A/N: Ok, so I have been thinking about this story for a couple of days now. It's was inspired from a true story, only I adapted it to the characters and changed it a bit to make it more 'NCIS-style'. Hope you like it.
It's just a quick one-shot, hope you like it, please let me know what you think in the Review section! Thanks! Peace out, hombres ;)
Disclaimer: I still don't know why I am doing this, but since I see there is one in almost every story I figured there must be some kind of reason. I don't own NCIS, their character, their names, or any of that...stuff. sorry :/
HEAVEN AFTER ALL
"Shalom?" She answered her phone calmly.
She wondered who might call her from the states, after so long. She had left the NCIS MRCT of Washington three years ago. Sure, at first she kept in touch as best as she could. She called Abby from time to time, just to catch up with the latest news on the Team, just to know they were all right. She had called Gibbs on the first Christmas. But it had been over eighteen months since she had called Abby. After all, she hadn't been called back by the new director after he had reconstructed the team he ha himself dissolved. Director Vance, what an ass. Since her liaison position had been deleted, she had come back to Israel, working for Mossad again. Three years, no contact with the States. Hence her surprise when she read the unfamiliar number.
"Miss David?" A cheery voice asked.
"Speaking."
She heard the woman on the other side of the line sigh in relief.
"You are not an easy person to find..." She chuckled.
"Excuse me...who are you?" She asked quizzically.
"Oh...I'm agent Nicole Jardine, from NCIS. Agent Gibbs wanted to call, but...given the circumstances..." She trailed off, not too sure how to break the news to her.
"Why is NCIS calling me? I haven't had business with you in..."
"It's about agent DiNozzo."
Ziva's heart skept a beat. Oh god, Tony.
She hadn't spoken with tony in...well two years. They had tried to keep in touch via e-mail. But it wasn't enough, it would never be enough for them. They needed each other as much as the human body needs oxygen to function. Intrinsical to one another. Then one day she had called him. She recalls the conversation perfectly.
"Hey zee-vah! What's up?"
"Tony..."
"Hey, something wrong?"
She smirks. He is always so caring, so receptive to her.
"I...we... This can't go on forever..."
"What do you mean?"
"By doing this...writing...calling...we are just taking to much time to say goodbye, as we should really be letting go..."
"I don't understand..."
"I don't want to speak to you again. Do not try to contact me, ever again."
"But..."
"No buts! Please, don't make this any harder than it already is. Bye."
"Ziv-"
She had hung up, and burst into tears. She had need been oblivious of her feelings for Tony, but keeping in touch, longing every week for that phonecall was just too painful for her. She needed to get away from him, to repress the feelings she had for him. It was not healthy to love like that. It was not healthy to love someone hoping someday you could be together but rationally knowing it was impossible. So she decided to let him go.
She had never listened to the voicemails he had left him in the following months, knowing she might come back on her decision if she did. After a while she had none, and she thought he might have found some kind of closure. She didn't, though. Hell, she thought of him every single day.
"What about him?" She asked concerned.
"Four nights ago, agent DiNozzo was...coming back from work, late at night. It appears he...he was beaten and shot by mob boss whose cousin he has put behind bars last month..."
Ziva's heart sank. No, this couldn't be happening. She gasped and whispered:
"Sh-shot?"
"He was found in an alley with multiple gunshot wounds and rushed to Bethesda. The surgery went well, but as he was still critical he was put into a medical induced coma."
"Coma?"
Her head was a complete blank. No, this wasn't happening, this couldn't be happening, not to Tony.
"For four days. The doctors say he should be awake, by now, but he gives no sign of wanting to wake up. Only..."
She trailed off once more. Ziva was going to kill that woman, if she didn't tell her right away what was up with tony exactly.
"Only what?"
"The only thing that has emerged his unconscious mind is...you."
"Me?!"
Well she didn't see that one coming.
"He's been calling your name, for days now. Doctors think that if he heard your voice..."
"What is it you want me to do exactly, agent Jardine?"
"Well...Agent Gibbs was wondering if you could come here, to D.C."
No response.
"Are you still there, officer David?"
She had hung up.
Less than twenty four hours later she was rushing into Bethesda. She went to the nurse's desk.
"I'm here to see Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo." She said while catching her breath.
The nurse looked in shock as this young lady, who would probably be beautiful if it weren't for the dark circles under her eyes, portraying the stress and exhaustion she carried around from the flight.
"And you are...?"
"Ziva David" she exhaled "a f-friend"
"Ah, so you are that Ziva! Welcome. Room 3010"
"Thank you."
She rushed to his room, but suddenly once she was standing in front of the door she couldn't get herself to get in. She knew she needed to be there for Tony, but what happened when he woke up? They hadn't exactly parted on good terms, as she had basically kicked him out of her life.
'You should have thought about that before hopping on the first plane to Washington, you fool!' She thought to herself.
She pulled herself together and resolved to turn the knob. She slowly opened the door.
She let out a gasp when she saw Tony. A blanket covered the lower part of his abdomen, hiding his left leg wrapped in a cast. His chest was tightly wrapped into bandages, and one of his arms was in a cast. The other one, the left arm, was punctured by multiple needles. An IV and a blood transfusion. His head was wrapped into a gauze, masquerading a deep cut on his forehead and drawing the attention from the cadaverous pale skin of his, lacerated bu minor abrasions and his nasal cannula.
After a few minutes Ziva needed to regain composure, she managed to drag herself to the plastic chair next to the bed and sunk into it.
She was about to grab his hand, when she heard him whisper barely audibly
"Ziva".
She almost jumped out of her chair from excitement, until she realized he was still unconscious. That must have been what Jardine meant when she sai he called her whilst in coma.
She grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly.
"Oh, Tony..." She whispered into his ear.
As expected, he didn't squeeze back. She buried her head into her forearms and cried over his wounded chest.
After five hours, she had let herself drift into a desperately needed sleep when she felt his fingers gently curling around hers. She sat right up and stared intensely at Tony's eyelids, which were now fluttering.
"Ziva" he gasped.
She could hear the machines beep faster, and his breathing becoming more labored.
"Yes Tony, I'm here." She said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Suddenly he began to convulse, she was about to call a nurse when he stood still, as unpredictably as he had started shaking.
Ziva let out a sigh of relief, when the most unexpected thing happened. His eyelids continued to flutter and eventually opened slowly.
Ziva could feel his grip grow tighter on her hand.
"Ziva..." He said amazed "you're here."
"Yes" she said nodding; suddenly she realized she was crying tears of joy.
"Am I...dead?"
She let out a small laugh and shook her head.
He rolled his eyes, realizing how stupid he must have sounded and eventually muttered "good"
Ziva squeezed his hand harder.
"How are you feeling?"
"Much better, now you are here..." He weakly smiled at her. His voice was hoarse and came out as a suffocated whisper.
"Why are you...crying?" He asked, attempting to raise his hand to brush the tears away from her cheeks, failing miserably.
She smiled amused, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Do you have any idea how worried I was? Yesterday I was informed you were shot, agonizing. And when I came here I saw with my own eyes agonizing was an understatement. You were dying, right in front of me. And I thought..."
She was cut off by a finger gently laid upon her lips. She bit her upper lip and started crying quietly.
"Shhh I get it... You were afraid..." He said soothingly.
"I thought...I had lost you."
"I thought so too, two years ago." He said with a hurt expression on his face. If he was trying to make her feel guilty he was succeeding. "But we...seem to find a way...back to each other..." He murmured.
She raised her head to face him, staring right into his deep green eyes.
"I am sorry, Tony."
He slightly let go her hand and opened his arms the best he could. Ziva wasn't sure hugging him was the best thing to do, considering his condition, but she really needed to feel life through him, right now.
As gently as she could, trying to hurt him as little as possible, she let herself pull into a hug.
He soothingly stroke her dark curls as she was sobbing into his neck. God, he had missed her scent.
"I-thought I-had lo-lost y-you!" She said between sobs.
"Hey" he let go the embrace to face her, and successfully wiped the tear tracks from her cheeks. He was feeling stronger by the second since he had woken up next to her
"I'm not going anywhere" he whispered, staring at her right into the dark eyes.
"Neither am I" she responded.
A wide grin appeared on Tony's face. Maybe this was heaven after all.