Warning! Severe angst ahead!
"See!" declared the man who'd noticed Marty was ailing. "He is sick! We've probably all been exposed!" Some of the passengers jumped up to leave the first class area and head for any open seat they could find farther back on the plane.
The couple with the young child looked sympathetic, although terrified. The man asked, "What about getting some fresh air on here? How long are we going to be cooped up? Can the plane be flown out?"
Deeks was too far to hear the comments about his health, and he tried to smile reassuringly at the passengers, wondering why their demeanor had changed so drastically from the celebratory mode they were in when he and Kensi had first subdued the assailants. "We are working on a solution. The authorities have been notified. They are discussing whether to send new pilots and fly the whole plane out of here, or remove the passengers to other airports by helicopter. It will take a little while for decisions to be made."
He looked at the doctor, who had bandaged the woman's gunshot wound. He rose to talk to Deeks quietly. "I've stopped the bleeding for now, but the bullet's still in there. I can't tell if it lacerated her kidney, or if it went through to her intestines. She has feeling in all of her extremities, so I'm sure it didn't hit her spine. It needs to be removed as soon as possible, though. She is in a lot of pain."
"I alerted them to the medical emergency, but they want to secure the three suspects before allowing access to the medics. We'll try and speed things up as much as possible." He leaned over and spoke to the woman and her son. "We have help on the way. I am so sorry this happened to you." The little boy tried to smile bravely, while his mother whispered her thanks.
"Dr. Graham has been wonderful, and I feel better already." This brought a bigger smile from Jason, who held his mother's hand.
Deeks knelt and talked to the victim and her son for a few more minutes before walking down the aisle towards Kensi. He looked questioningly at the pilots and stewardess with duct tape on their mouths and back at Kensi. "These three get mouthy? I was thinking we needed them to talk."
"They were trying to scare the passengers," she explained in a low voice.
"Yeah, they said you were injected with something that's making you sick and you could infect all of us!" called out one man who had moved to the crowded aisle to put some space between himself and Marty.
Deeks looked surprised and turned towards Kensi, who was furious. He stammered, "What? From the….?" His hand instinctively touched his thigh. "But that's impossible, right?" He leaned toward the nearest seat as a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him. Some of the passengers cowered away from him.
Kensi reached for him, but he forced himself to stand upright. "Hey, why don't you check the galley and the lavatory? The stewardesses must be there. Maybe it's best if I don't walk through the passengers." He looked so tired. She wanted to talk to him, to take care of him. She wanted nothing less than to act like an agent right now, putting the safety of strangers ahead of their own. She wanted to act like any other, normal concerned spouse. But, they often had to put what they wanted last, so she convinced herself that there would be time for that later.
As she walked to the back of the plane, Deeks bent down to their captives. "I want some answers, and I want you to keep your voice down. Tell me your mission. What does it have to do with me?" One man seemed to nod towards the other as if to say he was the one to ask. Deeks pulled the duct tape down so that it was still attached under his bottom lip, but he could speak freely.
"The U.S. operates a research facility in Shelkostantsiay, about 30 km from Donbass. From there was released a virus that is killing our military within days of the onset, and it is spreading to the general population."
"What does that have to do with me?" asked Deeks.
"You are legend among the researchers. One of them worked on including the viruses in the chemical you were injected with."
"But I thought all of those guys disappeared or are in custody," Deeks said, creasing his brow.
The man chuckled wryly. "These doctors were too important for your government to turn their backs on. They made a good show of threatening them, but all except one ended up here at the research facility. A small faction of our intelligence force decided to stop making our people the test tubes of the American military. We were able to detain Dr. Thompson to make him create an antidote for this virus. He suspected that you may still have some traces of it in your system, slowing leaching out, allowing you to create antibodies. He also suspected there were enough magnetic particles left to respond to the computer chip, so when we realized you had bought a ticket to leave Paris, we knew it was time to try and release more of the virus while we had access to you. Your temperature at the airport confirmed that he was right."
"No, no—not possible! I had a complete exchange transfusion. It removed all of the chemicals and magnetic particles and viruses. Months ago! You're lying!" The stress of the confrontation brought on another bought of dizziness, this time accompanied by a fit of coughing. As Deeks struggled to inhale between coughs he was didn't even see the blood droplets splattered in the crook of his arm as he covered his mouth. When he regained control, the bound man continued.
"Coughing up blood. Stage 2." Deeks looked at his arm and his eyes widened in shock. "It is thought that some of the particles may have resided in organ tissue—specifically the spleen. Dr. Thompson feels he has successfully created an antidote by isolating the virus in the blood that was drained from you during the exchange transfusion. He assures us of his success but we are unwilling to let him experiment on any more of our citizens.
"We are your only hope. You may have enough antibodies to fight off the virus, but then again… You will be dead in 72 hours otherwise." Having heard enough, Deeks replaced the tape over the man's mouth, and slumped into the nearest seat.
His mind was reeling, his head pounding, eyeballs burning, chest hurting—he could hear himself wheezing as his breath became more labored. He really just wanted to sleep, when suddenly his comms crackled and he heard a familiar voice. "Kensi? Deeks? Do you copy?"
"Here, Eric!" came Kensi's reply.
"Yeah, me too," panted Deeks.
"We saw your overwatch and gps signals, not to mention the conventional flight tracker that's had the families and the airline on high alert. Nell and I started setting up a relay to contact you. There's a slight delay, but it's the best we could do. We've been able to hear you for a while already. How is everyone?"
"Well, I think the honeymoon is officially over, but I'm glad you weren't listening in on that!" Deeks quipped, trying to be light-hearted as usual.
"Deeks—how are you really?" asked Eric in a serious tone. Just then, Kensi came walking up the aisle and spotted the blood staining his shirt in the crook of his arm that dangled into the aisle.
Deeks started to answer, "I'm good—," but Kensi cut him off.
"He's coughing up blood," she said in a stricken tone. She knelt in the aisle beside the seat, and reached for his face with both hands. "He's burning up, and he's wheezing."
Marty caught her hands at the wrists and pushed them away. "No, Kensi. You can't be near me. What if I make you sick? You've already been exposed…I don't know how long I've been contagious…I can't make you or anyone else sick!"
"It doesn't matter to me," she said, trying to shake out of his grip and surprised at how determined he was. "Your immune system has been compromised for a few months now, but I'm healthy. Let's get home and get you healthy," she pleaded.
"Kensi," he said, releasing her wrists and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Babe, I know. I know you're pregnant, and you've just been waiting for the right time to tell me. That means your health is paramount to me." He inhaled shakily, wanting to gather her into his arms and show her how happy he was. Wanting to jump up and down and sing. All he could manage was a sweet smile and brimming eyes. Kensi couldn't speak at all. She laid her head in his lap and felt all of the dreams that had filled her heart over the past week slowly siphon onto the floor of that plane.
"Nell," he said, rubbing Kensi's back and stroking her hair, "is someone on their way to rescue us?"
"Yes," she answered. "They are coming from a naval base in Greece, but it will be a few hours. Sam, Callen, and Granger left for the base when we were tracking your plane, so they should arrive with them. In the meantime, we have you under satellite surveillance." She stopped and sighed. "It's not good news. Look out the windows to your left."
He and Kensi both stood, and drew in their breaths as the military style vehicles—including 3 grenade launchers pointed at the plane—became visible. A medical helicopter joined the vehicles. Passengers caught on and followed their gaze, some of whom started crying and yelling.
"Do something!" insisted the mother of the young child. "Please, please don't let anything happen to my daughter!"
"Let's open the door and drop him out, if that's what they're after!" yelled a man several rows back. "There's no need in all of us dying for him! Someone's already been shot—isn't that enough? Look, guy, I'm sorry, but you're sick anyway." Spurred on by his speech, a dozen or so more passengers stood up, looking for the world like a vigilante group. Kensi felt fear emanating from them, and knew how much power such fear gave to normally calm, complacent people. She grabbed one of the guns and turned towards them, eliciting screams from those closest to her.
"Back off!" She yelled. "We are federal agents, and there is help on the way. We cannot—we will not-give in to their demands." She sounded authoritative, but she was no fool. She knew the two of them, Deeks weakening with each passing minute, could not hold off the entire body of passengers.
The prisoner that Deeks had spoken to earlier had been using his tongue to work at the tape covering his mouth, and was able to dislodge it enough to speak. He decided to use the passengers' fear to his advantage, so he spoke loudly.
"We want no harm to come to the citizens on this plane, or to this man. We just want our people to have a cure for the havoc that the United States has brought to us!" To Kensi he said, "Lady, no one else has time to cure your husband! Verify this with your own people! He may have some natural antibodies, but they were not enough to keep him from getting sick. We have Dr. Thompson, and he has the only potential antidote. We will release him once we see the antidote works, and if we need any more of his blood to make a vaccine.
"You have 15 minutes, or there will be a grenade launched at this plane, and another one 5 minutes after that. Our men will breach the plane, and then they will kill anyone who stands in our way." He looked at Kensi—"Even pregnant women. This will all be on you," he finished, staring at Deeks.
The passengers collectively gave an exclamation of horror.
Kensi pointed her weapon at him with a shaky hand. How dare he insinuate that his countrymen were more important than her husband—the father of her child. They had released the virus in him. She had no idea how that was even possible, unless Dr. Stevens had lied. Dr. Stevens, whom Deeks had insisted on helping into NCIS's witness protection program.
"Kens, that won't help," said Deeks softly, putting his hand on top of the gun. "You know what I have to do."
"No! I won't let you! We'll think of another way!" She hated feeling weak and emotional. She hated this situation. She hated everything and everyone right about now. The feeling of being trapped was sapping her strength, her ability to think clearly, and her patience. "Eric! Nell! Do something!"
"Kensi," came Hetty's voice over the comms. Kensi hated the tone of resignation she detected in her voice.
"No!" shouted Kensi. "Do not tell me there's no other way! Do not tell me I have to sacrifice him for world peace or any bullshit like that! It's our turn! We get to be happy! We get to be safe! We get to look out for ourselves for once! We get to raise our baby with two parents!" Tears were streaming down her cheeks and her breath came in gulps. Several of the passengers were crying, too, even though they could only hear Kensi's side of the conversation.
"I will only relay the facts, Kensi. In 12 minutes a grenade will be launched at a plane full of civilians, several of whom are children, one of whom has been shot. It will take another 2 to 3 hours for any help to reach you, and even if the threat of action is not carried out, there will likely be a firefight when help arrives. The strain of virus the men with you are talking about is called the California Flu, and does indeed take its victims within days of the onset. I'm afraid the naval base is ill equipped to handle even one case, much less several cases, if others become ill with it. Marty may not survive the trip home without the antidote, experimental as it may be.
"I would never ask anyone to sacrifice himself," she continued. "I will leave all such decisions to the two of you, and we will support you unconditionally." Hetty tried to keep her voice even and strong throughout her message, but she could not hide the swell of emotion causing her vocal cords to tighten.
As Kensi stood there unable to move, Marty motioned two of the released stewardesses forward, and asked them to deploy the inflatable emergency slide so he could depart the plane. He led Kensi to a seat, and reached behind her back to retrieve the knife she had in the undetectable sheath. He knelt by the three bound captives and cut the zip ties holding their feet.
"What is this? You are not leaving us here for a later exchange?" asked one.
"Nope. My wife will probably kill you," Deeks said grimly. "I don't want her to have to deal with that. If she doesn't kill you, then you may be a threat to her and the passengers, and that's unacceptable. Besides, if I don't make it, you lose your leverage and become prisoners, causing a threat to out national security. I'm not willing to let that happen, either." The three looked at each other, puzzled. "Someone has to be the first to do the right thing. I just think it's time."
"Okay, the slide is in place," said one of the stewardesses.
Deeks knelt in front of Kensi, who stared ahead blankly. "Princess, I am trying to keep my promise to you, and unfortunately, this seems to be my best shot. If I go with them, I may have a future as a father, and as the luckiest husband on Earth." He paused to blink and steady his voice, not wanting the last words he may speak to his wife to sound pitiful and whiny.
"If I stay, I have no shot, and I may be robbing scores of innocent people of their future, starting with that woman and her son. I can't be that selfish, Fern." He wiped a tear from her cheek, and the heat from his hand caused her to finally meet his gaze.
"Come home to us," she whispered, and lowered his hand to her belly. Deeks closed his eyes, drew in a shaky breath, and rose unsteadily to his feet.
He nodded to the three Ukrainians and said, "Let's do this." As the four of them walked towards the forward door, a passenger stood up and called out "Thank you." This was followed by another, then another. Turning to give a humble nod to them, Deeks saw the woman with the young daughter. "I hope my little one is as pretty as she is," he said with a catch in his voice. "Hetty, take care of them," he whispered.
"Only until you are able," came her tremulous reply.
