Disclaimer: These characters? Not mine. The show? Also not mine.


The phone rang four times before Abby came on the line, sounding just as perky as she had at 7am. "Hey, Ziva! What's up? You want to go to that movie after all?"

Ziva almost burst into tears in relief. "Abby! Oh my God! Your name is Abby! Starts with an 'A'." She couldn't believe her luck. "Thank you, God."

Abby was quiet for a second before playing along with her strange behaviour. "Uh, yeah. It's a good name. Are you okay? You sound like you're calling from a—"

"Coffin," Ziva broke in, hearing her voice distort with the tightness of her throat. "I think. I am almost certain. I need your help."

Abby sounded amused, rather than worried. "A coffin? Are you at my place?"

Ziva sighed and rolled her eyes. Out of everyone, only Abby wouldn't be immediately concerned by someone calling her from a coffin. "No, Abby. I don't know where I am."

"What's going on?" Abby asked, starting to sound a little more worried.

"I don't know what's going on!" Ziva yelled back, then thought better of it. Yelling got Abby upset, and Ziva didn't need an upset Abby adding to her problems right now. "I'm sorry, Abby. I just need help."

"Ziva, hold on," Abby said to her, then started yelling. "Tony! Tony, come here. It's Ziva. She's in trouble."

Ziva heard Tony's voice faintly on the line before Abby said to him, "I don't know! Something about a coffin."

"Ziva?" Tony's concerned voice filled the coffin.

"Tony!" she yelled, surprised by how desperate her own voice sounded, and the tears suddenly in her eyes.

"What's going on? Are you okay?"

"No," she replied quickly, hearing the hysteria creeping into her voice but not even caring anymore. "I am far from okay. I just woke up in a coffin with my arms tied behind my back and my legs bound. It's pitch black, there's no sound coming in and it smells like dirt in here."

There was a pause while Tony processed that, then he took a deep breath. When he replied, his voice was calm, even if it was obvious he wasn't. "Okay. What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was running in the park near my apartment."

"Did anyone approach you?"

"I don't remember."

"Where were you? On the path?"

"Yes."

"Good. Where?"

"I don't remember."

"Did you pass the lake?"

"Yes. And the south gates." She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to remember. "I think I had passed that spot near the picnic tables. Where we had to stop that time when Gibbs called?"

"Good," Tony encouraged. "When was that?"

"I don't know how long ago!" Ziva yelled, getting panicked again.

"Ziva, listen to me," he said seriously. "I asked when it was, not how long ago."

She knew he was trying to get her to think rationally. "I went out as soon as I got home. I think it was just after 1900 when I left. So maybe it was 1930."

There was a longer pause, and it didn't fill her with confidence.

"Tony? What time is it?"

"It's coming up on 2100."

Ziva blinked in the dark. "Oh."

There was silence across the phone line as they both considered that. There was only enough air in a coffin above ground to last maybe five hours. Underground, it had to be half that. And she'd already used up about half of that.

"I'm going to die in here," she stated, her voice wavering now.

"No, you're not," Tony said firmly, then tried to make a joke. "Geez, Ziva. Show some faith in your partner, okay?"

"I do have faith in you," she argued.

"Abby, get Gibbs on the phone now and tell him to meet us in your lab," Tony said. "Zi? Is your cell phone fully charged?"

She sniffed back some tears. "I charged it this morning, and we spent most of the day in the office, so it would be close."

Tony sounded relieved. "Okay. This is going to be a piece of cake. Seriously, Ziva. We're going to look back on this next week and wonder why we even bothered to panic. Abby and I are at this minute heading out to the car. We'll put in the little flashing red light and we'll be in her lab in under 20 minutes. And then it'll only take her two minutes to pick up the GPS signal on your phone, and we'll know exactly where to lead the cavalry to. See? Cake."

Ziva wished she could share his forced optimism. "You're not the one stuck in a box six feet under," she said quietly.

She heard him sigh. "Not physically." When she didn't say anything, he started making declarations. "I promise you, Ziva. I promise I will find you, and I promise I will get you out of there, and I promise I will make you dinner tomorrow and let you watch that stupid Henry VIII show you love so much on my big TV all weekend. Okay?"

Ziva let out a laugh, or was it a sob? "Okay."

"Do you believe me?"

"I believe you," she told him. He would find her. She just wasn't confident it would be before her air ran out.

He hesitated. "Just hold on, okay?" There was a pleading note to his voice that stabbed at her heart. "As soon as we know where you are…I'm going to make your driving look like my nonna's. That's how fast we're going to get there."

Ziva had to swallow the lump in her throat to reply. "Okay."

She heard two doors slamming, and then an engine roaring to life. At least they'd made it to the car now. She heard some muffled talking on his end, then his voice came back clearly.

"Abby says Gibbs is halfway to the lab already, and he's calling Ducky and McGee." She heard a horn blare, and Tony swear loudly. "Fuck! Abby, it's not World's Wildest Police Videos!"

"This punk's disobeying the little flashing red light!" Abby argued.

"Don't ram him in response! Go around!"

Ziva held her breath, waiting for the crunch and sound of shattering glass. It didn't come.

"Ziva?"

"Still here."

"Aside from being buried alive, are you okay? Are you in pain?"

She'd hoped he wouldn't ask, but it would be cruel to lie. He needed all the information she could give. "I think I have broken some ribs. And my head hurts a lot."

"Where?"

"At the back."

"Sure that's not just from Gibbs today?"

She laughed for him. "Yes."

"We'll bring Ducky with us.

"Tony, I think I've been drugged as well. I feel…off."

"Don't worry. You can sleep it off when we get you out."

After a few moments of silence, wherein Ziva again took stock of the situation, a fresh set of tears fell down her cheeks. She hated feeling so helpless, but that's exactly what she was right now. It was the helplessness that was making her panic.

"Tony?"

"Yeah, beautiful?" he sighed, his voice breaking on the term of affection that had tumbled out of his mouth without thought.

"Don't tell anyone, but I'm really scared," she said honestly.

She heard him sniff. "I am too. But try to relax and save some energy for how much you're going to kiss me after I get you out

Ziva groaned at the truth in the statement. "Oh my God, Tony. You're going to get it. I swear."

She heard the smile in his voice. "Well. If anything will light a fire under me, that will."


Chapter 3 will be up tomorrow. Why don't you set yourself up with an alert? After reviewing, of course.