"Boss! We need to do something about this!"

Ziva rolled her eyes. Tony always seemed to overreact where Tim was concerned and it was getting a little ridiculous. Poor Tim couldn't even go on a little date without Tony trying to put an end to it.

She leaned back against the wall of the elevator and just watched the two men talk.

"How did you find out?"

"Gibbs," Ziva straightened immediately, "Don't encourage him,"

A look had her snapping her jaw shut and glaring at the men.

If she ever found out they did this whenever she had a date with a new person she would kill them both. And never be caught.

Tony shot her a smug smile and her fingers itched to hit him.

"Philips said he saw McGee come up from autopsy so I went and asked Palmer,"

"You threatened him," she coolly observed.

"I asked the gremlin nicely, Ziva," he insisted.

"Well, what do you want to do about it Tony?"

Ziva did not approve of them spying on McGee but found herself being dragged along by Tony anyway. She was sure that Gibbs was not happy with the idea either but by the way she saw him looking at Tony she was sure he was only with them to keep his agent in check. Ziva was glad of this. Although she had no compunctions about using force to stop Tony if it looked like he was about to do something detrimental she would rather not, and Gibbs had the power to stop him with a look or a word. Or a head slap. That would do the job too.

She was sure that the mention of Langer also had Gibbs concerned about Tim but Ziva was certain he would have respected her privacy and left her alone if Tony hadn't set out of this ridiculous crusade.

At the moment she and Gibbs were standing behind Tony who was trying to talk the bouncer into letting them into the building.

The large man wasn't shifting.

"Look, these are nice folks," the man boomed after having enough of Tony's obvious lies, "They are just looking to have a good night. Don't go causing trouble," the man folded his arms across his chest.

Ziva smiled, respecting the man's actions. He was no going to move for Tony.

"Boss!" Tony whined, turning to face Gibbs.

Gibbs sighed and stepped forwards, pushing a disgruntled Tony to the side.

She watched a little annoyed as Gibbs used his badge to gain access to the building.

This wasn't fair on Tim.

They ducked into the building, the dim lighting helping to hide the fact that they were the ones who would actually be sticking out if the lights were on full.

She followed Gibbs and Tony over to the bar, weaving through groups of people who were just standing and talking or laughing.

She noticed quickly that although pointed ears and elaborate hairstyles were on display for all to see, everybody was covered from neck to knees in jackets or ponchos.

Just what was happening here?

Having reached the bar she took up a study of the footwear.

Boots. Sneakers. Sandles.

She shook her head. Unless she wrestled a jacket from someone there would be no way of knowing what they were dressed in.

"Ziva," Gibbs holding out a can of coke to her had her dragging her attention back to her two companions.

Tony too was standing with a can in his hand, his eyes wide as he took in the room, his forehead creasing occasionally as he tried to peer closer at someone in the dimness.

"I think we have entered Geekdom," he announced.

She hit him hard on the arm when his observation caused several heads to swivel in their direction.

"Keep your voice down," she snapped, "You are the uninvited one here, remember DiNozzo?"

Gibbs grabbing both of them by the back of the neck and spinning them to face the bar broke off whatever Tony was going to snap back at her.

"They're here, now keep it down," Gibbs snapped.

Ziva rolled her shoulders and forced herself to relax, to make it look like she belonged as much as she could. But she couldn't quite stop the slight twitch of her muscles when she caught sight of Tim being led to the bar out of the corner of her eye.

They were only several stools away from them.

Now that she was straining to hear what was being talked about between Tim and the FBI agent she found herself noticing the music. It wasn't your typical bar music, no thumping beats. It was almost…soothing if it wasn't for the occasional tune that picked up speed. It was also being played low enough for everyone to speak comfortably which was why those nearby had heard Tony's comment. And why right now they could easily listen into Tim's conversation.

At the moment there was nothing really to hear as individuals drifted over to greet Tim.

She used the chance of having Tim's attention taken up with other things to study her.

Ziva could only see her head through the constantly moving group that had gathered around her teammate. She was surprised by what she saw. All the time that Ziva had known Timothy she had only ever seen her with her hair in a horse-tail (was that the name?) or in a bun. Now her hair was down, and not just that, there was not a strand of brown hair to be seen. It had been dyed a white blonde and was wild about her head. Silvery blue glitter surrounded her eyes and a deadly red lipstick highlighted the paleness of her makeup-smoothed complexion.

Once the last member of the group seemed to arrive Tim introduced Langer to them all as their 'Knight in shining armour'. The group cheered, some drinks being raised high in solute.

"Boss, aren't they all from the basement?" she heard Tony ask beneath his breath.

Ziva scrutinized the group more closely.

Yes. He was right.

Beneath the brown, blue and red face paint, lay the features of some of the NCIS Cybercrimes unit.

Now that she noted the face paint her attention was drawn to the others costume pieces.

One had floppy brown ears.

One had feathery red/brown ears rising high like a foxes.

Another had wispy blue hair rising from their eyebrows.

Interesting.

Langer she noticed had nothing different about his face, but like the other was still wearing something to cover his clothes.

The sound of drumming coming from stage that none of them had noticed and the conversations about the room dyed down as everyone looked to the man standing with a microphone in his hand.

"Well…we've made it," he announced as a spot light landed on him.

Cheers erupted around the room.

"After the chanting of many spells and the aligning of many dimensions – or in some cases the collecting of many favours-" chuckles came from the audience, "We are here,"

Another loud cheer.

"I welcome you to the 4th annual 'Our Employers Wouldn't Let Us Out of the Building for It, Non-Comic-Con Con!"

The cheer that rose from the crowd was almost deafening and Ziva exchanged looks with Gibbs and Tony. It was no secret. All of them felt like fish out water in this situation.

Once silence fell around them again after some prompting from the announcer they listened as he announced various agencies.

As each agency was called a section of the audience would whoop and cheer.

"And then we have the Navy contingent. Where are you NCIS?"

The group at the bar raised their hand high and cheered to the room.

"Now we have one change this evening. Give it up for Agent Langer of the FBI who will be stepping into the breach for NCIS,""

There were stuttered claps about the room and Langer bowed to the call of 'turncoat' from the direction of the group from the FBI.

"Let the show begin!" cried the announcer and at that all the jackets, ponchos and on occasion bin-liners came off to reveal what was beneath.

Sorry once against this did end up going on much longer than I intended.

Anyway, I really hope you are enjoying these.

Hint for NCIS constumes…Labyrinth!

Please let me know what you think.

Take care everyone.

:)