Disclaimer: Oh My God! If you make me state this out one more time, I'll seriously stop borrowing the characters!!! *Looks away slyly*
A/N: Thank you for all the reviews; I am the happiest person now! I have a sugar high as I ate 50 chocolate chip cookies today, so I apologize in advance if this chapter is not angsty or dramatic. LoL
A/N 2: I had a little problem with the last chapters characters being OOC so I've sorted that out.
Thanks again!
Tony walked out of the hospital room, with his head down. He felt like crying for the mistake he did, but within him, he knew crying would not help the matter.
He wanted her to remember the last minutes before she fell unconscious, because they were the moments that they shared their true feelings for one another.
Verbally kicking himself for only thinking of his own feelings, he strolled towards the coffee bar, and sat at the corner booth, isolating himself from others around.
He sighed and sat back on the chair, and closed his eyes.
"What can I get cha?"
Hearing the voice of a bored young woman, he opened his eyes and stared at her. She tapped her pencil on the note pan she held and waiting for him to speak.
"Coffee" he simply stated.
"Anything else?" she asked, loudly chewing on her gum.
"No"
She nodded and walked away.
He returned to his thoughts, as the event from that morning played on his head like an old broken record that would not skip to the next beat.
~*~*~*~*
After he drank all of his coffee, he placed the bill on the table and rushed out towards Ziva's room.
Entering the quiet room, he noticed that Ziva had fallen back to sleep. She looked so peaceful. Her olive skin was still pale; her lower body was covered by the blue hospital covers, leaving her arms exposed.
Tony slowly paced towards the bed and brushed his fingertips on her arm, creating a few goosebumps on the way. Thinking she was cold, he pulled the cover further up to cover the rest of her.
"I love you," he whispered. "I won't give up on you Zee, even if I have to make you fall in love with me—again" he smiled slightly at the remembrance of her confession, before she gave him the fright of his life.
He heard the door to the room opening, and glanced at the person.
"You still here?" came the strong male voice of his boss.
Tony nodded. "And I won't be going anywhere until she gets better" he stated.
Gibbs noted that he was being truthful and did not object. He knew, hell everybody knew that this accident wouldn't have happened if it weren't for him, but what was done was done. There was nothing anybody could do to change that.
"Do you want some coffee?" Gibbs asked him.
"No thanks I already had some"
Gibbs nodded and sat at the provided chair for the visitors. "How is she?"
"Just like the doctors predicted, she's suffering from amnesia. We don't know how long or from when her memory has stopped." Tony concluded. Gibbs could hear the desperation and sadness on his voice.
"She'll get better—soon. Just give her time and space" Gibbs said.
Tony was shocked with Gibbs sudden change in behaviour, but he did not protest.
A silence lingered in the room, as both federal agents got lost in their own thoughts.
Gibbs; battling with his own demons, seeing Ziva's lifeless body, only resulted in Gibbs memories swimming to the surface. Jenny's face was forever engraved onto his brain on the final hours of her life. In some levels, he knew how Tony felt, as he too blamed himself for Jenny's death.
'If only I had harassed her for more information' he thought.
Tony; battling with everything that had occurred.
Glancing at his watch Gibbs stretched up. "I'm going home, you should go too, and she will be fine"
Tony thanked his boss, but rejected his advice. "I'm not leaving her Boss"
Gibbs lightly smiled. "I didn't think you would" he said and left the room.
~*~*~*~*~*
0300 hours
Tony had awkwardly fallen asleep on the chair, when he heard Ziva's soft voice. His eyes opened rapidly as he sprinted off the chair straight to her side.
Noticing her eyes were closed, he concluded she was dreaming.
"Tony—I don't want to die" she murmured in her sleep.
'She remembers me' his mind screamed. He reached for her hand and gently squeezed it. "Shush—it's just a nightmare Zee" he whispered.
"I can't die without telling you how I feel about you" she tossed.
He sat on the bed and tenderly held her hands. "You're not dying sweetheart, you are safe now, and we're going to find the bastard that tricked us and lock him up—I promise"
"TONY" she sobbed.
"Ziva, I'm right here please wake up"
Her eyes immediately opened to find his strong embrace around her. She sank her head into his shoulders and smelled the familiar, yet so foreign smell to her brain.
"Let me go" she quietly said, and weakly pushed him away and gazed at his eyes. He could see she was trying to search her memories to identify him.
"It's you again" she said; her voice sounded distant "I told you to leave"
"I'm not leaving Ziva, I'm going to stay right here until you get your memory back!" he stated and crossed his arms in front on his torso.
She rolled her eyes. "Why?"
"Because—I lo—am your partner, that's what partners do!"
Squinting her eyes at him, she asked. "Partner as—as in you and—and I together as in—"
"No, work partners" he chipped in.
"OH"
"So you work for Gibbs?" she asked.
"Wh—What? You remember him?" He asked; with a pledge of jealousy.
"Well yes—I had a meeting with him over the webcam, I'm suppose to start at NCIS tomorrow, Jenny will be there too, I don't think you've met Jenny "
"No—that was four years ago Zee, you were in an accident—you got shot, you lost a lot of blood and the doctors had to supply you with it. Your head collided with the desk when your attacker hit you. Your brain swelled up and now well-here we are" he said, but skipped the Jenny part, telling her about Jenny's death was not a good idea yet he thought.
"Who—who are you?" She asked; her eyes drifted to the covers as she felt a little embarrassed to ask him, as she was meant to know him.
"Tony, your partner, friend and..." he paused.
"And what?"
"The reason you don't remember me"
"What? Why?"
"If it weren't for me—and my ego—you would be here. You told me to trace the call and i ignored you, I'm the reason you nearly died" he gulped.
She looked at him with shock, the man who she felt a strong unnameable feeling towards just told her, he was the reason she did not remember him.
Feeling a small angry feeling arising on her brain. She glared at him.
"I'll like for you to leave" she whispered.
"No I said I will not leave you"
"LEAVE, I don't know you, you say that you're my partner, but partners wouldn't do that to partners. I would not have been stupid to allow you to persuade me into going into a dangerous situation without following protocol, you must have tricked me!" she looked away from him. "Leave" she repeated.
"You have to remember me! Just before, you passed out, I—I told you that I loved you. I meant it, you almost repeated it to me Zee I know you feel the same, just think deep within your memories"
Still gazing away from him, she shook her head. "No, I don't even feel friendship towards you...Tony! How—how would I feel love? Now I'm not asking again, I'd like for you to leave!" she ordered; her eyes were teary.
He sensed her anger and nodded. "Fine, I'll be outside. Call me if you need me" he kissed her cheek and left.
Her eyes had automatically closed when his lips touched her skin and remained closed when he left.
Finally left alone in the room, she allowed a tear to fall down her cheek.
She had lied to him, when she had stated that she did not remember him. His name was new to her fresh memories, but his face somehow felt familiar to her, especially the foreign feeling that she felt for him.
TBC...
A/N: As I said, good things will eventually come....
~ A review would be appreciated ~
