This is another post-ep, this time centred around the 'easily emasculated' conversation at the beginning of Honor Code.

Prove It

"I'm not easily emasculated."

She looked up from her desk, looking at him strangely. Yes, he was still pressing this. He had been all week. Since that morning, when she had teased him about it so much. Now, even after Zach had gone home to his father and they had wrapped up the case, he was still pressing this.

"Okay," she said simply.

"No, not 'okay'," he urged. "I'm not emasculated."

She looked at him, setting her paperwork aside. "What is it you want me to say, Tony?" she asked him, as clearly as she would have spoken to Zach who, at this moment, seemed much more grown up than Tony.

"That I'm not easily emasculated."

"I cannot say that," she told him with a smile. "I have no reason to believe that it is not true."

"Yeah, you do," he pointed out. "I'm telling you it's true."

She looked him up and down for a moment. "Tony, if you were not so easily emasculated you would not have been pushing the subject for the past week."

He looked at her, stumped for a moment. She was right. He'd never admit it, but she was. Why was he still pressing this? What was he trying to prove? He stared her down, which was hard because she wasn't actually challenging him. "I'm not!" he insisted.

"Prove it," she challenged him.

He stared her down still. Frowning as he tried to think of a way to rise to her challenge. Just when he opened his mouth to argue against her, Gibbs walked into the bullpen. "Problem, DiNozzo?"

"No, boss!" he said, straightening up immediately. He returned back to his desk and sat down, trying to ignore Ziva's smirk. He would get her back for this. If it was the last thing he did...

END