AN: Trying to get this up before the weekend. I'm off work but JenJen and the bestie from HS are coming to visit to celebrate my birthday a week early. But hey, I have nothing better to do before then. Had to turn down extra hours at work because I'm on day 3 of no voice and my own 4 hour shift will be quite long enough to be communicating by whiteboard with customers.
MN: Hey, I'm just happy her head had stopped throbbing. Also, some of the reviews mentioned that Ch 7 felt a little short. We don't generally look at page length when decided to end a chapter, it's more about word count. In that arena, it was really quite up to par with the others (Except for 6 which was ridiculously long).
Disclaimer: We do not own Sherlock Holmes or Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
As the end credits of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows rolled, Ziva looked around Tony's living room. Abby was curled up in the armchair, fast asleep. McGee, fighting sleep himself, was on the floor in front of her, sitting with his head leaned back against the chair. And Tony, while still awake, was stretched out on the couch next to her, head in her lap.
They had already had a couple of beers each when their friends had arrived, bearing apple vodka. The bottle had been nearly drained throughout the course of the movie and its predecessor after dinner. She had realized Abby was asleep when she'd stopped giggling nearly an hour ago, but hadn't bothered to wake her. None of them were going to be in any state fit to drive any time soon.
Tony sighed and heaved himself off her lap into a sitting position. "We should probably get him off the floor, shouldn't we?"
Ziva nodded and stood, offering her hand to pull him up. Neither of them was particularly coordinated in their current state and he bumped into her causing her to stumble. He managed to grab her arms to steady her, even as they both fought away a bought of giggles.
They moved toward McGee who looked up at the sleepily. Tony poked the other man with his toes. "Come on McTanked. On the couch with you."
After a few false starts, they managed to get him up and over to the couch, where he promptly collapsed into the cushions. Ziva stuck a throw pillow under his head then stood. "Where is your air mattress?"
Tony pulled a blanket from the back of the chair to cover Abby as she did the same for McGee on the couch. "Bedroom closet."
"I will take care of that if you will take the dishes into the kitchen?" He shrugged his agreement at her and began gathering glasses as she turned and walked down the hall to his bedroom.
The moment she passed the threshold, however, she froze in her tracks. The twin bed she had slept in just a few months ago after her father's death was gone. In its place stood an equally simple queen sized bed.
She stood pondering what this meant for several long moments. More moments than she had intended, apparently, because before she had made any further movement toward the closet, he had entered the room behind her.
"Oh, hey, like it? I got it when we got the new job. Dad talked me into it, actually. He said that if I was going to be sleeping in it almost every night now, I should spoil myself. Give myself room to stretch out. I've got to admit, he was right." They stood in silence for a moment then he reached over and grabbed her hand and began pulling her toward the bed, resembling a small child trying to show off their new toy. "Give it a test run. You can sleep there tonight and I'll take the air mattress."
She protested even as she climbed on top of the bedding. "Tony, I am not putting you out of your own bed again. It is very nice. Now let me set up the air mattress."
He pressed a hand on her shoulder to keep her down. "It's fine, Ziva. What kind of host would I be if I didn't offer at least one of my guests my bed? You're sleeping there."
Ziva was suddenly too tired to argue with him. "Fine, but so are you. It is not like we haven't shared a bed before. And it is late and the air compressor is loud."
He opened his mouth to disagree but she shot him a glare and he closed it then rounded the bed to the other side. She managed to maneuver herself beneath the covers and rescue her cell phone from her pocket to be placed on the nightstand before surrendering to the depths of alcohol induced sleep.
It was a buzzing that pulled her out of slumber. The process was slow because she was very comfortably warm. The sheet beneath her was warm; as was the blanket that covered her. But even warmer still was the arm draped over her waist and the body pressed firmly to the back of hers.
That realization propelled Ziva into consciousness and she panicked momentarily before the previous evening's events came back to her. She was in Tony's apartment. In Tony's bed. And the warm body against hers was Tony's.
She carefully freed herself from the weight of his arm and slipped out of the bed. She retrieved her phone from the nightstand as she padded quietly to the bathroom. A quick check of the cell phone showed her that it was nearly 1100 and also that Greeley had tried calling her. Twice.
She relieved herself and washed her hands, but stayed in the bathroom as she called her temporary roommate back. He answered on the first ring.
"Hey Ziva."
"Hi Alex. Sorry I did not answer. I was still sleeping. We stayed up rather late last night and got rather drunk so we all stayed at Tony's." As she spoke she caught sight of herself in the mirror and feebly attempted to brush her fingers through her tangled curls.
"Sounds like a fun night. I got your note when I got home last night, but I was just a little worried when I got up and you weren't back yet. I also wanted to know if you needed anything from the store. I was going to head out here in a few minutes and I thought there might be something you were gonna need to survive being holed up in a boarding school with a bunch of rich kids for a week."
Ziva grinned and chuckled softly. "Thank you, but no. I will be fine. Wait. Get something for dinner for tonight. I will cook for us. Whatever you would like."
"We could do taco night. Want to invite DiNozzo and Rhodes and have a game night?"
She leaned against the wall. "Sounds like a plan. I'll ask Tony if he's in and let you know. I do have one condition, however."
"Name it."
"I saw 'Twister' in your game collection. Hide it. Tony cannot know it exists."
Greeley's laugh brought out her own. "Deal. I'll see you later."
She disconnected the call then exited the bathroom. She walked through the living room quietly, as not to wake the still sleeping Abby and McGee and entered the kitchen. A quick search yielded all of the ingredients necessary to make a hearty breakfast scramble.
She set to work slicing, chopping and whisking and was just pouring the mixture into a large frying pan when Tony wandered in. He immediately started the coffee pot then filled a large glass with water. He downed the contents before turning to look at her. "Remind me that Abby is never allowed to pour drinks for me ever again. Or bring liquor to my house."
Ziva laughed at him but decided not to aggravate his obvious hangover. "I will keep that in mind. For now, why don't you go wake her and McGee? Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes."
He gave her a sloppy salute before setting down his glass and shuffling back out of the kitchen.
AN: This one is a little on the short side, but Sebby was itching to get it out. Trying to decide if we should write the game night or not. We never really planned on actually having to develop a character for Rhodes. Thoughts?
