Chapter 20

"She looks so fragile."

"She did get beaten up rather badly."

"I've just never seen her look like this. So..."

"Vulnerable?"

"Yeah."

Tony and McGee were seated around Ziva's bed, talking in quiet tones. In between them lay the beaten Mossad officer, down but at least not dead. She was still unconscious, but that could also be due to all the drugs the doctors had pumped into her to keep her alive.

It was almost painful to look at Ziva's face. Thankfully, the hospital staff – mindful of privacy – had draped a thin blanket over the woman to cover the worst of her injuries. Nothing though, could hide all the monitors in the room, nor the wires, nor the tubes.

The door slid open to reveal Gibbs, a worried frown on his face, and three cups of coffee in his hands. Silently, he handed two over to Tony and McGee, who took their cue to get up and leave.

Gibbs sat down next to Ziva's bed, carefully taking one of her hands into his own; a rather difficult feat considering the amount of wires and tubes connected to Ziva.

"I don't know if you can hear me," Gibbs began, "But I just want you to know that everyone's here for you. Anytime you want to wake up, there'll be someone here. We've got K-Unit guarding your door around the clock. Tony and McGee will take it in turns to sit by you, along with some of the MI6 team. And you know I'll be here."

Gibbs sighed, taking a sip of his coffee. "We just want you to be alright again. Take the time to heal. The sooner you get better, the sooner you can go after the bastard that did this to you."

The door opened again, and a woman dressed all in blue walked in. Gibbs stood up to give her room so that she could see the readings on all the monitors.

"Thanks," the woman smiled.

Gibbs nodded. There was a brief moment of silence before he asked, "How is she, doctor?"

"As well as to be expected," the woman said, "She'll definitely make a full recovery, though there may be some scarring here and there. And I'm not a doctor. Just a Registrar, though this is my last year."

"Either way."

"Oh, I'm Lisa Bee," the woman said, holding out her hand, "I've been assigned this room and the two either side to oversee, so I'll be in and out a lot."

Gibbs smiled, and shook her hand. "Gibbs."

"Nice to meet you. So, how are you related to Miss David?"

"It's pronounced Da-veed," Gibbs corrected automatically, "And I'm her...favourite uncle."

"Fair enough," Lisa nodded, a secretive smile playing around her lips, "I won't tell."

Gibbs raised his eyebrows, though he returned the smile.

There was a silence in the room as Lisa adjusted some of the machines around Ziva's bed, before she suddenly sighed. "I don't think I want to become a hospital doctor."

"Um..."

"It's just," Lisa smiled sadly, "It's hard to see someone like this, you know? I don't think I could live through each and every day, trying to help people who come in so severely injured."

"So, what do you want to do then?" Gibbs asked, sitting down once more.

"Oh, I'd like to be a psychiatrist," Lisa said, a happy glint entering her eyes. "I'd still be doing what I love, you know, helping others get better, but I won't be faced with all...this," she said, gesturing to Ziva's wounds.

"Well, all the best to you, then," Gibbs said.

"Thank you," Lisa smiled. "And Miss David should be waking up in a few hours, if not sooner. When she does, could you get someone to find either me or one of the nurses? Thanks."

.

Desiree Swan was a mess. Alex had never seen her in such a state. She had yet to move from her position on the bed. A never ending stream of tears slid down her face. The rather rhythmic and continuous thud of her head hitting the wall echoed through the empty room.

Matthew had failed to get her attention, much to his disappointment. Now it was Alex's turn.

"Dessi?"

The girl didn't move. Crystal blue eyes fixed unwaveringly at the ceiling.

Alex sighed, closing the door behind him. After a moment's hesitation, he locked it too, before making his way over to the bed.

"Dessi?" He said, sitting down next to her.

There was no reaction.

"Dessi! Snap out of it!"

There was a beat of silence, before the girl spoke for the first time that day.

"It's my fault."

Alex blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"

"It's my fault." Bright blue eyes suddenly snapped down, and held Alex's own gaze. "It's my fault that Ziva's in hospital. I was the one who assigned her to stake out that alley, when I knew full well there was a chance Menten might be there!"

Alex stared at the girl, placing a hand either side of her face when she tried to look away. "You do realise anyone you sent there would've been attacked right?"

"Exactly! I should've gone there!"

"And how would you have known that Menten was going to show up there?" Alex whispered heatedly, leaning in closer and closer. When Dessi did nothing but gaze at him, he continued. "How could you have known where Menten would've been? That was the whole point of the stake-out wasn't it? He could have shown up at any of the locations! You couldn't possibly have been able to predict which –"

And suddenly he was cut off by a pair of lips pressed against his own. The tears still wet on her face mingled with their kiss, desperate, hungry.

At some point, it did cross Alex's mind to end the kiss and back off. But then Dessi was pulling him down on top of her, and her hands were reaching under his shirt...and then the aforementioned shirt was being thrown halfway across the room...

"Wait," Alex gasped, momentarily ending the kiss – though his lips remained against her skin, softly tracing her jaw line and licking the occasional scar, "Have you done this before?"

"Yes," Dessi panted, barely suppressing a groan, "You?"

"Yes."

"Good." And so saying, she grabbed the back of his head and forced their lips together once more.

.

...Hm...yeah...erm...um...er...hm...

I'm not entirely sure what to say for myself...hope you liked that chapter?

I know that it seems like they just suddenly decided to jump each other, but in my defence...well, I don't really have one. It just seemed to fit the whole spy stereotype to randomly do something like this.

Anyway, I'd really appreciate some REVIEWS to let me know that this wasn't a complete fail :)

Looking forwards to hearing from you!

Love Chariots99

Ps – some of you have commented that in this story, Alex seems to be taking a backseat role. Well, the reason is that this story is meant to focus a little more on Dessi, for the pure reason that she's the catalyst for the sequel (yes, there is a sequel – I figured that since I have yet to mentally harm anyone, I might as well. Plus I've got what I reckon is a pretty good idea).So anyway, this story is more Dessi orientated but don't worry – I'm sure Alex will jump in and save the day (sooner or later...)