38A:N/ Thanks a million-and-ten for all the fantastic reviews! I haven't had the chance to sit down and catch my breath, let alone respond, so please don't take offense! This little diddy was actually written on Tuesday night but I've been having some computer problems (argh technology! How we could live without it…yet not.) Anyway, heres my posting for this weekend (I might actually post something later on but I'm not making any promises!)
Read and Review ( I hate to beg but if there was anyway to bribe you…I think you've got the gist)
Dis.: Don't own the characters or anything related to the show!
"We were lucky enough to get you here as soon as we did, Agent David." told his tired looking patient. With this news she reached one hand and placed it on the fast asleep head of her male companion. She stroked his head lightly for a moment before closing her deep brown eyes and falling into a fast slumber. She had not slept for nearly her entire visit. He was thankful to see she was able to finally rest.
Ziva didn't know for which she was more thankful. For the doctors at Mercy General, she was more than eternally indebted. And of course for Gibbs, who she just recently had found out had been the one who placed the call to emergency. But for Tony? She was so confused on every other aspect of their so called relationship, but what about the fact that he had stayed with her all through the night? That meant so much more to her than a box of chocolates a teddy bear that said "You're so swell! I Just Know you're Gonna get well!"
It was early Thursday morning when Agent Tony DiNozzo sat upright in the waiting room chair and almost collided with Gibbs, who stood above him, holding a tray of tall hot coffees. He had once again zoned out, trying to dream that this was all a nightmare and when he woke up…it wouldn't be this way at all.
"How is she DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked gruffly, aware of the gray stubble which had begun to form on his face. No one had left the hospital for the past ten hours or so.
When the rest of the team had arrived, besides Abby's hysterics and dark depression after Tim's hug, little had been said among the four.
Abby sat in a corner, with McGee by her side. He held her shoulders in his one arm as she stared blankly at the floor. Tear tracks of dramatic black mascara ran down her cheeks and her normal pigtails hung in sad defeat on either side of her head. McGee himself didn't look any better. His head was slumped forward, resting on the palm of his hand. From any outsider it would have looked as though he was sleeping. But from the insiders who knew him too well, it was obvious that he had shut himself down.
As DiNozzo had once said, "McGee thinks like a computer."
In layman's terms, McGee was restarting himself.
"They haven't said anything since you left Boss." DiNozzo mumbled, taking one of the coffees and sitting back in his seat. He was taking this the worst of all, as only imaginable.
He and Gibbs had been sitting in steely silence for nearly the whole time there, with Gibbs occasionally standing to get coffee or stale desert cakes from the vending machines.
Ducky had called an hour ago, asking about Ziva's condition and whether anyone needed anything. Abby, being Abby, had simply mumbled "Hope, Ducky. We need hope."
This caused Tony to snap violently, "Hope, Abby, really? Hope? You don't think I have any god damned hope? She is dying on that table because of me Abby."
Tim had stepped between the frightened Abby and the fierce Tony, who once he saw what he had done, apologized sourly and shuffled back to his seat, farthest from the young computer wizards.
Gibbs had remained seated through the entire altercation, and only when Tony had sat down once more and his breathing returned to quivering gasps, did he stand and stretch.
"Going to get coffee. I'll be back." Was all he said before pacing off beyond the waiting room.
And that's where they were now.
Gibbs had returned.
Abby was silent.
Tim was restarting.
Tony was beyond scared.
And Ziva…
Was anyone's guess.
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"Agent Anthony DiNozzo?" came the questioning voice of the main surgeon on an Agent Ziva David. The young man had been badgering the nursing staff for the last ten hours so it was only right that he be informed of the surgery results.
"That's me, Doctor." Said an exhausted looking man in a creased suit shirt and dress pants. He leapt from the chair and strode to the side of the older gentleman dressed in robin's egg scrubs.
"Agent Ziva David is out of surgery and asking for you. She's in room 231."
"Thanks, Doc. Honest, thanks." He sighed as he turned and headed down the long and sterile hospital hallways, searching for the most heavenly number he had ever heard.
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She'd never been so happy to see DiNozzo in her whole life. When he came striding into the room, worried face and soiled clothes, told her all she needed to know.
He loved her.
Her eyes glazed with tears and he rushed to her side, reaching for her free hand. The one not weighed down by tubes and finger monitors.
"Ziva," he croaked, taking her hand and placing it alongside his stubbly cheek.
"Tony," she sighed, their eyes never losing contact as the two partners realized what everyone else had seen months ago.
They were two stubborn people, madly in love.
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"What's the deal Doc?" questioned the one all the others called Boss. He had cornered Doctor Tiva against the nurses' station and held out his hand for Ziva David's folder.
"Agent Gibbs, I am not at liberty to share that privileged information with you. I was just on my way to inform the couple. Once I leave the room, I can permit more than one visitor in." He told the older Agent with sincerity in his voice.
"Listen Doc. You don't know the half of what that guy in there has been through today. I do. You know the medical mum-bo-jumbo of all this stuff, yea sure. But trust me. If you don't want a scene down here, at this hour of night, it would be a wise decision. To. Hand. Me. The. File." His steely gaze was intimidating all right, along with the major nerd who stood behind him and the gothic looking creature attached to the geeks side. Both had fire in their eyes.
"You should definitely give him the file." They said in unison, their voices in that tone that people adopt when they seem to tire of repeating directions.
He had no choice, he reasoned, to resist. He had places to go, people to observe and serve. Obviously this group of adults was extremely close. No harm, he thought, in sharing this kind of news from someone your close to.
Or maybe it was all the harm that could be done.
But he didn't have the time to get all Socratic- method on this situation.
Handing the thin manila folder over to the older agent, the middle aged doctor excused himself and walked with a seemingly panicked pace down the dim hospital hallway, past the emergency doors which clicked behind him. Only once he was behind the safety of those two fat pieces of wood did he allow himself to excel the precious breath he didn't even know he had been holding.
Once Gibbs had his hands on the file, he flipped it open and skimmed down the small printed paperwork.
"Damn." Was all he said as he snapped the file shut and started off towards room 231.
As McGee and Abby watched Gibbs stalk off the hallway, until they could see him no more because he had entered room 231, the two wounded souls turned to one another and finally saw the light in their own dim lives.
But they would wait for this whole ordeal to be only a faded memory in the minds of all involved before they showed what they had always secretly known.
Abby and Tim were soul mates, as Abby would have simply pointed out, had they not been standing feet away from a room in which their closest friends sat. Shattered and bruised, but together at last.
Ah yes, the irony of it all. The irony.
A:N/ Hope you enjoyed! Now I happen to know of a very sad little rectangle that you would just make its day if you were to clicky-click on it and type in a few words of your thoughts on this recent addition!