Ch. 17 Rough Trip Part 1

For the first time since find out about Hadar's betrayal, Ziva began to hope again. The sound of the helicopter with it's gunshots and the yelling among the men that ensued meant that an unwelcome someone had found the location of the camp. The enemy of my enemy is my friend,thought Ziva grimly. She took the sound as good news, but it could have easily been bad news. There were plenty of those in the world that would hunt terrorists, but not all of those would be friendly towards an Israeli. About twenty minutes after the helicopter was not heard, the door to her prison opened. Sunlight streamed in, making Ziva look down. Even squinting irritated the bruising on her face. The relief from the sunlight was short lived when the intruder forced her face up by her jaw. Hadar face radiated hate, but his voice remained light and sarcastic.

"Well Ziva, it looks as though your usefulness has come to an end. We're taking a trip and really there's no room for a disgruntled Mossad officer." He took a few steps back and aimed a Jericho compact pistol. It was always the back up gun assigned to Mossad officers. Ziva simply stared into his face. She had no words left for the man.

"Consider this a better end to what I could let you have." The sound of a gunshot rang through the air and pain exploded in Ziva's side, causing her to cry out in pain. Her ears rang and tears welled her eyes, but she blinked them off to look down at herself. The bullet from Hadar's gun hit her on her right side, above the hip, grazing her flesh. As hearing began to return she looked forward to see the cause of Hadar's miss. Her eyes widened with disbelief.

On the ground, unconscious, was Amit Hadar. It looked as though his head had men smacked on the hard floor of the prison. On top of him, his knee on Hadar's back, his right hand removing the gun from Hadar's right hand was Tony DiNozzo.

"Tony?" Ziva's voice was a whisper, as if she were afraid that if she spoke to loud , he would suddenly disappear and she would wake up from a dream.

Silently Tony rose to his feet and went to Ziva. As gently as he could manage, he placed his hands on either side Ziva's face and looked her in the eyes.

"I was jealous, Ziva." He said with a small smile. Abruptly he turned back to Hadar and searched the man's pocket's for keys. Finding them, he went and unlocked the chains holding her to the chair. Stiffly, she moved her arms, wincing at the movement of her side.

Silently Tony pulled her out the chair onto the floor. He pulled a bag off his back and began to rummage through it. He pulled out a bottle of antiseptic, gauze, and bandaging. Gently, he cut away the cloth surrounding Ziva's gunshot wound. She prevented herself from crying out, but silent tears poured from her eyes. She did his as the antiseptic his the wound, but tried her best to keep still. Tony mumbled an apology and kept working. Finally he cleaned out the wound and bandaged it up.

"Ziva, I hate to ask, but can you walk?" Tony's eyes flooded with various different emotions, but Ziva could really see how sorry he was to ask.

"I can walk, but I will need you help." replied Ziva, her voice raspy. Tony pulled out a water bottle and handed it to her. Ziva drunk gratefully. Tony put it back in his bag when she was done. He stood and reached down to help her stand as well. She winced with the effort, but managed to stand to her feet without falling over. Tony held out an extra handgun with a silencer already attached. She took it in her right hand with a nod.

Hadar was starting to stir as they left the the room and in response, Tony placed a well aimed kick to his head.

"We should shot the bastard here." spat Ziva, venom in her voice.

"Ziva, my job is to get you out. And we have to go now. This is not the time to exact your revenge." Tony's calm voice made sense and it calmed her against her will. With difficulty she turned away from Hadar.

Together, Tony and Ziva fought their way through the camp. They met plenty of opposition, which was taken care of swiftly and mostly by Tony. Their luck ran out when the alarm was sounded.

"Ziva, stay close to me." Tony pulled a grenade off his belt, pulled the pin and lobbed it to one side of the camp. Another grenade quickly followed to the other side of the camp. The explosions were enough to cause mass confusion. Tony used it to make it through the camp, Ziva close behind. Disposing of his empty Sig, Tony used the assault rifle on anyone who got in his way.

Finally, they reached the entrance.

"Ziva, run as fast as you can manage. I'll catch up with you. Go!" He yelled when she hadn't moved. Tony noted with pain that Ziva's run had been reduced to a limped jog. Turning back a around he fired blindly at the men coming at him. After stopping the majority. He pulled his bag off and took out two Claymores, both fastened on the same trip wire. As gently as possible, he unrolled the cords and placed them on opposite sides of the gates. Then, even more gently, he pulled the pins and ran to catch up with Ziva.

Ziva was already exhausted when Tony caught up with her.

"Tony, what was--" Ziva was cut off by an explosion at the camp. She looked from the camp to Tony, with a little bit of awe in her eyes. Tony shrugged.

"We need to keep moving and put as much distance between ourselves and here as possible. There should be some more tree cover as we go." They set off in silence, Tony totally in tune to the sounds around them and Ziva simply trying to keep moving. Finally she couldn't.

"Tony." Tony kept moving, not realizing Ziva had spoken. "DiNozzo," she called louder. Finally, Tony seemed to hear and spun around. He just managed to catch Ziva as her legs gave out.

"God, Ziva, I'm sorry. I'm an idiot." He said as he eased her to the ground. Lightly, Ziva tapped his shoulder.

"Not your fault," she mumbled, her eyes growing heavy. Before he could respond, her eyes closed as she passed out into sleep.