"Come on, come on, open up!" Ellie Bishop grumbled under her breath, wrestling with her stuck desk drawer.
"Jesus, Probie, you damage that and It's going to come out of your paycheck," Tony chuckled, sinking a wadded up ball of paper into his trashcan.
"They already take so much from my paycheck," Bishop huffed, blowing a piece of blonde hair out of her eyes, "Why can't that go to desk drawers that actually open?"
McGee snorted, tapping away at his keyboard, "Your desk is not the first thing on the list to be fixed around here. We still have stuff to fix from the explosion a couple years back."
"Explosion?" Bishop looked up from her desk, one eyebrow raised.
Tony waved a hand in the air, "Never mind, get back to your issue at hand."
Bishop frowned; she had been working with Tony and Tim for months now, almost a full year, and it still felt like she was on the outside. There were inside jokes that made them laugh together, they often partnered up on crime scenes and spoke in sad, hushed tones. She hated being on the outside.
"Will it really be such a big deal if I unjam it with a screwdriver or something?" she asked a few minutes later.
Tony looked up again, "You're really having issues with it, huh? Must be you though, Zi—"
His eyes went wide and he choked on the word.
McGee looked up, chewed on his lip, and said, "You know, we can still talk about her. It's not like Kate."
Kate.
Her.
More things that the two men shared and Bishop was excluded from.
"I know," Tony said, a line forming in between his eyebrows, "I just don't like to. Not when I haven't talked to her in months."
"She's okay, though?" McGee said, worry filling his tone.
Tony nodded, "I would know if she weren't. I just think she's somewhere in Africa, you know, working on herself."
Tony shoulders drooped and he looked miserable.
"She won't stay away forever, Tony," McGee said sympathetically.
"I know. It just feels like she will," Tony said, turning his attention back to his computer screen.
And just like that, whatever had happened wasn't talked about again.
Bishop crinkled her nose, popping an Oreo into her mouth.
Maybe one day they'd want to share with her.
But for now, she had a stuck desk drawer to contend with, a drawer that was frustrating her to no end, because it had never done this before. For months and months it worked perfectly. But now it refused to open.
Bishop trudged back into the bullpen, trailing after Tony and Tim. All three agents were wet and tired.
"I hate it when bodies are found in rivers," McGee complained, attempting to drape his sopping wet jacket over the back of his chair.
"Shouldn't you hate it when bodies are found period?" Bishop asked, twisting her wet hair up into a ponytail.
Tony laughed under his breath at the confused look that formed on McGee's face.
"Go home, all of you," Gibbs said, saving McGee from having to answer, "DiNozzo's starting to smell."
Tony frowned and sneakily sniffed at his armpit. He recoiled in disgust, "To be fair, boss, I did just take a dip in the Potomac."
Gibbs grunted, "Don't wanna hear it, DiNozzo. And I don't wanna smell you."
McGee laughed, "We do stink, Tony."
"AHA!" Bishop shouted, "Finally!"
The metal drawer had come unstick and was now dangling halfway off of its track.
Her three coworkers paused and looked at her.
"Uh," she looked up, "I got the desk drawer open."
Gibbs just shook his head, took his coffee and went to brief Vance on what they had found.
McGee looked down at his watch, "Oh man, I'm going to be late."
"For what? A very important date?" Tony grinned.
"Actually yes," McGee said, gathering his things, "Delilah is going to Skype me and I don't want to miss her and have to play phone tag all night."
Tony and Bishop nodded.
"Tell her I say hi," Bishop smiled.
"Forget hi," Tony grinned, "I want to know if she's given any more thought to letting me trick out her wheelchair a la Bond."
McGee looked at his friend strangely, "You're going to trick out her wheelchair?
"Of course not, McDunce," Tony said, "I know a guy."
"He knows a guy. Of course," McGee muttered heading for the elevator.
Bishop finished putting her things in her bag and stood up a few minutes later, the item blocking her desk drawer resting on top of her keyboard.
"Aren't you going to head home, Tony?" she asked.
"In a little bit. Just want to get some stuff done," he answered.
Bishop nodded, "Right. Um, so you know how my desk drawer was stuck?"
"Bishop," Tony raised an eyebrow, "Everyone from Vance to Dorney know your desk drawer was stuck."
Bishop laughed quietly, "Right, yeah. Anyway, I found something in there that was causing the problem."
"What was it?" Tony leaned forward, "Treasure map. Are we gonna have to reenact The Goonies? I call Mikey. McGee gets Data, or maybe Chunk."
"No, no treasure map," she lifted the picture from her keyboard, "But I think you might want this."
Tony extended his hand and took the picture. Bishop watched as his face transformed; a slow smile spreading across his face.
"Thanks, Bishop," he said quietly and sincerely.
"You're welcome, Tony," she replied, picking up her back and following the path McGee had just taken to the elevator.
As the metal doors closed, Bishop watched Tony carefully study the picture.
It had been crumpled a little, probably form being stuck in her drawer, but there was no mistaking that the man in the picture was Tony.
He was younger, a little thinner, and smiling cheesily.
But it was the woman whose shoulders he had his arms around that had captured Bishop's attention.
She was gorgeous; dark, curly hair, dark eyes, tanned skin.
She was scowling at Tony, but her eyes had said it all.
They were bright and happy, and Bishop could tell that she wasn't really mad at Tony; exasperated maybe, but not mad.
Bishop wondered who she was and where she had gone.
She also wondered if Tony would ever get that happy look in his eyes again.
A/N: Okay, so I've never written Bishop before and it's been months since I've written NCIS. I really hope this is in character.
Anyway, this one is based off of a prompt I saw on Tumblr. I'm desperately missing Ziva, especially now that the shows are all starting up again.
This also became a little more sad than I was anticipating, but I think that reflects my general feelings about NCIS right now. A little sad, a little hopeful.
So, um enjoy. =)