Rain ran down the outside of the NCIS building as McGee pulled into the parking lot. Why had Gibbs called in the middle of the night? If there was a new case, couldn't it wait until morning? McGee turned off his car and got out into the rain, his new coat now ruined. He strode up to the building and ran straight into the doors. They didn't budge. ‘What the hell?' McGee thought, and then remembered they were pull doors. ‘Damn it, every time.' The new doors had confused everyone since they'd been put in, and had resulted in several broken noses and black eyes. McGee had had neither yet, but it was only a matter of time. He pulled the doors open and rushed inside, shaking himself dry. Bill, the night man, was there and asked for I.D.

"Almost got you that time. You should be careful with those doors. You have no idea how many collisions I see every day." He laughed and looked at McGee's I.D. "That's fine. You just missed Officer David. "She's upstairs repairing the damage." McGee looked confused and sensing his bewilderment, Bill continued. "She had a fight with the doors, too. She was running to get out of the rain just like you, and smashed head on into the glass." Bill was laughing at this and McGee thought it was best to laugh along. He retrieved hid ID, walked over to the elevator, and got in.

"I hope Ziva's all right," McGee said to himself. He'd recently seen a side to Ziva that he thought he'd never see, ever since the explosion last month, when Ziva had pushed him aside and jumped on top of him, shielding him from the blast. McGee thought he'd seen something in her eyes when she was lying on top of him. Just a glimmer of something, but maybe he was wrong. The doors to the elevator opened and he stared out onto the floor. It was dark and there was no one about apart from Ziva at her desk. Her head was tilted backwards and as he walked towards her, he could see that her eyes were closed. She had one hand up against her nose and there was a dribble of blood on her top. He walked silently over to her desk and rested his hand on the front of it.

SLAM. Quick as a bullet, her hand had come smashing down and grabbed McGee's wrist. She raised it and twisted it in such a way that McGee had to spin round and was stuck beside her desk, his arm pushed halfway up his back. "Zi..Ziva! It's me, McGee!" Ziva immediately let go of his arm and rushed round the side of the desk to where McGee had crumpled on the floor.

"McGee! I'm so sorry . . . I didn't know."

"Its alright," McGee said, massaging his wrist. "I'm only grateful you didn't kill me." He smiled.
"I could have, you know," Ziva replied, smiling back.

"I know. That's what scares me." Ziva helped McGee to his feet and walked him over to his desk.
‘It's funny,' she thought. Over the past month, she'd seen a different side to McGee. Not the wimpy kid side that she was used to, but a gentle, compassionate side. ‘A side,' she thought, ‘that I could care about.' McGee winced as he sat down in his chair.

"Oh, come on, McGee, it isn't that bad." Ziva smiled

"Maybe not for a Mossad agent, but for us lower mortals, it's pretty painful."

"Aww, let me help," she said and walked behind him. McGee tensed, ready for more pain. Ziva laughed. "I'm not going to hurt you." She placed her hands on the back of his neck and played with his muscles. He immediately relaxed, and she felt his body loosen at the touch of her hands. She smiled. ‘Men are so weak,' she thought.

McGee couldn't even feel his wrist anymore, whereas two minutes ago, all he could think about was the searing pain he had felt. At that moment, the doors to the elevator opened and Gibbs and Abby walked out. Abby's jaw dropped at the sight of Ziva massaging McGee. She hastily snapped it back up again and followed Gibbs into the bullpen. Ziva had already let go of McGee and was now sitting on the other side of the bullpen at her desk. McGee looked lost, like he'd been interrupted in the middle of sleeping. Gibbs sat down at his desk, and Abby perched on the front of Tony's.

"So, why are we here at this time in the morning?" McGee asked sleepily.

"To work on the case," Gibbs said, stating the obvious.

"Umm, at the risk of sounding stupid, what case?" McGee asked.

"The Underhill case," Abby replied.

"Abby is correct," Gibbs said, smiling at her. "As I was telling her on the way here, we still haven't cracked this case and it's been open for two weeks now. I want this case solved by lunch time. That's 1200 hours."
"Any particular reason?" Ziva asked and Gibbs stared at her. "Because you want it to be? That's a good enough reason for me." She began looking through her desk for her notes. McGee followed suit. At that moment, they were interrupted by a crashing sound from the stairs. McGee and Ziva stood up to see what had happened and Abby ran over to where Tony was lying on the floor. He'd come tumbling out of the doors to the stairs and was now sprawled out on the floor. Abby knelt beside him.

"Tony? Are you all right?" Abby asked, worried.

"I'm fine," he said, embarrassed. "I was rushing because Gibbs said it was urgent and the elevator is out. I ran up those stairs and tripped as I came to the door. And well, you know the rest . . ."

"Tony, the elevator isn't out," Abby said slowly.

"But Bill said . . . I'm going to kill him. This is the third time this week he's pulled a prank on me"

"Well, it's your own fault for falling for it three times," Ziva said.

"Ha ha," Tony replied sarcastically. "Anyway, what was so urgent?" Abby helped him to his feet.

"Gibbs wants us to go over the Underhill case again."

"What? I thought someone had died!" Tony said, shocked.

"And someone will die if this case isn't solved by 1200 hours today," Gibbs said sharply. "It's two o'clock now, which leaves you all ten hours to do this. I want you in pairs going over every piece of information we've got."

Abby looked at McGee the moment Gibbs had said pairs and was expecting McGee to be looking straight back. Instead, she found him looking at Ziva and her looking straight back. Abby's blood boiled. ‘He's my McGeek, bitch,' she thought angrily.

"I'll go with Ziva," McGee said and Ziva nodded. McGee looked over to Abby and received a look of pure venom. He swallowed hard.

"That means you're with me, Abbs," Tony said, smiling, and Abby turned to look at him, her face free from any hatred.

"Okay then," she said cheerfully, "let's go down to my lab." Tony turned and headed for the stairs. "Er, Tony . . ."

"Oh, right," he replied and changed his path so that he was now headed for the elevator. They both stepped inside and the doors closed. McGee pulled his chair over to Ziva's desk and sat in front of it, ready to work. McGee smiled and Ziva just looked at him, but he could swear he saw just the faintest trace of a smile back. This just made McGee smile harder and Gibbs smacked him round the back of the head.

"9 hours and 57 minutes, McGee. Get working." Gibbs headed for the stairs up to MTAC and the director's office.

***

Down in the lab, Tony and Abby were looking through all the evidence again. All the items were laid out on the table.

"Okay," Abby said solidly. "We have . . . two glasses, both with her fingerprints on the outside, one containing just wine and the other wine and traces of poison, the poison container found in the garden shed with her fingerprints on the outside, plane tickets in the name of the wife and her lover from inside the wife's coat pocket, information from the company that sold the poison saying it was bought under the wife's name, by her credit card and packaged and sent to her address . . . Anything I've missed?"

"Nope, apart from the computer history that showed she'd been surfing the net and visiting sites to do with murdering husbands." Tony shuddered. "That's one reason I intend never to marry."

"What," Abby said dryly, "because they might murder you? You don't have to be married to a woman for her to kill you."

Tony looked sheepish. "This woman is completely stupid, though. She murdered her husband using poison she'd got in her name, with her credit card. She murdered him while she was there having dinner with him and she didn't even think to wear gloves while handling the poison and putting it in his wine!"

"Tony, all the evidence is circumstantial. You not looking objectively at it, you're getting swayed by you own pig-headish opinions on marriage."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am NOT."

"You are too and there's no way you are going to persuade me otherwise, so let's get going." Tony stuck his tongue out and she replied with the same gesture.

"What do you want me to do, Abbs?" he asked.

"I want you to look again at all the photos from the scene and see if we missed any evidence. I'm going to redo all my tests, even though I know there is no need because I do not make mistake . . ." she trailed off.

"I know you don't, Abbs, but what Gibbs wants, Gibbs gets . . ."

***

Ziva and McGee were watching the videos from the interview of the wife and the wife's lover on the big screen. They were both sitting around Ziva's desk with her behind it and him in front.

"The wife said that the husband left in the middle of dinner complaining of a headache, and didn't want to wake him up upon getting into bed with him later that evening," McGee said

"How can one person get into bed with a dead person and NOT realize that that person is dead?"

"I don't know, but we don't know anything about these guys," McGee was confronted with a look of disbelief from Ziva. "Anyway, both the wife and the lover admit to the relationship," McGee said.

"Yes, and if you ask me, that so called ‘lover' is using her. According to the staff where he works, he has a track record of stringing married women along and then dropping them when they leave their husbands. He thrives off the danger and the secrecy."

"He is a player," McGee replied.

"Would you ever do that to a woman?" Ziva asked. McGee turned to look at her and stared straight into her eyes.

"No, I believe that love is precious and playing around with it is wrong. Making people love you and then dumping them is worse than killing them. It breaks their soul along with their heart and I can't bear that." Ziva's expression softened and she smiled.

"That's actually quite sweet, McGee" Now they were on different sides of the desk, and Ziva had only just realised that he had his hand on top of hers. She'd let him in and left herself unaware of her surroundings. Damn it, she was weak. She quickly recoiled her hand, but her heart leapt to her mouth when she saw his hurt expression. He looked away, the pain registering in his eyes. To him, she'd just done what he'd just said he couldn't bear. Ziva leaned forwards slightly across the desk and McGee turned back round. He looked at Ziva and saw something in her that he had never seen before - vulnerability. She was putting herself out there.

He leaned forward, their lips only inches apart. He felt electricity run through his body. His stomach tightened.

CRASH.

They jumped apart and looked at the screen, where the noise had come from. It was the part of the video in where Ziva was interviewing the lover and had leapt from her chair, which in turn had gone crashing to the floor. They both laughed nervously and then continued to watch the tapes.

***

Gibbs entered Abby's lab and was surprised to see only Tony there.

"Where's Abby?" he asked.

"Oh, she's changing. Something about the clothes she was in were annoying her."

"Oh," Gibbs said slightly nervously. This wasn't like Abby, to abandon her work because ‘her clothes were annoying her.'

"She's finished all her tests again and they all came back with the same results. Remind me why we are doing this again?" Gibbs stared at Tony and Tony backed down, but Gibbs decided to answer.

"Because the woman says she didn't do any of this stuff and she didn't kill her husband."

"And we believe her?"

"I believe her, Tony."

Tony hesitated for bit then replied, "That's a good enough reason for me. If you say she didn't do it, then she didn't do it, Boss." For a second, Gibbs looked almost proud, but as soon as it had come, the emotion flickered back off his face. Tony didn't register it.

At that moment, the doors to Abby's office opened and Abby walked out. She was wearing a short black skirt revealing a wealth of long slender leg; a tight red jumper that scooped just low enough to reveal magnificent cleavage and a pair of patent black heels that added to the length of her legs, which didn't need that much lengthening. She had on all her usual jewelry, including the locket McGee had gotten her for Christmas. Her makeup was perfect, a fresh batch of shiny red lipstick smoothed across her lips. Perhaps the most shocking thing of all, her hair was down. The jet-black locks fell past her shoulders and perfectly framed her face. Abby smiled slightly.

"What - you never seen a girl in a skirt before?"

Both Tony and Gibbs were speechless. Tony broke it first. "Wow."

"Thanks," Abby said, beaming. "I got bored with what I was wearing."

"You can say that again," Tony said and looked her up and down. Gibbs smacked him on the back of the head.

"The case, Tony." Tony took a minute to comprehend what Gibbs had said, then his eyes widened and he turned back to studying the photos. Gibbs looked sideways at Abby and he, too, looked her up and down, Abby watching him as he did so. His eyes ran the length of her body and eventually returned to her face. He looked her in the eyes and smiled back. Abby let out a rush of air and smiled back. She felt like she'd just been under scrutiny but had come out winning first prize. "I hear all your tests came back the same, Abbs."

"They did. I knew they would." Gibbs smiled.

"So did I, but just covering all bases," Gibbs replied. "There's something we're missing."

"We'll find it, Gibbs, don't you worry." Abby smiled. Gibbs had no worries - he could always trust Abby. He smiled back and left the lab.

***

Timothy McGee's jaw dropped as he saw the girl walk out of the elevator. In slow motion her hair dark waved behind her and her long legs walked towards him. Her shimmering lips where smiling flirtatiously and her eyes where sparkling. McGee let out a gasp of air and then managed to close his mouth. He tried to speak but words failed him.

"Do I look alright McGee?" she said seductively.

"You…you look amazing," he said finally finding his words. Ziva was sat at her desk and watched this exchange with a look of pure envy. McGee would always be Abby's and she would always come second.

"I felt like changing my clothes," Abby said without taking her eyes off McGee

"You can say that again," Ziva said under her breath. Abby twirled round and McGee looked like he was standing at the window of a sweet shop. To Ziva's delight, they were all suddenly interrupted by Gibbs walking into the room.

"What have you all got for me?"

"umm…" McGee said coming out of his daydream, "The tapes showed nothing new."

"Not exactly true McGee," Ziva said "Now that I'm watching the tapes instead of doing the interrogating, I noticed something but I can't put my toe on it."

"Finger, Ziva,"

"What?"

"You can't put your finger on it."

"Well it all means the same McGee," she sniped "Anyway there was something…"

"Keep watching those tapes Ziva," Gibbs said "Tony you can help her now, Abby you can go home now." Abby looked upset at this. Leaving would mean leaving Ziva and McGee together; she pulled a face. Gibbs missed it and turned to walk away.

"What about me Boss?"

"Find something useful to do McGee,"

"Ok Boss," he said like a little boy who had asked a stupid question, and with that Gibbs left the floor.

***

Donald Mallard was leaning over an extremely burnt corpse when Gibbs entered the room. The M.E. immediately looked up at the sound of someone in the lab.

"Jethro my dear fellow,"

"Hello duck,"

"What brings you down here?"

"I want info on the Underhill case,"

"I thought that was closed?"

"Not yet Duck. There's something we're missing on this one,"

"Well as you can see this isn't the body, I'm helping one of my fellow M.E.s out. Gas explosion over on West Street sending the hotel up in flames; my friend was struggling to cope with the overflow of bodies and seeing as I wasn't doing anything here…I offered my services. It reminds me of this one time where an old lady left her gas oven on. The whole block…"

"Ducky. The Underhill case?"

"Oh, right you are Jethro," and he walked over to one of the body trays and pulled it out. Toxicology report showed ingestion of ?????rat poison???????? Of a lethal quantity. No other marks of any kind, and no other indicators of bad health"

"Was there anything that jumped out at you? No matter how small," Gibbs said. Ducky thought for a minute and then said

"Now that you come to mention something there was something rather odd but I couldn't put my finger on it."

"That's exactly how I feel. There is something there but we just can't see it,"

"I'll take another look at the body Jethro,"

"Thanks Duck, I can't help but think we are missing something."

***

Abby had left unwillingly to go home and McGee was sitting at his desk watching Tony and Ziva both sat in front of him; he envied their closeness. Earlier when Ziva had leant over the desk his heart had started racing; that had only ever happened with Abby before. He sighed to him self, ‘Abby.' That caused problems for him. For so long he had longed for Abby to feel for him what he felt for her, and now Ziva was there and he was confused. In lots of ways Ziva and Abby were similar. They were feisty woman, both of whom could look after themselves; as well as each of them being mysterious and exciting. McGee couldn't help being drawn to both of them. Earlier today though, when they were at the desk; McGee had been swayed by the vulnerability that Ziva had shown. She had put her self out there and he knew that that would have been hard for her to do. She had shown to him that she was willing to let him in and that was massive for McGee. Abby would always be in his heart, but they would never find the closeness that McGee saw coming with Ziva. Abby would always take his breath away but Ziva was the woman for him.

"I've got it!" Ziva shouted suddenly "Call Gibbs. I've worked out what it was that was bugging me,"

"What is it Ziva?" McGee said

"Wait till Gibbs gets here," she said mysteriously and smiled at McGee. McGee smiled back and for a moment they looked into each other's eyes. Tony's jaw dropped as he realised what he was seeing, but he quickly scooped it up again unnoticed. He grinned to himself stupidly ‘Ziva and McGee, sitting in a tree….'

***

Gibbs walked out onto the floor and was almost run down at by Ziva.

"I was just coming to see you, I worked out what it was," she waited for an answer

"Are you going to tell me?" Gibbs said

"She's left handed,"

"So?" Tony said, "That was your big piece of evidence,"

"Yeah, in the interview she wrote her statement with her left hand. I didn't think a lot of it at the time. So what if she was left handed? It didn't matter. But then I remembered the fingerprints on the outside of the glass and on the outside of the can of rat poison. There where positioned in a right handed formation."

"So she used her right hand. That doesn't make her innocent,"

"Even if she did, she can't hold the glass and the can both with her right hand can she?" Even Tony didn't have an answer for that.

"So you think she was set up then?" McGee said

"Yes, the question now is who by?" she replied

"I think I can answer that," Ducky said stepping off the elevator. "The man wasn't wearing his wedding ring,"

"Not all men wear wedding rings nowadays Ducky," Tony said "Maybe in your time..."

"I will have you know Tony that even at my age I am not completely stupid," Ducky retaliated "There were friction marks on his left ring finger that showed recent wearing of a ring. I didn't notice them at first but as the body has progressed they show up rather nicely now,"

"That also doesn't prove anything Ducky," Tony argued "He could have just taken it off,"

"Even still there had to be a reason for taking it off, I think he knew about the affair his wife was having," Ducky said

"Tony's right," said Gibbs surprising everyone "All of our evidence is circumstantial at this point, we need more."

"I'll bring you more," Abby said seemingly appearing to have sprung out of nowhere.

"I didn't you notice come in Abbs," Tony said. Abby just smiled mysteriously.

"I had a thought as I was on my way down. When I order stuff of the net, someone delivers it to my house,"

"And..." McGee said

"Someone brings it to my house"

"That's brilliant Abby," Ziva said. Abby beamed.

"I rung the delivery company and eventually got through to the guy who delivered it...to a man." Gibbs smiled.

"Good work Abbs," he said. Abby just kept smiling. "You deserve all the Caf-Pow's in the world,"

"Why didn't any of us think of that before? Its so obvious," Tony said "But good work Abbs well done."

"You can all go home now," Gibbs said and left for the elevator; Ducky followed. "Abbs?" Abby took a last longing look at McGee before following them as well. As the doors shut it was only Tony, Ziva and McGee left on the floor. They too all headed for the elevator. McGee and Ziva stepped in and looked at expecting Tony to follow, but instead they were confronted by a weird smile.

"I'm going to take the stairs today," he said smiling

"Realised you need the exercise Tony?" Ziva said scathingly but Tony knew she was joking. Even still it hurt and wiped the smile off his face.

"I wouldn't want to intrude on anything," he said hitting back. McGee flushed and Ziva stared at Tony.

"Well I don't think there's enough room for you in here anyway," she said looking him up and down. She smiled as she said it and Tony smiled back. Tony realised how strong Ziva's feelings were for McGee just through that one smile which said ‘Don't muck this up Tony, I'm serious about this.' Tony bowed out and waved as the doors closed on them. McGee and Ziva where left alone in the metal box that now looked a lot smaller than it usually did. McGee broke the silence,

"Tony didn't mean…" he was cut short by Ziva grabbing the front of his shirt and pushing him against the wall. Ziva looked in his eyes with a look that said ‘this is it McGee, I'm letting you in.' McGee stared back and put his hand to her cheek, brushing away the strand of hair that had fallen there. Ziva looked like a little child that had just told all of her secrets; McGee just wanted to scoop her up and hold her. His head leaned forwards and his lips touched hers. Ziva softened and fell into McGee, for once McGee was the one in control. He wrapped his arms around her supporting her, his body against hers. Their kiss was deep and passionate; nothing else mattered to them now. The doors to the elevator pinged open and floor full of people was revealed but Ziva and McGee didn't notice all the shocked faces. They had arrived on the ground floor at the main lobby; and in the distance far across the car park, a woman was sitting in her car, her mouth hung open. She had a look of pure shock, and a single tear had fallen down her face.

***

Ziva David was lying in bed thinking about Timothy McGee. It was odd how not so long ago there had been no attraction for her and now? Well she could hardly breath. He was sweet and kind: comforting. He was someone that Ziva could open up too, someone who wouldn't judge her. She needed that. After years with her father then the Mossad, she'd never just been allowed to be. No fighting or trying to better her self, just being herself. He let her do that free of restriction and to her that made him even more attractive. And it wasn't just that; the man was smart. Damn smart. She'd known that instantly when she'd met him so long ago, and it always amazed her just how smart. He would always know what to say, how to look at her, how to hold her. Plus the man had the added bonus of being hot! Not as oozing with sexuality or as obviously good-looking as Tony, but he was hot. She smiled to her self; a warm feeling spreading in her abdomen. That evening had been the best she'd ever had! He'd been surprisingly strong and domineering, making her feel safe and protected. She hated to admit it but he made her feel a way that no man had ever been able to do; doubted ever will be able to do. Though she didn't think that that would be a problem. Now that she had him; she was never letting him go.

Timothy McGee was lying in bed thinking about Ziva David. It had finally happened! That explosion where she'd jumped on top of him had been the beginning of something new, something beautiful and brilliant; the beginning of him and Ziva. He couldn't quite believe his luck; him and Ziva were now officially an item, and it had happened so fast. It occurred to him just how amazingly easy it had been. As soon as they both knew how each other felt, they had clicked and just like that, they were together. He loved that she was so feisty; always keeping him on his toes. She was a strong woman and he loved that but there were moments when he saw past that. She let him see who she was inside; and he felt the need to protect her. When those moments came, she seemed so small, like a little child lost in a crowd. Those were the moments when he loved her most. He smiled to himself as he repeated it to him self. ‘He loved her, he loved her, he loved her'. The words seemed to roll off his tongue with ease, confirming their meaning to him. He loved everything about her and everything that came with her. It didn't harm that she was also incredibly sexy. She had the best body he had ever seen! He had no doubt that she had more experience than him in that department, but earlier that night it had felt so easy. There bodies had come together like they'd meant to be that way a long time ago and it had definitely been the best he'd ever had. He felt at ease with her but she could always excite him and tighten his stomach. Just looking at her melted his heart and he had to tell himself not to muck this up; he was in this relationship for keeps.

McGee reached out across the bed and pulled Ziva into his arms, his arms surrounding her. She moaned in happiness and hugged him tightly.

"I love you" McGee whispered into her ear. Her eyes were closed but he saw her lips spread into a wide smile.

"I love you too McGee"

"You can call me Tim you know" McGee said

"You'll always be McGee to me" she said smiling further. She tightened her grip on McGee and said under her breath so McGee couldn't hear. "You'll always be my McGee"

Both of them slept in each others arms and the world slipped away. It was the best nights sleep that either of them had ever had.

***