They sit on a bench, outside the hospital entrance. She looks at the person next to her.
"You wanna talk about it?"
"No."
"Are you sure? I'm a great listener. I mean, after all, Tony is my partner, I am used to listening to someone, all of the time."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"I find that hard to believe. You look like you're dying to talk about it."
"What is there to talk about?"
"A lot."
"Like what? How stupid I was? What a mistake it was? That I should have known better?"
"If you want."
"It's not fair."
"Maybe not, but when is life fair?"
"Never, as far as I can tell."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I'm not going to do anything."
"Are you sure?"
"It's the wrong time, and the wrong situation, but I'm not planning on doing anything. I'm just scared."
Ziva examines the look on her face. She exhales, and reaches out. Abby looks at her, in confusion. Ziva hugs her. Abby relaxes, a hair, and hugs her back. She lets go, and gives Ziva a weak smile.
"Thanks, I needed that."
"It's going to be ok."
"That's easy for you to say."
"You will figure it out."
"How? I am great at juggling, but I don't think that I can juggle this too."
"You're going to have to make so sacrifices, if this is really what you want."
"Especially since McGee is going to prison. Not that it really matters, probably."
He walks past the elevator, and races down the stairs. He gets to the bottom floor, and runs out the door. He races down the sidewalk, towards them. He stops in front of them. He says nothing, trying to catch his breath.
"What was that about?" Abby questions.
"You let Gibbs throw away your caf-pow," he pants.
"I didn't mean to offend you."
"I'm not offended."
"Then why are you down here?"
"I thought that you might like some moral support."
"And why is that?"
"Because I can only think of one reason you'd throw away a caf-pow."
"There's more than one reason," she argues.
"Yeah but..."
"I think that while we're all here, we should talk about what happened between the two of you, today."
"We don't need to talk about that," Ziva warns.
"I think that you do," Abby disagrees.
"Why does it matter, Abs?"
"Because, Tony, you are not very good with admitting your feelings."
"She's not very good at accepting them."
"Did you stop, and think about why?"
"Why? What do you mean Abby?"
"Everyone she loves runs away, or dies."
"Oh," he lets it sink in.
Ziva looks at her partner, not saying a word. He exhales. "Is that it? You don't want me to die? So you can't love me back?"
She shrugs.
"I'm not going anywhere. I won't leave you."
"Accidents happen," she points out.
"Maybe, but I'm not going anywhere."
"You can't keep that promise, so you shouldn't make it."
"If I go anywhere, I'm taking you with me."
"Tony..."
"If I die, you die too."
"I... I cannot talk about this right now," she gets off the bench, and walks away. Tony takes a step after her.
"Let her go," a familiar voice muses.
He turns, and looks at his boss, "Boss..."
"Let her go. DiNozzo you have to learn that sometimes, you have to let her go."
"Look at what happened last time. I almost didn't get her back."
"Almost. You have to let her go this time. She's not running. She's just walking away. You have to let her do that, sometimes."
"You don't understand," he argues.
"Yes, I do. I don't like it, but I understand."
"I..."
"You don't have to explain yourself to me, DiNozzo. I get it."
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Go talk to McGee."
"What do you want me to say?"
"Figure it out."
Tony walks back, towards the building, the opposite direction of his partner.
He takes a seat next to her. He cocks his head. He looks into her green eyes. She struggles to maintain eye contact.
"Speak," he insists.
"No," she shakes her head.
"No?"
"You'll be disappointed in me."
"Why?"
"Because I made a mistake."
"People make mistakes all the time."
"People do, I don't."
"How would you ever learn anything, if you never made mistakes? Is this really a mistake?"
"It's definitely an accident."
"Yeah, well, accidents happen."
"Gibbs, I'm scared."
"I would be concerned, if you weren't."