Chapter 7

Crying Over Spilt Milk

"Did you know that the average American male has a bigger chance of being Tom Cruise than actually winning the lottery?"

"I do not care Tony." Ziva muttered angrily, running her fingers through her messy hair.

Tony cocked his head to the side warily. "What's wrong Sweetcheeks?"

Ziva shook her head stubbornly "Nothing. Nothing is wrong," she huffed.

He trained his eyes on her carefully. "I can feel it Ziva. Something is wrong. What is it?" There was a pause. "Holy smokes! It's this dry spell isn't it? Hah! Payback's such a bitch isn't it darling!" Tony laughed uproariously.

Ziva slammed both her hands on her desk as she stood up, staring daggers at her boyfriend. "Leave me alone!"

She started walking in the direction of the elevator with the intent of going outside to catch some fresh air when she lifted her head to come face to face with her boss. She stopped dead in her tracks. "Gibbs…" she mumbled half-heartedly.

Gibbs raised his voice. "Gear up! We got a lead on our guy Rodgers."

At his command the other two agents jumped out of their seats and scrambled to get inside the elevator before the doors closed.

"I will drive my own car there Gibbs." Ziva told him, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Tony.


"I really don't know what's gotten in her. First she got angry when I asked her to pour a cup of milk for me – I said please as well, then she didn't laugh at my jokes at all in the car on the way to work and now she's going off in her own car!" Tony sighed exasperatedly. He really didn't know what to do. This was a problem he had never encountered before. Then again, he never had to put up with a woman for more than a week.

"She's probably just having a bad day Tony. Give her a break." McGee answered sympathetically. Although the senior field agent always teased him and called him names, McGee really hoped that Tony and Ziva's relationship would last. For the team's sake if not for theirs.

As they pulled up to Rodger's house they noticed Ziva's car parked outside already. Not surprising due to the vomit-inducing speed at which she drove.

"Stupid! She's gone in already without back-up." Gibbs growled, angry at his Mossad Liaison was deliberately putting herself in danger. "McGee and Tony you take the back door. I'll go in front." Gibbs ordered.

Tony and McGee did as they were told silently but Tony was worried, his gut told him something was wrong. He just hoped Ziva was okay.

"Federal Agents we're coming in!" He said it just because it was protocol although Ziva would have probably done that if she had gone into the house already.

They barged through the back door with their firearms raised into the kitchen.

"Clear!" McGee shouted as he ducked his head out of the first bedroom.

"Clear!" Gibbs said also from somewhere near the front of the house.

Tony slowly crept into the living room and the first thing he noticed was the pool of blood on the carpet and the smashed glass coffee table. Lying next to it unconscious was his girlfriend.


"Fuck! Ziva!" he yelled. He immediately crouched down beside her to check her pulse. Tony let out a huge breath that he didn't know he had been holding. Weak and faint but pulse was still there. "Call an ambulance!" he shouted worriedly, his heart thumping a hundred times a minute.

"Zi, can you hear me?" he shook her gently, not wanting to hurt her. She had been shot in the thigh but it looked like she had hit her head on the table and fallen unconscious. He knew she was probably concussed but he hoped there wasn't any permanent brain damage. She was bleeding so much as well. Her blood… on his hands.

"Oh God. Oh God. Please let Ziva be okay." Tony whispered.

Yesterday I died, tomorrow's bleeding
Fall into your sunlight
The future's open wide beyond believing
To know why hope dies
Losing what was found, a world so hollow
Suspended in a compromise
The silence of this sound is soon to follow
Somehow sundown


Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Tony let his head fall into his hands.

A doctor walked from the Operating Room. "Family for Ziva David?" he asked.

The doctor pronounced her name incorrectly but Tony couldn't care less. He shot up like a bullet. "Yes…well no I'm not family but I'm her boyfriend – "

"I'm sorry then sir. It's family only," the doctor explained.

"Look. I'm the only family she has; and that grey haired man over there that would shoot you without a second glance if you didn't let him pass through so I wouldn't mess with him if I were you, plus the Goth having the full waterworks over by the water machine who is anything but her usual hyper self right now and the damn good Probie agent comforting her. Her other so-called family are halfway across the world and couldn't care less about her so why don't you just tell me if my girlfriend is okay eh?" He finished angrily. He didn't want to lose his temper at the doctor and he knew it wasn't his fault but there was all that pent-up frustration that he had building up inside of him.

The doctor took a huge breath. "Okay then. Would the er… rest of the family like to come too?" he asked politely.

"You can go tell them. I'll find the room by myself don't worry."

The doctor looked sceptical so Tony added, "I know my way around here." He was referring to the time he spent here as a patient of the pneumonic plague of course.

As he stepped through the doors and into the ICU he walked down the corridor until he stopped at the window. Her eyes were closed, her angelic face peaceful but it still pained him to see her this way. He partly blamed himself. After all, if he had calmed Ziva down before she lost her temper or stopped her from driving to Rodger's house by herself he could have stopped this from happening.

He hesitated for a split second in the doorway before stepping in.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.


Tony brushed her hair from her face and placed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "I've got you baby. It'll all be okay," he breathed softly. He didn't know if those words were reassurance for her or him. The doctor had said that she was just resting and should wake up sometime later today. The surgery had gone well and she was expected to fully recover. However she was confined to no fieldwork for a month and no strenuous activity for the next week at least.

A quiet groan was emitted by Ziva, followed by her opening her big brown eyes.

"Tony?" was the first thing that escaped her chapped lips.

Tony stroked her face lightly. "Shhh….I'm right here Ziva. Do you want some water to drink? Want me to get the doctor?"

Ziva moved her head slowly to the right and then to the left. "I … am.. fine Tony."

"ZIVA!" a bounding ball of black and red charged into the room.

Ziva strained a smile. "Abby…"

"I was so worried about you! We all were! How could you put yourself in danger like that? You could have died Ziva! Without back-up!" Her pigtails bobbed vigorously up and down. Abby then turned to Gibbs and glared at the silver-haired fox. "And don't you lecture her about it. I think she knows what she did wrong and she won't do it again. Right Ziva?" She turned back to her friend.

"Yes.. Gibbs. I am sorry." Ziva looked down at her hands.

Gibbs merely grunted but didn't say anything about apologising being a weakness.

Ziva suddenly looked up at Gibbs expectantly. "Did…did we catch Rodgers?"

Tony spoke up, "we've put another team on that case. Relax Ziva Diva." Tony resorted to using his fond nickname for her.

He found it slightly ironic as somewhere in the back of his brain he was reminded of that little celibacy deal the girls devised three weeks ago. This week was meant to be the last, but now since his Ziva was injured she would be forbidden from 'strenuous activity' as the doctor so eloquently put it for another week.

The door to Ziva's room opened once again and in stepped the Director of NCIS.

Jenny walked over to Ziva's bed, kissing her friend on both cheeks. Putting both hands on either side of Ziva's face she asked, "are you okay?" She stared into Ziva's eyes to detect any traces of lies.

Ziva looked away, then smiled and stared back at the Director defiantly. "I am fine Jenny. It was just a clean gunshot wound to the leg. It is nothing."

Jenny raised her eyebrows and said incredulously, "Nothing? A certain frantic forensic scientist rang me up in the middle of an important business conference telling me you had been shot and had a concussion. Has there been any brain damage? What did the doctor say?"

Ziva sighed loudly. "What is it with everyone and their questions? My brain is fine, I am fine. The doctor just told me to rest and not do anything strenuous for the next week," she insisted.

In the far corner of the hospital room McGee snickered. "I guess Tony won't be able to have sex for another two weeks now."

Tony glared at his co-worker. "Shut it Probie."

"Aww! Don't worry Ziva, Jenny and I will extend the deal to one week longer just for you. Okay?" she quipped reassuringly.

Gibbs scowled darkly, McGee started grumbling and was extremely close to stamping his foot on the ground in defiance while Tony shot Abs a huge grin.

"Thanks Abs." Tony said, pointedly ignoring the other two extremely horny men standing beside him.

"How was the business conference Jen?" Gibbs questioned the redhead.

"Awful. I'm glad I had an excuse to leave a few days early. We talked and talked but didn't get anything done at all," Jen replied, the tiredness finally seeping into her voice.

"You should all go home. I am going to be discharged tomorrow." Ziva announced.

Jethro practically dragged the Director out of the room while Abby and McGee left reluctantly, Abby promising to stop over at her house the next day with promises of food…


"I said I'm fine Tony!" she all but screamed at her boyfriend.

Temper, temper, Tony Dinozzo thought to himself.

"Just leave the towel on the rack," she ordered.

"Are you going to be okay? The doctor said that –"

Ziva yelled, "TONY I AM FINE. Now, OUT!"

Sighing deeply he closed the bathroom door with a soft click just in time to hear the door bell ring.

As procedure, he peeked through the peep hole to see a large blue eye staring him down on the other end of the glass.

"Open up Tony or I'll kick the door down!" A high pitched voice squealed excitedly.

What was it with women and screaming at him today? Tony muttered.

Once he opened the door he was tackled by NCIS' best forensic scientist followed by her loyal cocker-spaniel like boyfriend.

"Hello Tim."

"Hello Tony."

"Quit the staring contest and help me spoon this out!" Abby chided them from the kitchen.

Tony turned to see large bowls emerging from the plastic big Abby had come in with. "What is that?"

Abby glared at him. "Tony, don't play dumb."

He held out his hands in innocence. "What?"

"It's chicken soup. I had to drive Abs half an hour across town just to get the soup because apparently the one at Joe's Cafe was better quality for sick people," McGee huffed.

"Stop being such a baby Timmy, I got it for you when you had the flu last month!"

"Yeah, stop being such a baby Timmy," Tony mimicked mockingly.

"Shut up Tony."

"Oooh... is that a challenge I hear Probie?" Tony teased.

"Just be quiet Tony."

"Timmy's being a baby! Timmy's being a baby!" Tony chanted as he walked around the house with a huge grin plastered on his face.

Until that is, he bumped into someone.

A very wet someone.

Who didn't look pleased in the least.

Tony gulped audibly.

"Ziva?" he squeaked.

He was met by a threatening silence.

"Ziva?" he tried again.

"You are going to die Anthony Dinozzo," she spoke through gritted teeth, annunciating each word so that the meaning was clear.

He gulped again. Maybe it was the use of his full name, or the fact that his extremely sexy girlfriend was standing there dripping outside his bathroom half naked with only a towel that barely scraped her ass but something inside his head told him something was wrong. And it was his fault.

"You know I love you right Ziva?" he let out a feeble smile.

Ziva raised an eyebrow. "Nice try." She poked her finger repeatedly with each word, "you, put, soap, into, my, shampoo! Now my hair is disgusting and dry and my head smells like... whatever stupid fragrance your soap is!"

"Strawberry and milk?" Tony offered.

"WHY TONY WHY?!"

He flinched and blinked several times before daring to answer. "It was meant to be a joke okay? A prank... I... it was before your accident and I was annoyed by the celibacy thing so I thought I'd get you back by... Look what I'm trying to say it, I totally forgot about that and I'm sorry. S-O-R-R-Y. SORRY!"

Ziva simply disappeared back into the bathroom and slammed the door. Tony stood outside waiting.

He leaned against the door pleading, "I'll make it up to you okay? Abby and McGee came over. They're in our kitchen. They brought chicken soup for you!"

He nearly fell over when the door suddenly opened again and Ziva pushed him out of the way, dressed this time.

"Where are you going?" he asked, following her.

She didn't reply and instead walked into the kitchen. Abby seemed to be making sandwiches and slicing them with an abnormally large knife.

"Hello Abby," Ziva said calmly. "May I borrow that knife you are holding in your hand?"

Abby looked thoroughly baffled. "Uh... yes I guess...but why –"

"Thank you," she took the knife from her friend's hand without an explanation. "Tony, I'll count to ten before I start running after you with this. Consider this a warning."

His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates before he sprinted for the door.

McGee and Abby stared at each other with small smiles creeping up on their faces.

"More chicken soup for us then," McGee said with a shrug and helped himself to a bowl.

Abby just shut the door behind them.


A/N: If there is still ANYONE out there apart from me still reading this? Bravo to you. I sincerely applaud you and will accept any rotten fruit flying my way. Finally got the time/inspiration to start writing this again. Check out my other ficlet story A Series of Prompts up on my profile. Oh, and one last thing! If any of you have Livejournal please add me! Would love to get to know some of you readers. My username is xo_angel_xox.