He'd fought serial killers. He'd tackled masterminds and thieves. He tracked down criminals every day. It was what he'd been doing for years. And yet all it took to defeat Tony DiNozzo was one phone call.

Ziva's been shot.

Three words and his heart fell.

We're at Bethesda.

Three more and he filled with dread.

She's still alive.

Relief, but he was still terrified.

She's in surgery...

He could never imagine her under operation.

..not looking good.

For the first time in a while, he felt fear.

Come quick, Tony.

The phone call had been at about 9:00. Tony had been filling out a mountain of paperwork. He'd gotten a new probationary agent added on to his team. She was a nice girl, young. About 27. He'd gotten to work that morning and there was a hot cup of coffee and a chorus of "Good morning, Boss," from all 4 of his team members. They had no case today, so it was just filing things into archives and repeated trips to the coffee machine. Just another boring day at work. Or so he thought.

At 9:23, Tony pulled into the parking lot at the hospital. He had been panicking the entire car ride there. He jammed his finger against the elevator button and rode up in silence. The door opened, revealing the terror-stricken face of Abigail Sciuto. Tony was folded into a massive hug that lasted for about 30 seconds.

"Abby, where is she?"

"End of the hall. Room 231."

"Is she awake?"

"I don't know. They haven't come out for a while."

Tony started running to the end of the corridor. Abby yelled after him, "Tony, you can't go in there!"

He pushed the door open to Ziva's room. It banged against the wall loudly. 4 startled doctors jumped back and looked at him, surprise on their faces. Ziva lay on a hospital bed, at least three machines hooked up to her. Her usually olive skin was pale. The doctors took a second to break from their stupor, then came charging at Tony, pushing him out of the room.

"Sir, I'm sorry but you can't be in here."

"No, you've gotta-"

"I don't have to do any-"

"-that's my girlfriend in there-"

"-she's under critical condition-"

"I'm a Federal Agent-"

"I don't care who or what you are, you can't be in here!"

Tony was shoved out of the room by one of the men in scrubs. A hand laid on his shoulder. He turned around and met the eyes of Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Hey readers! I hope you liked the first chapter. Working on the second.

Anyways, I write mostly about NCIS and Doctor Who, but I plan to start publishing stories for NCIS Los Angeles and other stuff.

Thanks for reading, chapter two will be up soon.

-J