Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS, or the characters, and probably never will.

Thanks to the wonderful few of you who reviewed the last updates, I love getting feedback on my fics!

AN: I have no medical knowledge, just way too much time to search the internet.

Enjoy!

There is an anxious moment as the medical staff wait apprehensively to see if Tony's heart will restart, and just as the nurse is preparing to administer a second shock, someone calls out. "He's back."

The tension charged situation is defused immediately upon hearing this, and most of the crowd files out of the room, leaving only Tony's doctor, Dr Lowe and Jay in the room, and as Jay settles Tony comfortably back into the bed, he asks Dr Lowe. "What caused this? His colleagues seem to be in here constantly, they'll want to know."
"We'll have to run labs, but it's probably from the rhabdo. I don't know how much longer he'll be able to hold on..." The doctor looks down at his patient as he adds. "He's been through too much."

And as if things weren't bad enough, just days later, while Tony is now in the clear, and almost strong enough to have the surgery he still needs to finish repairing the various fractures, Ziva, probably due to Director David constantly annoying the entire staff over the phone, is out of traction ahead of time, and now in full leg casts and while she still has the trach tube, she is off the ventilator and her face is still in requirement of numerous operations to correct the displaced fractures, she is being prepared to fly back to Israel.

That night, the night before Ziva is due to leave, much to her barely concealed displeasure, with great difficulty she manages to with Abby's reluctant assistance, get out of bed, into a wheelchair, and go in to see Tony.

As she enters Tony's room for the first time since the accident, Ziva is stunned by the appearance of her friend and colleague. Tony is still deathly pale, and not even strong enough to lift his head off the pillow as a result of his brush with death.

But then again, she knows that she herself doesn't exactly look great; her entire face is swollen and bruised, her left eye socket clearly broken, along with her left cheek bone, and her nose, not to mention the two plain plaster casts on her legs, and to top it off the cuts and scrapes adorning her whole body, that are only now starting to heal.

The look of surprise and shock on Tony's face upon seeing her is impossible to mistake. "Ziva..."

"Tony." Ziva says softly, still not used to speaking with the trach, her voice is hard to recognise when compared to her former, strong and confident one.

Tony reaches out weakly towards Ziva as Abby pushes the wheelchair closer to Tony's beside before backing out of the room, feeling out of place in the emotionally charged situation.

"I am so sorry, Tony." Ziva says as she takes Tony's outstretched hand.

Tony shakes his head as he replies. "It wasn't your fault, Ziva. I don't blame you. This sucks, but I don't blame you."

There is a pause before Ziva tells Tony. "I was worried about you. Abby told me that the doctors were not sure if you would push through."

"Pull through, Ziva, pull through." Tony corrects her automatically; he is surprised to see tears welling in her eyes upon hearing his response. "What's going on, Ziva? It's not like that's the first time you've mixed up words."

"But it will most likely be the last." Ziva tells him cryptically.

"What are you talking about?"

Ziva sighs before she informs her partner. "My father has ordered that I go back to Israel, I leave in the morning."

"What?!" Tony exclaims, or tries to as his weakened body betrays him, and doesn't allow him to response as strongly as he otherwise would.

"I do not have a choice, Tony. I'm sorry." Ziva says tiredly, wishing desperately that this wasn't happening. She was the one who got Tony hurt, and now she won't even be there to help him through his recovery.

The next morning, as the nurses are preparing Ziva for the move, Gibbs walks into the room, with Abby and Ducky following closely behind. They all greet Ziva as they sit down around the bed.

They sit in silence for a moment before Abby bursts into tears as she says. "This isn't right, Ziv, he can't just force you to do whatever he wants!"

Ziva sighs as she tells her now former colleagues. "I have to go, it isn't my choice." She then turns to Abby, who is sitting beside her, sobbing, and promises her. "This is not goodbye, Abby, not forever."

Ziva then finds herself being pulled into a tight hug by the goth, as Abby says. "I wish you didn't have to go, I'm really gonna miss you, Ziva."

"Yes, Ziva, Abigail is right, we are all going to miss you dearly." Ducky comments as he finds tears blurring his vision.

Upon arriving in Tel Aviv hours later, Ziva finds herself met, upsettingly, but not surprisingly by one of her father's underlings, a mere junior officer, holding a sign bearing her name. "Officer David?" The officer asks Ziva as she approaches him.

"Yes, shalom. My father could not make it I see?" Ziva asks in Hebrew, an unmistakably bitter note in her voice as she spoke.

"Sorry, Officer David. He said he was upset that he could not be here." The officer replies also in Hebrew, then telling her. "There is an ambulance waiting out front to take you to Tel HaShomer Hospital, where Director David has arranged for you to continue your recovery. He ordered me to escort you there."

Resignedly, Ziva allows the young Mossad officer to take over from the steward in pushing her wheelchair, and he takes her out of the airport to the waiting ambulance.

That evening, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Ziva has been settled into her new hospital room, which despite her lack of need for it is in the high dependency unit of the hospital, given the fact that it is a private room, and clearly is better equipped than others and she has her own nurse waiting on her, irritatingly at all times, Ziva strongly suspects that this was her father's doing.

She has seen people who are obviously more in need of this than her, and it only lead to her silently resenting her father more.

And when her father finally comes to see her, she skips any kind of greeting as she questions him. "Why are you doing this? You know I do not want to be here, Father. My life is in America, at NCIS. Why can you not just let me have my own life?!"

With an unnatural level of calmness and composure, Director David sits down beside his last surviving child's bedside, and tells her. "You nearly got yourself killed, Ziva, and while I know that I can not keep you out of danger, I also can not just stand by and watch." He then tactlessly adds. "And besides, Ziva, at least the people here are accustomed to your style of driving."

TBC...

Thanks for reading! Please review!

And if you've got any ideas of suggestions for this fic, feel free to put them in a review or PM.