Thank you so much for all the reviews and alerts following the first chapter. I am totally surprised by the response. Here's hoping I don't let you down now!
Biggest thanks, as ever, goes to imahistorian for all her help and support with this and everything else.
Disclaimer - I am not a medical expert in any stretch of the imagination, so please know that I've done my best but I might also be wrong on a few things. It's fiction... go with it!
Unable to see an obvious point for where a bullet had entered Kensi's body, Callen gently took her face in his hands and immediately felt the heat which was radiating out from her pale skin.
"Kensi, where are you hit?" he asked, a hint of desperation seeping into his voice as he sought out some kind of response from his friend.
A small wave of relief washed over the team leader when Kensi's dark brown eyes focused more steadily on the blue of his and she murmured out a reply.
"Don't think I am."
Callen, though wasn't about to be so easily assured, especially given the evidence he was so blatantly being confronted with. Quickly removing the rifle from about her body he carefully began searching her more closely for any signs of injury. Finding no blood to indicate a bullet wound he noted with relief that her vest was completely intact, so loosening the Velcro straps he moved to peel it up and away from her body, worried that it was restricting her already ragged breathing. However, as soon as his hand passed low across her stomach to clutch the bottom of the vest, Kensi gasped in pain, jerking her head back against the wooden crate, her eyes tightly shut, all breathing temporarily halted. Pulling his hand quickly away, Callen checked it for any signs of blood. It wouldn't have been the first time that a bullet had somehow found its way under a kevlar vest from the most acute of angles. Finding his hand clean he waited a few seconds until Kensi released the breath she had been holding onto, the tight knit of her brow loosening just a little, then with the carefullest of tugs Callen lifted the vest over the top of her head and slid it clear away from her body altogether.
Struggling to keep herself upright Kensi began to slip over to one side and as Callen quickly grasped hold of her shoulders in order to still her movements it only served to make things worse.
"Ah!" she cried out just before a sudden wave of nausea hit and she promptly threw up onto the ground beside her. Callen held her arms to steady her before placing two fingers to her neck and feeling the racing beat of her pulse.
"Kensi, talk to me," he tried, but Kensi's dark eyes had lost any previous focus and her usually calm and unflappable features were showing increasing signs of the pain she was experiencing.
Pulling his phone from his pocket Callen speed-dialled Ops, not wanting Sam and Deeks to be immediately aware of what was happening. Whilst they were in the midst of chasing down their two lead suspects this would be a guaranteed distraction they certainly didn't need.
"What do you need, Callen?"
Eric's voice was steady and confident, and just what Callen needed to hear.
"An ambulance at my location ASAP."
He paused then added, "Kensi's collapsed."
Callen heard it. The silence. The split second moment of realisation and panic that Eric had experienced upon being told that one of their team was in need of emergency medical assistance.
"On it." Eric replied, recovering quickly.
"What has happened, Mr Callen?" Hetty's voice came across the line, her tone carrying more than a hint of concern, an edge of urgency present too.
"I don't know." Callen answered, his eyes never deviating from the woman beside him, his hand never leaving her jaw as he carefully cradled her face. "I've checked her over and she hasn't been shot, but she's got pain across her shoulders and stomach, her pulse is racing and she feels like she's burning up."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, she's thrown up too."
"Callen, there's an ambulance on route." Eric told him. "I've relayed all the information you've given us. ETA is 6 minutes."
"What about Sam and Deeks?" Callen asked. "They went after Richards and Lewis and we're supposed to be backing them up."
"LAPD have two units on route to assist if necessary." Hetty assured him. "Concentrate on Miss Blye and we will deal with the rest."
Cautiously exiting the warehouse out through the same door that Lewis and Richards had used, Sam and Deeks were immediately hit by the forceful glare of the bright California sunshine. Blinking furiously as their eyes adjusted the agent and the detective quickly took off at a sprint in pursuit of their suspects, and rounding the side of the adjacent warehouse they could see Richards just ahead of them. He certainly wasn't the fastest on his feet and they were chasing him down easily, so when he tripped over some scattered scaffolding poles, his gun skidding well out of his reach, it just made things easier.
"Deeks!" Sam called out as he continued on after Lewis.
It was somewhere between an order and a request but Deeks didn't question it.
"Got him!" he shouted in reply, slowing to a stop next to Richards. After quickly handcuffing the marine and securing him to a set of metal steps running up along the side of the nearest warehouse, Deeks called into Ops the location. After being assured that LAPD were only a couple of minute away and would 'collect' Richards, Deeks took off once more after Sam and the man he was chasing.
Andrew Lewis had little if any idea of where he was headed, although his primary objective had been to put enough distance between himself and his pursuers in order that he could circle back to his truck. The trouble was that he was now struggling to even stay ahead of the NCIS agent who was quickly closing in on him. His time away from the Marine Corps had clearly done little for his fitness levels, his breathing becoming increasingly laboured and his heart pounding with such force that he felt as if it might burst clear from his chest. Making a sudden right turn down a narrow alley between the buildings he checked over his shoulder to see that Sam had followed easily, but as he turned back he was shocked to find an LAPD detective standing at the exit of the alley, a standard issue Beretta aimed squarely at his body.
"No where to run, no where to hide!" Deeks called out as Lewis came skidding to a halt.
Raising his own gun purposefully and turning back towards Sam, Deeks wasn't sure what the former marine was hoping to achieve by doing this, but he wasn't about to wait and find out. Without a split second of hesitation Deeks squeezed the trigger on his Beretta sending a single bullet tearing through Lewis' leg just above the knee, and causing him to drop down onto the dirty tarmac, his gun falling from his grasp.
Jogging the remaining distance along the alleyway, Sam could see Lewis scrambling for the gun he had just dropped. Quickly kicking it completely from reach Sam dropped to the floor beside Lewis and, after binding his hands, made a brief assessment of the fresh bullet wound to his leg. Through and through, and he wasn't bleeding badly.
Deeks joined him a few seconds later, collecting the stray firearm on route.
"Nice shot." Sam told him with a slight quirk of his eyebrows.
"Well, it's kind of hard to question suspects when they're dead." The detective reasoned.
Sam smiled a little and shrugged. "Not so much harder to question, but definitely harder to get answers out of."
Pressing a finger to his ear, Sam connected to Ops.
"Eric, we've got Lewis," he announced.
"Copy that." Eric replied briskly.
"We're going to need an ambulance, though. He decided to do things the hard way."
"LAPD is on scene. They've picked up PFC Richards and they're on route to your location."
"Well that turned south pretty fast." Deeks observed with an idle scratch of his jaw as he and Sam stepped just a few feet away from Lewis.
"I've never seen Callen get made so fast." The former SEAL replied with a smirk. "He's never going to hear the end of it!"
"Speaking of which, where are our trusty side-kicks?"
Sam frowned at the detective's words, then pressing his finger to his ear once more called out to his partner.
"Hey, G, you two stop for donuts or something?" he teased, but no answer came. He looked over at Deeks and tried again. "Kensi? You there?"
Still no reply. Sam was about to contact Ops when Eric's voice came across the airwaves to them.
"There's an ambulance on route to you," he told them.
"I can hear it." Sam told him, a small frown creasing his brow as the sound of sirens became increasingly audible in the distance. "That was fast."
"That one's not for you." Eric responded sadly, the reluctance he felt in having to give them this information was clear in his tone.
"Then who's it for?" Sam asked warily, looking over to Deeks who was listening with equal intent.
"Kensi." Pause. "It's for Kensi."
Taking an involuntary half step backwards, Deeks knew that all colour had drained from his face, just as all breath had left his lungs and his stomach had simultaneously dropped all the way down to his boots.
"What do you mean it's for Kensi?" he demanded. "Was she shot?"
"She has not been shot, Mr Deeks." Hetty assured him firmly. "Miss Blye collapsed."
Deeks took a deep breath of relief at knowing that his partner hadn't been shot, but the fact that she still required an ambulance was not easing his worry by any great measure.
"Mr Callen is with her and I am leaving now so that I can meet her at the hospital." Hetty continued.
"I'm going too," he announced, but just as he was about to turn and run back to where they had left Callen and Kensi, Hetty's voice cut him off.
"No, Mr Deeks," she told him firmly. "Right now I need you and your colleagues to solve this case."
"Hetty," he tried, but the Operations Manager continued.
"Corporal Jones, PFC Richards and their friend are not the only three people involved in this, Detective, and we need to know what they have been doing and who they have been doing it with."
"She's my partner," he began, looking over at Sam as he fought over his choice of words to describe who Kensi was to him. "She's my..."
"I know." Hetty interrupted gently, sensing that words far more emotionally substantial were daringly close to passing his lips. "And as soon as there is any information on her condition you will be the first to know."
Taking a deep breath Deeks tried to steady the feelings of fear and anxiety that were now working at constricting his chest. He had no doubt that Hetty would stay true to her word, but this was Kensi they were talking about and through every fibre of his body he could feel the need to run to her, to hold her, to give her the comfort and reassurances she would no doubt resist from almost anyone else.
Releasing the breath he had been unconsciously holding onto, Deeks felt as if this was going to be one of those 'defining moments' in his relationship with Kensi Blye, and that if he made the wrong decision now then the walls that they had so carefully constructed to keep their relationship away from the prying eyes of their team mates could come tumbling down. The trouble was, though, Deeks wasn't entirely sure he cared any more.
Five months had come and gone, through which he and Kensi had navigated their way towards a point where the concerns, doubts and objections, that would certainly be aired once their team mates found out about their relationship, seemed to matter so much less than it had previously.
Reaching that point had been far from smooth, though, and it often seemed to be a journey which generated far more questions than answers. Both partners had been forced to recognise and accept the balancing act they now had to perform, whilst the grey area encompassing the moments where their relationship and partnership met and crossed over and over, had only seemed to double in size. Not always knowing where one ended and the other began had been initially hard to understand and reconcile, the boundaries having been changed so irrevocably, and at times there had been heated and emotional arguments which seemed to tear at the very fabric which held them together. But in amongst the emotional mess of these moments they had found that they weren't just fighting with each other, but for each other also.
Answers had come to them slowly but surely, and through that their bond had been forged even stronger. Over the passing days, weeks and months they had discovered the equilibrium they needed, with each other and with how their relationship and partnership fit together, and although it was neither straight forward nor easy, it was working. He'd be an idiot to jeopardize that now.
"Idiot!"
"Me?" Deeks asked automatically, his head and his concentration returning almost jarringly to Sam. Hetty's voice had departed from his ear with a sense of finality and he realised that she was no longer there for him to further argue his point with.
"No, him." Sam explained indicating to the wounded Lewis. "If he'd turned right coming out of the warehouse he'd have made it to his car before we could've done anything about it."
"Sometimes we get lucky." Deeks replied with a lazy shrug.
"And sometimes they're just stupid!" Sam told him emphatically.
Looking closely at Deeks, noting the concern on his features, Sam's voice softened.
"She'll be okay. She's tough."
"Tell me about it." Deeks sighed, his thoughts struggling to leave those of his partner. It was her strength that he sought to grasp hold of right then, because until he knew she was okay, until he had actually seen and confirmed it for himself, then it was one of the few things keeping him going.
One thing Kensi was certain of was the fact that she was in pain. Great rolling waves of it which emanated out from her lower abdomen effecting her whole body. Having woken that morning believing her symptoms indicated little more than the start of a cold, she had taken a couple of Tylenol tablets and thought no more about it. Deeks had been ill the week before with a virus of some sort and she simply assumed that she had the same one. But through the day a distinct discomfort in her abdomen, along with aches across her shoulders, had gradually developed, and by the time the team was situated in the warehouse she knew she was battling more than just a cold.
The adrenaline caused by the fire fight had kept her going, although it had taken all of her energy just to concentrate and keep track of what was happening around her. Light-headedness quickly moved in to fill the space which the steadily dissipating adrenaline was vacating, and as the pain in her abdomen became increasingly pronounced she had been unable to keep herself upright.
The fact that she had no idea as to the source of her sudden malady was a scary enough thought on its own without the fear she had for the vulnerable position she had inadvertently forced her team into. Sam and Deeks were more than capable of dealing with Richards and Lewis, of that she had no doubt, but it didn't stop the nagging feeling that she and Callen should be with them, providing the back up that had been promised. They should be with their partners. She should be with Deeks. It was the one clear thought in her mind right then.
The arrival of the paramedic team temporarily derailed her thoughts as further groans and hisses of pain escaped from her lips as they quickly made their assessment. An oxygen mask was placed over her face, a pulse oximeter attached to her finger, and even when they moved her from the floor onto the gurney Kensi could feel Callen's hand holding tightly onto hers the whole time. As she had fallen he had been at her side in an instant, both his presence and his touch reassuring, despite the worry and fear he so obviously felt, and Kensi was grateful for that.
Eyes closed firmly as she tried desperately to concentrate on the steady and simple repetition of breathing in and out, Kensi found that she had lost track of what was happening. Feeling the sharp prick of a needle puncturing the sensitive skin on the back of her hand she opened her eyes and looked to Callen who placed his other hand against her head and softly rubbed his thumb in gentle circles. The gesture was both caring and comforting, but at that moment she knew it was coming from the wrong person. Right at that moment she needed it to come from Deeks. Right at that moment, as brave and as tough as she wished to be, all she wanted was Deeks.
"Okay, we're going." The senior paramedic announced firmly and decisively as she finished attaching a drip cable to the back of Kensi's hand. "We'll get a BP on route."
With a nod of agreement her partner gave a tug on the gurney and with Callen jogging alongside they moved quickly towards the ambulance.
Never had he seen Kensi quite like this before. The vulnerability which emanated out from her dark brown eyes was a rare sight and so focused had he been on that look that it wasn't until they were loading Kensi into the ambulance that he realised that he had failed to ask the most basic of questions.
"Is she going to be okay?"
"We're not going to know until we get her to the hospital." The senior paramedic replied briskly as she followed Kensi into the back of the ambulance.
"I'm sorry," she added, closing the doors behind her and leaving Callen unable to do little more than watch as they pulled quickly away from him.
With Kensi's rifle slung across his shoulder, her SIG holstered in the back of his jeans and her badge held firm in his hand, Callen couldn't halt the wave of emotion which passed over him, lingering uncomfortably. He'd seen Kensi injured before with bumps and bruises of all colours and configurations. He'd seen her knocked unconscious and held at gunpoint, he'd even seen her stabbed, but this was different. This held an element of unknown hanging cruelly above their heads in a way he had no influence over and he didn't like it one single bit.
Hetty stepped with singular focus through the main doors of the busy ER and made her way directly towards the admitting desk. The rhythm and routine of dealing with these types of situation was so familiar by now that much of it felt almost automatic, and for that she was often grateful. The emotions such moments stirred never seemed to lessen with time, and in truth she knew her ability to hide the strength of those feelings was gradually waning.
Looking around just in time to see Kensi being wheeled out of a treatment room just a short way away to her left, Hetty turned and quickly followed along the brightly lit corridor, weaving her way through the scattering of people who currently seemed to be residing there. Approaching her young agent and the small team of medical staff surrounding her as they paused waiting for the elevator to arrive, Hetty could see that Kensi's clothes had been removed in favour of a hospital gown, while a sheet covered the lower half of her body.
"Where are you taking her?" Hetty asked, reaching through the bed rail to take hold of Kensi's hand.
Largely groggy, her eyes fighting to grasp and hold the focus they usually managed so easily, Kensi, though was aware of the older lady's presence and squeezed her hand as best she could.
"And you are?" Questioned a tall, dark haired man dressed in navy blue scrubs.
Hetty didn't look up from the face of her agent as she gave the surgeon her name, before gently adding, "I'm Agent Blye's boss. And her friend."
"We're taking her up to surgery," he replied with a nod as the elevator doors opened and they hastily filled the empty space before them.
"For what reason?" Hetty asked, reluctantly releasing Kensi's hand.
"I'm sorry, but unless you're family or listed as next of kin I can't give out details," he replied hurriedly. "And right now we have to go."
Stepping back and allowing the elevator doors to close in front of her, Hetty sighed deeply before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone. Searching through the long list of contacts she arrived at the name she required and dialled, not having to wait long for the call to be answered.
"Patrick, it's Hetty. I need you."
Chief of Staff, Doctor Patrick Cho, hung up his phone and sighed deeply. One day the reason for Henrietta Lang's calling would be to take him up on one of his numerous offers of dinner. But that day was not to be this one. Standing from his desk he quickly made his way from the quiet of his office towards the busy hum of the surgical floor, and to where Hetty would be waiting, both for him and the answers he would likely bring.
During more than thirty years of friendship, rarely had he been able to refuse her anything and he felt little doubt that today would be any different. Hetty had a way of posing a question that left a person with few if any options other than to comply fully and truthfully. Patrick, however, was more than used to that, and in truth he didn't entirely mind. The debt he owed this remarkable women was one which, in his mind, could never be fully repaid.
Rising from the plastic chair she had been waiting on Hetty smiled gently at the sight of the familiar face approaching her. His hair still mostly dark, his smile still charming and welcoming, his brown eyes still giving out the same sparkle and warmth they always had, Hetty was still aware of the fact that Patrick Cho was still a handsome man. Unable to halt the sudden surge of memories, Hetty couldn't help but momentarily think back to their first meeting, all so long ago, and the unexpected sparks that had ignited between them. There had been many and they had been full of fire and passion.
"Thank you for coming, Patrick," she told him gratefully, taking the hand he offered in both of hers.
"For you? Anything," he replied, smiling once more.
"Can you please tell me what is happening with my agent?"
His smile dropping along with his head, Patrick sighed before meeting once more the inquisitive, almost pleading expression on Hetty's face.
"Make that almost anything," he amended gently. "This is one of those times when I can't tell you what you want to know."
He hated not being able to give his friend that which she so clearly needed to know. However, there were usually ways around most types of obstacle if you just thought a little laterally.
"Walk with me," he said thoughtfully, a small frown creasing his brow.
Hetty eyed him curiously, but followed without query. This was not the way in which she was used to conducting matters relating to her agents, but this was clearly an exception to that rule and it worried her further as to what might be wrong with Kensi.
Along two short corridors and through a large set of doors, Hetty found herself walking where usually only hospital staff were permitted. Stopping beside the nurses station, Hetty looked to Patrick, having faith that he would give her the answers she sought one way or another.
"Okay," he began, his voice lowered slightly. "What I can tell you is that Agent Blye is in surgery to repair damage that is causing internal bleeding."
Hetty could feel her mouth open by the smallest amount as her brain rushed through the various stages of the mission that day, trying to recall an incident that could have caused this. She could think of none.
"What kind of damage?"
"That I can't actually tell you," he answered softly, and upon seeing the exasperated look on Hetty's face reached forward to grasp her shoulders before turning her a full ninety degrees. Laid out on the wall in front of her resided the surgical board and Hetty gave a sigh of relief at realising the help Patrick was actually giving her. Searching quickly through the list of names her eyes fell hungrily on that of her young agent. Blye, K; age; gender and beside that the reason for her surgery. Hetty took in a sharp breath.
"Bugger."
TBC...
