Late Again

The two stirred around the same time a couple weeks later. They had been struggling with getting to work on time. Ziva's eyes opened first and she sat up very fast, reading the time. "Tony!" she nearly shouted.

He sat up quickly and looked around. "We slept through the alarm," he muttered and rubbed his eyes, swinging his legs to the other side of the bed.

"I cannot believe we slept through it again, Tony!" she said urgently as she darted out of bed. "Again!"

They began rushing around to get everything ready. They had gone out last night for a date and come home and made passionate love late. They had definitely overslept again and it was one of the mornings they were supposed to be at work for seven instead of eight like normal. They were in the middle of a case, and this wasn't good at all.

They hurried around each Tony made coffee while Ziva showered. Ziva poured the coffee while Tony showered. They brushed their hair and teeth together and hurried to get their shoes on. They met at the hooks where their keys were at the same time.

Without another word they headed out the door and down the elevator at the same time, giving each other a kiss as they got to their cars, as they always did. Tony waited for Ziva to start her car, as he always did. But, this morning it wasn't starting.

She tried three or four more times, before popping the hood and climbing out of her car. She had no clue what she was looking for. Tony hopped out of his car and came over, pulling up the hood of her Mini and looking around.

After about ten minutes of looking he sighed and shook his head. "Your starter is dead. Jumping it won't work," Tony said quietly.

"What are we going to do?" Ziva asked, kicking the tire of her car.

"Hey, relax," Tony said quietly, pulling her away from her car before she could abuse it any further. "You'll ride with me today."

Ziva climbed into his car. "We agreed that going together was a very bad idea," Ziva whispered as she buckled her seat belt.

"Yes, we did," he agreed with her. "And it still is a bad idea, but you've got to get to work and I'm not going to leave you here stranded."

"I would have been fine, Tony," Ziva said, as Tony pulled the car out of the parking space and hurried off toward the main road. "We're going to get into trouble again. You should have gone without me."

"We'll think of something, Zi, we always do," Tony reassured her as he took her hand and sped off on the main road.

Ziva was strongly reminded of why no one liked her driving. Tony could rival her this morning, though she knew it was pointless to speed, since they were already so late and they were only going to be later no matter what they did. They could have walked and it wouldn't have made a difference.

Tony put the car in park one hour and forty minutes later than they were supposed to be and they climbed out in silence. They got into the elevator nervously, neither daring to look at the other. Their backpacks were slung over their shoulders. Ziva was fidgeting with her hands and Tony was bouncing on his toes. Their eyes met at the same time and Tony grabbed Ziva's hands and stopped bouncing.

"It'll be okay. It always is," Tony promised her. "I promise."

She nodded. Then, he dropped her hand. The silver doors of the elevator slid open with a familiar ding. Both Gibbs and McGee were turned toward them. Gibbs looked ready to kill right then. They should have called, Tony thought. That was a mistake and staying up so late was a mistake. But, they both knew that Ziva's car breaking down was beyond their control. That was their excuse though and they both knew it, without having to voice it to the other. McGee was staring suspiciously at the two. After all, this wasn't the first morning that they were both late and coming in at the same time or nearly the same time and looking extremely nervous.

"You two know how to read a clock?" Gibbs asked quietly as they made their way to their own area of the squad room.

"It is my fault, Gibbs. I am sorry," Ziva said automatically, taking her seat at her desk and heaving a sigh.

"How's it your fault that DiNozzo's late?" Gibbs asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You see, my car broke down this morning. Something in it does not work. The thing would not start! I tried to figure it out myself before calling him. I thought he would already be at work. He was not. When I called him, he came," Ziva explained.

"Then I tried to fix her car, boss," Tony continued, as though they had rehearsed the story with each other on the way to work. "I failed, obviously. It's her starter. She's going to need a new one."

"Sure," Gibbs said, his eyebrows pulling together dangerously. "Either of you know what a phone is used for?"

"I did not think of it," Ziva said shamefully, knowing that they should have called as soon as they knew that Ziva's car was not starting without further investigation. "We should have called."

"Yup," Gibbs said. "McGee'll fill you in on what you missed."

Gibbs left the room, looking positively furious at the two of them, as well as suspicious. Another mistake; they both knew it. They weren't found out yet, they thought. They had good excuses and usually their excuses didn't involve each other. They really had to stop showing up late, though, because they would definitely get caught soon at this rate and neither one of them wanted to be transferred or fired.

A/N – This was taken from a flashback in "Forbidden" but it was expanded on a little. Apparently Ziva and Tony are good under pressure and work well together in all aspects. But, they still don't know that Gibbs has it figured out and I wonder if McGee's starting to get suspicious also…. Review and let me know what you think.