Title: Simple Operations

Chapter: Visitors

Word Count: 2,396

Summary: All it takes is a single bullet, to ruin friendships and careers, to make friends and find love and turn colleagues into much more than that. The only thing they have to do to make life something better for all of them, is live.

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When they declared Ziva stable enough for visitors, Abby had been the first to rush to her bedside; her hand claimed the only hand that could be held. McGee sat beside Abby, resting a palm on her leg, hoping to give her any comfort than he could. Gibbs had waited a while, he let Abby get out the next set of tears that smudged her makeup and made her look ten years younger. Gibbs hated seeing his team this way, so broken down. What he needed, what he though Ziva needed, was for Abby to have that bullet, and start processing evidence. It'd been hours since they got here, Agent Lee's team had to have something for them.

Yet a silence settled over them, not a comfortable, companionable silence, but the kind that chilled you to the bone, interrupted only by sometimes uneven beeping. It was Ziva's heart they were hearing, yet it sputtered, and sometimes got a bit too fast; more than once they were pushed out of the room for a 'code blue', Doctor Mariner keeping them updated when they couldn't be in the room.

"Abby," Gibbs called, leaning against the glass of the ICU, his face still a mask of hidden worry and the slightest bit of guilt. No one else might have seen it but it was plain as day to Abby, and she threw her arms around him, knowing he wouldn't push her away just yet.

"She'll be okay, won't she Gibbs?" Abby asked softly, her eyes melting a bit more, tears giving them a glassy look. "Ziva's strong, Gibbs! She has to make it."

He stood in silence, knowing she was talking more to herself than anyone else. When she looked up to him for reassurance, he nodded. "Yeah Abby, Ziva's strong, she'll make it. You know she'll make it," he pointed out for good measure. Abby smiled softly, the worn expression brightening her face as she grabbed for ponytails holders, starting to put her hair up.

"Rule number eight, right Gibbs?"

Smiling for the first time that night he even managed a rough laugh. "That's my girl. Do you think you could head back to you lab to check the evidence? Mariner said he'd sent the bullet and Lee's team has to have something at this point."

"What if she wakes up?" Abby asked, looking distraught that Ziva might wake up while she was away. She wanted to support Ziva in every step of her recovery, that was the kind of person, the kind of friend that she was.

"She'll understand," he assured her; he had no doubt that she would want the person who shot her behind bars. Though, it would take some convincing to make her not want to participate in the interrogation, even if she couldn't walk there were still things that Mossad had taught her and he understood wanting revenge, but he planned to get it for her.

Sighing, Abby nodded, grabbing McGee by the corner of his jacket and tugging. "Come on, we're going back to the lab." He made to protest but Abby shot him a look that made him nod, following after her without another word.

Gibbs took his chance, Mariner had cleared them to go back into the room and he knew, despite his rules, that Tony needed a while to think, he couldn't have his senior agent suffering from guilt when he was going to be needed.

"You need a moment with her DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, though he knew the answer and was going to make him. He knew what Tony needed.

Tony looked at him for a moment before nodding, his quiet state testament to the fact Gibbs was right, even if he didn't know it yet.


Tony walked to the bedside, his hand hovering over hers before running his fingers, lightly, over the curve of her hand. "Abby went back to the lab with McGee, process evidence, you know the drill. Abs took a good bit of convincing though. Gibbs gave me the chance to come talk with you… well, speak to you alone." Tony leaned against the wall, his eyes settling anywhere but her face. It wasn't like she had a bullet hole in her forehead like Kate did, but it felt wrong seeing her like this. Her attentive eyes were closed, with the two codes that had already been called… he thought her eyes may never open again.

"You don't look right in the hospital," he commented. "It's all the tubes and IVs, you're supposed to be invincible you know. There aren't a lot of movies where the tough Israeli dies, especially if she's a woman." Tony looked up at the heart rate monitor… the beeping was steady.

"Actually," he started with just a bit of a laugh. "There was the movie 'Don't Mess with the Zohan' recently, Adam Sandler, funny guy, plays an Israeli counter terrorist. He has to defeat this terrorist who wants to kill him, only he has to do it through hacky sack and saving neighborhoods," Tony paused, for once, retelling a movie he enjoyed didn't lift his spirits, it was seeing her like this…

"I feel really guilty Ziva," his voice was soft, the heart rate monitor jumped a couple of digits, confirmation… she heard, even if she didn't understand. "You suggested I sit on the other side of you, I hope you didn't feel the target on you, only Gibbs is supposed to have ninja instincts."

Looking out the window, Tony took the chance to look away from Ziva, his eyes darker than normal, fear, guilt, and trepidation getting to him. If he looked at her… he knew she'd know. You didn't have to see someone's eyes to feel their gaze on you. She'd noticed something in his eyes before, the way pupils dilated, something let him be read like a book, but kept her a complete mystery.

Tony felt the corners of his lips pull up, though he sure as hell didn't feel like smiling. "I'm normally so good with women too, yet you," he couldn't finish. Walking back to her bedside, he sat down, not hesitating as he took her hand in his. It was soft; he'd expected fingers as callused as his own.

His eyes were resolute, soft, though his expression was set in steel, unbendable. "I'll help you Ziva, when you wake up, hell, I'll carry you if you want me to. Before I can do that though, you have to stay with us, and you have to wake up when you can. I need you to wake up," he admitted. "We all need you to wake up, okay Ziva?"

The beeping picked up again, the numbers sputtering up till they reached one-fifty. Tony smiled roughly, running a finger along hers. He knew she'd try; she wasn't the type to give up.


Abby's lab was too quiet. She didn't have any music for a friend who was nearly dying. Dirges, they didn't fit, she didn't want them to fit in Ziva's case. There were other types of music that could be considered, lots of break up music, vengeful and some down right creepy. Emily Autumn worked in some ways, but Abby wasn't just angry. She was very, very angry, but she was mourning at the same time… wanted nothing more than to see Ziva get better.

If only she liked country music. She was sure there was some sort of song in that genre for this sort of situation; country music was really, really depressing.

Abby settled on working in silence, heading to the box of evidence sitting on her table. A scrap of paper, shoe prints from a combat boot, photos and guesses at trajectory… it was all there, and it was hard to look at.

When she got out the dress… that was when she started crying again, the black of the mascara and the tears blurring her vision.

Her gloves on, she poked a finger through the hole in the dress after measuring the diameter. "We have to get whoever did this," she whispered to a nearby bobble head, pressing its head and watching it nod. Abby plucked the imbedded strains of Kevlar out of the silk, trying to see how clearly defined the shape was.

It was distinct, circular, and long-distance-looking. Picking up a picture of the scene she walked over to her computer, pulling up a 3D model of the restaurant and the surrounding area. The bullet was only stopped by the Kevlar in the back, so she could use the indentation to figure out its speed… leaving variables for the type of gun she mapped out the trajectory, accounting for windows and doors.

It only took a few moments for her to get her answers, her smile of satisfaction at getting them quickly faded. It was a sniper, it had to be, a good one at that to even hit Ziva… if not for the breeze... oh god.

Abby wiped away the tears that had collected and grabbed for her phone.


Ari was with Ziva, in her mind. He rolled his eyes and looked out the window of the safe house, moving his bishop forward on the board, his lips pulling back over white teeth. "Check," he stated, though his tone was reprimanding. There was something familiar in the curve of his eyes; the familiar color beckoned her, though it turned most away instantly.

"Your eyes are lovely Ziva," he said, a corner of his mouth pulling up as she pulled a hand back from her knight.

"Stop trying to mess me up Ari," she murmured in hushed Hebrew. "It won't work this time," she informed, moving her knight and taking herself out of check.

He laughed a deep, rumbling laugh that seemed to start far inside of him. Ari's fingers were sure as they moved his Queen. "You see this lady?" He pointed to the queen. "She's the most powerful player on the board, she can move where ever she needs. I understand why there are women in Mossad, they are powerful. No one stops a woman in her respectable garb, she doesn't appear threatening."

Ziva heard the chauvinism in his voice, she just ignored it though. Even her father was a chauvinist, no matter the fact his daughters were in the field, just like his sons.

Her own Queen was in danger; Ari's knight was posed to take her. There was a move that would save her, and Ziva took it, her eyes shining.

"Check," she called, the corners of her lips pulling up as Ari smiled.

When he stood, she stood, and the surroundings faded around them.

Ari's expression turned into a dangerous one, his eyes flashing as he pushed her against a blank wall. "Why Ziva?" he whispered to her, running a calloused fingers over her cheek, his teeth clamping. "You could have let Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs die. There would have been fallout, but I could have kept us safe on the run." Ari paused in his anger, scowling, "Not only did you kill me; you took my body back to Tel Aviv. The least you could have done for me was dumping my body in the river!" His nostrils flared and Ziva watched. Her heart didn't want to break for her half-brother, little pieces chipped away though, and the pain was growing with every piece.

A hand found her throat, keeping her pressed to the wall as he leaned into her, peppermint and the faint scent of chewing tobacco on his breath… still the same after all this time. His eyes beckoned her in no matter how dangerous they looked.

"I had to do the right thing. If I had let Gibbs die you would have killed me, you know you would have Ari! It's instinct to cover your tracts. Plus, you were working for Hamas, I couldn't have trusted you if I'd wanted to," Ziva's voice was hard, but it wavered, her eyes wavered.

"Convince yourself of that, you'll never convince me if you can't convince yourself," a smile warped his face as he pressed into her windpipe, leaving her unable to draw breath.

Ari's deep voice, a rumble that rose from the middle of him, quivered as he began to sing a mourning prayer for Ziva. He stroked her cheek as he strangled her, watching as her eyes attempted to lull back into her head, and she fought futilely for breath.

Everything began to fade, except the hand on her throat and the sweet trill of Ari's song, rising above the pain… consuming her.


"She's coding!" Nurse Brenda shouted. Her desperate tone let Tony know this wasn't good even before he was pushed out of the room.

"How long?" Mariner called as he ran into the room, looking up at the plummeting heart rate on the monitor above Ziva's bed, it had flat lined only a moment before.

"Twenty seconds, tops," Brenda assured as she ran for a crash cart. Mariner's hands rested over her chest and pushed, trying desperately to restart her heart. He knew this patient wasn't too far gone, he could still save her.

Tony looked to Gibbs with wide, desperate eyes, and the eyes that met his were masked. Gibbs wouldn't let his own panic affect Tony. No one wanted it to end like this. Tony had smiled and Gibbs had assumed he wasn't loosing another agent. Abby thought Ziva was stable.

Nothing was in the air for a long time, no breathing, no hope, no silence, yet no one paid attention to the sound. Agonizing second after agonizing second ticked by, every tick of the clock hurt like a stab to the heart; Tony could hardly keep his knees from buckling under him.

It was a minute. Her heart stopped for more than a minute, exactly eighty-two seconds. She had left them for over a minute, she'd left him for more than a minute.

It was hard to imagine what had possibly happened to cause Ziva to come so close to death. Tony didn't even want to guess why. Gibbs… he'd never admit it, but his gut had warned him something was wrong. He'd heard the prayer that Ziva had sung to her brother, it's tone darker and the voice that sung it stronger, it's sweet trill rising above all of his worries.


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A/N: Don't expect updates that fast normally. It was the number of reviews that inspired me. Also, I got to pen down the last line or two during class so I had a good starting point. Let me tell you, eighth grade is a drag. Also! If you liked it, are p. at me, or want to give me feedback you should leave me a review… you've seen how it stimulates the update monkeys.