A/N: Here is chapter thirteen, right on time! Actually it looks like we're early with this chapter. Oh well, it's better this way, right?

Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS or its characters. I own the doctor (but not his name, that's from Bleach), the bad guys, and anything else that doesn't belong with NCIS if you watch the episodes very carefully.

Chapter Thirteen: Ziva

Gibbs and Fornell entered the bull pen, both of them exhausted. They've been running around town all day, heading to every home of every one of Aaron's guys, including the ones that Tony sent them to after he finally got the information on them. Each one was found dead in their home; all of them shot multiple times. The odd thing was that none of the neighbors had heard any gun fire, which meant Aaron had used a silencer. So, where was Aaron now?

Gibbs sighed and sat down heavily in his seat, Fornell sitting in Ziva's. "What have you got for me, Tony?" Gibbs asked wearily, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Tony looked worriedly at his boss before answering. "Well, as far as we know, Aaron killed off his guys when he realized we could use them to find him. That shows he's worried. Also, he threatened McGee again. That can go either way; he could have said that to trick us or to warn us. If he's tricking us, then that means he has something else planned. If he's warning us, then it could be that he's being cocky and thinks he can get away with whatever he's planning, even if we're ready and waiting for him. If that's the case, we could use his overconfidence to our advantage somehow.

"We've got Ziva at the hospital now, watching out for McGee just in case, and we're here working on finding him. That guy, Eric, he said that he had seen a type of moss on Richard's shoe that could be from one of the parks or woods around here. And Josh said that he had seen Peter and the others at a park that the big kids go to. So, we know that one of the places to look is a park. We still haven't found the body of the army woman, so we've got that for us too. Most likely the evidence will be the same as what we've gotten so far, which is nothing." Tony took a deep breath and continued. "Honestly, boss. I'm not sure what to do. All of our witnesses are dead except Josh, and we can't question him until his parents get here tomorrow. And we won't know anything about the victims or Aaron's crew until Ducky finishes the autopsies. What else can we do?"

"What about the videos?" Fornell asked. "Have you watched any of them? Maybe there's a clue in the videos that can show us where Aaron is hiding. Maybe there's something in each video that will stand out."

"It's a possibility." Tony considered. "I guess I can do that, since I'm pretty much useless otherwise." He looked down at the wheelchair with a bitter expression. "Ziva called me a while ago. She said that the doctor said he won't know for sure when I can get out of this wheelchair until he examines me again but he thinks I can be out by tomorrow, at the earliest. Until then, watching the videos would be the only thing I can do to help for now."

"Then you do that, Tony." Gibbs said, rising from his seat and stretching his back. "Tobias, lets go down to autopsy. Maybe Ducky has something for us. Or Abby."

As Fornell stood to follow Gibbs, his cell phone rang. He paused when he saw the caller ID and quickly answered. "Fornell."

"Sir, there's a problem. Gibbs's agent, David, is missing." Reported the voice of one of Fornell's men. "There was a gunshot and then silence. We're searching right now but we can't go far without leaving McGee."

"Alright, we're on our way." Fornell said, heading toward the elevator, Gibbs right on his heels. "Stolson's men are all dead but we need you to keep an eye on Agent McGee just in case. Keep the patients and doctors calm. We don't want to start a panic or we'll never find her."

"Yessir." The man said before hanging up.

Fornell turned to Gibbs and filled him in. "Ziva can take care of herself for the most part." Gibbs said. "But we need to get over there anyways. Who knows how many others Aaron found to replace his dead men already."

Gibbs and Fornell hurried out of the building and jumped into their car, Gibbs at the wheel, and sped down the street toward the hospital. Gibbs only hoped he didn't get there too late again.

Ziva stood next to the vending machine, hands clenched in tight fists, the urge to destroy the machine growing with every minute. The longer she looked at McGee through the window, battered and broken on the too white hospital sheets, the more she wanted to find the man responsible and rip his head off. McGee was her friend. He was nice to her when she first arrived at NCIS. She got along well with him. She actually found him more tolerable than Tony. He was the nicest person she knew, and that was saying something because she knew many people. He was smart and kind and honest and an all around decent guy. So why was this happening to him? Why McGee? How could something so horrible happen to someone so undeserving?

Ziva slowly took several deep breaths to try and calm her trembling body, her fists still clenched. She hoped no one spoke to her. She didn't think she could resist hitting the first person that approached her. Taking a few more deep breaths, she slowly turned, intending on heading back to McGee's ward when something caught her attention. She could have sworn she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

Quickly, she placed her hand on her gun at her hip and inched closer towards the almost empty hall. Why was it empty? Hadn't she just seen several visitors walking around this same hall when she first came to the vending machine? Ziva reached the corner of the hall and waited a few seconds before drawing her weapon and quickly turning to face the hall, gun drawn.

She lowered her gun a moment later when she saw no one. Frowning in suspicion, she kept her gun in hand as she headed down the deserted hall, keeping her ear trained for anything that didn't belong. She walked down the hall until she got to the end, which split into two different directions. She turned to head back when something caught her eye again. Now she knew she saw something. Out of the corner of her eye again, she knew she saw a figure cross the hall to her left, going from one room to the other across the way.

Ziva headed towards the area she thought she saw the figure. As she approached the general direction of where the figure might have been, she began opening doors, her gun rising every time the door opened and lowering again when all she saw were empty rooms or closets of cleaning supplies or extra sheets. She left the doors opened as she headed to the next one and the next one. Finally she stood before the last door, just at the end of the hall. Aiming her gun, she quickly counted to three in her head and shoved the door open, raising her gun in preparation.

The room was empty, except for the small plain table and hospital bed with its too white sheets and walls. She entered the room slowly and looked around. She knew there was someone in one of these rooms. She saw them, she knew she did. Was she just tired? No, she knew that wasn't it. There really was someone here. So where did they go? They couldn't have disappeared. Where did they go? Ziva searched the room, though there weren't many places to look. She entered the bathroom and pushed the flimsy curtain aside. Still nothing.

Ziva turned away from the shower, glanced in the mirror and froze. A man that she recognized from the picture she and Tony saw when they read over the news article, stood behind her with a sinister grin on his face. Aaron Stolson. Ziva barely had time to register the wild look in his eyes before he wrapped a cord around her neck, cutting off any air she tried to get to her lungs. Ziva clumsily aimed her gun behind her and fired.

There was a small grunt of pain before a searing pain formed in the small of her back from Aaron's knee. Aaron grabbed her gun, twisting it free of her weakening grip, and tossing it into the toilet. Then he dragged her out of the bathroom and into the main part of the room. He shoved her forward, causing her to fall and hit her head on the bars on the side of the bed.

Stars flashing in front of her eyes, Ziva tried to rise to her feet but cried out in pain as a sudden kick to the stomach sent her sprawling back to the floor. Before she could do more than clutch her stomach, another kick connected with her hip, and then another to her right leg, causing Ziva to cry out again as she felt something snap.

Quickly she rolled away from Aaron as he aimed another kick at her. She rolled onto her back and, using her good leg, swung it up and connected it with the back of his knees, making him fall backwards. Ziva shoved herself up onto her knees and threw herself at Aaron, landing on top of him and pulling her fist back before connecting it with the side of his face. She repeated this action several more times before he reached down and grabbed her injured leg, squeezing tightly.

Ziva cried out again as she was forced to release her grip on him. Quickly he flipped them over and began mimicking her actions, aiming punch after punch at her face and even some to her ribs. Ziva lost count of how many times she heard the bones snap as she fought to free herself.

Sensing her efforts, Aaron shoved a knee between her legs and then the other, setting her legs on either side of his hips and rendering her motionless. Ziva took this moment to raise both legs as high as she could, lock her ankles around the front of his neck, and shove as hard as she could, shoving him backwards with her lower legs. She resisted the urge to scream as the movements caused a sharp pain to shoot from her injured leg to the rest of her body.

Ignoring her pain, she aimed a kick at him, feeling her foot connect with the side of his head and knocking him backwards even more. Quickly, she dragged herself toward the door as she started to hear voices from out in the hall. Before she could reach the door, Aaron grabbed the ankle of her injured leg and pulled her back before getting up and locking the door. Then he grabbed her hair and dragged her to her feet before shoving his knee into her stomach. As she doubled over with a cry, he back handed her, sending her sailing into the side table.

Ziva whirled with the table and threw it at him. He ducked away from the table, allowing it to fly past him and into the door. Several shouts sounded from the other side of the door, followed by someone pounding on it.

Aaron surged toward Ziva and grabbed her around the neck, shoving her backwards until her back was against the wall. Using the wall for support, Ziva jumped and, again, used both of her feet to kick him in the stomach and send him backwards to the floor. The sudden absence of his weight on her neck sent her sliding down the wall to the floor herself, causing more pain to go through her body from her leg and the rest of her body.

As more pounding and shouting could be heard from the other side of the door, Ziva tried to crawl over to it but was stopped as Aaron grabbed her legs and pulled her towards him. He wrapped his hands around her neck, cutting off her airway, and started slamming her head against the ground.

Ziva fought to free herself but her darkening vision told her that she was fading fast. She couldn't breath. She couldn't think. She couldn't do anything to fight back. Her body was screaming at her, screaming in pain, her head aching as she was repeatedly slammed to the floor. Ziva clawed at anything within clawing distance, struggling to get free, to allow much needed air to flow through her lungs and clear her buzzing head.

As her vision began to fade, Ziva thought she heard what sounded like a gunshot, or perhaps it was thunder. Why was there thunder in a hospital? Then a man entered her vision and for a moment, her heart thudded and she began swinging her fists, trying to get whoever was making her hurt away from her. The man grabbed her wrists and began speaking to her. She could see his lips moving but couldn't hear what he was saying. Wait, she knew this man. There was something familiar about him. Something that told her he was safe. Then why was she fighting? She was fighting someone, wasn't she? Who? Does it matter? No, not right now. This man was here, and he seemed safe. So perhaps she didn't need to fight after all. Maybe she could go to sleep instead. Yes, sleep sounded like a good idea. But why is this man slapping her face? Couldn't he see he was keeping her from going to sleep? Why wouldn't he let her sleep? Someone needed to make him leave her alone. She wanted to sleep, damn it!

Gibbs and Fornell burst into the hospital and headed directly for McGee's ward. They found patients, doctors, and nurses and even janitors flooding the halls the closer they got to McGee's ward. Gibbs and Fornell shoved their way through, shouting their agency and flashing their badges as they went. Finally they managed to shove themselves to the head of the crowd.

"Please, I can assure you all that everything is under control!" Shouted Dr. Hitsugaya as they agents approached. He was standing in front of the entrance to the ICU. "Please, remain calm! Agent Gibbs, what is going on?"

"We need to get in there." Gibbs said. "One of my agents is in danger."

Dr. Hitsugaya led them inside after giving the other doctors instructions to keep everyone else out. "What is happening?" he asked Gibbs and Fornell as they headed down the hall to McGee's room. "There was a gunshot and everyone went into a panic. People started screaming and running."

"The man who tried to kill my agent." Gibbs explained. "He's here and we believe he has attacked one of my other agents. I sent her here to help keep guard over McGee when the guy called and threatened to finish him off. Now she's missing."

Before the doctor could respond, they reached McGee's room and Fornell began firing off questions to his men. They told them they heard the gunshot go off down one hall. They searched as far as the vending machine but couldn't go any farther without losing sight of Agent McGee's room.

Gibbs and Fornell rushed down the hall the men had indicated to and both of them headed past the vending machine toward one hall, and then down another before they came to a split hallway. "Ziva!" Gibbs called. He and Fornell started to split down the two hallways but stopped when they heard a cry of pain coming from one of the rooms near the end of Gibbs's hallway.

Quickly both men headed town the hallway, noticing each open door as they passed. "Ziva!" Gibbs called again. The two of them hurried down the hall to the only door that was closed in time to hear a crash against the door. Gibbs tried the doorknob but it was locked. Both of them began pounding on the door, trying to get it open. Finally the door gave way and the two men rushed into the room in time to see Aaron on top of Ziva, his hands around her neck. Gibbs noticed Ziva's struggling getting weaker before he pointed his gun at Aaron. "Let her go!" he shouted.

Aaron growled but refused to let her go, squeezing her neck harder. Gibbs pulled the trigger, firing into Aaron's chest. Aaron stiffened and fell backwards, landing on the ground and a pool of blood starting to form around him. Gibbs rushed to Ziva as she lay still, gasping for breath, while Fornell ran up to Aaron's still form, gun pointed at him just in case.

"Ziva." Gibbs called, gently grabbing her wrists as she tried to fight him off. He noticed how weak her swings were and her eye lids half closed, her breathing shortening. "Ziva, it's all right. You're safe. You're okay."

Ziva stopped struggling and her body began to go limp. "Ziva!" Gibbs called softly, his voice urgent. "Ziva, stay with me! Come on, stay with me. You're going to be okay. Tobias, get the doctor."

"No need, Agent Gibbs." Dr. Hitsugaya said from behind him. He rushed up to kneel beside him and began examining Ziva. "We need to get her to the E.R. while we can. She's got a concussion, so keep her awake while I go find her a stretcher."

Gibbs continued to speak with Ziva as the doctor left to get the stretcher. "Ziva, can you hear me? Come on, stay with me, Ziva. You're stronger than this. You can do it."

"Sleep." Ziva whispered weakly.

"No, Ziva. Don't go to sleep." Gibbs said hastily. "You need to stay awake. Stay awake, Ziva."

Fornell stood a ways away from Gibbs and Ziva, giving them breathing room. He waited until the doctor returned with two men carrying a stretcher. They loaded Ziva onto the stretcher and carried her out of the room. Gibbs stayed kneeling on the ground where Ziva had lain, his hands clenching and unclenching into fists, his breathing irregular. Slowly Fornell approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "She's going to be okay, Gibbs." He assured him, hoping he was right.

Gibbs nodded but didn't move. "He won." Gibbs said quietly. "He got all of them. He got each one of my agents and almost killed all three of them." I failed all three of them. He thought. They count on me to protect them and yet each one of them ended up near death. I couldn't protect them. I couldn't protect any of them. Tim, Tony and now Ziva. What would have happened if I hadn't gotten here in time? What about Tony? And Tim? This all started because they attacked Tim. Why Tim, out of all of the 'officers' in this town? I couldn't protect them when they were counting on me.

"They'll be fine." Fornell said, guessing what Gibbs was thinking about. "Tony's fine and McGee is still safe for now. And Ziva was already in the hospital to begin with."

Gibbs nodded and finally stood up and headed out the door after the doctors, Fornell right behind him.

A/N: so how was that? I'm almost finished! One more chapter, maybe two. Then we're done! Yeah! Please don't forget to review. Otherwise I just might forget to post for a while. ;-)