Jenny stood inside the small building beside the runway where Director David's jet was scheduled to arrive shortly, wondering whose idea it had been to make airplanes so loud. And sunlight so bright. She pushed her sunglasses up the bridge of her nose and turned jealously toward Gibbs. He was chatting with McGee, drinking a cup of coffee and staring directly out the window into the glaring afternoon light. Jenny had attempted to eat something, but the first hint of flavor on her tongue had drawn a lurch of protest from her stomach. For what she hoped was the last of many times, she swore off alcohol.
Not counting wine with dinner.
Or Champagne toasts at official functions.
Or the occasional drink while stuck late at the office with paperwork.
She sank into one of the chairs lined up in front of the window. No more binge drinking. Two drink maximum. Only water when stressed. Okay. She was going to have to include an anti-disappearing clause for her agents if this was going to work. She had been drinking only because she had been worried. If it had to be a competition, she supposed it meant she'd been more worried than Gibbs and McGee combined.
The sudden wailing of an ambulance siren felt like a knife slicing through her brain and it took her a moment to realize that she should still be a little worried. Tushkevich was dead and Tony and Ziva were safe, but Ziva had serious but vague injuries that required an ambulance to blare and flash directly outside the building, sending its strobing red lights of evil to burn holes through Jenny's corneas and its grating siren of…
"You okay there, Jen?" Gibbs asked, dropping into the seat beside her.
"Why the hell aren't you hungover?"
"Just lucky, I guess," he answered with an infuriating smirk. "They're on approach right now. Should be landing in the next five minutes."
"Right. Tell me again why Ziva needs the ambulance."
"Internal bleeding."
Jenny removed her sunglasses and massaged her temples with two fingers on each side. "That's it?"
"I think that's pretty serious."
"No, I mean we don't have any other details?"
"Considering Moussad has had a team here since yesterday actively hindering NCIS's investigation?" he spat. "I'm surprised they've bothered to tell us that much."
"They're giving us the body."
"Great. Now they can just return our man-hours and we'll be even."
"Jethro…"
"I mean it. I'm already short one agent in the field because of DiNozzo's arm and now Ziva's gonna be out again for God knows how long. I shouldn't be losing an agent every few months because Moussad has some big important mission they think is more important than what we do. And another thing…"
"I wasn't questioning your righteous outrage," Jenny interrupted. She dropped her voice to a hissing whisper, "Just the need to state it so damn loudly." He gave a snort of laughter and she shot him a death glare. "Don't make me order you to stop enjoying this, Special Agent Gibbs."
"That's them!" McGee suddenly shouted, pointing to a small white jet with blue trim touching down on the runway outside.
Jenny gave a displeased grunt as he opened the door to run out, admitting the noise of the airfield into the building. She put her sunglasses on and followed. Gibbs opened the door with a flourish, allowing her to step onto the tarmac ahead of him. At least the ambulance siren was off.
Director David's jet made a wide turn at the end of the runway and taxied toward them. Jenny braced herself for the noise, swearing off alcohol once again.
Maybe just Scotch.
Ziva picked at one of the bandages on her arms as she waited for the anesthesiologist in the operating room. She had been ready for surgery for almost twenty minutes, but one of the nurses had informed her that the on-call doctor had taken ill and their other anesthesiologist had been golfing at a course an hour's drive away. She was just happy they'd given her something for the pain and to stop the vomiting.
The reunion with her NCIS colleagues at the airport had been brief, more of a wave and a 'hello' as she had been loaded into the ambulance and they had gone to deal with Dmitri's body. Tony had met her in the emergency room just before the hospital staff had moved her upstairs, but she hadn't been able to do anything more than hand off her necklace and ring with the caveat, "I want them back as soon as possible."
"Of course," he'd replied, kissing her cheek and whispering, "I love you."
She wasn't sure he'd heard her reply because the elevator doors had closed in his face. All the rushing had stopped the moment she'd entered the OR. The hands on the clock were slow in moving, giving her plenty of time to think about what had happened in the past two days. She had never thought such an odd string of events would happen to her, but, naturally, who else? She hoped McGee wouldn't be including it in his next novel.
She turned her head as several people in scrubs entered the room. "Sorry we've had to keep you waiting, Miss David. Logistics, you know." The man, who didn't bother identifying himself, hurriedly placed a mask over her face. "I just need you to count back from 100."
As Ziva started to seriously relax, a somewhat familiar Asian nurse leaned over her face for a moment before looking at the other nurse. "I think I know her from somewhere."
The second nurse, a woman with dark, bushy eyebrows, entered Ziva's field of vision. "Huh. She does look…Oh! Remember last month when someone tried to shoot the panda at the National Zoo and those two NCIS agents were in with the elephant?"
"That's right!" The first nurse's face appeared again. "Agent David, do you remember me?"
"Dah-VEED…" Ziva muttered, drifting into unconsciousness.
Tony tapped his foot impatiently on the tiled floor in the waiting room. Abraham had asked him to stop pacing ten minutes ago, Gibbs had ordered him to stop babbling twenty minutes before that and Jenny had taken away his Coca-Cola a few minutes prior to that. He'd discovered Pop Rocks in the vending machine and tried to amuse himself with the combination. McGee had appreciated it. He'd lost his soda too.
The wait, although it had been only an hour thus far, was becoming interminable. Tony stood and walked to the large window to watch the sun setting over the treetops. He played with the charm hanging at his throat, now accompanied by the diamond from his pocket. Abraham had been kind enough to clasp the necklace when Tony could not, due to his previous injury. The ER staff had insisted on taking x-rays, but his cast and arm hadn't been damaged during his brief scuffle on Elba. He suspected the check-up had been instigated by either Gibbs or Jenny to prevent him from following Ziva directly into the OR.
The sun finally disappeared completely, leaving an orange glow in its wake and a reflection of Gibbs beside him in the plate glass. He didn't speak until the sky had shifted from orange to red to purple. "She put all those bullets in Tushkevich?"
"Yeah. I saw her do it." Tony paused. "She saved my life."
"Good. That's how it should have been." He fell silent and the two men stood staring out into the darkening world. Gibbs finally said, "You asked her?"
Tony couldn't help but smile. "Yup."
"She said yes?"
He clasped the ring and Star of David together. "Uh-huh."
"When?"
"No idea." He neglected to add, 'Whenever she says'
"Make sure…"
"…out of the office. I know."
"Don't interrupt, DiNozzo. I was gonna say make sure you invite me. I don't want the two of you just showing up married one Monday."
They both broke into quiet laughter. Tony finally replied, "I'll see what I can do."
"I know. I've been married a few times." Gibbs turned and extended his left hand. "I hope it's your last."
Tony accepted the gesture, appreciating the accommodation for his broken arm that so few people made. "It will be."
"Knowing Ziva…" Gibbs gave another soft snigger. "She's gonna be fine."
"I know."
"Good." Gibbs' reflection disappeared, replaced a few minutes later by McGee's.
He didn't speak, so Tony eventually said, "I proposed to Ziva."
"Yeah, I saw her hand when she got off the plane."
"Oh."
"Um…how did you do it?" At Tony's questioning look, McGee rambled, "It's not that I'm all that interested in knowing, not that I don't care or something like that, but it's just that Abby will want to know and if I don't have the details she may…"
Tony stopped him. "Hold on. Why aren't you surprised about any of this?"
"Well, I saw the ring in DC."
"Gibbs showed you the ring?"
"Not on purpose! It fell out of his pocket when he was showing your note to the Director and I. Then I told Abby and I think she told Ducky, and I think Agent Lee and Palmer and Cynthia know…"
"Great," Tony muttered. Even though everyone in the agency already knew he and Ziva were involved, it would have been fun to be secretly engaged for a while. "And what about…"
He didn't bother to finish, turning and sprinting toward a surgeon saying, "I'm Dr. Neidermeyer. Are you all with Miss David?"
Five voices chorused, "Dah-VEED."
"Yes, sorry," the surgeon replied with a slight eye roll. "Well, she's come through the surgery quite well. She's in recovery now and she'll be moved to a room in the ICU soon."
The news was not enough. Tony nodded eagerly. "Can I see her?"
"No visitors until she's in ICU and I'm afraid we have a family only policy there."
"Excellent," Abraham answered. "So her father and her future husband will be allowed to visit."
Tony watched the surgeon wither under the Moussad Director's stare. "Uh, yes. Of course. Take a right at the end of this hall and all the way down."
Tony was halfway down the second hall when Abraham caught him.