"Someone's in a good mood. Run over a couple squirrels this morning? Or did you get in a brawl with people not running fast enough for you?"
"I skipped my run this morning." Ziva didn't acknowledge the barb further, taking a long sip from her travel mug of coffee and carefully setting her bag and coat behind her desk before turning to Tony. "Will we be interrogating Manfredi and Johnson soon?"
"We? No. Gibbs…probably as soon as he gets back from MTAC." He waited until she was standing at his side to wave the remote in the general direction of one of the plasma screens. A video image from downstairs appeared. "According to the probie patrol assigned the late watch, Petty Officer Johnson has been sleeping like a baby in one of our oh-so-comfy interrogation rooms since early this morning. I'm sure he'll wake up and request a nice hot buffet breakfast any minute." With an exaggerated snap of his wrist, he clicked to a different feed. "Whereas Petty Officer Manfredi hasn't been able to sit down since we brought him in. I'm thinking Manfredi gets some special time with the boss first to give up real the doer of the deed."
She nodded and sipped her coffee. "Because innocent men do not sleep?"
"Bingo. Kid's like a caged tiger down there." They watched Manfredi pace around the table for a few moments before she could feel his interest refocusing. "But enough about our guilty E-4s…speaking of guilty sleeping, you have that aura this morning. Late night? I mean, beyond our official NCIS duties?"
"I believe that Petty Officer Johnson is an E-5." She deliberately returned to her desk to remove her weapon and place it in the top drawer before sitting down to log in to her computer. Work and coffee. There was no need to devote attention to anything else at the moment. "Is McGee not in yet?"
"Nice try with the distractions, but I've seen enough sexually satisfied women in my day to…uh…you…" she could feel his eyes on her as he tried to gauge her reaction, "well…what's CI-Ray gonna think is my point? Because I'm sure he knows what you did last night, probably via spy satellite."
She sighed heavily. "You can call him when he wakes up in a few hours if you are really that interested."
"Because he's in a different time zone? What, Pacific? Hawaii? East Who's-Ever-Heard-of-This-Place-istan?"
"I did not ask where he had been, I just know that he is jetlagged." She took another sip of coffee. For some reason, Ray prided himself on his ability to make 'great' coffee. She could neither compliment nor complain about it. It was hot, it was caffeinated, it tasted fine… She suddenly remembered something else he had told her before she'd left home. "And he is making dinner tonight."
"So I can check in with him at your place?"
"If you feel that it is necessary."
"No." He frowned, probably because he thought she wasn't watching him. "No." They were typing quietly a few moments later – she purposefully, he aimlessly – when he seemed to decide the subject was not, in fact, dropped. "So he's gonna be here for more than a few hours this time?"
She looked up from the email from a friend at Interpol that she was attempting to answer. "Two weeks."
"Hm."
"What?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing. I was just thinking…the last time he was here…it was only for a few hours, right?"
In spite of her best efforts, she felt herself tense up. "He is taking some time off to…"
"No, I just meant…you were pissy for, like, a week after he left last time and he was only here for a few hours. I'm just wondering how long you'll be ticked if he stays for two weeks and then poofs off again to do his spook thing." The only logical explanation for this monologue had to be a death wish, Ziva was sure of it. She had to consciously relax her grip on a knife she hadn't realized she was holding. Still, he continued, "So if a few hours equals a week of angry ninja and we figure that each day is equal to, say, six weeks…two weeks is fourteen days, so fourteen times six…We really need McGee for this math stuff." Tony finally looked up and nearly jumped out of his chair. Much to her consternation, her arm had automatically cocked, ready to let the knife fly. "Also, we need McGee here as a witness to make you less likely to maim me and…McGee!" This time he did shoot out of his chair, sprinting toward the elevator. "McGee, so glad you're here!"
"I'm not doing your paperwork from last night, Tony."
"What? No!" He was ducking as he hid behind McGee, who was walking into the bullpen. "Paperwork's no big deal. Hell, I'll do yours!"
"What's going on?"
"What, I can't do something nice for my buddy who makes a great human shield?"
McGee looked at Ziva inquiringly. She shrugged, having put away her knife and returned to her email by now. There was no reason to let on how irrationally angry she had been mere moments ago. Pissy? For a week? If Tony wanted pissy, she'd show him pissy… She took a deep breath. Lamb. Ray had said he would make lamb for her tonight, his mother's recipe. She wondered if he knew how to make it or if he would be making frantic phone calls to his mother throughout the day. She smiled to herself.
"Stop imagining me as a corpse!"
Confused, she glanced at Tony. "What are you talking about?"
"Sorry. Didn't mean to say that out loud." When she continued to stare, he added, "You've got the spy smile going. It makes me nervous."
"Tony, I can assure you that I am perfectly capable of smiling about things that have nothing to do with you."
Gibbs interrupted their subsequent staring contest as he entered the bullpen. "Manfredi ready to break yet?"
Tony broke eye contact first as he glanced at the plasma screen, which was no longer displaying the interrogation room, but ZNN. "Yeah, boss. How'd you know?"
"Weak link. See if Abby has anything real we can use to nail him to the wall. I haven't had enough coffee yet to make up evidence on the spot."
McGee was the first out of his chair. "I'll go right down." He nearly ran out of the bullpen.
"I'm goin' for coffee," Gibbs announced. "You two try not to kill each other in Observation."
"What's this 'each other' business? She's…" Tony trailed off as he seemed to realize that Ziva was the only one left to hear his commentary. He hesitated when she stood to head downstairs. "You go on ahead. I think I might call to arrange a little extra life insurance."
"Do not be so dramatic."
"Yeah, easy for you to say, with your knives all sharpened and ready to go."
She tapped the call button for the elevator. "I apologize for that. It was a…reflex."
He watched her drink her okay coffee, but didn't reply. They stood waiting in silence until he said, "You really were kinda grumpy for awhile after the last time CI-Ray dropped in. I just hope the happy is worth the grumpy, that's all."
"Tony…"
He held his arm between the elevator doors as she stepped in. "I'm just saying that…you take it kinda hard every time he has to leave, even though you know he's gonna be leaving." He punched the button for Interrogation. "Just sayin'."
She assumed the feeling in her stomach had something to do with a mechanical problem that caused a lurch in the elevator. "Well. How is EJ?"
"Enjoying San Diego. No rain, palm trees, quick drive down to Tijuana…subpar baseball team, but that's about the same as here. And I hear they have really low humidity, so what's not to love?"
"Is it true that she…?"
"Yeah, said no to a post at the Pentagon." He swallowed audibly. "I figured it was due to…"
"She was stupid to leave you behind."
"Uh, I wouldn't say…I was going to say she had a fear of five-sided objects, but…thanks."
She didn't have to look at him to know he was smiling.