So sorry for the delay, I'm moving house atm and don't have internet at home yet.


Tony arrived back at the hospital not long after. He peaked through the door and noticed that he'd woken Ziva up from her nap.

"Sorry." He whispered into the mostly dark room.

Ziva nodded, stretched her arm and then sat up. "It is fine. I'm not comfortable enough to really sleep anyways."

Tony watched as she went through further attempts at waking up, shaking her head and running a hand through her hair.

"Are you just going to stand there?" She asked suddenly, bringing him back to the present.

He cleared his throat. "Oh, I have just the thing then!" He said enthusiastically.

Ziva just looked at him quizzically. Then he held up the bag he'd brought from her place.

"I picked up two shirts and some comfy pants for you. " He said.

She nodded again. "Ah, yes." She shifted awkwardly on the bed and brought her legs out from under the covers.

Her head hurt, her muscles hurt, and her hip was killing her. She reached out to grab the bag he was holding out for her.

"Should I help you?" She heard him ask.

"I will be fine." She said with determination in her voice. Slowly she made her way into the bathroom and flicked on the light, closing the door, not locking it. Just in case.

She took the few steps to the toilet as quickly as she could and sat down on the closed lid. She was feeling kind of dizzy from the medication. A full minute later, she knew because she'd been counting her breaths, she lifted her arms slowly over her head and got rid of the thin shirt the nurses had dressed her in. Gingerly, she stood, grabbed the handrails for support and got rid of the pants as well as the underwear. This felt much better already. The bag Tony had packed was a mess, but she got through it and picked out his shirt, feeling not the least bit guilty about it. He'd never demanded it back after all.

In her own clothes, feeling much more content, Ziva risked a glance at the mirror. Her face was bruised on one side but she thought it could have been worse. Her ear looked pretty bad, luckily her hair would cover any scars there when it was down.

On bare feet, she walked to the door hand poked her head out, initially to ask if he had some socks, to find Tony asleep on her bed. A tiny smile crossed her face. The bed was small, but not impossible to sleep on, even with two people. She'd take what she could get if it meant being that close to Tony now.

Still feeling very weak, she padded over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, poking Tony in the shoulder.

"Roll over, my love." She murmured quietly, and to her amusement, he complied, banging his hand on the small desk next to the bed and bringing it to his face. Ziva thought he behaved almost like a dog in that moment.

Tony, in a blissful state of sleep, the kind that he hadn't had since his partner had left, groaned a little. Was he dreaming right now? Because this sure felt like a dream. Except, no, dreams aren't supposed to be this painful. He pried one eye open and was back to reality in a flash. Ziva – hospital – and, oh my god, was she climbing onto the bed next to him? He waited a few seconds until he was sure that she was not in danger of falling and then turned over as gently as he could. He found himself unable to move after that because, damn, this bed was small and with her face right next to his.

"Hi." he said awkwardly, blinking away the sleep as well as he could.

"Hey, sleeping beauty." She replied easily. "Go back to sleep."

He felt her hand push down on his chest and obeyed. Soon after, they were both contentedly laying on their backs. Her hand found his and everything was alright in Tonys' world. That was until about five minutes later when he felt Ziva shift and realized how chilly it was in the room. Unfortunately, the blanket was all the way at the end of the bed and he'd have to sit up to reach for it.

He tried to not jostle Ziva as he stretched to pull the blanket up but heard her small sigh.

"Are you ok? I'm not hurting you, am I?" He asked with deep concern.

As he looked down on her face he could see her trying to hide her discomfort. Her lips were pursed in a tight line and her forehead held a frown that he didn't like one bit. She had to be in much more pain than he'd thought.

"Get back to sleep, DiNozzo." She said with as much force she could muster, trying to convince him that she was just annoyed.

Very slowly, he lay back down, turned a little and then reached up to cup her chin with one hand.

"Come on, Zi –" he whispered. His voice was so soft that she opened her eyes.

"- don't play the warrior princess." He finished as he grazed his thumb over her cheekbone.

Ziva never liked to admit to being in pain but this time she couldn't bring herself to let him worry like this.

"I am ok, Tony. Really," She paused, "but… maybe we could switch sides?"

"Sure, anything!" He said, already climbing down the other side of the bed to make space for her to wiggle over. He carefully stepped over the wires that were dangling down from the various machines set up around her bed.

When she'd finished moving to "his" side he lay down next to her again. Their eyes met. "That better?" He asked tiredly.

"Much better." She said and winked at him before closing her eyes.

This time it was him who found her hand under the covers. "'night." He mumbled.

Ziva smiled and squeezed his hand lightly. "Laila tov, ahuvi."


Please leave a review if you enjoyed this. I haven't written ch10 and could use a little bit of inspiration and motivation ;)