Once again many thx to surferdude for beta-reading this for me. I've been sending nothing to her for a long time and then all of a sudden she's beta-reading 2 stories for me. Thanks…as for my readers sorry I didn't update for so long but in my defense I wrote 2 new ones who will be posted as soon as they are completly done and have been checked by my beta-readers. Anyway enjoy

Chapter 11

Her mind was playing tricks with her. Did she just hear him say what she thought she heard? She shook her head and that wasn't a good idea. Her head was about to explode. She put the dirty dishes in the sink and went back to bed. She slept until 11.30 and when she woke up, she just lay there, still confused about what Tony had said to her that morning. He loved her. She started smiling. He loved her.

She jumped out of bed and regretted it immediately. She ran to the bathroom and hugged the toilet. What little breakfast she had eaten that morning came out. She felt a searing pain shooting up her body. Oh, just great, why not she thought, she must have bruised a rib or two during last night's vomiting session and her throwing up right now sure didn't help either. She slowly got up and she felt what a bruised rib could do. Her breathing became very shallow due to the pain. Damn. Nice and slow was going to be her mantra for today.

Ziva slowly made it to the kitchen and got herself something to drink. A nice jasmine tea with a little bit of honey. She carefully sat down and sighed…oops, she shouldn't have done that. She was hissing in pain. Her phone buzzed. Tony must have put in on vibrate before he left this morning.

'Alright, alright I am on my way. Don't hang up,' she said, but the phone stopped vibrating when she was finally able to pick it up. She saw the caller ID and pushed the recall button. She carefully sank into the cushions of her sofa.

'Hey, Tony, you rang?' she asked when he picked up on his end.

'Yup, you okay?' he asked.

'Mmm,' she said.

'What does that mean?' Tony asked her.

'I am fine,' she assured him.

'Could you come in? We need a translator and the one we normally have is stuck in traffic and he doesn't think he'll be here soon due to a major collision. And since this is simple deskwork and nothing to strenuous, Gibbs thought you might like to come in,' Tony offered.

'Ok, but…' Ziva debated whether or not to ask him if someone could come and collect her. She was not able to drive feeling like this, but since she opened up to him last night, she felt that she could tell him, because if she didn't, she would hear it once she was at NCIS headquarters.

'What's going on, Ziva?' Tony asked nervously.

'Well…I need to take a cab because I think I bruised a few ribs during last night's vomiting session,' she confided.

'You what?' Tony asked her, disbelieving.

'Calm down, Tony, it does happen you know. I will see you in a bit. I am going to call a cab to take me to NCIS,' she told him.

'I'll be there in twenty minutes,' he said, not wanting her to take a cab while she was hurt.

He hung up on her before she could respond. Oh, crap now she had to hurry and get changed before he was here.

Ziva had managed to put on her jeans, but it had hurt a lot. Tony had his own set of keys to her apartment, so when she heard her front door open, she knew it was Tony who had arrived.

'Zee?' he called from the front of the apartment.

'I am in the bedroom,' she called.

She heard the footsteps coming closer.

'Are you descent?' he asked.

'No, but you can come in because I need help,' she said.

He stuck his head in her bedroom and saw that she wasn't completely dressed.

'Uhh, okay, what can I do?' he asked, feeling a little awkward with his partner half dressed just a few feet away from him.

'Help me put on my bra. I need someone who can hook it.' Ziva held a towel in front of her and showed Tony her back. Two little straps were dangling loosely on her shoulders.

'I can do that.' He chuckled. 'I'm normally the one who takes it off, so this is a nice change.'

He gently hooked up her bra, making every effort not to hurt her.

'Thanks,' she said. She dumped the towel and went to her closet in nothing more than her jeans and bra. She collected a shirt that she could button up from the front and after that she was all done and ready to go. She hadn't even notice the big grin on Tony's face. 'What? Why are you grinning like an idiot?' she asked him.

'Nothing…' He held his hands up. 'Absolutely nothing, let's just go.'

Ziva put on some flip flops and headed out the door with Tony right behind her.

Everything went fine until she had to get into his car. She held her ribcage, hoping it wouldn't hurt that much, but it did. Tony exchanged a worried look with her.

'It's fine, Tony, it's not that serious,' she tried to assure him.

'You're in pain, so it's not fine,' he growled.

They got to NCIS without a hitch. He helped her to get out of his car and they made their way to the elevator together.

He guided her to one of the interrogation rooms where Gibbs was sitting with a man. She took a seat in the corner and translated every single sentence that came out of Gibbs and the suspect.

'Gibbs?' She interrupted his questioning. 'I need to leave…now.' She got up and left before either Tony or Gibbs had a chance to react. She went for the ladies bathroom and, once again, she was best friends with the toilet.

She was breathing heavily caused by the vomiting and the pain of her bruised ribs. Which, in itself, caused even more pain. Gibbs and Tony were waiting outside the ladies room. Normally, Tony would have just gone in, but he figured with Gibbs standing next to him, he should try to keep up appearances. After a short while, Ziva came out and faced the two men.

'You should have told me,' Gibbs said quietly.

She nodded in agreement. 'But you needed me,' she pointed out.

'Not like this. We could have waited for the other translator,' Gibbs said.

She shrugged her shoulders. 'I am not going to die, it's just my ribs. If it makes you feel better, I'll have Ducky take a look at it.'

Both Gibbs and Tony agreed that that, in fact, was a good idea. They escorted her to the Morgue. Ducky took a quick look at Ziva and decided that a solid compression bandage would do nicely for her. It would alleviate the pain somewhat.

Ducky ushered both men out of the morgue so Ziva could have some privacy. He started to help her get undressed so he could apply the bandage. After he had helped her to remove her clothes, he held his breath. He saw some of the results of Saleem's torture.

TBC…please leave a review.