Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. Now time to switch gears from humor to drama.
The next three hours were hectic with a line that never seemed to diminish. Callen swore this was more mentally and physically exhausting than chasing a suspect, two miles, in the heat of the day. He was constantly scanning the crowds, looking for anyone suspicious while trying to remember to smile, as he and Kensi took turns bringing the kids and their parents up to meet Santa Sam. Deeks was working the queue, dancing, prancing and generally keeping the parents and kids entertained. Callen had to admit, Deeks was made for this gig and complain as he might, Callen figured that reindeer suit had to smell better then Eddie the coat.
The whole team was grateful when the manager of Santa's Winter Wonderland showed up with his official clipboard and announced it was time for another break. He primly walked over and flipped the sign to the side which read 'Santa's on a cocoa break'.
"Be back in twenty," he announced to the team before disappearing back into the bowels of the mall.
"I need caffeine," Deeks wearily announced as he walked up to the group looking a little worse for wear. The kids waiting in line had peppered him with a ton of questions on what it was like to live at the North Pole, lectured on why it wasn't nice to make fun of Rudolph and pulled his tail.
Kensi unceremoniously ripped off her wings, which luckily were detachable, and added, "Count me in. Sam? Callen? Want us to bring you something?"
Sam and Callen both nodded and the reindeer and fairy princess sans wings and a red nose, headed towards the food court. Sam, who was tired of sitting, got up and stretched his muscular legs, strolling around the Winter Wonderland. Callen, on the other hand, was tired of standing and cautiously sunk down on top of one of the giant presents, which thankfully held his weight.
Sam glanced at his partner and couldn't help silently laughing. He'd once picked Callen up, after he was released from a month-long undercover prison sentence. The blond had looked better than he did at the moment, dejectedly sitting there in his elf costume, scowling at his shoes. Taking pity on his partner, Sam walked over to where G sat, reached into the inner pocket on his Santa suit and held out a peace offering. Callen's eyes actually lit up when he saw what Sam was holding.
"Kid gave it to me. Based on his response, when I asked him if he were naughty or nice, I'd say it was a bribe," Sam stated as he handed the tootsie-pop to Callen.
Callen quickly dispensed with the wrapper and stuck the sucker in his mouth, appearing a bit more content, though he still kept eyeing the crowd as Sam walked away again to stretch his legs. Five minutes into enjoying his repast, Callen's attention was diverted by a man who walked by wearing a long rain coat; something a bit unusual given the forecast didn't call for any precipition. Watching intently as the dark-haired man hurried by heading for the escalator, Callen studied the unnatural way the edge of the coat moved and he saw what he thought was the muzzle of a rifle poking out below the hem.
Rising swiftly and moving towards the suspect, he reluctantly pulled the half eaten lollipop out of his mouth and tossed it into the trash bucket as he passed by it. By now, the suspect had ascended the escalator and was on the second floor of the mall, walking towards the railing that overlooked Santa's Winter Wonderland.
Callen activated his comm link. "Possible shooter. Second floor. Heading towards the center court overlook."
Callen did a controlled sprint towards the up escalator, moving quickly, but trying not to attract the attention of the shooter. He didn't want the man to panic and start firing; if indeed that was a gun he was carrying. Callen padded across the fake snow that covered the rubber-matted floors of Santa Land. "Sam, clear everyone from around Santa Land. If he starts firing, they will be sitting ducks. Kensi, Deeks, head to second floor, near Brookstone. Head him off from that side. Eric, activate the fire alarm. Get this mall emptied. Nell, do you have eyes on him?"
"Looking Callen," Nell's slightly tense voice replied. Back in Ops, she and Eric anxiously scanned all the video feeds on the big screen.
As requested, the fire alarm went off in the mall and a mechanical voice asked everyone to calmly head for the nearest exit. Sam rounded up the parents and kids still waiting in line to see Santa and hustled them away from the open area where they could be potential targets for the gunman.
Deeks and Kensi were at the far side of the mall, in Starbuck's, purchasing coffee when they heard Callen's instructions. Deeks, who just had been handed his coffee when Callen called, ripped off the lid, took a quick swig, swore when he scalded the inside of his mouth, then took off after Kensi. By now, the fire alarm was blaring and Kensi and Deeks were moving against the huge flow of humanity trying to exit the mall. It was greatly hampering their forward progress.
Hetty, with her usual impeccable timing strolled into the Ops Center. "What do we have?" she queried Eric and Nell.
Without taking her eyes from the screen Nell tersely replied, "Callen spotted a potential shooter. Long rain coat...there!" she pointed to the fourth camera feed from the right. "We have him, Callen."
Callen cleared the snow and his green, curly toed shoes hit the slick tile of the mall floor. He skidded towards escalator, attempting to maintain his balance, dodge people and run up it. The curly toe of his holly green elf shoes got caught in the treads of the moving metal staircase and he went down hard on his left shin before he was able to get his foot out of the inane shoes. The cruel metal edges of the escalator treads sliced thru his skin like a hot knife going thru butter. The thin fabric of the tights offered no protection and a deep, jagged gash appeared on his left leg and began welling blood. Swearing under his breath, Callen ignored the pain as he scrambled back onto his feet and continued his way up the moving staircase.
When he cleared the top and stepped onto the second floor of the mall, he reached down, ripped the other elf slipper off his right foot, while simultaneously yanking his gun from his ankle holster.
Callen did a combination dash/skate across the tile floor in his socks, towards the shooter, who was now approaching the brass-topped, glass-panel railing that overlooked Santa's Winter Wonderland. The man's coat twitched and Callen was able to confirm the suspect was carrying a concealed weapon.
"Federal Agent," Callen yelled across the open space that separated them as he brought his weapon to bear on the gunman. However, Callen hadn't totally factored in the slipperiness of the floors, in relationship to his socks, since he no longer was wearing shoes, and he found he couldn't halt his forward motion. Unable to stop, his momentum carried him into the man in the rain coat at a good clip, and both men slammed into the clear glass rail and went down in a tangled heap on the mall floor.
The shooter was obviously a professional because he quickly regained his wits, managing to knock Callen's weapon out of his hand, sending it skittering across the mall floor. Next he flipped his long raincoat over his head and entangled Callen in it, before he started viciously pummeling the downed agent. However, in the process, the gunman's own weapon slid across the slick marble floor out of reach.
"Kensi, Deeks!" Eric's panicked call reached the other members of the team. "Hurry!"
Sam knew by Eric's tone of voice, that Callen was in trouble, but the big guy also knew he had to get these men, women and children to safety first. So, he continued to hustle the crowd along and prayed Callen was able to cope on his own.
With the raincoat covering his head and disorientating him, Callen had to push down his rising anxiety, before he took a few quick jabs at his assailant. One or two must have hit something useful, because he heard the man grunt and the pressure on Callen let up enough that the agent was able to fling the coat off his head.
The sight that met his eyes wasn't comforting. The raincoat had hid the man's physique which put Sam to shame. Callen knew he was in trouble on many fronts, as he attempted to clamber to his feet. His stupid socks nearly dumped him on the floor again, as they caused his feet to slide out from under him. He reached down to rip them off when the gunman slammed into him again, pushing him across the floor and into one of the gilded support columns.
Callen must have blacked out for a few seconds, because the next thing he knew he was being flung thru the glass-plate window of Crate and Barrel. He landed on a red sofa in the window's holiday display, scrambled over the back onto the floor.
The gargantuan man stepped thru the broken display window after Callen. Callen rolled onto his back and slammed his feet into the red sofa, causing the furniture to smash into the suspect's lower legs. While the man was off balance, Callen sprang back over the couch and using it as a trampoline, launched himself at the guy, knocking both of them back out the window into the mall, where they rolled across the floor, into glass panels that formed the second floor railing.
The man whammed his meaty hand into the side Callen's head, bouncing it off the glass. The next thing Callen felt was his body being lifted off the ground as he shook his head to fight back the rising black tide that threatened to engulf him. The man hefted Callen over his head, and then flung him over the edge of the glass railing towards Santa Land one story below.