CHAPTER 4

Henrietta Lange sat quietly at the end of the table listening to Director Vance's speech regarding their yearly budget and how she had somehow gone over said budget already. He had flown into LA the night before, right after receiving the annual budget review for NCIS.

From inside her handbag Hetty's mobile buzzed for what seemed like the umpteenth time that morning. Unable to answer it with her boss still ranting and raving in the room with her, she simply pressed decline as she had done so many times that day.

Being the smart and cunning women, she was Hetty knew her team would be trying to locate her using her phone so she had turned her GPS off. She was officially off grid until the 'meeting' with Director Vance was over and she prayed it would be over soon! Leon was defiantly not in a good mood and she had better things to do with her time… Like run a unit.

Her thoughts drifted to her small but lethal group of highly trained NCIS agents and she briefly wondered what the case was they'd obviously been given.

Was it a missing Marine? A bomb threat in the city? A kidnapping? The body found murdered on the beach somewhere?

Whatever it was she was confident her team could handle it...

…..

Meanwhile Kensi had FINALLY been loaded into the ambulance and was on her way to hospital after putting up quite a fight to stay with Deeks instead.

She was groggy, slightly out of it and very sleepy. The drugs the paramedics had given her only a half hour ago were working their magic but she still felt dizzy and every time they would hit a bump, go up/down a hill or round a tight corner she'd get a wave of queasiness in the pit of her stomach.

They hit a rather large pothole and the vehicle hopped to the left before balancing out and driving straight again. They were obviously going at a considerable speed and even in her dazed state Kensi could hear the faint ring of sirens from the van as it sped towards the ER.

The sudden movement of the ambulance was enough to make Kensi vomit again but this time she'd had no warning and she was sick all over her shirt. Lisa leapt into action, grabbing wipes from an overhead compartment and a sick bucket from a pocket behind the gurney Kensi was currently resting on.

Within seconds Lisa was rolling Kensi onto her side so that she wouldn't choke on her vomit and started cleaning the agent up. Kensi was a mess. She had vomit everywhere on her shirt, in her hair, on the bed and now on the floor.

Blood was again flowing from the agents' mouth. They'd given her a drug to stop the bleeding back at OPS before they'd left but the violent movements of Kensi's body as she was sick had dislodged the clot in her wounds and allowed fresh blood to pass through. She was losing a lot of it!

Kensi groaned as pain filled her face, the motion of retching was excruciating especially with her jaw all messed up. Lisa rubbed her back and tried to settle her patient down, she could see Kensi was in agony and felt bad for her. Being a paramedic Lisa had seen many injuries and met lots of different people but she had a soft spot for Kensi. She could tell this woman was a good person and definitely didn't deserve this.

All Kensi wanted to do was go to sleep, forget everything that'd happened and wake up to a new day where Deeks was still her partner.

He would always be her best friend no matter what anyone said or did, Deeks was the one person in the entire world that mattered the most to her and there was nothing that could change that. She just hoped that by some absolute miracle they could fix this!

Before she knew what was happening Kensi was being lifted out of the ambulance and onto another gurney. She didn't even know they'd arrived at the hospital until she was passing through the emergency doors and into a long white corridor. The brightness hurt her eyes but she kept them open, she wanted to see where they were taking her. Lisa was talking to the doctors, her words unclear to Kensi but she guessed that the experienced paramedic would be providing stats and information about her, their patient, to the medical team that was going to be treating her.

At the end of the walkway Kensi's bed was turned and pushed backwards into a cubicle. Her vision had gone fuzzy again but she could still see Lisa at the foot of her bed talking to one of the staff. After a minute or two Lisa finished filling the team in and came over to say goodbye to Kensi. She wished her good luck and said she'd drop in later to see how she was doing. Then she left.

Now surrounded by strangers Kensi began to panic. She hated hospitals. She hated not being in control of the situation. She was beginning to hyperventilate again when a familiar voice instantly calmed her down.

"Hey Kens,"

"C… Callen?" She squeaked, trying to make out the figure of the man who was now standing beside her on her right. He slipped his hand over hers and gave it a quick squeeze to reassure her.

"Yeah," he replied quietly. "How are you holding up?"

Kensi didn't respond to his question because her brain was still trying to clear the fog that had settled there. Her thoughts were all jumbled. Her mind was racing. She couldn't think straight.

As she laid there she started to register new sounds and smells, her senses were slowly coming back to her. Then all of a sudden it was like someone had flicked a switch in her head and turned her hearing to hypersensitive! She could hear everything…

The machines she was being hooked up to beeped in time to her heart rate, the oxygen tank attached to the mask they'd just put on her face rumbled behind her head, the emergency unit doors slid open and closed as paramedics dropped off new patients from the ambulances, doctor's footsteps paced around her bed, outside her cubicle a pen fell to the floor and rolled across the hallway, people in other rooms were crying and there were so many voices, although unclear, floating all around her. Voices that belonged to the team treating her, voices that belonged to the nurses outside in the nursing station, voices of other patients talking quietly in other cubicles and finally she heard Callen's voice in her ear asking her if she was ok.

At the sound of Callen's voice, Kensi grabbed hold of his hand and gripped it tightly. Sensing her anxiety peaking he lent down to her and placed a very gentle kiss on her pale forehead.

"Everything is going to be ok Kens," he reassured her. "You are going to be ok."

"H…. How's D… Deeks?" Kensi stuttered, taking Callen by surprise. She'd just completely changed the subject on him.

"He's ok. I left him with Nell and Eric for a bit until I get back. He's calmed down a lot and he's really sorry Kens..." Callen pulled up a chair and sat by Kensi's head. "But I don't trust him around you anymore and neither does Sam."

Seeing Kensi's expression drop further Callen quickly added, "but we can talk about that later. Right now, you need to get better and I'm here to make sure you co-operate with the doctors."

Kensi nodded and turned her face away from him, "I'm in so m… much pain! I j…. just want to sleep."

"You will be able to sleep after they have done their tests and made sure you don't have a concussion, which I'm pretty sure you have by the way."

Kensi didn't reply, she was now watching the doctors working on her.

Exhausted she began to zone out…

…

A few hours later Kensi was admitted into the overnight care unit at the hospital for observation. She had been extremely lucky and didn't suffer any fractures to her face, just deep bruising and a mild concussion, which they were keeping an eye on.

She did have some dental trauma and would need to see a dental specialist at some stage in the next week or two but nothing major.

The medical staff that treated her in the emergency unit were absolutely baffled and stunned that she didn't have any serious injuries given the amount of bruising to her face.

Kensi's foot however was definitely fractured, badly! She had two fractures at the base of her ankle, both nasty breaks. She would be in a moon boot for several weeks and would need to rest her leg in order for her ankle to heal.

Callen had stayed by her side as much as he could and was now sitting next to her bed watching tv. Kensi was dozing in and out of a light sleep, she was restless and uncomfortable in the hospital bed.

Hours past by uneventfully. It was now close to midnight and everyone had settled in until morning. The night staff had long since arrived and were doing their usual rounds. They dimmed the lights at nine o'clock sharp and apart from the nurses there was no one around, it was eerily quiet.

Callen decided he'd spend the night, telling himself it was to stop Kensi from getting up and walking out but secretly he was still worried about her. He hated seeing her so upset. He knew this situation was hurting her and he wished he could fix it.

Kensi & Deeks had always been close, closer than Callen could ever hope to be with Kensi. The two partners had something special between them since the beginning & it was obvious how much they cared for each other.

Now Kensi was facing a future without her partner and she was terrified. Callen could see, for the first time in the many years he'd known her, the fear, pain and regret in the young women's eyes.

His friend/agent/adopted sister was falling apart before his very eyes and he felt helpless. He wanted to be there for her but he wasn't sure how. Sam had always been the compassionate, comforting one on the team, not Callen.

Callen found it much more difficult to show emotion than his brother, as G. often referred to Sam as his brother - they were after all a family. But Callen knew he would always be there for Kensi and when the time comes and he is needed, he knew in his heart that he'd know exactly what to do to help her.

Sometime during the early hours of morning, one of the nurses brought him some coffee, a blanket and a pillow. There was an old armchair in the corner of the room closest to the window so he curled up in it and watched his junior agent sleep.

…

That's chapter 4 finished! :) One more Chapter to go.

I am working on the final chapter now so should be uploading an update tomorrow.

I hope you guys are still enjoying the story. If you have any ideas/suggestions or feedback please let me know as I can always go back later and improve parts of the story.

Thank you for sticking with me and for all your support! I will have more story for you soon.

Kind regards,

Ashmagic17