He felt his heart stop as the explosion rocked the ship and everything close by, including the car that the three of them were sitting in. And for the first time in over a week his stomach stopped trying to revolt by emptying it's contents.

And he knew.

Without moving from where he sat, he knew without a doubt that Gibbs had been caught in the blast.

He didn't realise that he had moved until he found himself looking at the room where the bomb had gone off, didn't feel anything until he saw Gibbs laying there bloody, burnt and broken. Then he reached down, he had to know for sure, had to check for himself, to be able to convince himself of the truth. NO one could have survived this, he'd heard it from those he'd passed getting there, from Ziva and McGee. But he had to know. His heart was still, but at the same time he couldn't make himself believe that he had lost Gibbs, not now, not after all they had been through to get where they were.

He reached out his shaking hand and gently felt for a pulse. Scared of what he'd find, of what he wouldn't find. It was so faint that he almost missed it, thought that maybe he was imagining it because he wanted it, no not wanted, needed it, so badly to be true. He concentrated a little harder until he was sure that it was real. Very faint, but real.

"We need a medic down here!"

He hadn't realised that he'd yelled until all the surrounding commotion stopped. Ziva knelt next to him and replaced his hand with her own.

Ziva had been enjoying herself while they waited for Gibbs. It was fun to stir both Tony and McGee up, and sometimes it was just too easy to do. What with English being one of, if not the most, difficult language to learn. Sometimes things just didn't come out the way that she meant. Other times she deliverately played with her team mates, making small slips now and then. But she had found something here in this country, with these people that she worked with every day that she hadn't expected to find. She had found the place where she belonged, a place where she felt safe, and after some rough starts with a few people, a place where she was accepted.

When the bomb had gone off she was shocked, this was ASmerica, things like this just didn't happen without any warning. Ok there were the 9/11 attacks, but still it was not what you expected. Maybe she had been in America to long, if she had been at home in Isreal, or on a dangerous assignment, or working a Mossad case she'd have seen this coming. It had taken her a moment to realise that Tony was out of the car, she quickly followed him, she saw McGee stumble along behind them.

She hoped that non one had been caught in the blast, they couldn't have survived. She took a moment to try and contact Gibbs, while scanning the people who were now moving to take control of the situation. Her heart kept wanting him to just appear on deck, smile and tell them to get back to work, but the closer they got, and with Gibbs not answering her calls, the lower her heart sand. When they reached the room and they got conformation that Gibbs had been in there her heart broke. She felt herself shut down her emotions, she could deal with them later. Now she had a job to do, and people she cared about to look after.

"Tony…"

She watched as he pushed his way through the people into the room, almost as if he were on auto pilot. She saw the lost lookon McGee's face as he realised that Gibbs was in there, and what that meant. She turned her attention back to Tony as he made his way unerringly through the burnt out room to a corner, watched as he stopped and then almost hesitantly knelt down next to something.

She couldn't see what Tony was reaching for so she watched his face closely and then she knew that he had found Gibbs. Part of her wanted to give her partner some privacy, but another wanted to protect him from having to see his partner like that. She was moving towards him when she saw the change that came over him. She reached him just as he called for a medic, at first she thought he was calling for himself, she knew that he hadn't been well lately, no matter how well he thought he'd covered it. But as she knelt beside him she realised that Tony had actually been calling for help for Gibbs.