Abby heard a burst of Hebrew expletives spewing out of her office and grinned. Now in her third trimester, Ziva was all but banished to Labby. Because Gibbs would not permit her to go out in the field, her normally fierce temperament was worsened by her imprisonment in the office; with the further addition of her fluctuating hormones, everyone but Team Gibbs was terrified of her and even Tony and McGee were giving her a wider latitude than normal. So now she was down in forensics, where her outbursts were met with amusement rather than abject terror. After the stream of words slowed to a quiet, albeit still fierce, trickle, Abby walked back to Ziva's desk, squeezed her shoulders comfortingly, and gave her a gentle kiss on the top of her head.
"Everything alright, cher?" Abby inquired sympathetically, knowing that she would be pissed and bored too if she couldn't do her job.
"I hate translation work, Abs! My brain does not work this way. If I am speaking Arabic, I am thinking in Arabic; if I am speaking French, I am thinking in French. Even English, which is admittedly not my best language, is not constantly being translated from Hebrew in my head. That is not how it works! It is... unnatural!"
"I'm sorry, cher, really I am but you can't be in the field right now and besides, even if translations seem unnatural to you, you're damn good at them!"
Ziva rolled her eyes; she was aware of her talent with languages, due in a large part to some serious self-esteem talks courtesy of Abby after the latter had discovered how harsh Eli David was toward his daughter. Despite Abby's attempt to placate her, however, she still hated any work that was still ridiculously passive; she wanted to do something active; she wanted to fight! The fact that she was generally brought only the most challenging documents, the ones that NCIS (and sometimes other agencies) linguists had been unable to translate, made the job only slightly more bearable.
"Wanna take a lunch break?" Abby asked, a welcome interruption to Ziva's choleric thoughts.
Ziva grinned, standing and locking away her current project with one smooth motion, clearly acquiescing to Abby's proposition.
With a wide grin, Abby asked "Where shall we go, my love?"
"Hmm..." Ziva pretended to ponder the question. "I just cannot decide. I suppose we could go to Reuben's..."
Ziva's main craving during this pregnancy had been the corned beef sandwiches from the deli right outside the gates of the navy yard. Luckily for Abby, there was a surprisingly large array of sandwiches, soups, and salads that were delicious.
Abby and Ziva took a long lunch, walking leisurely to and from the deli and eating at a slow, completely un-American pace while at the deli.
Ziva was still slightly skittish about public displays of affection, not used to being demonstrative with her feelings. However, much to Abby's delight, she interlinked their fingers as they walked out of the lab and, with the exception of when they were eating their sandwiches, which required two hands, kept their fingers intertwined until they were back in the lab.
"Thank you, Ahuvati."
"What are you talking about? You paid for lunch and the ice cream cones," Abby replied, licking the remnants off of her fingers.
Ziva laughed and pulled Abby toward her. "For knowing when I needed a break and providing it," she responded in an undertone before pressing her lips onto Abby's. Locked in their increasingly passionate kiss, both Ziva's ninja senses and Abby's psychic connection failed so that they were startled into jumping apart when Gibbs, who seemed to magically have entered the room, cleared his throat loudly behind them.
"I don't believe this is the type of productivity we discussed when I agreed to let Ziva work down here."
Both Ziva and Abby blushed, slightly embarrassed at the scenario: it was a lot like two teenagers being caught making out by a parent.
"Ziva, I need to speak with you. Privately. In my office. And no, Abby, I am not planning on yelling at her," Gibbs said, cutting off Abby, who had opened her mouth to object.
Abby spun around to her bank of equipment, determined to resume the work she had abandoned in favor of work. Meanwhile Ziva trailed Gibbs into his "office," nervously unsure of what to expect from this meeting.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What did I do? I do not think that he would yell at me for what just happened. And I snapped at Tony yesterday, but that was provoked and he got in trouble for that. And I think Gibbs would have said something to me then. I have not looked into the nursery, despite the fact that it is driving me INSANE. Well, I did head slap McGee earlier today and do not think it was entirely called for but...
After activating the emergency stop button, Gibbs faced Ziva with a grin that completely halted her train of thought with its unexpectedness.
"I spoke to your father just a few moments ago, Ziva."
"Then I am even more confused by your apparent good mood."
"The asset we were hiding with our Israeli-- er-- friends can now be safely returned," Gibbs said, pausing slightly before saying the word friends.
Ziva's eyes lit up at this revelation like the eyes of a child who has just seen his or her first glimpse of the Christmas presents under the tree. "So all of the barriers have been removed? All of the issues have been resolved?"
Gibbs nodded happily in response, allowing Ziva's stream of questions to flow uninterrupted.
"How? No! Never mind. When?!"
"Saturday. Could you handle the arrangements for a reception? The team will need special debriefing."
"Certainly."
"One more thing, Ziver," Gibbs said as he flipped the switch to reanimate the elevator.
"I expect you to continue to keep this a secret until the asset is revealed."
Ziva pouted, hating to keep a secret, especially one so monumental, from Abby. However, when Gibbs quirked his eyebrow in the familiar pre-Gibbs-stare manner, Ziva nodded her understanding and slipped out of the elevator to return to her translation work.
Want to know what or who our asset is? Stay tuned!
Oh, and apologies for the slow updates. Life is craaaazy right now. :D