OK this is a proper chapter this time, don't you worry. ;)
The women in the bed made no indication that she recognised the name being called. Then again what could they expect, she was in a coma after all. Her eyelids remained closed as they had been for so long. The rise and fall of her chest was so light it seemed no breath at all. Her hands were arranged deliberately on the sheets and the softness of this scene was only scared by the harsh artificial hospital lights fixed to the roof above.
McGee walked out of the room to find a nurse, or anyone who could explain what all this meant. How long had she been here? After two years the whole team had appeared to hve moved on. But I can assure you that if you scraped away the thin layer of ash and shell you would find the pain was still very real though none of them could say the "weakness" they had all shared.
It dawned on Gibbs that no new team member had come to sew up the bitter hole of grief. Maybe the only way to move on fully and to forget was for a new beginning in metaphoric or literal sense. He cursed himself for just letting everything fester like a hunk of rotting meat. The gases all building up on the team and just waiting to explode, after Kate, Ziva came and with her was an entirely new way of viewing the world. Her odd little actions and flirtations soon replaced Kate's childish banter with the team. But never think that Ziva had merely been a replacement. No, she was a whole new outlook, a new sense of achievement and new emotions. Ziva was Ziva, and believe me no one could ever replace her. As no one had ever replaced Kate…
"What ever you think Ziva," Gibbs thought. "We all loved you and still do, what happened for you to think that? Yes Tony is a jackass but her always was…"
Gibbs suddenly kicked the bed earning him an almost demonic glare from the nurse, he shouted to the sky, the bed, and to the whole world in general.
"Why didn't you come to me, I always promised you I would protect you."
The nurse eyes softened at this outburst and looked at the team with a distant sadness in her wide eyes.
"Do you know this woman?" she asked cautiously not wanting to pry into other people's business.
"Maybe…" Gibbs started not wanting the women to be Ziva but then again any sense of the term alive was good, wasn't it?
Surprisingly the nurse didn't question Gibbs vague response, and picked up the file from its holder at the end of the bed. Opened it deafly and began to flick through its pages.
"She came in just under two years ago, she was found near washed up on Virginia Beach with no id and suffering from bad hypothermia as well as all the tale tale signs of a beating. Almost every bone in her body was broken and there was severe haemorrhaging to the frontal lobe of her brain. Its amazing she has lasted this long." The Nurse said.
"Wait a moment, haemorrhaging, what does that mean for her long term neurological health?" McGee said quickly.
The nurse looked down at the floor and shifted uncomfortably in her shoes, you could almost see the thought process as she worked out the best way to explain all this.
"I can't say, her MRI results are relatively normal for someone in her state. You, We will only know the true results when she wakes up. If she wakes up…" The nurse sensed that this was a very difficult situation for them and quietly withdrew from the room and shut the door with a soft click.
As soon as the click had stopped echoing of the walls Tony began to speak.
"Do you think it is her?"
"I don't know…" Gibbs began but trailed of her went to the side of the women's bed and gently moved her arm so he had full view of her elbow. He gently rotated it and ran his thumb gently up her smooth skin. His thumb stopped when he reached a point at the side of the arm very close to the elbow. He traced the outline of a small bulbous point, and then he placed her arm back onto the sheet.
He stooped down and kissed her gently on the forehead, and stroked her hair in the way a mother does her child.
"It is her." He said simply, but that was all that need to be said.
NCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCISNCIS
Tony sat silently next to the bed just staring blankly into the wall behind unable to focus on one point. The burden he had for her death had been terrible but this was even worse, for she was in a fate worse than death. He could almost hear her spirit screaming like a ravenous banshee and scratching and snarling with all its might to be free from its senseless prison.
"Sorry…" he whispered, one tear rolled down his face and then clung his cheek with all its might, but then gravity over powered it and it fell onto Ziva's hand and spread radiating in all directions.
Tony didn't even bother to ask Gibbs how he knew it was her, that didn't matter to him at this moment in time. He knew Gibbs well enough to not question his statements and undeniable knowledge.
"Who did this to you…?" Tony said.
"Pick a terrorist group, any terrorist group." Gibbs growled.
Tony jumped a foot in the air not realising that Gibbs was in the room let alone right behind him.
"She has been here a long time Tony, by the manner in which they tried to get rid of her I presume they knew how hard she was to kill. She had weights tied to the bottom of her feet before she was thrown into the sea. I don't think anyone knows she was alive until now."
McGee walked into the room his eyes furrowed into a deep frown.
"Boss, I have been talking to the doctor and Ziva has been in a coma for so long that there is less than a 10 chance she will come out of it…" He trailed off regretting being the one to relay this information.
"They say it might be kinder to…"
"No." said Gibbs most defiantly, "I will never do that to her." Then he stopped and looked out of the window.
"Not yet any way," his voice rose to a feverish pitch. "Not until the bastard who did this to her is safely 6ft under ground." Tony and McGee both winced and the gleaming flash that had appeared in his eyes. "Have you noticed she is the only patient with flowers?" He said annoyed.
McGee stood up quickly from the table he had been resting on and caught Gibbs eye. Knowing where this conversation was heading and decided to stop it before the stampede which is also known as Gibbs temper was let loose.
"I'll pull all security tapes from the past month and then find out who ran the investigation." McGee said already running from the room.
"Tony..." Gibbs began but was interrupted by Tony.
"I know full all information from immigration and find out why Ziva would fake her own death and manage to get back into the US." He said in a bored tone. He began to stand up but Gibbs put a very forceful hand on his shoulder and pushed him down into his seat. Gibbs then bent close to Tony's ear and whispered.
"No you are not; you are going to stay with her no matter what. You got that? I don't care if the building collapses you don't leave her!" He said, then Gibbs barged out of the room.
Tony shut his eyes and prayed for it to all end…
Yay, me finished this chapter! Next one coming up!!