Tony got off the ground slowly, still underneath him at Ziva. Gibbs walked over and lowered to the ground trying to help Ziva up. She took his hand and slowly got up. Her eyes never wandered off Tony the whole time.
He put his hand on her lower back, holding her up as he spoke "Zee, it's me. I promise. I'm here, I'm alive." She had a blank stare on her face.
"Ever- every-" she stuttered "Everyone said you were dead,"
"I'm not, Ziva. I'm fully breathing and alive. It was part of our mission to bring down Parsons and get my job back. It wasn't the original plan because no one expected me to get stabbed." He said trying to make the situation sound better than it was at the moment.
Ziva was in disbelief, "You…agreed to some plan to make me think that you were dead…just to get our jobs back?"
"Well, if you say it like that it sounds bad, but-"
"Sounds bad? Tony I have not stopped fucking crying for days now. Why on this planet would you agree to that?!"
Tony chuckled at her mix up, "Why on earth, Ziva"
"This" Ziva pointed in between the two of them. "This is not the time to be correcting me right now, Tony. How could you two do this to me?" she looked at both of the men in the room.
"The original plan was for me to be 'kidnapped' by Parsons. But then, I got stabbed by those two men and we had to think of something fast! It wasn't to hurt you!" Tony couldn't think of anything else to say that would make her feel any better. He just wanted to get her home and safe.
"The thing that's even worse, is the fact that the one person who knows me better than anyone." Ziva looked at Tony straight in the eyes, "the person who knows everything that I've been through, everyone that I've LOST" she started to cry again "would still agree to a plan where I lose them too."
"Zee, I didn't, I wasn't thinking! Come here," he grabbed her and tried to hug her.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She tried to push away and he wouldn't let her so she used all of her weight and pushed him back into the wall. "I HATE YOU!"
Gibbs grabbed onto Ziva and pulled her away from hurting Tony, "Get her the hell out of here, Dinozzo. Go to the airport, get us a plane. I'll meet you there. When we get home, we'll take her to the hospital. I'll go downstairs and explain to the hotel manager why there's a bullet in his wall," Gibbs said and left the room, quickly after.
Tony bent over and grabbed Ziva's gun and suitcase. He carefully placed the gun into his holder on the side of his pants. He zipped up Ziva's suitcase and threw it over his shoulders. He was hurt. He never wanted to hear those words out of her mouth, even though she wasn't in the right frame of mind now. Taking a deep breath in, trying to forget what she had just said, he motioned for Ziva to come with him and she slowly did. In the halls of the hotel, he walked in front of her and she fell behind. He kept looking back at her every few seconds to make sure she was still there when he would hear the shuffles of her feet stop. When they entered the elevator and rode down to leave the hotel, neither of them spoke. Ziva stood in the elevator looking down the whole time, trying to come to place with what had just happened.
As soon as they exited the hotel, Tony called for a cab. He helped Ziva get inside the cab and sat next to her, closely. She tried to move away from him, but the cab wasn't big enough to get away from him. On their way to the airport, Tony glanced down at Ziva's wrists again. The cuts were long and drawn out across her wrists and the scar was completely dry. He figured she had done this the past couple of days.
Ziva noticed him looking down at her wrists. Shit. She turned her wrists around and moved them under her shirt pretending to be cold while she turned back to staring out the cab window. Tony knew she was onto him looking at her wrists. He shrugged and rested his hand over her knee, making sure she knew he wasn't going anywhere. Ziva twitched at the feeling of his hand on her knee. She was glad she had pants on because if she would have had a skirt or dress on, the skin to skin contact would have pushed her over the edge. Yet, no matter how much she wanted to pull her leg away from him, she couldn't.
When they arrived at the airport, Tony tried to help Ziva out of the cab, but she just pushed through him. He started walking in front of her again and went to talk to an employee about getting her home.
Gibbs had eventually arrived to the airport after telling the hotel owner what had happened in the room. Tony and Ziva didn't speak to each other…at all, the whole time. Soon after, they boarded the plane on their home. On the plane, Ziva rushed over to a window seat and sat down. Tony went to sit down next to her and she dropped her suitcase onto the seat next to her.
"Seriously, Ziva?" He stood there questioning as Gibbs took a seat in the aisle across from her.
"I don't want you near me, Anthony." She barely even looked at him as she laid her head down and closed her eyes. Anthony? Since when the hell has she called me that?
"Dinozzo." Gibbs sternly said as he patted the seat next to him and Tony shook his head. Tony sat down next to Gibbs and sighed heavily. It was going to be a long flight.
The whole flight back to D.C, Ziva had slept. When she had first fell asleep, Tony had stood up and laid a blanket over her and brushed the hair out of her face. He stared at her for a moment, taking in all of her beauty. He couldn't help, but feel guilty for putting her through hell that past week. He couldn't blame her for any of this, it was his own fault.
Ziva awoke when they landed in D.C and she felt the tires of the plane hit the ground. She looked around and noticed she had a blanket over her. Tony she figured. She folded up the blanket and went to grab her suitcase when she felt another hand over hers. Tony grabbed onto her suitcase the same time she did and their hands touched softly. He stared back down at her when she moved her arm quickly away from where a flame was just started by their touch. Tony grabbed the suitcase and got off the plane following Gibbs. Ziva wasn't far behind them as they walked through the airport terminal and to Gibbs car he had left there.
"God, why do I always feel like I'm being returned home by you two," she sighed.
"Because you always are." Tony spat out, "You're so fucking stubborn so, you go and do this stupid shit and I have to always come rescue you." By this time and after the long flight, he was just angry she was hurting herself like this. Not to mention, being incredibly bitchy.
Ziva rolled her eyes, "I do not need saved by you Tony. I have never asked you to come after me," she gave him a bitchy glare as she got in Gibbs car while he stared at Tony.
"Not right now, Boss." Tony sighed and entered the car too.
Gibbs got into the car also, driving to the nearest hospital so they could get Ziva checked out. The car ride silent the whole way.
"I am fine, I do not need to go to the hospital," Ziva yelled as they approached the hospital.
"Ziva, you tried to kill yourself!" Gibbs slammed on the breaks in the middle of the road and looked at her. She really was losing her mind. She sat there staring back at him and he spoke again, "You're wanted for the murder of those two men in the morgue,"
Ziva shook her head when she looked behind and saw Tony's eyes go big, "MURDER?"
Gibbs nodded, "Shot the two guys who stabbed you, execution style in the hospital morgue looking for your body,"
"YOU DID WHAT? ZIVA-" Tony was interrupted.
"We're going to get her checked out, Dinozzo. She's clearly not okay…" Gibbs looked towards Ziva as he parked the car at the hospital.
Gibbs and Tony sat in the waiting room for the rest of the night while the doctors tested Ziva for any psychological problem. Tony rarely spoke the whole time. He couldn't believe that Ziva shot the two men who stabbed him. Yeah, she was always the one who wanted to get revenge, but he couldn't believe she would go that far.
Tony finally spoke up, "What are we going to do if they take her to prison?" His head was spinning just thinking about his ninja being locked up.
"They can't. She's unstable and can take the psychological plead." Gibbs looked at Dinozzo seriously, "I'll talk to her and explain it's my fault."
Dinozzo nodded and looked towards a woman who was now walking towards them. They both stood up as she approached them and shook their hands, "Hi, I'm Doctor Linda Thomas. We just finished the last test on Ziva. She'll need to spend the night so, we can keep an eye on her brain activity."
Gibbs responded, "Okay. He'll stay with her for the night," he pointed to Dinozzo who was shocked he insisted him to stay, "will she be seeing a psychologist?"
"Yes, Dr. Smith will be in later tonight to talk to her. If the test results come out positive, she'll be needing to see him on a weekly basis." Tony and Gibbs nodded yes. "Also, we found scars on her wrist that are likely from cutting by a razor. This is another thing she will be needing to see help for,"
"Okay, thank you" Gibbs spoke quietly, finding it hard to believe that Ziva kept hurting herself like this.
"If you guys have any questions or need anything, feel free to page me." She handed them a card with her number on it and walked away.
Gibbs slipped the card into Tony's hand and started to walk towards Zivas room. Tony sat back down on the chair in the waiting room, putting his face in his hands and letting out a deep sigh.
Gibbs slowly turned the knob on the door and walked into Ziva's room. She was lying still in bed, watching TV. She hardly looked at him. The monitors around the room made a symphony of noises, which he could tell was bugging the hell out of her.
"Hey, Ziver." He walked over and kissed her forehead. She stayed silent, not knowing what to say to him until he stared to speak again, "I'm sorry about everything. I wasn't thinking when I made Tony agree to the plan. But, we never expected for him to get stabbed. We had to think quickly and we really just weren't thinking…. Don't blame him Ziva. He knows what it feels like…" Ziva's mind flashed back to Somalia when Tony told her he thought she was dead all of those months she was gone. He didn't deal with the pain by hurting himself with razors and guns, instead he drank himself away. He continued, "In my defense though, Zee. I gave you tons of hints to figure out he was still alive."
Ziva rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Gibbs, I heard the report on the radio!"
"And what did it say?" he questioned.
"That Tony was stabbed by Parsons!" She threw her arms up in the air.
"Exactly! Stabbed, not murdered. I wrote the report trying to give you a hint." He chuckled looking at her stunned face.
"But-but you said you buried him at the hospital!" She was annoyed she never got his clues. Maybe she really did need to be at the hospital.
"Ziva, you should know you don't bury people two days later… and why would I be at the hospital still if he had died? I was still there to see him, but you went running and I knew you wouldn't find his body in the morgue. I figured once you didn't find it, you'd finally get it. Instead, you ended up killing two men,"
She sighed, "I don't know how I didn't catch on…"
"You were blinded by love," Gibbs winked at her and once again she was left stunned. He kissed her forehead once more and got up, "Goodnight, Ziver. See you in the morning." And with that he left the room heading back out to the waiting room, motioning for Tony to go in.
Tony sighed and walked leisurely into Ziva's room. She didn't even bother to look at him, but she decided to speak not moving her eyes away from the TV "You don't have to stay here with me,"
He moved a chair closer to her bed, sitting down in it and propping his feet up onto her hospital bed. She looked down at his feet and rolled her eyes. "We both know that I'm not going anywhere,"
"You are not going to stay all night, are you?" she questioned finally looking at him.
"I'm staying Zee-vah. You aren't going to get rid of me," he said giving her the Dinozzo grin and she fought smiling back.
They watched TV in silence for a while, before they heard the door open.
"Hello, I'm Doctor Smith," the man said as he walked in and looked at Ziva, "Wow, they never warned me how gorgeous my patient was," he gave a flirty smile to Ziva. Tony stood up quickly, broadening his shoulder in a protective way. This action made Ziva smirk to herself and she held her hand out to the doctor.
"Ziva David," she fluttered her eye lashes as he shook her hand.
"Tony Dinozzo" Tony stated loudly in the room, looking at Ziva and the doctor.
"Are you the husband?" Dr. Smith questioned,
"No!" Ziva chirped out and gave Tony a dirty look.
"Actually-" Tony started to say before he was interrupted.
"Okay, well I just need to get these cords off of you.." the doctor unhooked the cords from around her, "so I can check your brain activity and then I'll leave for the night to let you sleep. I'll be back in the morning. Nice meeting you, Ziva" he smiled as he head for the door and just nodded at Tony.
After the Doctor left, Tony sat back down and stared at Ziva wondering what the hell she was doing flirting with that doctor right in front of him.
"See, Tony?! I am in perfectly good company to stay here by myself for the night!" she smirked at him knowing she was getting under his skin. Payback for me thinking you were dead, she thought to herself.
"Yeah, right." He laughed sarcastically, "I'm not leaving you alone with Dr. Doolittle who wants to do you" he emphasized the word "do" letting her know the exchange between her and doctor bothered the shit out of him.
Ziva scoffed and rolled over onto her side, facing away from him. "Goodnight" she closed her eyes and before she knew it she was fast asleep.
Tony watched TV until it became late, watching over her closely. He didn't like the fact that she was facing away from him. He stood up, moving the covers overtop of her more so she wouldn't be cold. He stared at her for a moment, watching her breathe peacefully. His head moved towards her and he placed a light kiss on her temple before brushing the hair out of her face.
"Goodnight, beautiful" he whispered, pulling himself away from the urge of wanting to hold her.
Sitting back down in the chair, he tried to get some sleep, but he couldn't. Flashbacks of her in their hotel room in Paris kept replaying in his mind. His beautiful, Israeli goddess standing, tears streaming down her face while holding a gun up to her head.