Ah, so here it is the second chapter of this story. I want to thank everyone who gave feedback or simply is following this story. You guys are amazing! This chapter is more emotional for the characters than the last chapter. Well I'll let you get to it. Enjoy!

The sounds of the oncoming sirens in the distance, reminded him that this was reality. His reality. This wasn't some crazy dream he would wake up from at any moment.

Hell, he would give anything for this to all be a dream, but the lifeless form under him proved that this wasn't anywhere close to a dream.

The sirens were getting closer. He could see the faint shadows of the bright red and blue lights in the distance.

"They're almost here. They're almost here." He was chanting it more to himself, than to her. They were almost here and then she would be fine. Everything would be fine. He was praying in the back of his mind that she was still here with him in this mess. That he wasn't doing all of this just to hang onto a corpse.

He continued on with the chest compressions, counting to thirty each time.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5…he repeated each number in his head, careful not to skip a beat.

His eyes were starting to get blurry from the unshed tears in his eyes. He wouldn't let them fall because he had to be strong for her. This was her best chance at living because in this moment he was her lifeline.

He once heard Ducky use the phrase "hanging on by a thread." He thought at this moment it really applied to her. Her life was hanging on by a threat…a very thin thread. At all costs he was determined not to let her thread break. If her thread broke…his was going to break with hers.

"Please, please don't do this," he whispered. "You're not allowed to die! Do you hear me? You don't have my permission to die! I need you. So you can't give up, not now." This fight for her life was defeating him because he felt like he was losing badly.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13…he repeated.

"Ziver! DiNozzo! Where are you?" He heard Gibbs' voice echo from behind.

He didn't stop what he was doing. He didn't care if his boss saw him crack under the pressure. He had to keep fighting for her life. He continued to count to thirty, before pressing his lips against her clammy ones.

"Ziver! DiNozzo!" Gibbs' voice was getting closer.

He could feel the burning stare of the concerned blue eyes of the man he always thought to be his father figure in a way.

"DiNozzo…" Gibbs whispered, looking at Ziva's limp body next to his agent. Tony looked like he was going to fall apart at any moment. He didn't want to show Tony that this scared the hell out of him. Just looking at Ziva motionless was enough to send him over the edge. He had to be the strong one because the man in front of him was falling apart and he couldn't afford to either.

"She hasn't responded at all. She's not responding to me. She's not breathing… I need her to breathe, Gibbs. I just need her to start breathing. I don't…I don't know how long I've been trying to breathe for her. I just need her to breathe…just breathe, please," his voice cracked. "Just breathe! Please, please I just need you to starting breathing Ziva."

"The ambulance is almost here, Tony." He replied in a calming voice.

"Please, please just get help. It needs to be here now! She isn't going to make it. She needs it now," he begged, continuing CPR.

"There they are!" With that Gibbs ran from Tony's sight, towards the bright, flashing lights in the distance.

"Help is coming, Zi. You just have to hang on, hang on for me. It's just a little bit longer." He looked at her closed eyes, continuing to press his lips against hers. In spite of the exhaustion creeping in, he fought for her.

It wasn't long before Gibbs had come back with help. The paramedics looked at the scene unfolding before them.

Tony's compressions got stronger, but now it was time to let go. He needed to let her go so she could get the help that she needed from the medics. If he would have been enough help, she would already have been awake. Her dark brown eyes staring back at him, telling him that was all just a bad dream.

"Tony… You have to let her go. They need to do their jobs. You've done all you can do right now for her." He rested his hand on Tony's shoulder.

"You don't understand I can't…" He looked upwards at the paramedics. Their faces all held the same expression, sadness.

"Okay, Tony. May I call you that?" The female paramedic looked down at him.

He simply nodded, not giving up on compressions.

"Good," she nodded. "Erin here is going to take over compressions for you." She indicated the older woman standing next to her.

"I can't stop. I have to help her," he whispered, tears slowly falling down his cheeks. "I have to help her…because I love her!" He didn't care if he just admitted to Gibbs that he loved her. He would scream it to the whole world if he had to. He was madly in love with Ziva David. He didn't care who knew anymore because it wasn't a secret. He had always loved her.

The female paramedic bent down next to him. "You have to let us take over, Tony."

"But I…"

"This is her only chance to live. She needs help and she can't get the kind of help she needs on this dock. Okay?"

The paramedic was right. There was nothing more he could do for her. He had done all he could do for her right now. It was time to let others help her because he wasn't getting anywhere with her.

"Okay," he whispered. He stopped the compressions and the female paramedic quickly took over compressions.

He felt like a failure because he couldn't even do enough to bring her back.

It was like Somalia all over again. He didn't do enough for her then. He had let her stay in Israel and that ended up getting her killed…so he thought. He went there with only death in his heart to get revenge on the man who had practically killed her. When Saleem took that bag off the unknown figure's head, he practically stopped breathing. She was alive, she was sitting right there in front of him. She was talking and breathing. Sure she was a different person, but still she was alive. All that time he had thought she was dead. She was alive and he wasn't going to let her go. Not this time.

He watched as the paramedics carefully maneuvered her limp body onto the gurney. They spit some medical information around, before bagging her, causing the bag to breathe for her now.

"Okay, let's move!" The paramedics wheeled the gurney to the awaiting ambulance.

"Where are you taking her?" Gibbs shouted to the female paramedic.

"We're taking her to Bethesda Naval Hospital." The paramedic shouted, before closing the doors. The ambulance sped off, sirens blaring.

Gibbs turned around, seeing Tony stare off into the distance as the speeding ambulance got farther away into the distance.

"DiNozzo?" Gibbs questioned. "Are you coming?"

"Let's go!" They both made their way to the car. Gibbs put it in drive, before speeding off into the direction the ambulance had gone only a few moments earlier.

"Gibbs?" Tony whispered.

"Hm…?" Gibbs questioned, swerving in between the cars on the highway.

"I failed her," he whispered. His heart was shattering into a million pieces, nothing could fix this.

Gibbs swerved the car to the side of the road, putting it into park. "Hey! You do not get to say that. You did not fail her! You could never fail her. So don't ever think that for a moment." His tone became softer. "If it weren't for you she could still be at the bottom of that river. She could be dead."

"She is dead! She's been dead since I pulled her out! Don't you see? This is my fault! It took me three times to find her. Three! All I did was CPR and it got her nowhere…" His voice broke with each word that came out of his mouth.

"You gave her a chance, DiNozzo. You gave her a second chance. So don't think for a moment that you failed her. You saved her. You don't know if she is dead."

"She is! She was so blue and cold. She wasn't breathing or responding at all. I felt for a pulse and I got nothing! Nothing, not even one damn beat." He put his face in his hands.

"She has hypothermia. I've seen people come back from this, meaning I'm not giving up on her and neither should you. You're her partner. You don't have the right to give up on her, not yet." The man looked at the younger agent. This was a member of their family in a crisis. "Don't give up yet, DiNozzo. She wouldn't want you to give up on her." Gibbs hated what he was about to say, but it needed to be said. "If the roles were reversed she wouldn't give up on you either."

"What if she doesn't come back?" More unshed tears fell from his eyes. "What if she…dies?"

"Until someone tells me that she is clinically dead I'm not giving up. You're not giving up on her."

"But…"

"No, we are going to go to the hospital. She is going to wake up and when she does she's going to need you." Gibbs put the car into drive and continued the drive to the hospital. He looked at the man sitting beside him. In the back of his mind he was praying that this would all be okay. That Ziva would come back because in spite of all the bad things that have happened to her in her life, she always came back.

If she didn't come back from this, he knew the man beside him wouldn't be the same man he is now. He didn't know if anyone would be the same if Ziva didn't come back. She needed to come back because she was a part of their family. She didn't have his permission to die.

Please, please Ziva you have to come back. Not just for me, but for Tony.

He looked at Tony out of the corner of his eyes and saw the tears slowly fall from the man's face.

She was going to come back or they were all going down with her.

I hope to have the next chapter up by the end of this week at the lastest. Feedback is appreciated. Thanks for reading!