A week later

Ziva rolled over and looked at the clock on her nightstand: 4:59a.m. She smiled slightly to herself, turned off the alarm, and sat up only to be overwhelmed nausea.

And I thought I had managed to avoid all of the side-effects of flying, she sighed as she vomited into the toilet. Oh well, this makes morning super fun...

Ziva yanked on her jogging clothes in frustration, ripping some hair out as she put up her hair a little too aggressively.

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Usually, Ziva felt wonderful after a run. Today, she just felt drained and, delightfully enough, still nauseated. However, she was glad that she had gone if for no other reason than she was excited about seeing Abby's face when she woke up to a fresh CafPow! and chocolate muffin.

She opened the door and crept into Abby's room silently, CafPow! in hand. She sat the drink down on Abby's nightstand, opened the curtain, and twirled around to softly wake the goth. However, Ziva was temporarily stunned by the unexpected beauty of the porcelain goddess in the coffin.

After a moment of drinking in Abby's ethereal beauty and a deep sigh, Ziva refocused on her mission.

"Boker tov, Abby."

Time's it?" Abby mumbled in reply.

"It is 6:30. I just got back from my run and am about to take a shower. There is a CafPow right next to you and a muffin on the table in the kitchen."

Ziva watched with amusement as Abby transformed from a Sleeping Beauty to the effervescent, happy person she was used to with just a few slugs of the disgustingly sweet, red drink beside her.

Feeling assured that Abby would not fall back asleep, Ziva slipped out of the room and into the shower, occasionally hearing Abby's voice as she squealed with excitement over the muffin and cursed when she could only find one boot.

Stepping out of the shower, Ziva smiled to find herself face to face with a shocked looking Abby.

"I... uh.... I thought I could brush my teeth while you were in there. I didn't mean to...."

"Abby, it is fine. Really. You have seen at least one naked woman before, yes?"

"Yeah, but... never mind."

Abby blushed a deep red and Ziva shrugged, deciding to let Abby remain silent for the moment.

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Ziva huffed into her hair again. Today had been extraordinarily frustrating. On the best of days, she hated being stuck behind her desk doing paperwork. On top of that, she had been incapable of concentrating today, causing a higher degree of commentary than usual from Tony. Just as she decided that it would be considered justifiable homicide, Gibbs gestured toward his "office."

After he had slammed on the emergency stop button, Ziva looked at Gibbs and sighed. "What?"

"Ziva, what is going on with you? I know that DiNozzo can get annoying, but you usually handle it much better. Right now, I'm afraid you might actually kill him with office supplies. You even snapped at McGee earlier. Not to mention the fact that you've spent more time staring into space than working. Normally, you would've had that report on my desk hours ago."

"I do not know what to say, Gibbs. I am fine. Perhaps I am just not yet adjusted to being back ho-here."

"Perhaps." Gibbs looked at her askance, as if he did not believe her but also thought that Ziva was being honest with her.

Ziva stared back, unwilling to be intimidated by him.

"Hmm," Gibbs muttered darkly as he flipped the switch and exited the elevator, Ziva a few steps behind him.