A/N: Ok, so I was still afflicted with writer's block at noon today, so I made a desperate decision and e-mailed a synopsis of my story to my dad. Much to my surprise he responded not with a snarky comment but with two very interesting ideas, one of which I used for this chapter. Thanks again for all the reviews and feel free to send me any of your ideas!

Oh, and for the purposes of this story I sped up the progression of Tony's affliction

Tony had steadily worsened. In the two hours since he had asked Ziva for Gibbs' ETA, he had slipped into a semi-conscious state from which Ziva had been unable to rouse him. He muttered to himself often. Ziva caught something about Kate and later something about the plague. She even heard her name mentioned a couple of times but she could not discern the context.

For the first half of an hour she attempted to revive him by wiping his forehead with a wetted cloth and talking to him. When nothing available to her appeared to work, she started to yell and pound on the door of their cell. After an interminable period of time, the door had finally opened and she had pled her case to the guard. She was fairly certain that if the situation was allowed to continue that Tony would not live to see Gibbs return, or that he would be too far gone by then to be saved.

The guard had shut the door without any word either way. Ziva sat silently with Tony's head in her lap for 20 minutes before the door opened again. A guard gruffly informed her that they would be taking Tony to a hospital. Two guards entered and lifted Tony off of Ziva's lap. She stood and began to follow them when the first guard stopped her abruptly with his outstretched hand.

"I am coming with you," Ziva stated in firm and enunciated Spanish. The guard simply shook his head 'no'. Ziva took a step forward, so that the guard's outstretched hand was firmly pressed against her shoulder. "I am coming with you," She repeated, "I am his fiancé and know his medical history. If Mr. DiNozzo hears that you did not do everything to insure the welfare of his son he will not be happy, and his payment to you would necessarily reflect this."

Her voice was so calm and steady and her argument so logical that the guard only thought for a moment before he changed their plans to accommodate her. She almost pushed the guard aside as she moved to follow to the two carrying Tony. They moved quickly to what appeared to be the same truck that had brought them to the camp. Ziva climbed in first, helping the guards to make Tony's transfer as smooth as possible.

Through the walls of his cell, Santos could hear the muffled sound of the trucks engine revving and then the sound fading as the truck drove away.

A guard informed Ziva that they were approaching a city with a sizable hospital whose facilities they could "use". The truck continued to speed along the road though now the sounds of other cars were now perceptible. Feeling the truck weave in and out of traffic, Ziva was astounded by the lack of blaring horns. Finally she reasoned that the other drivers must have known who was driving the truck.

Before long the truck came to a screeching halt. Almost immediately the guards were unloading Tony. Another guard exited from the front of the truck and ran through the emergency doors of the hospital, assault rifle in hand. Moments later he reemerged with two doctors pushing a stretcher close behind him.

Tony was gently laid upon it and soon the doctors were rushing him through the hospital doors, Ziva by his side holding his hand and gun toting ELN following close behind.

Gibbs was just about to land in Colombia. After 11 hours of flight and airports he felt tired and irritated and his anger had only grown. He decided to make one last call to Abby before landing and facing what was ahead. Swiping his credit card and picking up the phone from the headrest in front of him he dialed the number for the lab. He awaited the connection by desperately hoping Abby would have some new information for him and trying to resign himself to the fact that it was very unlikely.

"Gibbs!" Abby screamed in his ear before he even realized that the connection had gone through.

"You got anything Abs?" Gibbs asked quickly.

"Oh Gibbs do I ever! It was so serendipitous how it happened. Normally it would have taken us days to learn about it if we learned about it at all. I just happened to be scanning…" Abby blurted excitedly before Gibbs managed to interrupt her.

"What have you got, Abby?" He asked sternly, discouraging further digressions.

"Well, the DEA heard from one of their sources in Colombia that the ELN stormed a hospital near Cúcuta with a fair-haired patient in tow."

"Can you get the exact coordinates for McGee? I'll want him to go ahead. And ask Jenny to get into contact with Mossad and see if they have any agents in Colombia who could help us." Gibbs paused briefly before he continued in almost a whisper, "Abby, you may have just saved this situation for us."