"She took her favorite sweatshirt with her…" Dorneget looked at Gibbs.
Gibbs stared at him in disbelief, "How do you know what her favorite sweatshirt was?"
"When Tony and I went on vacation, he was talking about how Ziva had snatched his Ohio State sweatshirt and that it was her favorite. I looked in her closet, wasn't there." He replied.
"She's taken something that reminds her of him with her." Gibbs nodded to his theory, "We need to end this mission before she ends her life and while she's in the middle of a man hunt for murder." He folded up the note, tucking safely into his pocket and headed for the doorway. "Let's go." Gibbs followed by the two men walked out of the door, making sure to put the door back in the doorframe correctly. No one could know that they'd been there and that they had known Ziva was the one who shot the two men in the morgue or else, Parson's would be on their ass again.
Gibbs drove straight to the hospital, running inside with McGee and Dorneget. They pushed their way through the crowds of nurses and doctors into a small room.
"Oh hey guys, I'm feeling great! Mission over with?" the voice questioned looking hopefully up towards Gibbs.
"I'm afraid not, Dinozzo." Gibbs sternly stated.
"What? Why? Parsons was arrested… There's nothing left to do, but for me to go find Ziva." Tony looked at Gibbs confused. Why wasn't the mission over with? They arrested Parsons for stabbing him.
"Ziva has gone off the deep end," Gibbs didn't know how to tell Tony what had happened within the past few days. "She really thinks you're dead…." Gibbs reached into his pocket and handed over the note to Tony.
Tony took the note and opened it slowly. As he read, he found himself crying. She was hurt and he knew the same exact feeling. As Tony finished reading the note, he jumped up quickly and grabbed his coat from the seat next to the hospital bed, "I have to go get her," he stated trying to pull away from the nurse who was now trying to him back.
"Sir, you have to get your blood pressure taken! You can't leave yet!" she yelled at him
He pushed away from her, releasing himself from her grip "I don't have time to worry about my damn blood pressure when the woman I love is going to try and kill herself to be with me cause she thinks I'm dead!" Tony's head was spiraling. Why did he ever think it was okay to go along with this plan when he knew Ziva wouldn't react well to it?
"Dinozzo, calm down for a moment-" Gibbs stepped in front of him so, he couldn't make it out of the doorway.
"CALM DOWN?! I'M NOT GOING TO FUCKING CALM DOWN BOSS WHEN ZIVA IS OUT THERE, SCARED THINKING THAT I'M DEAD!" He screamed looking at the older man, "I SHOULD HAVE NEVER GONE ALONG WITH YOUR STUPID PLAN IN THE FIRST PLACE! NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME, I'M GOING TO GET MY NINJA ," Tony stormed through Gibbs, their shoulders colliding as he walked through the door.
Tony paced through the hospital way and made his way to find a cab outside. He quickly told the driver to go to the airport and sat back slowly. He was really out of breath from hurrying to get out of the hospital and that probably wasn't healthy considering the fact that he was just stabbed a few days ago. He watched out the cab window and thought about Ziva. How she must of felt the same exact way he did when he thought she had died. It was something he never wanted to experience again and definitely never wanted her to feel that way. She had lost way too many people in her life and he felt ashamed that he went along with this plan of Gibbs. Not to mention the fact that he didn't know someone would end up stabbing him as he kissed his beautiful ninja. He could only describe that moment as the best AND worst moment of his life. Kissing her, obviously the best part about it. While he stared out the window, the one thing he failed to miss was Gibbs, McGee and Dorneget right on the cab drivers tail as they drove to the airport right behind him.
Fifteen minutes later, they all arrived at the airport. Tony charged through people in order to get up to the front desk.
"Hi, how can I help you?" the woman from behind the desk asked Tony.
"I need a ticket for the soonest flight you can give me to Paris," Tony said frantically.
Paris. Gibbs mind raced through thoughts as soon as Tony told the woman at the desk Paris. So that's where Ziva was talking about, he thought to himself. Gibbs never denied the fact he thought something did happen in Paris that Tony and Ziva. It happened to him and Jenny, and they weren't even flirtatious like Tony and Ziva were. Everything was finally making sense to Gibbs. Tony and Ziva had been different when they returned from their undercover trip to Paris and now Gibbs had finally found out the reason why.
"I'm sorry sir, a flight left a few minutes ago to Paris. You're going to have to wait three hours for another one," the woman replied.
Tony cursed under his breath and looked back at Gibbs. Ziva was most likely on that flight to Paris depending how much earlier she left before them. Gibbs stepped forward, seeing the frightened look on Tony's face. He walked to the desk and showed the woman his badge, "Agent Gibbs, NCIS. We need a private flight to Paris right away." He had nothing, but a stern look on his face.
The woman saw Gibb's badge, "Um, yes sir hold on one moment." She went into the back room and a moment later came out with another man. The man looked at Gibbs and started to type away on the computer and speak into his walkie talkie. After repeating this, he finally looked up at Tony and Gibbs, "We've arranged a pilot to fly you there now. Be at gate 4B in ten minutes." He finished typing on the computer, "is this for a case?" he questioned.
"No," Gibbs answered. "One of our agents is in trouble," Gibbs smiled and walked away with Tony.
Ten minutes later, Tony had ran to the gate waiting for Gibbs, McGee and Dorneget to catch up.
Tony kept dialing Ziva's number as he waited at the gate. Likely, the reason she wasn't answering was because she was on a plane at the moment. A pilot came to the gate door and greeted the men, telling them it was time to board the plane. As soon as they got onto the plane, Tony tried dialing Ziva's number one more time before take off.
Ziva sat on the plane, staring out the window. She couldn't believe that she just had lost her dad and now…her best friend. Her everything. The man she loved. There were no words to describe just what he had meant to her. This wasn't how anything was supposed to happen. They were supposed to take the next step after he kissed her…not die. She sighed and reached into her purse, pulling out her phone.
4 missed calls. Probably Gibbs, Abby, McGee and Ducky, she thought to herself. But, when she cliked "View" on her phone to see the missed calls, her heart dropped to the ground.
4 Missed Calls - Anthony Dinozzo. Was this another sick joke? She felt sick to her stomach. He was dead. Who the hell would be calling her off Tony's number? Was it the police? It had to be. They obviously found out it was her who shot those two men and were thinking the only way they'd get a hold of her was by using Tony's number. Ziva looked at the man asleep next to her, making sure she didn't wake him up with her fussing and freaking out. She looked down at her phone again and turned it off. She carefully took the battery and SIM card out of her phone, putting them both into her pocket and threw the phone into her bag. The police weren't going to find her now and not even later when she ended this nightmare.
9 hours later, Ziva stepped off the plane and looked around. The last time she had been to this airport, Tony was right beside her. As they walked across the tarmac and through the airport, he had made a comment about every French woman who walked by. She had giggled at his remarks, he was always way in over his head with women.
The more Ziva walked through the airport, the more she reminisced on the time her and Tony were here undercover. She made it outside the airport, speaking to a French chauffeur and asking him to take her to the hotel. Yes, that hotel. The same hotel where her and Tony spent making fake love, yet falling deeply in love with each other for nothing more than a case. The hotel that they would never speak about again, until Berlin when Tony referred to her as "sweetcheeks"…twice. Ziva smiled as she looked out the window of the town car she was riding in.
Paris was where they fell in love, Berlin was where they realized it.
Tony ran through the tarmac of the Paris airport. Knocking people down and hearing men shout at him in a language he didn't know a word of. Gibbs, McGee and Dorneget weren't far behind him. They followed him running and dodged their way past the people he had knocked over. Tony ran as fast as he could to get outside of the airport and looked for a driver. He anxiously looked around, but most cabs seemed to have people inside. Finally, he saw one pull up and got inside of it quickly telling the driver where to go. The other three men joined him inside the cab, Tony sat in front and shook at the thought of them being too late to find her.
Ziva walked into the hotel and up to the front desk. She set down her suitcase and smiled at the man at the front desk, "Hi, I talked to you on the phone?"
"Oui Ma'am" he replied, "The hotel room you wanted is available," he smiled at her.
"Wonderful!" she smiled back as she handed him her credit card. He took her card and ran it through. She signed the receipt and took the card to the hotel room. She made her way towards the elevator and waited patiently for the doors to open. She heard the ding and watched a pair of small children run out of the elevator with their parents. She smiled at them, thinking how wonderful it would've been to have children with Tony and visiting Paris with them, telling them the story of how their mother and father fell in love here. The thought of this made her heart melt as she stepped inside the elevator and waited to be on the right floor. A moment later, the elevators door open and she had arrived on the floor. She stepped out of the elevator, making her way down the hall. Approaching the room, she took in a deep breath and slid her room card through the slider. The door opened and she turned the knob, looking inside the room. Nothing had changed. She dropped her suitcase and walked over to the bed. Her hand grazed along the end of the bed, remembering the moment she was sitting on Tony's back giving him a massage.
The tears began welling up in her eyes. She looked over to the cabinet where the TV sat inside of and remembered the moment she had closed the cabinet doors. Her hands lingered on Tony, his on hers and suddenly their lips had collided. The sensation that filled her body as he kissed her, made her shiver the same way it had the other night while he kissed her.
Except that time, her dress didn't fall to the ground, Tony's body did.
The tears were now running down her face and Ziva couldn't take the pain any longer. She needed to be with him, even if it wasn't in this lifetime. She walked back over to her suitcase and unzipped it. From inside, she grabbed her gun and slowly walked over to in front of the balcony. A salty taste formed in her mouth from the amount of tears falling from her eyes. She closed her eyes slowly, visioning the site of Tony. She cried harder as she saw his presence and raised the gun up to her head and felt the barrel along her skin.
Suddenly, she jumped at a crashing sound and flung around. She pointed the gun as she stared at the man in front of her, the tears coming down like a waterfall.
"Hey…." Tony said calmly smiling that she hadn't hurt herself yet "I'm right here, sweetcheeks," He held his hands up in the air.
Ziva blinked her eyes, trying to figure out why she was seeing him in front of her. He was dead. She kept the gun pointed at him as he slowly moved forwards toward her. She started to back up and shake, "Who…who… who are you?!" she yelled out at him, still crying.
"Zee, it's me. Tony. I'm alive, I'm so sorry" he kept inching towards her, hoping she'd put the gun down.
"TONY'S DEAD! WHY ARE YOU IMPOSTERING HIM?" She yelled out again, still backing up with the gun pointed to him. He realized she really wasn't in her right state of mind. She was definitely having a psychological break down.
"Zee, I promise I'm Tony. I'm not dead, I never was. I wouldn't lie to you…" he stopped moving towards her as he saw the fear in her eyes.
"You're a ghost…" she whispered
"No, no, no. Ziva, I'm not a ghost. I'm alive and well, Zee. Drop the gun and I'll prove it," he started to move towards her again.
"STOP! I'LL SHOOT YOU! GET AWAY!" she screamed out and put her finger on the trigger causing Tony to stop again.
"Ziva! You've got to trust me! You're supposed to trust me! I'm not a ghost or imposter! I'm real! Put the gun down before someone gets hurt!" he didn't know how this situation was going to end and he was worried.
She stared at him intently, not knowing whether to believe if this was a dream or if it was actually reality. He started to move towards her again and she swiftly raised the gun up to her own head, again.
"ZIVA!" he dove towards her as he knocked her down to the ground and a shot rang out. Tony's breath hitched as he looked underneath himself at Ziva. He was lying on top of her, on the floor. Tears were still coming from her eyes which were now red and swollen. To his relief, he looked towards the wall and saw the bullet had gone through it. He smiled knowing that she was okay when he eyed the dried up cuts on both of her wrists.
Gibbs walked in slowly and saw both of them on the ground, Tony on top of her. "Is she okay?"He questioned walking over.
Tony stared at Ziva who looked up at him in disbelief acting like she really did see a ghost, "Right now she's physically okay, but psychologically, not at all."