Chapter 7
A/N: thanks for all the reviews and don't worry, no one will die. Yet.
Tony felt numb as he walked through the rain downtown. He was soaking wet but he didn't care. All he cared about was her. He walked a few more blocks and finally stopped at a small cafe. It was fairly empty except for one man in the corner and a young couple by the wall. Tony walked over to the seat opposite him.
"This seat taken?" he asked.
"It's all yours." Malachi Ben-Gidon said as he picked his head up from the newspaper he was reading.
"How's Ziva?" Malachi asked as Tony sat down.
"we can't find her but Ducky, thinks that after all the blood loss..." Tony trailed off knowing that there was no need to continue. Malachi pushed a cup of coffee his way and he accepted gratefully.
"I have a contact in Boston that I've told to be on the lookout. He said that he saw a woman that resembled Ziva downtown buying a train ticket. Then again, Boston is a very big city." he said. He picked up his coffee and took a sip. "my contact lost the woman shortly after, she also had no signs of physical harm so it is unlikely her."
"Eli is very worried." Malachi said. "He is distracted."
"What do you know about the guys that showed up at Dulles?" Tony asked suddenly.
"We think that they are guns for hire. We have had no more luck tracking down the man giving the orders than you have." he sighed. "There is something that Eli is keeping a secret and I think that is the same secret that Ziva has been keeping from you."
"any ideas?" Tony asked.
Malachi looked around, he continued but the volume of his voice was much lower.
"Ziva has been trying to contact Ari's half-sister, Alina. She was a doctor in Gaza like her mother but she disappeared shortly after the Hamas suicide bombing that killed Ziva's sister Tali. The odd thing was that, we found Alina a year later, in France, under an assumed name. No one knows why or where she is now." he finished.
"the guys that chased Ziva on the Tarmac are French." Tony said.
"Mossad is thinking that this may be connected to an up and coming French arms dealer. This arms dealer has known connections to Hamas and Al Qaeda." Malachi said as he swept the room with his eyes again. "but it is only speculation that this dealer is involved."
"so we have nothing." Tony said defeated.
"pretty much." Malachi said. "but, Mossad is very tuned into all of our inter-national channels right now. We will find out what is going on."
Tony sighed. Malachi looked at him and Tony spilled.
"With the amount blood found at both crime scenes that was Ziva's, our M.E. doesn't think that she could've survived."
Malachi's expression saddened.
"that's not all." Tony said. He took a deep breath and tried to tell himself that the walls were not closing in. There was air in the room, and he was not suffocating. "She was pregnant."
"Ray's?" Malachi asked quickly.
"no, mine." Tony said, then a thought hit him. "what's CI-Ray been up to lately?"
"he's in Tel Aviv last we knew. The CIA is up to something but they're trying to keep us out of the loop. Kort is involved in there somewhere." Malachi said.
Tony rubbed his face with his hands. "you've got to be kidding me."
Malachi's phone vibrated and he picked it up.
"This is odd." Malachi scrunched up his face. "I'm sorry but I have to go." he said quickly and stood up.
"wait! Is it Ziva?" Tony asked as he got up and caught Malachi by the arm.
"no but it could be related." he said and started walking again but Tony stopped him.
"don't tell, Eli, about Ziva's...our baby." Tony said pleadingly. "if she can't tell him herself...I would like to."
Malachi smiled softly and reassuringly before he quickly walked out of the door and down the street.
Tony was left standing by the table, feeling utterly alone. All of these people were trying to figure out what was going on but no one was getting anywhere and it baffled him.
He walked solemnly out into the night promising himself that he would find her, alive and well with their child.
"are you alright?" The man that pulled her in asked.
"no, one bullet went into my thigh, I don't think it hit anything important." she winced as she continued applying pressure to her wound. "one through and through in my bicep."
"it's a miracle that one was through and through and not through and through and back in." the man said checking her torso for blood. "my name's Keith by the way." he said as he patched up her arm and stopped the bleeding. He was a middle aged looking man with sandy blonde hair and a deep southern accent.
Ziva grunted and attempted a smile in acknowledgement.
"we're going to land just outside of Boston." he held up a passport and driver's license. "you're Anita Swanson, 28 years old. Involved in a drive by but you can't remember where or when or who. Got it?" he asked.
Ziva was having trouble focusing and she felt light headed.
"Tony..." Ziva murmured. "tell Tony...I'm pregnant..."
Keith's eyes opened up a little wider.
"Sam, we gotta land early, she needs real medical help now. She's pregnant and she's lost a good bit of blood already." Keith yelled over the roar of the engines.
"that won't be a problem because they I'm having some technical difficulties with our plane." Sam yelled back. "we won't make it to Boston but we'll be pretty close."
"can ya' hang on for another half hour?" Keith asked her.
She nodded while squeezing her eyes shut tight.
"I promise you, that we'll get ya' help and keep ya' safe." he said smoothly.
The half hour passed in what seemed like 3 hours to Ziva. She still hadn't stopped bleeding and she was floating on the border of consciousness.
"Keith!" Sam yelled.
"what?"
"I don't know! Everything just stopped working!" Sam yelled.
Everyone felt a strong jolt and the plane start to dip down.
Keith looked out the small window and saw that the left wing had caught fire. But how?
"STRAP HER IN TIGHT!" Sam yelled. "WE'RE IN FOR A ROUGH LANDING."
The plane's speed got faster and faster as gravity pulled it back to earth.
Ziva didn't know if this was real or if she was just delirious. Keith had strapped her in tightly and she couldn't move.
She could see Sam in the cockpit, struggling for control. Keith shuffled over to her and strapped himself in.
"BRACE YOURSELVES!" Sam yelled.
Ziva felt them start slowing down as they hit the tops of trees. Suddenly the plane flat out dropped. Ziva's head hit the side of the plane and everything went black.
"errrr..." she groaned. The only part of her body that she could feel was her head and it was pounding. She had to pry her opens open. She looked around to see that they had crashed. Her vision was hazy but she could make out the fire that was engulfing the front end of the plane.
Suddenly she felt Keith unbuckle her and pick her up. He took her out if the plane and once they were a safe distance away, he set her down.
He took out his phone and called someone. He said a few quick words that sounded distorted to Ziva. He put his phone back in his pocket.
"can you walk?" he asked her.
She managed to nod and picked herself up. Her leg hurt but she had dealt with worse. She took a moment to see that they had just exited a small clearing and were now going deeper in the woods. Keith had already started walking slowly while he tried to find some sort of trail. She caught up with him and they walked for what seemed like an hour before they hit a road.
"Keith..." Ziva started, out of breathe. Her headache was only getting worse and her limbs had gone numb.
Before he could answer, a car pulled up beside them and Keith opened the door for her to get in.
She smiled weakly and climbed in the back. Keith followed and shut the door behind him.
Ziva laid her head back and shut her eyes. She was exhausted and felt terrible. She prayed that none of her injuries were enough to hurt her baby.
"Ziva, don't go to sleep." Keith said. He looked at her bandages to see that minimal blood had gone through the one in her arm. "I think this one'll be fine." he then proceeded to check the one on her thigh. More blood than he wanted was found on the bandage.
"Sarah, you're gonna have to stitch her up when we get back to your place." Keith said. "and get the bullet out." he added.
"is it that bad?" Ziva asked. She couldn't bear the thought of losing her child.
"i don't think so." he said and moved to her head. "lean forward."
She did as he said. He tried to push her hair away buy when he did, she winced and flinched.
"jeez," he sighed as he looked at the gash on the back of her head. It was completely bruised around the cut which didn't seem to be too deep. Keith was more worried about the impact. She probably had a concussion.
"what?" she asked.
"we won't be able to move for a few days." he said.
"what about you Keith?" the woman in the front asked.
"I'm fine." he said and leaned back in his seat. He rubbed his face with his hands.
"but Sam isn't." he sighed. "he's dead, she's hurt," he threw out a hand. "and pregnant."
"how far along?" Sarah said quickly.
"11 weeks." Ziva said slowly.
"We'll go by Dr. Chandler's first then." Sarah said.
"we can't risk anyone seeing us." Keith said firmly.
"Well, we won't have to worry about being seen if something goes wrong and they both die." Sarah said.
Ziva's stomach lurched at the thought and she put a hand on her stomach protectively.
The car was silent as they drove further down the road. They finally turned down another road and into a driveway.
"where are we?" Ziva asked.
"Margaretville, Massachutes. Population 653." Sarah said. "Quiet and quaint."
She opened the door and then opened Ziva's. She helped Ziva out and started walking. Ziva stumbled the first couple of steps and Sarah came back to help.
"I'm fine." Ziva insisted and tried to shake her guiding hands off.
Keith chuckled behind them. "Gibbs told me you were stubborn."
Sarah led them inside the front door to find a middle aged man with dark hair awaiting them.
"Dr. Wyatt Chandler." Sarah introduced.
"hi," the man smiled brightly. "I was told to be on call this morning."
Ziva finally thought about it, it had to be around 2 am. She mentally cursed herself for not paying attention to all of this. She had been in a worry induced haze.
"right this way." Dr. Chandler said and led the way down the hall and into an exam room.
Ziva went in and lay down on the exam table. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her nerves.
Dr. Chandler came over. "let's have a look." he said. He unbandaged her arm and looked at the wound. He disinfected it and stitched it up. He then moved onto her thigh.
"looks like the bullet's still in there." he said while looking at her thigh.
"I'm going to need you to do me a favor and put a gown on for me and we're going to need to move into the room next door." Dr. Chandler said.
"Dr..." Ziva started.
"please, just Wyatt." he smiled.
"I um... I'm pregnant." she said slowly. Her mouth had gone dry.
A shadow appeared over his face.
"well, that complicates things a little. I have a few supplies for emergency delivery and monitoring but I'm not really an OB/GYN." he said. "how far along are you?"
"11 weeks." she said uneasily.
"have you had any bleeding or cramping?" he asked.
Ziva shook her head.
He took her blood pressure and temperature.
"you're bp is slightly higher than I would like, and you have a slight fever." he said. Noticing her worried look, "It may distress the baby but for right now, I think it's fine. You're not out of the woods yet though."
He looked at her head wound and cleaned it up.
"alright," he said and handed her a gown. "I need you to change into this and I'll be getting our makeshift operating room ready." he smiled reassuringly but it didn't help calm Ziva.
She couldn't believe that she was here, that this had all happened. It was pure insanity to think that this could ever even happen. Suddenly she felt overwhelmed and powerless. She didn't know who to trust or why because everyone seemed to have betrayed her. Then she remembered Tony's words to her and she prayed to god that he was alright. She wished that their relationship was real and that none of this had happened. She wanted to be in love with Tony, get married, have his child, and grow old together but she knew that that couldn't happen. She struggled to control her breathing and hold back the tears but in the end, she failed. She let the sobs wrack her body for a moment before trying to regain her composure. She heard the door creak and open slightly before Sarah came in. It was the first time that Ziva had really looked at her. She was a pretty woman with light brown hair, maybe in her early thirties.
"you need a hand?" she asked.
Ziva took a deep breath and smiled through the tears.
"I think I have it." she said and got of the table and started to take her clothes off. Ziva stumbled while trying to remove her jeans but Sarah caught her. She smiled softly and helped Ziva get the gown on.
"you must be terrified." she said softly.
"I am." Ziva replied. "I would give anything for..." she trailed off as she felt her eyes start to prickle as the onslaught of tears prepared to fall.
"I understand." she said. "I can't have kids, and when I found out, my husband was on a business trip in New York. I felt, utterly alone."
"I'm sorry." Ziva said sadly.
"I'm not," Sarah said. "you learn to live with what you have and be thankful for that."
"that is smart." Ziva said with a small smile.
The two were interrupted by Wyatt poking his head through the door. "we're all set." he said.
The two women followed him into the room next door which had an operating table on it with a few machines around it.
"the equipment is a little old but it's never really been used so I think we'll be alright." he said and helped Ziva lay down.
Ziva was about to ask Sarah to stay but she seemed to already know that that was what Ziva desired. Sarah sat down on a stool on the opposite side of the table.
"I'm going to give you an ultrasound to check out your baby first and then I'll take care of your leg." Wyatt said.
Ziva nodded and winced slightly as he smeared a cold goo over her stomach. She could hardly tell that she was showing, herself.
"sorry." he said and looked at the monitor as he slid the wand around her stomach. He kept doing that for about a minute. A minute of agony for Ziva.
"I'm having a little trouble finding a...whoops! I forgot to turn the volume up." he said and turned a nob on the machine. Now, a steady "schwoo,schwoo,schwoo..." could be heard throughout the room. Ziva smiled and relaxed a little.
"looks...good..." he said and turned off the monitor. He handed her a towel to wipe herself off with.
He took a disk type thing out of a plastic wrapper. He attached grey straps and fastened them around her middle, letting the disk rest near the top of her hip but level on her stomach.
"I don't know how well that this will monitor your baby since it's so early in your pregnancy but hopefully it'll alert us if anything starts to go wro..." he noticed Ziva's worried expression. "if anything happens." he corrected himself.
He hooked her up to a saline drip and morphine.
"I don't have much morphine so we'll have to work fast." Wyatt told Sarah who nodded.
Wyatt set to work. Ziva shut her eyes tightly and rested her hand on her stomach, wishing that she could feel her baby's heartbeat.
A short time later, Ziva heard a clank and realized that the bullet had been removed. Wyatt had sewn her leg up shortly after that. He cleaned her up and checked the baby monitor.
"I think the both you will be fine but be very attentive. If there's any bleeding, spotting, or cramping, please get to a hospital." Wyatt said.
Ziva nodded and got up after Wyatt unhooked the Ivs from her arm.
Ziva started walking out into the hallway when Keith ran back.
"FBI's here. We're not." he said quickly and helped Sarah half carry Ziva to the back room.
Wyatt pulled a sweatshirt on over his slightly bloodied shirt and walked out to the waiting room.
"can I help you?" he asked.
"FBI Agents Callaway and Sheehan." one agent said. "are you usually here this late?"
"sometimes." Wyatt said. "I had to finish up some paperwork and fell asleep I guess." He feigned a yawn.
"have you had any patients, this morning or last night?" The agent asked.
"I had Bobby Jenkins come in for a cold at about 8 pm but he was the last one." Wyatt said. "what's this about?"
"a plane crashed in the woods about 10 miles from here." the other agent said. "please contact us if any survivors show up."
"will do." Wyatt said slightly nervously.
The agents took one more, swift look around before leaving.
Wyatt walked back to the backroom.
"coast's clear." he said and opened the door only to find it empty. A single note and fifty dollar bill lay on a filing cabinet.
A/N: ahh...I'm starting to get writer's block! No! Help me by reviewing please! (I really can't figure out where to go next, yes I was wrong before about everything being figured out. I'm not just saying it to get reviews but they would be appreciated. Ok done rambling.)
