DISCLAIMER: Neither the TV show 'NCIS' nor the 'Harry Potter' book series belong to me.
"Ziva!" Tony was snapping his fingers right in front of her nose, eyes wide. Her eyes focused on his index finger and she fought the temptation to bite it off.
Then all thought evaporated from her mind when that piece of grey matter seemed to fall off her cranium. She suddenly ran for the nearest bathroom and emptied her stomach in the bowl. She was vaguely aware of someone holding her hair back while the acrid taste filled her mouth - her throat was silently screaming in agony.
She stayed that way, for at least ten minutes, before mustering the courage to hold her weight not on the floor and Tony – who had been the one holding her hair, and was currently supporting most of her as her arms shook, still grasping the porcelain – but on her own.
She regretted it almost instantly. She swerved dangerously close to the wall, in serious risk of smashing her head against it in the process, but Tony grabbed her again and she somehow she managed to make it to the sink unscratched.
Water, water and more water – she knew that most of it had probably gone to soak her clothing, but she just needed more water – splashed across her face, her neck, her hands and arms. Probably a lot on Tony too, but from what she caught of his livid face on the mirror, he needed it as much as she did.
Mental stability returned then, fast and unexpected. She was suddenly painfully aware that Tony had his chest pressed against her back, and in a flash she'd corrected that. Her limbs were still shaking, she was still near tears and her head was now filled with the father of all migraines, but she still had enough sense to know that proximity to Tony did not end in anything good.
And, for once, he didn't even seem fazed. His hair was completely unruly, his face was pale – though not nearly as pale as hers – and he seemed on the verge of a panic breakdown. But he wouldn't be Tony if he didn't go straight to the offensive. "What. The Hell. Just. Happened?" He ground out, looking ready to start distributing broken necks.
"I-" Her voice sounded so awful, scratchy and hollow, she was tempted to shut up just to make the noise stop. "I- I do not know." Her tone shook with the weight of repressed and unbelievably impossible to retrieve memories.
She urged him to leave the bathroom - stiffly, he walked out, and, immediately, they were swarmed.
She shut her eyes – suddenly she was very, very tired. So tired she pressed a hand on Tony's shoulder for support. "BACK OFF!" She heard Gibbs growl. Immediately, everyone was about three feet away from her, and she felt better. Her grip tightened on Tony's shoulder when he made to leave, so he stayed right where he was, even though her hand dropped shortly after. "Duck?"
Ducky rushed forward, and as he asked her to keep her eyes open so that he could take a look, the action seemed to take all of her strength. Tony slipped a chair under her, and she was starting to remember all the times she got annoyed for showing weakness.
When the old M.E. pulled back, he looked utterly dumbfounded. "I- I found no traces of any medical ailment what-so-ever. She appears perfectly fine, except for the fact that she just threw up and is showing every sign of a concussion, except- well, except without the actual concussion. I do not think she hit her head at all recently, have you?" At the last bit of his sentence, Ducky turned to her, and his voice became gentler, which didn't suit her at all.
So she stood up, with an enormous amount of will to keep her limbs from acting like Jell-O, and she shook her head. Tony's glare was incredibly impressive and a clear indication for her to sit back down immediately. She didn't.
So Gibbs made her, and she managed to give him a glare to match- well, not to match, but just to make a point. Tantrum? "I'm fine." She snapped. Tony's hand landed on the shoulder not occupied by Gibbs' She turned her glare to him, which appeared to have a little more effect, judging from his wince. He knew he'd have hell to pay, but his hand stayed where it was, which, surprisingly, mollified her a little.
Jenny was the next one approaching. She kneeled in front of her. The woman was clearly trying to hide it – whether for Ziva or her own benefit she didn't know – but she could see the tentative hope she was grasping at.
Slowly, and with her voice breaking in several points during which her strength to keep it all in faltered, Jenny began speaking. "Ziva, you- you remembered something¸ didn't you? Something about- Something about, before your memories were erased?"
She could see McGee and Abby exchanging horrified looks behind the array of people gathered there. She wished she hadn't. Her head dropped to her knees, and everything in her recoiled at the painful moan that left her throat.
Lights bounded and buzzed in and out of her eye sockets, and she felt dizzy.
She felt the hands on her shoulders tightening, and heard Tony protesting against questions. Her heartbeat was beginning to pick up again, and she could feel her lungs urging her for more oxygen than usual already, and she couldn't have that. Mortified at the prospect of a repeat performance of what had just happened in front of everyone gathered there, she refused to search for any more lost thoughts and sensorial data from- from- January…
No. She tore her focus from that and instead concentrated it on the memories that had peeked through and the room around her.
It worked. The people came into focus again, the sounds began making sense, and her heart and lungs calmed. She could hear signs of arguing – Tony and Jenny. "Stop." Her protest was weak but the office fell silent. "I- I can't- It's-" Tears were, for some reason, bubbling up to the surface. She swallowed them. Drawing calm in, she breathed, slowly, through her nose, straightening and rotating her neck, banning any thought from her brain.
"Jenny is right. I- I remember-" She could feel her control slipping away again, so she sharply ordered her focus to be on the director's gingerly wide-eyed expression. "I- Bits- Bits and pieces- shattered, mostly, but, yes, I remember."
Her gaze focused on Gibbs, and for some reason, she had a stray thought that told her that her eyes were probably looking deranged, not there. He frowned, and that confirmed it. "It is- It is true- Magic, and wizards and-" Her mind was slowly drifting again, and the tears finally formed a pool on the bottom of her eyes. Tony made a strangled sound, and she realized she probably looked absolutely horrid. "I can't-" Feebly, her knuckles found a hard support – the wood of the chair – to grip and turn white on top of.
"If Potter, Weasley, and Granger really are wizards," Gibbs' voice was raw and the way it was being ground out told her that his jaw was having a hard time moving. "they should be able to fix this. DiNo-" For some reason, she was sure that right then, Tony had thrown a glare at Gibbs. "McGee, go get them." And Gibbs had caved.
Her brain stretched and contracted.
"Abby… Go get the other two… wands." Gibbs ordered, seemingly reminded of the fact that they'd probably need them. "Please."
Ziva heard the door click shut after the agent and scientist had slipped out with haste. The last thing she saw before it closed was Abby's look of fear, and it was directed at her.
Her mind swirled and flew.
Her gaze fixed on Tony, who was now kneeling in front of her. His eyes mixed fear with helplessness, and she didn't like that, because it was weakness, and weakness didn't fit anyone, much less her partner. His hands were twitching, as if he wasn't quite sure what to do with them.
Her thoughts jumped up and down and at her, like shrieking beasts laughing and mocking and making her head hurt. Before she realized it, her head was bobbing right and left, and a strained sound was leaving her throat.
Tony finally found a place to put his hands- on top of hers. She wished he wouldn't. They were too tight, and his knuckles were even paler than hers at the force he was making.
She couldn't see anyone else in the room, butt Tony's face was out of a sudden crystal clear. There was sweat forming a tiny, trickling bead on the side of his hair, just below the hairline above his temple. His brown eyes, usually warm, were looking almost as wild as she was sure hers were, and very wide. She couldn't tell if he was saying something. His lips were moving-
his lips moving with hers- his hands roaming all over her skin- a foreign piece of delighted laughter leaving her mouth- his lips on her neck…
a movie reference- a joke at her driving's expense- the brightest grin…
Her mind regained whatever control it still had when the door slammed shut again behind six more people.
Her head felt too heavy when she tried to look at them. She could feel it struggle not to tip over, and lose. She barely had time to see the two witches' horrified looks when they rushed to her, Hermione grabbing her wand from the desk and ripping the plastic bag containing it open.
The brunette fell to her knees in front of her, and she recognized a soothing tone of voice as she raised the pointy piece of wood too close to her eyes. She heard cries of alarm at that, and Harry and Ron yelling over the ruckus what she was doing.
A light, surprisingly not offensive to her eyes, appeared from the tip in Hermione's wand, and her eyes hypnotically travelled to it, and stayed, unmoving.
She vaguely felt a hand gently removing Tony's fingers from her left hand, but her head didn't feel like looking to the side. Her own hand was pulled from the chair, and held in a woman's soft grip. She guessed it was Ginny, and was shocked that her mind was beginning to pull together from the fog. The red-hair gently rubbed circles on her palm, and Ziva's shoulders tensed and relaxed as she tried to resist the soothing gesture.
Tony mimicked Ginny with the other hand. Her shoulders registered that Gibbs' hands were still there, the one hand he'd had free before now taking Tony's place on her partner's side. She realized that the noise was gone. Now everyone was staring intently at her, and apparently Harry and Ron's explanation had been satisfactory.
Harry's features caught her attention. It appeared as though it wasn't the first time he'd seen someone looking as bad as she did, and that hadn't ended well. He was pale, and, for the first time since she'd seen him, he didn't look relaxed.
Uh… Harry tensing in the interrogation room as Gibbs told him he had no intention of handing him over to whoever came get him-
The improvements that had been made with Hermione's work faltered, and the light from the wand became brighter to compensate.
Ziva had no idea how long it had all taken. It could have been seconds or hours – though she was more willing to bet on the former – but, finally, the light extinguished and she slumped forward, eyes closing in exhaustion, into Tony's arms, and she felt a shiver run all the way from her toes to the back of her head.
And her head all but exploded. Every single sense in her body became mute at the sudden shock. A painful, loud, and horrible throbbing stayed even after the initial pain had gone. Shaking into Tony, she realized he'd changed his (and consequentially, her own) position. He was now sitting in the chair, and she was curled up against his chest, head buried in his neck.
She had to look ridiculous, but no one was laughing. Tony had to be supremely uncomfortable, but he wasn't saying a word in complaint. She didn't dare be as stupid as to move, as she was pretty sure he'd just growl at her to get back to where she was immediately. She could feel tears soaking her partner's throat. She couldn't remember how to become embarrassed at the whole situation, though she was sure she would soon.
And she heard the sounds of a conversation.
"I want to know what just happened to my partner." Tony's voice was commanding and it drowned out any other sound in the room.
She heard shuffling, another chair being plopped down on the floor, and someone sitting on it. It was very close to her, and from the small, erratic tugs that Ginny's hand – still attached to her own – had made, it had been the red-haired woman who had sat down.
"I think I have a rather good idea." The voice was almost as angry as Tony's, and was dripping with venom. "It's a disgustingly appalling law that was created for the repression of-"
"Hermione." Two voices called as one. Harry and Ron.
"The point is," Hermione's voice was more controlled now, but tight with the repression of an obvious rage. "your memories got… modified."
Ziva felt Tony's arms tighten and relax compulsively and repetitively around her waist, as if he was trying – and trying hard – to control himself. "Get to the point." Tony's voice hadn't changed, and she wanted to wince at it, if she could muster the strength for it.
"And then," She hurriedly continued. "you went on with your daily lives, as if you'd never met Harry or Ron, and as if you'd never been introduced to our world. And I'm sorry. I really am." Her tone held real regret that Ziva believed to be heartfelt. "But it's the law." She continued sharply, and Ziva heard the darkness in her voice again. "And it was followed."
"So what exactly does this have to do with Ziva?" It was Gibbs who spoke that time, behind her, hands clenching on her shoulders, from where they'd never left. His voice was almost as angry as Tony's, but he didn't seem to be needing to choke out the words.
"She- She fought it." Hermione faltered as she spoke, and Ziva heard the nervousness in her voice. She felt her gaze on the back of her head, and she buried her face deeper into Tony. His hands tightened on her. He had her.
"Ziva always fights." Tony's voice was flat - like ice cutting through something so sharply and neatly you wouldn't notice the cut until it was too late.
"I agree." Hermione said quickly, eager to alienate Tony's anger from her. "And the only reason she was able to is because her mind fought for control with such force, that eventually the cracks began appearing in the protection around her thoughts."
Ziva felt something stirring. She wanted to snap out of it. She wanted to get up and act like herself again, and take part in this discussion.
But the tears were still running and her body was still completely and utterly drained, that she had no idea what was keeping her awake.
And Tony was so damn comfortable.
"The spell began to break. She wanted to remember so bad that she literally fought off magic with sheer force of will."
Tony's lips brushed her head, and the room was silent.
"But that kind of thing… Well- I think you all saw what happened." Hermione explained, her voice lowering. "Her energy was drained, her body functions went into overdrive and she very nearly shattered her mind." She could feel Tony's whole body tensing.
"Hermione prevented that." Harry said quietly, his voice flat, as if he desperately wanted to avoid revisiting memories. "This is something serious and not to be taken lightly." His voice hesitated, as if he wasn't sure he should say something else. When he spoke again, however, he was determined and his voice was laced with emotion, no longer blank. "I've met some people who… Their minds were gone. They are in a hospital for life, and they nearly don't recognize their own son, who happens to be a very good friend of mine." Tony's breathing pattern altered underneath her ear. He could feel the tremble in his hands as he hugged her again.
Gibbs' hands tightened too, on her shoulders, and she remembered that it had been him who had thought of the wizards. She felt gratitude tug at her – her emotions and senses were returning to their more normal state.
"A little later, and we might have been too late." Ginny said quietly, speaking for the first time. "Now, a warning." She felt the muscles in Ginny's hand tense, and she knew it was that way in her whole body. "Don't try to do what Ziva did. Ever." For some reason, she could imagine the young woman sparing each and every… non-wizard person, in the room a personal glare. "Her mind was one of the strongest I've ever seen, and she barely made it. Don't fool yourselves into thinking you can do the same."
"What did you do, exactly?" Gibbs asked, after a moment's silence of assimilation.
Ziva only knew who he was talking to when Hermione answered. "Healing spells, and a memory blocker. I had to," From the way Hermione was hastening to speak, Ziva figured a couple of glares were being sent her way. "or she'd be having attacks like those at anything that triggered a memory. She punctured the balloon, so to speak, and if I hadn't done anything, the memories would have rushed forward every time they were prompted." Ziva realized that Hermione was slowly slipping into lecture mode.
"The attacks would not be as bad as what just happened, of course, but it would be draining and incapacitating for a few seconds. And she is a field operative." She reminded them all sharply, hinting at what that could mean at a life-or-death situation.
"So take the spell off." Gibbs' voice was casual enough, but there was the underlining enraged warning that anyone that knew him could pick up on well enough.
"She can't, Jethro." Jenny intervened before Hermione had a chance to answer. "It's the law."
"What law?" He finally blew up, and his hands left Ziva's shoulders, possibly to be thrown in the air. Her shoulders felt cold without them. "Far as I'm concerned, there isn't anything in the constitution talking about magic wands or forgetting spells!" He added as much biting sarcasm as he could into his tone.
"Our law." Harry interjected. "Wizard's law. Nothing to do with you."
Ziva was sure Gibbs was glaring as fiercely as he could at Harry. "Until my memories and my team's memories get tampered with, my agent has an attack and my crime scene is disturbed by a bunch of wizards!" He snarled, his hands almost painfully digging into her shoulders now.
Ginny's hand tightened on hers and she decided that enough was enough.
She was not expecting to have the wind knocked out of her just for trying to sit up. Her heartbeat immediately rose to one-thirty, her breaths became pairs per second and her muscles' lack of cooperation almost made her start crying again. She leant heavily on Tony again, now sitting in his lap. But the room was completely silent. Tony's hands were twitching frantically (he did not know what to do with them again) and her eyes closed as she leaned back and took a few deep breaths.
She gave Tony's hands something to do. Her fingers slid between his own. She needed strength and he was providing it. She felt horrible, and, judging by the winces throughout the occupants of the room, she looked worse. Tony swallowed dry behind her.
Her eyes opened again and she studied what she could from the expressions of the people in the room through her double vision. Abby was openly crying, make-up running down her face as she sobbed against McGee's jacket, which appeared to be the young agent's least worrisome problem.
McGee looked like someone had just told him his world wasn't real. He had a lost expression on his face and he was staring at Ziva with a look that made her want to curl up against Tony again. Jenny, whose expression had been of hope before, now looked as if she couldn't wish for more than the memory spells back up again. Ducky had an unreadable look on his face, and he stared from Hermione to Ziva, as if he couldn't decide who to demand information from first.
And the four wizards who she had never known - well, according to her coherent memories, at least – looked sympathetic at her situation. She couldn't see neither Gibbs nor Tony, given that they were both behind her – which was probably a good thing.
"I am fine." She decided to assure them. Everything screamed that except her voice. And her face. And her body. And her hair. And her eyes. And her words.
Tony openly snorted – and not his usual amused snort. He was angry, and experience had taught her that, when he was in this state of mind, no one would be able to calm him down except himself. "You are going to sleep. As in, right now. I'm taking you to my place."
Tony's house… Stumbling through the door, closing it half-haphazardly behind them, more worried about each other's lips… Clothes floating behind them, the door to the bedroom closed and a thump was heard from the bed-
Ziva opened her eyes again. It was a flash – a brief flash, no more than a second, but Tony had noticed. So had Hermione. Surprisingly, she felt – well, not fine, but like before. Tony's whole body twitched, however, and she guessed that he, on the other hand, didn't feel fine.
Hermione, however, made her way to her, eyes gentle and apprehensive. "You're still fighting it." She assumed, her hand resting on the hand being held by Ginny. "Whatever it is, we can tell you all about it, I promise. You don't need to keep pulling your own memories." She urged, worry clouding her eyes.
Ziva paused, and her eyes dropped to her lap. She could even feel a healthy blush coloring her cheeks. These… attacks wouldn't hurt her, she was confident of it. "I doubt it." She answered in a murmur, looking up again. Managing a small smile, she decided to ask a question of her own. "Tell me, how do you rearrange the memories?"
Hermione looked taken aback by the question. She frowned. "Well, we adjust the happenings, modifying them to fit within a logical flow line from before the incident." Half the room stared at her as if she'd just spouted The Lusiads in Chinese. She rolled her eyes, and she looked like she was used to doing it. "Basically, we make sure the time during which the incident takes place is a tweaked copy of the time before that. We can't just leave a blank. Usually, there are no consequences from that plan. For example, if Agent DiNozzo is as protective of you every day as he is today, then that behavior would be prominent in your altered memories."
Ziva nodded slowly and thoughtfully, while feeling Tony's eyes boring into her. He was wondering where this was going and past events told her he wouldn't take long to find out. "So, if Tony spouts several movie quotes a day-"
Hermione smiled, looking happy that Ziva was feeling better. "Then he'd spout them as well during the altered memories."
"And if something big changes- If the presence of the wizards somehow makes something change-"
Hermione's smile faded slowly. "Well… It's like a rebooting. Everything goes back to before that change. And if it was the wizards' fault that thing changed, then it's likely it won't happen again."
Like a rebooting. Everything goes back to the way things were. It's likely it won't happen again. Ziva didn't realize when her breath hitched.
She didn't want to think about it. She didn't. Except Hermione said her brain was still fighting. So she did, didn't she? She did want those memories back. Oh, God.
She'd slept with Tony. And she didn't even remember it. And neither did he.
The room fell into silence as she did. Hermione, looking hesitant, however, looked like she wasn't done. "Why?" She prodded gently. "Do you remember something?"
Ziva fixed her eyes on her, expression unreadable. Hermione, realizing she wasn't going to get an answer, turned to Harry and Ron instead. But they shook their heads, clearly mystified. Good. That meant that there were only three people who knew about it, as far as she could tell. Gibbs (the head-slaps she'd remembered being on the receiving end of with Tony proved it), Tony and herself.
Since the other two didn't remember a thing, she was the only one who knew. That was great. Tony could always find out whenever she was hiding something, and then he could always find out what it was.
Gibbs cleared his throat and Ziva realized the room had been silent for too long. "Laws?" He prodded gruffly. It was his way of offering truce on the previous argument – and Ziva couldn't shake the feeling that that truce was because of her.
Tony was staring at her, silently telling her they could go now. She inconspicuously shook her head, resolute in staying and stiffening up. Regardless of anything else, she was still curious. Frustrated, Tony sat back and brought her with him, which made her produce a startled sound from her throat. No one had heard, as far as he'd been able to tell.
But that sound… It reminded him of something…
"Statue of Secrecy." Harry informed Gibbs, shrugging and breaking Tony's train of thought, which he'd noticed was leading him toward a very nice headache. "Can't do magic in front of Muggles, can't speak of magic in front of Muggles. That's about it, isn't it?" He turned to Hermione questioningly.
She scowled. "Yes, if you decide to put it that way." She pronounced 'that' as a very distasteful word, as if it was a personal offence. Harry grinned.
Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Muggle?"
"Non-magical person, such as yourself."
"Artifact?"
"Batch of Amortentia. Very old, very concentrated, very rare, very expensive. We haven't found it yet. We'll have to go back to the house. All we know is that it's in that office."
Gibbs ignored the cloud of annoyance above his head at the comment, in favor of his curiosity. "Batch of what?"
"Amortentia. Love potion."
"Lov- Never mind. Ministry?"
"Ministry of Magic. Well, wizard business can't very well be handled by the normal government, can it? Earlier, I was talking about the British one, but there's one here too." Magical politics. And if Gibbs thought the normal kind was bad enough…
"Intel?"
"Given by the Ministry, it's an assignment that I decided to take because I was rather in need of something light."
"Invisibility Cloak?"
"Name's rather self-explanatory, isn't it?" Gibbs decided to close the matter.
"Voldemort?"
At that question, deathly silence descended on the four wizards and witches. Uneasily glancing at each other, they shuffled their feet and rubbed their heads. "Pass?" Harry asked hopefully. Gibbs just raised his eyebrows. Harry grumbled a few choice expletives. "How about we leave that one for later?" He asked with a forced smile. Gibbs kept his eyes on him for a few more seconds, trying to decide if he was just pushing it off so he didn't actually have to talk about it – meaning, hoping his 'friends' got there before he had the chance to do so – or if he really believed it was best to keep that for the end.
Finally, he gave a curt, slow nod. Relief showed briefly on Harry's face.
"Your parents?"
Harry stiffened, looking at Gibbs in shock. "I'm starting to think you just like to ask the bad questions." He said with a pained smile, in mock-accusation. The look on Gibbs' face sobered him up real quick. He grimaced. "It's related to the previous question. Let's leave that whole explanation for the end, alright?" He requested, tentatively and more seriously. Tightening his lips and looking unimpressed, Gibbs nodded.
"Records?"
Now the young man looked confused. "Records?" He repeated, frowning. "What records?"
Keeping an eye on him, Gibbs grabbed the four files that had been dumped half-haphazardly on Jenny's desk when they'd arrived by McGee. He randomly opened Ron Weasley's.
"Ronald Weasley. Birth Certificate – issued a few years ago for what I'm sure is proof he exists, just so he can have a Marriage Certificate. And that is all. No parents listed on the Birth Certificate." He snapped the file closed, and noted the suddenly amused expressions on the four young people with a raised eyebrow. "Something funny?"
Harry cracked a smile. "Very. Ron, you're a few years old? How nice! But you know, you shouldn't be playing with wands so young. You might hurt yours-" Ron jammed an elbow in his stomach.
"You know, Ginny was issued hers at about the same time." Ron pointed out as Harry attempted to gasp and laugh at the same time.
"Well, yeah. But she's my red-haired female wife." He pointed out in return, calming down with his eyes crinkled in a grin. "Don't you reckon that's a triple alarm right there? I'm not going to mock her."
"Smart man." Gibbs muttered. Jenny snickered and Tony even managed a smirk.
"The red-haired female wife is right here." Ginny announced to the room.
"Exactly." Harry emphasized. Gibbs hit the back of his head.
"Ow!" He cried, rubbing the tender spot. "What was that for?"
"Welcome to my world." Tony mumbled. Gibbs smacked the back of his head too, and he startled. Ziva brought up a smile, and suddenly, Tony was in perfect spirits again. Gibbs turned back to Harry as if nothing had happened.
"Learning respect. The lady looked like she wanted to do it herself, but she's unable to do so."
"That is a handy trick." Ginny said, grinning. "I'm starting to like you, Agent Gibbs."
"Like the Bat-Boogey Hex wasn't enough." Ron muttered, looking from Ginny to Hermione warily.
The four outsiders were clearly trying their best efforts to raise everybody's spirits – both to cheer them up after what had just happened, and probably to take their minds off the bomb they'd just dropped on them. Gibbs decided to play along (and, in doing so, made the whole room decide to play along), if only for Ziva's benefit. "What's not to like about me from the beginning?" He joked.
The two male agents of his team turned to stare at him with open-mouthed expressions. "Did Gibbs-" Tony choked, temporarily forgetting the nearly passed out woman in his lap.
"Just make a joke?" McGee finished, stumbling over the words.
Abby shrugged, and her small smile looked strange in the middle of all her smudged make-up. "Gibbs makes a lot of jokes. He just doesn't make them with you."
Ducky and Jenny twitched their lips, and Ziva became grateful that the attention was off her, since she was lacking the strength to even look anything but seriously weak. And looking weak was inexcusable for someone like her.
"DiNozzo." Gibbs rolled his eyes to show how unimpressed he was. His eyes were focused on Ziva and he seemed to read her mind. "Get Ziva to get some rest."
Ziva became a lot more alert. "I want to hear the rest of this explanation." Ziva demanded at the best of her abilities in her weakened state.
"Ziva, c'mon." Tony put on his best whiny attitude – the one he could get her to do almost anything should he whine just the right amount. Too little and she'd ignore him, too much would bring him lots of pain and nastiness. Though he figured too much wasn't exactly a problem at the moment, he thought, eyeing her trembling hands when she crossed her arms. "They'll tell us all about it later. And I'll let you hit me and everything in the morning." He figured being ridiculous would help his cause. It seemed to work with her, often.
Ziva actually paused to consider that. Then she seemed to decide that she was too tired to argue. "Fine." That was easy.
He would have been more concerned if she didn't look ready to sleep for two days straight.
So instead, he stood up, and carried Ziva along princess style. Her eyes widened, her arms immediately threw themselves around his neck for balance, glaring at his smirk. But her face was entirely too close to his for Ziva to keep that up for long. His expression morphed into a smile and he walked toward the door, announcing loudly that she was in no condition to walk - to prevent comments that would make her decide to hit him sooner than the next morning.
"DiNozzo." Gibbs called. When Tony turned, Gibbs had made a coffee cup appear out of nowhere and was staring at him with a warning-filled expression. "I don't wanna see either of you for two days. God knows I need the break from the headaches anyway."
Ziva looked ready to protest, but then, Tony threw her over his shoulder and left the director's office with a nod in Gibbs' direction. If her body hadn't been ready to fall apart into pieces, he'd be on the floor with her hand on his throat, and he knew it.
Instead, she just closed her eyes and pretended she wasn't enjoying the way his arms were wrapped around her.