well arent you guys lucky, two chapters in one week! :P :D

i forgot to mention this earlier, but i am not a dancer. nor am i a doctor. so i am extremely sorry if i get any technical things wrong, and i would really appreciate if someone point them out to me, so i can expand my knowledge and the accuracy of the story?

anyways... enjoy! :)

DISCLAIMER: not my characters :(

Chapter 7

Gibbs pushed open the door to Kate's apartment, carrying Kate in with one arm and his go bag slung over the other shoulder. It was the strangest thing, it was only in his wildest dreams did he imaging carrying her over the threshold. But in his dreams, he wasn't so tired and drained emotionally and physically, and she hadn't passed out in the car journey because of the drugs which had made behave like a crazy kid.

He tried to flick on a light, but couldn't quite keep the balance without running the risk of overturning them both. Feeling around in the dark, he stumbled around the corner and into what he assumed was the living room. As his eyes became accustomed to the light, he saw the outline of what he believed was the sofa. He gently put her down, but Kate was so out of it that she didn't even stir. She was so still, that the only thing that indicated life was the gentle rise and fall of her chest.

Gibbs felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and picked it up before it could burst into song.

"Yeah, Gibbs."

"Emmm... Hey Gibbs," the voice at the other end of the phone said. Abby. And judging by the tears in her voice, it wasn't good news.

"How is he?" Gibbs said, heading out of the room and into the kitchen. He flicked on the light and leaned against the counter. He was surprised to see what a mess the kitchen was. He would have thought that a person like Kate would keep her apartment immaculate. But either he was wrong, or Kate had been in a hurry that morning. He could see mugs of tea of various types and at different stages of ageing lined up in rows. And there was practically a whole battalion there.

"The doctor said there was extensive blood loss, the next few hours will be critical," Abby said, and Gibbs could hear the first few tears fall and her voice crack. Gibbs tipped his head back, suddenly feeling very old and very tired. Tony was like his son. Gibbs may give him a hard time, and get tired of his childish behaviour, but they went back a long way. It was Gibbs who saw the potential in Tony, Gibbs who trained him. And like a father, he was so proud of how far Tony had come. Professionally, he had made the transition between being a street cop to being an investigator. Even some who went the whole way through FLETC didn't survive the real world. And Tony had not only done it, he had done it will immense skill. Tony's gut was good, and he was brilliant at it. It would not have been guessed, if someone had looked at their relationship. And Gibbs had always assumed that he knew. But now, he questioned it. Maybe now he had not said anything, he never would. And Tony may have come far, but he had so much further to go. His story was just beginning. It couldn't end now.

"Gibbs?" Abby said at the other end of the phone, unsure of his sudden silence.

"Yeah, Abbs?" he said pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What," she started but had to stop to control her voice, "what if he doesn't make it?"

Gibbs did not know what to tell her. It was like that stage in life when your little girl starts to ask why. Why did he have to go off to war, why was there suffering in the world. The answers that he wanted to answer but couldn't.

"Are you with him now?" Gibbs said, subtly changing the subject.

"No, that Ziva girl is with him," Abby said bitterly. Gibbs could tell that Abby didn't like Ziva. But having witnessed Ziva's breakdown over Tony's wellbeing, Gibbs had to set the record straight.

"Abby, why do you not like her?"
"Gibbs, we don't know who she is, or why she is with Tony. Aren't you just a little bit suspicious?" Abby said, and Gibbs had to agree with her reasoning. At first, he may have questioned Ziva's motives, but he had learnt there was more to Ziva than met the eye.

"Why don't you go talk to her?" Gibbs suggested, and Abby started to grumble about something. Gibbs heard a groan coming from the other room.

"I have to go, call me to update me later?" Gibbs said, and he didn't wait for an answer before he hung up.

Gibbs slipped the phone back into his pocket, and walked back into the living room. Kate was slowly coming round, groaning in pain as she did. Her eyes were scrunched closed, and her hair was sticking up at strange angles, making her look like a disgruntled cat.

"Hey," Gibbs said softly, and Kate's eyes flew open. She ran her hair self consciously when she noticed Gibbs presence, but Gibbs didn't care about her hair. He cared about her.

"How are you feeling?" Gibbs said softly, and if Kate hadn't been in so much pain, she would have been startled by Gibbs. She could recall him having said so much to her in one go before.

"Like I've been shot in the leg," Kate grumbled, trying to sit up. And then she realised where she was, "how did I get home?"

"Car," Gibbs said, but didn't expand, and Kate let it go.

"You need to go to bed," Gibbs said.

"That sounds like something Tony would say," Kate said stretching. She stopped mid stretch, "Tony!"

Gibb knew that he would have to tell her at some point, so took the principle that doing it fast would be better in the long run.

"He's out of it, and they don't know if he will make it."

Kate stared at him in shock for a moment.

"No, that's not possible…" Kate began to deny. She began looking around frantically, trying to look for anything that would help her get up and to him, "I have to be with him."

"No." Gibbs said firmly, and Kate was about to argue when he continued, "Sleep now. We can go see him tomorrow."

Abby had just hung up the phone, and pushed open the door of the room. But she stopped in her tracks when she way the scene in front of her.

Ziva sat there, tears pouring down her face, her shoulders shaking as she buried her head in their joint hands. If Abby thought that Ziva looked a little bit too put together when they had first received the news, this was a completely different story. Abby felt the tears catch in her own throat as she watched the scene.

Abby took another step into the room, and Ziva froze. She must have sensed something in the air, or heard the sound of Abby's boots hit the lino flooring. Ziva's head snapped up, and when she saw that it was Abby, she savagely wiped the tears away from her face. She stood up abruptly, still not letting go of Tony's hand.

"I will leave you with him," she said hurriedly, but despite her words Abby noticed that she was still caressing the back of Tony's hand with the pad of her thumb. Her words told her that she was going, but her actions showed anything but.

Ziva continued to wipe the tears away with her free hand, and yet they still continued to fall past her fingers.

"You can stay. If you want… that is," Abby said, her voice lower now as she too tried to keep the tears in her eyes.

Ziva nodded in acknowledgement, sitting back down, and Abby sat on the other side of the bed. And it was in that moment where the first bridge was built, and the seeds of a friendship were planted.

oooOOOooo

The first thing that Kate noticed when she woke up was the pain. It throbbed through her left leg, travelling and leaving great welts of fire down it. This hadn't been the first time that she had got shot, and she sincerely hoped that it was the last time. It wasn't a pleasant experience, and that was the understatement of her life.

There was a soft knock and the bed room door, and had she not been stranded on the bed, she would have got up to get it. But unfortunately, she was. Without warning, the door swung open, and Gibbs stood there awkwardly trying to balance a tray of food in his arms.

"Gibbs!" she said, looking surprised. She hadn't remembered him being in her apartment. And then it all came flooding back to her. All of it.

"Shit…"

Gibbs looked up in alarm at her noise. It was an "I'm in pain noise", but after a quick assessment, he diagnosed that Kate was not in any physical discomfort, and he was good to proceed.

Where Kate thought the tray was full of food, she was proved wrong. Balanced on the tray was a mug of coffee, a tall glass of water and a multitude of colourful tablets, and dry toast.

"Wow Gibbs, you sure no how to treat a woman," Kate said sarcastically, and Gibbs smiled, glad to see that her dry wit was still intact.

"Pills for the pain, toast for nausea," he explained. He didn't explain that he only learnt that little trick from when Shannon was pregnant and suffering from a violent bout of morning sickness.

Without complaining Kate took the tablets and them the coffee in quick succession.

"Can we go visit Tony?" Kate said, while munching the dry toast. It tasted disgusting. But it was staying in her stomach, and chewing gave her something to do.

Gibbs sighed knowing that even if he wanted Kate to stay in bed and rest, it was never going to happen. Kate was one of those fiery spirits, who would not listen to her even if he tied her to the bed and prevented her from moving… he stopped that thought right there. Kate had just been shot in the leg, and he was having those kind of thought about her?

"I need a shower…" she said, putting the tray to one side and pushing the sheets off her body. And then she encountered her problem.

"Here, let me…" Gibbs tried to help, but Kate was faster.

"I've got this!" she said stubbornly pushed herself off the bed. She swung her legs over the side, but had to stop as the pain became too much.

It was at this moment when Gibbs knew he had to intervene. He gently but forcibly pushed her back onto the bed. Wordlessly he left the room and walked into the ensuite bathroom, where he put on the plug and turned on the hot and cold taps. He walked out into the bedroom and Kate looked back at him unimpressed. But Gibbs shot her back an equally unimpressed expression, as if to say "how were you planning to do that?" and Kate had to admit, he had a point. Unfortunately.

Five minutes, and a lot of awkward carrying later Kate found herself in the bathroom. She leant over to test the water temperature, and she was surprised to find it at exactly the perfect temperature. She shook her head smiling. Only Gibbs…

Ziva jolted awake looking wildly around before remembering exactly where she was. Tony's hand still lay in hers, and she prised her fingers away from his clammy hand. She brought her arms up behind her head and heard her body crack and strain in protest. She twisted her neck round one way, then the other. When she twisted, she caught sight of Abby out of the corner of her eye.

"Hi," Ziva said falsely, and stood up. Abby watched transfixed as Ziva leaned down to stretch, touching the floor with the backs of her hands, then straightening up before leaning back and leaning back until she almost touched the floor in a crab. She straightened up again and pulled her hand across her body, as if preparing herself for some complicated dance.

Abby stood there awkwardly while all this was happening, and Ziva sensed this.

"Was there something you wanted?"

"I'm going to grab some breakfast, I was wondering if you wanted anything?" Abby asked.

"I'll come with you," Ziva said, and the two of them led off down to the cafeteria.

They joined the queue of nurses and visiting relatives at the breakfast bar, and working in silence among the hustle and noise they picked up their food. After paying up, the returned to Tony's room, and sat on the chairs either side of Tony's bed and dug in.

"So, how did you and Tony meet?" Abby said, forking a strawberry onto her plastic cutlery.

"Well…" Ziva said swallowing, "there was a case that brought him to my studio. A-" but she was cut off.

"The case the other weekend at David School of Dance?"

Ziva nodded.

"So you are Ziva David the owner of the David School of Dance?" Abby said disbelieving.

Ziva tilted her head to one side with a curious expression on her face, trying to work out whether this was a good thing that Abby recognised the name.

"I read up about that place somewhere. Is it true that you opened the studio when you were aged 16?"

"Yes," Ziva answered for the first time, and took a big bite out of her breakfast burrito so cover her awkwardness.

"You are a legend! You started own started your business out from nothing, and now it is one of the most renowned studios that the world has even seen!" Abby said excitedly, now fully star struck.

Ziva just nodded, but she didn't want to expand on what Abby had already said. Firstly because it was strange hearing such high praise, and secondly because she did not want to tell Abby about how desperately she wanted that place. She did not want to tell her about how many times she had wanted to give up, because she was struggling to get by, with little in the way of any possessions, and a family that she did not want to burden. She did not want to tell her about every single time she had lied to her baby sister, telling her that everything was fine, when she hadn't eaten for days.

Abby seemed to sense Ziva's discomfort. "You were saying about Tony?"

"Yes Tony," Ziva said, glad to be changing the subject, "well, he just kept coming back."

"And so now you two are dating?" Abby asked.

"No," Ziva was quick to correct her, "We're just friends."

Abby was shocked at this answer. From what she saw the other day, Ziva leant over Tony's prone body bawling her eyes out, they seemed as good as married. And yet, here was Ziva saying that they weren't even together?
"Why not?" Abby asked, and Ziva didn't have an answer for her. They had always made a conscience effort to take things slow, and when Ziva learnt about his long string of mistakes (aka, ex-girlfriends) she could not agree more with him. But now with this unpleasant wakeup call, she had to tell him that she felt something. That was, if he woke up. she would never be able to forgive herself if she was too late, and she didn't have the time to tell him. She would probably follow him into the next world if that was to happen.

Ziva was about to open her mouth to say something, when there was a strangled croak from between the two of them, and both of them abandoned their breakfasts when they saw Tony's eyes flicker open.

"TONY!"

another (sort of) cliffy! but this is a nicer one :) reviews?