"It's alright now, I'm here" She whispered in his ear.
The disbelief went like a shockwave through her. Half of her expected him to sit up, pull the tube from his throat and tell her it was all a joke, and she had to admit it was his style, but he never did.
"We are going to get who did this, I promise" She said, and kissed him on the cheek, "I promise"
She picked up his hand, it felt colder than she'd expected so she squeezed it even harder, it felt so wrong when he didn't squeeze back. Ziva took the ring from around her neck and slipped it onto his finger.
"Here, you should probably have this back" She said
"I love you"
She stood up, kissed her hand and stroked it across his forehead, she wanted to stay with him with every fibre of her being but, for his sake, she knew she had to catch Thorn and to do that she needed some sleep at least. She went to the door way.
"Come back to me, Tony" She said suddenly.
Ziva stood by the door watching for any signs that he'd heard her, but nothing came.
"Are you leaving?" Asked Jeanne when she saw Ziva leaving the room.
Jeanne longed to have heard what she said or did when she was in that room.
"You probably think I am wrong, but I need to find the man who did this to my husband, I need to sleep before I do that"
"There is bed facilities here if you'd like to stay with him?" Offered Jeanne generously.
Jeanne couldn't quite believe she was saying this but the woman's hard stance was betrayed by the sorrow in her eyes, it was the moment she realised the that Ziva truly loved Tony. She found it hard to believe that anybody could love him as much as she did. And that was the moment she herself realised that she was still in love with Anthony Dinozzo despite what he did for a living and despite the fact that he was married to the woman in front of her.
"Thank you, doctor?"
"Benoit" Said Jeanne, and saw the look on Ziva's face.
"So he told you about me?" She said.
"He did!" She said looking her directly in the eyes.
Neither woman knew where the conversation was going to progress to because they were disturbed and Jeanne left.
Paul Dinozzo came down the corridor, he walked with such a graceful posture.
"Ziva, what the hell happened?" He said, his voice gave away the calm collected body language. "Is he OK?"
One of the most difficult things she ever had to do was to tell Tony's already guilt ridden father that the son he never paid any attention was in a coma that he may never come out of.
Gibbs came into the office that morning and glanced over at Tony's empty desk. On the drive to work he kept telling himself that all last night was, was a unbelievably vivid nightmare, but it wasn't. Anger filled him up.
"Ziva, you know I'll catch this guy" He said when he saw her at her desk glancing up at him.
"I don't want to catch him, I want to kill him!" She said,
He noticed her cheeks stained with tears and wiped one from her cheek with his sleeve.
"So do I" He said
"We will kill him, Gibbs" She said, and at that moment some of the frost between them thawed.
"McGee, grab your gear, Ziva track down Petty Officer Davis he failed to report for duty this morning"
"Why, where are you going?" She asked.
"To the parking lot" He said and McGee knew better than to hang around, he followed Gibbs lead into the elevator leaving Ziva to attempt to push out all thoughts of last night, but he didn't know about the tiny life inside her that was growing every day and instead of a blessing it felt like a burden.
Thanks for your reviews, I know this isn't the most action filled chapter, but it was the emotions I was focusing on here. The action will come though! Please keep reading and reviewing.