DISCLAIMER: These characters belong to DPB, CBS, Paramount, et al. No copyright infringement is intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to abby_forever for beta'ing this for me. She's the best.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Teasing It Out
By Jaina
Teasing a trained killer wasn't for the faint-hearted - but Abby Sciuto liked to live dangerously. It certainly explained the small glob of snow tucked inside her mittened palm. She could feel the cold moisture soaking into her skin through the material and she picked up her pace just a little. As much as she reasonably could while at work. She was already getting strange glances.
Not that she wasn't used to strange glances - especially from her newer coworkers, but this was more so than usual. She suspected that the mischievous way that she was grinning and the way she was holding her hand were partly responsible, but this was going to be awesome.
Ziva and Tim were standing behind Tony's desk, looking at something on his computer. Judging by the laughter on their faces and the slight leer on Tony's it was nothing work related. Her guess was strengthened by Gibbs absence. She slipped behind McGee, tossing Tony a cheery grin as he looked over at her.
He immediately blanched, seeing the mischievous look on her face. He'd been on the opposite end of her sense of humor enough times to be wary. He leaned as far away from her as he could, sitting in his desk chair.
She winked at him and turned to Ziva, stepping closer until she was only separated from the Mossad agent by inches. Ziva's attention was still firmly focused on the computer screen. Abby took full advantage of her distraction, lifting her hand up behind Ziva and opening it inches away from the back of Ziva's neck.
The glob of snow slipped perfectly out of her hand, and fell down inside Ziva's hoody hitting the back of her bare neck perfectly and sliding down her back out of sight.
Ziva shrieked and jumped back, glaring first at Tony.
Instantly he held up both hands in a mute protestation of innocence. "Not me!" He added, at Ziva's expression of disbelief. "Where would I get snow from?"
Ziva froze, and slowly turned. Tim was already backing away, moving slowly so that Tony's desk was between him and Ziva. He had a moment's regret for leaving Abby to deal with Ziva by herself, but he dismissed it. The last thing that he wanted to be was caught between the two women. He would let Gibbs go where anyone but a tough Marine would fear to tread.
"You," Ziva said, fixing her attention on Abby. Abby simply stood, hands held behind her back, and gave Ziva her brightest smile.
Ziva's eyes narrowed. "You did this," Ziva elaborated with a grimace.
"Did what?" Abby asked with a cock of her head.
"Ha!" Ziva exclaimed as she stepped around behind Abby. Plucking at the mittens on Abby's hands, she looked up expectantly. "And if you did not put snow down my hoodie why are you wearing this?"
"My hands got cold," Abby said, looking at Ziva from under her eyelashes as she rubbed her hands together in a warming gesture.
Unfortunately it also allowed Ziva to see the large wet spot on the palm of one mitten. She caught Abby's hand and pulled it down so that she could examine it. She glanced from the incriminating evidence up to Abby's face.
The Goth woman simply smiled at her cheekily without a hint of fear.
Ziva opened her mouth to say something and hesitated, her attention caught by something behind her. Abby risked a glance in that direction and saw Gibbs walking towards them. She turned back to smile sweetly at Ziva.
"I will get you for this," Ziva promised in a low voice that made Abby shiver as she walked past her and settled at her desk.
Tony laughed. "Careful, Abs, I think our favorite Mossad assassin might be looking for payback."
Abby grinned. "I can handle it."
Tony smirked, as Abby turned to greet Gibbs.
"Oh, I'm sure you can, Abs," he said to no one as he folded his arms behind his head and leaned back in his chair. "I'm sure you can."
"I've been hearing some rumors about your team, Jethro."
"Oh?" He leaned back in the chair in front of her desk. Office gossip wasn't something that he paid attention to.
"Mmmm," Jenny agreed from opposite him. "I actually had an agent come and protest to me because he was required to go down to Abby's lab."
Gibbs sat up straight, losing his casual attitude. "Who?" The question was spoken with a low growl.
Jenny held up a hand. His protectiveness towards the forensic scientist wasn't unexpected.
"It's not about Abby. Actually they're more worried about Ziva."
It was official. Gibbs was confused. He wasn't sure what Abby's lab had to do with Ziva. Seeing his expression, Jenny relented.
"It seems that Abby played a bit of a prank on Ziva this morning and she's threatening retaliation."
Gibbs snorted. The antics of his team no longer surprised him. They wouldn't be his team if they didn't occasionally act like a bunch of overgrown children. He didn't have to tell them that however.
"They'll sort it out." He commented dryly.
Jenny hid a smirk.
"See that they do it without totally destroying my agency, or disrupting the lives of their fellow agents too much please?"
He nodded.
Abby's eyes sparkled as she saw Gibbs and the rest of the team enter her lab. She saved an especially bright smile for Ziva as walked in last.
By the way that Ziva's eyes narrowed, Abby could tell that she hadn't forgotten the incident of the previous morning. Feeling particularly daring, she addressed most of what she had to say about the evidence to Ziva alone, focusing on her as she spoke, and staring directly into her eyes. She only looked over at Gibbs when she wanted to stress a particular point.
Ziva folded her arms over her chest and listened stoically. Her brown eyes glittered with suppressed emotion that sent adrenaline pumping through Abby.
As they finished, Gibbs brushed past Abby on his way out.
"Careful, Abs," He muttered under his breath. "Don't push too far."
Abby nodded, but her attention was focused on Ziva as she walked away. "I know what I'm doing."
Gibbs didn't comment as he walked away.
Abby showed up next to Tony's desk a few minutes before it was time to leave.
"Walk me to my car?" She asked with a smile.
He eyed her warily. "I know of your evil plots, Sciuto. I'm not sure if I'm safe with you."
She laughed, and bent over until she could whisper in his ear. "Of course you're safe from me, Tony. But," She added, "I'm not sure you'd mind if you weren't."
He let out a short laugh. "You may be right about that." He stood up and offered her his arm.
"A walk to your car, Ms. Sciuto?"
"Why thank you, sir." She smiled as she slipped her arm through his.
They stepped into the elevator with Tim and stood at the back leaning against the wall. Abby rolled her head over to look at Tony.
As casually as she could, she asked, "Have you seen Ziva?"
"Tch-tch." Tony waved a finger at her. "I'm not getting involved in this one, Abby. You ladies will have to work this one out for yourselves."
She folded her arms over her chest in response. "Fine." Her pout wasn't quite convincing.
He retaliated with a light jab in her ribs with his elbow. Startled she shot him a look.
"Though I am betting on you on this one, Abs."
"And how much is the betting pool at?"
"It's impressive. Even if Probie didn't want a piece of the action."
"Aw. He's not betting on me?"
"Not betting on anyone, our Probie. He can't decide whether he'd rather piss off you or Ziva."
"So he decided on both of us?"
Tony laughed. He hadn't thought of it that way and he doubted that McGee had either. "Apparently."
She slipped her arms through his again as they walked out into the parking lot.
Something cold hit Abby in the back of the head and she stumbled forwards.
"Hey!"
She saw the second snowball splatter against her dark jacket and crumble to the ground.
Immediately, she dropped Tony's arm, and scooped up a handful of the slightly dirty snow. A wild glance around the parking lot and two more direct snowball strikes later, Abby found Ziva.
Her first snowball fell short, splattering into nothingness on the ground at Ziva's feet. Tony dove out of the way of incoming snowballs, ducking behind cars and heading towards his own, leaving Abby to fend for herself.
Ziva's supply of snowballs seemed to be limitless as she dodged behind cars. Abby was laughing as she ducked and tried to scrabble together enough snow to throw at Ziva.
"I'm going to get you for this, David!"
Abby was laughing so hard she could barely gasp for breath.
"I believe you already did," Ziva taunted appearing behind her. A snowball was held loosely at her side. "Do you yield?"
Abby considered for a moment. "No."
Abby was already ducking as Ziva tossed the snowball in her hand. Ziva didn't wait for Abby to find more ammunition however. She tackled Abby and they half-stumbled, half-fell to the ground, laughing as they hit the snow.
Ziva scrabbled to hold Abby down as she tried to squirm away, her hand falling to Ziva's shoulder.
"Do you yield," Ziva repeated, looking into Abby's eyes.
Abby shook her head, not bothering to hide her mirth. She winced and tried to jerk away as she felt something cold slide down the back of her shirt and trickle down her spine.
"You're evil, Ziva David."
"Ha!" Ziva laughed. "That is what you love about me."
Abby grinned. "Don't I know it," she drawled as she slipped both arms around Ziva's neck. "It's cold down here," she said with a frown a moment later.
Ziva leaned closer to capture her lips and pull her into a searing kiss.
"I am sure we could think of something to do to stay warm," Ziva suggested a moment later as they parted.
"You have the best ideas," Abby agreed as they rose, tugging her impatiently towards the warmer, more interesting activities that she had in mind.
The End