NCIS HQ - 3:32 a.m.
Ziva had been working late to wrap up some paperwork that night. She sat at the back desk all night to finish it, as she didn't want her desk to be a mess. She needed some company, but she knew nobody was there, so she went at a certain point to Abby's lab. It was locked. She picked the lock, like she had done a thousand times before and came in. She looked around. Everything was perfectly at its place. She smiled peacefully at Bart the farting hippo, and thought "yep this little guy is going to keep me company for the rest of the night." She then took a look at herself in a piece of glass. She was nothing like the woman she used to be before she worked for NCIS. She was now a tidy woman, sometimes borderline girly. She hadn't lost her combat skills, she had only learned how to use them productively, instead of as a weapon of massive destruction. She suddenly heard her bloodstream pump through her ears. "Maybe Tony is right, maybe America has made me a little softer..." she thought, smiling back at the time Tony told her that.
She came back upstairs, holding Bart in her arms as she might have been holding a puppy. She came back to the squad room when she suddenly heard some noise as she was stepping in. She quickly dropped the puppet and pulled out her spare gun from god knows where. She hid behind the desks, waiting the right time to make her move. It was dark in the office, but she could clearly hear someone groan and grunt. Someone fell against a desk, she heard some panting, as if someone was having trouble breathing. She hazarded a look over the bullpen, just in time to see Tony on his knees, crawling to her desk. She stood up, as he slipped on his hand and rolled to the side, coughing heavily. Something dark came out of his mouth as he coughed but she couldn't see exactly what it was as she was still watching him from afar. She came closer, calling him, when she saw his shirt and jacket covered in blood.
She ran to him, called speed dial, thinking it was the paramedics but it was Gibbs.
She said:
-Help me, please, agent wounded, stabbed to the chest at NCIS HQ, hurry up… there… there is blood everywhere, he is bleeding out.
She didn't hang up and threw the cell away. She knelt down next to her closest friend's motionless body.
-Tony… no no no stay with me...
She immediately applied pressure on the large stab wound in his lower right abdomen. He opened his eyes.
-Hey there.
She smiled, relieved to see that he was alive, keeping pressure with both hands on his chest.
-Hey...sweet cheeks.
He did his half smirk, the one Ziva was so fond of. But his smile soon vanished to turn into a painful look, as he rolled to the side and started coughing blood. His lungs were obviously filling up with his own blood, and breathing through it was becoming more and more difficult. Ziva was scared at this sight. But she tried not to let it show too much, she didn't want Tony to worry, she just wanted him to focus on his breathing.
"Breathe Tony, breathe. Yes, good. It's ok Tony, you're going to be just fine, you..."
He painfully raised a finger to her lips..
-Ziva…
He could barely whisper, and Ziva could see in his eyes this was causing him excruciating pain. She grabbed his hand, bloodied. He clearly wants to say something. Tony took a couple of deep breaths, looking her right in the eyes. It was almost dawn, Ziva could see a little more his face, and its contraction as Tony whispered barely audibly.
-I'm sorry...
His eyes rolled, as Ziva kept holding his hand.
-No! No no no, Tony don't you dare leave me behind! Hear me DiNozzo? Don't you dare leave me! she cried.
She let his hand go, it dropped deafly on the carpet. She pressed the wound with both hands, mumbling :
-Come on, Tony, come on!
A single, perfectly round tear dropped from her eye and falls on Tony's shirt, soaked with blood.
-No, Tony please... Wake up, come on! Please…Please…
At this very moment, the paramedics ran in, immediately followed by Gibbs. He quietly took her away from Tony while the paramedics collected him. She stood, shaking, clearly in shock, next to her boss who gently held her by the shoulders.
-He'll be fine Ziva, he said.
She couldn't break eye contact with Tony, her coworker and maybe something more.
Ziva, who was already on edge, burst into tears. Gibbs took her into his arms, as she put her bloody hands around his square shoulders. She was covered in blood, but it wasn't hers.
They were soon headed to the car in order to go to the hospital. Ziva didn't go on the passenger's seat, she wanted to drive. As she turned the key to turn on the car, Gibbs put his hand over hers, making her stop.
"Tell me what happened"