Gibbs' brow furrowed for the fifth time on the still early Monday morning as his third attempt at instructing Ziva seemed to fall on deaf ears.
"David!"
All three heads snapped up in response.
Both Tony and Tim shot a questioning look at each other.
Whilst Gibbs frequently interchanged between their fore and surnames, he only addressed Ziva by her second name when he was growing exasperated.
Thankfully, the tousled mass of curls was finally facing in her boss' general direction and looking alert.
Making a mental note to grab a private word with the absent minded youngest member of his team, Gibbs set about dishing out orders and retreated from the squad room in search of coffee.
"Good weekend, Ziva?" Tony smirked, "still fighting a hangover?"
The narrowed gaze shot across the bull pen only made him grin further.
"I'll that as a yes" he said smugly, "though you might want to snap out of it before the boss man gets back, trust me when I tell you a Gibbs slap on top of a hangover is not fun."
"I will bear that in mind" Ziva muttered quietly, wishing that a headache was the real problem.
Barrelling back into the Navy Yard, Gibbs made his way down to the lab armed with the usual caffeine bomb.
Striding into the oddly quiet lab, he was surprised to see Abby sitting, working at her desk…
No music, plus a concentrating and quiet Sciuto was never a good sign.
Depositing the drink on the desk, he dropped a quick kiss on top of the dark hair.
"Hey Abb's" he greeted, carefully scrutinising the paler than usual face with a paternal worry.
"You ok?" he added gently.
Looking up, the young scientist nodded her head quickly and smiled her wide smile.
But it didn't reach her eyes.
"Yeah Gibbs, just tired is all. I don't have anything for you right now, if you give me another couple of hours though I should be finished with all the tests I have to run and I should hopefully have some answers."
This was all said very fast, and she smiled with every word, doing a damn good job of appearing to be her usual bubbly self.
Anyone outside of the team Gibbs might have bought it, but the senior agent wasn't fooled for a moment.
Carefully weighing his options, he decided against pressing the girl.
She would shut down and retreat into herself.
He had made that mistake before, and had learned from it.
So he merely nodded thoughtfully and with another quick peck to her cheek, he swept from the lab.
Leaning his head against the cool metal of the elevator, he sighed.
Something was up with both of his girls, and he firmly resolved to get to the bottom of it.
Back in the communal team office, Ziva and Tim had left to follow down a lead leaving DiNozzo to update their team leader on the bank and cell traces they had run.
Some hours later, both returned and Gibbs was pleased with the progress they had made. He focussed his gaze on Ziva as the two gave their reports, she was now completely professional and alert…but still off.
And was she standing a little oddly?
Sighing, he barked out a few more orders to wind up the day's work and settled himself at his own desk.
As the clock eventually ticked past seven he reluctantly decided to call their efforts to a halt.
They could do no more, and he needed them on their game tomorrow.
As all three scrambled to leave, he found a reason to engage in Ziva in conversation that appeared to be about a report he had clutched in his hand.
McGee and DiNozzo darted past bickering, but sparing their teammate a sympathetic look for her holdup.
Rolling his eyes at that, Gibbs kept up the pretence of questioning his youngest about the paper until he heard the lift doors sliding shut.
Then, he threw the report down on Ziva's desk, and perched on the side of it.
"Anything you want to tell me, Ziver?"
The suddenly gentle tone, combined with the use of her affectionate nickname made the young woman's insides vibrate with guilt.
Licking her lips nervously whilst desperately trying to remain composed, she reluctantly shook her head.
"No Gibbs" she said softly, beginning to feel slightly sick.
She routinely killed men without a second thought, she had infiltrated countless underground terrorist cells and yet…nothing made her feel as uneasy as lying to the man in front of her.
Arching his eyebrow, Gibbs leant back and crossed his arms across his chest.
"You sure kid?"
Gulping somewhat, Ziva forced herself to nod, the motion only adding to the already potent bubble of guilt that was busy bubbling in her gut.
Sighing to himself, Gibbs racked his gaze over his youngest.
She was lying. He knew that much for starters.
Why and about what though, he was none the wiser.
Fighting to keep the disappointment off his face, he nodded slowly.
Like Abby, he knew if he pushed Ziva when she wasn't ready, she too, would clam up.
"Ok then…you know you can talk to me, if you need to, right?"
The answering tentative smile, that also didn't reach her eyes, pierced a little.
"Alright…off you go then."
He watched on silently, feeling a little hurt as his youngest scrambled to her feet and with a last parting glance, scampered off after the boys as fast as she could.
Throwing himself back behind his own desk, Gibbs groaned.
What did he have to do to get it through to these kids that he only wanted to help them?
Attacking his computer viciously, he worked on a separate lead for a while in an attempt to distract his mind from his puzzling girls.
Looking up an hour later, he figured that Abby was probably still in her lab as was her Monday ritual, and he made a split second decision to try again with his eldest girl.
Striding down to the lab, he wasn't surprised to find the electric doors wide open.
She cleansed the lab on a Monday evening, which of course, required open doors.
Obviously.
About to career into the clinical room, he was stopped short when he caught the sounds of heated voices.
Very familiar voices.
Abby and Ziva's voices.
Scowling and about to enter and break up whatever squabble was going on, he was again, stopped short.
"Well what do you expect me to do Abby?"
"Well if you could keep it together, thatwould be a great start!"
Startled by the vehemence in both girls' tones, Gibbs hesitated.
He generally would never eavesdrop on what was clearly a private conversation between his two, but something about their tones, when put together with their out of character displays earlier on, saw him loitering in the hallway, unseen by the bickering girls'.
"That is easy for you to say, you do not have to work all day with him" Ziva hissed back, and Gibbs blinked in hurt.
Was him… him?
Racking his brains, he didn't come up with anything that would have his resident killer mad enough at him that she wouldn't want to work with him.
Scowling at how soft he was becoming, he loitered some more.
"I know Ziva" Abby murmured back sadly, her tone considerably softer, "but we can't tell him, you know that…he'd absolutely murder us."
Closing his eyes briefly, Gibbs was now in doubt that him was him.
"If we were to just come clean about it now, Abby, he would be…"
"Homicidal" Abby chimed in.
"Well…yes, but we would not have to lie to him anymore. I cannot continue to do it, it...it makes me feel unwell."
Silence ensued for a moment, as Gibbs leant back against the wall and closed his eyes.
"Ziva…" Abby whimpered, "we can't tell him, he'll be so mad…he'll go nuts."
Gibbs heard the sounds of what he deduced was Ziva crossing the room and drawing his lab rat into her arms.
"Yes" she agreed slowly, "but…he will get over it, he always does...you know he will."
Despite the seriousness of the situation developing, Gibbs had to smile at that.
The smile quickly fell off of his face as his ears caught the scientists reply.
"You really think he's going to get over the fact that we've been lying to him all day, all because we walked home in the middle of the night, by ourselves, drunk and that we….that we…were mugged and you were beaten.
Outside in the hall, a now paled and clammy Gibbs slid down the wall and let out a loud groan of horror.
….
TBC
….
A/N: Credit to earthdragon for the mugging suggestion!
Please let me know what you guys think!