Gibbs sat in a hospital chair slowly drinking the crap they called coffee. It hadn't taken them long to get to Bethesda and they had come in to see Tony frantically pacing the waiting room.

"They took her into surgery." Was all he said but his eyes spoke volumes. He had steadfastly refused to let anyone check him over after his incident with the stun gun insisting that he was fine. Gibbs personally thought that he looked like he could collapse if you so much as touched him, but he kept that thought to himself knowing that it wouldn't get them anywhere.

"Tony, oh my gosh Tony." Abby cried entering the waiting room and rushing to Tony with all the force of a freight train. Gibbs winced at the look on Tony's face as she collided with him, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing like she would never let go. Thankfully McGee stepped in.

"Abby, you need to let him go. He was stunned earlier. If you need to squeeze the life out of someone you can squeeze me." She let go of Tony and promptly latched on to McGee causing him to loose his breath in a whoosh at the intensity of the squeeze, which caused a ghost of a smile to cross Tony's face.

"I don't think he meant it literally Abbs." Tony said before going back to his pacing.

"I'm scared McGee." Abby quietly said into his chest and McGee sighed before shepherding her to a chair and sitting them both down.

It was only a moment before Ducky and Palmer entered the waiting room. "We came with Abby," Ducky offered, "however she took off as soon as the car was parked." He said shaking his head. "Has there been any word?"

"No." Tony answered sharply with a bitter laugh. "She's been in surgery for 45min already."

"That's not long my dear boy; however I'll go see what I can find out for you." He quickly left the waiting room and headed towards the nurses station. He was only gone for a few minutes before coming back. He walked up until he was standing directly in front of Tony.

"Its good news my boy. None of her wounds were fatal. They simply took her into surgery to clean the wounds and stitch her up. She should be out very shortly. They gave her some blood to replace the amount she lost, which is what caused her to pass out in the first place." Just as he had finished explaining one of the doctors came into the waiting room.

"Family of Ziva David?" he asked mispronouncing her name. No one bothered to correct him as they all wanted to know about her condition. They all gathered around the doctor who simply raised his eyebrows at the crowd of people.

"She's doing fine. She's out of surgery and we've put her in a private room at the request of one Tom E. Gemcity." Everyone looked at McGee who simply shrugged. He wasn't above using his fame if it helped friends. "We have her on a few pain killers, so she's a bit out of it right now, normally we would have just given her an anaesthetic however she woke up shortly after getting here and tried to walk out on a couple of our nurses."

Tony rolled his eyes. That sounded like Ziva alright. "Can we see her? He asked."

"She can have visitors two at a time."

"Thank you doctor." Ducky offered and the doctor nodded his head and headed off down the hallway.

"I'm first." Abby cried bouncing up and down on her feet as she tried to restrain herself from running down the hall into Ziva's room.

"Why don't you take with McGee with you?" Tony offered before collapsing into a chair. McGee gave him a strange look, however took off down the hall after Abby who had been off like a shot after Tony gave her the ok.

"You ok Tony?" Gibbs asked coming to sit next to his senior field agent.

Tony tiredly rubbed his hands down his face. "I feel like I've just aged 10 years."

"Love will do that to you." Gibbs replied.

Tony quickly whirled his head to face Gibbs. "Boss?"

Gibbs simply sighed. "Look DiNozzo, I'm not blind. You two have so thoroughly busted rule 12 that all I can do is rescind the rule. I meant what I said about not hurting her; however I don't think you will. All I can say is I don't want to see this in the office. No Grab Ass, no using my conference room for 'extra curricular activities' and you absolutely can not freak out about my sending Ziva on cases."

"Thank you boss." Was all he said before letting a smile cross his face and leaning his head back against the chair.

"And DiNozzo?"

"Yeah boss?"

"If you think this is bad, just wait until there's kids." Gibbs said smirking as he had managed to cleanly wipe the contented look off of Tony's face.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ziva woke up slowly taking in where she was much slower then she normally would. Her memories of the night before slowly came back to her as she registered that she was in a hospital bed. She could feel someone's hand on hers and she looked to her side and saw Tony, fast asleep in a hard chair, his hand wrapped around hers like he would never let go. She allowed herself a smile. He looked so uncomfortably and charming asleep like that. He was snoring lightly and he looked like he hadn't gone home. Someone had given him some scrubs to wear; absently it crossed her mind that his clothes had probably been covered in her blood. She mentally debated waking him, he looked like he needed the sleep, however he also looked very uncomfortable. Which was ultimately what had her tightening her grip on his hand and whispering "Tony?"

He came awake in an instant. His gaze quickly going to her face before a giant smile crossed his face. "You're awake." He said leaning closer to the bed and her face.

"I am yes." She responded drily then added "You look like carp."

He chuckled and she was warmed by the sound. "You mean crap. And you don't look so hot yourself."

His words quickly made her think about her appearance and she winced when she thought about the damage done to her face.

"How bad?" she asked him.

"Well, you were stabbed and sliced and you've got a very nice shiner from a blow to the eye area." He told her "And you're beautiful."

His last words had her pausing. Beautiful wasn't something that was normally applied to people with stab wounds and black eyes. Nor was it something he had ever called her before. Hot and Sexy she had heard but beautiful?

"I think you may need your eyes checked Tony."

"Nope they're working just fine. You're beautiful. He insisted tightening his grip on her hand. And I would really appreciate if you could not do this to me again. I'm pretty sure I've aged 10 years."

Ziva rolled her eyes. "Oh yes, because I enjoy being taken hostage by a killer while my partner gets left behind. I was worried about you." She admitted softly.

"I know the feeling." He responded. "Now I think we need to talk about what you said last night." He said with a grin.

Ziva tensed. She had hoped that she had dreamed up that part. This was where he would now tell her that he really liked her as a partner, but that if she was in love with him then they shouldn't take it any further because he didn't want to hurt her. She braced herself for his let down.

"I'm glad you said it." He started absently rubbing circles on the palm of her hand. "Did you mean it?" he asked.

Ziva looked down at the sheet that was covering her. "I had lost a lot of blood. I wasn't in control of myself." She muttered.

"But did you mean it?" he asked leaning across and tilting her head so that she was looking into his eyes.

"Yes." She whispered cautiously waiting for the rejection to follow.

"Good. Because I love you too." Her eyes went wide.

He shook his head at the look on her face. "Ok, I know I don't have the best track record, but I'm going to clarify this once and for all. I'm in Love with you. As in romantically." He added as an afterthought knowing that she could take his meaning for a completely different type of love.

Ziva's eyes started to well with tears which started freaking Tony out a little bit. Ziva never cried.

"Thank you." Was all she said before she was pulling on him to come closer to the bed. Their lips met in a sweet kiss, one that was full of promise and hope. Neither one wanted to be the one to break it, however due to the need for air, Tony pulled back.

"I love you." He said as he tentatively rested his forehead on her's.

She gave a bright smile. "I love you too." They stayed like that for a moment before Ziva noticed that Tony looked uncomfortable.

"Will you hold me?" she asked.

"I would love to, but there's no room in that bed and I really don't want to hurt you."

"There is room." She replied scooting up a little. "You can rest behind me."

Tony quickly saw what she was doing and slid in behind her on the bed, gently wrapping his arms around her waist as she leaned back against his chest. He rhythmic breathing soon loured her back to sleep, and he allowed himself to nod off with her secure in his arms.

Gibbs walked into the hospital room and stood standing at the door for a moment. He shook his head ruefully. Only Tony would find a way into a hospital bed. He watched the couple as the lay sound asleep. He had to admit they looked good together.

"Boss?" he heard Tony whisper.

He walked into the room to go see his senior field agent.

"What is it DiNozzo?"

"We need to talk about some vacation time."