Bodyguard
By cayliss
"I still don't see why I couldn't have stayed with McGee," Abby said as Ziva opened her apartment door.
"Because that worked out so well last time," the Israeli grouched, it had been a long day and was shaping up to be an even longer night, Abby had not stopped talking since they had left the Navy Yard. Crossing the room, she pulled the drapes closed before coming back, turning on the light and closing the door behind them both.
"It wasn't Tim's fault. He told me not to open the door, I wouldn't do it again," Abby said, putting her bag down and shrugging out of her coat.
"You would not get the chance. Christian Savard is not one of your psychotic ex-boyfriends Abby, he is a trained killer." Taking the coat that was being held out to her, Ziva opened a closet door and hung it up, before doing the same with her own.
"That isn't plural Ziva, I only had one." Ziva looked at her disbelievingly, "okay, okay, so I have bad taste in men... but to be fair, the only other person who's ever slashed my tires was a woman I..." she stopped, "too much information, shutting up now."
"Miracles do happen," the Israeli muttered into the silence. She flipped open her cell and dialed, "Gibbs... yes we are. Where's Tony?... so he is still inside the Embassy?... what do you mean he... yes... yes, I understand."
"Nice place," Abby said when Ziva had finished the call. Personally she thought it was a little minimalist for her taste, but still, she had been brought up to be polite.
"Thank you. Sit down and stay away from the windows... would you like coffee," she asked as an after thought. It was the first time any of her colleagues had been here and social niceties were the last thing on her mind.
"Umm, do you have beer?"
"No, but I think there is some wine."
"That would be good, thanks."
"My pleasure," the Israeli replied wondering if alcohol was such a good idea. Still, one glass couldn't hurt she thought, retreating to the kitchenette.
Abby sat on the couch and removed her boots, a taxing operation that took a few minutes. Placing them neatly at the side of her, she looked around. There wasn't much to look at, in fact she was beginning to think Ziva redefined minimalism "Where's the T.V.?" she called.
"I don't have one."
"Stereo?"
"Ipod... it's in my desk at work."
"Oh... computer?"
"There is a macbook in the top drawer of the sideboard," she replied, not offering to let Abby use it.
Abby shifted in her seat, wondering what the Israeli did in her free time, then thinking she probably didn't want to know. "So... how 'bout them Yankees?" she said, when the silence got too much.
"What?" Ziva called puzzled.
"Nothing... just making conversation."
"You don't have to you know, you could just stay quiet," Gibbs had told her they couldn't verify that Savard was still in the embassy and that made her edgy.
"I'm in the lab, on my own, all day Ziva... when I'm not at work I don't do quiet."
Coming back into the room and thinking that she didn't exactly do quiet at work either, "so what do you do?" Ziva asked.
"You know, go out, meet people, have conversations with things that talk back... normal stuff."
"Well clearly your normal stuff is not taking you to the right places to meet normal men."
Jumping up, the goth turned to look at her companion, "now hold on a minute, this one isn't my fault..." then stopped, "well, actually it kinda is my fault, but only because I'm so darned good at my job, so..."
"I know that Abby," Ziva cut in, using a circuitous route around the wall to bring a glass of wine and a coffee over and placing them on the coffee table in front of her companion. "I just meant that maybe they are not the kind of places to meet the mentally stable... not that I'm suggesting you're not..." she continued hurriedly at the look on Abby's face, "but I think you are probably the exception to the rule. Please sit down."
Abby sat, "Have you ever been to any of the places I frequent when not at work?"
"I don't think so... ah, I take your point and I apologize."
"I meet plenty of mentally stable people, I bowl with nuns... ok, so that probably isn't the best way to meet men. I also help out at habitat for humanity, there are plenty of mentally stable males there... so I'm not a big fan of granola and the fact that I can rewire a house intimidates them, that, again, is not my fault," Abby said getting to her feet.
"Sit down Abby," Ziva requested, wondering if the goth ever stayed still.
"He's probably not even out there," Abby said sitting, waving her hand in the vague direction of the windows.
"You are probably right," Ziva said, as reassuringly as she could manage, knowing that Savard had never yet failed to do a job he had accepted. "What about NCIS, you used to go out with McGee. At least you know all the agents have been vetted."
"McGee's sweet and kind and sensitive and so not...." Abby trailed off, she liked McGee, she really did.
"Not what?" Ziva asked, picking up her shades, crossing to the window and looking out through the side of the curtain. Nothing, still that didn't mean he wasn't there or that he didn't have a thermal sight.
"Umm, never mind... and the other Agents, they're too high and mighty to even come down to the lab to pick up results, what makes you think I'd manage, or even want, to date any of them?"
Ziva hadn't considered that, admittedly she had never seen any other NCIS teams down there, but she had just assumed they stopped by when she wasn't around. "Tony?" she asked turning.
Abby shuddered, "Eww, I can't believe you even suggested that, he's like a brother... besides I'm too old for him... aren't you and he...."
"One more word Abby and I swear..." Ziva cut in and Abby held up her hands in mock surrender. She stood and was about to start walking around again when Ziva grabbed her arm and pulled her back down, sitting on the couch next to her, this time keeping hold, "sit," she said. Wishing yet again that the goth was in Gibbs basement and preferably chained to his boat, she picked up her coffee with her free hand.
"Fine. Moving on, on your little road trip through my co-worker dating options... Gibbs, now that I could go for, you have no idea how often I've wished I was a red-head."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah, Gunny sure has the whole..." she sighed and Ziva wondered how that had been going to finish, "but it's never going to happen... and much as I love him, please don't suggest Ducky."
"I wasn't going to."
"Course, talking of red-heads, there's always the Director..." Abby mused to herself.
Ziva spluttered into her coffee, "Jen?" she said trying to catch a breath.
The goth turned her head and raised an eyebrow, "well that sounded mighty cozy Officer David."
"It sounded surprised, nothing more," Ziva replied, coughing slightly at some liquid that had gone down the wrong way, why hadn't she picked up on the fact that Abby liked women?
"Of course it did... come to think of it, she did seem very interested in going through my outfits for court... perhaps I should ask..."
"No Abby, trust me you shouldn't," Ziva replied, her lip twitching as she tried to imagine the look on Jenny's face. It was then that she realized the only other woman she usually saw around the goth was herself, she frowned, perhaps that was why she had never picked up any signals.
"Well, that just leaves you Ziva..." Abby turned, pointedly looking at the grip the Israeli had on her arm, "or is that what you were angling for all along... got a thing for ink and iron?"
Ziva was not sure exactly how the conversation had got here, but since Abby clearly didn't have a thing for her, she'd deny it to her last breath, "I was merely making a suggestion Abby," she said removing her hand, "I didn't know you were planning to automatically dismiss every field agent, nor did I know you liked women."
"Oh I'm equal opportunities all the way, man, woman, Jew, gentile, top, bottom... though that was kinda the problem with McGee, he was way too uptight... what about you?"
Ziva considered, "I do not think I am uptight."
"Not quite what I meant... ever done the dirty with a woman?"
"Abby, I do not think this is an..."
"Is that a no?"
"No, it's an I think you talk entirely too much when I need to concentrate."
"So now you're avoiding the issue."
"I am not avoiding..." she looked at her companion, "if I tell you will you be quiet?" The goth nodded, "then yes Abby I have had sex with women."
Peace reigned just long enough for Ziva to concentrate back on Savard and to decide that given his reputation for verifying a kill, he would probably have to get into the apartment or get them out of it. Glad that she didn't need to contend with the likelihood of an explosion or a mortar shell through the window, even if she still had to worry about bullets, she was puzzling over the various ways he could get them outside when a voice said, "Did you enjoy it?"
"Abby!"
"Okay, okay, I'm shutting up... I was just curious," the pause was almost long enough for Ziva to believe she meant it, "wait, you said women!" Ziva rolled her eyes "...well I guess that answers whether or not you enjoyed it...ever done it with the director?"
"In a minute I am going to save Savard the trouble..." Ziva stated calmly, "and who knows I may even make it back to Tel Aviv before Gibbs catches up with me."
"I only asked..." Abby said in a small voice, edging away from her before trying to stand up. An arm shot out and prevented her from moving any further.
"Oh come on Ziva, look maybe he's decided to take the night off?" she speculated.
Ziva sighed as she let go, "That's what I like about you, your constant ability to look on the bright side."
"Oh yeah? Like anything else about me?" Abby asked swinging herself round on the couch, so her head was in Ziva's lap and her feet hanging over the arm. An amused grin crossed her face as she looked into the startled gaze above her, "what?" Ziva just raised a brow, "well if you're going to keep me here I may as well get comfortable," Abby reasoned.
It was neither the time nor the place, Ziva thought. She needed her wits to concentrate and she didn't need interruptions. Finally she answered the half forgotten question honestly, "I like everything about you," seeing Abby open her mouth to say something, she briefly pressed a finger to the goth's lips and continued "but at this moment, the thing I like most is your ability to sign instead of speak."
Snapping her jaw shut Abby took the hint, pulled an imaginary zipper across her mouth and signed. Ziva, who hadn't quite grasped how graphic sign language could be until that moment, needed no explanation of the gestures. She shook her head resolutely and looked off across the room, refocusing on Abby's potential assassin and trying to consider all possible eventualities.
Abby grinned, she really hadn't thought Ziva would agree. Still, she'd already got a lot further than she'd ever expected to and she was extremely comfortable where she was. She closed her eyes and wandered off into a fantasy involving a semi-naked, knife wielding Ziva; rivulets of sweat glistening on her body, as she fought to save her tied-up self from a blood-sucking gent. Finally cutting her free and leaning in to...
The ring tone on Ziva's cell made both of them jump, not least because it was vibrating into Abby's shoulder. Closing it a few moments later, the Israeli stared into space for several seconds before looking into her companion's questioning eyes. "Savard was caught on camera a block from the embassy, they have no idea where he is now," she said.
"Oh... well there's no way he could get your address right?"
"You, of all people, know how easy that is to do Abby," she replied unreassuringly.
"But your's must be an Israeli state secret or something and it's not like you ever had a house warming. You've blocked the GPS in your cell so that no-one can... not that I've tried to track you with GPS because that would be a total invasion of...."
Ziva could hear her getting more stressed every moment, "Abby," she said firmly.
"Yes?"
"He is not going to harm you."
"Right, he's just coming over to swap torture methods with you or have a quick game of who knows more ways to kill with a paper clip. Thanks but I have no desire to be my own voodoo doll."
"Abby..." Ziva said leaning forward and putting the cell on the table, "I am not going to let anything happen to you. You are perfectly safe, so calm down and think of something else."
Catching a glint against the light as Ziva sat back, her words ringing in the goth's ears, Abby did as she was told and focused on something else, "Shiny," she said, leaving the Israeli extremely confused. Putting her hand up to examine the Star of David round Ziva's neck more closely she brushed the skin beneath. "This is pretty."
"Thank you... it was a present," Abby's fingers felt soft on her skin and she was reminded again that she'd had more than one heated fantasy concerning the lab-tech, fuel her lonely nights.
Seeing the far away look in Ziva's eyes, Abby said "from some one you're close to?"
Ziva snapped back to reality and nodded, "my sister."
"Oh, is she in Israel?"
"No Abby, she's dead... she was killed in a Hamas suicide bombing."
"I'm sorry," Abby said sitting up, before leaning in and hugging her companion tightly.
Busy thinking that it had been so long since anyone had held her, no, physically engulfed her, like this; it took Ziva a moment to notice the lips that had appeared on her neck, "what are you doing?"
Abby stopped, her eyes widened as she realized, "Sorry, It's just I get very... affectionate, when I'm nervous."
Ziva's eyebrows shot up, "that explains a lot."
"What's that supposed to..." Abby stood again in a haze of embarrassed anger and had strode into the middle of the room by the time Ziva had stood and made to come after her.
Before the goth knew what was happening she was body checked to the floor "Abby, how many times have I said, do not stand in front of the windows."
"How can you possibly know if he's out there?"
"I don't, but Gibbs is not the only one with feelings in their gut," Ziva replied.
Abby processed that before looking at the woman lying on top of her, feeling lots of things herself at that moment, though not all of them in her gut. "Not that I'm complaining, because believe me I'm not... but you've got the drapes closed, he'd never get a clear shot."
"That does not mean he hasn't got a thermal sight and if he has to take out both of us to be sure, believe me he will." Rolling to one side Ziva stooped as low as she could and dragged Abby to the far back wall, before squatting down beside her. "Move another inch and I will handcuff you to that pipe," she said pointing at a pipe on the wall, more angry at herself than Abby. Why had she been assigned this? Gibbs had told her to keep Abby safe, how could she do that if she couldn't concentrate.
"Kinky!" Abby said, rotating her shoulder, "you know if you ever get tired of being an assassin, you could make a fortune as a domme."
"Dom?" Ziva asked absently. Deciding that if she was Savard she'd take them out in the apartment, there being less risk of being seen and nowhere for them to go. This shouldn't be so difficult, but she needed to concentrate.
"Dominatrix... Miss Whiplash, you know. Course you'd have to let me dress you, not many people have a fetish for combats... at least, not on a woman." She regarded the Israeli with a slight frown, "how do you feel about fishnets?"
Ziva felt the conversation slipping away from her again, "Abby, do you really think I need to dress up to get people to do what I say? I am a trained Mossad interrogator." Acknowledging the thought that Abby didn't appear to do anything she said, Ziva turned her mind back to her current problem.
"You see, now that would be a useful skill set..." a voice interrupted her thoughts, "and Mistress Ziva has a nice ring to it..." an image came into Abby's mind and she stopped, hoping that the blush that had just risen to her cheeks had not been spotted.
It was a vain hope. Her companion asked somewhat curiously "you like that idea?" and watched the Goth unconsciously lick her lips in response. Turning so that she faced her, Ziva thoughtfully traced a nail down a thread in the spider's web on Abby's neck and felt the body beneath it shudder.
"I..." Abby trailed off, the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat making it difficult to swallow.
"Abby, when you said you liked women it... it threw me" Ziva paused and looked at the carpet, "I did not know... then I thought it was because you did not find me attractive."
"Ziva you're gorgeous," the Goth replied, "it's just you can be a little...." she trailed off again.
"Intimidating?" the Israeli asked.
"Well yeah, but I was going to say cold."
"I am not cold, I am extremely hot-blooded I..."
Abby, spying an opportunity said "you know I find that really hard to believe."
Raising an eyebrow and grinning slightly, Ziva knowingly took the bait, "oh you do, do you."
"Yep." Abby nodded, "I'm sorry but..." she shrieked as found herself being pushed flat to the floor.
The mouth that was suddenly on hers tasted of caffeine in a way that was more addictive than Caf-Pow! could ever be. Devouring her until she was on sensory overload, Ziva finally nipped the exposed skin where Abby's T-Shirt had ridden up, then climbed back up the body below her, "still find me cold Abby?" Ziva inquired and the goth shook her head. Ziva smiled,dragged her hand up the newly sensitized skin beneath her and heard Abby moan. Moving her head to one side she bit into the flesh at the base of Abby's neck, grinning ferally as arousal made the woman moan louder still. Ziva pulled back slightly, "this will be more comfortable on the bed," she murmured in Abby's ear and the goth nodded, incapable of rational thought. Pulling them both up, glad they didn't have to cross the room, Ziva opened the bedroom door and taking Abby's hand, lead her inside.
While Ziva opened a drawer, Abby glanced around, clearly this was the room where the Israeli spent most of her time. Far from having the impersonal air of the living room it was full of warm colors and little touches of decoration. Ziva took out a pair of stockings and put them teasingly round Abby's neck keeping hold of the ends and drawing the goth to her, a slight grin on her face. "They are not fishnets," she said huskily, "but they will do yes?" Abby nodded again, wondering exactly when her vocal chords had frozen. Ziva's smile widened, then she paused and the goth wondered what had just crossed her mind, "of course they can be put to other uses than wearing them," the Israeli remarked casually, "to tie you to the bed for instance," and the gleam in her eye made Abby achingly aware of her entire body.
She swallowed hard, "what makes you think I'm going to let you do that?" she asked hoarsely, wondering if Ziva was joking.
"The look in your eyes," her companion replied quietly, and she no longer found it sudden that she was here, or scary that there was a hit man after her. All there was, was this woman, the expression on her face and the sensations she created. Licking lips that were desert dry, Abby nodded. "Then lie down for me Abby," Ziva watched as she complied before wrapping the stockings securely around her wrists and tying them to the bedposts. "You are so beautiful," Ziva whispered leaning in to kiss her, the small circles she was making with her thumbs, creating ripples that washed through Abby's body in waves.
Without warning, she got off the bed and walked back over to the drawers hushing Abby's faint protest. Pulling a silk scarf from one of them, Ziva tied a knot in the middle and sent up a silent prayer before coming back to the bed. "Abby, do you trust me?"
The goth, curious at the change in her companion, pulled on her restraints, "do you think I'd have let you do this if I didn't?" she asked bemused.
Ziva shook her head, "not with this... though believe me, you don't know how much I want you right now..." she closed her eyes and tried to focus, opening them again she continued, "do you trust me to protect you?"
"Always," Abby replied seriously.
Ziva leaned in and kissed her deeply "then we will finish this..." she continued, putting the gag in the surprised woman's mouth and tying it at the back, "when I know that you are safe." Wondering if she would ever be forgiven enough to make good on that, she stepped back and took one last, regretful glance at the woman tied securely to her bed. Then, pulling her gun from its holster, she walked back into the living room, not looking back as she pushed the door shut and locked it behind her.
The End