So the finale aired and we're all destroyed and infuriated (I didn't watch—Twitter told me everything I need to know). I'm keen to set myself free from this show for good, so you get two chapters tonight, two on the weekend and then the remaining two when/if I get around to writing them. No promises, sorry. I'm so, so done with it all.

The alarm was obnoxious on most days, but Ziva found it even more intrusive on that particular morning. She had not been asleep, exactly. But she wasn't entirely conscious either. She had just been warm and comfortable, sore but sated, and vaguely aware that her partner was lying at her back with his arm heavy around her waist. She would have been content to lie there for a while longer, and she supposed she should be grateful for the extra hour they had on the ship as opposed to a regular workday. But unfortunately, a longer lie-in wasn't on the cards.

She lifted a sleepy arm to reach over to the nightstand and shut the alarm on her cell phone off. Behind her, Tony groaned, tightened his arm around her and pressed his face into the back of her shoulder. He clearly didn't want to get up either. Ziva cracked her eyes open to take in the bright, early morning Caribbean sky beyond their balcony. The clock had not been lying. It really was morning, albeit it a beautiful one. And they really did have to get up.

Ziva sighed and shifted around until she was on her back. She looked at Tony from beneath heavy lids, and the sight of him there, with mussed up hair and a soft, sleepy face, was enough to make her stomach cramp with either excitement or fear. Or maybe both. It was real. Last night had been real. If her pleasantly sore muscles and naked body beneath the sheets weren't enough to convince her, naked DiNozzo wrapped around her in bed was. They'd actually taken a big step.

So, what now?

She waited for the urge to run out the door to come over her. It was what she feared. But after a full minute of looking at his relaxed face lying just a few inches from hers, the flight response didn't come. Oh yes, she was nervous. Very nervous. But she was also warm with affection from head to toe, and she was relieved that she found herself wanting to stay and smile and talk. She would have plenty of time to freak out later, if the need arose. For now, she took a deep breath and then reached to brush her fingers through his hair to wake him up.

"Tony?"

"Mmm," Tony groaned. He tightened his grip around her waist and tried to snuggle in further. She smiled and stretched her neck to brush her lips across his.

"Tony, we have to get up."

"Ugh."

She smiled to herself. "I know. But we have work to do."

"Ugh!"

Ziva sucked on her bottom lip as she thought it over. She had dealt with Tony in a sleepy and uncooperative state before. Usually she just applied some kind of quick and sharp pressure to his body somewhere—a pinch to his shoulder, a flick to his ear—but that didn't feel appropriate this morning. She would have to try something else.

"Tony," she said again, and stretched her neck to kiss him more soundly. He was unresponsive aside from an appreciative moan, and so she kept peppering his lips with kiss after kiss until she felt him begin to reciprocate. She supposed she should have stopped then because she had his attention, but last night she had remembered how much she enjoyed kissing him. She indulged in the act and let the kisses get a little deeper until Tony's hand slid up her ribcage and he rolled to rest his weight on her side. He seemed wide awake now, and while she wasn't interested in teasing him, she did want to talk to him.

She rested her hand against his cheek and pulled back from the kiss to look up at him. There was a hint of a playful look in his eyes, and Ziva smiled freely at him. "Good morning," she whispered.

"Morning," he whispered back, and pressed another kiss to her lips. "Sleep well?"

"Like the dead," she told him. "You?"

"Something like that." He kissed her lips again and then dipped his head to start kissing her neck. Ziva's eyes fluttered closed and she felt the good, low down tingles from last night fire up again. While she knew they really had to get up and start preparing for their trip ashore, she ended up winding her fingers into the short hair at the back of his head to encourage him, and arched her neck to give him better access. He worked his way from one side of her neck to the other, kissing, licking and sucking gently at her sensitive skin and making her groan. But when he started heading south towards her chest, Ziva forced herself to stop him.

"Tony?"

"Hmm?"

She gripped his hair and gently tugged. "We have to get ready for the shore excursion. And we have to talk."

It probably wasn't the reference to work that stopped him, but rather the reference to talking. His head popped up and he looked up at her, licking moisture back onto his lips. "What?"

"We have to talk."

His eyes, so playful just minutes ago, filled with worry and a touch of hurt. "Please don't tell me you're going to back out on me now, Ziva."

Her heart physically hurt at the suggestion, and she took his face between her hands. "No," she told him firmly. "No, I do not want to back out."

Tony breathed out in relief, and rolled off her to lie beside her again. "Okay. So what's up?"

She rolled onto her side to face him and pushed her hair off her face. "I am not backing out of this," she repeated.

"Okay."

"I just want to make sure that you are sure about it."

Tony arched an eyebrow at her. "Was I not clear last night?"

"Yes," she said, and laid her hand over his. "But sometimes things feel different in the morning."

Tony watched her quietly, and she was surprised when his face turned into an expression of understanding. "What's going on?" he asked gently, turning it back on her.

She took a breath, preparing to assure him that nothing was going on. But she bit her lip over the lie. They'd talked before about how not talking, not being honest, was the thing that stood in the way of them moving forward. So she consciously stopped herself from making the same mistake and gave him the awkward truth.

"I am nervous."

"About what?"

"About what mistakes we will make."

One corner of his mouth pulled back in a smile. "You're so sure we'll make mistakes."

"Yes."

He threaded his fingers through hers. "Okay, so am I. And I'm nervous, too. But are we going to go through the rest of our lives on our best behavior?"

"That is unlikely."

"So let's accept that we'll make mistakes," he said simply. "And let's promise that when we do, we'll deal with it like mature adults."

It was Ziva's turn to smirk. "Tony, it is like you do not even know us."

He smiled and leaned forward to kiss her briefly. "Yes, I do. We can do it." He paused. "We've just got to commit to it."

The word made Ziva's heart pound, but she nodded. She could do this. She could commit to this relationship. "Yes."

Tony smiled and lifted her hand to kiss it. "Let's just try to go easy on ourselves, okay? We don't have to be perfect. We just have to be us."

It was the simplest, best and somehow hardest advice he'd ever given her. But he was right, and she promised herself that from now until the end it was advice she would make every effort to follow.

"Deal," she told him.

He smiled again and leaned forward to kiss her. And kiss her. And kiss her some more. God, he was a really good kisser. Her body reacted deliciously, and instead of stopping him she wrapped her arms and legs around him with a moan.

"What time do we have to disembark?" she asked between kisses.

"Eight," he said breathily.

That gave them a little over an hour. They'd have to eat breakfast on shore. So what? She reached down to squeeze his butt and tilted her hips towards him. "Plenty of time," she decided.

Tony paused to flash a grin at her. "There's always time," she told her, and then dropped his head to start kissing his way down her body.

Ziva had a feeling that was a motto she was going to become very familiar with.

…

Ziva stood on a platform high above the ocean in Labadee as a Haitian man with large hands and a bright smile secured her into a harness. John and Martin stood on a platform behind and below her, waiting for their turn and alternatively calling out encouragement and trying to scare her. Both efforts irritated her.

"You're going to kill it, Zara!" John called, and Ziva wasn't clear if he was being deliberately condescending, or if he really thought he was being nice.

"If the fall doesn't kill you first," Martin followed up.

Ziva rolled her eyes to herself as her Haitian instructor tried to reassure her. "Do not listen to them, madame. The harness is safe."

"I know," she assured him.

"Give her a break, guys," Tony called back, and Ziva liked to think that it was only his undercover identity that had him speaking for her.

Martin held up his hand in apology, and Zara smiled back at him as Ziva thought about sabotaging his harness. She looked across at Tony who was getting secured into his harness by another employee. The sight of him banished thoughts of Martin Rose from her mind and sent a sudden and intense wave of desire through her. She averted her gaze before she could catch his, but she couldn't stop her grin. Was this what it was going to be like now, she wondered? Immediately turned on by the sight, or even thought of him? Probably not forever, she conceded. But for now she would allow herself to enjoy the hell out of it.

The instructor talked her through the safe and correct way to make it down the line, and Ziva nodded dutifully.

"You feel okay?" he checked.

"You don't need to worry about her," Tony called, drawing her gaze again and making her smile wider. "She eats danger for breakfast."

Her instructor seemed pleased by the information. "You have done this before?"

"Once or twice."

"Ready to go?"

"One second," Tony said, and then walked over to her with a grin. "For good luck," he said, and then put his hand on her cheek and pulled her in to kiss her. Ziva laughed with the joy that came with the freedom to act on impulse, and found great delight in the happiness in his eyes.

"I will race you to the bottom, yes?"

Tony grinned. "Let's do it."

He went back to his line and their instructors hooked them up. As she waited for the signal to go, Ziva looked out over the vast ocean, the beach and the forest below. She felt the warm sun on her face and smelled the sea air. She looked over at her partner and found him staring back with a smile, and she tried to commit the moment to her memory, when everything was sparkling and beautiful and full of possibility.

Happiness.

"Three, two, one, go!"

She pushed off the ledge and suddenly she was flying through the air. The wind whipped her cheeks as she went faster and faster, and she heard herself laugh with exhilaration. She looked across at Tony who kept accelerating away from her, one hand on his harness and the other stretched out to the side as he embraced the ride.

There was no way she was ever going to forget this day.

She looked down at the ocean as it closer and closer, and she could make out the rocks and fish just below the surface. She zoomed over the heads of a group of swimmers who yelled and clapped as she passed, and then lifted her feet before she touched down on the platform at the bottom of the line a good five seconds after Tony. He stepped out of his harness and turned to her with a huge smile on his face and his hair sticking every which way thanks to his discarded helmet and the wind.

"Beat you," he called as he approached her.

"You weigh more," she pointed out.

Tony shrugged, taking her ribbing of him in stride. It seemed like nothing could shake his good mood today. He slung his arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek. "It's all muscle," he told her.

She chuckled as she removed her helmet and stepped out of her harness, and they walked to the back of the platform to watch John and Martin come down the line.

"We should do that again," he told her. "That was too much fun."

"We still have the…" she trailed off as she tried to think of the correct name for their next activity. She failed, and so mimed driving a car. "The thing with the slide and the kart."

Tony nodded. "Yeah, I hope that thing has barricades. I can see you taking the corners too fast and falling to your death."

"Perhaps." She leaned back against the rock ledge behind them, and while Tony had his face turned upwards to watch their new 'friends' come down the zip line, Ziva watched him. She was used to the sight of him filling her with a sense of intense affection, and often desire. But now that they'd crossed the line…oh boy.

Sensation flooded her body and it felt like every blood vessel within her instantly boiled and flushed. She drew a deep breath meant to calm her, but it caught Tony's attention and his head snapped around. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"You okay? You're all red all of a sudden. Are you having an adrenaline surge?"

She smiled and shook her head. "No. I'm fine." She paused and turned it back on him. "You look happy, Tony. Perhaps you have found your true calling in life."

He leaned back against the wall beside her, his arm pressed against hers. "Zip lines? Well, that'll set me up for retirement." He shrugged. "Today's a good day."

She hummed in agreement, then let herself have just a taste of what her libido wanted. She leaned over to kiss him, and his hand quickly came up to cradle her jaw and keep her there longer than she'd intended. She didn't complain, but was left a little lightheaded when they parted from all the blood in her body running south. She licked her lips as she stared at his.

"Yes, it is a good day," she mumbled.

Tony grinned, but they both turned their heads when they heard one of the two men coming down the zip line yelling out with glee.

"They're having a good day too," Tony said.

Ziva nodded, but she doubted John or Martin were even close to her level of happiness right now. The two men landed on the platform almost simultaneously, and immediately (and perhaps predictably) turned to high five each other and whoop as if they'd just won the Superbowl. Ziva groaned to herself, but plastered a smile on her face as would have been expected from Zara.

"How great was that?" John called to them.

"I want to go again," Tony said. "And maybe another time after that. But Zara wants to wait until after we do the jungle tree top roller coaster thing."

John and Martin got out of their harnesses and came over to them. Both were sweating and red-cheeked, and Ziva wondered if they'd snuck in a few beers with breakfast.

"Let's go, then," John said, and smacked Tony's chest with the back of his hand.

Ziva squinted up at the top of the zip line. She couldn't make out who was up there, but she knew Sacha and Julie would be down soon. "You don't want to wait for the others?"

John and Martin chuckled, and Ziva felt her hackles rise.

"Not really," Martin said. "They know the way. They'll come when they're ready."

Tony looked down at her, and Ziva made a decision. Stick with the women. "I will wait. You go ahead," she told Tony.

"You sure?" he asked, although Ziva probably thought it was for show. He knew their chances of getting their marks to talk were better when they split them along clearly frustrated gender lines.

"Of course," Ziva said with an easy smile. "I will see you up there."

"Don't take too long," Tony said, and then leaned in to give her another kiss that was probably a little to long for a casual goodbye. Not that Ziva minded.

She really, really liked kissing him.

She watched the three of them take off across the road towards the climb up to the jungle coaster, and then turned back to watch the next pair of tourists come down the zip line. She had only seen Sacha and Julie for a few minutes at the top of the zip line, but they'd been chatty and cranky with their husbands. With any luck, they'd remain that way for the rest of the day.

Across the road, Tony, John and Martin walked three abreast as they walked up the trail to the jungle coaster. Tony could feel the smile still sitting on his face, and it hadn't gone unnoticed by his companions.

"You make me sick, you know that, Tom?" Martin said, not unkindly.

Tony raised his eyebrows. "How's that?"

Martin shook his head with a smile. "You've got this hot young wife, and every time you look at each other it looks like you're about to start banging right there. How long have you been married again?"

Tony acknowledged, and then let go, the swell of pride he felt at the comment. "A year," he said. "Together about four."

"And how long have you lived together?"

"Three," Tony decided on the spot.

Martin gazed off ahead of them, but was recalling a memory from the past. "Three, huh? The third year was when the shine wore off for me and Julie," he said. "First year of marriage was hard. Second year was better, but the third was a frickin' nightmare. And the fourth."

"Oh, yeah," John said knowingly.

"We're had good patches along the way," Martin added. "But Christ, I can feel it all falling down around us now."

It was the most open about his marriage difficulties Martin had been, and Tony seized on it without going overboard. "Don't you want to save it from falling down?"

Martin was quiet for a few long moments, save for his slight panting as they walked up the hill. "Some days I think I'd move heaven and earth," he finally said. "But I never do. And other days, I think we'd be better off apart."

"So what keeps you together?" Tony asked.

Martin looked at John, who nodded like he already knew the answer.

"I guess there are some things that are hard to untangle," Martin said.

"Like your wife's legs from around another man's hips," John threw in harshly.

Tony blinked in surprise at the blunt statement. "What?"

John's expression turned to thunder for a moment before he grabbed Tony's forearm. "Hey, Zara's gotten all buddy buddy with Sash, right?"

Tony nodded as his muscles tensed, ready for a fight if it came to that. "Yeah, I think so," he said evenly.

"Do me a favor," John told him, gripping his arm harder. "Ask her about Sacha and this guy who works on the boat. His name's Herschelle."

Tony acted like it was the first time he'd ever heard about it. "You think she's sleeping with him?" he asked, but made a face like he thought that was crazy.

"I'm positive," John said with a tight jaw. "But she denies it."

Tony worked hard to keep the fight and accusation out of his voice. Setting the guy off was not a good idea, especially not when his ninja back up wasn't there. "Why wouldn't you take her word for it?"

"I got my reasons," John said, and then let go of Tony's arm.

Tony shrugged easily, trying to diffuse the tension. "Yeah, sure. I'll mention it to her."

John spun again and put a finger in Tony's face. "She can't say anything to Sacha."

Tony held his hands up. He wasn't fighting. "Okay," he said calmly.

"I mean it, man," John said, and a look entered his eye that sent warning signals racing through every nerve ending in Tony's body. This guy could explode at any second. Tony had seen that look too many times throughout his career. He knew what it meant.

He nodded slowly and made his best effort to look and sound trustworthy. "I got it," he assured John.

John sized him up for a moment, then pulled back and nodded. The tension drained out of him, and he turned around like he'd be calm all along. "Great," he said. "Let's get to this coaster. Tom, man, you're gonna love it."

Tony nodded as he brought up the rear. "Can't wait," he said. Just like he couldn't wait to tell Ziva all about what had just happened.

Down at the zip line, Ziva was getting her own earful courtesy of Julie.

"Did you see that?" Julie fumed. "They just left! Like we're not even here."

"We're not here, Julie," Sacha said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Not until we're needed. Remember?"

Julie stomped up the steps to the road and threw her arm out in frustration. "God! I could strangle him."

"Don't be silly," Sacha told her. "His neck is way too big for that. Your best bet is poison."

"It'd sure be easy to slip something in his drink," Julie muttered, and threw a look at Sacha. She started to smile but then seemed to remember that Ziva was there. Listening to and documenting every single word. Her smile got tighter. "I'm sorry, Zara. You don't need to hear all this."

Ziva put a comforting hand on her shoulder as they crossed the road and headed for the jungle track their partners had used minutes ago. "Do not apologize. It is healthy to vent our frustrations, yes? It is no good to try to ignore them."

Julie gave her what appeared to be a sincere smile of thanks, and Ziva caught her eyes watering. "I'm just so tired, you know?" she said. "Tired of trying to hold it all together."

"You and me both, hon," Sacha said, and slung her arm around her friend's shoulders to give her a squeeze. "Hang in there a little while longer, and then we can take off to Europe and enjoy retirement in French vineyards."

Julie laughed. "Sounds amazing."

"You've always got me," Sacha told her.

The women paused to hug each other.

"You've always got me, too," Julie told her.

Despite herself, Ziva smiled. Sure, they were potentially murdering drug dealers. But it was nice that they could rely on each other.

They started walking again, climbing the hill up to the jungle coaster. Julie nudged Sacha.

"You know what we need? I little bit of fun."

Sacha shook her head, but chuckled. "You want a divorce, that'd be the way to get one."

Ziva assumed the women were talking about having some fun with some other men, but was left a little confused when Julie glanced over her shoulder at her and asked, "What do you say, Zara? Are you up for some fun?"

"Of course," she replied. "What sort of fun are you talking about?"

Julie and Sacha shared a look, and then stopped and turned to her. While Sacha crossed her arms, Julie leaned in.

"How long has it been since you really partied?"

Ziva felt her eyebrows rise. "You mean…fall down drunk partied?" She paused and lowered her voice, and hoped she was on the right track. "Or partied with other substances?"

Julies smiled and let out a breath, as if she was relieved that Ziva had caught on. "Exactly," she said.

Ziva shrugged and looked between them with what she hoped was a guilty-but-not expression. "It's been years. But…I had a lot of fun with certain substances in college. And in my 20s." She grimaced, but then smiled.

"No judgment," Zara, Julie said with a wink.

"Okay, good," Ziva said with relief. "Because it was a lot of fun."

"It sure was," Sacha said, almost wistfully.

Ziva leaned in a bit more and tried to look excited by the idea. "Are you saying we should get something?" she asked.

"You're on a cruise," Julie told her. "Break some rules and have some fun." She stopped and cocked her head to the side. "Tom's not going to have a problem with it, is he?"

Ziva thought that in this case, 'Tom' would be extremely encouraging of her getting some hands on some illicit substances. She waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, God no. He had a lot of fun back in college."

Julie nodded and then turned to start walking again. But Ziva reached out to touch her arm. She needed more information on this.

"Wait, how would you even get something like that out here?" she asked.

Julie and Sacha shared another look, and Ziva thought they were probably trying to decide whether to trust her. She made her face as innocent as possible.

"We should be able to get some stuff, if you're serious," Sacha said.

"What kind of stuff?"

Julie tapped her nose with her finger. "Just a little powder for your nose. Enough to put you in a good mood."

"Enough to put you in a good mood," Sacha said to Julie.

Julie shrugged. "I hope so."

They started walking again.

"So, tonight?" Ziva pushed.

"Not tonight," Julie told her with a shake of her head. "But soon. Give me a day or two. I'll set you up."

Ziva nodded and followed them up the path with a small smile on her face. The offer of drugs from two suspected drug dealers? The case was beginning to look a lot stronger.

…

The first thing Tony wanted to do when they returned to their cabin was strip Ziva naked and resume his oral investigation of her body that he had commenced the night before. And it seemed to him that Ziva would be up for it. As soon as the cabin door closed he wrapped his arms around her from behind and started kissing her neck. Her skin heated under his lips as she gasped and gripped his arms, and Tony felt the blood in his body heat and head south. He resisted the urge to pick her up and carry her to the bedroom, as he thought that would probably end with some kind of pain for him, but he started nudging her that way with his body. Ziva chuckled, but shook her head.

"Wait," she said on a sigh. "We have to get in touch with McGee first. Then we can have some downtime."

Tony growled into her neck. He understood but cursed her plan. "McGee, huh?" he said, and somehow managed to unwrap his arms from around her, "That's a cold shower."

Ziva chuckled and crossed to the safe to retrieve the laptop. "I am sure he would appreciate hearing that." She sat on the couch and booted up the machine, and Tony took a detour to the mini bar to grab a cold bottle of water. He sat beside her as Ziva called McGee up on Skype and offered her the bottle. She shook her head, and then rolled her shoulders and neck. He'd always found it incredibly sexy when she did that. Did she have any idea?

"Oh, God, don't do that right now," he pleaded with her.

Ziva turned a sultry gaze on him that he couldn't help but think was an unfair tease, and his eyes fell to her mouth. Did they really have to talk to McGee first? He was still going to be at work in an hour or two.

"You guys know I'm here, right?" McGee suddenly cut in, making them jump and snap their heads around to the laptop. McGee looked appalled. "I mean, you called me."

"McGoo," Tony greeted quickly, abandoning his idea to ditch the check-in. "How are things?"

"What do you want?" McGee asked.

"Got some more information for you," Tony said, getting his head in the game.

McGee looked off screen in the vicinity of Ziva's desk and beckoned to someone with his middle and index fingers. A few moments later Borin bent over to look at the screen. She smiled.

"Hey! Our little traveler friends!" she greeted. "Hang on." She disappeared for a moment and then reappeared, rolling an office chair with her. Tony recognized it straight away.

"That my chair?" he asked.

Borin sat down and leaned back, comfortably at home. "I've moved in, DiNozzo. Touched all your stuff, too. Went through your desk." She paused and grinned. "You look great in a bikini, David."

Tony pointedly ignored the look he knew Ziva had to be giving him right now and scowled at Borin. "There's this thing called respect. You might've heard about it from Aretha Franklin—"

"Okay, can we just talk about this couple, Rodney and Nadine, in Dominican Republic for a second?" McGee cut in. "There's stuff I need to be doing instead of listening to you bitch."

Tony raised an eyebrow at the unusual outburst and looked at Ziva. Ziva raised an eyebrow back at him. He opened his mouth to return serve, but Ziva put a hand on his knee.

"Later," she said to him, then addressed McGee and Borin. "What have you found?"

"Keeping in mind that it's difficult to find out information about people who fly under the radar in foreign countries," McGee began, "it looks like they also have a lot of money and assets for people who don't really have high paying jobs."

"Yeah, tax records show that they both made a bomb when they were in the US," Borin took over. "And they bought an estate in Connecticut that they still own. We're talking horses, pools, tennis courts. Rodney's family members are living there now. It's still mortgaged, and payments are being made on it from the couple's joint account in the US."

"And where is the money going into that joint account coming from?" Ziva asked.

"Dominican Republic," McGee said. "We don't have details on the account yet, and we're unlikely to get them."

"What about their life in Samaná?" Tony asked.

"That's been harder to track down," Borin said. "Like McGee said, they're flying under the radar. I found a contact in the area, and he knew the property but hadn't heard anything about them. He reckons that if they're millionaires, they've kept their status a secret."

"Or they're using their millions to provide incentive to people to keep the secret," Ziva said. "Were you able to find any communication between them and any of our suspects on Facebook?"

Borin and McGee shook their heads.

"The Prestons aren't on it, or their privacy settings don't let us see them," McGee said. "But that guy with the boat in Florida, Oscar McCarthy? He posted on John Paulson's wall again overnight saying see you in a few."

Tony and Ziva looked at each other. He was pretty certain she was thinking what he was thinking.

"That guy was in Key West, wasn't he?"

"Yep."

"We dock there in a few days."

Borin nodded. "Yeah. So you two need to do your investigating thing, and as soon as you know for sure what's going on you need to get in touch so we can get down there in time for whatever they're planning."

"Oh, you're going to join us on our vacay?" Tony asked.

"Arrests first, DiNozzo," Borin said. "Then we'll talk about zip lines and cocktails."

Tony held up his index finger. "I will have you know that neither of us has touched a drop of booze on this trip. And it's killing me." He didn't need to look at Ziva to know she was rolling her eyes.

"You have managed to touch every part of the buffet, though," she said.

He smiled and patted his stomach. "It's fine. I'm keeping active and working it all off."

Ziva smirked at him, but the comment went over their colleagues' heads, as he assumed it would.

"Just floating in a pool doesn't burn that many calories, Tony," McGee said.

Tony responded with an over the top fake laugh. "Oh, Tim! You and your highbrow mockery."

Borin shook her head at the display. "Ziva, you sure you don't want to come over and work with me at the Coast Guard?"

"I am considering it," Ziva muttered.

Tony turned his head to glare at her. "Traitor," he accused.

Ziva shook her head at him innocently, then returned to business. "Do you have a location for the Prestons' property? We dock in Samaná tomorrow."

McGee nodded. "Yeah, I'll email it to you."

Ziva looked at Tony. "We will need to work out how to get there. Perhaps hire a car."

Tony nodded, but it was a plan they'd need to discuss in further detail tonight.

"The reason we called, is I made a little headway today," Ziva told the others. "I had a vague conversation with Julie and Sacha about wanting to party like Zara did in her younger, wilder days, and Julie suggested that she could get her hands on something to help us with that."

"Something like what?" Borin asked.

"I assume drugs, but the word was not said," Ziva told them. "She was being careful. She said she may be able to get something for me in the next few days."

"Can you get her to be more explicit?" Borin asked.

"I am trying," Ziva told her.

Borin nodded. "Okay. Anything else?"

"John Paulson's a psycho," Tony declared. "I had a conversation with him and Martin today where John made it clear he thinks his wife is sleeping with Herschelle from the ship. He grabbed on to my arm while he was talking about it, begging me to get Ziva to spy on them for him without letting Sacha know. The look in his eyes was crazy. Violent. Every cop nerve in my cop body was at attention." He mimed a salute.

"You did not tell me he grabbed you," Ziva said.

Tony nodded vaguely at her, dismissing her concern. "I wasn't sure before because they're pretty gregarious people for drug dealers. But I'm positive that guy could kill someone if they crossed him." He paused. "Also, Martin is fully aware that his marriage is about to end, but he's not sure if he cares."

Ziva blinked at him. "Okay. But going back to the part where John grabbed you and looked violent—"

"We're fine for now," he said, sure he was right. "We haven't pissed them off yet. We're small potatoes."

Ziva stared at him without comprehension. "We are what?"

"We're of no concern to them," he explained.

She looked skeptical. "You just made that up."

He couldn't help smiling as he shook his head. "I'd never mess with you like that."

Ziva made a 'pfft' noise. "And you always make fun of my English," she grumbled.

"I do not always make fun of your English," he argued. "I helpfully correct it when you make a mistake or don't understand."

She glared at him without any real malice. "I speak nine languages, you know," she pointed out.

"You speak eight," he countered. "The language of love is not an official, recognized language."

He shouldn't have baited her. Ziva looked him up and down knowingly and hummed.

"We're still here," McGee said loudly.

Tony cleared his throat and returned to the professional conversation. "Right. Where's el hefe?" he wanted to know.

Borin and McGee looked at each other, shrugged, and then looked back to Tony and Ziva.

"Best not to ask," McGee said. "We better let you get back to your buffets and lounging."

Tony narrowed his eyes in irritation. If the guy was better at thinking on his feet, maybe he'd get some more undercover assignments in the future. But until he worked on his stunned bunny nerves when talking his way through a lie, that wouldn't happen. And that wasn't Tony or Ziva's fault.

"We'll send photos!" Tony promised.

"Can't wait," Borin drawled, and then got up and walked away.

McGee remained, and looked at them with suspicion. "You seem very happy," he said accusingly.

"We've had the greatest day, Timmy," Tony returned, overdoing it for effect. "We rode a zip line, and then we did this little roller coaster thing through the tree tops and I went so fast!"

McGee rolled his eyes and shut off the connection. Tony smiled to himself and closed the laptop before turning to Ziva. He was more than happy to put McGee out of his mind for the rest of the day

"Are you proud of yourself?" Ziva asked him.

"Very," he assured her. He stood up and pulled her with him. Time to get back to other more enjoyable activities. "Now. Come here," he beckoned. "There's a spot on your neck that I found last night that I think almost made you cry. I want to find it again."