Ziva could feel the rope cutting into her wrists and ankles and there was a throbbing pain in the back of her head. The three men were stood in front of her speaking very fast in a language she couldn't understand. Suddenly the men swung round to face her. One looked at the others and spoke in the strange tongue. The tallest replied with what sounded terrifyingly like a Russian phrase she understood perfectly.

"Kill the bitch."

The smallest of the men pulled a pistol from his pocked. Ziva took deep breaths and forced herself to look the man in the eye. She was not going to be purple at the end. Or was it green. Or maybe something else. Ziva almost laughed out loud with the ridiculousness of her spending her last moments contemplating the American idioms which had drove her insane for so long.

The sight was at the man's eye now and he was moving his hand towards the the trigger but still Ziva didn't flinch.

"NCIS! Drop your weapons!"

All three men froze for a moment and then the smallest of the men flicked his finger against the trigger.

As the shot sounded Gibbs' faltered for a moment before yelling out, "Get your hands in the air!"

As the men turned he could see Ziva lying motionless, still tied to the chair, on the floor and his stomach began to turn somersaults. 'No,' he thought desperately. 'Damn it Ziva why didn't you just listen? No, this can't be happening.'

As the pale and sickened looking forms of McGee and DiNozzo moved to handcuff the perps Gibbs caught sight of a slight movement and ran quickly across the storage container to Ziva.

"Ziva! Ziva!"

Ziva coughed harshly and mumbled something through the ball gag. Gibbs quickly reached round and undid it.

"Gibbs?"

Gibbs let out a sigh of relief. "It's okay Ziva," he assured her and her started to undo her bindings. "It's all going to be okay."

"Is she alright Boss?" Tony called worriedly.

"I'm fine Tony," Ziva called back as Gibbs helped her to her feet.

"For now," he added under his breath.

-NCISNCISNCISNCIS-

The ride back to NCIS was uncomfortable for many of the group. The three criminals were uncomfortable because Tony and Tim had made sure to be as violent as possible in the arrest and Ziva was uncomfortable because for the whole twenty minutes Gibbs asked her how she was feeling. Apparently undeterred by her mantra of 'I'm fine' he kept up a constant stream of questions the whole way to the office.

Finally, as he kept up the questions walking into the building, she snapped.

"I said I am fine Gibbs!"

He took her arm and pulled her into the elevator and slammed the stop button.

"You're fine? You have blood all over your face and clothes, I'm pretty sure you have a concussion, you were about two seconds away from death and you're trying to tell me that you're fine?"

"I am fine!"

"I don't appreciate being lied to Ziva."

"I am not lying! I'm fine! Just leave me the hell alone and stop being such an insufferable bastard!"

Before Ziva could comprehend what was happening Gibbs had grabbed her arm, spun her round and landed three hard smacks to her backside. Turning her back around he glared ferociously.

"You will watch your tone with me young lady. Is that clear?"

Ziva was to shocked to do anything but nod. Satisfied with this Gibbs pressed the stop switch again.

Ziva was mumbling under her breath in multiple languages. Unfortunately for her, one of these was Russian which Gibbs spoke fluently.

"Stupid man and his stupid unreasonable... OW!"

Gibbs had landed another, particularity hard, swat to her bottom.

"That, my dear child," he said sarcastically. "Was just the beginning."

'Crap," Ziva thought.