Previously:
Bracing himself Gibbs pulled the door to the final room open. About to shout "NCIS Federal Agent" he stopped routed to the spot when he saw the unmoving lump on the bed.
"DiNozzo!"
Hearing his boss shout, Tony quickly made his way through the door.
"Go call Ducky," Gibbs told him immediately.
"Is she..." Tony asked Gibbs, feeling insecure at the sight of his partner, who lay curled up on her stomach.
Her normally golden skin was pale and coated in sweat. Her eyes were red and sunken in, with dark shadows looming under them. The brown otherwise wavy hair was greasy and hanging down. Dried blood, mingled with fresh blood, covering the bed sheets in which she was tangled up.
Gibbs who was now sitting beside his co-worker, brushed aside a piece of hair that had fallen across her face.
"Alive? Yes she is," he replied, having checked her pulse and finding it slow but steady the moment Tony had hurled himself into the bedroom.
Gulping Tony took one last look at his friends still form before he left the room to call the older Medical Examiner.
"Ziver," Gibbs tried to gentle nudge her to consciousness while he rubbed her back as she slowly started to move.
(Meanwhile NCIS Bullpen)
"McGee!" A bouncing Goth called out loudly.
"Abs," McGee replied, more than preoccupied with his work.
"I'm bored!!"
"It's pretty quite at the moment, isn't it my dear?" Ducky stated, as he came around the corner, stopping next to the whiny Scientist.
"Ducky! No skeletons in the closet?" A cheeky Abby asked, stirring a small chuckle out of the resided M.E., "No my dear."
"Maybe we could go out to dinner then? I know this new café a few blocks away. It's awesome!" said Abby, excited at the prospect of doing something. "Timmy will surely join us," she added as she rattled on in the direction of McGee, who merely looked up for a moment before continuing to work.
"Of co..." Ducky was about to reply when he was interrupted by his ringing Cell phone.
"Please excuse me." Taking the call he went a few feet away, while Abby happily chatted with McGee, who only nodded from time to time not really listening to the Goth at all.
A few minutes later Ducky rejoined them with an unreadable face only to excuse himself once more before hurrying off to the back-elevator.
"What's going on?" Abby wanted to know, but getting no reply she called out, "McGee!" as she punched his arm, "Answer me!"
"Ouch! What Abs!?" asked an annoyed McGee, finally looking at her.
(Back at Ziva's Apartment)
"Ducky will be here in about 50 minutes," Tony reported to Gibbs, whilst the team-leader was still busy with Ziva, trying to persuade her to wake up.
Although she had managed to turn herself onto her back with the help of Gibbs and even managed to crack her eyes more or less open, she didn't seem to be very obvious to her surroundings yet.
"Gibbs?" she croaked after a while, earning smiles from both, her boss and her partner.
"Should I call for a team to secure the scene?" Tony asked, momentarily ignoring the sight of Ziva.
"This isn't a crime scene," stated Gibbs.
"But…"
"See the abrasion on her knuckles? She's the one that trashed her apartment like that."
"Why," Tony asked, more to himself than to older agent.
"We'll find out. But first a shower is in order," Gibbs said as he indicated to Ziva's unkempt hair and clammy body.
"Can you stand?" Gibbs asked the young woman in a caring voice.
After he saw her nod, he helped her to stand up, silently taking most of her weight as they made their way into the adjoining bathroom.
"Tony," he called out, "Get in here."
"Uhm... Why?"
"What do you think? Cause you'll help her."
"Boss..." Tony replied, still unsure what to do.
"It's not like you haven't seen each other like that before," Gibbs stated, becoming annoyed with his senior agent.
"Right," Tony replied as he kept standing near the shower.
"You planning to shower with your clothes on?" Gibbs pointed out to Tony, as he helped Ziva to undress, leaving only her underwear on.
"No..." not having a better answer Tony began to remove his clothes, only to have Gibbs raising his eyebrows, eyes going to Tony's boxer shorts.
"DiNozzo, remember the undercover mission you two took as married assassins? You gave the Director and me quite a sight on the MTAC screen. Not to mention, years before, when you slept naked in the hotel room and then jumped up screaming, waking the rest of us."
This caused a faint blush to appear on Tony's cheeks. "Thanks for the reminder." Sarcasm dripping off Tony's voice as he stepped into the shower.
Smirking, Gibbs directed Ziva to Tony.
"Why does she get to keep her underwear on?" Tony complained.
"DiNozzo," Gibbs growled, "You'll do it," pointing at Ziva, adding, "once I'm out of here," as an afterthought.
Once Gibbs had left them, Tony couldn't help muttering, "And why couldn't I wait for him to leave the room?" looking down at Ziva, who now was standing in his arms, leaning slightly on him.
"Cause I didn't want her to hit the floor," came the answer from outside of the room.
'Bad eyes but excellent hearing,' thought Tony.
"Hey," he murmured as he concentrated on his female partner once more.
"You want to talk about it?" he asked, trying to catch her eyes. The only response he got was her leaning further into him, shaking her head.
"Alright," whispered Tony, starting to undress her completely, washing her hair and body in the process.
While at any other time he would surely find this situation very arousing, he knew that now wasn't the time for such a thing. There wasn't anything sexual about it. Just a friend who needed him, a friend he cared deeply about.
'Maybe it's time to break Gibbs' Rule 12...' he thought to himself.
Meanwhile Ziva was lost in a world of her own as she relived the moment which changed everything.
(Flashback Ziva's Apartment - Thursday 10:30 pm)
Exhausted from the day, Officer David entered her apartment. After 3 weeks of hard investigations, they had to finally managed to arrest Jack Rogers, including his accomplices. Work around the clock and much too little sleep had left their traces on everyone in the team. This had also been noticed by Gibbs, their team leader, who had given his agents Friday and the following weekend off.
Now Ziva sat on her couch, a glass of red wine in hand as she simply enjoyed the calmness which had settled over her apartment.
She enjoyed the work with NCIS, however Tony's constant movie references and Gibbs' brusqueness had slowly gotten on her nerves. Not even spending time with Ducky, down in Autopsy, had really helped in the end. Although the tea and Ducky's stories had calmed her down, letting the world around her disappear for a short time. However these moments were mostly shattered by Gibbs, who typically came barging into Autopsy the moment she was there, or by the ringing of her cell phone, both situations demanding her attention.
She sighed as she slowly made her way into the kitchen. Having lived on fast food for the past couple of days, she now had a major craving for real food. Checking her cupboards she decided that a simple pasta dish would have to do for tonight. Tomorrow she would do some grocery shopping.
With the food nearly ready to be served, her musings were interrupted by the ringing of her doorbell. Switching the stove off, she made her way over to the front door.
'Who could visit at this time of hour? Please do not let it be Tony. I really like him.. okay actually I more than like him, but if I see him again today I might be forced to use my paper-clip skills one him!'
Coming to a halt in front of her door, she spied through the peep hole, pulling the door open seconds after.
"Michael!" she exclaimed, surprise written all over her face.
"Shalom Ziva," he smiled kindly at the young woman in front of him.
"You going to let me in Zivaleh?" asked the gray-haired Mossad Officer when she showed no reaction of moving or talking.
Wordless she stepped aside. It wasn't every day that the chief of the Embassy visited her. In fact in the 4 years she was in Washington he had never done so. Sure, other Mossad Officers did so frequently, but he never did.
"Your new apartment is nice. Very homelike. I'm surprised," the officer said, not getting any reaction he continued, "I came to give you this." Holding a brown envelope up.
Finally coming out of her numbness, she shut the door and went over to him. Knitting her brows she threw a curious look at him.
"I was not supposed to give you this personally. Merely told to send the document by post. But you deserve more than that," he informed her.
With a growing pit in her stomach she hesitantly reached for the thick envelope.
"Let's sit down," the gray-haired officer offered.
Walking over to the couch, they both sat, as Ziva ripped the envelope open, scanning the pile of files it contained.
As her pulse sped up, she looked up at Officer Bashan, unable to speak.
(Present – Ziva's Bathroom)
"Tony? You two done?" Gibbs asked through the half open bathroom door.
"Give us a few more minutes," called Tony back.
"You got 5," came the gruff reply.
"Hear that Sweet Cheeks?" He asked in a caring voice, as he looked down at his quivering partner, who leeched herself only more firmly on to him, digging her face in his shoulder as she hide from his view. Causing him to sigh as he slowly continued to run his hand over her back, wondering what had caused her current state.
'It must be really bad, losing her poise like this. Worse than the termination as liaison officer,' Tony mused, deep in thought.
By the time Gibbs re-entered the bathroom with two large towels in hand, neither of the two had really changed their positions, also Ziva seemed to have calmed down.
Spreading one of the towels out, Gibbs approached the shower, eyes fixed high above Ziva's head.
"Come on Ziver," he tried to persuade her, while Tony softly pulled her away from himself, directing her to Gibbs and the towel.
Finally having her in his reach, Gibbs wrapped the towel tightly around the frail form of Ziva David. Eyes focusing on her again.
"Let's get you dressed," he softly told her, giving the second towel Tony. He led her back into the bedroom, making her sit at the head of the bed.
While having changed the bedsheets and letting some fresh air into the room during his agents shower, he had yet to get out some fresh clothes for her.
Gibbs let out a short sigh as he put on some gloves and started to rummage through Ziva's drawers. Finding some underwear, a top which would have to do as bra, shorts and a sweatshirt he returned to the Israeli who quietly stared at the wall.
Trying to catch her gaze but failing to do so, he started to dress her with the top first, pulling her arms through the garment and putting the rest of it in place while he kept the towel firmly in place. Next he managed to pull her underwear and shorts in while keeping his eyes on her face.
Satisfied with his work he tugged on the towel, freeing it from under the top.
"Something you want to tell me about?" Gibbs asked the agent, who was standing near by watching, as he held the OHIO State shirt up for Tony to see.
"We had movie nights when you were retired. She was freezing, I loaned it to her one night. Guess she kept it."
Nodding, the gray-haired agent put the shirt onto Ziva, "All done," he whispered, kissing her forehead, which caused her to shut her eyes momentarily.
"Lie down, Ducky will be here shortly."
"Ah," Gibbs said, holding a hand up as she was about to protest, "Don't even try it. He'll check on you," kissing her cheek once she was back under the covers.
"Tony?" The raspy voice of Ziva was heard.
Giving his boss a look, Tony approached the bed. "Yes, Sweet Cheeks?"
"Stay?" Ziva whispered, causing Tony to settle himself beside her, "of course".
Gibbs was about to leave the room, seeing that Ziva had fallen asleep, and Tony would watch over her, as his senior field agent called him.
"Boss? Why did u wear gloves when this is no crime scene?"
"Ever met a woman who appreciates men going through her stuff?" Gibbs replied with a smirk, evoking a grin on Tony's face as the agent pulled his sleeping partner closer.
(A few minutes later)
"Gucci!" Ziva called out loud, suddenly sitting straight up in bed.
Tony being woken up from his semi state of sleep, asked sleepily, "You dreaming about fashion Sweet Cheeks?"
"I need to find him Tony!" Ziva said before she tried to stand up, dangerously swaying in the process.
"What's going on?" Gibbs came running into the room.
"I need to find him Gibbs!" Ziva repeated her earlier statement.
"Who?" the older agent asked, keeping a grip on Ziva so she wouldn't fall.
Ignoring them, she tried to make her way into the living room, but was stopped short by Gibbs.
"Who?" he asked again.
"I have not seen him since Bashan left. What if I have hurt him?" Ziva continued.
"Ziver!" Gibbs tried it anew.
"My cat! He was there when I came home but I do not think I have seen him since then," she exclaimed, panic clearly visible on her face.
This declaration caused two raised sets of eyebrows, before Gibbs remembered something. "Wait here," he told Ziva, as he went back into the living room after he had guided her back to bed.
A few minutes later, Gibbs returned, holding something in his arms what Tony didn't seem to recognize at first. Only when the agent dropped his load on the bed, Tony noticed what it was. A mainly black kitten with white paws, chest, under chest and some white on top of it's head.
Temporarily confused of it's new surroundings the cat soon found it's owner, purring contentedly, as it was enveloped in a hug by Ziva.
"He's fine, raided the 'snack bar'. Also now there's not much cat food left. And he avoided the mirror shards better than you," Gibbs told his female agent, as he pointed to the various cuts on her arms and legs.
"I need to make a few calls," he said, leaving the room again.
The sight of Ziva hugging her cat next to him caused Tony to chuckle, "Never thought of you as a cat person. And certainly not that you would call a cat Gucci of all names."
Smiling softly she explained, "I found him in Morocco when I was working undercover those months back under Mossad direction."
"It was extremely late that night when I came out of the nightclub. I heard a strange noise coming from under a dumpster. It was a very quiet noise but it also sounded very tormented. When I followed it, I saw him, cowering, fearful, alone and half dead. I could not leave him there," She told Tony, gently stroking Gucci's black and white fur, extracting an even louder purr from the tomcat.
"I took him home, fed him. Made sure he was safe." Tony nodded, scratching the cat behind it's ears.
"So why Gucci?" Tony asked smiling at his partner and her open declarations.
"The first night, after I fed him, he became more alive. He started to look around the small one-bedroom apartment and managed to open some drawers," she remembered, knitting her brows together.
"Seriously? He can open drawers? Underwear drawers too? Way to go Boy!" Tony praised the cat, patting Gucci's head a bit.
"Tony..." Ziva half growled/laughed.
Grinning even more at his partners sudden lively and happy mood, which resembled more of the old Ziva than the one he found earlier today, Tony asked further, "So what happened next?"
"Gucci found Gucci."
Seeing the confused look on Tony's face, she gesticulated wildly, "He found a sweater from Gucci… actually fell asleep after he nestled himself down in it."
"So you called him Gucci," Tony concluded as Ziva nodded in reply.
"Cat has good taste. In clothes and girls," said the agent, giving her a wide smile, "Come on, you should rest a bit before Ducky comes."
Not really giving her time to reply on his comment, Tony tugged her and the cat in, lying next to them until Ziva was fast asleep, before he got up to join his Boss in the living room.
TBC...
A/N: Thanks to ranae-ultor, only person who left a review for chapter 2^^ =)
And YES I know.. Ziva might seems to be a bit AU to you, but bear in mind she has feelings too^^ and you have yet to find out the reason for her behavior, so hang on. ;o)