-CHAPTER 5-

Ziva quietly slipped into the room and found the ME sleeping in a chair beside Palmers bed, and surprised to find Jimmy's eyes gazing at her.

"Palmer, you are awake!" she said in surprise, moving quickly to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

Ziva's entrance into the room roused the sleeping doctor and he too looked to his young assistant with a growing smile

"Good to see you back with us young man." Ducky said, rising from his seat to stand over the young man.

Jimmy blinked several times trying to focus on the two people in the room, finally coming to rest on the doctor.

Do' tr…Ma..rd…?" Jimmy asked in a dry, rasping voice; setting off a painful bout of coughing.

Ducky and Ziva quickly helped Jimmy sit up.

"Here, my boy, don't try to speak…take a few sips of water." Ducky coaxed, holding up a cup of water to the struggling boys lips.

After a few sips the cough quieted and they gently laid Jimmy back down.

Though his throat was still dry, Jimmy rasped quietly. "Wha…hap' ned…?"

"You were in an automobile accident."

Jimmy's forehead creased in concentration as he attempted to remember.

"Accident…I don't remem…wait…" Jimmy became more agitated as flashes of the accident came back to him. "Wait…Shelly; Shelly was driving…where is she; is she all right…?"

Ducky put his hands on the agitated man's shoulders attempting to calm him down. "Easy, my boy…it will do your injuries no good to get yourself all worked up like this."

"Dr. Mallard…her name is Shelly Cort; please find out how…she…is…" Palmer looked uncertainly between the doctor and the agent when he noticed the pensive look pass between them. "What is it? What…is there something you're not telling me?"

When the tense silence continued, Jimmy pressed. "Dr. Mallard? Ziva?"

"Jimmy, my boy, I'm terribly sorry but…" the older man started only to be interrupted by Jimmy's disbelieving outburst.

"NO! No, she's not…she can't be…" Jimmy was again trying to rise from his bed.

"Palmer. Jimmy…" Ziva said quietly as she gently but firmly pushed the upset young man back onto the bed. "Jimmy, I am sorry; but your friend…she did not make it."

Shaking his head in disbelief Jimmy shut his eyes tight against the tears he couldn't quite stop. "I can't believe this. This cannot be happening."

"I am so terribly sorry Jimmy." Ducky said quietly, laying a hand on the injured man's shoulder.

A tense silence filled the room as Jimmy attempted to process the devastating news, giving Dr. Mallard a moment to discretely look over the young man, noticing his grimace of pain as he attempted to find a comfortable way to lay with his injuries.

"I am going to go fetch your doctor; get you something to help you sleep."

Jimmy did not respond to his mentors' words, causing Ducky to trade a concerned look with Ziva.

"I will stay with him Ducky." Ziva responded to the doctor's unspoken question.

When Ducky had left the room Ziva took a deep breath and pulled a chair up to Palmers bed.

He turned to look at her in surprise when she took his hand into hers, "Ziva?"

"I know that this is very difficult, but I must ask you what you remember from the crash?" she asked gently.

Jimmy wiped his free hand across his eyes to clear his vision. "Not much really, everything is a blurry haze right now."

"Go back to earlier in the day, before you and the Lt. got into the car. Where were you? Where were you driving too?"

Jimmy blew out a tired breath as he tried to grasp his hazy memories. "We, uh…we had ethics class today…they hold it in a meeting room at Bethesda since most of us are on clinical rotations there anyway."

"So after class you and Lt. Cort left in her car…" Ziva pressed.

"Uh, yeah…it was a pretty day…and we both had a few hours before either of us had to go work." Jimmy said with an absent smile, his eyes focused off on the far wall as he remembered. "Anyway, she wanted to take a drive out Cherry Hill Drive…said she'd been in D.C. for two years and had never seen the spring cherry blossoms…"

"So what happened…why did Lt. Cort lose control of the car?" Ziva asked.

"Lose control?" Jimmy questioned.

"The car was found over an embankment." Ziva prodded.

Trying to clear into his hazy memories, Jimmy scowled in concentration, giving a grimace of pain when his actions pulled on the stitches on his forehead.

His breath gave a sudden hitch as the flashes of clarity broke through the haze.

"Another car…Ziva, there was another car. It…it rammed into us; Shelly tried to keep us on the road…but the other car, it kept on coming at us…and the car; the brakes…she kept pumping the brakes…nothing happened..."

Lost to the sudden onslaught of flashing memories, Jimmy became more agitated and began hyperventilating.

"Can't…can…'t…brea…" Jimmy frantically grabbed for his chest as it became more difficult to pull in air.

"Palmer! Jimmy, Jimmy calm down…it is all right. You are safe now." Ziva said worriedly as she jumped from her chair and pulled him up into a sitting position to help his breathing.

Thoroughly distraught, Palmer grabbed onto the woman and buried his head in her shoulder as tears flooded his eyes; gasping out, "Didn't stop…he was…he didn't… trying to kill us…he did; he killed Shelly…oh, god, Shelly's dead…why?"

In an uncharacteristic show of compassion Ziva held the crying young man tighter and began rocking gently back and forth, gently caressing his hair. "Sshh…calm down. You are safe now…and we will get whoever it was that hurt you."

She looked up sharply when the door opened a few moments later, her eyes immediately locking on the senior ME and then nodding her head to his IV line.

Ducky took in the scene with the practiced eye of a caregiver and quietly relieved the nurse of the syringe, coming quietly into the room and emptying the sedative into the IV port.

A few moments later, Jimmy's breathing evened out and Ducky helped Ziva lever the patient comfortably back into his bed.

After checking to see that the young man was finally sleeping peacefully Ducky turned a questioning and slightly accusing eye to his co-worker.

"I am sorry, Ducky. I did not mean to upset him." Ziva explained sheepishly. "I only asked him what he could remember from the crash."

Giving a sigh, Ducky said. "I know it was not your intent to upset him, but you must realize that while Jimmy's injuries are not life threatening they are still serious; coupled with learning his friend is dead…he needs time to process. He is not up to any kind of interrogation, no matter how well meaning, at the moment."

"Yes Ducky and I am sorry." she said contritely, pulling out her cell. "But he just gave us an important detail."

TBC-