NCIS Oneshots & Preferences (PREFERENCE AND ONESHOT REQUESTS: CLOSED)

sweet'n'salty (Ziva David x FOC)

For @Caraline949

"Well, if you look at her phone records and bank account, it clearly points that this was motivated by money. She'd receive a call, wait a month, then make a call, and within a week she's up $10k." Special agent Ashley Ricci suggested. "She's clearly an important piece of this puzzle, and it's so obvious that she's done these pre-meditated attacks. She's a hit-woman."
Rolling her eyes, Ziva turned to her coworker, glaring. "How can you be so sure?" She asked, frustrated. "She's clearly being blackmailed. Or forced. She doesn't seem to do much of this by choice!"
"I'm inclined to agree with Ziva." Tony pitched in.

"You're always inclined to agree with her." McGee shot back. "I agree with Ash. She's a hit-woman."
"Ziva, she's literally pretending to be someone else. Someone she killed! And you you're convinced that she's being forced?" Ash exclaimed.
"Says the one that won't even consider the other side of her story." The Israeli replied.

"There's no other side!"
"See!"
"I swear to god, woman-"

Ash went to approach the woman that makes her blood boil when Gibbs whacks his desk with a baseball bat, startling both women from their argument. "You're both going undercover." He said, motioning at the two rivals.

"What?!"
"Excuse me?!"

-~-~-~-~•~-~-~-~-

Ashley's patience was wearing thin. She and her rival had been undercover for three weeks and they'd gotten nowhere. They were undercover as a lesbian couple, Annabelle and Zoey, which put them both in quite the awkward situation, not just with Tony living his best life, watching the pair on security cameras hugging and kissing each other, but it also put poor Ashley's heart in an awkward position since she wasn't out yet. Nobody knew of her bisexuality and she didn't want anyone to find out yet, and being all coupley with Ziva definitely threatened her secret, despite her growing distaste for the woman.

Annabelle was at the hit-woman's house (It was actually confirmed by many witnesses of her secret career), having a chat with 'Ronnie', as Ash and Ziva had gotten to know her.

"So," The unsuspecting killer started, "How did you and Zoey meet? You've never told me."

Annabelle smiled, taking a sip of her coffee, silently panicking as they hadn't yet secured a backstory. "Uh, well, as you know she's a marine, and uh, we met shortly after she came back from a tour in Afghanistan. My father was her boss and he'd passed away on that tour, but since childhood I'd always liked to welcome marines back from tour. I'd always take bags of candy and give one each to everyone." Annabelle smiled, pretending to remember the childhood she never had. "It stayed a tradition, even when my father was either still gone or already at home. Not everyone's families can get there, so it means a lot to them that someone cares. So when I gave Zoey a sherbert-lemon that my grandma special ordered me from the UK, it started a conversation that blossomed into a relationship. She even comes with me sometimes."

"That's one hell of a love story." Ronnie replies, sitting with Annabelle and passing her a small cinnamon roll. They both smiled and ate as Annabelle started asking her questions about her childhood, but didn't receive anything of use yet again.

Later that night Ashley and Ziva went over everything they'd gathered that day, and after listening to 'Annabelle's' conversation with the hit-woman, Ziva's blood boiled as her fists clenched. "So yet again you've got nothing?!" She snapped.
"Neither do you! Can we not argue?" Ash pleaded. She was tired and had sunburn from pretending to garden all day, listening to the killer all day. All she wanted was to put on some aloe vera and call it a day.
"'Can we not argue'?!" Ziva mocked. "We're literally undercover as lesbians when neither of us are even attracted to girls! We have to kiss each other, and sleep in the same bed, even! We're trying to find actual incriminating evidence against 'Ronnie' and all we can do is eat food, drink coffee and have stupid small chats with her?!"
"It's small-talk, Ziva."
"I don't care!" She spat.

Suddenly, the screeching of tired broke the two undercover agents from their war of words. Rushing to the window, they watched the hit-woman speed away. Before starting another argument, Ash went to investigate her house as Ziva called Gibbs, who was not impressed to say the least.

-~-~-~-~•~-~-~-~-

"In. Now." He snapped at the rivals, pushing them rather roughly into the interrogation room. Gibbs, Tony and McGee managed to find the hit-woman where she was hiding, and soon found out her real name. Mischa Petrov Kuznetsov sat before them as the pair of federal agents sat before her.

"Where were you between midnight and 3am on the 20th of July this year?" Ash asked.

"In bed. Sleeping." Mischa answered.

"Can anyone validate your claims?" Ziva questioned.

"No. I live alone." The hit-woman answered again.

"Was there anyone to witness you coming home that night?" Ash suggested.
"Anyone that can solidify your alibi?" Ziva bounced off of her, making the green eyed agent grin. They were actually getting on and working well together!

"No! I said no!"

"Now, now, now, Mischa, don't get angry with us. We're not the ones that kill people for money." Ashley aggravates her.

"I never did that!"

"Alright, alright, I mean, it's not like you actually hurt them." Ash decided, watching as Mischa's face calmed and her narcissistic smirk burst through. Ziva gazed at her partner, impressed with how quickly she changed the tone of the interrogation.

"Can you tell us what really happened then? Your DNA was found on all bodies." Ziva tried.

"I didn't do it!" Mischa aggressively replied.

"Agent David wasn't suggesting that. We just want to learn your side of this. You want to get out of this don't you? Help us help you."

The Russian then went on and on about how a hitjob she'd done back in Russia went wrong when the same person kept recruiting her and police were getting closer and closer to her. She tried to cut him off but instead he started moving her from place to place so she could carry on killing for cash and doing his dirty work. As it turns out, both women were right from the start, and they'd seemed to notice it at the same time, because as she explained that part, neither of them looked at her, but instead at each other, smiling.

"So what you're saying is that you killed them, but for someone else?" Ziva suggested.

"I think that's what she said, Ziva." Ash laughed. "Thanks Mischa. Just remember not to drop any soap when you get into prison. Might save you some trouble."

Leaving the cuffed criminal in the interrogation room, Ziva and Ashley hi-fived as soon as they left the room, smiling as they complimented each other on how they both did.

-~-~-~-~•~-~-~-~-

They glanced from each other to the clocks on their computer screens as they waited for their work hours to end. Ashley was finally out and proud, and that lead Ziva to doing the same. Both were accepted and embraced by their workforce, who, thanks to a certain gothic forensic scientist, all now flaunted mini LGBT flags in their pen pots, just like Ziva's Israeli and Tony's American flags. Soon, the clock struck 9pm and Ashley and Ziva almost jumped out of their seats, getting up to leave. They were headed to a lesbian bar for some drinks. They'd both been sneaking little kisses here and there and were hoping to make their situation more official, in spite of rule 12.
Never date a coworker
But this time Gibbs would have to deal with it, because for the first time in a long time, Ashley and Ziva finally felt happy and healthy in their self-identities, and were beyond excited to announce the beginning of their relationship the next day at work, and this time, they actually (almost) relished in Tony's desperation to know how the couple officiated their relationship, but left Tony to his own imagination.