"Petty officer Jens Mathews, 34. He was found in a river near Rock Creek Park, by three teenagers." McGee summarized what they had on the dead body so far.

"Other than the 3 gunshots in the body we found 2 others at the crime scene" Tony explained.

"Same gun?" Gibbs asked

"Yup"

"We could be looking at only one murder. Possibly not good with a gun, the way we found the bullets and a couple of recent, and only, footprints 10 feet from the body suggests that the killer missed a couple of times, but kept shooting." Ziva said.

"Abby is processing the blood on the gun we found. If it isn't the victims, maybe the murder was wounded and had his/her hand on the wound before using the gun"

"DiNozzo, Ziva, go down to Ducky " Gibbs said as he pointed at McGee "McGee, you're with me". Ziva and Tony made their way down to Ducky. As they entered the dark and empty autopsy they saw no Ducky. Ziva and Tony shared a look before they saw the autopsy door lock with a huge force, making them both run over to the door.

"It's locked" Tony said

"What the hell is going on?" Ziva said as she pulled out her phone.

It was then they heard that they weren't alone. "Ah, ah I would not try using that phone" a male voice warned. They both turned around from the door and saw him; Ilan Bodnar. Standing there in the middle of autopsy.

Ziva said the first thing that came to mind "Where is Dr. Mallard?"

"Don't worry Ziva, he hasn't arrived from the crime scene yet. And I'm not here for him." He said as pointed the gun forth and back between Tony and Ziva.

"Make one move and I will blow his head off" Ilan yelled as he saw Ziva trying to reach for her gun.

Slowly she put her hands up just like Tony had been doing as soon as he saw Bodnar: He did not want to take any chances knowing that Bondar would most likely kill Ziva if he did something he did not want him to.

"Look man, you killed Eli. And you got away with it. Just leave now and we won't come looking for you. Just leave" Tony tried to sell a lie to Illan and he saw right through it. 'Mossad' Tony thought. There was no fooling him.

"You and me both know that is not true agent DiNozzo. As soon as Mossad finds me, they will end me. So I don't care about my freedoom or my life anymore. Now…this is a question of family and honour."

From there on time moved fast. Tony could not quite put together when Ilan had hit Ziva with three bullets just below her heart or when Tony had drawn his gun and ended Ilan with a bullet to his head. Now he was standing with a gun in his hand and it only took a second, the longest second of his life, to realize what had just happened.

Dropping his body to the floor and gathering Ziva in his arms he had not noticed that her eyes were still wide open; she was in shock. As she gasped for air he had taken his jacket of pressing it to her wound with one hand while reaching for the phone in his pocket with the other. He called the ambulance telling them what had happened and quickly he dialed Gibbs right after.

As the phone was ringing he tried to calm Ziva with his shaking voice "Hey. HEY!" He said as he tried to make Ziva look at him not being able to turn her head to him with his hands "look at me. You are not going to die today. You are going to live. Breathe." After what seemed like hours Gibbs picked up his phone "DiNozzo, where ar-" Gibbs started. "Ziva has been shot Gibbs. Ziva has been shot 3 times to the chest Gibbs. Get down here and open those damn autopsy doors NOW." he said and quickly threw the phone away.

"Take my hand…" he heard the little limb shape say to him. "J-just… j-just let go of the wound and t-take m-my hand" she whispered in a low barely audible voice .

As he was holding Ziva with one arm and applying pressure to her wounds with one hand his eyes widened as he realized what was happening; she was drifting away, her eyes were giving in to the darkness.

"No, I won't let go of the wound….I won't let go, you hear me? I can't let you go Ziva. I can't let you go… I won't. You don't get to die on me, do you hear me? Do you hear me Ziva? You can't leave me. P-please just open your eyes. Please…" Tony kept begging as Gibbs got to the doors of autopsy with Ducky and McGee behind him. It only took a few seconds before Gibbs had used his gun to shot the handle of the autopsy doors, and he and McGee had kicked down the door.

They quickly made their way to Tony who was clutching to Ziva's limb and bloody body mumbling "No, no, please no"

Gibbs put two fingers on the side of her neck and he shut his eyes tight when he said "I-I don't think she has a pulse".

Ziva's face paled more and more by the minute as Tony's hands ran desperately and yet gently through her sweaty hair, tears falling from his eyes as he didn't even try to wipe them away.

His eyes never left Ziva's pale face and even though he whispered, the autopsy was completely quite meaning Gibbs, McGee and Ducky could hear him clearly, through his and their own tears "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I never told you. I'm so sorry I was so stubborn. I have never loved anybody at all like I've loved you, like I love you. Oh God, I'm so sorry. But I promise you Ziva, I promise when this is over I'm going to kiss your soft lips, and I'm…" He said as he started closing his eyes with his one of his hands pressing her wound just below her heart and the other hand holding her bloody one… "I'm going to buy you a huge house. And you know what? We are going to have little children running around. And we are going to grow old Ziva. We are going to grow old. And I'm going to remind you every day for the rest of my life that I love you. You are my breath Ziva. I believe it now. I believe in all of the nonsense about soul mates. I never did. But you made me. You walked into my life and you made me believe. So I'm telling you: you can't leave now. I don't know who I am without you…". By now he was sobbing like he was when he as a child was sitting by his mother's hospital bed when she took her last breath.