Ziva opened her eyes slowly. She was lying flat on her back on something hard and cold. She heard a sound near and immediately froze, her training kicking in. She concentrated only on what was assaulting her ears. Someone was moaning. The person was close. She reached out her hand and encountered a solid mass not more than 3 feet away.

Tony opened his eyes to the feeling of something touching him. The hand was moving up and down the left side of his body. It was as though it were trying to figure out what it was touching in the pitch black of its current surroundings.

Memories flooded back to Ziva. She and Tony has gotten seperated from Gibbs and McGee. She had seen Tony shot. Shot in the chest. She herself has then blacked out. She didn't know if she had been hit from behind or if she had been drugged.

"Tony?" Ziva called out, hoping like hell she was touching his living body and not a corpse.

"Keep it up, Ziva and you're going to have to marry me. Make an honest man out of me." Tony said weakly, pausing after almost every other word.

Ziva couldn't help but smile, despite the desperate situation they were in.

"You should not talk, Tony." She moved slowly around the room on her hands and knees, trying to figure out how big their area of confinement was. She guessed they were in an 8 by 8 room with a cement floor and what felt like uneven stone walls. She moved slowly after discovering she had sprained her ankle and her left wrist. She moved back to Tony's side. She took off her jacket and rolled it into a ball. She then found him again and carefully moved her hands over his chest until she found his shirt buttons. She unbottoned his shirt and laid it open. She then pressed her balled-up jacket against the wound.

Tony hissed in pain and tried, reflexively, to move away from her.

"Do not move, Tony. You are bleeding."

"Hurts." Tony said, trying to move away and to sit up. "Can't breathe."

Ziva guessed the bullet had damaged his lung. She knew his best chance at breathing was sitting up. But she also knew she would not be able to control the bleedng as well from that position.

"I cannot control the bleeding if you are sitting up, Tony."

"If I stop breathing, Ziva, it won't matter." Tony said, still trying to sit up and failing.

Ziva relented and slowly moved herself and Tony out of the center of the room. They were both soon seated wtih their backs against against the cold stone wall, their legs straight out in front of them.

Tony was practically panting by this time, worn out from the exertion. "What happened?" Tony asked, referring to how they had gotten there.

Ziva shook her head, though Tony could not see her in the darkness. "I do not know. I remember seeing you fall after being shot. I remember trying to get to you. I...I don't remember what happened after that. I guess I was hit over the head or drugged. My head hurts. But I do not think they brought us down here. I have a very faint memory of being pushed. I remember seeing stairs in front of me. But I did not feel any stairs when I moved around the room."

Tony nodded and then moaned, bringing Ziva back to reality. She turned to her partner and pressed her jacket hard against his wound.

"Any idea how long?" Tony asked through the pain.

Ziva shook her head. "I do not think it has been a day, several hours, maybe, but not a day."

The room was suddenly flooded with light as the door was opened.

Ziva was surprised to see their visitor. "Father?" Ziva looked up, sheilding her eyes from the bright light.

"Ziva, it is good to see you again, my daughter." Eli David said as he and two large men filled the doorway, blocking some of the light.

"You have come for us?" Ziva asked.

"I have come for you." Eli stated.

"Tony is...." Ziva started as one of the men pulled Ziva up off the floor and pushed her towards the open door.

"Agent DiNozzo is of no concern to me." Eli stated, taking his daughter by the arm and maneuvering her out of the room.

"He is wounded! He will die!" Ziva shook off her father's hand as she looked back at her partner. She was shocked by her father's words.

"He is not my concern. I will let Agent Gibbs take care of him. You, however, are my daugher. You do not beling in this N-C-I-S. You belong back home in Isreal. You are needed in your homeland."

"HE WILL DIE!" Ziva said with force.

"Is this not the same man who KILLED Michael?" Eli asked, taking his daugher by the arm again and turning her to face him. "Is this not the same man who tried to make me look foolish in front of you? A man like that does not deserve to live."

"YOU did this to him!" Ziva stated, the realization finally downing. "You shot him, hoping to kill him instantly. But he did not die right away." Ziva paused. "That is why I was not injured. I...He is my partner!"

Eli David raised his voice, suddenly outraged. "HE is an Amnerican. YOU are Israli. You belong with Mossad. He is not Mossad. You were never to join this N-C-I-S. I loaned you to Director Vance. You were never to stay. Then I hear you have become an Agent. Then an American citizen. You are no longer Isreali! You are no longer Mossad!" He paused. "You have turned your back on your country and you have dishonored me."

Ziva jerked her arm out of her father's grasp. "I have not turned my back on my country. I have turned my back on a father who only wanted to use me as a weapon. I am your daughter, not your new weapon in war." Ziva explained. She looked over at Tony who by now was clearly passed out. The jacket was now lying in his lap stained with his blood. She could see the blood running down his chest and flowing freely from his wound.

"I am not a machine. I am a person. But even machines break down. And people bleed. I will help my friend, my partner, because he needs me. He is hurting." Ziva moved back to Tony's side and knelt down beside him. She picked up her jacket and again presed the blood-stained material to his wound.

"Being an American has made you soft." Eli David stated, looking down at his daugher in disgust.

"Being in America has taught me what it is like to be human." Ziva said. "I am not an interchangeable part." Ziva paused. "Yes, I killed my brother. I followed orders. I was acting as a Mossad agent. But I hated it. I hated shooting Ari. I hated having to bury him. But I hated you most for making me into that person. For making me so cold-blodded and so hard-hearted that I could kill by brother just because it was ordered.

Eli said nothing. He just stared at his daughter.

"I must know, Father. Would I have ended up like Ari when you deemed me as no longer useful?" Ziva didn't wait for her father to answer. She just turned her attention back to her partner.

THE END