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Twenty-three hours later Gibbs entered the hall of Jijiga Central Hospital—a grand name for a small building.

It was late evening and the car ride from Addis Ababa had been long and bumpy, spent mostly in silence because his driver, a sergeant, had spoken little English.

He scanned the hall, looking for the reception counter, but his eyes stopped first on two men sitting on both sides of a closed door. They exchanged a look and both men rose to their feet.

He walked toward them, his acute sense of smelling alerting him he was in the presence of two vampires.

He stopped in front of the two men and they all studied each other, before the tallest of the Ethiopians nodded slightly.

"Mr. Gibbs? I'm General Selassie – the local dean – and this is Major Zenawi."

He shook hands with both officers, then Selassie tilted his head toward the door they had been guarding.

"Miss David's room is that way."

Zenawi pushed the door open and the three vampires stepped inside a dimply lit corridor.

As soon as they were alone, Gibbs said, "Thank you General, Major. I've no way to tell you how grateful I am for what you did."

Selassie flashed him a brief smile, his white teeth almost blinding against his ebony skin. "There is no need to thank us, Gibbs. It was a pleasure to help one of our kin."

"Was it a difficult task?"

"No. It looked like they didn't expect trouble. The security was loose. We managed to enter inside the room where Miss David was held by the window you described to Bill. The bond you have with your mate must be really strong to transmit you such detailed information," Selassie commented with a mix of awe and envy. "I can only hope my wife will one day trust me so much…"

Gibbs smiled slightly, then sobered. "Ziva told me the terrorist leader had gone away for a couple of days. Maybe he took some of his men with him. This was why the security was loose."

"Possibly. But does it really matter?"

"No," Gibbs smirked. This wasn't the time to wonder why Ziva's captor wanted to know about NCIS—now it was time for him to see his mate.

The two Ethiopians seemed to read his mind, because they both smiled knowingly.

"Go to her," Selassie said, indicating the door in front of him. "We'll keep guard in the hall. We don't expect trouble, but it's best to be prudent than sorry."

Gibbs nodded in approval and pushed open the door of Ziva's room.

The chamber was small and dark, but his vampire night vision allowed him too see and move well in his surroundings.

Ziva was asleep, lying on her back. Her right forearm was in a cast and the left side of her face was covered by gauze. There were monitors connected to her heart and sensors to check her blood pressure, but she was breathing easily, without the aide of a mask or a nasal cannula.

He stepped by the end of the bed and checked her medical chart, relieved to see it had been compiled in English.

Massive bruising, three cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist, suspected minor concussion and internal damage. An impressive array of injuries but, blessedly, nothing that a lot of rest and care couldn't fix—and he would make sure she would get plenty of both.

Gibbs put down the chart and circled the bed. There was a chair by the nightstand and he lowered his tired body onto it. Now that he was finally near Ziva, knowing she would be all right, the tension of the past days and the fatigue of the trans-continental flight were starting to catch up with him now that the adrenaline rush was no longer sustaining him.

He leant forward and studied her face. She looked tense. Her eyeballs moved quickly beneath her eyelids and her brow was furrowed.

Gibbs took her good hand in his own and bent down to brush his lips against her brow.

"Sleep well, Ziver. I'm here now and I won't allow anyone to harm you again," he whispered against her skin.

Almost immediately, Ziva's body relaxed and her brow smoothened.

Gibbs smiled, then, without letting go of her hand, he relaxed against the back of the chair, already feeling sleep creeping over him.

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The glare of the sun against his face woke up Gibbs. He blinked his eyes and focused his gaze on Ziva.

His heart surged when he saw she too was awake, although she was staring at him with confusion.

"Are you really here?" she whispered so low he barely heard her despite his sharp vampire hearing.

"Yes, I'm really here," he answered, gently squeezing the hand he was still holding.

Ziva tried to smile in spite of her broken lips. "You came…"

"I'll always come to you. I could never leave you," Gibbs said softly, his eyes fixed on her face.

"You left me in Tel Aviv…"

"Ziver, I'm sorry. I-"

"Never apologize…it's a sign of weakness."

"Not between us."

"Then, I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have asked you to make a choice…" her voice trailed off and she swallowed hard.

"Shh…" Gibbs silenced her, caressing her hair with his free hand. "It's okay. It's all in the past. We talked about it, remember?"

Ziva shook her head.

"I'm sure you will. Now just focus on getting better. I want to take you away from here ASAP."

She nodded as her eyelids started to close. Then she opened her eyes again, "Where is 'here'?"

"Jijiga, Ethiopia."

"Oh."

Her eyes closed again, this time for good. Gibbs bent down to pose a light kiss on her lips, then stood up and went to alert the doctors Ziva had regained consciousness.

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