Abby rushed over to Gibbs. The look on his face looked like he lost something he finally had back. Well that was partly true. Ziva and Tony followed closely behind. "What's going on?" They dragged Gibbs over to a chair and made him explain.
"She'll be fine Gibbs." Tony said after Gibbs was through telling his side. Ziva just let her presence be known by rubbing a hand up his arm. There was nothing anyone could say to make him feel better. She knew that well. The feeling when you saw someone you love lying in that bed and start to die. But some people were to weak to fight back and let the black take over.
Ziva shook her head when she realized Tony was talking to her. "Sorry Tony. I was not listening. Hey guys, can you give me and Gibbs a moment please?" Tony and Abby nodded and walked to the cafeteria. Gibbs looked at Ziva but didn't say anything. "Gibbs, I know what it is like."
Gibbs sighed. "Ziva you don't know what I'm going through. No one here knows." He said it with disgust in his voice but Ziva shook her head.
"No Gibbs, I DO know. When I was in mossad my sister Tali was in my team. She was only 13. One day she was in a suicide bombing but they managed to get her out and to the hospital. Me and Tali were very close. Closer than me and Ari. In the hospital she went into a coma and I stayed faithfully by her side. On the day she was supposed to wake up her line went flat." Ziva paused a moment to gather her thoughts. "I know what it is like to worry and wonder about someone you love lying in that bed." Gibbs gave a very surprised look. Ziva could read him like a book. "I know what it is like to loose someone very close in that room. Yet we all know you will not have to go through that just yet. It is not her time to die yet boss man. She will be up and complaining in no time."
Surprising her, Gibbs pulled her into a warm embrace. "Thank you Ziva. I'm about to break one of my sacred rules, but I'm sorry."
Inside Jenny's Head~~
Jenny smiled down at Jethro. Then it all dispersed. The cloud she was looking through closed and she heard doctors and nurses and no heartbeat. "No! I cant be dying! I want to wake up! I need to wake up! I need my Leroy!" Jenny sank to her knees in a fit of sobs.
Soon she heard her pulse rate stabilizing. She felt a hand on her wrist too. Wait, she felt? She slowly opened her eyes to be eye to eye with a doctor. Her head was killing her and her brain was a little foggy but she could tell the doctor looked shocked. "Director Shepard? Are you awake?"
Jenny tried to speak but her throat was horse so she just nodded. The doctor held a cup to her lips and she drank about 2/3rds of it. She cleared her throat. "Yeah, I'm wake. Where am I?" Her voice still sounded strained but she was talking.
The doctors warm smile spread across his face. "You're at Bethesda Hospital. Do you remember what happened?"
Jenny racked her brain for a few minutes before it all came flooding back to her. The house, Tony and McGee went down stairs to check for Ziva while she and Gibbs went upstairs. While they were searching a guy with a gun came out. The guy grabbed her and held a gun to her head. Everyone on her team refused to shoot so Jenny wrestled for the gun but since she couldn't get it she held it to her abdomen and shot. Yes, in turn it shot him too. Instantly killing him while leaving Jenny with a simple scar. She turned her head to the doctor and nodded. "I was shot."
The doctors warm smile never left his face. "You are are very brave person Director Shepard. You are also very lucky. The cat scans showed that you had a brain tumor. We put you under, without Agent Gibbs knowing of course, and operated on the tumor. We patched it up and the tumor is gone now but we figured you'd be in a coma for at least another, I dunno, month at least."
Jenny swallowed hard. She had almost forgotten about the tumor but her last doctor said it was permanent and they couldn't do anything about it. Jenny told this doctor just that. He took on a serious expression. "Yes, normally they couldn't have done anything with a tumor that size but we were able to go in and safely reduce the size then take it out without damaging anything." He sighed. "You've been out for almost 2 weeks. It took those two weeks to do this progressiveness but it worked."
Jenny smiled for the first time in what felt like years but had really just been about a month. When she first saw Tally. Tally. That little girl had already secured a place in Jenny's heart. Just like her mother had. The thought pained her a little. "Can I see Ziva and Tally David?" The doctor smiled, nodded, and turned to walk away but Jenny stopped him. "Please, don't tell them I'm awake yet. I just want to see them no one else." She knew this was going to hurt the rest of the team but she had to make sure her 'daughter' was okay.
"Of course Director Shepard." Jenny sighed. She really didn't feel like director. She felt helpless lying in this bed. She wasn't the strong willed, fiery redheaded director. She was the scared, helpless victim in this bed. She wanted, no needed to talk to someone.
A few minutes later Ziva and Tally walked through the door. Ziva carefully sat on the edge of the bed while Tally took a seat in the chair. Jenny's eyes opened and locked on Ziva's first. The strong, emotionally unavailable Mossad officer's eyes welled with tears. Jenny's eyes met Tally's next and she sprang from the bed and through herself in Jenny's arms. After Tally pulled back and sat on the chair Jenny looked at Ziva. "Are you okay? Did that Son of a bitch hurt you?"
Ziva let out a humorless laugh. Jenny looked really confused. "You're lying in a hospital bed and you are asking if I am alright?"
Jenny looked at her straight in the eyes and made sure she knew she wasn't backing down. "Of course Ziva. I was sickened by the thought of him touching you. I was so scared that when I went in there I just wanted to kill him with my bare hands. I thought we'd be to late. I really just wanted to throw my arms around you and find you myself but I knew Tony needed to make sure you were fine."
Ziva laughed a bit more than sobered up. "Yes, Madame Director, I am fine. There is no need to worry about me." Jenny wanted to hug Ziva but she couldn't move out of the bed so she just held her arms up in that, 'I want a hug' kind of way. Ziva leaned in and gave her a giant hug then Tally joined in. "I love you guys."
Jenny smiled through her tears. "I love you guys too." There was no doubt about it anymore. No matter how hard she tried, Team Gibbs had a special place in her heart. Little did she know the team leader held more of it than any one else.
A Few Weeks Later ~~~
A few weeks later everyone seemed to be in tip, top shape so Tony decided to go along with the planning. He was planning a welcome home party for Ziva and a 'Thank God you're safe!' party for Jenny. Well, everyone knows that it's really for Ziva. The mayor was coming to give Jenny an award for taking a bullet and saving Ziva. Everyone was calling her a hero but she would just laugh and walk away. She didn't classify herself as a hero. Tony shrugged and finally knocked on Jenny's door. "No, Tony, I will not go." She hadn't even answered the door and she knew what he wanted.
"Awe, come on Jen! Think about what Gibbs will say when he see's you declared a hero! Plus you saved his second favorite child! At least open the door, Jen!" Finally he heard a sigh and blots unlocking before the door opened a bit.
"My answer is no." Tony smiled at her. "What if I tell you I'm mostly throwing the party for Ziva's welcome home party and it's going to be very low key. I just invited the mayor to have the 'ceremony' there to save you from having to go through it in public."
Jenny bit her bottom lip in thought. She then sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, Tony. On one condition." He gave her his best, 'shoot', look. "It's low key."
He smiled. "Done."
Jenny slammed the door in his face and laughed a little bit before Tony got in his car and drove to the post office. He mailed all of the invitations out and checked with all of the hired staff to make sure they were ready. They were, of course.
Ziva was trying to beat Gibbs at Guitar Hero when her doorbell rang. She paused the game, smirked at Gibbs, and ran over to the door. She opened it to reveal and mailman standing there. "This is a letter that was in our ASAP box." He turned to leave before something struck him and he turned around again. "Oh and someone named Castle, told me to tell you, Ziva David, that you really should start looking through the peephole before you answer the door." She blushed and walked inside.
Gibbs set his guitar down seeing the blush on Ziva's cheeks. Then he noticed her staring at a letter in her hand. "What's that?" Ziva looked up and waved the letter asking if this was what he was talking about. "Nope, I meant the unicorn behind you."
Ziva looked behind her then at Gibbs with a confused expression. He waved it off and pointed to the card. "It's a letter from my brother. There's a ball thing I guess and he really wants me to come."
Now it was Gibbs' turn to be confused. "I thought Ari's was you're brother."
Just then Tally came skipping out of her bedroom singing at the top of her lungs. "Promise me heaven then put me through Hell!" She hummed for a little bit then belted out the chorus. "Ohh oh! You give love a bad name!"
Ziva was trying really hard not to laugh as she threw a piece of paper at her. Tally tore her ear buds out of her ears and turned to Gibbs and Ziva. "Hey babe, what do you want for dinner?"
She thought for a moment. "How about pizza?" Ziva laughed. She knew that was Tally's favorite. "We can get it from that place down the street. The one that you love."
Tally was just tempting her now because she knew there was that one pizza place that brought back so many different memories. She loved that pizza place. "Fine. Go change and we will all go." Ziva smiled and turned to Gibbs. "What do you say Gibbs? It's my treat."
He laughs a little and nods. He knew this was out of character but he needed to talk to Ziva anyway. "Sure Ziva. It's not everyday I get an offer like that one." They both smiled and Tally bounded off to her room to change. Ziva decided then that she would go to that ball and bring Tally along as well.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.