Ziva was about to headslap herself. Well, anything was better then crying. How could she not, though? Tony, HER Tony, her partner, was dying, and there was nothing Ziva could do about it.
Snap out of it! she told herself. This should not matter to you, you've had much worse. You dealt with Thali's death just fine, you shot you're own brother! You killed Ari, why does this mean so much to you? She knew the answer to that, of course. Tony was her partner, annoying and obnoxious, but still. Tony was like family to her, a real family. Not the demented family she had back in Isreal, who tried to kill each other. Tony was like a kind older brother, he was always there to make her happy when she was at her worst. No matter what, Tony was always by her side, and willing to help. Ziva wished she could do something to help him. Especially now, when he needed it the most.
I can help find whoever did this, then maybe Tony will forgive me. This is all my fault; I cannot believe I let him do something so stupid like that! Maybe, If I had just stayed a little bit longer I could have convinced to let me go with him. Then maybe I could have stopped him from falling. I could have saved him.
The elevator door opened, and Ziva heard a child's happy laughter, like a beautiful butterfly soaring through the wind. She turned toward the bullpen and saw Abby sitting on her desk, talking to whoever had been laughing. Apparently, this person was sitting at her desk, but they were too short. Ziva couldn't see who they were, their head didn't reach over the chair. Abby caught Ziva out of the corner of her eye and quieted Kate down immediately. She wrapped the tired little girl up in Tony's coat, and let her lie down next to desk. Exactly where Kate had slept when she had been on protection detail for Gibbs. Seeing it almost made Abby want to cry, but she was out of tears from crying for the past two weeks over Tony. As Ziva slowly walked over, finally reaching her desk, Abby turned around just in time to keep Ziva from awaking Kate.
"You might want to keep it quiet," Abby whispered, "this girl just has just been through one hell of a week. She's pretty tired."
Ziva looked down and saw the little girl resting by her desk. Seeing who it was confused Ziva a little.
"What do you mean? I thought that she was the dead body from the hospital. You know, the one who was killed by that guy who shot-"
Ziva started to choke up, but swallowed it. She hoped Abby hadn't noticed, but Abby noticed everything.
"We don't know why she was proclaimed dead,"
Abby said quickly, covering up what she knew was hard o Ziva. Tony and Ziva had been really close friends, closer then she herself had been.
"But she must has been in the autopsy freezer at the hospital for almost a week, I'm amazed any normal person could do that. I'm even more amazed she did it. She's so young, and in the state she's in. Her medical records show she's had multiple surgeries when she was younger. Not to mention there are three visibly recent bullet holes in her right arm, five visibly recent in the right arm, and two directly at her stomach. I don't know if there are more that have just healed into scars, because she had an impressive number of those, too. Her legs are all covered in bruises, too. Palmer said he found healed up fractures in her jaw. He thinks she may have broken her jaw a few times."
"Oh, wow,"
Ziva looked down back down at the resting little girl. She looked so happy, but under that shell, she was broken and torn, Ziva could tell. She reminded Ziva a little of herself. Thinking about a little child resembling her, Ziva started to think about the little boy who was almost exactly like Tony. Ziva almost smiled, until she remembered the Tony part of that story.
If she can deal with all that, Ziva, you should be able to cope with this.
"How old is she?"
Ziva must have asked that a little too loud, because Kate started to get up. Pain flooding her body, Kate clutched her chest and propped herself up, sitting against the desk.
"I'm almost nine years old," Kate told Ziva. "My birthday is gonna be this summer. It's either June or August fourth or fifth. I don't really remember the exact date when, but it doesn't really matter to me, anyway.
"I can't believe this. You don't know when your birthday is?"
Abby almost screamed; She couldn't imagine not being able to celebrate her birthday, or her friends.
"No, I don't, not exactly. I've never really had the chance too celebrate. After a while, I just forgot about it."
Abby looked like she was about to go spastic, Ziva jumped in quickly.
"Abby, I do not celebrate my birthday either."
Ziva got quieter, hoping Kate would not hear her.
"So, why exactly is she at my desk?"
Kate heard this anyway. She tried to look up at Ziva,
"This isn't your desk. It's Katie's, or at least it was."
Ziva bent down closer to the little girl to ask her something. Kate stopped her from talking.
"Hey, I remember you. You were the lady the doctor gave Tony's medical records to."
Then something dawned on her. The hospital scene was flashing back, fast. Her eyes widened and her pupils dilated. Kate hit the back of the desk, then lurched forward, cradling her head in her arms. Kate was feeling dizzy again, and saw the room spinning around her. Slowly getting dimmer, and dimmer, and darker, until everything went black.
**Wow, I just love it when Kate faints, don't I ? BTW, keeping you involved, Ziva does NOT know this is Kate Todd junior. Just making sure everyone knows, going to bed now. I'll try to update soon, but it'll take a minimum of 24 hours.