Chapter 08
When he came to he had a throbbing headache, he was sitting on a chair and it felt as if his hands and feet were bound. John wasn’t able to move; something he hadn’t experienced for over three years. He wasn’t worried – yet -, if he and Ziva wouldn’t report in, Gibbs would come and look for them. Or he’d call the General, he’d have the Hammond lock on to Sheppard’s subcutaneous transmitter, and beam him and Ziva out of here. No big deal. But Ziva… where was she? He couldn’t really see, he was in a brightly lit room and there were mirrors that reflected light as well. Crap, he thought. “Ziva?”
Whatever the guy did to her, she hadn’t felt this much pain in a long time. Ziva could hear John’s voice and knew he was behind her – somewhere. “I’m here,” she said with a groan. “Chloroform…”
“At least you got drugs.” John wished he could rub the back of his head right now, to soothe the pain and to assess the damage. “Are you okay?”
“Other than wanting to tear my spine out, I’m fine,” she said. “I have no clue where we are. Assuming he took us off the property because it is too modern in here or this guy did a lot of remodeling.”
“What do you see?” He tried to focus on her voice and managed to see her shape in front of him.
She looked up and squinted. “Bright white walls, lots of fluorescent lighting. Do you have your sunglasses?”
“No… I think he took my sunglasses and hat… and my holster feels kinda empty.” He closed his eyes, trying to focus started to hurt his head. He tried to move his wrists, but whatever he tried, he couldn’t get any space between his wrists and whatever material he was bound with. “Secure knots.”
“Yes. Mine as well,” she sighed, looking around. In her attempts to shift, she realized that her chair wasn’t secure to the floor and with some work, she managed to turn herself around so that she could see John. “Ohhhh….”
“What? What happened?” The calmness he had tried to keep himself in vanished after hearing the noise of something moving. “Ziva?”
Ziva blinked to get the spots from her eyes as she looked at how bad he was. “Your face is bleeding,” she said simply. “Some bruising around your eyes – it looks as if you were used as a punching bag while you were out.”
“Ah, nothing new then.” He breathed a sigh of relief, if a busted up face was all that was wrong – apart from being in their current situation – it was okay. “You think you can get over here so we can try and release ourselves?”
“I need to rest. Just to come this far – give me a moment,” she sighed and tightened her eyes closed as she felt a spasm of pain shoot through her back. “I think – when we are out of here, I will go talk to Ducky…”
“Well that’s good… and bad…” John frowned and opened his eyes again, trying to determine where the light was coming from so he could move his head and maybe take a better look at their surroundings.
“You honestly think you’re going to make it out alive?” A voice over the intercom sounded. A familiar voice, John couldn’t place that voice. “I should have hit harder.”
“Who are you?”
“The one who’s going to make your life hell for at least the next few hours, hopefully days.”
Ziva looked around as she struggled to herself together through the pain she had already been going through. “What is this all about?” she asked the faceless voice. “We had done nothing to you.”
“Your agencies… and others… have ruined my life.” the voice spat. “They made me into some kind of super soldier and then left me to rot. You are going to prove that you are unworthy of your jobs, since they did hire you!”
“Oh come on, that’s childish.”
“We’ll talk again in a few hours… however, I’d make sure to be out of here within the hour as the time release on the Sarin gas will engage. Oh and don’t bother about waiting for help. Not only do your phones have no reception, the technology is strong enough to render your transmitter useless while you’re here, Colonel Sheppard.”
Ziva’s eyes grew large at the mention of sarin gas. She stared forward at John, “What transmitter?”
“Everyone who signs up for the Stargate program gets a transmitter underneath the skin so that we can be found at all times,” John explained. “It’s safer that way and should we ever get in to trouble they can scan the planet, lock on and beam us out.”
“That’s wonderful. Is there a reason that this guy would think that it would be able to be blocked? I would think that they would have anticipated that sort of technology to resist things like that…”
“Yeah, I’m not too worried.” John shrugged. “But I am worried about that gas. Stay there, I’ll come to you just keep talking okay?”
Ziva sighed. “If you come forward, straight ahead until I say otherwise, you shouldn’t find any obstruction other than a table. Your space people should have included a distress button in your ass or something so that you could let them know when you’re in trouble. Clearly your geniuses aren’t all that bright.”
He had managed to reach the table by the time she was done talking. “Funny!” He chuckled and took a moment to catch his breath. For some reason, the chair was heavier than any chair he had sat on. He saw the table frame, but couldn’t see the top as it was reflecting light. “I’m more interested in how he knows what he seems to know.”
“Clearly he must have been a part of the program,” she muttered. “How’s your head?”
“Trying not to think of it, although that would be a lot easier if it was darker in here. How’s your back?”
“Comes and goes. Happier when it goes, kill me when it comes,” she replied. “He must have known about your problem. Everything in here is reflective.”
“What if this guy has been planning this for a while? What if he observed us for a long time, gathered intel, hacked into government files?” John started to move towards the right side of the table, trying to get around it.
“Maybe. After what I learned, aren’t there like other people who would love to get back at you and the SGC?” she asked.
“He said ‘agencies’, I’m pretty sure that doesn’t just mean the Air Force, Ziva.”
“Well what agencies then? I know for a fact that Mossad had nothing to do with whatever this guy is into. My father would kill to get one of his officers in that program though. What? NCIS? FBI? There are way too many agencies that could have a hand in the training of something like that.”
“CIA, NSA…” John thought for a second. “Or all of the above?” He nearly toppled over when he reached the edge of the table. Unlike the chairs, the table was bolted to the floor. “I’ve seen some pretty strange things, Ziva, I wouldn’t put it passed every agency in the world to work on something super secret together.” He then managed to chuckle. “I’m not a conspiracy theorist or paranoid, but if the Air Force is keeping the program under wraps, why won’t this be possible?”
“True. Another two feet to your right John,” Ziva said, watching him before grinding her teeth as she had to breathe deeply as a spasm shot through her. “God! I don’t know if I can handle that much more.”
“You sound like one of Teyla’s tribe women in labor.” John grinned and managed to get passed the table.
She rolled her eyes. “I think I would know if I were pregnant,” she pointed out. “You would certainly know as well, I’m sure.”
“Yeah… when Teyla was pregnant with Torren, she got angry with me for not letting her on the team. If she could, she would have bitten off my head.”
“She had every right to. When she felt it was time to sit back, she would I’m sure. Women who are pregnant aren’t incapable of their jobs. They aren’t broken,” Ziva replied. “If you did that to me, I would likely break your legs or your arms, or something and let you see what it is like.”
“I feel for you, honey, I really do. I doubt that if they find us, they’d let a visit to the hospital pass on you.” He could see her a bit clearer now, and pushed himself to make the final few feet towards her. “Hello!” he greeted her.
She smiled back at him and shook her head. “Can you see well enough if I turn around with the chair to see the ties?”
“Yeah I can try.”
Ziva hopped around on the chair until she had her back towards him and flexed her wrists to try her best to let him see as much of the ties as possible. “It’s tight,” she added.
“I know… I know this knot.” John squinted as he observed the knots. “There should be a loose string somewhere, if you can tell me where, I might be able to pull it when I turn around to grab it.”
It took them some time, but eventually their hands were free and they were both working on getting their feet unbound. John helped Ziva as she was struggling to bend over and helped her up. “Your face!” Ziva carefully touched John’s face and it hurt.
“Yeah… you already said that…” he winced. “You shouldn’t have touched it.”
“Come on, there’s a door.” Ziva took his arm and walked the both of them towards the door, leading John around the table and various other objects in the room. “It’s unlocked.” she said surprised.
“Open it, let’s go.”
“But what if..–”
“Anything better than the impending Sarin gas.”
“True.” Ziva opened the door and pulled John into the new room with her while closing the door. She pushed John against the wall and hugged the wall herself. At least this room wasn’t going to be as hard on John’s eyes than the last room. “Can you see?”
“Yeah, getting there,” he answered, rubbing his eyes. “Is it just me or does this look like a gauntlet?”
“Nope, not just you, there are heavy objects swinging back and forth and some look sharp.”
“Great.” John sighed.
Her eyes were large as they took everything in. “It looks like something out of one of Tony’s movies,” she commented before sliding down to the floor to see if they might have enough room to crawl underneath.
“This should be doable… if there’s some sort of gap in the middle of all of this…” John started. “You know, whoever this guy is, he must have a lot of money.”
“And a lot of time on his hands. My guess is that we are underground on the property. There is no way that he could have taken us too far.”
John nodded. “I suppose.” He tried to assess the distance between the first swinging object and the second and realized that there was no way that they could go together, or with Ziva on his back. “Well this sucks.”
“It looks like we can crawl through but it will be very close,” Ziva sighed as she returned to his side.
“Or… we could just stay here, I’m really not in the mood for games.”
She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t want to hang around for the gas treatment that this guy has planned.”
“That was the other room, I doubt he has any other incentive for us to go through with this in this room,” he looked at her and then rolled his eyes. “Fine, let’s try to get through this without anything getting slashed up.”
“And how do we know that the sarin won’t be distributed through the entire property? Together or one by one?”
“I’ll go first, if I can get underneath it, then so can you.”
Ziva nodded and bit her lip. “Stay low. I’ll be right behind you,” she said as she reached up to cup his face.
He gently kissed her. “I love you, you know that, right?” He said as he softly caressed her hair.
“I do now,” she said. “We’ll talk about it when we are out of here. Now go!”
John kissed her again and then lowered himself to the floor. He went to the left where there was a small space of nothingness and made it passed the first two swinging objects before running into an obstacle that prevented him to use the safe side. “It’s never easy,” he muttered and pulled his legs underneath him so he could sit on his hunches to see what was going on.
“What is it?” Ziva asked as she had her body shoved as close the free space gap as possible. The spasms shooting through her every few minutes didn’t help much and whenever she got to a relatively safe position she had to stop and take a breather to recollect herself.
“Some sort of pit with sharp pointy things in it… however jumping over it will definitely hurt our heads… and dive and roll over it… is an option but I can’t really see what’s on the other end to make sure it’s safe.”
“I will go then,” she said as she slowly made her way closer to him. When she was at his side, she eyed the pit he mentioned. “Well that would ruin anyone’s day…If we lower ourselves but hold on to the ledge we could make our way around it. Do you think you could hold yourself up?”
“Easy,” John replied, “Do you think you can do it with your back spasms?”
Sighing, she shrugged. “I have to. As soon as the next spasm is over, I’ll make my way across. They seem to be pretty consistent in that sense.”
“It’s sounding more and more like contractions to me!” John joked as he turned around and slowly backed towards the edge, lowering himself to hold on to the ledge. “This guy has too much time on his hands.” He groaned as he quickly made it round the pit.
“You saw me naked last night…Did I look pregnant?” Ziva replied as she watched him as he moved along. “You’re almost there…”
“I was joking, Ziva.” He chuckled as he climbed back onto the ground and caught his breath. “Although…” he said with a smirk on his face.
“If you say that I looked fat you won’t have to worry about dying by way of sarin. I’ll do the job for this lunatic,” she growled as she started to lower herself and shift over to the other side.
John started to laugh. “What is it with women and caring about weight issues? You’re beautiful, no matter if you’re fat or skinny… although too skinny is unappealing but you are not fat.”
She was nearly to the opposite side when she started to get out of breath. “Well whatever it is, I’m certainly not in shape because I shouldn’t tire this easily. How long do you think we’ve been out of contact?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know how long we’ve been out.” John reached for Ziva’s hand. “Come on, nearly there, then you can take a bit of rest.”
She grunted a little as she shifted, shimmied and kicked her way closer. By the time he was able to pull her up, she could feel another spasm hit and laid there, tense and breathing hard. “You may have a point – about it being like contractions. I’ll give you that much,” she winced.
“I was joking.” John said as he softly caressed her back. “I’m sure that once we get out of here, a doctor will figure out what’s wrong with you.”
“I hope so,” Ziva said, the pain slowly getting worse but luckily for her, she had a high threshold. “Oh that feels good…” she added to his massaging.
“Magic hands,” He said as he looked behind him to see what was up next while he continued to caress her lower back.
Once she was through the latest round, she sat up tiredly. “Please tell me he doesn’t have any more traps, that he didn’t expect us to get past all this already.”
“I hate to disappoint you,” John sighed. “Although it looks like the next part can be done running… the pendulums swing in a particular way and it might be enough to slip passed them. I could probably also just carry you to the end.”
“Oh god,” she sighed as she pushed herself up. “Let’s just get this over with because I don’t know how much more of this I can take now.”
“Are you giving up already? Such a shame.” The voice had returned. “Even Stackhouse had more spirit than you, and I had to run him over with a tractor!”
John balled his fists. “She is not feeling well. Get her out of here, and I will do whatever more you have planned after we’re through here.”
“No John, I won’t leave you here alone. He’ll likely end up killing you,” she replied as she leaned up against him. “Are you just toying with us? Is there an actual way out of here that you just want us to suffer to get through?”
“Of course there is a way out, I built this, I got out.” The voice laughed. “And what a gentleman you are, Colonel Sheppard, and how weak and pathetic you are for telling me to get her out. I don’t understand why you were marked as one of the best ranking officers at the SGC. Oh and yes, I really hope you’ll die. That way I can deliver your bodies on the door step of NCIS and severely piss them off.”
“What did NCIS do to you?” Ziva asked.
“Ask your director, or his boss.” the voice spat. “Hurry along now, I’ll be increasing the velocity of the pendulums soon!”
“He sounds like a spoiled child.” John muttered. “Didn’t get enough attention from his parents.”
“Well let’s not give him all that much. Let’s just get through this and come out alive,” she whispered. “I’m ready to go when you are – but make it quick.”
He lifted her up in his arms and took a deep breath. “Hold on tight.”
Ziva locked her wrists together around his neck and tucked her head in. She couldn’t help but to hold her breath in as she felt him rush through the next gauntlet, praying that the team would come to find them soon. At the very least, hope that Gibbs would have McGee check on the GPS location of their car after not checking in.
John stopped dead in his tracks after reaching the wall and yet another door. “Okay, that was scary.”
She lifted her head and looked at him. Her face was drained of colour as she blinked. “Not as scary as what is about to happen…” she said slowly, waiting to see if he realized yet, what she felt.
He carefully set her down on the floor and looked at himself. “Ziva, did you have to pee while you were in my arms? Couldn’t you have waited until I put you down again?”
She shook her head. “Considering the last few hours – I don’t think that is urine John…it’s impossible, but…possible? I’m…” Ziva trailed off, speechless and trying to piece everything together.
“Wait… what?” He looked at her, confused. “You’re saying…”
“Do you think its possible?” she asked staring up at him.
“Anything is possible but… come on, you should have noticed at least something other than back pain?” He looked at her, wide eyed.
“Nothing! I haven’t even missed my period!” she snapped. “Let’s – let’s get out of here then argue about this. It doesn’t pay to figure it out now if we are going to be dead anyway.”
“Unbelievable…” he sighed as he opened the next door and closed it again as it once again was brightly lit. “Oh for the love of!!!”
Ziva took a deep breath and opened the door again to see for herself. Her eyes looked around and all she could make out was a stark white room with more fluorescent lighting. “I think this room is meant to weaken your eyes more. I don’t see anything in it. Pull your shirt over your head to block out the light…I’ll lead you through. It’s maybe, ten yards long to a set of stairs and I think a door.”
“Alright,” John pulled his shirt off and rolled it up before putting it over his head and fastened it behind his head. “All I need now is a pinata and a stick to beat it with.”
“I’ll be first in line,” she mumbled as she took his hand before pushing the door open. She constantly looked around, trying to see if anything else would come flying at them but luckily they managed to get to the steps in one piece before she felt another spasm – or rather contraction come on. It was strong enough that it made her lose her footing as she tried to climb the winding stairs to the trap door at the top.
“Easy.” John pushed himself against a wall – hopefully – and took pulled her against him. “Breathe.”
“John, we need to get out of here,” she said as she buried her face into his shoulder as she gritted through the next wave of pain. Turning her head up, she eyed the door and groaned. “It’s got heavy bolts around it but its wood. We will need something to break through it.”
“I know… but I didn’t want you to fall off the stairs,” John said and rubbed her back. “I can try to see if I can get one of those pendulums down from the other room? Unless you see something in this room that we can use? Or do you think I can break that door?”
Ziva looked around again and shook her head. “No, we’ll need something. It’s a heavy wood door. Can you see through the fabric of your shirt? It should be heavy enough to block out the sharpness of the white lights.”
“I can see the floor from underneath it, stay here, I’ll check the door.” He slowly continued to walk on the stairs until he reached the door. He pushed against it and chuckled. “This is too easy,” he walked down the stairs towards Ziva again and waited until she was ready. “It just looks impossible. It’s not.”
“That makes me nervous to know what else he has planned for us,” she admitted. “Let’s go. Please tell me that it does indeed go outside,” she added as she reached up for him to help her.
John took her hand and gently pulled her with him. “I hope no more light,” he replied as he kicked in the door, and pulled his shirt off his head before putting it back on properly. “Oh, a barn.”
“Outside,” Ziva sighed as she followed him out. She let go of his hand, letting it go to her stomach as she made her way to the wall to try to peer out through the gaps in the boards. “Careful where you step. This is the ideal setting for trip wire. Would your transmitter work now that we are outside?”
“Maybe… but we’re not outisde yet.” John stood close to Ziva and looked at the door. “You’ll need to inspect the door for me, I can’t see wires if they’re made out of fishing line.” He then looked back at her. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m feeling the need to kill someone,” she said as she carefully looked around, kicking up dirt where she could to see if there was any twine hiding in the area before stepping forward more. “We are as much outside as we could get…The sun looks to be heading towards setting – we’ve been here at least four hours…”
“I’m sure Gibbs is looking for us now.” John told her and then pulled her back when he heard a gun shot. “What the hell!” He quickly looked Ziva over. “Are you okay?”
She had already ducked down for cover as she looked around wide eyed. “I’m fine. That’s a sig,” she pointed out as there was more shots. “There is more than one shooter. Hopefully it’s …” she trailed off as another painful spasm shot through her. Ziva tried to keep from crying out loudly, but they were getting far worse than even the abuse she experienced at the hand of Saleem. “Pain is coming a lot faster than before…”
“I’m pretty sure you’re in labor,” he looked at her in shock. “I can’t believe it…” John tried to figure out where the shooting was coming from. “At least he’s not shooting at us right now, let’s move to some place safe, get out of his line of sight. Can you walk?”
Her eyes turned on him as she was clearly trying not to make him a victim of her growing anger. “Say that one more time and you will get to feel exactly what I’m feeling now,” Ziva replied as she took a deep breath. “If we can get to the car – if its still there, I can hot wire it so that we could get out of here.”
John lifted her up. “Hold on to me, I’m going to run across to the next building… that is… if the space is clear for me to run?”
“It looks it,” she replied based on what she managed get a view of through the slats of wood of the barn. “Let’s go. The quicker we are out of here the better.”
He made his way around the remains of the barn and started to run to the opposite side, still hearing the gunshots going another way. “You got a better view of the place before we got knocked out, where do we go?”
Ziva looked behind them and recognized a large tree in the distance. “This is where he took me out,” she said. Pointing at the edge of the wall that they took cover against she added, “I came from around that way. The car should be about 60 feet or so from the house on the other side.”
“I hate to disappoint you, but that’s exactly where the shots are coming from… I don’t accidentally want to get shot at even if it’s friendly fire. Is there a way around it?”
“We are on a farm. What do you think?” she asked, looking at him hard. “Put me down. I’ll go look. I’m just surprised you can even see a thing out of that one eye – your face is so swollen!”
“Well you know…” John shrugged. “When you can’t see properly, the ears take over, there’s a reason why I keep asking you things.” He pointed out and gently set her down on the ground, only letting go of her when he was sure that she was stable on her feet. “I can still see some things, although it’s mostly guess-work.”
She didn’t say anything and lowered herself as low as she could before slowly peeking around the corner of the building. Narrowing her eyes, she could make out another car being parked behind where they left theirs but whoever it belonged to, the people had taken cover behind it. Looking the other way she could make out the shooter, roughly, in the distance.
Ziva was about to turn back to John when a flash of silver popped up through the windows of the car making her smile. “Gibbs is here John. They made it,” she said as she tried to figure out a way that they could get from where they were to the cars.
“And I guess the shooter is right above us?” John made his way over to Ziva and sat down on his hunches. “Is there a way inside?”
“I am not about to go inside,” she growled. “I am not interested in seeing what he has set up in this place after what he has under us. We will just have to make a run for it.”
“Alright, alright… it’s not like you’re capable of fighting and I probably won’t see where I’m hitting.” He grinned. “Gibbs?” he called out.
“Sheppard! Is Ziva with you?” Came the reply, John could hear relief in his voice.
“Yeah, lay some cover fire will you, we’re in the line of fire.” John got up and lifted Ziva back in his arms. “No way you’re running.” He told her as he heard how the shooting pattern changed into a three against one fight. “You need to tell me if you see any obstacle on the way in front of us, am I clear to run?”
“I’m not about to argue right now,” she said as she held onto him tightly.
Gibbs eyed their shadows from where Sheppard’s voice had come from and nodded to Tony to keep up the fire fight as long as possible. “You have a clear route straight to the car!” he called out.
John took a deep breath and started to run towards the general direction he had heard Gibbs’ voice coming from and tried to ignore the sound of the guns, so he could pick up anyone talking. The car came in sight and he moved to his right, seeing the car become sharper and sharper and took him and Ziva behind the car, setting her down behind the tire.
“All clear, let’s get him,” Gibbs’ voice sounded. “Preferably alive, but I’d take him dead too.”
“Whatever,” Ziva replied as she breathed out, trying to resist screaming out. “Just – kill him already – and get us to the hospital…”
“Got him!” McGee yelled. “I’m going in!”
“No you’re not!” John called out. “Not before the bomb squad secures the place, you have no idea what he’s capable of.”
Ziva looked up and shook her head. “He has access to sarin gas,” she gritted out. “We need to get out of here. He knows too much, has access to more than you want to know. It’s like one of Tony’s movies…”
“Really?” Tony’s voice sounded.
“We should get out of here, make a call to the General and he’ll take care of this place. Nobody ever should lose their life here. We have to get Ziva to a hospital… NOW.”
She nodded. “Considering what he knows about you before NCIS, you need to have your people manage this place,” Ziva said as she shifted so that she could open the door of the car and crawl onto the floor to get to the wires under the console to try to get it started.
Gibbs appeared and handed Ziva a key. “Thank God for duplicates, and you look like hell.”
“She’s in labor,” John slowly got up and helped Ziva out of the front of the car. “And not going to jump start a car when there’s a key.” He opened the back door and helped her in. “Gibbs, you drive.” he said as he made sure that Ziva was comfortable.
“Don’t say a word Gibbs. Not now at least. Later, please,” she groaned as her hands gripped at the head of the drivers seat. “Make sure DiNozzo and McGee get out of here. As soon as there is cellular service, call your General John…”
“Just keep breathing…”
“Boss! I see movement!”
“Get in the other car McGee, and take Tony with you!” Gibbs barked as he got into the car and started it. “And you two…” he looked at Sheppard and Ziva in the rear view mirror. “We’ll talk later.” He floored the car and John had to make sure that he wasn’t falling against the window as he was holding Ziva up. Gibbs then tossed his cellphone on the back seat. “Call your General, McGee and DiNozzo are on our six.”
He grabbed the phone and punched in the numbers while he had to had Ziva check if there was cell reception. When she pressed on the green button on Gibbs’ phone he waited for the General to pick up. “General, you need to have the Hammond level a compound about… 2 miles from my current position. Matter of National Security… yes…. yes we’re safe.” John hung up and within seconds he saw the Asgard beams destroy Cobb’s handiwork. They were bright enough for him to see. He breathed a sigh of relief and slumped against the seat.
“That was quick,” Ziva quietly commented as she looked out the back window before settling back. “I need to lay down…I just want to sleep now after everything.”
“Spaceship,” John whispered in her ear and smiled. “Try to sleep, we’ll be at the hospital soon…” He helped her lay down and had her head in his lap.
“Sleep? With the pain coming like every ten minutes? I don’t think so,” she snapped as she shifted, trying to find a position that wasn’t feeling as if she wanted to tear her spine out.
“Make up your mind then!” John chuckled and tried to avoid the glare Gibbs gave him through the rear view mirror.
She glared at him before her hand shot up and held him by the throat. “Don’t tell me what to do Sheppard. I can and will kill you,” Ziva threatened.
“Can’t breathe… Ziva… let go.” He coughed as she released him. “Thanks.” He fought against the urge to rub his face. The adrenaline was wearing off and his face was starting to throb and his head was getting invaded by midgets who wanted to redecorate his brain. “You’re doing great, honey.”
“You two… rule 12,” Gibbs said as he focused on the road. “What else haven’t you been telling me?”
“You know I hate your rules.” John replied. “We proved you wrong.”
“You should have told me.”
“She didn’t want me to tell you.”
“And she’s pregnant?” Gibbs said unsure.
“Believe me, it’s a surprise to us too… you’d better keep driving because she’ll most likely kill you if we don’t get to a hospital soon.”
Ziva glared at them through their entire exchange as she tried to keep on breathing the way she’d observed women do on television and movies. She had never actually seen anyone go through this herself. When Tali had been born, her father kept her away and focused on her education. “My back has been hurting, I can’t even think about how long,” she shared. “How much longer?”
“I think five more minutes.” John said and softly caressed her hair. “Just hold on for five more minutes.”
“Any place. Are we going to the local one?” she asked sitting up to peer over the seats to see Gibbs using the GPS system. “When did you learn how to use that?”
“Ducky showed me.” Gibbs replied, “And yes, we’re going to the local one, I doubt your fly boy here has other means of transportation to a better hospital.”
“Just say the word.” John whispered in Ziva’s ear.
She shook her head. “If we went by the way you want, then you will have to tell Gibbs more than you are allowed to already. If we are almost there, and they can give me drugs, then this place is just fine.”
“My place has better drugs.” He grinned and winced as Gibbs drove over a bump in the road.
Ziva cried out as her hand went to her back and she rolled to her side. “I believe it, but I’m sure that once Abby and Ducky hears about this, they will already start making arrangements to be transferred closer to home.”
John started to rub her back and looked outside, where he could see that Gibbs was already pulling up at the hospital. “We’re here.” When Gibbs stopped the car, John got out of the car and helped Ziva out as well. He then lifted her in his arms and walked towards the entrance, followed by Gibbs.
“Sir, you have to move your car,” a guard called after them as he got up from his podium at the other end of the waiting room.
Gibbs handed the guy the keys. “It’s all yours.”
“A little help here? My partner is in labor!” John called out.
Ziva let out another cry of pain mixed with irritation. “Doctor! Now!” she growled.
“Alright, alright…” A familiar voice sounded. “You got here faster than we thought!”
“Carson?”
“Good to see ya lad! Now get the young lady on a gurney, and… what happened to your face?”
“Not important.”
Ziva rolled her eyes. “His face was used as a punching back by a bad guy, and then some. He will also need his eyes checked. The rooms that we were in were bright and reflective,” she said as she pulled herself up on the hospital bed.
“Don’t.” John looked at Carson. “She’s first.”
“Alright…” Carson sighed and looked at Ziva. “Good to see you again, Ziva.” Carson smiled. “I’m going to get your pants off you and see how much you’re dilated down there, not to worry, I am a doctor, not a pervert.”
“What?” she asked. “And things aren’t right – I’ve still had my period, haven’t gained much weight…I didn’t even know!”
It took one glare from Carson to get Gibbs out of the room and everyone else who had followed them in. “Don’t fret, young lady, I will take good care of you and the wee baby… I’m actually glad I made it in time then, your wee one will have a bigger chance of survival.”
“But how did you know? Did someone call you? I’m so confused – and ohhhh god….” she said before letting out a scream from one of the most painful spasms she ever felt since everything started.
The next several minutes went by in a blur. One moment Ziva was laying on the hospital bed in the emergency room, the next she was somewhere else in the hospital, in a gown, screaming for dear life every few minutes. If that wasn’t scary enough, the expression on everyone’s face around her – and John’s friend keeping him out of the room – she wasn’t sure that the baby would be very healthy. If it survived being born considering the way she had cared for herself the previous months leading up to that moment.
“What is wrong?” Ziva asked, looking around wildly.
“Your li’l one’s heart beat is slower than it should be, even for a preemie,” Carson explained as he sat down at the foot of her bed and reviewed the tests that the nurses were showing him.
“Well how far along am I?” she asked.
He looked at her and shook his head. “It’s hard to say with this technology lass. From what I could see, it’s very possible that you are full term, if shy maybe two or three weeks. An infant could survive, but without proper prenatal care and your profession…”
She nodded understanding that severity of the risks and sighed. “Where is John?”
“He is out in the waiting room with the rest of your team. I want to get you and the baby stabilized first. He would only get in the way,” Carson smiled. “Just lay back and relax. We will get you some pain medication. You still have a little bit to go yet, but you are almost there.”
Ziva closed her eyes as she tried to digest all the information. She was about to be a mother – maybe. The thought alone was enough to leave her feeling dizzy even as she laid there. All she could really think about too, was John at the mercy of Gibbs and Tony.
Down the corridor, John paced the small area of the floor that the men were restricted to waiting. He couldn’t be more pissed at Carson then for keeping him away. It was his girlfriend, his child that he was working on. John deserved – no, he was meant to be there at her side to help her through everything.
The cold pack that the nurses tried to give him for his face sat on the end table next to where Gibbs sat, warming to the room temperature. He just didn’t care about anything but what was happening in the room down the hall.
Tony was glaring at John. Not only was he a stubborn ass for not letting the nurses come near him, he was also the one who was screwing his partner and had knocked her up. He wanted to confront John badly, but there were two reasons … no three, why he didn’t. Ziva had made her choice, obviously, Gibbs would kill him and third, John would kill him too.
“So Carson? He’s your doctor?” Tony carefully asked.
“Yeah, he took care of me for years and patched me up after we returned from our exploding base.” John said, kicking a chair across the hall. “I thought he was my friend too… I should be <i>in</i> there,” he said, pointing into the general direction of the room where Ziva was.
“You need to get yourself checked out.” Tony tried. “I know, you don’t want to in case she needs you, but you look like hell man. You could have broken something.”
“As I told Ziva, and Carson, I will let myself get checked out after I know she’s fine.”
Gibbs shook his head as he looked up at the man. “What good are you going to be to her if you aren’t? If she or that kid needs your help, you won’t be much good to them all busted,” he said.
“It’s just my face… and my sight is slowly returning, I’m fine for now.” John kept pacing and nearly tripped over the chair he had just kicked away. He kicked it again. “I don’t want to wait!”
“For now? That chair didn’t give you that bruise on your face Sheppard…”
“No, that sadist did, I don’t care. I’m not going to… what if…” he took a deep breath as he felt a panic coming on. What if Ziva would die giving birth? He knew he couldn’t handle that. But Carson was with her, she’d be fine, but what if? “I need to know she’s fine before I let someone have a look at me, Gibbs. I need that.” John looked at the other man.
He let out a breath as he looked up at him. “She will make sure you are there when its time. I doubt that your friend would dare to argue with her if he knew what she was capable of.”
“Besides, we’d like to have you around longer,” Tony said warmly. “If you lose your eyesight for good we lose a valued member of our team.”
John looked at Tony, he was surprised and as far as he could tell, so was Gibbs.
“I think that apart from Abby and McGeek, you and Ziva can show Gibbs that Rule 12 can be a good thing as well. I doubt either one of us would have survived what you have endured with Ziva today.” Tony got up and put his hands on John’s shoulders. “Let yourself get checked out, Sheppard. I don’t want Teyla to kill me.”
“Fine,” John sighed. “If you put it that way…” He looked at him and nodded. “Thanks Tony.”
“No problem. Hey…where did McGee go?” he asked, looking around. Tony had been so distracted by his own issues with the situation that he missed his own partner disappearing on him.
“I got us coffee.” McGee came walking in. “And called Abby and Ducky… and they’re calling Teyla and make sure that once Ziva’s stable that she can get transferred to Bethesda.”
John couldn’t help but to laugh. “She thought as much as we were on our way here,” he said as he scratched the back of his head. “Thanks,” he added as he took his coffee and a hearty sip.
Gibbs took the coffee from John. “Not until you’re cleared.”
“You’re mean.” John complained as he reluctantly went to find a nurse, who in turn found him a doctor.
“Easy there. Just breathe through it Ziva,” Carson said as he had his head tucked under the blanket as he examined her further.
“You try to breathe when you have something shoving its way through your ass,” she snapped. “Where is John? He needs to be here. I need him here!” she started to cry as she collapsed back against the bed after the contraction passed.
“Not until I’m certain of your wee one’s position, now calm down.” Carson said as he yet again grabbed the scanner.
Ziva laid her head down and closed her eyes. “Please don’t make me beg…Just get him in here or take me in for surgery to get it out. Just – do something! I can’t go through any more,” she said shaking her head.
He only smiled as he continued to examine her. Reaching up he felt around over her upper and lower abdomen. “Did you notice any other changes? Because I had read and seen photos of you before Colonel Sheppard went to work with you. Your abdominal areas do seem to be a bit more swollen than you appeared,” he commented.
She sighed as she thought about it. “I disregarded that as my neglecting to train. I have not been in the gym since my back has been hurting and been nursing an injury,” she admitted. “I can understand more now why that would be.”
“Aye lass, your clothing hides your body and these change quite well which is likely why no one else noticed,” he said glanced up at the monitor. “Oh! Another contraction is about to come! Nurse? Can you please find Colonel Sheppard and ask him in. It’s almost time.”
John was sulking when he was back in the waiting area, holding an ice pack against his swollen face and trying to drink the now cold coffee. Gibbs was looking at him with an amused look on his face.
“Do you have any plans on what you two plan to do now?” Tony asked randomly as his head leaned back against the wall where he sat.
“It’s not like we had time to discuss things yet, Tony.” John answered.
McGee slurped a sip from his coffee and shrugged. “But you must have thought about it some since. I’m curious as to if Gibbs and Vance will let you two to be partners after this,” he commented, glancing at their boss quickly and nervously.
“I don’t care, to be honest. If not, I’ll retire and should we have a healthy baby, become a full time house dad and babysitter to Torren.”
“I thought we had taught you something about quitting, Sheppard.” Gibbs replied.
John shrugged. “You have a thing against partners on a team, it’s only fair if you decide we shouldn’t continue with what we are doing. And it’s only reasonable for me to either find a different job or retire in order to stay with Ziva.”
The older man smiled and shook his head. “I’ll admit that this was a big surprise but you two have also continued to separate your private life from your work without any hints to your relationship so far. Being parents will change things, you know. We can keep going on a probationary basis for now and see how things go. You both however, <i>will</i> have wills and all that other legal stuff done when things start to settle down. If either of you are injured or killed – that baby will need to be cared for.”
“I <i>know</i>, Gibbs. A baby is not a pet… did someone call Teyla already?”
“I think Abby did,” McGee answered. “Oh someone’s coming this way…” he pointed out as he noticed a woman in pink scrubs shuffling her way down the hall towards them.
“Colonel Sheppard?” the young woman asked, looking around.
“Is she okay?” John asked as he nearly knocked over his coffee when he got up.
The girl smiled and nodded. “Yes, she is comfortable. Doctor Beckett asked for me to come get you. She is almost ready to begin to push. If you wish to come with me now…?”
“Coming!” John followed the nurse. Carson was finally letting him near her again. When he entered the room Ziva was in, he saw she was hooked up on various machines and Ziva had a look on her face that told him that she was about to kill someone. “I’m here.” he smiled as he walked to Ziva and planted a kiss on her forehead. “How are you doing?”
“I’ve been better,” she smiled at seeing him. “You okay?”
Carson looked up and grinned. “Colonel. So far everything is actually looking pretty good. However, Ziva, when the next contraction begins, I want you to push hard,” he said as a nurse came to her other side to help sit her up into position.
“Good?” John asked his friend. “What do you mean? She never even looked like she could even be–”
“Actually Miss Ziva did gain some and show slightly. It appears as if her body simply concealed the infant quite well,” the doctor grinned as he kept an eye on the monitor still.
“Apparently!” John shot a look at Carson. “Everything alright though, doc?”
“Well as soon as the little one is with us, I’ll have to look him or her over to be sure, but right now, other than a bit of a concerning heart rate, things do look like they are going good.”
“Good,” John then smiled at Ziva who looked like she could use a nap. “You can do this.”
She shook her head. “You do this,” she replied as she winced when a spasm started up again.
“Alright Ziva, I want you to push through this,” Carson interrupted. “Just a couple good hard pushes may be enough and it will be all over soon enough,” he reassured her.
Ziva sat up with the help of the nurse and bared down, her hand tightening around John’s. She groaned it out as she felt her insides stretch painfully. It felt like an eternity before the first wave was over and she fell back against the bed.
“You are doing good lass,” the doctor smiled. “The head is through and the youngin’ has a load of hair! On the next contraction you should be able to finish up and we’ll have a new life here!”
“You push it out!” she cried. “I just want to sleep…”
“You can sleep soon, honey…” John softly caressed her hair. “You’re doing great.”
Growling she shoved him away. “You do this, I just – I can’t,” she whimpered. Her reprieve did not last long as the next contraction came quickly which ignited her to cry out and the nurse helped to support her back while she bared down to push the infant out the rest of the way.
“I have the shoulders,” Carson announced before the rest of the small body simply slid out, leaving Ziva in an exhausted slump. Quickly he clamped the umbilical before cutting it and transferring the baby to the warmer where a small group of hospital staff were waiting to begin to clean off and check on its health.
John wanted to follow Carson and look at the baby but his glare told him to stay with Ziva. He took a wet wash cloth and softly caressed Ziva’s face with it. “I think it’s a girl,” he smiled at her.
While he left his friend to tend to his love, the doctor went over to help with the baby. Suctioning the nose and mouth of the tiny body, he quickly tried to stimulate the infant into breathing and crying. A nurse looked up at him and murmured, “She has an Apgar of five.”
“I see that,” he muttered with concern and determination as he continued to rub at the tiny extremities to push the blood through to them. After a minute or so, the baby let out a light cough before wiggling around on the table and pulling its arms and legs away from each person who tried to tug on them to check its physical activity.
After a little more suctioning the baby let out a loud cry that soon filled the room, filtering out into the hall whenever the door opened by nurses coming and going. Smiling with a pleased satisfaction, Carson looked back at John and Ziva. “It’s a girl! A wee bit tiny, but she looks to be quite healthy!” he said as he finished wiping her off before wrapping a soft blanket around her to bring her over to her parents.
John watched the baby girl as Carson placed her in Ziva’s arms. “I can’t believe it,” he breathed a sigh of relief. “She’s beautiful!” He smiled and softly kissed Ziva on the head.
Ziva blinked as she looked at the tiny baby. “I feel like I’m going to break her,” she said softly. “All this time…I did not know.”
“She’s quite the surprise alright.” John smiled as he softly touched one of the tiny hands with his finger. “I can’t believe we’re parents.”
“I know,” she replied as she stared at her.
“Have either of you ever considered a name through all this?” Carson asked as he watched on proudly.
“Nope, was too busy worrying about Ziva.” John answered. The little girl looked like Ziva, with her big eyes and tiny nose and he just couldn’t believe that he and Ziva were responsible for her creation.
She looked up at John and smiled. “Actually I did think about it some, on the way here and while waiting for you,” she said. “After we got back from Colorado, I looked up about Elsa, and who she was… and I thought…Well I know how much she meant to you but what if we use her middle name? Mariely?”
John was quiet for a moment and then looked at Ziva. “I think… that it’s a great idea and that Elsa would have loved that,” he answered carefully. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she nodded and looked back at the baby. “After all, if it were not for her, in some ways, she would not be here, right?”
“Alright,” John nodded and softly kissed her. “Mariely it is.” John then heard the muffled sobs of his friend Carson and looked at him. “Really?”
“Ah lad, it’s wonderful to see how you’ve come full circle and how your lass wants to honor Elsa… forgive a man for crying.”
Ziva smiled up at him before looking at John again and moved to let him take her. “Here,” she said. “Hold her. Show her to the team,” she added as she shifted in the bed uncomfortably. Carson was already back in his stool at the foot of the bed knowing what was going to come next.
“You best listen to her. We just need to handle the afterbirth here and get Ziva cleaned up for everyone to come in,” he said.
John looked at Mariely in shock. She was small and light and he now realized why Ziva was afraid she’d break her. “Oh… okay.” He made his way out of the room with their baby girl in his arms; he didn’t have to go far, before he knew it, he was looking directly at Gibbs who was smiling like a proud grandfather and Tony and McGee grinning like the silly uncles. “It’s a girl.” John said sheepishly.
“Well let us see!” Tony replied as he looked over McGee’s shoulder to see better. “Holy crap she’s small!”
“Ziva’s ninja body hid her well.” John pointed out.
“Congratulations, Sheppard, she’s beautiful.” Gibbs said. “She’s going to be one hell of a heart-breaker when she grows up.”
To that Tony grinned. “I believe that. Considering her parents, she’s going to have every guy chasing after her,” he laughed and simmered down once he caught the look John had in his eye – and after McGee elbowed him in the gut.
“Did you guys decide on a name?” McGee asked.
“Ziva thought that Mariely was appropriate.” John said proudly. “I think it suits her.”
“Mariely Sheppard?”
“I don’t know, we haven’t discussed the important details yet, Ziva was kinda busy and now she’s too tired to have that kind of conversation.”
Gibbs shrugged a shoulder. “It can wait. At least she has a name,” he smiled as he made his way over and reached up to play with the tiny fingers. “Abby and Ducky hired a private ambulance to come transfer Ziva and Mariely. She is riding up with them and said they should be here any minute so you might want to prepare yourself for a tornado.”
John chuckled. “Is there a way to prepare yourself for the torrent that’s Abby? Please, tell me your secret!”
The older man only smiled as he turned his attention back on the baby. “She’s going to be out of work for awhile. I’m assuming you’re going to talk her into moving in by you at least temporarily? I’m sure Teyla will be able to help her where she would need that sort of thing.”
John nodded. “The house is a secure place and big enough for all of us and Teyla would be more than happy to help.”
“Of course I would John,” a voice spoke up from behind them. Abby and Teyla were walking down the hall with the ambulance crew behind them. “Is that the baby?” she asked as she, almost as eagerly as Abby, quickened her step.
“John! John! John! Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs! The first team baby! Can you believe it! Oh my god! Will I get to babysit? Please say yes! I have so much that I could teach it! What is it? It’s a girl, right? Of course it is! They wouldn’t wrap a boy up in pink,” Abby rattled on as she jumped on her already high platform shoes. “And oh my god what happened to your face?!”
“Abby,” John chuckled. “Calm down, please.” He was surprised that Mariely was still quiet, but probably because she was too tired of the stress Ziva had to endure during the day. “Her name is Mariely and I’m sure that you’ll get the chance to babysit her one day.”
Teyla had been eying the child in her friend’s arms and smiled. “She could also simply be a quiet baby,” she pointed out. “But I believe your Doctor Mallard would prefer us to have everyone moved closer to home simply for the comfort and security of your military hospital. Where is Ziva? I will go speak with her quickly and fill her in on the arrangements for you.”
“In there.” John pointed towards the room. “However, I was kicked out, I think it’s safer to wait until Carson says it’s okay to go in.” When he saw the look on Teyla’s face he smiled. “Yes, Carson, the Hammond brought him over after I asked if they could level something to the ground for us.”
“If he kicked you out for the reason I believe, then he will certainly let me in,” she smiled as she turned to go find her friends and share their plans.
“Can I please hold her? Please?” Abby seemed to have calmed down somewhat as she stretched out her arms. “I promise I won’t drop her.”
“You’d better not.” John said as he gently put Mariely in Abby’s arms and then took a seat on one of the chairs. What a day, John thought as he kept his eyes on Abby and his daughter.
After several minutes passed, Carson eventually made his way out of the birthing room with a tired smile on his face. “How is everyone fairing?” he asked as he approached the waiting area after speaking to the ambulance crew. Teyla had remained in the room with Ziva to help clean her up for the transfer, and it was something that he was confident that the nurses were more than capable of assisting as well so he took his leave then. “Have you gotten yourself checked out, Colonel?”
“Yes Carson,” John replied.
“How about your eyes?”
John looked at Carson blankly. “What about them?”
“Well… you’ve been hit on the head several times, maybe you should come by the SGC in a couple of days when you all have settled,” the doctor answered quietly.
“I’m not going to fly only to…”
“You don’t need to fly.”
“Shut up.”
The doctor sighed and shook his head. “We’ll talk about it later and no excuses. They should be almost done getting Ziva ready to be transferred,” he filled him in. Looking around, he found the woman that Teyla had described that came with her and smiled. “Lass, did you happen to bring Torren’s car seat? I forgot to ask Teyla before I left the room. I’m sure that the hospital has one we can borrow if you didn’t…”
“Oh, Ducky is going to love you.” Abby squeaked. “Of course we did, well I had to remind Teyla and then get the thing out of John’s car but yes, auntie Abby brought the car seat with her.”
Carson chuckled. “Well, we are going to need it soon as this little one will be transported with her mother. I do want to keep them in for observation and some tests for a least a night or two to make sure that there is nothing wrong with either of them after all they went through to get here. You too Colonel. I want you to stay the night when we get to Bethesda. No arguing because Landry agreed, it’s either there or Colorado.”
John made a face. “As long as you don’t call Dr. Cale.”
Carson smiled innocently. “Why would I do that? Oh right, your eyes! Good idea John, a very good idea! No seriously, Colonel, you look like you haven’t slept properly for days.”
“He hasn’t.” Gibbs replied. “Ever since we found that buddy of his.”
“Aye… such a sad loss.” Carson sighed. Looking up, he saw Teyla poking her head out of the room. “Ah, it looks as if they are ready. I suppose it would be alright for Ziva to hold the young one until we get to the ambulance. I hope that the staff doctor has all the paperwork finished. If you don’t mind me taking Mariely for a short time to get her prints done and we can be on our way.”
“Here you go.” Abby gently handed Mariely over to Carson before pushing passed Teyla and running into the room to give Ziva a big hug.
Ziva groaned as she accepted her friend’s affection. She was still quite very sore and the pain medication the nurse gave her had yet to start to take effect. They wouldn’t give her anything strong that would stay in her body long because at some point, she would have to try to see if she could produce milk to feed Mariely, if she decided to try breast feeding at all. “Hey Abby,” she smiled tiredly as she watched what little things she had when they came in being bagged by Teyla.
“I’m so glad you’re still alive and you’re the first mommy on the team and oh she’s so beautiful and you did great and you had us all worried because we couldn’t even find you on your cellphone and that’s why…–”
Teyla gently tapped Abby’s shoulder and smiled. “Breathe, and take it slowly; your friend is tired.”
“Oops, sorry Ziva.” Abby said sheepishly.
“It’s okay. I know you were worried, but we were sure that when we did not check in after having to drive out so far, that Gibbs would have started looking,” she replied. “It is still all very shocking.”
“It is! One moment you’re not pregnant and then whammo! Baby!” Abby hugged Ziva again. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”
She laughed lightly and shook her head. “Evidently, according to Dr. Beckett, I’ve actually had the signs of being pregnant the entire time just it wasn’t as obvious as we would believe or consider…” Ziva trailed off as she noticed the door open and the ambulance technicians come in with their stretcher. Sighing, she knew she would have to move over and she just didn’t want to move period.
It actually didn’t take much effort for the crew to move her themselves and despite the pain and discomfort that came from the jostling, she was happier to have had them do that little bit for her as it would have hurt more for her to do it herself.
Several minutes later, she was being wheeled out into the hall where Carson waited to hand Mariely over to her. Smiling, she looked down at the baby in her arms and sighed. She was so transfixed on the smallness of her that she failed to notice everyone else that lingered around.
“Alright you lot, keep moving,” Carson said, “That’s enough excitement for the day, both the mom and wee one need their rest now, but feel free to follow the ambulance in a car… where’s Colonel Sheppard? Please tell me that he didn’t walk off!”
“He nodded off.” Tony grinned as he started to shake John awake.
“I’m awake, what’s wrong?” John quickly sat up and immediately regretted rubbing his face.
“You, your gorgeous lass and your daughter are going to get a lift to Bethesda hospital; move it, Colonel.” Carson answered. “There’ll be plenty of time to sleep once the excitement has gone.”
John felt like a zombie when he followed everyone to the hospital exit, but couldn’t help but smile when he saw the look on Ziva’s face while she was holding Mariely. He knew he had to talk to Ziva about the important things, such as what were they going to do now, but it had to wait until the day after; he was currently too tired and overwhelmed by everything.
The ambulance had been cramped with John and Carson insisting on riding in the back with Ziva and the technician, while Teyla sat in the front. Abby wasn’t too thrilled that she couldn’t join them on the way back but calmed down with just a look from Gibbs as they headed back. Carson made it clear to the rest of the team that they would be more than welcome to visit in the morning, but asked for them to leave the family to rest for the night.
By the time they finally got settled in, John had been more than pleased that his friends worked on arrangements for them to share a room for their admission. Since Sheppard was only really in for observation with Carson hovering over them, it was certainly unusual to have a male patient on the maternity ward but after everything, they just didn’t want to be too far from one another.
John loved watching Ziva sleep, she looked beautiful, peaceful and glowy. There was a smile across her lips and at that moment, he fell in love with her all over again. He couldn’t sleep, despite his exhaustion, and had taken place in a chair next to her bed, putting his feet up against her bed and enjoyed the view.
“You should be in your own bed Colonel,” Carson said softly from the doorway. “If you thought the last several hours were overwhelming, it’s only going to continue to be so for a long while. The General is still eager to visit you this weekend, or have you forgotten?”
“She’s so beautiful, Carson. I don’t want to sleep, I just want to sit here for a while.”
“Yes, she is a lovely woman and I am relieved to know that you have found her, but please, return to your bed and get the rest you really do need. I don’t want to have to sedate you to make sure that you get rest, but I will if I have to,” the doctor sighed.
John grumbled as he put his feet on the ground and got up from his chair. He softly planted a kiss on Ziva’s forehead and crawled into his own bed. “Happy?”
“Ecstatic,” Carson replied as dryly as his friend spoke, but smiled nonetheless. “I will call and update the General on everything and try to get arrangements for everything you will need. I hope you don’t mind but I gave Teyla your wallet when you were sleeping so that she and Miss Abby to go buy things for the baby.”
“Thought I had lost it when Cobb had us… I must have forgotten to take it with me then.” John pulled the covers over him. “It’s fine, Carson, thank you.”
“Ah, no. Agent Gibbs actually found it in your car after you got to the hospital,” he replied. “You don’t remember putting it in the center console? Though your badge and weapon from the Navy will have to be replaced – that wasn’t around that anyone could see.”
“The bastard took our weapons and cellphones, although they didn’t work,” John said, and then sighed. “He had this huge grudge against all agencies for some reason and I haven’t been able to figure it out.”
“You and your friends can work on that later, lad. At least you made sure he wasn’t able to put other people through what he has put you through, and your lovely lady and of course Major Stackhouse, that should be satisfactory for you,” Carson smiled. “You were never one for getting to the bottom of things unless you were being forced to, I like this change in you.”
“Does that mean that you’ll hold off on Dr. Cale?”
“No.” Carson smiled again. “Sleep well, Colonel.”
“Night, Carson.”
