Chapter 18
"Ziva?" Tony croaked, he could feel tears forming in his eyes, he was so happy to see her all of the thoughts that he previously had in his head were instantly purged from his mind. How could he think about dieing when he could be privileged to lay on eyes on something as beautiful as Ziva everyday. But even so he felt his heart sink as he knew that his captors now had something to hurt him with, to know that Ziva could be put through pain made Tony feel like the whole world was crashing around him.
"Ziva?" Tony said, louder this time, this time Ziva raised her head and green eyes met Brown and the pair just stared deeply into one another eyes, feeling the comfort that one another's gaze could bring.
"Ziva, what are you doing here?" Tony swallowed and his whole body was raked by fits of coughing.
"I," Ziva smiled to herself before nodding "Couldn't live without you- I guess."
"You should not have come." A steely expression coated Tony's face, he listed his head up and jutted out his chin. "I am ready to die." He continued.
Ziva felt her heart sink, it was Somalia all over again, only the roles were reversed, "Tony you are going to get out of here." Ziva swallowed and she could feel tears forming in her eyes as she realised the hopelessness of the situation. Then she felt her strength building inside her as she realised as long as she was with Tony no situation was hopless.
"So what's that plan?" Tony asked
"What plan?" Ziva relied her brow creased with confusion.
"The plan to save us!" Tony exclaimed for the first time in days he had felt the spark of hope light inside him.
"There is no plan Tony…." Ziva said softly.
"But Gibbs, McGee?" Tony stated
"They do not know where you or I are Tony." Ziva's tears finally broke loose and they cascaded down her cheeks. "They do not know where we are."
Seeing Ziva in distress seemed to kick-start something inside Tony, she could feel gears whirring inside his mind as he began to piece together things inside his head.
"Then we are just gonna have to do it without them then aren't we?" Tony said to Ziva giving her one of he crooked smiles.
Ziva just started at the stating man before her blankly, the whole left side of his face was a mess of partially scabbed over burnt flesh and skin, if Tony could have seen himself he would have compared his likeness to '2-face' off the 'Dark Knight'. Tony's body was battered a bruised and cloaked in dry blood. The right side of his face was swollen and bloody giving Tony an almost monstrous appearance. Ziva looked at him more carefully, he deathly white and he was shivering constantly. A trail of blood leaked from one side of his mouth, Ziva noticed that he was now missing both of his little fingers. Tony was still sitting in just his boxer-briefs revealing the extent of the damage that had occurred to his Body.
Open knife wounds plastered Tony's body, some of them were scabbed over some were only just beginning to heal, some of the larger ones had become infected. They were inflamed and angry, pus collected around the wounds making them look even more painful than when Ziva had last seen them.
Ziva also noticed how thin Tony was, she could now see his rib cage protruding from his chest. But the last thing Ziva looked at was his smile, something that no matter what the time, or the circumstances, could always make her heart melt.
Tony's smile sent evil scattering away from Ziva's mind leaving her feeling strong and ready. No matter what happened she would do all that was in her power to protect Tony and not allow any more harm to come to him. She would save him, even if it meant laying down her own life.