Early next morning, Ziva opened her eyes trying to figure out where she was. She picked her head up and realized her body was draped over Tony with his arms tightly wrapped around her. She looked around the room and remembered having Tony climb into the hospital bed with her. Glancing over at the clock, she sighed. It was only five six thirty in the morning and the sun was just peeking through the hospital windows. As much as she hated to admit it, that was the best night of sleep she had gotten in a long time.
Tony started to stir a bit in his sleep and Ziva tried to break free from his hold. She didn't want him to wake up and see how they were laying, based on the fact that she was still mad at him for putting her through hell thinking he was dead. And, the fact that they had not talked about the kiss and "I love you's" they had shared on their date night.
She slid underneath his hold and freed her arms from around his chest. She turned over completely, facing the other way and making sure there was space between them. Tony woke up, feeling the bed move from her constant moving. He opened his left eye and noticed she wasn't laying across him anymore, but she was on the other side of the bed, away from him.
Still must be pissed at me, he groaned to himself and sat up, looking around and at the time. Feeling in need of some strong coffee, he got up off the bed and went to put his shoes on.
Hearing the shuffle of footsteps and the fear of him leaving, Ziva flew up off the bed and looked over to him. Tony gave her a weird look, trying to figure out why she had sat up so quickly, "Good morning, Zee…"
"Morning…" she slowly said watching him put his shoes on, "Where are you going?"
Tony stared at her, wondering why she was so worried, "To get us some coffee…is that alright?" he questioned, fixing his hair a bit.
"Ohhh, yeah." She smiled and rubbed her eyes, laying back down in the hospital bed.
"Okay, I'll be back in a few." He smiled and left the room, heading down to the hospital cafeteria.
Ziva stayed in bed wondering about what time she would able to leave the hospital this morning. She went to search for her phone in her purse and looked up when she thought Tony was back with the coffees.
"Good Morning!" Dr. Smith chimed in loudly and smiled at her.
Ziva gritted her teeth together, it was too early for people to be yelling and now this guy really put her on edge. "Hello," she replied in a bitchy tone. Why the hell does he magically time when Tony leaves to come in?!
Dr. Smith checked all of the machines attached to Ziva and unattached her from them. He wrote a few things down on his clipboard and smiled at her. "Everything looks great, Ziva. You'll be able to leave this morning and go back to your usual schedule. The only thing we have to plan on, is scheduling your weekly routine appointments with me.
"Okay…" she smiled back, happy that she could finally leave this place.
"I have your number on file, but how would you feel about going to lunch tomorrow, so we can plan out your meetings with me?" he questioned, giving her a flirty smile.
"Uh, yeah. I could probably do that," she smiled, not seeing his flirty smile, but instead looking at the door waiting for Tony to return.
"Awesome, I can't wait. I'll give you a call in the morning then to make sure you're still up for it. Have a great day, Ziva," he smiled and left the room just as Tony was walking through the door. Tony broadened his shoulders as Dr. Smith passed by him, feeling their shoulders collide. Ziva giggled at this exchange, Tony really hated him.
Tony walked into the room, smiling when he saw Ziva's face watching him. He handed her a cup of coffee and one of the bags he was holding. Ziva peered inside the bag and found her favorite, chocolate glazed donut. She took out the donut and started to eat it, slowly and looking up to watch Tony literally inhale his own donut.
Wiping the powder off his face, Tony spoke, "What did Dr. Douchebag want?"
Ziva chuckled at how jealous he was of this man, "I can go home this morning."
Tony smiled at her, "Alright, after we're done eating here I'll take you home so you can get some rest."
Ziva nodded and ate the rest of her donut. When she was done, she threw the stuff she had laying around the hospital room into the bag Tony had bought her the day before. Tony grabbed the bag from her and walked towards the door, opening it for her. She walked out of the door with him and headed to his car.
The car ride to her apartment was quiet. Tony had put on the radio and sang along to some old 70s and 80s hits that Ziva didn't know. She laughed as he knew every word to the song and belted them out with people in other cars staring. When they arrived at her apartment, Tony ran over to Ziva's side of the car and held out his hand to help her out of the car. She didn't take his hand and got out of the car by herself, grabbing her bag. He shook his head, closing the car door and followed her up to her apartment. When she unlocked her apartment, she noticed the crime tape that had been removed and taken down from around her walls. She sighed, realizing that she was wanted for murder.
Tony watched her look around at the crime tape still left over, figuring that the only reason they left and took it down was because Gibbs made them. "Hey, it'll be okay…" he tried to calm her.
"I'm wanted for murder, Tony. Nothing about this is okay," he could hear the annoyance in her voice.
"Ziva, you weren't in the right frame of mind. Gibbs already told the Police Commissioner what happened and how you are in psychological treatment right now," he didn't want her to think she was going to jail. He would never let that happen.
"Great, so everyone now thinks I'm a psycho street!" she threw up her hands in disgust.
"Psychopath, Ziva." Tony corrected her, "And no one does! It was stupid of us to put you through this! I promise, we'll make this up to you!" he pleaded, staring at her with puppy dog eyes.
Ziva stared back at him and just shrugged. She looked into her bedroom and noticed the broken frame of her and Tony was now cleaned up. She looked back at Tony as he made his way over to her and spoke, "Now, I'm going to leave. Please, rest. We go back to work in a few days and you need to try and recover." He continued "And please, do me a favor. Never, ever, hurt yourself again. I can't deal with that," he stared at her, trying to get her to realize how emotional she makes him.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" she said in a bitchy tone, "I haven't hurt myself!" she looked down to the floor waiting for his answer.
Tony stepped closer to her, removing the space between then and grabbing her hands. He lifted her hands up so they were in between both of their faces. Ziva stared at him, wondering what he was doing. He delicately slid his hands down to her wrists, rubbing his thumbs over the scars on her wrist and whispered, "I know these are new scars, Ziva. Please, for me… stop doing this." He lowered his lips to her wrists and kissed one of the scars lightly. He lowered her hands down, letting go and walking towards the door. He opened the door and turned around, looking at her stunned face from what he just did, "Call me if you need me, Zee. You know I'll come running," he smiled and left.
Ziva looked down at her wrists and the scars. Anthony Dinozzo was the only man that could make her be pissed, sad, happy and grateful, all at the same time.
For the rest of the day, Ziva laid on her couch trying to rest. But for some reason, she could never get herself to fall asleep. She turned on the TV and watched for a bit, deciding she had to eat. She went through her fridge and found a salad to eat. She sighed, she would have to go grocery shopping soon considering everything was way past its expiration date.
After eating her salad, she went back and watched more TV for the rest of the night. When it became late, she walked into her bedroom, looking around at how cleaned up it was. She figured it was either Gibbs or Tony. Someone had placed the picture of her and Tony that she broke, back on the stand next to her bed. She figured that definitely was Tony because he was the only one who knew that picture was from that spot. She crawled into bed, laying her head down on her pillow and wrapping the covers around her. Her house seemed freezing, or maybe it was the fact that the night before that she had extra warmth around her from Tony. Her eyes became tired and when she could no longer keep them open, she finally fell asleep.
"TONY!" Ziva flew up from her bed, gripping onto the covers. Her breathing was rapid and tears were streaming down her face. She looked around, realizing that she was home and looked at the clock. She had only been in bed for two hours. She felt her body trembling, trying to figure out if she was in reality or in another nightmare. She couldn't stop crying. Before she screamed Tony's name, she was chained onto stakes in a dungeon. Tony had kissed her slowly and when she opened her eyes, Saleem stabbed Tony in the side. The same thing that had happened during their date night, but this time when he was rescuing Somalia. She tried to calm herself, but she couldn't. Was it just a dream or was Tony really dead?
She grabbed her phone next to her bed and frantically dialed.
"Hey.." Tony's groggy voice echoed on the other end.
"You're alive," she cried into the phone, tears still coming down.
Tony sighed, "I'll be right over. Don't move," and he hung up.
Ziva walked over to her closet and grabbed her favorite hoodie, Tony's Ohio State hoodie. She put it on and sat back down in her bed, putting the hood up over her head. This was her usual ritual whenever she had a nightmare the past couple years. She would put on Tony's hoodie that smelled like him and it would calm her. His scent made her feel safe because it was almost like his presence was there to protect her.
Within a few minutes, Ziva heard her door open and steps down the hallway. Tony walked in slowly, looking at her and held his arms out. He wrapped her up into a hug, her arms gripping tightly to his waist. His hand went to the back of her head and he kissed the top of her head, "Shhh, I'm here."
Ziva let go and laid back down in bed, the tears finally stopping because he was okay, not to mention he was alive.
"You have my hoodie on," he smiled looking at her. This was one of the dreams of her he had, lying in bed with his clothes on and damn, it was more perfect in reality.
"I always put it on when I have nightmares," she shrugged.
"Yeah, but it smells like me…" he laughed thinking that his smell should scare her more than the nightmares.
Ziva looked up at him, "That's the point…" she said softly.
Tony didn't bother to comprehend what she just said, he brushed the hair out of her face lightly. "I'll be out on the couch, go back to sleep. You need the rest." He said looking at the bags forming under her eyes and shutting the light off in her room. As he made his way out to the couch and laid down, he understood what she had said.
"Yeah, but it smells like me." "That's the point…" It finally clicked in his head. His smell calmed her down. He smiled. She was becoming more vulnerable to him and he loved it. She finally was seeing that he could protect her. He closed his eyes on the couch when he heard footsteps. Through the dark, he saw her shadow. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"I wan't….you to sleep with me." Her voice echoed through her apartment. Tony slowly rose from the couch.
"You sure?" he asked.
"Yes," she walked back into her room, climbing back into bed.
He followed her and saw she wanted him to lay on the side of the bed by the door. He climbed up into bed next to her and getting underneath the covers. She smiled at him and closed her eyes.
They both drift off into sleep and before the night was over, their bodies were entangled around each other. They were holding tight to each other, never wanting to let go.