Tony could no longer be positive of what was real. His fevered dreams and glimpses of reality had no definite boundaries. If he could have thought rationally he would have taken comfort in the fact that his awareness of his pain had lessened as well, but instead of thoughts he knew only fear and confusion. His awareness of changes from piercing light to suffocating darkness was minimal at most. Tony ceases to exist; if consciousness of oneself is to be considered existence. Ziva may be painfully aware of Tony's labored breathing, but for all intents and purposes Tony DiNozzo was dead to the world.
McGee reentered Lee's room. She had changed into a hospital gown and sat up as the door closed.
"The nurse came in, said the doctor will be coming soon... I think," Lee informed him.
"OK, we have four ELN. I don't know where the other two are, but I think our best bet is to try to avoid a firefight in the middle of the hospital," McGee replied. Lee nodded her assent.
Just then the doctor walked in, medical file in hand. Closing it, he smiled and looked up at them. "Mrs. Smith, you are having pain in the stomach?" He asked with a smile. McGee glanced at Lee. They didn't have much time. The doctor seemed like a good guy, they would just have to trust him.
"The man a couple of doors over, how's he doing?" McGee asked. The doctor looked at him suspiciously. McGee pulled out his badge and flashed it at the doctor. "He is a US federal agent. We need to get him out of this hospital and away from the ELN. We'll need an ambulance and a nurse to take care of him," McGee said slowly, enunciating as best as he could. The doctor seemed dumbfounded as he stared blankly at McGee.
"Do you understand me?" McGee asked. The doctor shook his head and looked up at McGee again.
"I understand. Do you understand? What you ask me to do, the ELN will kill me and my family!" He exclaimed in a stifled yell, looking around as if to be sure the ELN hadn't heard him.
McGee felt like shaking some sense into the doctor, but at the same time he understood his fear. Giving a sigh, McGee tried again, lowering his voice.
"Tony is my partner; I need to get him to safety, along with everyone else. I don't want you or your family to be hurt. We can make it look like we stole your ambulance and escaped without your help. We have people in Colombia who can look out for you.
When they get their money the ELN will kill Tony and Ziva, the girl with him. I know you don't want that to happen, you heal people, you don't kill them."
The doctor shook his head several times. To McGee it looked as if he was going to cry. McGee felt bad, but he didn't have time to let the man work through the problem at hand.
"Pick your best nurse. She doesn't have to speak English, Ziva can translate," McGee stated as if the doctor had already agreed.
The doctor shook his head again, and McGee felt himself losing his temper. "We don't have much time!" McGee hissed.
Looking back up, the doctor met McGee's eyes. "Your friend. He should not be moved. His condition could get bad. He needs hospital," the doctor explained.
Realizing the source of the doctor's hesitation, McGee felt briefly ashamed. But he didn't have time for emotions. Gibbs had entrusted him with getting Tony and everyone else out alive. He wasn't going to let him down. "How far is the closest hospital with the equipment to care for him?" he asked.
"20 minutes," the doctor answered.
"Tony won't die. Gibbs hasn't given him permission," McGee replied. The doctor stared at him, confused. "Go get the nurse and have the ambulance prepared, than come back in here, ok?" McGee continued. He slapped the doctor on the shoulder and walked towards the door. Looking out the narrow window he assured there was no unwanted militant presence in the hall before stepping out.
Ziva looked up again to see McGee sliding through the door.
"We're getting out of here. We're going to move Tony to the nearest hospital. I'll need you to call in a threat in Spanish so that we'll have police presence to give us some protection. Hopefully it will be a while before the ELN notice we're gone," McGee rapidly fired at Ziva.
Ziva glanced back down at Tony's pale form. "Can he be moved?" she asked almost timidly.
Off put by the emotion evident in Ziva's voice McGee almost felt like lying to her. However he decided he wouldn't be able to fool her and went with the truth. "He has to, Ziva," he responded sympathetically.
For a moment Ziva was still. McGee thought that she hadn't heard him until she nodded her head in agreement.
Gibbs sat in the back of a covered truck with two grim ELN and a very silent Lt. Santos. They were heading to the hospital were Tony and Ziva were, or had been, as Gibbs hoped. If McGee had already got them out, than Gibbs would only have himself and Santos to worry about. If he hadn't… Gibbs would cross that bridge when he reached it.
Gibbs threw Lt. Santos a half smile. The poor kid looked shell shocked.
It was taking longer than he liked to get everything prepared. As much as McGee tried to hurry the doctor, it didn't seem that he could move any faster. As he had patiently explained to the impatient federal agent, moving someone as sick as Tony had to be carefully thought out and executed. They had to be ready for any emergency that could befall them en route. A couple of nurses were busy stocking the ambulance, and the Mossad operatives had moved the cars next to the ambulance bay so that they could all leave together.
The only good news that had come out of the delay was that Tony seemed to be turning a corner. His blood pressure had risen and his white blood cell count had normalized. The doctor even thought that he could be taken off the ventilator soon. The danger of septic shock seemed to have passed, but the doctor warned that Tony still required a lot of care.
As far as McGee could tell the ELN that had accompanied Tony and Ziva to the hospital did not seemed overly worried about security. Ziva told him that they checked in on her every once in a while, but with no regularity and as time passed their visits were even more infrequent. McGee could only hope that their lackadaisical attitude would continue for a while longer.
When the time came to move Tony to the ambulance Ziva's apprehension rose to a fever pitch. As the nurses disconnected various wires and reconnected them to smaller, portable machines, Ziva feared that something would go wrong. She feared that the beeps that disappeared upon disconnection would not reappear. With each one that started again its incessant serenade she breathed anew. Finally the last wire had been reattached and the nurses gave Ziva a reassuring smile.
Ziva felt a weight lift off her which was quickly followed by utter exhaustion. She had pushed aside and ignored it for so long that all at once it seemed overwhelming.
She rested her hands on the railing of Tony's bed and felt her whole body begin to droop. She was not sure how long she had stood in this position when she felt something graze her hand.
Shocked into agent mode Ziva eyes bolted open and she jumped back. Quickly looking around she didn't notice anything out of place. The nurses had left and the room was empty. Empty except for Ziva and Tony. Ziva slowly turned her eyes down towards Tony, not willing to hope. When she had finally made her visual trek down to Tony's face, she almost jumped back once again. His eyes were barely open, but they were open. And they were looking right at her.