The familiar ding of the elevator rang out and the man exited onto the NCIS floor. Tony lay in his chair, fidgeting every now and then as the painful memories hit him, each one a stab wound to his heart.
The man silently walked across the floor, hidden by the shadows at the edge of the room. Tony was seated in front of the great glass windows looking down on the town, completely unaware of the figure nearing him.
The man drew closer and closer to Tony, and was now so close that he could have touched him. He stopped short and leaned in close to the sleeping body of Tony. Tony let out a long howl as his body tensed in grief, but did not awake from his terrible slumber. The man leering over him hesitated, his face inches away from Tony's. He raised his hand to Tony's throat, barely touching it. His eyes were dark and menacing, willing him on for the kill. The growl from a passing car on the streets below brought the man back from his fantasy and he slowly moved away from the sleeping Tony. He flexed his hand slightly, calming it from the unnerving twitch it now had. He was on a mission and he wouldn't become sloppy. The man left the room, heading for the stairs at the other end and Tony slept on, completely unaware of what had just happened.
***
The man glided past the empty receptionist desk and opened the door to the office. Moving quickly, he walked over to a nearby plant pot and reached his hands into its leaves. He pulled out a small black object and pocketed it in his jacket. He continued over to the table in the middle of the room and reached underneath it, removing a second identical black object. Finally he walked over to the desk itself that stood to one side and from the underside of the back of the monitor sitting on the desk removed yet another identical small black object. He'd done what he had come for and he allowed himself a small smile. Another mission successfully accomplished. Or at least almost complete, there was still the obstacle of the sleeping man on the floor below him. He walked out to the balcony and looked down; the man was still in a deep sleep, albeit a turbulent one. The man silently and quickly moved down the stairs and past the man in the chair, his right hand twitching ever so slightly as he did so. But the man had taught himself the self-control needed to be good at his job and he walked straight past, leaving the room without a trace of him ever setting foot there. The lift descended and the man left the building, leaving Tony shifting in his seat, completely oblivious of the events that just happened right underneath his nose.
***
When Ziva ventured out onto the NCIS floor, light beamed in from the huge glass windows, illuminating the empty chair in the middle of the floor. It was early in the morning, so everything was tinted with a slightly eerie reddish glow. She walked forwards glancing around for any sign of Tony, and dumped her bag on her desk. The room was in silence and Tony was nowhere to be seen. Ziva let out a long sigh and sat down behind her desk. She leaned forwards and rested her forehead on her folded arms. Yesterday had been a heck of a day. She'd been prepared for missions like that all her life; hell, she'd grown up seeing them everyday. She'd seen far worse things in her life, but not with him involved. She closed her eyes as she remembered his body falling to the floor, a fresh bullet burrowed into his chest. She had wanted to run to him, straight up to him and to catch him as he fell backwards into Director Shepard's trembling arms. But she'd had a mission. To find the man that shot that bullet, and she was damned if she was going to fail Gibbs. Ziva thumped her head a couple of times into her arms, mentally beating herself. That's exactly what she had done; fail Gibbs. She and McGee had run straight after the man as he made his escape, but in all the commotion and the squash of terrified people, he had gotten away.
"Oh Jethro…" she sighed, her voice becoming unstable and rocky.
"Jethro?" came a voice from near her, "So when did you two become so close?"
Ziva whipped her head up from where she had been huddled, blinking quickly to remove the tiniest trace of moisture that had crept there a second ago. "I meant Gibbs, Tony. Where have you been?"
Tony lifted his arms to reveal a two fresh cups of coffee. "I bought two, one for me and one for…"
"Gibbs." Ziva answered, knowing the answer.
"Out of habit I suppose…how is he?" said Tony anxiously, his face tight and deep with concern.
"Stable at the moment, but not good," Ziva said, her words somewhat happier than she had expected them to sound. She was just relieved that he was alive. Tony appeared to take the same stance and looked calmer now; not happy, but comforted now that he was reassured that Gibbs was hanging onto life.
"Well, we knew that Gibbs wouldn't let a bullet stop him, he'll outlive us all just to make sure we don't break any of his stupid rules," Tony said, a pang of grief evident as he spoke the words.
"I never know which rule is which number, apart from…"
"Rule twelve," they said in unison. They looked at each other, and for the briefest moment something flashed between them as they both remembered that moment last night. Ziva was the first to look away, unable to bring her self to relive it. Tony took her lead and quickly moved on from the unsaid subject.
"What exactly did happen last night? I mean I saw him lying on the floor but apart from that…" Tony began sombrely.
"Well, I spoke with Director Shepard after it all happened and she said that he jumped in front of her. He saw me signal to him that the gunman was over by the bar and he must have seen him withdraw the gun."
"Gibbs never misses a thing," Tony said fondly.
Ziva smiled, "I've never known him to."
"Nope," said Tony quietly, "not a thing. Never." He walked over to his chair in the middle of the floor and wheeled it back behind his desk before sinking himself down into it. Silence fell as both of them went through the disastrous actions of last night, and how Gibbs had come to be shot.
***
Author's Chapter Notes:
Tony recieves more info on Gibbs accident and his condition at the hospital