Title: A Long Way Home (Chapter 20)
Author: LizzieInk
A/N: Apologies for leaving you guys with the cliff hanger at the end of the last chapter. I hope this new chapter allows you to hate me a little less. ;)
Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong to the creators of NCIS.
Ziva's ribs had finally had enough.
Please not now, she thought to herself as she struggled to keep from passing out.
Bodnar used Ziva's momentary weakness to his advantage as he once again flung her to the ground, before picking up Ziva's gun, and aiming it directly at her head.
Moments later a shot rang out deafeningly in the vast expanse of space.
All Ziva could do was take one last look at the man in front of her, before the world around her faded to black.
Bodnar's body dropped like a stone, as Tony forced himself forward with his gun still raised. Tony slowly walked towards Bodnar, using his one remaining crutch. He winced every time his cast hit the floor, but he still didn't waver, keeping his gun aimed true.
It wasn't necessary.
Tony looked down into Bodnar's unseeing eyes, and only then did he allow himself to let go of the breath that he hadn't even realized he had been holding.
He dropped his gun and lowered himself to the floor beside Ziva. The rise and fall of her chest alerted his keen eyes to the fact that she was in fact still alive, but the blossoming pool of blood on her shirt worried him immensely. She had obviously made her wounds from the car crash much worse.
He just kept repeating she's alive over and over in his head, as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket to phone for back-up, as well as a much needed ambulance or two.
After the operator had assured him that help was on the way, Tony placed his hand gently against Ziva's cheek, feeling comforted by the warm skin beneath his fingers.
When Tony had exited the warehouse and seen Ziva lying there defenceless on the ground, he had shot Bodnar instinctively without even needing to think about it. His heart had almost stopped at the thought that he might lose Ziva. There was no way he would ever let that happen though, not while there was breath left in him.
Looking down at his partner, Tony leant forwards and carefully placed a kiss on her forehead, as Gibbs and McGee approached the scene from the warehouse behind him.
Luckily for Tony, the unknown shooter in the warehouse had seen Gibbs and McGee as the greater threats, which considering neither of them was on crutches, was probably a wise move on the shooters part. Tony had used the attackers assumption to his advantage and had escaped out of the warehouse to go in search of his partner.
Gibbs and McGee had stayed behind to subdue the man. Gibbs now had him in cuffs, and was pushing him along in front of him. The man had sworn that there were no more men in the warehouse, but being thorough as usual, Gibbs and McGee had done a quick sweep to double check before finally following Tony out of the warehouse.
The relief on Gibbs' and McGee's faces was clear to see as they approached Tony and Ziva. The sight of Tony carefully watching over his partner, told them instantly what they were as yet unable to see for themselves. That Ziva was alive.
As they got closer, McGee and Gibbs could both see with a sigh of relief, that although injured, both agents had been very fortunate indeed.
Moments later, Ziva's eyes fluttered open, and slowly focused on the face floating above her.
"Tony…" She muttered.
Tony breathed a sigh of relief and leant forwards, so that his eyes where level with Ziva's.
"Hey, sleepy head." Tony murmured lovingly.
"Out of everyone in the world who could have found me…" Ziva choked out, her voice rough with pain. A small smile graced her lips, as she looked up into Tony's eyes.
…It had to be you.
Remembering Somalia, Tony shivered at the memory of the last time that Ziva had uttered that sentence to him, but he smiled down at Ziva anyway.
"Did you ever doubt I would?" Tony replied, with his trademark grin.
Ziva smiled peacefully up at him before closing her eyes, and allowing herself to rest once more.
As the sound of ambulance sirens became increasingly apparent from nearby, Tony dropped down onto his back beside Ziva, the adrenaline was quickly wearing off, causing all of the intense pain from his leg to finally invade his senses. Tony gritted his teeth as a wave of nausea passed over him. He managed to fight it off, but he had started to shake uncontrollably.
Gibbs, seeing that his favourite agent had finally reached the end of his tether, knelt down and placed a comforting hand on Tony's shoulder as they waited for the ambulance to pull up.
"Hey, they're over here!" A voice yelled from the side of the building.
Gibbs automatically raised his gun before realizing that it was just the paramedics arriving. Re-holstering his weapon, he breathed a sigh of relief as he watched two of his agents; his family, being loaded into the back of the awaiting ambulance.
After Gibbs had made sure Tony and Ziva were finally en route to the hospital, he made tracks back towards the warehouse, pulling out his battered phone from his pocket.
"Duck?" He said into the phone; "Got two bodies for you."
After rattling off his current location, Gibbs hung up and turned to face his one remaining agent.
"McGee, secure that jackass in the car. I'll retrieve Hadar from where you cuffed him inside. Got the keys for your cuffs?"
McGee tossed them to him, as he led the unknown shooter away, as ordered. Gibbs snagged the keys from mid-air, catching them deftly, and quickly returned to the room in which they had found Tony standing watch over Hadar. Stepping over Renner's prone body, Gibbs un-cuffed the other man from the pipes where he had been left, and dragged him back to where they had parked. McGee had already secured the other man in Gibbs' car, so Gibbs shoved Hadar into Ziva's, which luckily remained unlocked.
"Boss, looks like that back-ups finally here." Said McGee, as 2 cars pulled up beside them.
Gibbs went over to talk to one of the men, and quickly returned to where McGee was waiting.
"They're going to work the crime scene. We need to get these two idiots back to the Navy Yard." Gibbs said. "Once we drop them back at NCIS we can make tracks for the hospital to check on the others. I'll drive Ziva's car, you take mine." And with that Gibbs was already sliding into the drivers seat of Ziva's car.
McGee nodded and followed suit, eager for the moment when he would be reunited with the rest of their team.
A/N: This fan-fiction is slowly creeping closer and closer to its end. There are still at least a couple of chapters to come, however the danger for our favourite agents is finally over. Now comes the healing...
Thanks for your continued support. Please review! ;)