Time Gone By ✡ NCIS TIVA Fanfiction

Chapter 22

"Ziva, no!"
Tony snapped out of his shock and pulled her down, forcefully taking the gun out of her hand. "What on earth are you thinking?
This isn't an option."

She looked at him furiously.
"It is the only option, don't you get it?"

He swallowed hard and brought his eyes straight into hers.
"No, you're the one who doesn't get it.
I couldn't bare it losing you again.
You really think you'd save me by taking your own life?
Think twice."
His words came out bitter and he regretted it instantly.
"Listen. We'll figure it out. We'll find a way, we always do."

"Does that mean our deal is not a deal? C'mon, Ziva.
I give you one minute to say your goodbyes, after that I'll have your body lying in front of me with a bullet in your pretty face." The man's voice interrupted.

"We will get out of this alive. There is no version of this that ends with you dying.
Just listen to me."

Two bullets were shot into the wall right next to her ear.
"Tony, be realistic." She begged, "I could have saved your life.
My life for yours.
I would have died honorably. Now, we are hiding behind a table. Like cowards.
We have one minute left, then he will kill all three of us and our baby won't even get to know what it's like to breathe.
She will never learn to walk.
Never go to school, have her first crush.
She won't ever kiss anyone and she will never love -"

"Is this how you want to spend the last minute of your life?
Mourning what will never be?"

She straightened her back.
"You're right. That's not how I want to spend my life's end."
Ziva closed her eyes and leaned forwards, pressing her lips tightly against Tony's.
They were desperate, so desperate and she could feel it in the kiss.
The bullets hitting the walls as a warning didn't bother them at all.
They were longing for all the things that would never be, all the things that could have been and the future they might have had.
Their lips were so despairingly searching each other, like magnets that had been pulled apart for too long and suddenly were brought back into the other's proximity.

"There's one thing I should have said a long time ago."
Tony breathed and his stomach tingled.

"I love you." Ziva said it for him instead and her voice cracked.
He could see an actual tear escaping her eye and he wiped it away; then he silenced her with another kiss.
His hand dug into his pocket and he found the small packet that had been hidden in the glove locker of his car for almost two years now.
"Would you mind doing me the honor of becoming my wife?" He asked between the kisses, his own cheeks getting wet from her tears.

Two bullets caressed the top of his hair while flying by, but that wasn't what mattered in this moment.

Ziva stared down at the blue velvety packet with the golden ring inside.
She grabbed his collar and pulled him close again. "I wouldn't mind at all."
His lips were on her cheek, her neck, her collarbone and he actually laughed.
Facing certain death, he laughed.

Never before had he felt so light, so free.
She reached down and put the ring on her finger, smiling brightly through all the tears.

The steps and the gunshots came closer, but she couldn't get enough of the look of her hand with Tony's engagement ring on it.

Finally, they rested their foreheads on each other's, breathing slowly.
Both of them knew that their time was up.

This was where they would get executed. Tony checked his gun, there were two bullets left.

"I don't want to die." Ziva whispered.
Her eyes were glowing with strength, a different kind of strength than she had shown before when she offered to sacrifice herself.
This time she was determined to live, but it didn't change the fact that they were hopelessly outgunned and incapable of escaping in any way.

"Imagine our wedding. We could have one like in the movie Fantastic Four. You get to be Jessica Alba, and you'll look twice as stunning." Tony murmured.

That was all they had left of the future: Imaginations.
"Imagine Abby as a bridesmaid.
She'll do great.
And will McGee be your best man?" Ziva asked, playing along, her heart breaking with every word.

"Definitely; and so that Gibbs doesn't get jealous, he can lead you to the altar; together with DiNozzo Senior. Like a huge weird family."
Tony's eyes became watery, thinking of the huge weird family they would never be able to become. The minute was over.