I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that I haven't updated in so long. I feel really bad! But NaNoWriMo and Midterms came up at the same time...and well, it was hard to make time for fanfiction. Sorry again.

I updated with this relatively short chapter because I wanted you guys to have something. And I promised Bundibird that I would...and I try to uphold promises!

I was so excited about all those who wanted to discuss the episode that was like...three weeks ago. That was so exciting! I tried to respond to everyone...but I think I forgot some people. I have worked out a better system for review replies and PMs and awesome discussions, so this time around I will get to everyone! Seriously...episode discussions are one of my favorite things to do. XD

And now for this chapter's randomness: I watched Moulin Rouge (2001, Ewan McGregor, Nicole Kidman) today and it was totally just as awesome as the last four million times I watched it. "El Tango de Roxanne" is probably my favorite song in the whole movie. I've always wanted to learn how to tango...but I'm afraid with my lack of sexy moves my potential in that area is quite limited...

Oh, and expect kinda slow updates until December, guys....I've got to finish NaNoWriMo and i'm falling behind...!

"TONY!"

I was startled awake by someone shouting my name in an obscenely loud voice. I sat up quickly and opened my eyes, wondering what in the hell was happening.

Where's the fire?

"I'm in position, boss!" I said automatically, jumping up and looking around wildly.

Then I noticed that I was still in Abby's lab, so I lowered my hands from my assumed karate-chop defensive position. Gibbs was standing in front of me, holding his cup of coffee. Abby was behind him, looking tentatively over his shoulder…probably to see if I would get beaten down or something. I tried to recall the last moments before I fell asleep, because I was a little disoriented.

Oh yeah. Abby let me sleep on her cot.

Ziva came down, and we'd―and I'd held her…comforted her when she needed me to...a grin made its way across my face as I remembered. The one that stood out was in that moment in between sleeping and waking; I was still aware of things but moments from being truly asleep. Ziva had pulled away and gently laid me back on the cot, and I had felt her lips press gently on my forehead.

"Sleep, Tony…" I'd heard her whisper.

And then what seemed like a minute later, Gibbs' voice had woken me up and now here I was, grinning stupidly at my boss, my clothes rumpled and my hair sticking up in crazy directions.

"What the hell's with you, DiNozzo?" he asked me.

"Nothing, boss. Just feeling refreshed, that's all."

"Good. Now you can go back to work." He pointed towards the elevator.

"Yes boss," I said quickly, and headed back upstairs. When I got to the elevator, though, I stopped and turned around, heading back for the lab. "Thanks, Abby," I said, giving the girl a big hug from behind. Gibbs gave me a look, and I let go quickly. "Right. Going upstairs, boss."

The bullpen was practically empty when I walked out of the elevator; its only occupant was McGee, typing methodically away at a pace far below his usual standards.

"Whatcha doing, Probie-san?" I asked him as I walked over to his desk. "You're not up to your usual lightspeed typing."

It took a second for the younger agent to respond. "Unlike you, Tony…not all of us got a three hour nap."

Three hours?

I glanced at the clock on McGee's desk. 2:14 a.m.

Wow. I'd gotten more sleep than I'd thought.

"What are you working on?"

"Same thing that I was when you left."

"There's no new leads? Nothing?" I asked incredulously. "Then what did Gibbs want me up here for?"

"So you can take over for McGee. It's his turn on Abby's cot," Gibbs said, striding in with his ubiquitous coffee cup in his hand.

McGee looked up, hope in his eyes. "Really? I can take a break?"

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't mean it, McGee," Gibbs said, walking up the stairs to the director's office.

Probie practically jumped out of his seat. "Okay Tony, this is what you have to do…" He did some geek-typing and said some big words that I didn't understand.

"Probie!" I said abruptly, cutting him off mid-lecture. "Pretend you're talking to someone who has no idea what you're saying."

McGee sighed. "When Abby sends you something, run it through this database I modified to fit our search requirements."

He got up to leave. "Wait…" I said, stopping him. "Can't you show me how to do this on my computer?"

"It'll take me three hours just to set it up. You can sit in my desk." And then he disappeared in the elevator.

I sighed, and sat dejectedly in the Probie-desk. This was so demeaning. I could almost feel the newbie-naïveté leeching into me as I touched the keyboard, itching with the uncontrollable need to play something geek-ish like World of Warcraft. I stood up quickly and ran to my desk, pulling open the bottom right drawer. I grabbed my favorite issue of GSM and opened it up to my favorite picture before sitting down again; maybe it would counteract the Probie-ness.

Once I was alone in the office again, my thoughts began to wander. Where was Ziva? I realized that I had forgotten to ask. She was sleeping, probably. Even ninjas need sleep, I guess. I tried not to think about her, because it would almost certainly distract me from the task at hand.

I forced myself to look at the Probie's monitor and not her empty desk across the room. What had the geek told me to do? Oh. Right. I highlighted the search requirements and dragged them to his special database. Some fancy typing and a triumphant hit of the 'Enter' key later, I watched as names scrolled across the screen at lightning speeds.

Ten minutes later, the motion stopped, and I checked it off McGee's extensive list. I looked at the next one and did the same thing.

Drag.

Click.

Type.

Enter.

By the eighth time I had done it, I think my mouth was hanging open as I dumbly watched the whirring motion of the names in the database. No wonder McGee was in a stupor when I'd come up here. And he'd been doing this for three-plus hours? I added that to my list of strange things to admire the Probie for that I'd never tell him about.

Drag.

Click.

Type.

Enter.

Taking a break after the twenty-fifth consecutive time, I rubbed my eyes and yawned. This was going to put me to sleep again. It was almost hypnotic. I shook my head, trying to get rid of the tiredness from my eyes and ran my hands through my hair. I looked around the bullpen again, hoping that this time my eyes scanned the empty office that someone would be around that I could talk to. Relieve the boredom.

I had already expected for there to be no one there when my eyes fell on Ziva's desk, which is why I almost jumped out of my chair when I saw that it was occupied by the beautiful assassin.

"How long have you been there?" I asked her. I hadn't heard her sit down…but then again, I almost never did. "You know how much it freaks me out when you're all sneaky like that."

"Only about five minutes," she said, turning in her chair to put her feet up on her desk―I noticed she was barefoot―and playing with her fingernails. "Did you know that your hair is sticking up?"

I checked my hair in the reflection of McGee's computer. "Yeah," I said, turning quickly back to her, making no attempt to fix it. "I'm going for a new style."

She smiled a little, and regarded me with a thoughtful expression. "Why are you sitting at McGee's desk?"

"I graciously decided to give Probie a break. So I'm just continuing where he left off."

"Doing what, exactly?"

I thought about this for a moment. "I have absolutely no idea," I said truthfully, staring at the screen.

She got up from her desk and walked towards me. Her shirt was unbuttoned one lower than was considered appropriate for work, and her hair was spilling down across one shoulder.

"Did you get a nap too?" I asked her, using all my will power to keep my eyes on her face and not…lower.

She nodded. "I was talking to Ducky after you fell asleep and he let me borrow one of his autopsy tables."

"That doesn't sound too comfortable."

"Well, when you're tired it doesn't matter," she responded, putting her hands on the top of the desk and leaning over. "That's a nice picture. It's a shame that ninety-five percent of it is computerized."

"Why must you destroy all my illusions?"

She leaned over further; she was taunting me. I could tell.

I wasn't going to do it. I kept my eyes on her face. I knew that if I flicked my eyes down her shirt for half a split second she would notice. There was a moment of silence as we kept our eyes locked. It seemed that neither one of us wanted to break the contact.

"What did you talk to Ducky about?" I asked her quietly.

She leaned forward. "Things," she responded in a whisper. "It's not important."

"Really?" I decreased the distance between by a couple of inches. "What kind of things?"

"None of your business."

I smiled. "Is it really none of my business, or is it and you just don't want to tell me?"

"A little of both, maybe," she responded cryptically. "But I am still not going to tell you."

And then we were in the situation again, the one we were in earlier today. Er…actually it was yesterday. But, thankfully, Gibbs was currently entangled in a pissing match with Vance, so the chance of getting interrupted was very slim. I leaned a little closer and I think I forgot to breathe. How idiotic was that? I'm a grown man. I've done this loads of times.

Right?

Then why did I feel so on fire each time she was this close? What the hell did that mean?

We were so close now that there was no space between our lips, but we were just far enough away for the tension between us to build up to impossible levels.

"What are we doing, Tony?" Ziva asked me, very voice barely a whisper and her lips brushing against mine ever so slightly as she spoke.

I must admit that I wasn't prepared at all for it. I had been expecting to be interrupted for sure…Gibbs would have known this was coming via his sixth sense and therefore strode into the squadroom at the exact wrong time, ruining the moment that I'd been wanting for so long. And since the buildup was so long and tantalizing, that gave him extra time.

But he didn't come, and our lips met.

I'd kissed her before, about four years ago on that one under cover assignment. But this was way different…there was nothing like kissing someone that you loved so completely. It was insane, like magic, or something mystical and out of this world. There was nothing I could compare it to. Ziva brought up one hand and I felt it caress my face gently, her fingers trailing down my cheek. We broke apart briefly and kissed again. It was one of those endless moments that seem to contain an entire lifetime inside them. I lived, died, and lived again in the space of second. It was very simple compared to the amount of sexual energy behind it, but the need to rip her clothes off was not on the forefront of my mind.

How strange.

I could smell something wonderful coming off her skin.

The only reason I broke away was because the need to breathe was about one percent stronger than my need to continue kissing Ziva. But, as I leaned forward to capture her lips again, McGee's damn infernal computer started going haywire.

I looked at it angrily, wondering what could possibly be so important that the stupid machine had to go messing up what was turning out be the―

"What is it, Tony?" Ziva asked, coming around the edge of the desk to look over my shoulder as I stared at the screen.

"McGee's special database got a hit…or four," I replied. "He didn't tell me what to do if the dragging and the clicking actually came up with something."

"Type the names in the international database," she suggested. "That will tell us who they are."

"Why the international?"

"Does 'Amil Abdul-Jahar' sound American to you?"

She was a lot closer than usual; it was a good sign. It helped me fantasize under the delusion that kissing her seconds ago wasn't just a dream; that it actually happened.

"Ah. Right." I did what she said, and a few seconds and some flashing computer whizzing lights later, names popped up, covered in red print and government warnings. I read the descriptions with an uneasy feeling.

"Oh shit…" I thought, as Ziva swore in Hebrew under her breath.

So yeah. I left you hanging. Don't worry...I've left myself hanging too. I have no idea what Tony and Ziva just discovered. When i figure it out I'll type it up and post the next chapter...

Are you excited, though? Tony and Ziva finally kissed. Yay! Now, if only they would get one with it in the show...

Feel free to review if you want to discuss this weeks episode, last weeks episode, any episode from the past six years...or if you just want to yell at me for not updating in a timely fashion...