Someone to Trust
Their guns were drawn, and their eyes focused on every move their suspect made.
Jimmy Hayes. That was the bastard's name. In the matter of forty-eight hours, he had managed to kill off three marines, two civilians, and his nine-year-old son. Now, they were in a standoff at a warehouse. He was holding hostage a teenage boy, who had wondered in on their tense standoff at the wrong time.
"Let him go, Jimmy," Tony yelled, taking an inch closer. Jimmy grinned at the cop.
"No chance in hell!" He spat. He glanced around at the four of them, "Let me go, or he dies."
Everybody took a collective breath, all of them assessing the situation. Nobody wanted to let this guy go, after all the damage he caused. Then again, they didn't want him to take another life. The poor kid's eyes were darting around, and he was clearly confused by the situation.
"Let him go," Gibbs finally said. Everybody looked to their boss in shock.
"But boss-"
"Do it."
Nobody questioned him, and they all lowered their weapons. Jimmy grinned at them, and slowly walked towards the door, his gun still held to his hostage's head. The time it took for him to reach the door seemed to go on forever, as everybody was trying to figure out how they could still get him.
That's when Ziva saw the look in his eye. He was going to drop the hostage in run. Sure enough, as he reached the door, he pistol whipped his hostage, knocking him to the floor. Ziva took this as her opportunity, and ran towards him, gun drawn. She fired at him, hitting him in the leg.
McGee ran towards Jimmy's hostage, to make sure he wasn't dead, while Tony and Gibbs went towards their fallen perp.
"Nice one, Ziva," Tony said, as he walked up to her. She grinned. It was over. Jimmy Hayes would be going to jail for a very long time, and she could sleep knowing nobody else would be hurt in his wrath.
The sound of a gun shooting echoed throughout the warehouse, and before Ziva even knew what was happening, she felt a burning sensation in her lower stomach, and she was on the floor.
Jimmy Hayes had shot her when she wasn't paying attention.
"Ziva!" She heard her teammates yell. Gibbs took away the suspects gun and handcuffed him, while Tony ran to the fallen agent's side.
She felt Tony put pressure on her wound, and place a gentle hand on her cheek.
"Stay with me, Ziva," he pleaded, "You're going to be alright, just stay with me."
That was the last thing she remembered, before slipping into unconsciousness.
Ziva could only stare at her reflection in the mirror. There were bags under her eyes, due to many days' worth of sleep deprivation. She had only been out of the hospital for a week, and this was her first day back at work since the shooting. However, Gibbs still wasn't comfortable putting her back in the field, so she was stuck with desk duty.
It was early in the morning, and nobody else was in yet. She had gotten to work much earlier then she needed to be. She needed to be there. Even if she was on desk duty, she would at least have something productive to do, to take her mind off of everything.
The only thought on her mind was what that bastard had done. She had seen many gruesome things in her life, but the image of that child's little body, bullet through her head, still haunted her. It haunted all of them. Anyone who shot a child was a monster, but it was his own son. He had taken away a life that he himself had created. That was far from the only thing Jimmy Hayes had done, that was on her mind.
He had shot her. Even though that wasn't the first time she was shot, this time was different. Much different. This time, it was where he had shot her.
She could remember every word from that conversation with the doctor. Every horrible word.
He explained to her, that Jimmy Hayes had shot her in the uterus. He continued to say that even though she would make a full recovery, in order to save her life, they had to remove it.
"I'm afraid you will never be able to have children," he had so blatantly told her.
Her heart broke, and she realized for the first time, she wanted to be a mother. She suddenly felt the need to have a child in her arms. As she realized her body would never harbor another life, she felt herself become numb.
"I see," was all she could get herself to say.
Since then, every time she saw a mother and child, she felt her heart break just a little more. But she didn't cry. She was stronger than that.
She kept herself strong, by imagining Jimmy Hayes convicted, and him being executed. She promised herself she would be there at his execution. She wouldn't miss it for the world.
She felt her eyes feel heavy, one of the benefits of not sleeping. She couldn't sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she dreamed of a family she would never have. She dreamed of holding her baby, with the father smiling at her.
For some odd reason, that father was Tony DiNozzo. She didn't know why her dreams placed him in that position. She guessed it was probably because had been working with him longer then she had been in any relationship with a guy.
She sighed, as she looked at the clock. It read 5:04 AM. People wouldn't start to come in for another fifty-six minutes. She turned her attention to her calendar, and gasped.
That day, and the next five days after it were highlighted green. That day would have marked the beginning of that time of the month. Something she would never experience again.
Suddenly, all those days of held-back emotion started to bubble to the surface. She fought them back. She refused to cry. She was stronger than that. Was she really going to start crying about a inconvenient feminine bodily function? All females wished they never had to go through their periods. She would be happy.
"Ziva, are you okay?" A familiar voice asked. She looked up, and saw none other than Tony DiNozzo standing over her. His eyes had a uncharacteristic concern in them. She must have really been out of it, as she always sensed when he walked into a room.
"Yeah," she replied.
All those dreams came flooding back into her memory. Her holding her child, and Tony smiling at the two.
The floodgates opened, and she embraced her co-worker. Tony instinctively held her as she sobbed, not knowing what else to do. He had never seen the Israeli woman cry before. Especially that hard.
Ziva felt her body go limp in Tony's arms, which only seemed to make the tears come harder.
"Is it that time of the month?" Tony asked, jokingly. He didn't know how to handle a crying Ziva, so he handled it how he always handled awkward situations. With a joke. Little did he know, that was the worst thing he could have said.
Ziva held him tighter, as the tears came quicker. She knew how pathetic she must have looked, but that didn't seem to matter in that moment. It felt good to let it out.
As she cried, she realized just how much she trusted her team, a luxury she didn't have back in Israel.
She cried for the loss of the lives Jimmy Hayes took. She cried for the loss of the children she would never have.
Although Tony didn't know why Ziva was suddenly crying, he didn't care. He was there for her, and that was all that mattered.
He was someone to trust.
Should I continue this, or keep it a two-shot? I'm not sure. It would work either way.
Thank you for reading!