Thank you for all the positive reviews on Chapter 1! Here's chapter 2!
Disclaimer: Still don't own NCIS. Still upset about the Tiva car crash. Still waiting for Tuesday.
Tony had hardly left Ziva's bedside since he'd been released from the prison that was the hospital. He spent his nights asleep in the armchair by his bed and his days talking to her. Gibbs, Abby, Tim and Ducky all circled through, but something in Tony prevented him from ever leaving Ziva's side. Maybe it was the fears that if he left, someone would sweep in and take her, prevent her from ever coming back to him. So Tony stayed. He talked to her. He hadn't had another heart-to-well, could it be considered a heart-to-heart when he was pouring his soul out to her and there was nothing he could do to get her to listen? Tony hadn't said the words "I love you" again since that night, but when he was alone with her, he often took her hand in his and just watched her. Tony was not a religious man, but as the days ticked by, he found himself praying that she would wake up, praying that she wouldn't die on him. It had been a week since the crash. Ziva still wasn't out of a coma. With each day, Tony's fierce desire to keep her safe intensified. He found himself catnapping rather than sleeping in order to keep a watch on her, as if he had convinced himself if he stayed awake, she'd somehow catch on and wake up, too. He was torn between panicking and rejoicing whenever a monitor beeped faster, because they were a sign of life. Sometimes, the only thing that reminded Tony that Ziva was alive was the consistent rise and fall of her chest. And that was the ache that kept him awake at night. That she had been reduced to a car crash victim. Ziva David was no longer a survivor, a ninja, she was a victim and that pained Tony to the core.
But then, one evening, something changed. Tony had closed his eyes for a second when beeping woke him up. He immediately shot bolt upright. Ziva's hand was twitching. And then her eyelids began to flutter. Then, they squeezed shut and opened. She was awake. And she immediately began to panic. She thrashed and began to cry out. Tony jumped out of the chair and bounded across the sterile room. He grabbed her shoulder, steadying her movements, just as he had done when she had been having nightmares in his apartment the night after her father's murder. Her eyes, wild and confused, met his concerned gaze and she immediately relaxed. Her voice was soft and hoarse, "Tony…" She tried to continue, but her thrashing fit had expended the little energy she had. He smiled, "Welcome back, Ziva." Tony pushed some hair off her forehead and she smiled a little bit. The doctors had figured out that she was awake by now and came barreling in, pushing Tony out of the way. They fussed over her for twenty or so minutes before leaving her alone to phone Gibbs. They poked and prodded, detached monitors and attached new ones, modified her oxygen, all sorts of fancy hospital stuff that Tony didn't get. Tony sat in the chair next to her bed again. She turned her head to face him, her body still flat against the bed and opened her mouth to speak. No words came, and she closed it again. Tony spoke, "You had a lot of people worried, Ms. David." He wiggled his eyebrows a little, completely destroying the half mock seriousness in his voice, "A lot of people, including me." This time, words came to Ziva, "They say people can hear things when they're in a coma," quoting Ducky. Tony's jaw dropped. Because Ducky had said that yesterday, "Did you hear everything?" She blinked, "Some things. I heard a lot of beeping, I heard Abby talking to me, I heard Tim comforting her, and I heard your concern for me." She was struggling to keep her eyes open now, and Tony spoke, "Yeah, well, it's kind of hard to be a Very Special Agent when their partner is in a coma, now, isn't it?" Then, Ziva did something entirely un-Ziva-like. She reached out a bit and took his hand in hers. Their fingers interlaced. The effort had exhausted her and Ziva soon fell asleep. Tony looked down at their interlocked hands and couldn't help but wonder, had she heard him when he told her that she completed him, and when he said that if she died, a piece of him would die, too, and that he loved her. Tony wasn't sure if he was scared or relieved that she could hear in her coma but he did know one thing. She'd come back to him.