A/N: So you guys remember that time that I was like 'No way will this chapter take as long as the last one!' Turns out I lied. Sorry about that. Thank you to everyone reading and everyone reviewing. I appreciate it very much. I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

They had fallen into silence once again, not able to talk about anything but their impending fate. Ziva was trying in vain to ignore the constant pain radiating from her leg. Though she was fairly certain the bleeding had stopped, there was nothing stopping the throbbing pain from cropping up every time she took a breath. Tony simply stroked Ziva's hair, running his hands through it over and over, trying not to let on how much he just wanted to pass out.

"We have to stop ignoring what is inevitable" Ziva said breaking the silence. "We...I may die today."

"No, that's not going to happen" He said adamantly.

"It very well may. No one knows we are in here, Tony. No one saw us. Even if they did, chances are they are in a similar situation. No one is coming for us."

"They'll find us, Ziva."

"You do not know that. They could be injured worse than we are. They could be trapped. There may be another bomb in the building. We are stuck here."

"You can't be thinking like that," He said, a hint of desperation in his voice. "What happened? We were doing so well before."

"I have just realized that I really do not have anything waiting for me if we get out of this."

"That's not true."

"Isn't it? I have no husband, no children...nothing," she said, her voice cracking slightly.

"Is that something you want? Husband and rugrats running around?"

"I think so, yes. I did not think it was a possibility before. But then when I was with Ray and it was still good...I thought maybe for a moment...I mean I do not know if I can even have...children. But I would still like to try."

It hurt Tony's heart to hear her doubt herself. It was like a weight crushing his chest. It would be so easy to confess now. To just tell her everything on his mind. He pushed the urge back.

"You can have that, you know. You'll find someone when you get out of here. And until then, and after too, you still have me, and the team"

"I know."

'Do you, really?"

"Yes. You have always been there for me, Tony. Even when I did not want you to be, you always take care of me."

"I'll always be here, sweetcheeks."

"Ha," she laughed "I hate that nickname."

"You do not," he teased. "I know you love it. Just like all those little threats about killing me with office supplies, it's part of our dance."

"We have a dance? Have I been doing it this whole time and been unaware?"

"You know what I'm talking about, our thing. Our back and forth. The banter, the wit, the snark. It's all part of what makes us the best partners NCIS has ever seen."

"I am glad you think so highly of us," she paused for a moment, taking a deep breath before continuing,

"As long as we are here, circumstances being what they are...I want to tell you something. I always thought that I would die alone. It was the kind of life I led. I did not expect to be as old as I am now, and every year that passes, I cannot believe that I have made it this far. I did not expect to have a partner. Someone to depend on and be there for me. If I die today, Tony, I am glad you are here. If your face is the last thing that I see, I will be happy."

"No one is dying today, but I'm glad that I'm with you too."

"I would not want it to be anyone else. I had gotten used to the idea of being alone, but now that you're here, I can't imagine it being any other way."

"Well let's hope it stays that way, because you're stuck with me forever."

"I can think of worse people to be stuck to."

"I think stuck with was what you were going for, but yeah. Can you imagine being stuck together forever with McGeek?"

"Or Gibbs? I do not like boats quite enough for that." she said, giggling slightly.

As their small giggles faded away, silence fell over them once again.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything." The honesty in his voice sent a shiver down her spine.

"Will you kiss me?" she asked timidly.

"What?" he nearly whispered in disbelief.

"No, that was stupid, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..."

"No," he interrupted, "that's not what I meant. I should have asked why."

"I just...I guess I was wondering what it would be like. I do not remember our undercover experience very well." She could feel herself blushing, her face and neck growing warm with her blatant lie. She hoped he did not see through her explanation to her true reason, to kiss him as thoroughly as her heart truly desired. She could feel his eyes on her even in the darkness, sizing up her request.

"Well that's going to take some maneuvering. You up for it?"

"Yes, I think so." she said as she braced herself.

He moved her head softly from his lap as he slid down beside her, his back pressed against the wall of the elevator, his face only inches from hers. They moved slowly closer, the anticipation growing with each passing second, before their lips met. The kiss was hesitant, to say the least. Just a gentle brush of lips, warm breath mingling in the space of an inch, both trying to be less affected by the kiss than they actually were. As their hearts began to pound just a little bit faster, Tony leaned in and fully pressed his lips to hers. A sweet, soft kiss. One that spread warmth all the way down to her toes and formed a tightness in her stomach. It was sweeter than she'd imagined, more tender. It made her chest tight to think about how much she loved him, how much she wanted this to be a regular occurrence. He broke away and rested his forehead against hers.

"I really hope we don't die today, Tony."

"Hey, what did I say about the dying? Not happening, and do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Well first of all, If I have anything to say about it, we have plenty more of that to look forward to, and second of all, we're not allowed to die. Boss didn't give us permission."

"That is a good point."

"You're not dying today, sweetheart. I promise."

As she closed her eyes and sighed he thought "Don't let me down this time, Boss."

It was only seconds later that he heard a loud pounding on the door.

Gibbs pressed his ear to the elevator door the moment he stopped banging on it in the vain hope he would hear the voices of his agents.

"Hello?" he heard muffled through the door. He let his head fall back in relief.

"Dinozzo?"

"Boss! We're in here!"

"Ziva's with you?"

"Yeah. You gotta get us out of here, Boss. She's hurt."

"Either of you have head injuries?"

"Yes. Tony has one." He heard Ziva pipe up.

"Great. Expect your headslap for getting stuck in this damn thing in about six weeks."

"I think all the falling debris was headslap enough for me, boss."

Always the smartass. Gibbs thought. "You said Ziva was injured?"

"Yes. One of my legs is pinned under something."

"Can you see what it is?"

"No. The emergency lights were knocked out in the explosion."

"Can you move at all?"

"No. I cannot," she replied.

"Did you try to move the debris?"

"I didn't want to move it."

"There a reason for that, DiNozzo?"

"I was afraid she'd bleed out."

Those words were like a punch to the gut. I was afraid she'd bleed out. Which meant the circumstances were even worse than he'd thought. They might not make it through.

"You two just stay put. I'm gonna get someone to open this damn thing up."

"Don't really have any place else to be."

"DiNozzo."

"Yes, Boss?"

"Shut up and keep Ziva comfortable."

"I love you too."

Gibbs rolled his eyes. Same old DiNozzo.

Gibbs found the radio he'd left on his desk, calling Fornell for the first time since the emergency crews made their way into the building.

"Tobias."

"Gibbs?" Fornell replied as the radio crackled to life.

"We've got a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"Tony and Ziva are trapped in the elevator."

"How the hell did they manage that?"

"I have no idea, but they're in there, and they can't get themselves out. I need to find out how to get some power to the elevator, or get the jaws of life up here."

"I'll see what I can do."

That answer was not exactly what he was looking for. He ran a hand over his face in frustration and clipped the radio to his belt.

"Tony! Ziva!" He called through the elevator door.

"Yes?" He heard Ziva reply.

"We're going to figure out a way to get you out of there. You just have to wait a little longer."

"We're not going anywhere." Tony called. He only sighed in reply.

It was not until some time later that Fornell emerged with a group of firefighters in tow. They were carrying the jaws of life, intent on prying the doors open.

"I thought you were going to try to get the power turned on first," Gibbs said as soon as he saw Fornell.

"We did. They thought it was too dangerous. Could start a fire."

"So now we pry them out."

"That's the plan."

"Let me talk to them first," he said turning to the firefighters.

"Whatever you think you need to do," one replied.

He gave the elevator two sharp blows "Tony! Ziva!"

"Boss?" Tony asked.

"They have to use the jaws of life to get you out of there. So we're going to have you move as far away from the door as you can."

"Don't know if I can do that, Boss. I can't move Ziva. We're in the corner, away from the crack in the door. That's about the best I can do for you."

He looked at the firefighters for any kind of confirmation.

"We'll make do. Crack the door and see what we can do from there," one of the firefighters replied.

"Cover your ears. This will be loud," he called.

Gibbs stepped back and allowed the firefighters to do their work. They cracked the doors open with a crowbar and inserted the spreader. There was a loud screeching noise as it began to spread the doors apart. They paused briefly to insert the spreader into further into the door, so that they had a better chance of both the inner and outer doors being pried open. As soon as the spreader was extended as far as it could go, the firefighters stepped back so Gibbs could take a look.

The elevator had already started moving down when the explosion occurred, more than half of the open door was empty elevator shaft. There was a two and a half foot gap at the bottom of the door that would open into the elevator. Gibbs groaned in frustration as they removed the spreader and repositioned it near the bottom of the door and began the process over again. They stepped away once again to allow Gibbs to get a look inside the elevator.

He sighed in relief to see the bruised but smiling faces of Tony and Ziva.

Abby winced slightly as the nurse tied off the last of her stitches. It was declared that she was in good shape after her encounter with the explosion and subsequent lab fire. Her 'cut' as she had so aptly named it, was stitched, and she had a good session with an oxygen tank to combat some minor smoke inhalation, but all in all she had come out mostly unscathed.

"Thank you." she told the nurse.

"You're welcome." she replied "I'll have someone bring you your discharge paperwork in just a minute."

"Oh no, that's okay. I'm fine. I can go to the nurse's station and get it myself. I have some other people that I need to wait for anyway, so I'll probably be here for a little while."

"Well okay, if you feel that's what you'd like..." she was cut off by her pager.

"Oh, I've got to run. Looks like some more victims are arriving."

"Thank you again."

"No problem, Miss Sciuto. To get to the nurse's station take a right out of your room, walk all the way down the hall and take a left. They can show you to the waiting room from there."

Abby nodded in response as the nurse made a quick exit. She gathered Bert under her arm and headed out of the room. She followed the nurse's instructions, but as she was about to turn down the hall to the nurse's station a gurney and team of doctors came rushing by, the EMT shouting stats along the way.

"Victim is male age 34, suffered blunt force trauma to the back of the head, lacerations on 30 percent of his body. Pulse 105, BP 90 over 70."

Poor thing. Abby thought. She looked a bit closer at the victim's face as he rushed by, and her blood ran cold.

"Timmy!" she yelled "Oh my god, Tim."McGee lay on the stretcher, unconscious, IV's already in his arms, oxygen mask over his face. Tears sprung from her eyes as she tried to follow the gurney into the ER, but the nurse that had just left her moments ago broke away from the team and stopped her in the middle of the hallway.

"Miss Sciuto, I need you to go and finish your discharge, and then wait in the waiting room like everyone else."

"He's going to be okay, right? He has to be okay," Abby said through her tears.

"I don't know yet, but once we figure out who his medical contact is, we will have them tell you everything you need to know."

"His medical proxy is Leroy Jethro Gibbs. I'm his secondary."

"There are some forms you need to fill out. Medical history, things like that."

"Anything."

"Okay. But that means you still have to go to the nurse's station and then to the waiting room. I'll be out to update you when I can."

Abby just nodded, tears still streaming down her face. The nurse gave her arm a quick squeeze of comfort before taking off in the direction they had just wheeled McGee. She watched the nurse disappear before turning to do what she asked. There would be time for tears later. She had a job to do.

Jimmy tapped his foot impatiently on the airport floor. He couldn't stop fidgeting. There was little he could do about his delayed flight, but the longer he had to wait, the more worried he became. Breena squeezed his hand.

"Jimmy, you need to calm down. I know you're worried. I am too, but taking it out on the floor is getting you nowhere."

"I know, I'm sorry. I just feel so helpless. Doctor Mallard is staying here and who knows how my friends fared in the explosion. I just want to know that everyone is okay."

"And you will in just a few hours. No one will keep you from them when you get home. And I'll be there to help you and your family every step of the way."

"Do you think I can do this? Be the new Medical Examiner? Not just the assistant, or the autopsy gremlin?"

"Of course I do. This is going to sound corny, but you can do anything you set your mind to. I know you can. You love your work, and I know without a doubt you will be able to step up and fill Dr. Mallard's shoes."

Jimmy only nodded solemnly.

"But that's not what you're really worried about, is it?"

"I just want them all to be alright."

"They will be."

"We don't know that."

"No, but from what I've heard about them, they are an incredible team. They have been through hell and high water together, and they have made it out okay. We can't think this time will turn out any differently. They're okay."

"I don't know what I'd do without you," he said.

"Me neither," she replied. She leaned up to him for a quick kiss before resting her head on his shoulder and settling in for the long wait to come.