Two Years

Chapter 25

Tony's POV

Ziva fell asleep about an hour after the team came in. Nobody could blame her. She has been through enough the past month. The babies have not been put down for longer than five minutes since the team is back in. It's incredible to see. Our kids are going to grow up in a family that will love them through everything. That is something I know for sure. We're now a couple of hours further and McGee just got the information that Ziva's father just landed. We're all on full alert right now. Every sound gets our attention. We don't want anything to happen to Ziva and we will do everything to make sure she'll be okay. The vibrating sound of McGee's phone pulls me out of thought. I look at McGee as he checks his messages. "He's here." Is all he says but it's enough to get the entire team up on their feet. For the first time in hours Abby lays down the little baby. This time it's Ethan but long ago it would have been Katherine. Our kids are going to be some really spoiled kids, without a doubt. Any way Ducky and Palmer stay with Ziva while the rest of us spread across the hospital.

Abby and I take position in the hallway where Ziva's room is. Gibbs and McGee are taking position in the waiting room. Some random officers are undercover all around the hospital. Some as nurses, some as visitors. Vance made sure that only the best agents are undercover here. He didn't want to take the risk either. You can never mess with a family like this. Never. Soon enough the first agent speaks. Her father just got out of a car in front of the hospital. Her father enters the hospital. He goes to the waiting room where McGee and Gibbs are. As soon as they see him they're up on their feet. They stop right in front of him, holding him back. I so wish I could see his face right now. I can hear them talking. There's a lot of swearing, yelling and arguing before a terrifying sound echoes through our earpieces. A gunshot. Several gunshots. Screaming of the innocent people. The random officers yelling all kinds of stuff. But there is no answer when I ask for Gibbs or McGee. Suddenly we see her father turning the corner of the hallway, a gun in his hand. We immediately draw our guns too.

He has an evil grin on his face and I don't like it. He walks towards us like nothing is going on. He aims his gun at us and soon a gunfight starts. We hear people starting to scream in their rooms. Babies starting to cry. Some people quickly peek into the hallway to see how bad it is but they always disappear quickly. Well, why would they stay to watch? To get caught in the middle of it and end up with a bullet wound? Suddenly her father dashes forward while shooting and before I know it, he's at her room. He gives me a wicked grin and right before I can shoot he already enters her room. I run towards it and at that moment McGee and Gibbs rush around the corner. Gibbs with blood gushing out of his leg and McGee with a huge bleeding scar on his head. We enter the room and what we see is heartbreaking.

Ziva sitting on the bed. Tearstains covering her cheeks while more are added. Ducky and Palmer each holding onto one of our kids like their own life depends on. Her father in front of her. Pointing a gun right at her. Her and her father screaming in Hebrew at each other. Ziva says something and by her reaction I can see, she immediately regrets ever saying it. Her father's finger goes over to the trigger but before I can do something a loud bang is heard. Next is the sound of Ziva screaming. My sight becomes blurry and I don't give a damn about anything else than Ziva, so I run to her. I grab her hand. It's cold. Ice cold. My sight becomes blurrier by tears that form in my eyes. All I can make out is that she's laying back on the bed and not sitting up like before. Tiny cries are heard on the background. I can't make out whose they are. The past few minutes keep on replaying in my head. The past few hours actually. From the moment we landed to the moment where the gunshot went off in this room.