Ziva was starting to get tired of this staring competition they seemed to be having. Neither wanted to be the one to break it. She didn't want to give in to this psycho and he clearly didn't want her to have any type of dominance. She was a little bit worried about Tony. Although, if all he had done was stun him then she was sure he would be fine. It was the drugs she was worried about. She was still feeling weaker then her normal self and she didn't know what he had given her.

Suddenly he leaned forward and slashed her other leg with the knife. Again she refused to give him the satisfaction of a reaction. She knew he was looking for control; he wanted to see her beg or plead. She simply would not give him the satisfaction. It was only going to be a matter of time before Gibbs and the team managed to track them down. She simply had to stay alive until then.

What was with her? She was driving him crazy. He wanted nothing more then some type of reaction out of her; however she absolutely refused to give in. He had cut her other leg just to see what she would do. Once again he had gotten nothing. Fine, if she wanted to play hard ball, then he would give her hard ball. He stood up and punched her in the face. Her head recoiled from the blow and blood started trickling down her face from the split in her eyebrow. Again she did nothing. This was not turning out to be as fun as he had planned.

"Why house wives?" Ziva finally asked breaking the silence. She knew he wanted to be in control and perhaps if he was talking he would cease to hurt her.

"Because they're weak." He spit out. Ziva simply raised her eyebrows. "They stay at home and let someone else take care of them. They don't say anything or do anything to be in control of their own life. Someone else pays their bills, someone else buys their food. And when their husband comes home and beats them and their kids they let him." He ranted. "They're better off dead."

Ziva felt her eyebrows rise. He was clearly delusional from a childhood trauma. Perhaps she could reason with him. She looked up and saw that he was pacing and ranting. He was not at all rational so all thoughts of reason fled. Clearly he didn't like her non reactions. She would just keep trying that for as long as she could.

"I liked killing them." He finally said to her. "The begged me to spare them, they bargained for their lives. It was fun." He studied her for a few minutes. "Do you not want to live?"

She didn't answer his question. Admitting that she wanted to live would be akin to signing her own death warrant, and not admitting it would be stupid as well, so once again she chose silence.

"I asked you a question ZIVA!" he yelled spitting out her name. "I can kill you you know. Just like all the others. I can make it slow and painful so why don't you freaking answer my question!"

Ziva just looked up at him in stony silence. She wasn't going to break no matter what he did. Even if he killed her she knew that Gibbs would track him down. She had a passing thought that she wished she had of slept with Tony the other night. If she had known she was going to be stuck with their killer she would have taken things forward regardless of the mission. All thoughts fled with the killer plunged his knife into her side. Her Mossad training quickly had her assessing the depth of the wound. It was serious, however she knew if she was treated soon it wasn't life threatening. However, if help were not to come soon she could bleed out.

"I told you to answer the question." Alex said in a low voice. "Do you want to live? If you don't answer me next time I'm going after you 'husband'."

It was his mention of Tony that had her breaking out of her daze and the rage to come rushing in. He would not hurt Tony!

"What difference does my answer make if you plan on killing me anyway?" she finally asked.

He simply stared at her for a few minutes before a malicious grin swept across his face. "It makes everything more fun."

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McGee was holding onto the dash for his life. He was used to driving with Gibbs, somehow Tony and Ziva always managed to take another car, but this was a bit much even for Gibbs. They had broken ever road rule ever put in place on the rush over to the cabin, of that McGee was sure. If Ziva hadn't been stuck with the killer, he might have protested the speed and recklessness at which they were driving, but he was worried and anxious and so he merely tightened his grip and continued to spout directions when they were needed.

Tony was lying down on the back seat of the car. He had started the ride sitting up, but after a few turns he quickly decided that he was still too weak to try and hold himself straight and so he simply lay down on the backseat deciding to conserve his strength for when they found Ziva. He was worried. Thankfully his breakdown earlier had managed to dispel the worst of it from his system, but he was still frightfully worried about his partner. He wouldn't let himself think of the "what ifs" and tried instead to concentrate on when they found her. He just wished Gibbs would drive even faster.

Gibbs was pouring all his rage and frustration into his driving. He could have taken the turns more cautiously, he could drive fast without jerking the car around, but it gave him a measure of satisfaction to pull sharp turns. This was his fault. They should have been closer to the house. They should have been doing surveillance from the street, not from headquarters. Then they could have been there on time and the bastard would never have managed to get away with Ziva. His grip on the steering wheel tightened and his knuckles went white. They would get there in time. They had to get there on time. He couldn't cope with another agent down. He thought of Tony in the backseat and the desperation he had seen in his eyes. All right, he couldn't cope with two agents down. He slammed his foot down on the accelerator even harder as they picked up even more speed.

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Ziva simply rolled her eyes at him. "Yes I want to live, are you happy with that answer?"

If anything he smile grew even bigger. "I do believe that this just got better, thank you Ziva."

He started to approach her with his knife and Ziva decided she needed to do something. She waited until he got close and then swung her chair around knocking into his legs and sending him down. His knife went flying and she took the opportunity to bring the chair and all of her weight down on one of his legs. He screamed grabbing at his leg but it wasn't long before he stood up and backhanded her across the face, causing her to loose the little balance she had still being tied to the chair and knocking her down to the floor.

"THAT WASN'T NICE ZIVA." He screamed bending into her face on the floor. "THIS IS MY GAME NOT YOURS!" He grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up, so that she was once again sitting upright in the chair. "I'm done with this." He said more calmly and went to the table to grab another knife. He picked it up and held it over her. She closed her eyes anticipating the sharp plunge of the knife and suddenly two gun shots rang out.

She opened her eyes in time to see Alex collapsing towards her, knife still in hand, two blood stains spreading across her chest. He fell on top of her, his knife grazing her arm painfully before she heard people calling her name.

Tony had felt his heart stop when they had walked into the cabin and saw Alex standing over Ziva with a knife in Hand. Gibbs had quickly shot him, and Tony's heart had stopped again when he saw the killer collapse towards Ziva. He quickly called out her name and rushed towards her. He pulled the body off of her and quickly started to asses her wounds. She needed a hospital fast. The wound in her arm was bleeding badly and he could see that she had a stab wound to the side and gashes in her legs. He quickly untied her, not saying anything as there was so much rushing around in his head. He laid her on the ground as Gibbs joined him and they quickly started to staunch the blood flow as McGee had already called the ambulance.

Ziva had never been so grateful to see Tony in her entire life. As he had pulled the body off of her and untied her she kept quiet, knowing that whatever she wanted to say to him she didn't want to say here. As he laid her on the ground and he and Gibbs started to cover her gashes she suddenly felt very tired. She looked up and saw the concern in both Tony and Gibbs eyes. "I will be fine." She managed to say somewhat weakly. "They are just scratches."

Gibbs just shook his head and Tony started to brush the hair off her forehead.

"The ambulance will be here soon sweet cheeks. It's all over now; you're going to be fine."

She smiled ruefully and said, "I just said that Tony." She found she could barely keep her eyes open. "Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you." She said before letting sleep overtake her.

Gibbs heard her declaration and quickly looked to his senior field agent for his reaction. The look of panic that crossed Tony's face when Ziva succumbed to unconsciousness broke his heart.

"Tony." "Tony." He said louder as he gotten no response. Tony finally turned his head to look at him a look of helpless desperation in his eyes.

"She may be unconscious but she can still hear you." Tony simply nodded at him to show he understood and then leaned down and whispered something in her ear. It was then that the ambulance finally decided to show up, loading Ziva carefully.

"Tony you ride in the ambulance. We'll meet you at Bethesda." Was all he said before grabbing McGee and heading out to the car. He knew it was going to be a very long night.

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A/N: So it's almost done. I'm thinking two more chapters. Please don't hate me, I promise Ziva won't die. I couldn't do that to her!

-Thanks Kris