CH. 1

"Ready?" Tony whispered.

Ziva nodded.

Gibbs had sent them to the old warehouse outside DC to see if a Marine's abducted daughter was being held there.
Tony kicked the door open and they entered quickly.
Neither of them expected what happened next.
Tony saw the man come from the corner of the room. "Ziva!" He yelled. Ziva pointed her gun to the figure and pulled the trigger. Click. 'Oh, no.' She thought. She glanced at Tony and then dived for cover.
Tony and the shadowy figure shot at the same time. Ziva felt an excruciating pain in her chest and she dropped to her knees.
Tony's bullet struck the shadow man just after Ziva was hit. He knelt beside Ziva.
She was still on her knees, fighting the pain. A single tear left her eye. She held on to his shoulders in a death grip. Suddenly she sank in his arms and Tony was covered in her blood.
"Ziva! No, Zee, hold on! You have to!" He begged.
"Tony.." She whispered.
Tony called the paramedics and then Gibbs.
"What do you have, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.
"It's Ziva."
"What happened?"
Tony gulped, trying to hold back his tears. "We got to the warehouse and there was somebody else here. She shot at him, didn't have any shells, and he shot her before I could get him. Paramedics are on their way."
"I'll meet you at Bethesda." Gibbs said in a strained voice. He flipped his phone shut and looked to Abby and McGee.
"What's going on?" Abby and McGee said simultaneously.
"Ziva." Gibbs summed it up in one word.
Abby froze. "Ziva...? Gibbs, what happened?"
"She's at the hospital."

CH. 2
Tony sat on the chair next to her hospital bed, watching her and thinking. How could he have let this happen? He saw the shooter. He could've stopped it. Couldn't he? Now Ziva was fighting for her life and it could very well be all his fault. Just a second sooner and she would've been safe and sound when she went for cover.
He put his head in his hands and concentrated completely on her.
The way she gets her idioms wrong. The way she smiles.
A thought popped into his head.
"Do I love her?" He whispered.
Tony heard Abby babbling to McGoo and Gibbs from the hall. "is she okay? She'll be okay, right? I mean, Ziva can't die! She's Ziva. She's the ninja."
"Abbs." Gibbs said as they walked into the room. Abby stopped babbling.
"It's not your fault, Tony," Abby said softly, touching his shoulder.
He looked at her and didn't say anything.
"DiNozzo, go home and get cleaned up. Abby will stay here and watch her for you. She'll call you if anything happens." Gibbs said.
Tony nodded and walked out of the hospital, unable to speak.
Abby stood next to Ziva, wishing she would wake up. The doctor came in and she backed up and looked at him.
"Is she gonna be okay?" Abby asked.
"Yes. She's in a slight coma. There's no telling when she will wake up. It's up to her. Currently there is no internal bleeding. You should talk to her like she's awake; patients tend to recover faster if they are spoken to." The doctor told Abby.
Abby started talking to Ziva normally after the doc left.
"Tony's taking it pretty hard, Ziva. I think he blames himself for this.
"Anyway. Gibbs and McGee are looking for the guy that shot you. I hope they find him and kill him. Wait; I know they'll find him. You just need to wake up."

CH. 3
Days passed with one of the team spending hours at a time with Ziva; then another would take over and stay with her a while. Nobody wanted to leave her-- they were afraid she'd wake up while they were gone...
or she might... No. Tony told himself. You can't think that. Ziva will live.
This was the sixth day she was in this coma.
Abby had begun to work slower and talk less. She only worked with the evidence when Gibbs was down their or if he had specifically ordered her to. She looked at pictures of the team and looked back on memories.
"You know, Ziva," Tony said to her, "We really miss you. I miss you. The team's falling apart.."
He had been sitting here for probably four hours, not saying much. He didn't know what to say.
Tony was getting extremely hungry. He sighed and started to walk to the door.
"Tony?" A familiar voice mumbled.
"Ziva!" He yelled and ran over to her. "Hold on, I'll get a doc."
The doctor arrived shortly.
"Well, Miss David, how do you feel?"
"Fine." Ziva said.
Tony and the doctor looked at her oddly.
She sighed. "Sore. I have a headache. And I hate being here. And I hate not feeling like myself."
"I noticed you weren't your usual ninja self." Tony joked.
Ziva glared at him; Tony chuckled.
"You'll have to take it easy for a while, but you will be fine. You can go home today if you want." Doc said.
"Of course I want to." Ziva muttered.

CH. 4
Ziva was sitting at her desk, spinning in the chair, bored out of her mind.
"I am not disabled. I should be able to do something!" She pounded her fist on the desk.
"And what did the desk do to deserve the wrath of Ziva?" Tony asked.
Ziva's heart skipped a beat when she heard his voice. Why did this always happen when she talked to him?
"This is not fair. I should be able to at least do paperwork if I cannot be out on the field. I have Abby coming up here every hour to make sure I am not dead; Gibbs stalking me when he thinks I do not know it. It is driving me up the hall!"
"Ziva, I believe it is wall, not hall." Tony corrected her.
"Does it matter?"
Ziva sat there, deep in thought. How could she tell him how she really felt?
Tony looked at her for a moment before escaping to the men's room. Ziva silently followed him, got into the bathroom, and locked the door behind her.
"Cornered me again, huh, Zee-vah?" Tony asked. "What's on your mind this time?"
"Tony. I need to talk to you--"
"Wait. Let me get this out first. If I don't do it now I won't have the guts any other time." Tony interrupted her. "We've known each other for four years, right? I know there's more between us than just partners and friends. And movie nights at my place. And flirting in the bullpen."
Ziva nodded. She was shocked.
"After Gibbs told us you died when the Damocles went down, I almost lost it. Everything was different. I couldn't stop thinking about you. Every time something happened I always thought about how much better it would be if you were there.
"And then with the whole Rivkin thing. I knew he was playing you, but you couldn't see it. I risked my career to keep you from being hurt. I'll admit it now -- I was jealous about you and him. He didn't deserve you, and you deserved so much better than him.
"When you were in Somalia, all I could think about was getting you back here safe. Even if you would hate me for what I'd done, I wanted to risk my life to save yours.
"I...Ziva, I love you."

CH. 5
"When I saw you shot, I believed it was my fault. Believed that if I was just a second sooner none of it would've happened. When you were lying in that hospital bed, in a coma for days, I was beginning to wonder if you would ever wake up. I wondered how I would survive without you." Tony finished.
"Tony.." Ziva said softly. She could hardly breathe. She didn't know how to answer him, so she stepped forward and kissed him.
She drew back after a moment and just looked at him. "I love you too," she whispered.
"But rule #12. We would be sent to different teams if Gibbs found out." Ziva said. "He can't know or we're dead meat."
"He won't know, Ziva. We can keep it a secret." Tony said. He kissed her again before she unlocked the door and walked, breathless, back to the bullpen. Tony was close behind her.
"So..." McGee mused. "What took you so long to go to the bathroom, Tony?"
"Mind your own business, McNosy," Tony said as he sat down. Ziva sent him an email immediately.

'How can we keep it from Gibbs? We cannot tell anyone, but he will find out soon. Gibbs is not one to be oblivious very long.'

Tony replied quickly.

'We just won't tell anyone.'

Ziva smiled and looked over at him. He was looking at her. She smiled again before going back to her work.
Before long she got another email.

'McGoo wants to know whats going on.'

Ziva could almost hear his laughter.

'No way..if Abby even thinks something is up, she will get it out of McGee in a heartbeat. He is powerless next to her.'

*The End, for now. May continue if I get some ideas.....;)*