30AN: Game 3 is set soon after Season 3 Episode 22: Jeopardy.
Ziva sighed as she rubbed at her eyes. She wasn't focused on this game at all and it was reflected in her points. She just mistook a 'g' for a 'j' if that showed were her mind was not.
"Ok, that's the third sigh in as many minutes," Amelia said, looking up from her tiles with an expectant look. "And it can't be because you can't find a word."
Ziva scrunched up her nose at the American woman, not sure whether she wanted to not volunteer anything, blame the game or actually say what happened over the past few days.
"It's been a long couple of days," she decided to say, thinking that it was the best way to put it without having to explain.
That was definitely an understatement. From people dying in her custody to the dead person's brother trying to take his revenge on the Director, the past few days had definitely not been good. It definitely hadn't reflected well on her as a liaison at all.
"I thought that that was pretty much your job description," said Pamela, picking up one of her tiles and then shaking her head, she was still trying to decide on a word. Francisca sighed impatiently; she obviously had a word ready to go.
Ziva rolled her eyes but didn't deny it. The hours she put in at NCIS for some cases rivalled some of the Ops she did for Mossad. She blamed Gibbs' 'work ethic', not that she could really complain. Hers was somewhat similar but usually did not involve a whole team of people.
"I detect that these days have been longer than usual," Raphael guessed, eyeing both Amelia and Francisca
"I did not know that you were in the detective work," Amina commented.
"I'm not," said the French man.
She gave him a puzzled frown. "But you detected something."
"Yes."
The confusion did not clear from her face.
"I think he meant that he noticed something," Amelia explained, trying to rescue her friend.
"Why did he not say that?"
"I did," Raphael pointed out.
"You did not. You were doing detective work," she insisted.
"Detect doesn't mean doing detective work."
"It comes from the word detective, of course it does!"
"It means-"
Pamela pointedly coughed, interrupting their linguistic argument before it got any more heated and nonsensical. Or before she got dragged into it. Ziva knew that the English woman did not appreciate being forced to explain the subtleties of the English language. She and Amelia always managed to find some way to disagree.
"This is why German is more useful," Lukas informed them all before Pamela could direct them away from this conversation. "Our words mean what they say. No fuss about them."
"No finesse, you mean," Raphael said with a sniff.
Pamela gave him a warning look. They did not need a 'What language is superior' argument. Again.
"Finesse is not useful when you confuse people what you mean," Lukas argued.
Pamela coughed pointedly again and this time got everyone's attention.
"Why don't we ask Ziva why she is so tired?" she suggested.
Everyone looked at her blankly as if such a simple thing had never been an option. They all turned to look at Ziva who raised an eyebrow in response.
"Well?" Amelia asked impatiently.
"I need to attend a meeting at my Embassy," she told them with an annoyed look.
Everyone who wasn't a naturalised citizen winced in sympathy. Even if it was in your favour, which this was probably not going to be, those types of meetings were never fun. Always involved some sort of red tape and far too much time being spent there. Ziva was definitely not looking forward to that but there were far more pressing matters other than wasted time and tense political niceties when going to the Israeli Embassy for her. Or rather one pressing matter. Her father. The man who was the Ambassador would have immediately contacted on something regarding her whether she was in her father's employ or not. It was just rather unfortunate that she was. Not that that would have made a jot of difference to Eli David and his control over his children. A pang went through her heart. Over his only living child, she meant.
"Well, I assume that you have not committed some sort of crime or killed anyone or you would already be residing in your Embassy," Amelia said, resting her chin on steepled fingers.
Ziva flinched imperceptibly at that.
They did not need to know about the aforementioned dead suspect.
"No, no, no," Amina disagreed. "It would only be if you were caught by American police about the death of a person would you be in your Embassy. If you haven't you would just have to contact them for advice on how to deal with the situation."
Several stares and unhinged jaws were directed at the woman. She sniffed and flicked the end of her hijab over her shoulder.
"What?"
"How do you even know that?" Amelia demanded.
"And is true?" Lukas asked curiously.
Francisca messed about with the order of her tiles and answered without looking up, "My Embassy told me of something similar about seven years ago when I had to sort something out there."
"Again, why?" Amelia spluttered, turning to the older woman.
Ziva just leaned back and shook her head. She exchanged a grin with Raphael, not minding at all that the conversation had been derailed.
Francisca shrugged. "To be prepared."
"I'm pretty sure that's not how Embassies are supposed to work."
"Does the American Embassy not do this?"
"I don't know!"
"Anyway, I am sure Ziva has not killed anyone," Raphael piped up. "She would not be sitting here."
"She works for a federal agency. They sometimes have to shoot people," Amelia pointed out.
"Murdered in cold blood then," he amended, frowning at her.
Ziva just about stifled a cough at that. If only they knew.
"It could be for paperwork," Lukas logically suggested. "Some you have to do at the Embassy."
"Or it could be Amina's second option," Francisca pointed out. "She may not have been detected."
Everyone groaned at the use of the earlier problem word.
"Again, why don't we just ask her?" Pamela asked in exasperation.
For a second time, or was it a third, the six people turned to stare expectantly at her, their scrabble game all but forgotten. Not that they had got far into the game. They only been around everyone once with only Ziva and Raphael having gone twice - Amelia still not having decided on a word.
"An incident came up at work," she answered diplomatically.
Which of course did not exactly help matters and raised more questions than answers if the number of eyebrows that just soared upwards was anything to go by.
