Chapter 1

The call had come unexpected, as calls of such kind always came. He hadn't been asleep, but had been practicing some Russian. Still it had unsettled him. His mind had not been able to make much sense of it, but still his training kicked in, instinct-like. Within minutes he was in his car.

The old house was shabby, the smell a breath taking mixture of decay and mold. The floor was covered with dust of decades, thick enough to actually swallow the sound of his steps. Still it could neither hide the blood stains, nor the foot prints that indicated someone had recently walked through the hall. Following the prints, his gun drawn, muscles tense, ready to react if necessary, he made his way over to a door. It was not entirely closed, so he could make out the shapes of a sink.
His grip on the gun tightened a little, as he gave the door a soft kick.
Leaning against the tub, her own gun still in her hands, but with not enough strength left to lift it, he found her, a pool of her own blood mixing with the dust and dirt around Special Agent Danielle Malory.
"What happened?" he asked, almost forgetting his training as he dropped the hand with his gun to his side and rushed towards her. Carefully he placed a hand on her neck to determine how strong her pulse still was but he barely found one.
"I don't know..." her voice was almost lost in the sounds of Callen shifting on the dirty floor to have better access to her. Her shirt was soaked with blood, so was the short skirt she was wearing. The blood felt warm and sticky on his hands, as he ripped the thin fabrics of her shirt apart, gaining himself better view onto her abdomen, hoping to find the source of the bleeding.
"Danielle, talk to me. How did this happen?" he asked, while carefully running his hands over her body, pressing down onto the wound, once he found it. She closed her eyes.
"Dani! Stay with me! C'mon, don't do this to me. Not after dragging me out of bed in the middle of the night."
"Sorry..." she forced herself to breathe and swallowed hard before she shifted against the tub. With his free hand he took the gun from hers and went on checking the parts of her body he could reach.
"Is this the only wound?" he asked, causing the woman to gasp and swallow again. "I take this as a 'no'! Dani, what happened?" he asked again, while pulling out his phone. Eyes almost closed, she swallowed hard, not feeling able to speak. Every breath she took caused hot pain to shoot through her body and made her lungs feel on fire. Her mouth felt dry and her eyelid so heavy that she just wanted to close them.
"Dani!" Callen barked and applied painful pressure on the wound, causing her to gasp for air, but open her eyes.
"Stay with me! I need you to just nod or shake your head!" he stated and after agonizingly long moments she gave a slight nod he almost hadn't seen if he hadn't been looking for it.
"Have you been on a case? Some undercover investigation?"
Dani's hand closed around Callen's wrist, desperately needing to hold on to something, as pain and exhaustion threatened to overwhelm her.
"Danielle! Have you been under cover?" Callen asked again, urgency in his voice.
She shook her head almost frantically, her eyes squeezed shut . Callen managed to punch in her AID-Code into his cell phone and as soon as he knew the message was out he dropped the phone and grabbed her hand for support.
"Hold on!"
"Jason..." she breathed weakly, causing Callen to nod. "Where is Jason?" he asked, hoping to get any clue on what had happened this way.
"I blew my... my cover," she stuttered, her voice barely a whispered. Warm blood oozed out between his fingers.
"Was he with you?" Callen asked, pressing down with more force. She swallowed hard and nodded a single time.
"He's gone... Don't know..." she breathed and let out a yelp of intense pain as she slipped lower against the tub. Quickly he shifted with her and managed to support her to some extent. He looked around, trying to find at least a hint.
"Have you been brought here?" he asked, looking for further footprints on the floor.
As he found none, he sighed. "Dani, you came here alone. Where did this happen?" Instead of answering her eyes simply slipped shut.

That's it for now. As we are non-native speakers, we'd appreciate your reviews even more. ;-) *WinkWink*