Thanks so much to all of you who continue to read and review. Also, thanks to wonderworldofmine for making me think about the vials. That was one detail I had overlooked so I appreciate you mentioning it.

xxxxx

"The vials…" Sam suddenly remembered and he wished he had thought about them before they had taken off in the helicopter. Now, that much more time had been wasted because he hadn't considered that important detail.

"Mr. Hanna?" Hetty asked as she and the doctor both looked at him curiously.

"Bart forced G to drink the poison from a vial. There were three of them. Supposedly, two of them were poisonous and one of them was not. Maybe there's a trace of something inside them that would help to find an antidote."

"That's very possible," Dr. Carlisle said, nodding and looking a bit more optimistic. "Where are the vials? Can you get them to me so I can bring them to the lab?"

"Hetty?" Sam turned to her, his eyes anxious. "Can you send someone back to where we were to look for the vials? The last I saw they were on a table at the campsite. Eric must be back by now. Maybe he could go to the campsite and take a look?" He would have gone himself, but he wanted to be by his partner's side as soon as possible. He didn't want G to have to deal with this alone.

"Yes, I'll get on that right away. Why don't you go see what's going on with our friend, Mr. Richards? Perhaps he can be persuaded to give us some information about the poison that Mr. Callen ingested."

Sam nodded and the two left the office and parted ways. As Hetty walked back down the hallway in the direction of the ER, she began to realize that there was much she did not yet know about what her team had gone through with Bartholomew. The thought of Callen being forced to drink poison sickened her and she had a horrible feeling that whatever else she was going to learn would prove to be worse than what she could even imagine.

xxxxx

Callen laid in the bed in the small private room as he tried to make sense out of what Dr. Carlisle had told him. He was on antibiotics and pain killers, along with IV fluids. He had also been given Compazine to control his nausea. Physically, he was relatively comfortable, definitely more so than he had been in Bart's camp. It was a little hard to believe that he wasn't getting better. However, the doctor's dire words were hanging over him and he had very little hope that his outcome was going to be good.

When Sam had given him the salt water to drink, he'd allowed himself to believe that it was actually going to work and that he would recover. However, now he knew better and he was scared, more so than he had ever believed he would be in this kind of situation. For some reason, he felt even worse than when he'd been tied to the tree thinking he was about to be blown to bits. This slower, more drawn out death, which would be watched by everyone, wasn't what he had envisioned for himself. He didn't want to see his team members pitying him as they all waited for death to claim him.

He also knew that hiding his feelings was of the utmost importance. He couldn't let Sam, Hetty or any of his friends and team members know the truth. They would have a hard enough time with this, especially his partner and Hetty. He refused to make it even worse on them.

xxxxx

"Eric, thank goodness I reached you," Hetty said when he picked up the phone in Ops. "What is your current status?"

"I just got back here a short while ago," Eric replied. "All the prisoners have been transported and I figured this was where you'd want me to be. Why? Is there something else you need?"

"Yes. It's a matter of some urgency. Whatever poison Mr. Callen was given has not been identified. We're hoping the vials are back at the campsite. Mr. Hanna believes that they are on or by the table there. There's a military plane on standby waiting for you. Can you go there and try to find the vials? Take Nell along with you. When you've found them, which hopefully you will, bring them here to the hospital as quickly as you can." She then proceeded to give him the airport information detailing where the plane was waiting.

"How are Callen and Deeks doing?" Eric asked, a note of concern in his voice.

"Mr. Deeks is holding his own. As I said, the matter with Mr. Callen is urgent," Hetty said. "Hopefully, these vials will give us the information we need to save him."

"We'll be back as fast as possible," Eric said.

"Thank you, Eric. I know I can count on you."

xxxxx

"These are some pretty nasty marks," Dr. Morelli said to Kensi as she carefully treated the wounds on her back. "You know… you really need to be careful with this kind of thing."

"What kind of thing?" Kensi repeated as she looked at the other woman in confusion. "What do you mean?" After thinking about it for a few moments, she realized what Dr. Morelli was insinuating and her cheeks began to redden. "Oh…it was nothing like that…"

"Well then…have you reported this to the police?" Dr. Morelli asked, obviously concerned.

Kensi sighed. "I am the police, well with NCIS anyway. Trust me, this will all be handled. The man responsible is in custody. He's actually a patient at this hospital."

"Oh, I see. Well, I'm glad he was caught. This kind of thing is not okay if it's not consensual between partners and even then, proper precautions need to be taken. It can easily get out of hand."

"I know that," Kensi said with a slight edge to her voice. This woman was making her feel uncomfortable and ashamed about what had happened, although she knew she had no reason to feel that way. At the moment, she was just very grateful that Deeks wasn't with her. She could only imagine what Dr. Morelli's words would do to him.

Finally, the doctor finished with her and she went back out into the ER waiting room only to find that Sam and Hetty were no longer there. She waited uncertainly for a few minutes and was about to go see if she could find out any further information, when Hetty returned.

"I'm glad you're here, Ms. Blye," Hetty said. "Is everything okay with you?"

Kensi nodded. "Yes, yes, I'm fine, Hetty. Have you gotten word about Callen's condition?"

Hetty nodded as she looked up at Kensi, her eyes filled with worry. "Yes and I'm afraid the news isn't very good at the moment. They have been unable to identify the poison which Callen took and they're giving him a rather grim prognosis. We're not giving up though. We're going to do everything in our power to figure out what he was given and hopefully get some sort of antidote. For right now, I've managed to get hold of Mr. Beale and he is going back to the campsite with Nell to hunt down the vials."

Kensi nodded as she tried to process this newest bit of bad news. "Let's hope they find it quickly…" She took a deep breath as she tried to hold herself together. She wondered whether this nightmare was ever going to end for any of them. "I'm going to find out if I can see Deeks. Please keep me posted and let me know if there's anything you need me to do."

"I will dear," Hetty said with a nod. "Please give Mr. Deeks my best wishes and tell him I will be in to see him as soon as possible."

xxxxx

Sam waited impatiently in the short line at the hospital information desk. He really needed to get to his partner. However, he knew that it was most important to try to get any information he could out of Bart. Saving his best friend's life was more important to him than anything.

"Can I help you?" the auburn-haired receptionist, whose name tag read Marge, asked him.

"Yes, I'm looking for a patient, Bartholomew…" Sam momentarily blanked before he came up with Bart's last name. "Richards." Can you tell me where he is, please?"

Marge efficiently began clicking on her computer keyboard, peering at her monitor as she did so. "Mr. Richards is in surgery," she informed Sam. "I can't give you any other information."

Sam sighed then thanked her before walking away from the desk. Of course Bart was in surgery. He wondered how long it would be before he could talk to the man. With every moment counting, this was not good news. Knowing there was nothing else he could do right then, he decided to go visit his partner and see for himself how he was doing.

xxxxx

Kensi sat by Deeks' bedside, silently watching him sleep. She was extremely worried about him, not only about his physical condition, but his state of mind as well. She hoped he would be able to get past all that had happened. She knew that his having to hurt her had caused him infinitely more harm than any injury she herself had sustained. Deeks groaned softly and she took his hand. "Deeks? Honey, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, baby, I hear you." He opened his eyes and looked up at her groggily with a faint smile. "We're finally safe?"

Kensi nodded as she returned his smile. "Yes, we're safe. Everything's going to be okay."

He nodded and shifted in the bed, trying to make himself more comfortable. "Did they take the bullet out?"

"No. You've been running a fever because the wound is infected. You're on antibiotics now. Once that's under control, then they'll take it out. The doctor assured me it was fine to leave it for the time being. It doesn't pose any danger to you."

"Okay." Deeks closed his eyes for a few long moments and Kensi thought he had fallen back to sleep, but then he opened them again. "Everything okay with Callen?"

Kensi avoided Deeks' gaze as she busied herself straightening Deeks' covers and pulling them up a little higher over his chest. "Are you warm enough?" she asked him. "I can get you another blanket if you'd like or another pillow. This one seems kind of flat."

"Kens?" Deeks now knew she was deliberately avoiding his question. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Kensi sighed softly as she met his eyes. "I'm afraid he's not doing well, Deeks," she replied. "They don't know what kind of poison he took so they don't know how to fight it. Hetty is sending Eric back to retrieve the vials, but…" She shrugged as she trailed off.

Deeks stared back at her for a long moment. "Damn…"

"Callen's strong though, Deeks," Kensi said, trying to convince him as well as herself. "He's not going to give up…we can't give up on him either."

"No, you're right," Deeks said, his blue eyes full of emotion. "We won't give up on him."

xxxxx

Sam stood in the doorway to Callen's room and watched his partner who seemed to be asleep. He appeared pale, but at least he wasn't in any obvious distress. He quietly entered the room and Callen's eyes immediately opened.

"Hey G," Sam said softly as he approached his bedside and sat down in the chair next to the bed. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't. I wasn't sleeping."

"So…How are you doing?"

"I'm good." Callen studied his partner's expression as he tried to determine just how much he knew about his condition. "They're giving me all kinds of meds to keep me comfortable."

Sam nodded then forced a smile as he wondered about G's state of mind. He knew his friend was anything but good. "Can I get you anything?"

Callen shook his head. "No thanks…I don't need anything. How's Deeks? Is he okay?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, he's doing pretty well. He has a wound infection, which we already knew, and once they get that under control, they'll remove the bullet."

"That's good to hear," Callen said with a small sigh of relief. At least none of the others would end up dead as a result of the insanity that had occurred at Bart's hand.

Both men were silent for a few long moments until Callen decided to address the elephant in the room. "So…did you talk to the doctor?" He fidgeted with the blanket when he asked the question, not looking at Sam's face, but finally he forced himself to meet his gaze. He knew immediately that Sam had spoken with the doctor, just from his expression and the sadness in his eyes.

"We're doing everything we can to find an antidote, G," Sam spoke as reassuringly as he could. "We're not giving up. You can't give up either."

Callen nodded, trying to keep his expression as detached and unemotional as possible. "I'm not giving up, Sam," he said softly.

"Good…because you need to keep fighting, G. You know we've got your back. We always will."

"I know…thanks, Sam. That…that means a lot." Callen knew what his partner said was true and he also knew that his team would do everything in their power to save him. However, the truth was that sometimes these things were just out of everyone's control and no matter what efforts were undertaken… there was just nothing that could be done…