Disclaimer: Nope, don't own.
A/N- SPOILERS for season two of NCIS LA. Erm...spoilers that are disproven? Anywho- enjoy.
"Sit down."
He ignores the command and continues to pace, seven feet to the barred window, caked with grime and barely allowing any light in, seven feet to the thick metal door with no handle and locked from the outside.
The floor is covered in dust and broken tiles and probably a lot of stuff he doesn't want to identify. He's been pacing long enough that there is now a path through the grime from the window to the door.
Deeks turns and takes a step towards the window again, only to end up on the floor, on his ass as Sam manages to trip him. Which is a feat, considering the man is sitting against the wall bleeding from a bullet to the shoulder.
He glares over at the other Agent and gets a glare in return. Somehow he figures that Sam's is much more intimidating.
"I said. Sit. Down." Sam says again, then closes his eyes, and leans his head back against the wall and returns to putting pressure on the wound.
"How the hell are you so calm?" Deeks demands, shifting and grimacing as the dirt on the floor clings to his hands and his jeans and leans against the wall across from Sam. The man has a goddamn bullet in his shoulder, they're locked in the room waiting on backup that doesn't even know where they are and he's as calm as ever.
If he didn't know any better he'd swear drugs were involved somehow.
"Helps coming. G will find us." Deeks stares hard at the agent across the room with his eyes closed, relaxed and realizes that Sam believes this. "Stop staring at me." Sam snaps and Deeks looks away guiltily.
"How," He begins, unsure as to how to phrase it. Because while he trusts Kensi, he can't quite bring himself to believe that she's coming to get them. He knows she's trying but he doesn't see how she'll find them. "How can you be so sure they're coming?"
Sam cracks an eye open to peer over at him and Deeks feels like a bug under a microscope. Or a magnifying glass; the kind that was used to fry ants when he was in school.
"Because I trust my partner." He says like Deeks doesn't trust his own partner.
"Hey," He says defensively. "I trust Kensi. But you two," He waves a hand distractedly. "Learning to trust each other while Callen was undercover with the mob…"
"What are you talking about?" Sam sits up a little straighter, both eyes open now and frowning slightly.
"When he was ordered to shoot you and he pulled the trigger because he knew that the gun wasn't loaded. New Years day, 2007?" Sam frowns harder. Deeks decides that it must have been something they wanted to keep quiet. "Listen man, I won't go spreading it around or anything. I'm just saying, Kensi and I didn't have anything like that so we're still working on the absolute trust thing and…what?" He asks at the look he's receiving.
The frown has become an amused grin, still a little confused, but amused nonetheless.
"That never happened." Sam says.
Deeks frowns hard.
"But Hetty told us,"
Sam laughs at that, not mocking, just openly entertained and Deeks begins to feel like he's been played. He hates that feeling.
"That's not how it happened at all." Sam shifts a little and adjusts his grip on the fabric pressed against his shoulder. There isn't too much blood soaking through so Deeks isn't overly worried (aside from the fear of what Callen will do when he finds out Sam got shot on Deeks watch).
"Hetty lied?" He feels outraged and he really shouldn't because of course Hetty lied. She did it for a living. Sam raises an eyebrow at this and Deeks rolls his eyes, crossing his arms. "Fine." He says. "How'd it happen then?"
"Deeks." Sam says in his warning tone as the smile slides off his face.
"Look, who knows how long we'll be stuck in here, so you might as well tell me." He pauses, thinks about it. "Or I'm just going to have to start singing."
Sam grimaces and sighs, heavy and long. Deeks grins in triumph.
"Fine." Sam eyes the window, the door, the dirt on the floor, looking everywhere but directly at Deeks. "It wasn't New Years, it was October and we were out trying to catch a serial killer."
Deeks can picture them in his head, younger, less hardened and without the insane trust they had between them now. But he can still see them as tentative partners with a spark between them and not knowing what to do with it.
"We ended up in this old abandoned factory, it was dark and G wasn't waiting for backup." Sam pauses and chuckles but there isn't much humour to it. "It was a cliché. Right out of a horror story from the start. We go in, and the place is like a mad scientists laboratory, the equipment, vials, everything."
His eyes get a far away look and Deeks knows that what he's picturing right now is nothing compared to what Sam is seeing.
"Like Frankenstein's laboratory?" He can't help but ask. Sam shoots him a look.
"Anyways, we find the guy and I've got him covered while G's checking on his latest victim, when he suddenly cries out and I look away for a second and before I know what's happened, the bad guys got my gun and it's shoved against my head."
Sam grimaces, clenches his eyes shut and then opens them again.
"And G just gets very still and he doesn't say anything but I know he's asking me to trust him. And he doesn't see it- or maybe he does and he's ignoring it but the guys victim has a syringe in her hand and I just know that she's going to go after G," Deeks is leaning forwards, snatching up all of the information like he's starving for it with a sick feeling twisting in his gut because even though he knows that Sam is sitting across from him and that Callen is fine, he is still holding his breath anxious to know that the heroes of the story escape okay.
"And G just says, close your eyes and holds his gun steady and I do without a second thought. And there's a shot that rings through my ears and as the killer falls I'm moving, tackling the girl on the table and the syringe just misses G."
There's a long pause and Sam rests his head back against the wall, closes his eyes for a moment, like the story left him exhausted and Deeks holds his breath because there has to be more. How can there not be more?
"And then?" He demands.
"And then we called it in and the cops showed up and Hetty yelled at us for an hour." Sam says and shrugs, then winces at the movement.
"That's…intense." Deeks finally says. And totally not what Hetty had told him and Kensi. "So. That's how you two learned to trust each other?"
"No." Sam says, shifts on the floor. "It was a huge step in the right direction. But it takes time to develop that kind of trust."
So maybe there is a chance for him and Kensi after all.
"Did you hear that?" Deeks asks suddenly, springs to his feet and paces to the door, placing his ear against it.
They wait silently; tense, for whatever it is that Deeks has just heard. If it's the guys that dumped them there coming back for a second round- well, then they're screwed. He looks around but he can't see anything that could work as a weapon and Sam's training is out of the question with his arm out of commission.
Then he hears it again. It's faint but growing louder.
"Sam!"
"Yes!" Deeks crows, beams at the other agent.
"G!" Sam yells back, voice reverberating through the room.
"Sam!" Callen yells again and this time it sounds like he's right on the other side of the door.
"Deeks!" Kensi's voice chimes in and Deeks feels a surge of something through him. But no surprise. No sudden realization that they've been found.
"In here!" He yells and bangs on the door.
"Stand back." Kensi tells him and Deeks backs up and crouches down next to Sam, a hand on his good shoulder.
"I never doubted them for a moment." He tells Sam and Sam rolls his eyes.
The metal door creaks and groans and shudders as it's pushed open. It's barely opened a foot before Callen is sliding through the space. He's across the room and on Sam's other side before Deeks can blink. Kensi follows soon after and Deeks can just make out another small group of agents in the hall.
"Sam." Callen doesn't ask for permission just reaches out and pries Sam's hand away from the wound, inspecting it himself.
"It's not too bad." Deeks speaks up, glancing up to Kensi hovering over them.
"What the hell happened?" Callen demands, turning his glare on Deeks. Sam reaches out and grips Callens hand where it's pressing down on the blood stained shirt. Callen immediately turns his gaze back to Sam and Deeks feels like he's intruding as something passes between them.
He looks over at Kensi, just to check to make sure he's not the only one seeing this but she's grinning like everything is finally right with the world, and winks at him, pressing a finger to her lips like it's their secret.
Then she holds out a hand to him and hauls him to his feet.
Deeks looks back to see Sam and Callen, faces so close, with barely a breath between them and looking like they desperately want to close the space but unable to with them in the room.
"We'll be outside." Deeks says and gestures for Kensi to lead the way out of the room. "So," He says quietly once they're in the hall and the other agents have been sent off to search the building. "This trust thing with them. There's more to it, isn't there?"
Kensi glances back to the room and then to Deeks.
"Yup," She grins. "They've got layers to them. They're unique."
Hopefully not too unique, he thinks. He says instead,
"Did you know that Hetty lied to us?"