Disclaimer: Awkward starfish.
New chapter. Hope you enjoy.
What were your thoughts on Jetlag? I loved it :). It was just pure awesome. What did you guys think?
Gibbs sat at his desk in the dark, alone in the bullpen. McGee had gone down to Abby's an hour ago and had not yet returned. He looked across to Ziva's desk, then to Tony's. Where the hell were they? He and McGee had processed the scene at the warehouse the day before. Gibbs didn't much like that the bullet they pulled out of the dead man's chest had come from Tony's SIG. Even worse were the drips and skids of blood that had been positively identified as having come from Ziva. Then, a mile down the road, their car turns up, smashed almost beyond recognition with no one inside.
The plot thickens.
Gibb groaned and leant forward, rubbing his hands over his scalp roughly. Where were they? He looked over at his clock. 4:30am. Time to get back out there, he decided. He was a marine sniper, a tracker. If anyone could find his agents, it was him.
He picked up his desk phone and dialled.
"McGee. Get your gear!"
"Boss?"
"Now, McGee! You've got five minutes to be in the garage or I'll slap you so hard-"
"Got it, Boss!"
Dial tone.
Gibbs smirked, despite their situation. I knew I trained him well...
"So anyway, there's this ship, right?" Tony was saying, as he and Ziva trudged along. "And it's called the Black Pearl. Now it's cursed, okay?"
"Cursed?" Ziva sounded sceptical. "I do not understand why this Captain Jack would want a cursed ship."
"Oh, it wasn't cursed when he had it. It got cursed later, when they got the treasure and spent all the gold coins," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"So the treasure had some kind of connection to the ship, then?"
"No," Tony said. "It was the crew. Not the ship."
"You just said-"
"You have to listen, Ziva. You'll never pass that test if you don't."
Ziva huffed, frustrated. "I do not think that the citizenship test will be assessing my knowledge on the inner working of pirates in the Caribbean."
"Pirates of the Caribbean!" Tony cut in. "It's a movie, Zee-vah."
"I got that much."
Tony was about to retort when she cut him off,
"Can we just talk about something else? All these plotlines are too confusing for me to handle right now."
Tony nodded, sliding a worried glance toward her. She seemed lively enough, but he could tell she wasn't getting better. Progress was slow and painful. She needed a doctor, and soon. They both did. "Sure," he said. "What do you want to talk about? A book, I suppose."
Ziva rolled her eyes, but her heart clearly wasn't in it. "Is it so wrong that I like to read, DiNozzo?" she asked, her voice soft, but with a playful edge.
"When you don't watch movies to complement those books, then yes."
She gave a sigh and shook her head. I do watch movies, Tony. I just prefer books." She sounded serious this time so he decided to let the subject drop.
After a few moments of silence, he spoke again, intent on keeping conversation going and her alert.
"So where do you reckon we are?" He cursed the words as soon as they left his mouth.
She turned him and raised one eyebrow. "Seriously?"
"I, uh, I know we're in the wood and stuff, but..." he trailed off. "I just meant, how far until the town," he amended.
"How should I know?"
"Well you know, you're all crazy Mossad ninja and have secret powers and... Let's forget I started talking, yeah?"
She rolled her eyes again, but couldn't conceal the smirk on her face. "To answer your question, I do not believe we are far away now," she said.
"And how could you know that?" Tony asked incredulously, despite the fact that he had asked her the question first.
"I calculated the approximate distance from our car to the town, from when we drove, then factored in our estimated speed, our stops, conditions-"
"Stop!" Tony suddenly cut in.
She looked at him sideways. "What?"
He shook his head. "You talking like a McGeek is doing absolutely nothing for my fantasies, David."
She gave a sly smile. "So the whole sexy librarian image does not do it for you then?"
"You don't know Pirates of the Caribbean, but you know sexy librarian?"
She scoffed. "Everyone knows that. And you did not answer my question."
"Oh, so you want to talk fantasies then, David." Now this was a topic of conversation he could roll with.
She didn't answer, just tipped her head to the side and gave that smile that drove him oh, so, crazy.
He grinned back at her. "Okay, if I must be honest-"
"You must."
He gave a half-hearted glare at the interruption. She raised her hands in surrender.
"As I was saying, if I must be honest," he continued, "I would have to say sexy librarian is definitely hot. McGeek impersonations, not so much." He gave her a suggestive sidelong glance. "What about you- do nerd guys get you all tingly-?"
She shook her head, cutting him off. "If given the choice I would have to say Johnny Depp-esque pirate would win any day."
He pointed at her accusingly with his uninjured arm and gave a gasp. "You have seen Pirates of the Caribbean!"
She rolled her eyes. "Everyone has seen that movie, Tony. I really wish you had given me a little more credit."
He glared at her and she continued,
"And by the way, your explanation of the plot was terrible. No one could have followed that."
"Oh you did not just bag my movie knowledge..."
"I did not," she said sincerely. "I was 'bagging' your ability to explain the plot."
"This is not your field of expertise, okay? Do I criticize your many and varied methods of killing and torture?"
She let out a chuckle. "No, Tony, you do not. I apologize. I overstepped my bounds." Her tone was patronizing in the extreme. Nevertheless, he gave a nod and seemed to accept her apology.
It was a few minutes before either of them spoke again, and this time it was Tony. He stopped walking and grabbed her arm to still her.
"Hey, Ziva?"
She was taken aback by his serious tone and looked to his face, searching for some kind of indication that he was screwing with her. There was none.
"What?" she asked, looking down to where his hand was still curled around her bicep. He noticed her looking and dropped it.
"I, uh, I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" She was confused.
"Yeah," he continued, stumbling over his own words. They were all laying there in front of him; he just had to get them out. Easier said than done. "You know, for crashing the car and almost getting us killed and-"
"Tony, shut up."
He looked up, shocked. "What?"
"I said shut up," she said, looking genuinely angry now. "You cannot apologize now. You cannot say sorry, because that means you have doubts about us getting out of here. I cannot think that, and neither can you. You just..." She took a breath. "You just cannot, okay?"
He looked at her stunned, and realised that she was almost toe to toe with him. When had that happened?
"Uh, okay," he managed.
She forced out a smile. "And also, it was not your fault. So no apology was warranted."
He was struck then, by how stupid their whole situation was. How the hell did this happen? Two days ago they were cracking jokes in the bullpen and now...
He was pulled from his thoughts by Ziva's voice.
"Uh, Tony?"
"Yeah?" he asked, looking down at her. She really didn't look good. Well, she looked good, just not well. She closed her eyes then, and swayed a little on the spot. "Ziva?" he asked, alarmed. His uninjured arm was already in place to catch her.
"I just..." she trailed off. "I do not feel so-"
Her words were lost as she collapsed onto his arm and the world fell away.
"Yeah, I'll take a coffee," Gibbs said to the man at the counter of the dingy coffee shop. After searching the woods all morning, the two agents had finally decided to take a break in the nearby town before heading out again.
"Hey, Gibbs?" It was McGee. He was sitting at one of the table, laptop open in front of him.
"Just wait a minute, McGee," Gibbs said, still talking to the cashier.
"Any milk or sugar?" the man asked.
"Gibbs, you need to-"
"Wait, McGee!" Gibbs said, then turned back to the man and shook his head, almost in disgust. "No. I just want it black."
The man nodded and turned to his register. "Okay, that'll be-"
"Gibbs!" McGee finally yelled.
"What?!" Gibbs yelled back, angry at the interruption.
McGee shrunk back slightly. "Sorry Boss, it's just that Tony's phone has come into range."
"What?"
"I know where they are," McGee said excitedly. "I can track them."
Gibbs left the counter without a word and headed for the door. Halfway out the door he yelled back, "You coming, McGee, or would you like a formal invitation?"
McGee grabbed his laptop and left without a word.
The man at the counter stood there, stunned, before shaking his head and returning to work.
A/N: Thoughts? Review with your favourite lines. :) It keeps me writing.
P.S. I'm curious who on here reads mlia. Just wondering.
Review! :)