Thanks everyone for reading my story so far, and thanks for the reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter.

"I searched through the security tapes to see if I could find where he took Tony," McGee rambled. "I was able to find Holdset driving Tony's bed out of the room and down this hall," he ran the footage for Gibbs and Ziva to see. "I managed to track them all the way to the top floor after that I lost them. The cameras on that floor have nothing but snow," he explained, switching to one to demonstrate.

"What's on the top floor?" Gibbs asked Dr. Andrews.

"The ventilation system for the whole hospital," the doctor said.

"Boss, if Holdset manages to set off the BZ gas in the ventilation, everyone in this hospital will be killed," McGee explained the obvious.

Gibbs turned to the security force leader, "I want every person that can be evacuated out now! Those that can't, I want on the bottom floors," he ordered. If Holdset was planning on releasing the BZ gas, he'd already had plenty of a head start. "Ziva, McGee, and you three you're with me," Gibbs ordered taking off down the hall with them following.

In the stairway to the top floor, Gibbs turned to the four. "McGee, take these men and go to the rooftop. If Holdset has managed to release the chemical already, his only escape would be up there," he ordered quietly. McGee nodded his head and set off up the stairs with the three men behind him.

Tony

Tony mentally groaned. His mind was still very cloudy, but his whole body felt like it had been hit by a truck. His eyes refused to open; the lids feeling like lead weights. As he lay there, he tried to figure out where he was, and what he was doing being moved around like he was. Slowly, his mind cleared up and he remembered standing in his kitchen, feeling a bullet tear through his side, and Gibbs's face staring down at him worried.

Tony's gut told him that something was not right, but his eyes refused to open up for him to look around. He heard the machine to his left beat in time to his heartbeat and he felt another machine push air in and out of his lungs through the tube he had shoved down his throat. He wondered just how long he'd been out. Opening his eyes, Tony immediately wished he hadn't of. The lights were way too bright for his eyes to adjust to.

"Ah, you're awake," Tony heard an eerily familiar voice say from behind him. "That just makes this all even better." Tony felt his heart plummet when his brain matched a face to the voice; it was Jeremy Holdset.

Tony raked his brain, trying to figure out a way to get out of the predicament he was in, but could not see any. He had no clue as to how bad his injuries were; all he knew was that they hurt like hell. Not to mention the fact that he would never be able to pull this tube from his throat—even though he was sure he'd seen in happen in the movies.

Tony felt the bed his was laying on stop in the middle of the room the two had just entered. "I'm sure you are curious as to what my plans are," Holdset said, peering over Tony so he could see the man's smirk. "I could tell you, but that would ruin the surprised."

Holdset walked out of Tony's line of sight, and all Tony could hear was a bunch of clanging and moving around from his left. "You know, Anthony, my original plan was to steal the woman you loved away from you and make you suffer, but as time went by I began to enjoy Ziva's company. The impatience and constant talking about her partner at work were a little annoying, but her love-making made up for all that," Holdset remarked and Tony heard the machine start beating faster as his pulse quickened. "It is too bad that she never got over you," Holdset continued, "I could have given her the perfect life with everything she could imagine."

Tony wished that he could get up and beat the son-of-a-bitch with his own bare hands at this point, but he knew there would be no chance of him being able to do so. Instead, Tony had to hope and pray that Gibbs and the team would find him before it was too late.

"Now, you are going to be the perfect first test subject for my plan," Holdset said, walking just into Tony's peripheral vision. "By the time you and everyone in this building are withering in pain from this BZ gas, I will be long gone and your little NCIS friends will never find me," Holdset sneered. Tony's pulse began racing at the mention of the familiar chemical. "Oh, and don't think you're friends will get here in time. I have them on a little goose chase, retracing everywhere you went with Ziva. It's too bad she cannot be here to say goodbye. I'm sure it would be a very touching scene."

"Oh, trust me, you will not be seeing any scene like that," Tony heard a voice say from the doorway and saw a brief wave of surprise register on Holdset's face.

"Ah, Ziva, dear, how nice of you to join us," Jeremy said, and Tony saw one of his hands reaching down to grab the gun on the table beside him.

"You touch that gun, and I'll put a double tap in your chest," Gibbs said from the doorway behind Jeremy. "Put everything down and put your arms in the air," Gibbs ordered calmly but forcefully.

"Oh, but now you have a choice to make," Holdset said to the two agents pointing their guns at him. "If you shoot me, then there is a risk of the BZ gas being released. This is the trigger," Holdset said, pointing to the device in his hands.

Tony's eyes grew wide. He had to tell Gibbs and Ziva that he was bluffing, but the breathing tube wouldn't let him do anything. His arms were still too weak to move, but Tony kept trying to figure out a way of letting them know. Tony was so preoccupied with trying to make himself move that he did not see Ziva walk over to him until he looked up and saw her face looking down at him. Then, he willed her to read his eyes and know.

Ziva heard the heart monitor pick up speed and realized Tony lay there awake. Keeping her gun aimed at Holdset, Ziva slowly made her way to Tony's side to check on him. Looking down at him, Ziva was mildly surprised to see Tony's brown eyes staring back at her, the worry evident in them.

"What was your plan?" Ziva asked, looking back at Holdset. "Why take the time and effort to cart Tony up here when it would have been easier to leave him in his room and kill him there?" she asked and Tony silently laughed to himself at her slip-up.

"I wanted to see him suffer," Holdset smirked, still confident he could find his way out of this predicament just like always.

Ziva felt something touch her midriff and it surprised her for a second. Looking down, Ziva saw Tony's hand touching her. When she looked into his eyes, Ziva saw him trying to tell her something and she nodded her head gently.

"I am going to go on a limb here and call your bluff," Ziva said, lifting her eyes to challenge Jeremy. "That is not the trigger in your hand." Jeremy Holdset stared at Ziva for a second, slightly startled, and Ziva knew she'd gotten to him. "I also do not believe you are brave enough to set the BZ gas off and endangering your own life."

"You do not know me," Holdset retorted and Ziva knew she'd gotten under his skin.

"Oh, I know you better than you think," Ziva replied. "You do now know me as well as you think you do."

Holdset let out a laugh at that, "On the contrary, I know more about you than you think. You used to be one of the best Mossad officers, but lost the edge you had by living here for three years. You let your emotions overtake your brain. You are no longer the sharp, two-edged sword your father trained you to be," he explained and Ziva let out a small chuckle.

Ziva glanced towards Gibbs for a slight moment before looking down at Tony and setting her gun down beside him on the bed with a twinkle in her eye. Slowly making her way around the bed and towards Jeremy, Ziva said, "You only learned the things my father thought about me, and what I wanted you to know. There are things about me that would make even a weapons dealer like you cringe," walking closer to him. Holdset took a step back as Ziva stepped closer. "First thing, do not ever use me for your own agenda. If Tony could talk, he would tell you not to make me angry." Before Holdset had time to react, Ziva grabbed his arm with the 'trigger' in it, and whipped it behind his back, throwing him onto the floor in one fluid motion. Planting her knee right where his kidney was, Ziva leaned down to say, "And second, never mess with my friends or you will pay," in his ear as Gibbs made his way towards the two.

"I believe you have a meeting with the Deputy Director of Mossad," Gibbs said, jerking a handcuffed Jeremy Holdset off of the ground. "Bravo 4, we have apprehended the suspect, bring HAZMAT to the top floor," he said into his earpiece. "We also need Dr. Andrews up here to check on his patient," he added, glancing in the direction of Tony.

Two Hours Later

Gibbs turned Holdset over to another group of NCIS agents responsible for his transportation to NCIS. After HAZMAT assured everyone the BZ gas never left the vile and the hospital was cleared to be repopulated, the hospital staff began bringing things back to normal. Dr. Andrews and his nursing staff wheeled Tony out of the room to give him a good check over.

Ziva, McGee, and Gibbs walked into Tony's room quietly, half-expecting him to be asleep, but not all that surprised when they found him propped up in bed awake.

"Hi, Boss," Tony greeted, his voice raspy from the breathing tube. "Sounds like I missed all the fun," he said, the three noticing a bit of DiNozzo humor returning.

"You could say that," Gibbs said, breaking into a brief, but unusual smile. Returning to his normal self, he said, "Next time you go behind my back and have Abby investigate someone, I will personally shoot you."

"Got it, Boss," Tony said, starting to laugh, but groaning when it hurt his side.

"Abby wanted to come by and see you, but she can't leave the lab until this evening," McGee explained. "She told me to tell you she'll be here at 6:30, whether you were awake or not."

Tony smiled, "Good ole Abs."

"Come on, McGee," Gibbs spoke up after a moment of awkward silence. "We need to finish up some stuff before heading back to NCIS," he lied. He decided now would be a good time for his two agents to talk about whatever the heck had been going on the past however many years.

When Gibbs shut the door behind him, Tony and Ziva sank into an even more awkward silence. Tony cleared his throat to cover up the silence a bit.

"How did you know that was not the trigger?" Ziva finally asked.

"That was the remote to my bed," Tony said, pointing to the one on the shelf beside the bed. "I saw him take it off my bed right before you and Gibbs walked in."

"You should have told me about Jeremy going to your house yesterday morning," Ziva said, sitting down in the chair next to Tony's bed.

"Why would I, Zee-vah?" Tony asked seriously. "You would have accused me of being jealous and trying to trash your wonderful relationship with him. I wanted more concrete evidence before I confronted you. That's why I asked Abby for help."

"How did we get to this point?" Ziva sighed. "We are partners. Partners are supposed to have each other's back through anything."

"Well, when those partners made the mistake of trying to be more than partners, it kind of put a kink in the mix," Tony pointed out.

"It was only when we broke up," Ziva said.

"I didn't have a choice, Zee-vah," Tony said. "I was in a lose-lose situation. I couldn't tell Director Shepard about us, and I couldn't tell you about the undercover mission. I wanted to tell you, so bad, but I didn't have a choice."

"Everyone has choices," Ziva pointed out.

"Okay, do you want to know the truth?" Tony said his voice changing tone. "I made up my mind to tell you the truth, but when I called you were out with some man. That was when I realized I'd missed my chance, and that nothing would ever be the same between us," he explained. "We need to work on being true partners and then see," he added, not looking into her eyes, because he knew the moment he did, she would know he was lying.

"Agreed. Relationships in the workplace are too complicated to begin with. It is best that we go back to the way we used to be," Ziva said, standing up. "I better go see if McGee and Gibbs need any help. Call if you need anything," she told Tony before heading towards the door.

"Hey, Zee-vah," Tony called before she opened the door. "I am sorry he used you the way he did. You deserve so much better." Ziva smiled her thanks and left the room.

So, what do you think? Should I end it here or add another chapter??? Tell me what you think.