Tony was exhausted, but he didn't know why. He had just spent a week sleeping, hadn't he? Brad had told him that he had spent a week in the hospital bed he was currently laying in. Didn't that mean he had been asleep? He knew it meant he had been in a coma, but surely his body would have been resting in that time? All these questions had Tony confused. He really needed someone to clarify things for him. He needed to know what was going on. He needed to understand what all the tests Brad had been running since he had woken up two hours earlier were for. He needed someone to be with him and help him relax.

"Hi, Tony," said a familiar voice.

Tony looked up at his visitor with a bright smile. He reached out with his right hand in an effort to get some reassurance.

"How are you feeling?" Gibbs asked as he sat next to the bed and gently squeezed his agent's hand. Gibbs had only just left the hospital an hour before Tony had woken up.

"Tired. Gibbs, what happened?" Tony asked quietly.

"You were assaulted. Do you remember that?" Gibbs gently informed.

"No... Who assaulted me?"

Gibbs hesitated, but the look on Tony's face clearly said that he had absolute trust in his boss. Gibbs couldn't help feeling sorry for Tony- the younger man had quite obvious trust issues, and he had been betrayed by someone that he had trusted for several years. That was going to ruin his self-confidence, trust, and judgement- in his own mind, anyway.

"Please, Gibbs?"

The note of pleading in Tony's voice was the straw that broke the camel's back- Gibbs felt his will crumbling and he gave in. With a sigh, he said,

"You aren't going to like the answer, but..."

"But what, Gibbs?" Tony blinked tiredly at his boss. "You can tell me."

Gibbs smiled for a second, loving Tony's innocence about the whole situation. He hated to have to ruin the innocence his agent was currently experiencing.

"Tony... You were assaulted by... by... Ziva..."

For a moment, it looked as though Tony was going to start laughing. It looked like Tony wasn't believing a word of it. But then, Tony's face crumpled and his expression went from one of confusion to one of horror, and, finally, to an expression of hurt and sadness.

"Are you sure?" Tony asked finally, his voice wavering as he fought back tears.

"I wish I was wrong. I wish I could tell you something different. I'm sorry."

Tony just shook his aching head, unable to form any words. Ziva had attacked him? Why? He hadn't done anything to her, ever. He had never given her a reason to cause him pain, let alone leave him hospitalised and injured. Hell, he wasn't even sure of what his injuries were yet. He hadn't asked Brad to tell him because he was scared to find out what had happened to him.

"Tony?" asked Gibbs kindly. "Are you okay?"

"Is it my fault?" Tony asked timidly.

"You're fault? Absolutely not!"

"I must have done something wrong. Right?"

Gibbs sighed. Automatically, he reached up to slap the back of Tony's head, then realised that Tony truly believed what he was saying. He couldn't slap sense into someone if they didn't have at least some doubt in their mind. Plus, Tony had a concussion. He didn't want to make the injuries worse. So, instead, Gibbs gently rested his hand on Tony's arm.

"Tony, you haven't done anything wrong. This is not your fault- not at all. I don't want you to be blaming yourself. Ziva is the one to blame here, which is exactly what has happened this past week. We've been taking turns interrogating her in her prison cell to try and understand just what has happened."

"Did she give you an answer?"

"Not yet. I actually spent some time thinking about asking you, once you had woken up, to talk with her- over a video call, of course- and see if she would answer you truthfully. Seeing what she's done to you should get her to feel some kind of remorse, I hope."

"No."

"Okay. It's your choice."

"I can't do it, Gibbs. I can't do it. Sorry."

"Don't apologise, Tony. I'm not going to force you to do something you don't want to do. I gave you a choice, and you made your decision. That's the decision that we'll go with. Besides, if you ever change your mind, Tony, I can arrange things."

"Is she being charged?" Tony asked after a moment.

"Yes. With assaulting a federal agent and attempted murder."

"Attempted murder? Why?"

Gibbs sighed. He had been hoping that he wouldn't have to tell Tony about the rest of what Ziva had done, but he had no choice now. Tony wasn't going to give up on asking until he got the truth. Gibbs just hoped that Tony wouldn't lose his trust in everyone else once he heard this part.

"Ziva's being charged with attempted murder, Tony, because she had been planning to kill you for quite some time. We found a journal when we searched her apartment that described exactly what she wanted to do to you."

Tony was visibly shaken by the information, but he still trusted Gibbs unconditionally. He looked at his boss, searching the blue eyes for any hint of a joke. When he didn't find anything there, other than the truth, Tony dropped his gaze and let his tears fall.

"Why?" he asked so quietly, that Gibbs almost didn't hear him.

"I don't have an answer to that, Tony. We're still trying to find an answer- McGee's gone down there with Vance this morning to see what he can get from her."

"How long has she been planning this?"

"As far as I can tell, since we brought her home from Somalia. I would hazard a guess as to it being longer than that, but since she was in Israel, and we don't have jurisdiction there, we won't know for sure unless she tells us."

Tony nodded. "She blames me for you choosing to leave her behind."

"She made that choice for herself. I would have brought her back with us, and she decided that she didn't want to come back. And, even if she had come back to the States with us, she would have been subjected to an investigation into her actions with Rivkin- that was all her doing. Besides, I would never choose someone else over you, Tony. You're my friend, and I will always regard you as a friend. I've told you before- you are not replaceable."

Tony looked back at his boss with the smallest of smiles. He trusted Gibbs, knew his boss wasn't lying. And that trust would never be broken. But that was only when it came to Gibbs- Tony was unsure if he would ever trust anyone else again, even his friends at work. It would take a lot to get him to trust them properly again, and a long time too.