Chapter 12

"You shot her?! Just to prove a theory? Aghh..." Tony dropped down to one knee as a particularly bad stabbing pain shot through the gunshot wound in his torso.

"Actually no," An evil grin started spreading its way across the intruders face. "I figured if Miss David obtained any more injures, she'd never have a sane mind again." The grin had now twisted itself sideways so it was creepily wonky across his face. He shrugged "I just thought I'd freak you out slightly the look on your face says everything, but yes, I would have shot her if she didn't look on the brink of death already. Guns do make very good clubs though, you know."

During the whole time he had been speaking, he had been slowly ambling closer to wear Ziva lay slumped against the wall as still and as limp as when Gibbs, Tony and Ducky first dragged her out from beneath the rubble.

"Hey, wait," Tony's strength was ebbing away rapidly so he wanted to stall the guy with the gun for as long as possible. "You said... she'll have several more broken... bones now. What... else have you done?" Breathing was becoming a bit of a challenge now. He knelt down properly to try to save energy. On the good side, the bleeding was slowing, 'yeah, probably because I've no blood left in me' he thought dismally.

"How do you think she got into the corner? She didn't fall there, did she? She was in the way, so I moved her anyway I could be bothered to. Simple. But never mind her, if you want answers then you better stay conscious."

The intruder had wandered back over to the bed and had sat down whilst waving the gun around casually as if to remind Tony who had the power.

He continued "So? Of course you want to know how I know Ziva. Well, as I said to her, I was there throughout her whole time in Somalia. I was there when NCIS came to her rescue her. And as you'd killed my dear friend Saleem, I wasn't going to let her go that easily. Knowing a dead marine meant NCIS, I set the trip wire in that barn where the dead marine was found so you would be crushed by the barn. Only I hoped the whole structure would collapse, but Ziva was my target anyway."

He sneered but he seemed to be rushing his words slightly now as if the amount of time he had spent in the hospital was dawning on him and he was keen to make an escape. How he was going to do that, Tony had no idea but, for the minute, he was intent on delaying it.

"How did you get in here then? You couldn't have just walked in, right?" He glanced uneasily first at Ziva then towards the door. He needed a way out of here and fast if he wanted to save both Ziva and himself. The problem was he still needed to figure that part out yet. "Hang on, what the hell are you actually doing here?" His eyes snapped back to mystery man as Tony realised he didn't actually know why mystery man was there. "Come to finish her off and then I got in the way?"

"Woah, woah! Slow down!" Gun man made a calm down gesture with his hands but his eyes gave him away as they darted towards the door and back again. "First bits easy really, tell them you're a family member and they'll let you straight in. Especially if you tell them that the people who were with her called me. To answer your two part second question, yes and yes. But now I've seen the chemistry that's right in front of me," his sly grin reappeared when he noticed Tony looking at the ground in anger and annoyance, " I'd love to see it play out." He mocked an exaggerated sigh as he stood up again and took aim directly at Tony with his weapon, "The thing is, I can't let either of you li..."

He was cut short as the door swung open and crashed against the back wall when Leroy Jethro Gibbs stormed in the room and shot 5 bullets into the man`s chest.

Gibbs glowered down at the dead man "And I can't let you live."

A/N: Hopefully I`m back in action now! What with my inspiration kind of drying up for quite a while and GCSEs at school, it`s been a very busy time! Another chapter, hopefully this makes sense to those who got a bit confused. More answers will be revealed...