"I am telling you Tony; this will not work."

Yes, he was still determined to try this crazy idea of his. Yes, she was being gradually sucked into it. Not that she was going to admit to that quite yet. She was still valiantly hoping that she could talk him out of it. It wasn't working but she was not about to give up. Mainly because she did not want to find herself executing one of Tony's so-called "excellent plans".

"All it involves is distracting Gibbs." Tony said like it was the easiest thing in the world.

"Which will not work."

Gibbs would immediately suspect something if they tried to distract him. Doubly so if Tony was the one who was doing the distracting.

"It will of we do it right."

"It will not work at all."

Could he not just accept that they were not going to get them back from Gibbs no matter what they tried? No, he could not. He insisted on coming up with increasingly stupid plans for retrieving them. Like this was some sort of high stakes, top secret operation. Which it was not. But still, he continued to go on and on and plan.

Look, it was not like she was giving him ideas or anything. On fact, she was trying to dissuade him so technically, she wasn't even getting involved. She was doing the opposite of getting involved.

"We just have to think about it. We can come up with something."

"If I were Gibbs I would either have them on me or lock them away somewhere," she said, finally giving in.

Tony's eyes lit up and Ziva got a bad feeling about this.

"That's it, they've been put away somewhere!"

"Or Gibbs has them," Ziva reminded him.

"No, no," he shook his head. "He wouldn't keep them on him. He'd put them somewhere. Somewhere..."

He looked around like there would be a sign saying where they were.

"Maybe he will bring them home and they are in his car," Ziva suggested.

Surely if he thought that they were locked away in a car then he would not bother with this anymore?

"You can't just give up like that, Ziva."

"How can I give something up that I was not even doing in the first place?"

"We're going to need reinforcements," Tony said determinedly.

McGee stood in front of his desk; arms firmly crossed.

"No. I'm not doing it."

"McGee-" Tony began but McGee shook his head.

"I'm not going to get involved."

"But we could use your brains," he tried to coax. "We'll need them to go up against Gibbs."

"Which is exactly why I'm not going to let you guys drag me into to this hare-brained scheme of yours!"

"What is a hare-brained scheme?" Ziva asked in confusion. "Do you mean the hair on your head or the creatures that are like rabbits?"

"Not now Ziva," Tony hissed.

"It's a plan that's so stupid and ridiculous that it's not going to work," McGee replied.

"Oh, well, it is definitely not that."

McGee threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

"Of course, it's a hare-brained scheme! You're trying to get something off Gibbs that he took off you and you don't even know where it is! Tell me how that isn't hare-brained!"

"It isn't. It's just..." Tony looked around for inspiration.

"In the planning stages," Ziva supplied.

"That! Yes! It's in the planning stages."

"That's even worse, you don't even have a plan and you want me to help?"

"Yes."

"No."

"McGee!"

Tony couldn't believe that McGee would just turn away and refuse to even think about helping them. What sort of teamwork was that?

"Can you explain why hares are considered ridiculous?" Ziva asked.

Gibbs had a feeling. An extremely strong feeling, the type that he didn't normally ignore. Yes, it was his gut. It had yet to steer him wrong so he was happy enough to go along with it. It came from years of experience after, sometimes even decades.

Though, this particular feeling was only from a year or two of a certain type of experience. Because Tony and Ziva had only been partners for that long. And they were definitely the only cause of this feeling. He wasn't sure what it was about the two of them but something always happened when they got like this. Shifty. Suspicious. Arguing with each other but no one knowing what they were arguing about. Oh, and Tony made a lot of smug faces while Ziva was exasperated but determined. It was a dangerous combination; he had come to learn. Hence, the feeling.

He looked over to the pair, who were now back at their desks. Working quietly. Which was enough to sound off alarm bells in the first place. They were never quiet.

He was sure that they were up to something. He just didn't know what.

"How would you like to be a part of an adventure?" Tony greeted with as he strode into the Lab.

Ziva followed, rolling her eyes but otherwise saying nothing. Hey, at least she was following him, that meant that she was all for this, right?

"You need help getting your photos back from Gibbs, don't you?" Abby said, looking amused.

"Yes," Tony admitted quickly.

There was no point in hiding things from Abby, after all. They had all learned that the hard way.

"McGee told me." She explained.

That made sense. McGee tells her everything and he had been escaping down here a lot recently.

"Sorry, but you're on your own for this one," she said sympathetically before he could launch into his idea

Tony let his mouth drop open in shock. He had been depending on her. She was usually up for things like this. In fact, she was usually the one who suggested things like this. And she was just abandoning them? In their time of need?

"Abby!"

"Sorry," she gestured around the Lab that he just realised was a bit fuller than usual. "I'm slammed today."

"That is okay," Ziva said quickly before he could complain. "It is not that important."

She proceeded to try and here him out of the lab.

"Ziva! It's very important!"

"It is not."

She then apparently decided that this wasn't working for her and physically yanked him along.

"Hey!"

"I want to see the pictures when you get them back!" She called after them.