A/N

Sorry I took such a long time to update, have a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let me know what you think!

Tony walked on, his pace becoming faster and faster as he approached, his heart pounded in his ears and his vision blurred, by what he realised was tears. He was exhausted with worry and his body was shutting down, there was too much of an emotional strain. It had been the longest 48 hours of his life, and being shot at certainly hadn't helped.

As he reached her room, his heart was beating so fast that he thought that even the patients in the next room could hear it. Upon reaching the room, he saw her. Her body was resting peacefully, though artificially, but black and blue with bruises on her face, her leg was in a sling, and raised completely bandaged, but they were bloody and sore. To see his partner in such a state broke him down, it was his job as her partner to watch her back. Make sure that such things didn't happen, that he could be the one that she would trust, but he had failed her, and now…. Well who knew. She might hate him, and possibly kill him. I got to make it up to her Tony thought determinately to himself.

He wanted to go in and sit by her side but, she was in an isolation room so it wasn't allowed, instead Tony sat on the couch that was opposite her room, watching over her from further away than he would have liked. The sunlight shone through her window, the sun picking up the natural highlights in her hair, there was a few streaks thrown across her face, that Tony wanted to reach over and brush behind her ear.

Being separated from her, while she was in this state, knowing that it was his fault was too much for Tony. His body couldn't deal with it anymore, he ran his hands through his hair, forcing the tears back. DiNozzo men don't cry. He drew in a deep breath, screw it he thought if she doesn't deserve some tear then no one does.

Abby knew that her time to be talked to by Gibbs would come, even though she was his favourite. Although she didn't think that there would be a problem, he would just tell her to keep it out of the workplace, and then he would check on her more, if he let McGee down to her lab. But really that wasn't bad at all, she like Gibbs' visits, and the more visits meant more Caf-Pows, so really this was just a good thing.

She sat on the bench watching the water run down the edges of her black umbrella gathering in puddles by her feet, the rain soothed her and she enjoyed it. People went indoors and left the world to think, while it regrew the parts that pollution had ruined.

Footsteps seemed to echo as they splashed down in puddles compared to the silence of the world, she knew it was Gibbs, it was his walk, she knew the sound of it. He sat down next to her,

'It's beautiful huh?'

'Abs .'

'Yeah?' she asked innocently, knowing perfectly well what this was to be about.

'You can't go out with McGee'

'But Gibbs..' she wined

'No buts Abs. This is hard enough, you know the rules, and they apply to you too, you are part of the team, aren't you?'

'Gibbs!' she practically yelled with indignation. 'You know that I am no. 1 supporter of team Gibbs… but me and McGee we went out before… you know ages ago.'

'Abby!' He groaned. 'You can't!'

'Why not? We're both adults and can keep it out of the workplace.'

'Look its not you that I'm worried about.'

There was a pause of silence, as the words slowly sunk in

'Wait… you mean….this isn't about me and Timmy is it?' her eyes widening in surprise 'this is about Tony and Zi-'

'Abby' he cut her off 'this is not about DiNozzo and if I hear that this conversation has even been breathed in my squadroom, by ANY member, they will get some sense knocked into them' he raised his hand behind her head threateningly.

'You wouldn't? Would you?'

His eyes sparkled.

'Fine' huffed Abby

Gibbs got up and headed to his car, he paused halfway before realising that Tony wouldn't be ready to go and decided that he still would need more time alone.

Abby smiled to herself, she hadn't said anything about not mentioning this in her lab.

Tony stayed outside Ziva's room that whole night, watching over, even when the hospital staff encouraged him to leave, saying that he needed sleep to get better he refused and got ratty when they started to insist. It was well past 3:00am when his eyelids final managed to close, with his last glimpse of Ziva seeing her sleeping somewhat peacefully.

His dreams were tainted full of the events of the day, how it was his responsibility to be there if something had gone wrong, it was his job both as her partner and as her backup…

Needless to say it was a fairly restless sleep for Tony, who woke abruptly to the sun rising at 6:30am. He quickly glanced over to Ziva who had looked like she had barely moved during the night, before immediately feeling guilty.

The nurses came round on their rounds to check on all the patience, Tony had to wait until after they had been cleared from the isolation room, before he could ask.

'How is she doing?'

'well she made it through the night which means that its most likely that most of the internal bleeding has been stemmed which is what we hoped would happen. Also the x-rays have shown that there is no major spinal injuries so we are able to remove the neck brace, but we're going to have to put a cast on her leg, which we were going to do further in the week, but the doctors have said to do it later today just to make sure that she doesn't do any further damage to it while she's still in her coma and we will be moving her into the regular wing of the hospital as her flesh wounds are healing very well. I've got to say it, a lot of us didn't think that she would be able to make it, a lot of people cant survive from that much blood loss and injury.'

'yea.. well she's definitely a fighter this one, she's pretty incredible' Tony said as he watched her through the glass…

Abby came to the hospital the next morning, she had spent most of the night processing the evidence from the warehouse and although it had been a hard thing to do, she was glad she had done it, she wanted those sick twisted people who had dare to hurt Ziva to go down for a long time.

Abby found Ziva's room empty, the beds freshly made, like someone had never been here… she faltered confused for a moment, Ziva couldn't have died. It wasn't possible and besides Tony wouldn't have left her side, that mean that it had to be something stupid like they needed the room or something….. positive thoughts she told herself.

'ahhh… do you know where Ziva went?' she asked a nurse in a quiet voice who was walking past.

'um, who darling?"

'Ziva' Abby repeated pointing to Ziva's now empty room

'o yes her, she was transferred to the Peterson's wing, earlier this morning' she explained kindly, 'just continue down here then turn left, take it to the end then turn right and then it's the 3rd right after that'

'thanks' Abby said as she walked off'

Tony was slumped in a chair his hands intertwined with hers and his head resting next to her shoulder, Abby smiled as she walked in, Gibbs was right- like always, she reminded herself to never doubt his gut.

Ziva was as asleep as ever, the world was dead to her and her to it. Abby placed the black roses that she had brought with her in a vase besides Ziva's bed, and slid silently into the chair, opposite Tony on the other side of the hospital bed. Watching the pair, as they slept, one in pain of the body and one in pain of the heart- even if he didn't admit it yet.

Abby's thoughts wondered with time, the possibilities that the future might hold, what would've happened if one day the team didn't come back? What happens if another one got killed, sure they have had many close calls but Abby didn't think that she could take it again, there had been too much death within the family; Kate and Jenny were the closest to her, but it wasn't unheard of NCIS agents dying in the field. It went with the job, but it certainly wasn't in Abby's job description when she had first applied.

She thought on, all the while watching over Ziva and Tony and when the early hours of the morning started to set in, she wearily pulled herself out of the chair and headed home, so she could change before heading off to work, she knew that evidence wouldn't process itself.

Tony slept on every faithfully by Ziva's side, refusing to leave only until Gibbs came back in the morning with a fresh set of clothes in his arms, and told him to change "or else". Tony was unwilling and almost wanted to fight Gibbs for it, but then decided against it.. Gibbs had promised to take care of Ziva anyway, and a few minutes wouldn't be too bad, he probably needed it anyway, he smelt pretty bad from yesterday and a shower to wash away some of the blood that had refused to come off.

Tony returned quickly for the showers, in a clean white shirt which he had left slightly unbuttoned and his hair reminded Gibbs of that of a shaggy puppy that had just forcefully been made to have a bath.

Tony returned to Ziva's side and Gibbs joined him, just to help with some company, he knew that it could be lonesome when one was just waiting in a hospital. The silence reigned until well into the afternoon, the only activity was Gibbs occasional venture into the corridor to the instant coffee machine for another cup, he was disappointed with the quality but his usual coffee shop was well over 45 minutes away and he would almost be finished the cup by the time he returned.

However by the early evening Gibbs was obviously getting annoyed at Tony's continual over protective mood, as he would even go as far as to glare at Gibbs whenever he pushed his chair out to go get more coffee. Gibbs had been lenient it wasn't easy for anyone to be going through this experience, but this had got to stop, as Tony gave him a withering look as Gibbs stood up.

"You got a problem DiNozzo?"

"Yes" Tony said through gritted teeth

"care to share?" Gibbs said as he opened his arms, inviting tony to tell him

"Yea, I think I will, it's YOU, your constant pacing, and racket just to go and get some coffee! She's could still die here Gibbs and all your thinking about is COFFEE?" Tony yelled finally bursting his anger after hours of torture.

"You think that sitting here waiting doing nothing is going to do anything better? She is NOT going to die from me standing up and going to get a coffee! Why are you treating her like this? She isn't a delicate petal? She has had a lot worse to deal with, more than you can even dream about DiNozzo" Gibbs ended up yelling, he didn't mean to but, well hell, DiNozzo certainly knew which buttons to push.

ziva could hear, muffled like there was water still in her ears but she could just make it out, it sounded familiar but she couldn't remember, they were arguing about something, and getting angry. Ziva struggle to clear the cloud that had encompassed her mind, what was going on?

"You just don't get it" Tony threw in retort

"Get what??"

"This is MY fault Gibbs! You know it, I know it, hell I bet even Ziva knows its! I screwed up, it was me. I was supposed to have her back, I screwed over my partner"

Gibbs just stared in shock. Tony was blaming himself for this? But it wasn't even his fault, it was so inconsiderable that it had totally sipped Gibbs' mind that Tony would blame himself for this.

Ziva stirred again, her eyes squeezed shut, something had happened, something bad, which means that she had probably been taken captive. The hole in her memory meant that she must have been drugged. Which means that she needed to be ready, this argument would allow her to jump up and take down or at least get away. But she knew that it could be dangerous and there would only be one chance, if she was caught she would be killed, or recaptured and tortured until death seemed inviting.

Gibbs just stood there while staring at Tony unsure of how to comfort him, as he seemed ready to kill.

"Tony…. "he said.

"Don't! I' don't want to hear it, ok? WHAT THE ?!?"

Ziva had launched herself from her bed, and had run out the door, her hospital pyjamas flapping out of sight just a flash at the door. Tony did a double take, refusing to believe what his eyes were telling him, the bed was empty.

Tony's mind went into overdrive this was not happening, Ziva should NOT be running on a leg that was extremely weakened from a stabbing, Ziva was thinking something on the same lines, but her thoughts were more extreme, and she had grit her teeth to overcome the pain. There had always been worse cases.

Ziva ran as fast as she could, there was no way that she could allow them to catch her again however, the pain was worse than she had expected, each step had caused shotting pains up her leg, but she ran on, hearing the footsteps on the floor behind her, as they raced to catch her. Adrenaline soared through her body, and was the only thing that kept her going. Ziva ran as fast as she could, dashing past bewildered people, and the occasional police officer, following the signs to the exit.

Each step was more pain than what she had anticipated, but ziva forced herself to run on, Ziva reached an exit door and pushed it open, before continuing to sprint as fast as her crippling leg could carry her but only found that this exit had lead into another part of the hospital.

'what the hell kind of exit signs don't point towards a real exit' Ziva grumbled under her breath.

She reached a T- intersection and paused unsure of which way to turn. She didn't have time to make a very logical decision. She chose left.

30 seconds later Gibbs and Tony arrived at the very same T- intersection. Gibbs looked both ways but could see nothing, whichever way she had gone there was no trace, and the longer that they waited the further away she got, and the more damage she was doing to her leg.

"you go that way, I'll go this" gibbs said indicating with his head that Tony should go to the left. Tony nodded with a grim determination now written across his face.

A/N MAJOR TIVA Scene in the next chapter! please let me know what you think, if the characters are realistic, any mistakes or anything really. Just let me know. xx
now betaing of others :)