"I hate this weather," Tony grumbled, shivering.
It wasn't raining, that would be annoying but could at least be kept at bay with a coat and an umbrella, and although it was freezing, it wasn't snowing either. Which wouldn't be great but at least it looked pretty and Tony always found himself briefly feeling wonder every time it started to snow. No. The weather was doing neither of those things. Neither of those acceptable winter things. It had just finished sleeting. Sleeting. That horrible, icy rain that penetrated your bones and made you feel like you were never going to warm up again. And it made you feel constantly damp and it always soaked his socks. Like now because a car decided to spray up the slush at the side of the road, completely covering him from the shin down in it. It was a horrible feeling. Tony was pretty sure his toes were going to get frostbite.
"I concur," said Ziva, her glaring eyes the only thing you could see between her hat and scarf.
Tony didn't even want to know how Ziva felt if he felt freezing. Their little, desert ninja probably felt a hundred times worse. She despised any sort of weather that even hinted at being cold. This was beyond hinting. This was a cold smack in the face and ice poured down your back sort of cold.
Of course, they had got pulled out on a case on what was turning out to be the coldest and most horrible day of the year. And on the weekend of course. He and Ziva were going to do a redo of yesterday's cookies too. This was definitely not an improvement on that plan.
"There's got to be a way of keeping warm." He grumbled, casting a longing look back at the car.
The lovely, heated car. Which would probably have lost all of its heat by the time they got back to it. Which sucked. And probably meant that they were going to freeze before they made it back to their hotel.
Neither of them in the mood to talk much, they kept walking. The faster they got there the better. And the quicker they could thaw out.
The two agents then stopped and stared in amazement at what was in front of them. Now this had to be a mirage, didn't it? Wishful thinking. They were cold so of course they would imagine something like this.
"Well, that's one way to keep warm." He felt like he had to comment.
Flames of a bonfire leapt high in the air. It reflected weirdly off the slush and ice on the ground, all distorted and warm looking. It was kind of nice.
"Ziva?" He asked, looking behind him when she didn't reply.
Except she wasn't there. Ninja. A brief frisson of panic shot through him until he saw her. She had darted past him and was making a beeline for the bonfire. Not that he could blame her. In fact, he was going to go follow her. Partners had to have each other's backs, didn't they?
The eventually made their way back to the hotel room they had been provided with for the weekend. It was pretty nice, probably to make up for yanking them out on the weekend on their only weekend off in a long time. Tony wasn't complaining, he didn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Either if you two want to tell me why you're late at checking in?" Gibbs demanded as soon as he answered their video call to update him.
"We were at a fire," Ziva said dismissively, slowly peeling off all the layers she had on her.
Tony was doing the same, just wanting to get out of these damp clothes. Well, most of them. He couldn't very well take his pants off on a video call to Gibbs. He wasn't giving anyone a strip tease if he could help it. He was too cold, having been right about the car not holding any of its warmth by the time they had gathered all of the evidence they could. Granted, they deliberately lingered around the bonfire. It was just too good to pass up.
Speaking of fire...
"Fire?" Gibbs spluttered out.
"You two were invited in a fire?" McGee asked worriedly, his head appearing in the screen, the brains behind Gibbs being able to use his video calls.
"Bonfire!" Tony corrected hurriedly. "There was a bonfire outside that was blocking the street."
"I said that!" Ziva protested; voice muffled by the sweater she was pulling over her head.
"No, you said fire. That's a very different thing."
"But a bonfire is a fire."
"It really isn't. Well, I guess it is but not a normal type of fire, you know? "
The blank look she was giving him implied that she did not know.
"Oh, you mean that it is not a fire that hurts people," she said dismissively after a moment's thought.
"Exactly!"
"Then surely fires like bonfires and ones that you would use at home are the normal fires," she argued. "Because they are actually useful."
He paused, not really having an answer for that. Technically she had a point. How did they even get onto this point anyway?
Gibbs coughed pointedly making them snap to attention. Oh, yes, work. They had work to do. Things to report back on.
"We didn't manage to completely clear the area," Tony admitted reluctantly. "Local LEOs hadn't realised where some of the evidence ended up and let the bonfire go ahead, lots of people walking through it."
"The sleet did not help either," Ziva added with a distasteful shiver.
"That too," Tony agreed. "But we managed to get something. It just took a bit longer," mainly because they were reluctant to give up the heat the bonfire gave out but they didn't need to share that with Gibbs. "The local precinct should be sending everything over to Abby as we speak."