Officer Levy dropped to the floor, blood seeping through his shirt as Ziva ducked out of the way allowing Gibbs to get a shot at Abran, and the bullet from Abran's weapon grazed Ziva's shoulder before lodging itself on the thick wooden door. Gibbs shot Abran in the shoulder forcing him to drop the gun in his hand, Tony in the middle of the gunfire as Gibbs chucked a gun towards Ziva and made his way next to Abran. Officer Hadar was checking on Levy, whilst McGee tried to untie Tony.

"NO MCGEE!" Ziva shouted to him, McGee looked at her confused "It is rigged, we have to defuse the explosive first" Ziva came forward clutching her shoulder and worked on the bomb whilst Tony sat there close to unconsciousness. McGee walked to where Gibbs was cuffing Abran; it was going to be Ziva's turn to interrogate him soon.

"Boss…erm…are we going to hand him over to director David" Gibbs looked up at the younger agent and smiled.

"Nope…to Ziva" he said pushing Abran forward; who was crying in agony as his wounded shoulder was pulled back and cuffed. Ziva disarmed the bomb and worked on untying Tony, she could here the sirens in the background.

"Stay with me Tony…you are safe now" Ziva whispered and she hoped that he stayed awake long enough for the paramedics to check him over. She was met with a groan; she untied him and wished for the paramedics to arrive quicker.

Officer Hadar made his way towards his control officer.

"Officer David" Ziva turned to look at him. She stood up not letting go of Tony's hand.

"How is Levy?" Hadar looked to the floor.

"We lost him" Ziva sighed. Levy was a good officer and he would have made a great high ranking officer; that wasn't going to happen now.

"He lost his life because of me" she said, Officer Hadar was surprised at her show of emotions. When she was in Israel, Ziva was the type of women who was to herself and showed no remorse over anything and now here she stood feeling guilty for the lost life of Officer Levy. Hadar was quite for a while before he spoke.

"How is he?" Hadar asked nodding towards Tony.

"He is weak but he will survive…I hope" Ziva said, it was now time to her make that final decision she has been waiting to be sure of, when Tony was better it was time to talk it through.

Hadar nodded and walked out of the room.

It had been two weeks since the Abran incident. Tony had been taken to the hospital as soon as the paramedics had arrived; Ziva had gone with them to sort out her injured shoulder. Rina all but came running to her mother hugging her close, when she had seen Tony's face she had cried as she too felt the pain that her mother was feeling. Tony was her mother's boyfriend, but he was her friend too and it hurt to see him like this.

Officer Levy was being aided back to Tel Aviv by Officer Hadar and Rina had left with Eli. Ziva didn't get a chance to interrogate Abran; he was being taken to Mossad HQ where he will be, like he had said, 'Dispose off waste material'.

Tony's handsome face was making return and Ziva was distant with him; she not seen him in a whole week and in the week she had seen him no intimate touch was shared. Her shoulder was not seriously injured, just a bullet graze...a flesh was given a two week sick leave to heal properly, so he had invited her over to dinner and she had reluctantly agreed. She had to speak to him and give him a reason to why she was putting a strain on their relationship.

Ziva David stood at the door step of Anthony Dinozzo, taking a deep breath before knocking.

"COMING" Tony shouted form inside. After about a minute or so he opened the door with a grin that beat the Cheshire cat's.

"Hello Tony" Ziva said, standing awkwardly.

"Hey, come on in." Tony said moving aside to let his girlfriend in. He closed the door and took her jacket before hanging it in the closet. Ziva stood there staring at him, his handsome face was back. In the week that she had seen him, his face was still quite inflamed around the eyes and the lip was no better, now he had a fading scar near his eyes and his lip had healed.

"What?" Tony asked smiling lightly. She reached for his face and gently caressed the scar on his upper cheek, before smiling.

"You are handsome again" she stated matter of factly.

Tony laughed before speaking "Is that why you wouldn't even touch me last week because I wasn't handsome enough" Tony asked jokingly, but there was a serious edge to it. It had hurt him deeply the fact that every time Ziva came round she would hardly stay 2 hours before making an excuse to leave.

"What? Tony…no. I wanted to give you time to heal" Ziva said as she moved closer to him, it was partly true. She had seen the grimace in his face whenever he tried to speak or smile; kissing would be killing him slowly. Ziva stood on her toes and caressed his lips with hers before settling her feet back down again "Happy" she asked smiling, but he noticed that the smile did not reach her eyes

"Eh…I'll live" he said jokingly, before taking her hand and walking into the kitchen. He would have to talk to her about what was bugging her.

Dinner had gone by quickly with the famous Dinozzo spaghetti and wine, followed by his even more famous chocolate mousse that Ziva loves so much. Tony sat on the couch Ziva settled beside him and played with her fingers; he could just about imagine her smile whenever he did this; but today the smile wasn't there.

"Are you okay Ziva?" Tony asked, Ziva was silent before turning to look at him and the couch wasn't all that spacey, creating merely less than an inch form their faces and their noses almost touching. "Please don't lie to me" the pained voice didn't go unnoticed as he whispered to her

"Tell me you love me Tony" she whispered back.

"I have to tell you that?"

"I know, but I would like to hear it"

Tony stared at her before saying those words. "I love you, more than anything else" Ziva smiled sadly before kissing him softly, which didn't last as long as he hoped it would.

"I love you too, but there is something that has to be done. To stop the man I love form getting hurt again" He knew where this was going, he shook his head. Ziva got out of his embrace and stood facing the window.

"Don't do it Ziva" Tony warned as he stood up from the couch.

"I have to. The fact that I am Mossad will never change; I have and always will keep attracting enemies. That is something which is inevitable…I cannot change that. But I can change something which is far more precious to me…the people I love and…the man I love. I can protect them and you. I cannot do this any more Tony" She turned around to face him "I cannot live in fear that someday I will be fighting to protect you or the others. The fact that I love you will never change" she was quiet for a moment "I will not let it change" Tony laughed sarcastically.

"You are not the only one who attracts enemies Ziva. Someday, the crooks that we've locked up are gonna come bite our asses, but that doesn't mean you can't have a life, can't fall in love. You can't be alone for the rest of your life…thinking that someone is out to get you" Tony said moving closer to her.

"The crooks that you put away are completely different to the crooks that I put away Tony." She was silent before she spoke again "You have to let me go" Ziva said as her throat tightened.

"You expect me to let you walk away just like that? You know what I don't understand is the fact that when you push me away, I should walk away and when you welcome me with open arms, I should walk in like you didn't push me away in the first place. Well…I hate to disappoint you sweetcheeks because I'm not backing away now, we've been through too much together." He watched as she stared at him with tears gathering in the corner of her eyes. "If I let you go now…I…I'm scared that I'll never find you again Ziva" now the tears poured freely down her cheeks.

"I am sorry Tony" She sobbed as he embraced her, holding her close.

"You told me not to let you go…and…I'm not going to let you go" He said into her hair. She moved away from him and stood on her toes to kiss him, their final kiss she thought to herself. She laced her arms around his neck as his hands tangled in her hair; the kiss was deep, long and passionate. She pulled away and caressed his cheek.

"I am telling you now to let me go. I am leaving for Israel the day after tomorrow, will you come and say goodbye to me?" she asked in a whisper. Tony's eyes widened, did she just say…

"DAMN IT ZIVA…DON'T DO THIS" he shouted angrily at her, she jumped at his sudden fury.

"I have to" she whispered before taking her jacket and disappearing through the doors. He flopped down onto the couch; this is not what he had hoped for. He remembered standing in her kitchen whilst she ate thinking about marrying her and starting a family with her, he gave a sarcastic laugh at the thought yeah right!

The bastard Abran had ruined everything and Tony hoped that he had died a painful death in the hands of Mossad.

His beautiful partner, a mother and the woman he was in love with had just walked out of his apartment…and his life saying that she was leaving in a day and here he sat feeling sorry for himself. He understood her reason to a certain extent…but the pain of lost love was too much to take. Now he had to make a choice does he let her go or follow her to the ends of the earth?

Fin

Sequel In the Works…

Thank you for all the great reviews you guys gave me…Review. First chapter of sequel will be up soon.