Worries
Someone shook his shoulder with the utmost care.
"Tony. Tony, come on. Open your eyes!"
He was at a loss as to why his eyes were closed, but when he pried them open the nausea came back with a vengeance and he squeezed them emerald greens shut again. He didn't want to hurl on Ziva's shoes. The hurt she would inflict on him would be greater than the one he was experiencing at the moment.
"Tony!" she called again.
"'M 'kay", he tried to settle her. "Don' w'rry." Huh. Speaking was harder than he remembered, but he wanted to calm his Mossad assassin. She always got so worked up when he was beaten to a pulp. "'M 'kay", he repeated and passed out in her lap.
Ziva wasn't calmed by his mumbled words. At all. He looked terrible, with newly formed bruises all over his face, a broken nose and profuse nosebleed. When he went limp in her lap again, she cried out in frustration.
"'I am okay. I am okay.' No, you are not okay, Tony!" She shifted on the ground and hissed slightly, as the injury on her calf reminded her of its presence. She lowered Tony's banged-up head to the ground, tucking her jacket under him, then frowned and gave her gunshot wound an annoyed glare. How very inconvenient to be shot in the leg when they had such a long walk back to the van. She took off her scarf with a sigh.
Tony woke to a gruesome sight. Ziva's leg was oozing blood and she was trying to tie it off with her scarf. Her face was ashen and a sheen of perspiration covered her brow.
He pushed himself up, but was immediately thrown to the ground by a force he couldn't see. He would later recognize it as 'gravity'. The way his head was spinning was also a force to be reckoned with and this time he did throw up, but thankfully nowhere near Ziva.
The emptying of his stomach made him feel better already.
Ziva watched in horror as Tony engaged in a seemingly endless gagging fit. He looked totally exhausted when he finished, drawing shuddering, wheezing breaths. He shot her a look from under sweat soaked bangs, and she thought she saw relief in his face. Well, the parts of his face that she could recognize under all the swelling and bruising and blood. She went over to him and offered a hand to help him up.
"You look like cramps, Tony."
His stomach was churning when he saw Ziva's nasty limp. She then offered him a shaking hand and said something he with difficulty interpreted as ill-concealed concern.
He didn't think the bruising could be that bad. After all, he had felt much worse after being tackled playing football in college. He was however very worried about Ziva, and wondered how the hell they were going to make it out of these woods with her wounded leg. He grabbed her offered hand and rose from the ground without too much trouble.
She had to steady Tony after she hauled him to his feet. He had almost gone down again. He swayed and stumbled and leaned heavily against her for a good length of time before focusing his eyes on a point roughly an inch beside her left ear.
"How are you holding up?" he asked and looked really concerned.
"I am fine, Tony. Straight as rain", she tried to calm him. But I really have to get you to a hospital, she thought. "Let us get back to the car, yes?"
"Good idea", he murmured. You really need to get to a hospital with that leg, he thought worriedly, not at all liking the way she seemed to sway and stumble next to him.
He led her through the woods, letting her lean on him for support, trying to spare her sore leg. His vision seemed to blur from time to time, but when he blinked it would clear up just fine and when he discovered that the double vision could be fixed just by closing one eye, he trudged on, even more determined to get Ziva back to safety. He knew exactly where they had left Gibbs and the van. Ziva's injury was soon to be tended to and he was glad. She didn't look good at all.
As Tony stumbled forward, he closed his eyes periodically and let them stay shut for longer and longer periods, leaving Ziva to steer his increasingly weakening body clear from trees and rocks, guiding him in the right direction to the van. She felt a bit light headed, but when she shook her head the feeling vanished for a few minutes. She trudged on and prayed that Gibbs would be back by now, to take care of his Senior Field Agent. He didn't look good at all.
They finally reached the van and Gibbs was there and Tony couldn't have been more grateful.
"Boss, Ziva's injured!" he called out. "Call an ambulance!"
As Ziva saw Gibbs by the van, she eagerly called out to him. "Gibbs, Tony is hurt! Call an ambulance!"
Gibbs had been waiting a good length of time for his two agents, and when he finally heard the rustling in the woods, he drew breath to tell them exactly what he thought of their not answering their phones. As he saw the two of them, the curses stuck in his throat. They both seemed to be trying to tell him something, but it all came out as harsh murmurs and he didn't understand a thing.
He whipped out his phone and called for an ambulance.
"No more downplaying injuries!" Gibbs hollered at his two utterly stupid agents. "You are both going to the hospital and staying there for as long as the doctors think suitable! And if either of you question this order it will be one extra week of sick leave! You hear me?!"
His two injured agents nodded their heads sullenly.
"But, Boss, your arm looks as bad as Ziva's leg. Shouldn't you go to the hospital too…"
"Two weeks extra for you, DiNozzo!! Now shut up and get in the damn ambulance!"
The End
Gibbs is such a hypocrite... ;)