Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

Ducky wasted no time in putting Ziva into position and beginning mouth-to-mouth ventilation, as the other four formed a protective semi-circle around them. If Ducky felt any stage fright at performing his work while his audience was so near, he didn't show it. As he knelt over Ziva and forced air into her lungs, his face held an almost serene expression, as if he'd already made peace with whatever the outcome would be.

The same could not be said for the rest of the team. As each second passed without Ziva making a single move on her own, their own breathing became shallower, until finally every one of them held their breath. It was as if they'd all come to the same irrational conclusion that there was only enough oxygen in the area for one person, and they were all prepared to give up their lot for Ziva.

Tony didn't think he could have breathed if he'd wanted to. Once again he was on the verge of a panic attack, and his chest was stabbing with such intensity that drawing breath literally hurt. Abby clung to his arm with all her strength, and he held a white-knuckle grip on her hand. It wasn't immediately clear who was comforting who, but Tony didn't think that either of them was doing a particularly good job.

Abby did, however, manage to hold Tony up when Ziva finally inhaled on her own and Tony went weak in relief. Beside them, Gibbs folded at the waist as he let out his lungful of air and braced his hands on his knees, and McGee was so relieved he actually clapped Gibbs on the shoulder.

Tony regained his footing and a smidge of composure. He quickly pecked Abby's cheek in thanks, and looked over to the beaming McGee.

"Probie, call a bus, will you?"

McGee was happy to follow the order, and he wandered a few feet away to make the call.

"Be calm, my dear," Ducky was saying to Ziva, and Tony knelt to help him with the foil blanket. "Don't try to talk. We'll get you out of this ghastly place." He put a breathing mask on her, and then reached for his stethoscope.

Tony felt Gibbs and Abby leaning over his shoulder as he looked down at Ziva. He was surprised by how alert she seemed, with her eyes wide open and a smile tugging at her lips as she drew in shallow but steady breaths. He snaked his hand under the blanket to grip her hand, and the little squeeze she gave him brought out one of his biggest smiles.

"So. What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?" he quipped.

Ziva's smile grew and she attempted a laugh, which set off a small coughing fit. Gibbs smacked his head lightly, even while Abby hugged his back awkwardly.

"Don't make her laugh, DiNozzo," Gibbs said gently.

"I'd try, but it would be impossible."

Gibbs ignored him. "Welcome back, Ziver."

Ziva nodded, and then winced as the cool metal of Ducky's stethoscope made contact with the skin of her chest. She made no move to stop him, though.

McGee's head joined the circle. "Ambulance is on its way. Shouldn't be long. Hey, Ziva!"

"Tim! She's not allowed to talk," Abby scolded.

"I didn't ask her to!"

Abby narrowed her eyes. "Don't you take that tone of voice with me."

McGee frowned. "What tone?"

"Children," Gibbs cut in.

"Children indeed," Ducky admonished. "All of you, back up and stop fighting. Ziva needs her air."

Everyone but Tony stepped back quickly. He looked at Ziva and cocked his head to the side. Yes, they're crazy. But they're family. And you're stuck with them.

"What now, boss?" Gibbs asked from behind Tony's shoulder.

Tony pulled his eyes away from Ziva to look over his shoulder. Good thing Gibbs remembered there was an investigation going on here. "You and McGee, shoot the scene. Make sure you get those tracks, and call in some more hands."

Gibbs nodded, his expression assuring Tony he was doing okay, then smacked McGee's shoulder. "Come on, Probie. You're shooting."

"Uh, Tony usually shoots," they heard McGee say as he and Gibbs walked back to the truck.

"Well, Tony's busy," came Gibbs' reply. "And I hate that damn camera."

"What can I do?" Abby asked.

"Help Gibbs with measurements," Tony said.

"On it!" Abby returned enthusiastically.

Tony watched her navigate over the bumpy and slippery ground in four-inch platforms before looking back at Ziva. He was surprised to find her staring at him intently, but shrugged it off.

Ducky was gently feeling around the back of Ziva's head when Tony shifted to lie down in the dirt next to her. He gave her a big smile that he hoped hid how much of an emotional basketcase he was right now, and went back to what he'd been doing all night: keeping her mind occupied.

"So. You checked out on me in the middle of a thought-provoking discussion on The Bourne Identity," he reminded her. "If you'd hung in there for a few more minutes, you would have heard the bombshell I was about to drop." He leaned in and looked at her with complete seriousness. "I'm actually a spy myself. For the Russians."

Ziva snorted, and Ducky sighed. "Anthony. The Cold War has been over for decades."

"That's just what we want you to think, Duck."

"You have an amazing cover, Tony," Ziva wheezed.

He smiled at her for playing along with him, but felt Ducky wasn't so pleased.

"Ziva, I told you not to speak," he reminded her firmly.

Ziva shot the ME an apologetic look, while Tony backed him up.

"Listen to him, Ziva," he warned. "You don't want to get Ducky mad. He's actually Scottish Mafia. It's a little-known fact, but he'll headbutt you back to the fifteenth century if you don't do what he says."

Ducky sighed again. "Oh, Tony."

Tony gave him a brief smile before looking out over the scene to see how Gibbs and McGee were doing. Abby was helping Gibbs with measurements while McGee took close-up shots of the hole. Already, just looking at it made Tony's skin crawl, and he gritted his teeth against the wave of 'what if' panic that rolled over him.

"Tony?"

His gaze dropped quickly to meet Ziva's eyes. She had defiantly pulled the mask down and was looking at him as though he'd been the one in the box all night. "Are you okay?"

Tony had to fight the urge to cling to her. You're her support, he reminded himself again. Don't fall apart on her.

"I will be," he said, almost believably. He touched her cheek gently before slipping the mask back over her mouth, effectively shutting her up. She held his gaze though, and it spoke volumes.

Something had changed tonight. In trying to keep her calm and reassured, Tony had bared himself to her. He'd showed his hand, hoping that his unspoken love for her would give her reason enough to hold on. And hold on she had, with faith in his promise to find her. She had realised earlier that night that she wanted to live, because of her friends and because of Tony. It was fitting, then, that Tony was the reason she had lived.

They both knew that after tonight, they had something very important to talk about.

Ducky continued to work silently beside them, checking Ziva's heart rate, listening for any sign of fluid in her lungs or air in her chest, and checking for life-threatening injuries. He was not oblivious to the silent conversation flowing between the partners. In fact, it reminded him of a time in Paris with Gibbs and Jenny. Back then he'd made the mistake of trying to fill the silence with a story about Greek mythology. Tonight, he just let them be.

"You know what?" Tony finally said. "I think I've run out of stories." Ziva shot him a look of utter disbelief that he knew he deserved.

He lifted his eyes to look out at the scene, seemingly to check on the team's progress, but in fact because he just couldn't keep talking. Right now, all he could think of to say were declarations that shouldn't be made whilst lying in the dirt within earshot of a cranky ex-Marine with a gun on his hip.

So instead, he filled the silence with the first song that came to mind. "Words are flying out like endless rain into a paper cup, they slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe."

Ziva's eyes went wide at the soft verse that came out of his mouth, and she cut a look towards Ducky. The doctor was staring at Tony with just as much surprise as Ziva felt, before dropping his eyes to her. Ducky gave her an affectionate, knowing look and patted her shoulder gently before going back to his work.

Ordinarily, when Tony broke into song in the field or in the office (and that wasn't as uncommon as people would think) Ziva would roll her eyes and demand to know what the hell Tony was doing, making it clear that she thought he was being an idiot. But tonight was far from ordinary. She recognised this as Tony, exhausted and at the end of his emotional rope, but still trying to do whatever he could to keep her calm and focused. And, to be fair, his voice was actually pretty good.

God damn, she was in love with him.

"Pools of sorrow waves of joy are drifting thorough my open mind, possessing and caressing me."

Tony was barely listening to himself. He was too busy worrying about how long it was taking for the ambulance to arrive, and whether the asshole who buried his partner was going to come back any time soon. He wondered what he'd do if the bad guys stumbled out of the woods and onto their crime scene. Would he arrest them or just bypass the justice system and shoot them dead?

"Nothing's gonna change my world, nothing's gonna change my world."

He looked down at Ziva, who was giving him a small, charmed smile under her mask. Tony thought it best not to answer his own question, and returned his gaze to the scene.

As Ziva kept watching him, she fought the emotional walls that her psyche was automatically trying to build. Instead, she tried focusing on what she'd begun to realise while underground. She felt like she belonged here in DC, and she couldn't stand the thought of it being taken away from her.

The thought of what she would have missed out on had she died brought tears to her eyes, and that was enough to confirm that she was not the same woman who had strutted into NCIS four years ago. That woman was detached. She did not yearn to interweave her personal life with her new colleagues'. In fact, she barely had a personal life. She lived for Mossad, 24-hours-a-day, and that was that. The lifestyle had not bothered her, and she did not waste time thinking of the things in life she was missing out on. She had a mission, and she would not let anything distract her. She had no issue with the fact that she may have to die to be successful.

Now, Ziva was not as prepared to die as she had been. She was still on call for NCIS 24-hours-a-day, but that just meant that she was surrounded by her friends. She was still expected to give 110 per cent of herself to a mission, but now it was in order to help people rather than to assassinate them. At NCIS, she just felt more…human.

By the time she returned to Israel last summer, it had been clear to Ziva that her allegiance had shifted. At the time, and even for a while after she had returned to the US, the change had confused her. She'd felt off balance and scattered as she tried to work out who exactly she was. Her colleagues in Israel had thought she had gone soft. Ziva had thought she had gone soft. But once she accepted the change in her allegiance, she knew for sure she had landed in the right place. She was NCIS.

And being NCIS meant concerning yourself with the personal lives of your colleagues. It meant becoming attached to them, and loving them unconditionally—even with their myriad of quirks. Ziva found herself wishing for good things to happen to them, and wanting to see them succeed. She realised that she didn't want to let go of them. She didn't want her life with them to be over and done with. She wanted to hear more of Ducky's stories. She wanted to see McGee step out of Tony's shadow and come into his own. She wanted to watch Abby find whatever it was in life she was looking for. She wanted for Gibbs to find some peace. And as for Tony, she didn't care what he did, as long as she was in his life every day.

That alone would make her happy.

"Jai Guru Deva, om," Tony finished up, finally meeting her eyes again. He did not look pleased to see her crying. "Ziva, are you okay? Ducky! Ducky, help me. I think she's in pain."

Ziva shook her head as Ducky leaned over her and again stuck the cold stethoscope down her shirt.

"Can you breathe, dear?"

"Yes," she replied, her voice muffled by the mask. "I'm fine. I'm just…thinking."

Tony sighed and shook his head. "Okay. You can do the thinking. That's really your area of expertise in this partnership, anyway."

She pulled the mask down. "I thought you said hitting people was my area of expertise."

"That too."

"So what's your's, Tony?"

"Um, leaping to wild, if not brilliant, conclusions and charming the pants off of people." He threw her a dazzling smile, as if to prove the point.

There was no point trying to resist that damn smile, and Ziva was in even less of a position to try right now. She laughed outright for him, as the faint sound of sirens echoed through the park.

"About damn time," Tony said.

Coming up next, another Tony/Abby conversation. Damn, I love writing them. Look out for it in the next few days.
Once again, thanks for all the wonderful reviews you've submitted. There's nothing quite like the buzz you get from opening your inbox and seeing it full of responses and alerts. Keep 'em coming, and I'll keep the chapters coming.