The world had finally stopped shaking. Slowly, and using more effort than it should have taken, Ziva opened her eyes. She winced, the sharp intake of breath making her ribs hurt. She led very still for several seconds, trying to determine how badly she'd been hurt. She lifted her head as much as she could. Whiplash, she thought to herself before groaning out loud. She looked around her and found that not only was her arm twisted at a funny angle, dislocated shoulder, but also that her wrist was contorted in a way that only came from a nasty break. She hissed as the room started to spin before her eyes. Bruised ribs, concussion, whiplash, dislocated shoulder and broken wrist. It could be worse. She mused. If it hadn't been for… She gasped, wincing as the expansion of her lungs aggravated her ribs. The events of several minutes ago came flooding back to her: she and Tony had been in the elevator- she mentally head-slapped herself, who takes the elevator in an emergency? - the world had started to collapse around them and they had been thrown to the ground. Tony had wrapped his arms around her. It was only then that she realised that while she was still on top of him, he was no longer holding her.
"T-Tony?" She managed to ask quietly. Her voice croaked enough to make her wonder how long she'd been inhaling dust before she'd come to. "Tony?" She asked slightly louder. She got no response and suddenly the word was swimming. "Tony! Wake up!" She pushed herself off of him the best she could with one arm. She'd managed to slide her knees either side of his thighs, ending with her straddling him. She sat back on his knees, lifting her body weight off of him. "Tony?" She pressed two fingers to his neck; the veins beneath it were still. "No! I will not let you die Tony!" She pressed both hands into his chest, ignoring the searing pain from her break and dislocation. "Please, do not die!" She counted in her head before press her hand to his head to push it back just far enough to clear his airways. She covered his mouth with hers and breathed, not even noticing the pain in her ribs. "Please!" She begged as she pressed her hands back into his chest. "Please don't die." Above her, she could hear shouts and screams, some she recognised, others she didn't.
"Hello? Is anybody alive down there?" A voice she didn't recognise filtered down through the carnage.
"Yes! Please! He needs help! Now!" She cried in between compressions.
"We'll get you out as soon as we can." All of a sudden the air was too thick to breathe. Her time in the desert had left her with many scars, none more crippling than the claustrophobia. She was gasping for air, disregarding the pain it was causing in her chest until suddenly she felt a hand encase hers and a gentle voice filled her ears.
"Shhh, it's okay. It's just a dream, wake up, it's okay." Her eyes snapped open and for a moment she had no idea where she was. "Zi, it's okay. You're safe now." She looked around her frantically as the world swam back into focus. "It's okay, Ninja."
"Tony?" She murmured. "Tony!" She cried as she threw her arms around him, well she threw the arm around him that wasn't strapped to her chest.
"You're okay. We're okay." He murmured into her hair as he held her close. "Whiplash, two concussions, yours decidedly more severe than mine, dislocated shoulder, broken wrist, two bruised ribs, both yours, four broken ones, all mine, which by the way you're kinda crushing." She pulled away immediately.
"Sorry." She winced, he smiled at her softly.
"It's okay." She looked rather sheepishly around herself.
"Umm, where am I?" He laughed.
"At my apartment, you have been here every night for the last three days. You had a dream about me dying and you wanted to make sure I was okay." She downcast her eyes. "Same dream?"
"Same dream." She confirmed softly. He drew her back into a hug, much more gently this time.
"It's okay Ninja. They'll heal too."