Rule 12

A girly chat

A girly chat.

Ziva’s POV

Well, that was unusual. I thought as I walked slowly into Abby’s lab. Although I was deep in thought I couldn’t fail to notice the strange look my back was getting as I exited the elevator. Yes, I often get things wrong but I’m sure there was something different about Tony today. He seemed a bit nicer almost and more mature too. Perhaps he is finally growing up. I couldn’t help but see his face everytime I closed my eyes. He intrigued me in some way. And I definitely couldn’t get him out of my head. That hadn’t been possible for a long time.

“Ziva, Ziva, Ziva!” came an excited voice which jerked me right out of my thoughts. It was Abby launching herself at me with her trademark Caf-Pow in her hands. I had never quite understood her addiction to this drink. I stopped thinking about the elevator encounter long enough to smile back weakly at her.

“Hey Abby,” was my reply.

“Have you brought me my evidence?”

“Not today Abby, we are not working on a case at the moment. Though there will probably be one when I go back to the crew room.”

“I thought it was a bit early on a Monday morning to already have a case and evidence. Why are you here then?”

“I just thought that we could talk to each other. I do not think we have spoken for quite a long time.”

“Oh, you want to catch up. Sure thing.”

Catch up? That was another American phrase that I had not yet understood. Not that I was going to say I didn’t understand of course. It was not as if I wanted it to get back to Tony that I was still getting English confused. Maybe he should try speaking 10 languages instead of fooling around and constantly teasing McGee. That was another strange thing. Since when did Tony call McGee McGee? Something was definitely wrong with him; he was definitely not behaving as his normal self. Oh how I would love to be able to look into his mind for just a day, and I had many reasons for wanting to do that.

Coming slowly out of my thoughts I realised that Abby was still standing, looking at me expectantly. I opened my mouth to tell her that I would talk to her later but before I could form the words in my mouth she spoke.

“I know what this is about,” she said with a knowing look on her face.

Choosing my words carefully I replied, “What is this about?” I was panicking slightly inside but not enough to show.

“You want to talk to me about men.”

“No. I just wanted to talk. What did you call it? A catch up?” I spoke slowly, enunciating my words in order to hide what I was thinking about inside. She couldn’t know. Could she? I thought that no-one could tell. I’ve always been good at hiding my emotions. It comes from my Mossad training.

“Ooh oh oh! Did you know that McGee needs my help for something?”

“What for this time? He is always needing your help.”

“This time it is a bit of a weird request. Apparently Tony asked him for help.” Could this day get any weirder?

“He did what?”

“That’s what I thought. Apparently he needs help to get past one of Gibbs’ rules.”

“Is that even possible?” I had always thought that Gibbs’ rules were a lot like the man himself; impossible to get anything past. What on earth could possess Tony to try to get past one of them?

“You haven’t even heard the best of it yet. Guess which rule,” I hate it when she does that. There is no way that I could guess.

“I do not know. Rule 34?”

“Nope. Rule 12.” Yes, today could get weirder.

“Is that not the...”

“...Never date a co-worker rule. Yes it is.”

“Who does he want to date?”

“I don’t know. Tim wouldn’t tell me. He said that Tony would crucify him if he ever found out.”

That was it. I had to find out what was going on with Tony and why he was being so secretive. Although I should probably try not to talk to him that much anymore if he is trying to get past rule 12. It means that he has found somebody else, and that somebody was not going to be me. Why would it? But I was happy for him and I hoped that he would be serious with this girl just like he had been with Jeanne and not just sleep with her and dump her. But I needed not to talk to him for a while. I needed to give myself time to get over him and that is a hard thing to do when I spend every day around him and when I am not around him he is still in my thoughts.

Abby spoke dragging my thoughts back to the present, “Are you alright Ziva? You look a bit pale. Do you want to sit down? Or go see Ducky?”

“No, no. I am fine. You just shocked me a bit. That is all.” I hope she does not work out why I look so pale.

“So, who do you think it is?”

“I do not know. It could be anyone. Or it could be no one. What do you think?”

“It could be no one? What do you mean by that?”

“Well, could Tony not be making a joke? He could be trying to get us interested and make us think that he is after a girl when he is not.”

“I think he’s being serious this time. Tim said he was behaving very strangely. I think it’s cute that he likes someone. I bet it is you!” Please don’t say that Abby. I do not want to get my hopes up.

“It could hardly be me. We are work partners. And we are also at each other’s necks a lot of the time.”

“Throats, you’re at each other’s throats. I think it would be sweet if it was you two. You would make a good couple. But I think this time it could be serious, he really wants to make this work as a relationship.”

“I do not think so. What is it you say? A leopard never changes his stripes?”

“Close enough. It’s spots. And I think that this time maybe he has. Do you like him back?”

“We are partners Abby. Nothing else.” Please be quiet Abby. I do not want to think about this. I was slowly turning to go at this point. Abby was making this conversation far too much about me rather than about her. I did not want to talk about the ins and outs of my life, especially my life if it involved Tony.

“That did not answer my question!” She was being really persistent. Instead of answering I pretended I hadn’t heard and carried on walking to the elevator, passing Gibbs as I did so.

Smack.

 That was his hand colliding with my head. I had no idea what I had done this time but I just kept walking. I knew better than to ask him. In any case, he answered my unspoken question.

“Answer Abby when she asks you a question.”

“Yes boss,” was my reply whilst I was rubbing the back of my head wincing. That was a hard one. Suddenly Abby piped up from in front of her computer.

“It’s okay Gibbs; her lack of answer actually answered my question.” Did it? Damn. I had hoped I was not being that obvious but apparently I was.

“David. Crew room. I’ll be up there in a minute.” We have a case already? It better be a good one.

“Yes boss.”

Silently I stepped into the elevator and rode it back up to the crew room. I couldn’t help but let my mind dwell on what I had just spoken about with Abby. I was really interested in finding out who it was that Tony liked. As the elevator reached my floor I stepped out wanting to interrogate him as soon as possible. As I was not looking where I was going I nearly walked into several desks on the way to mine. Remembering the time I had fallen off of my chair I paid more attention to my surroundings so that it did not happen again. Sitting down I rubbed my head again. The slap had really hurt. Looking up I saw that Tony had noticed my discomfort and was smiling at it. I gave him my best glare and turned my attention to where I knew Gibbs was soon to appear.

I had better get to the bottom of this.