A/N: I had this blocked and pieces of key dialogue written ages ago, but a crazy-busy week at work foiled my plans to finish this up within a week. Now the race is on to finish by next weekend. Thanks to all who are keeping up with it!

I should have mentioned in the last chapter that the song Tony was quietly singing was Across the Universe by The Beatles—seemed somewhat fitting for where Tony's head was at.

Disclaimer: They're still not mine.


Before Tony had joined NCIS, he'd never given that much thought to his position on hospitals. He knew people, like Abby, who had hated them all their lives for what they represented. Who had spent time as kids visiting sick relatives, all the while thinking they were going to get better before losing them in the end. Tony had been one of those kids, but he'd never placed the blame on his mom's illness on the hospital. The hospital was where her pain would get a little easier to cope with. The hospital was where the bones in his arm were reset after he found out he actually couldn't fly. The hospital was where his cousin Gina had been born, bringing smiles to everyone's faces. How could the hospital be a bad place?

Now, Tony understood. The hospital was where you waited—and waited and waited—for news on how your boss was doing after he got blown up on a boat. It was where you were isolated when you had the plague. It was where they took your partner after she'd been shot between the eyes, even though it was clear she was already dead. It was where the woman you accidentally fell in love with worked before it all went to hell. It was where your current partner, the one you fell in love with probably before the other one, got taken to after she'd almost suffocated to death while asking you for help.

Hospitals, specifically the waiting areas, sucked.

Tony slumped down a little further in the plastic chair he'd been parked on for the last hour, but kept his eyes on the double doors that led to the emergency rooms. Sooner or later, Ducky was going to come out and tell him that Ziva was fine and all she needed was a good night's sleep. Then Tony would call Gibbs with an update, they'd make brief comments about what good news it was while they both tried to pretend that they hadn't actually been as shitscared as they'd seemed, and they'd move on with the investigation. Then he'd drive Ziva home, check every corner of her house for intruders, and sit outside her door all night with his gun cocked and ready to fire. Easy.

"You okay now?" Abby asked tiredly from beside him. All the adrenaline from earlier in the night had left her, and she was as slumped into her seat as Tony was, using his shoulder as a pillow.

"I was always okay," Tony replied with trademark bravado.

He heard Abby snort. "Okay. But you know how you were totally not okay tonight?" she tried. "How's that going?"

Tony rested his cheek on her head. "It's going fine. She's out, she's safe, so I'm okay. Are you okay?"

There was a pause before Abby gave him her honest answer. "I'm sick of always worrying about you guys."

"Me too," Tony admitted.

"Can't you all fight crime without going outside all the time?"

"Not until funding gets approved for that army of robots we've been hoping for."

Abby gently punched his thigh. When she spoke again, her voice was much kinder. "You did really good tonight, Tony." When he didn't reply, she rushed to explain things. "You know that, right? What you did for Ziva—how you kept talking to her and kept her calm, I mean. You should be proud. I mean, you should be proud of getting her out of the hole, too. But if I had to keep talking to someone in that situation and had to make them believe that it was going to be okay?" She shook her head. "No way I could have done that. But you kept it together, Tony. And you kept Ziva together. You were a rock star tonight."

Tony thought for a moment. "I honestly can't remember a single thing that came out of my mouth," he said honestly.

"The adrenaline's messing with you," Abby said with a smile. "Don't worry. You didn't tell her anything embarrassing."

That gave Tony a moment of relief. Until he considered the source. His idea of embarrassing could vary greatly from Abby's at times. No point worrying about it now, though.

"Thanks for going hardass on me before when I was about to have a panic attack," he said.

"Anytime."

He turned his head to press a kiss to her forehead. "We'll go to the movies next weekend."

Abby smirked. She seriously doubted that Tony would venture more than two steps away from Ziva for the next week. "Sure."

She lifted her head from his shoulder and sat up straighter as she tried to stretch out her back. She tried to fold herself so that her knees were tented and her heels were on the edge of the seat, but her four-inch platforms made it impossible. She turned towards Tony and crossed her legs instead, ignoring the small, amused smile on his face.

"So," she began, gearing up to kick his ass again. "You're not going to wait any longer, right?"

Tony rolled his shoulders. "For what?"

"To tell Ziva you love her," Abby said bluntly. "You're going to tell her as soon as you see her, right?"

Tony's head whipped around to her so fast Abby swore she felt the displacement of air. For a moment they locked eyes, and Abby was sure he was going to be honest with her. But then he plastered on a big, fake Tony smile and she knew she'd have to beat it out of him.

"What are you talking about?" he chuckled. "You're crazy when you're tired, you know that? Is that why you always have so much Caf-Pow?"

Abby rolled her eyes. "Okay, now that you've gotten the obligatory denial out of your system, you can cut the crap."

Tony stared back at her silently, his smile fading fast. She grabbed his arm and shook him.

"Stop wasting time, Tony," she practically begged.

Tony assessed the situation quickly. Abby was on to him. Abby loved being right. Abby could probably dig up some of Tony's juvenile antics from his past and hold it over his head until she was satisfied he was telling her the truth. Abby was also probably the only person he could be 100 per cent straight with and not worry about her using it against him. He sighed and gave in.

"Now's not a good time."

Abby threw her hands up. "There's never a good time, Tony. Sometimes you just have to jump and trust that you'll fall in the right place."

He shook his head. "Emotions are running too high," he tried to explain. "I don't want to be the guy who only comes clean because he almost lost the chance. I want to be the guy who comes clean because…" He tried to think of how to explain it honestly. "Because of nothing important. Because she was just in my life that day. Because she said something that made me laugh, or flicked her hair in a way that made me want to kiss her. When I tell her, I want her to know I'm doing it because I love her. Not because I almost lost her."

"Aw, Tony," Abby sighed.

He swallowed and added, "Besides, if I come clean tonight, I can't guarantee that the adrenaline won't make me bust her out of here and take her to live in a fortress on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific, guarded by man-eating sharks and motion-detecting uzis."

Abby absorbed the scenario. "Okay, tonight's probably not a good night, then. But soon, Tony."

"Yes. Soon," he promised.

After a beat of silence, she asked, "You've out a lot of thought into the deserted island thing, haven't you?"

Tony nodded. "Yes. I have."

"You'd need cable," Abby pointed out.

"Definitely."

They shared a smile, and then looked up to see Ducky coming their way. They both sat up straighter as the ME regarded them with a kind smile.

"What's the news, Duck?" Tony asked.

"It's good," Ducky replied. "Ziva has a slight concussion, and some nasty bruising around her ribs, but nothing that requires more assistance than some hospital-grade painkillers. The drugs used to tranquillise her should be out of her system by morning, and she's breathing well. Her blood pressure is good. They'll keep her in overnight as a precaution, though."

Tony and Abby stared at him in silence. Sure, it was the scenario they'd both been hoping for, but when it came to hospitals, how often did you get what you were hoping for?

"That's it?" Abby asked.

Ducky frowned as he misunderstood her question. "It's very good news, Abigail," he spelt out.

Tony and Abby quickly got to their feet, wearing matching smiles.

"Thanks, Ducky. Can we sneak in?" Tony asked.

Ducky gestured over his shoulder towards the hallway. "Yes, of course. This way."

As Abby grabbed Ducky's hand and started skipping along beside him, Tony pulled out his cell and dialled Gibbs to give him an update. As expected, they both played down how worried they'd been, and focused the conversation on the investigation.

"I've had three teams go over the scene, but it's pretty clean, aside from the tracks," Gibbs said. "Right now a backhoe's lifting out the rest of the dirt from the hole. I'll have them send it to Abby, along with the plastic cuffs and Ziva's cell."

Tony nodded as he watched Ducky and Abby enter Ziva's room. Sparing no thought for Ziva's ribs, Abby launched herself at her friend and wrapped her arms around her.

"Abigail," Ducky admonished.

From the doorway, Tony caught Ziva's gaze. She dramatically widened her eyes over Abby's shoulder for him, and Tony sent her a megawatt smile. Ziva returned a smaller, but no less genuine one.

"You send someone over to the park yet?" Tony asked. "They might've left something behind."

"Thompson's team is over there now. We'll head over soon."

"Thanks, Gibbs," he said, intending to wind up the conversation.

"You work out why they left Ziva with her phone yet?" Gibbs asked.

Tony stepped out of the room and kept his voice down so as not to upset Ziva. "They didn't want to kill her," he replied. "They wanted to scare her. Or us, assuming they knew who she was."

When Gibbs didn't reply, Tony challenged, "You got a better idea?"

"No. I agree with you," Gibbs replied.

Tony rolled his eyes and threw his hand up at the lack of communication skills his boss sometimes possessed. "Alright, well finish up at the scene and we'll get to the who and the why of the puzzle tomorrow. Tell Probie I want him to go over every millisecond of that footage from the park."

"I'll let him know."

The beat of silence that followed was long enough for Tony to wonder if Gibbs had hung up on him. He was about to hang up himself when Gibbs voice came back over the line.

"Good job, Tony."

Tony tried to ignore the shot of pride that Gibbs' approval gave him. Surely it shouldn't matter right now. "Thanks, boss."

"Tell Ziva to rest," he said.

Tony hung up and headed back to Ziva's room, his 'all is well' act already in place for his final performance of the night.

Once more, with feeling, he thought to himself.


Was that too sappy? I hope that wasn't too sappy. Chapters 8 and 9 are up now if you want to click on through.