hello!

i am sorry for the late update, ive been REALLY ill, and currently sound like an asthmatic version of darth vader. not cool.
thank you for all the reviews and encouragement, you guys are awesome

so as promised, a shocker...

DISCLAIMER: not mine

Chapter 5

It had been two weeks since that coffee shop date, and since then Tony and Ziva had been taking it slow. They saw each other almost every day, and even if they did not they talked on the phone or texted, just to ask the other one how their day went. But there was nothing there, in the way of relationship. There was defiantly friendship, and they had grown to know more and more about each other. But the fiery passion was still there, and a simple glance or look could send the other reeling. But that was the issue. Neither of them wanted to do anything, scared that the fire would burn out, and that it would ruin whatever they had going for them. This thing was too valuable to mess around with, too precious to even contemplate breaking. But it was on Wednesday the 7th October when everything changed. When the universe intervened, forcing them into a place where neither of them could back out off. A place called death.

It was just a routine job, go interview the deceased estranged son in law, and report back with the almost certainly no useful information. They had to do it, but both Kate and Tony knew that the chances of there being anything new to discover were slim. They hadn't even thought about it properly until they were actually there. But the saying "what could possibly go wrong" seemed to be getting its revenge for being taken so lightly so often by them.

"This place reminds me of your spare room on a good day," Kate muttered under her breath to Tony. The creepy block of flats looked like a set for a horror story, with a dank smell hanging around and a suspicious dripping noise coming from somewhere above their heads. It was the perfect location for something terrible to happen. So, naturally, the two of them ignored it.

Tony didn't reply to Kate's snide remark, to preoccupied with looking every direction for a rat or mouse that was going to lunge itself at him.

They reached the final door at the end of the hallway, the number 23 carved into the soft plywood door, as if the number used to be there, but had fallen off a long time ago. Tony went first, knocking on the door.

"Federal Agents, open up."

It was at that moment when they both sensed something was wrong. Maybe it was the extra sense, only available to those who put their lives on the line on an almost daily basis, to serve their country. Or it was the now urgent whispers coming from the other side of the door.

"What the hell! You called the cops on us?"

Tony looked at Kate, and she nodded in agreement to his unasked question. He took two steps back and kicked the wooden door. It fell back with ease, the hinges having rusted away, eating themselves until all that was left was a weak excuse for a hinge.

As the door swung open, time seemed to speed up, rebelling against the realms of possibility. The thing that drew Tony's eye first was the open briefcases laid out on the bed. Some were stacked with money, bills neatly filed and put away, and some were filled with weapons and ammo. The second thing that he noticed were the number of people in the room. Even if these people were not armed to the teeth, Tony didn't fancy their chances. There had to beat least a half a dozen men there, all crammed into that room, and all the size of the hulk on steroids. But then they whipped out their weapons, and suddenly, Tony and his standard issue berretta seemed very small next to their semi-automatic machines.

They took the first shot, and so naturally Kate and Tony returned fire. They backed out of the door, ready to do a runner, when Tony felt a strange warmth flow through his body, followed by the most intense pain he had ever felt in his life. He tried to pull the trigger again, but screamed in pain, and his trigger hand refused to process the action. At his noise Kate turned around, and with the distraction one of the men shot her in the leg. The last thing that Tony registered before blanking out was the men all escaping, before everything faded into black.

oooOOOooo

Ziva was walking through the dance with one of the students when she got the news.

"So you one and a two and a three and a four and a…" Ziva demonstrated, flipping in time with her counting, effortlessly turning her body through the air and landing like there was nothing strange about that.

The small kid looked in awe at Ziva as she did it, and when Ziva expected her to copy she just stared.

"Hey JJ, now it's your go," Ziva said firmly and still the kid looked up at her in wonder.

"What is it?" Ziva said, crouching to the girl's height, and taking her little hand.

"When I grow up I want to be just like you ," the kid suddenly blurted out, and Ziva was shocked at this answer. She expected the kid to say that they didn't like the routine, or say that something hurt. Not what she said next.

"JJ, you do not want to be like me," Ziva dismissed, but the kid was adamant.

"No, I want to be just like you!"

Ziva sighed. The kid was clearly not getting it. She took the child's other hand into her other hand, and knelt down on the cold wooden floor, so she could address the kid at her level, and look her straight in the eye.

"You don't want to be just like me. You don't want to be just like anybody else. You want to be just like you, Missy," she said with a smile.

The kid seemed to understand that, so Ziva stood up.

"But…" she added, "that is a long time away, and you have a competition next Monday, so we want to learn this routine, right?"

The child nodded, and Ziva smiled kindly at her. So she moved to her first position and was about to start counting her in, when the door swung open to reveal a man.

He was a tall man, and by posture and haircut alone she could tell that he was a marine. His hair was lightly dusted with grey offset his deep blue eyes. Eyes that seemed troubled by something.

"Miss David?"

Ziva stood up to her full height then.

"Who wants to know?"

"Special Agent Gibbs, Ma'am," he introduced himself, and she relaxed. This was Tony's boss, the guy that he feared, but respected with equal reverence. Tony had talked often of him, and sometimes had her almost crying with laughter at stories of the two of them, and the rest of the team.

No-one was laughing now.

"Tony DiNozzo has been shot. I thought I could give you a ride to the hospital?" he said awkwardly, not comfortable to be the bearer of bad news.

Ziva stood there for a moment, unable to move or to breath. The worst case scenarios were flooding through her head, and she could never remember being more scared in her entire life.

Snapping out of the images in her head, she addressed the little girl in front of her.

"Let me go check if Melissa is doing a group rehearsal. I can reschedule you private for some other time," she said to the girl, slowly and calmly like there was nothing wrong. And the girl seemed to accept that. Until the door had closed behind Ziva, and she turned to Gibbs.

Gibbs could feel the kid's eyes bore into him. Finally, they became too powerful the resist.

"What?" he said, and the child continued to glare at him.

"You made Miss Ziva upset."

Ah. Apparently Ziva had some very loyal tiny dancers, who looked as if they were going to come after him with pitchforks. He daren't think of what would happen if there were more of them…

"You hurt Miss Ziva, and I'll run your head over with a pickup truck," she said menacingly, and for the first time in a while, Gibbs was speechless. Ziva chose this moment to re-enter the room.

"Joe, what did your mum tell you about quoting things off the television?" Ziva said, and the child dipped her head in apology. But when Ziva was leading her out of the room, she looked back at Gibbs to glare at him, and Gibbs did not know whether to be amused or scared.

Ziva returned a few minutes later, now with a pair of trainers and a tracksuit throw haphazardly on top of her leotard.

"Shall we?"

The car ride seemed longer that it would have done after normal circumstances. Ziva had never remembered being so anxious to get somewhere.

"So what happened?" Ziva said, dreading the answer, but not needing to know.

"It was just a standard interview. But they walked in on a weapons deal, and it got out of hand," Gibbs answered staring straight ahead.

"They?"

"Tony and Kate," Gibbs explained.

Ziva remembered what she had said to Tony all those weeks ago in the café, about Kate and Gibbs having feelings for each other. And now this…

"How did you know to find me?"

At this Gibbs smiled a little, the first one that Ziva had seen of him since he arrived.

"He doesn't shut up about you."

Ziva smiled lightly. And then she remembered where they were headed, and what the consequences of the next few moments would be.

oooOOOooo

Gibbs in his usual gruff fashion walked up to the front desk, and demanded his way into the upstairs waiting room with a flash of a badge and a "don't mess with me" expression on his face. Ziva had to admit that she now understood why Tony seemed so in awe of this man. He had this power about him, a presence that made you want to listen to him. And yet she could tell he had a gentle side to him, one that probably was only exposed because of the immediate danger two of his team members were in.

They powered through the double doors and into the waiting room of ER, which was mercifully quiet. There the two of them sat, waiting.

It had been half an hour, and Ziva had grown sick of the waiting. She had not stopped pacing the room, five steps then turn, then, five more steps, then turn again. And repeat. Gibbs on the other hand had just sat there, as still as a statue in a slightly unnerving fashion. Finally, Ziva lost it. Without a word, she let the room, going to the bathroom slightly off the waiting room.

Ziva stood there, facing herself in the mirror, staring into her own eyes. And she didn't know what she saw. She always could pick out emotions in other people, it had been one thing her father had taught her well enough. But she had no idea about her own emotions. She would blame her father for that one. When you are told at a young age that emotion are a sign of weakness, you become unable to have them, let alone register what they were. And now there she was, a messed up grown up.

She could feel the tears burn behind the backs of her eyes, and all she could think about was what if Tony didn't make it. She hadn't really thought about it, but now she knew how much he meant to her, despite the short amount of time they had known each other.

So she whipped out her phone and rang the only person who she could think of talking to.

"Hello?" the voice at the other end said.

"Tali?"

"Ziva, is that you?"

"Hi Tali," she said, her voice breaking a little as she said it. The first of the waterfall of tears fell out of her eyes, and she brought her hand up to the base of her nose to try and stop the flow. "There has been a problem…"

Gibbs had watched Ziva leave, but had not chosen to follow her. She had only just met him, and he figured she would appreciate the time alone. However, it had been five minutes since she had gone in, and still nothing. His inner moral compass wouldn't let him ignore the damsel in distress, so he got up and went to investigate.

He tapped on the door lightly, and when he got no response he entered. There he saw Ziva hanging up the phone, and leaning against the sink to balance herself. She closed her eyes, and Gibbs could tell that was only to stop the tears from falling. He closed the door quietly behind him, but made no effort to hide his presence. He did not want to startle her. However, she jumped when she heard his footsteps, and her eyes shot open and she spun round quickly. Too quickly. The room spun, and Gibbs had to catch her before she ended up as a heap on the floor.

"You OK?" he said softly.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Ziva said, hastily brushing the tears off her eyes with the back of her hands. She knew that she would be looking mess, but then and there, she didn't care.

"No you're not," he said, and she just glared at him. And then she nodded in agreement, and he hugged her, just as he had hugged Kelly when she was upset.

At first Ziva tried to resist, but eventually she gave up, and the tears managed to seep through her closed eyelids and on Gibbs' jumper. She did not know why, but somehow, despite the fact she had just met this man, she felt safe around him, like he was like a father. With any other man she would have brought her knife to him if they tried to hug her like that, but there wasn't anything strange about it.

Finally Ziva pushed away embarrassed. She smiled a watery smile at Gibbs, who returned it, and she laughed, sadly, but it managed to reach her eyes a little. Gibbs watched the light dance in her eyes, and he realised why Tony had fallen for this incredible woman.

"I believe," she said, "that this is the first emotional breakdown I've had in a bathroom."

Gibbs laughed.

"You're part of the NCIS family now. We have the most interesting situations in bathrooms…"

CLIFFY! DID they make it?! this is exciting, i've never done a cliffy before :D