Chapter 13
AN: Thank you for the support. I'm still sorry about the last chapter, I wish I could say this chapter is less painful.
AN2: As I have said, let me know what episodes you would like me to address. Hope you like this chapter.
Fourteen days have passed since Ziva, Kelly, and Shannon were in the car accident. Due to the injuries Gibbs sustained in while deployed he was medevacked to Bethesda Navel hospital. As Gibbs was sent to Bethesda Ziva, who has been in a medically induced coma ever since the accident, was transferred there as well.
As she opens her eyes Ziva is very confused about where she is and what is going on as nothing is familiar, and she is feeling pretty out of it, even though she is awake.
"Ziva," A voice says, and so Ziva turns towards the voice. As she turns Ziva sees a person and it takes her a few seconds to recognize who it is.
"Pop?" Ziva asks, her voice horse.
"Yeah, it's me," Jackson Gibbs greats.
"Mommy? Kells? Daddy?" Ziva asks, looking around, looking for her family, and because of the way she is lying she doesn't see that Gibbs is in the bead next to her.
"Ziva, what do you remember?" Jack asks his granddaughter, wanting to know what Ziva remembers so that he can be as gentle as possible.
"תאונת דרכים" Ziva says, not even realising that she is speaking Hebrew.
"English please Ziva, my Hebrew isn't that good," Jackson tells his granddaughter with a gentle tone of voice.
"Sorry, car accident," Ziva says, pausing between each word because she needs to think about what to say, and as she speaks everything that happened comes back to her. "Mommy is dead," Ziva realises.
"I'm so sorry, Ziva," Jack says, and as soon as he speaks tears come to her eyes.
"Kells?" Ziva asks, forcing the word out.
"I'm sorry Sweetheart. She died in the accident too," Jackson explains, and as he does Ziva realises that she is holding chestnut, that someone put him in her arms, and so she just squeezes him as she cries, thinking about her little sister.
"Dad, where is dad? Want dad." Ziva asks, through her tears, and as she speaks Jackson sits down on the edge of her bed.
"Ziva, your Dad was hurt after he got the news about what happened," Jackson explains. "He's in the next bed, the doctors are just waiting for him to wake up," Jackson explains to his granddaughter, who nods, and as she does Ziva starts to move her blanket so that she can go see her father as that's what she really wants. "No Ziva, you can't move right now," Jack tells Ziva stopping her from moving.
"Why not?" Ziva asks confused as she doesn't realise anything is wrong because of the still 'slightly out of it' state she is in.
"You're hurt Ziva, really hurt," Jackson explains. "Your right leg is broken in three places, and you have a fractured hip, and some pretty serious internal injuries, which included bleeding in your brain," Jackson explains, knowing that most of those injuries are from the way Ziva was trapped, the way she was crushed. "You've been in a medically induced coma for two weeks. You can't get up yet Ziva, you need to rest," Jackson explains as from what the doctors said Ziva was minutes away from joining Kelly and Shannon in dying and could potentially have a permanent brain injury, but the doctors aren't sure yet.
"Daddy, want daddy," Ziva says, crying, and starting to become hysterical, and as all the machines start to beep loudly doctors run into the room and Ziva is sedated saying, "Daddy!" as she once more falls into unconsciousness.
For the next five days Ziva still spends her time mostly unconscious, and when she is not unconscious she is realising how much she hates seeing her dad unconscious, and so hurt, in bed and has to work with doctors to try and start to move a little bit. At the moment attempting to move just causes Ziva pain, and as a result she is speaking more Hebrew than English. Jackson has brought that up with Ziva's doctors who say it could be a result of her brain injury or it could just be because it is easier for her to speak in her native language right now, it's not clear which.
It is late at night and just like he has been doing for over two weeks Jackson is asleep in a chair in the room Ziva and Gibbs are sharing. As he opens his eyes for the first time in over two weeks Gibbs is confused about where he is, and what's going on, but then everything comes back to him.
"Shannon, Kelly, Ziva," Gibbs says to himself, as he feels overwhelming pain that has nothing to do with his injuries. Looking around Gibbs sees Ziva on the other bed. "Ziver," Gibbs says, feeling glad to see her, but because of how far away she is he cannot tell whether she is okay.
Knowing what he has to do, needing to know if she is okay, Gibbs moves the blanket off him, sees an IV in his arm, which he pulls out, and slowly gets up. Feeling pain as he moves Gibbs pushes it down and walks towards his daughter, stumbling slightly, and feeling even more pain, Gibbs gets to Ziva's bed, knocking it and accidently waking Ziva up as he does.
"Gibbs?" Ziva asks, sounding amazed as she has been waiting for him to wake up.
"Hey Kid," Gibbs greats, his voice horse.
"Mommy… Kells…." Ziva says, struggling to say the words as tears come to her eyes.
"I know, Kiddo," Gibbs says, carefully sitting down in bed next to Ziva, and putting his arm around her.
"I could not get to Kells… I tried," Ziva reveals, having no idea what to say Gibbs just tightens the arm around her and kisses her head, as tears run down his face.
Together, Ziva and Gibbs just lay together, as Gibbs hold his daughter, as the two of them cry, mourning the loss of Shannon and Kelly.
For the next month Ziva and Gibbs have continued to heal in hospital, during which both become certain that they hate hospitals. While they are both making improvement Ziva has noticed that her father seems, apart from that first night, more distance.
As both Ziva and Gibbs were discharged from hospital a couple of days earlier the day has finally come for Shannon and Kelly's funeral. As he knew that it was what Shannon wanted Gibbs is having them buried in DC before he and Ziva head back to Pendleton, and he has already visited the gravesite alone since being discharged.
It is about nine am and Ziva, who has to use crutches and thus cannot make it upstairs, is standing in the living room of the Gibbs' DC house. As she stands in the room she can't help but think of the last time they were there, as a family, and that thought makes the ache in her chest hurt even more.
"Let's go, Kid," Gibbs, who is also on crutches, says as he walks into the living having tried to make it down into the basement, but failed.
"Yes Gibbs," Ziva says, and the two of them head out of the house. Even though Ziva wants to call him Dad she hasn't had a chance to ask whether he is okay with it, and after the way he has been acting since he woke up from his coma Ziva isn't sure if it would be something he would be okay with.
For Ziva the next couple of hours pass in a blur, and just like she has been experiencing since she woke up from her coma Ziva finds herself having a hard time understanding the English. While almost everything was a blur the one thing that wasn't was that Gibbs didn't comfort her at all throughout the entire funeral.
As the funeral ends people come up to Ziva and Gibbs, but Ziva doesn't pay much attention to them. What she does pay attention to is that the headstone Shannon and Kelly are buried under has both her dad and her names and birthdate with space to add when they die. In fact, once she notices that fact Ziva cannot stop looking.
"I can't believe you did this," Gibbs says, and the anger in her father's voice is enough for Ziva to look away from the object she is staring at and look to her Dad, who is talking to her Pop.
"Leroy, calm down…" Jackson Gibbs starts to say, not understanding why his son is so angry.
"Don't you dare tell me to calm down," Gibbs says angrily. "I don't want to see you again," Gibbs says angrily. "Ziver, let's go," Gibbs tells his daughter, who is a little scared of the anger in her fathers' voice, and so she quickly, or as quickly as she can at the moment, does what he tells her to do, and the two of them head out of the cemetery; Ziva looking back at the gravestone as they go.
After leaving the funeral Ziva and Gibbs, who is now in uniform, are able to get a military transport back to Pendleton. While it is a good thing both Ziva and Gibbs find it rather uncomfortable due to their injuries.
"Are we going home?" Ziva asks, honestly not sure how it is going to feel to walk back into the house without Shannon and Kelly.
"Not yet, I need to talk to someone," Gibbs says and he leads Ziva over to a waiting car, where they both put their bags in the trunk.
"Okay," Ziva says, with a nod, as the two of them get into the car.
A little while after they arrived back at Pendleton Ziva and Gibbs are walking into the NIS office.
"Yes, Gunnery Sergeant?" the person working the main desk asks as Gibbs, and Ziva approach.
"I need to talk to Special Agent Michael Franks," Gibbs says, having learnt the name of the agent in charge of the investigation.
"Of course. I'll get him," the person says, before getting up and going to get the person Gibbs has to talk to.
For a few moments Ziva and Gibbs wait until a man who looks to be in his forties, who has a moustache, walks up to Gibbs and Ziva.
"Gunny Gibbs?" Franks asks, sticking out his hand for Gibbs to shake, which Gibbs returns. "And this must be Ziva," Franks say to her.
"Hi," Ziva greats, and once she does Gibbs turns to look at her.
"Ziver, I need to talk to Agent Franks, can you sit and wait here?" Gibbs asks, referring to the seats.
"Yes," Ziva says, with a nod, and she goes and sits down while Gibbs follows Agent Franks.
For a couple of hours Ziva sits in the lobby of NIS while Gibbs talks to Agent Franks, learning all about everything that he knows in the case. After a basically silent car ride, which Ziva is getting rather used to, the two of them arrive back home.
In almost perfect unison both Ziva and Gibbs stop as they walk into the house and see Shannon and Kelly everywhere, and so for a few moments the two of them just stand in complete silence.
"Ziva, go put your stuff in your room and I'll get started on dinner," Gibbs tells his daughter.
"Okay," Ziva says, and she makes her way to her room.
Walking into her room Ziva is overcome with emotion as she sees the room that is, and should have always been, hers and Kelly. Dropping her bags on the floor Ziva stares at the bunkbeds, with her leg and hip being the way they are Ziva isn't sure she's going to be able to climb up the ladder and to her bed, but she also knows that sleeping on Kelly's bed isn't an option.
Wanting to figure it out Ziva makes her way over to the bunkbed and once she is close enough she drops her crutches and rather than climbing up Ziva pulls herself up to the bunk, even though it is difficult.
While Ziva is in her room Gibbs has made his way to the kitchen. As he walks into the kitchen the first thing he sees is the picture of him, Shannon, Kelly and Ziva that they took the day they moved to Pendleton.
Walking over Gibbs picks up the picture and just stares at it, as his heart breaks.