Here's the next chapter!

Special Thanks to Sahara Rose 101, brownjar, justdreaming-83, Dixie, daughter of ewan, and Gabi2305 for taking the time to review! You guys have no idea how much I appreciate and love your support! It means a lot! THANK YOU~

And than you all for reading! I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 4

Callen had already been in some serious pain when he entered the building from the car crash and the hits just kept on coming. The bullet graze burned, the pain radiating across the back of his beautifully sculpted shoulders where the round metal had torn into his skin. Skipping like a flat stone over water. It felt like someone was dragging sharp nails over second-degree sunburn, except so much worse.

Blood gathered from the wound, trickling down G's smooth back and stained the grey material of his now ripped shirt black. Filing the hot pain of the graze away with the soreness from the SUV hitting him, Callen forced himself to concentrate on Sam's voice.

"Show yourself you coward!" The larger agent yelled, voice raw with unsettled emotion. G knew without a doubt that his friend had been hit with the mystery drug. There was no other plausible explanation to Sam acting this way, so out of control and unpredictable. The real question was how long it would take before Sam returned to normal, and if Callen could survive that long.

There was no way for G to know if the target had left the building after injecting Sam with the drug, but there was also no way to precede with clearing the building without subduing his temporarily deranged friend either. Closing his blue eyes Callen tried to steady the world, which had suddenly decided it's normal rotation was getting boring. That was the bad side of ignoring injuries they never truly go away. Not even when you really need them to.

Taking in a deep breath G reopened his eyes, a quick plan had been formulated and the world currently returned to the visual norm. In an effortless movement Callen flipped the safety back on his gun and slipped the weapon into the holster located against his back. Callen would take no risk in harming Sam, no matter how far around the bend the big man was.

Laughter echoed around the area, floating and bouncing off the many different surfaces in the room. There was no way to pin point where the sound was coming from exactly. However Callen knew it wasn't Sam, which meant the suspect was still with them. Wincing G hoped the bastard would stay hidden until Sam was properly restrained. Once that was accomplished Callen could focus all his energy on shooting the Halloween Trickster for what he had done to his partner.

Moving faultlessly across the wooden floor, Callen positioned himself approximately behind where Sam had been standing before, hidden on the other side of a plastic wall. Carefully G glanced around the side of the plastic. His eyes immediately took in the information he needed and his battered body sprung into action, swiftly bolting forward and crashing into Sam's back.

G had hoped the initial force behind the sudden and unexpected hit would be strong enough to knock the gun from Sam's hand, but Callen had underestimated how similar rushing his friend would feel to being hit by the SUV. Pain shocked through his body again, rattling his mind and causing his vision to black out for a moment, only for reality to be restored when Sam's meaty hand wrapped around his throat as the bigger man shoved him into a pillar.

"Sam, God Damn it!" Callen groaned out, eyes rolling back a bit in his head from the most recent hit, "It's me!"

Blue eyes snapped up to Sam's drugged, dull eyes. There was no recollection within Sam's dark depths. Fear spiked in Callen as he realized Sam would shoot him without a second thought. That second thought wouldn't come until later, when Sam's biggest fear was realized.

As Callen stood there with the gun pointed at his head, staring down the barrel of the gun he thought back to when Sam had told him he was afraid of two things: Clowns and watching his partner die. How much more scaring would that be if Sam ended up being the one who had pulled the final trigger? Callen didn't want Sam to find out.

Once again G's knowledge on his partner's body language saved his life. As Sam beefy finger squeezed the trigger Callen's hand shot up, knocking the gun upward just as it fired. The sound of the gunfire was deafening at such a close proximity, leaving a high pitched ringing screaming in G's ears. The danger hadn't passed and Callen was under no illusion it had. The adrenaline was building from each near death experience, numbing the pain and allowing G the focus needed to survive the dire situation.

Or at least focus enough to fight for a positive outcome. Maybe Sam was rubbing off on him, G thought suddenly, he was starting to think with the glass half full.

As soon as his gun was compromised Sam lashed out, tightening his grip on Callen's neck with one hand while swinging the butt of the gun towards Callen's head.

G's vision grayed dangerously from the impact. Nothing in the hit gave any indication that Sam was holding back and as G fell to the ground he silently thanked any God listening that on a normal day Sam was on his side. Shaking his head clear from the fog Callen looked up at the gun pointed down at him.

Once again Sam pointed the weapon directly at Callen's head and somehow G understood that this time it would be different. Exhaling a nervous breath Callen watched as Sam started to pull the trigger for the last time when a sudden muffled noise caused the big man to flinch violently. The shot fired didn't blow through Callen's brain as intended but instead buried itself in G's right thigh, the sharp pain causing Callen to let out a strangled scream.

It took a minute for G to realize each sound heard had probably been much louder, but his hearing was still screwed up from before.

Not wanting to be at the receiving end of another one of those bullets Callen moved again as Sam was distracted, sweeping his leg under the larger agent, throwing Sam off balance and crashing down to the floor. Scrambling G managed to quickly pin his partner down and slip the metal bands around his wrists.

Sam struggled wildly, bucking under the smaller agent but G couldn't help but be relieved. "You'll thank me later." G told his screaming friend, voice muffled by the present ringing in Callen's ears. Patting Sam's shoulder G slowly pushed himself back onto his feet using the pillar next to him as support. The pain in his leg was added to the growing list of injuries G had sustained in less than thirty minutes. Without the adrenalin the worn agent was painfully aware that he'd be withering on the floor next to his bound partner.

Now all Callen had to worry about was the psycho with the drug gun.

A stinging at his neck captured Callen's attention. Confused he brought his hand to the side of his neck, carefully pulling out the small metal object. Studying the object with a dazed expression G took a moment to realize he had been hit with the drug. With a sharp gasp he dropped the little dart like it was scolding his hand. "Crap." He muttered, stumbling to the back of the room, hoping to somehow restrain the Trickster before the drug took its hold on his mind. Or before he fainted from blood loss.

Soooooo, my original plan has changed. Mostly because I decided to take the request of Gabi2305 (which I appreciated!) because my readers desires are important to me. (Because I love my reviewers!)

Anyway, I think this is story has the possibility to become much….much…longer than I had originally planned.

So I'll give you guys a bit of a choice. Do you want me to wrap this up quickly, or would you guys enjoy a bit of an extension?

The choice is yours.

Thank you so much for reading and your continued support! It means everything!

- Strawberrywaltz