmorning Ziva hit pay dirt at the salon Swift had visited on her last day alive.
A woman with jet-black hair done in a spike leaned over the counter. Her nametag read Holly. "It's so sad. Delphine was so sweet. I mean she was as tough as nails, but sweet. Honestly, you could give that woman a Brazilian and it didn't bother her. Said it tickled."
The phone rang and Holly put it on hold. "Delphine was a regular. Except for last year when she had her hysterectomy, she was out for a while." She tapped her pen rapidly on the appointment book. "You want to know something strange?"
Ziva leaned closer. "I'm all ears."
"There was a guy. Military-I know the type. Big, built like a fire hydrant. I noticed him because he'd been hanging around the salon for a while. He just seemed so agitated. He was pacing back and forth in front of my window. I was about to call the police when he approached Delphine in the parking lot but she didn't seem concerned by him. Whatever he said to her though got her attention because they made off together in her car."
"Maybe he was her boyfriend?"
She laughed. "I doubt it. She wasn't that kind of woman."
X
McGee followed the sounds of what appeared to be rock and roll bagpipes into Autopsy. Abby and Ducky sat side by side in front of one of the tables, file folders and photos spread out on the table.
"You feeling okay Abby?"
"Okay enough." She said. "Why do you ask?"
He rolled his eyes in the direction of the speaker.
"It's Hevia." She said. "I'm expanding the Bucky's horizons, who by the way seems to like it. They're bopping along, wanna see?" She lifted her shirt and McGee focused on her face. While the pregnant bump had been sexy to begin with, the inside out belly button really grossed him out.
"Wow." He gulped. "Cool." He gestured to the photos on the steel table. "Looks like fun."
"It is." Abby nodded and her pigtails bounced. "In light of the dearth of physical evidence from the case Ducky's teaching me the fine art of the forensic autopsy.
"Found something." Ducky said. He lined up the portrait shots of the Liptak family. He tapped on Mary's face.
Abby lifted the photo and studied it. "How did Tony and Ziva miss it?"
"Miss what?" McGee squinted at the photo.
"Look at Liptak." She lifted it for him to see. "What color are his eyes?"
"Blue."
"And what color are his wife's eyes?"
"Big baby blues. So what?"
"Now look at Mary's."
"Brown." She paused and waited for realization to hit him. It didn't. And least not fast enough. "You didn't do so well in genetics, did you Timmy?"
"Two blue eyed parents can't have a brown eyed child. It's genetically impossible." Ducky said.
"She could have been adopted." McGee offered.
"Not according to the birth certificate." Abby countered.
"Sometimes those are fudged, you know. Rewritten with the adoptive parent's names in place."
"I know that Timmy. That's why we're going to called the delivery doctor and ask if Meg Liptak did indeed give birth to a bouncing baby girl."
x Thanks for reading! And thanks to all who have left a review. So let me know what you think, Please! Thanks. Jeanne