Author's Note:
Heyyy Everybody! Don't hate me for the delay? That would be swell. So I'm gonna finish up two of my other stories so I have less material to keep up with. Thank you all for the continued support. Reviews are also nice :)
-C
Deeks tossed Kensi the burner phone Michelle gave him and dragged Callen from being halfway outside to on the couch.
"Call Sam!" He exclaimed and applied pressure to the wound. The blond knew he was no doctor, and certainly not capable of taking care of injuries to the scale of Callen's. "He hasn't been gone for more than five minutes!"
Kensi fumbled with the phone while distraughtly explaining, "We were in an explosion and he got hit with shrapnel, I didn't know what to do except come to the location of the second safe house."
"And what about you?" Deeks shot a look back at her.
She didn't answer as she pressed the phone to her ear. Deeks applied more pressure to Callen's abdomen, for each passing moment more blood seeped through his fingers. Having one arm immobilized did nothing to help his case either.
"Sam? Oh thank God….it's Callen." Kensi spoke to their friend. She hung up not a second later. "ETA two minutes. Have you seen the news lately?"
"I know what happened to OSP. I was there," Deeks replied quietly.
"Nell? Eric? Hetty? Are they alright?"
"I don't know," he answered candidly. "You and Callen were still missing out in the field, and we didn't know who to trust. The Salinas Cartel knew have good resources, but they found out about our operation way too quickly for calling in favors."
"Callen and I didn't know what to think. We barely escaped alive from the cartel and holed up in a hotel when we saw OSP on the news," Kensi continued.
"Deeks," came a croak from the semi-conscious mass on the couch. Deeks snapped his head around to find Callen's eyes barely open. "Sam's gonna want to take me to a hospital. That can't happen."
"I'm not a medic like Sam, but this looks serious."
"I've had worse."
The blond rolled his eyes. However true that may be, it didn't warrant shrugging off an injury as serious as this. Callen's eyes closed once more, and Deeks could tell he had slipped into oblivion.
At that moment, the door was thrown open, and a grim-looking Sam came rushing in the safe house. He bumped Deeks out of the way and began barking orders immediately.
"I need the first aid kid. Combat knife, needle, thread, alcohol. Everything!" As Deeks dashed away, the Navy SEAL added, "I'm glad to see you two are alive."
The blond retrieved everything from the kitchen table and put it down for Sam. He set to work in dousing the knife and forceps in the alcohol. Deeks watched for a moment before gripping Sam's shoulder. "Let me know if you need my help."
He then turned his attention towards Kensi, whom hadn't moved from her position by the coffee table. She was extremely pale, and looked as if she couldn't catch a wink of sleep in weeks. Then he noticed a make-shift brace of duct tape and wood wrapped around her right ankle.
"Are you okay?" Deeks asked, as he kneeled down next to her
"My ankle might be broken," Kensi said as she couldn't suppress the wince that came along with it.
He rose to his feet and stuck out his good arm. "Come on then."
She grasped his wrist and pulled herself to her good foot, where Kensi hopped several times to gain her balance. They made their way into the back bedroom, where the wall was covered in notes made from a Sharpie. Deeks set her gently on the bed.
"You've been busy," she commented.
"Well, I haven't been able to do much," Deeks wagged his arm in a sling. "I've been slightly incapacitated."
"I'm assuming a result of the Salinas Cartel?"
He didn't answer, and only grabbed several spare pillows from the closet and propped Kensi's leg up with them. Deeks plopped himself down to work on removing the castings. When Kensi hissed, he quickly retracted his hands.
"No, it's okay," she assured.
Deeks promptly removed his sling, as he would need both available hands to handle a broken ankle properly. He finished undoing the wrappings and rolled up the bottom of her jeans.
"Oh, that does not look good," he said. Her ankle was swollen to twice its size and was deep black and blue. "Be right back."
Deeks was gone for about five minutes gathering various supplies before reentering the room. In his arms was a roll of duct tape, and old bed sheet, a narrow wooden board, and an ice-pack. He gently laid the ice across her ankle wrapped in a towel and set to work of cutting the sheet in strips.
"When did you learn how to do this?" Kensi inquired, watching him work with great interest.
He stopped for a moment, biting his lip. "When my mom refused to go to the hospital after my dad beat her."
Kensi opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't find the words. What petty words could respond to that?
"I'm sorry," she weakly offered.
Deeks shrugged. "I'm glad to see you're okay."
"A useless ankle, but yes. I'm okay." Kensi turned her attention towards the writing on the wall. "How do you know so much about the Salinas Cartel?"
"LAPD have been on them for years. We've lost many undercover operators to them, including some friends. It's no wonder you guys haven't heard of them before- they've been smart enough to stay out of the fed zone thus far."
"Well they made a mistake crossing into it," Kensi growled.
Deeks met her eyes. "When you and Callen get back on your feet, they'll find out just how much of a mistake they made."
Nell Jones was not one to comply with rules that went against her individual wants. But when the nurses told her that only family was allowed in Eric's room at the hospital, she found herself stomping home anyway. She'd been there since the incident (which was a day and a half ago), checking up on agents and techies injured in the attack.
"Stupid nurses," she grumbled, letting herself into her tiny house. Nell kicked off her boots and sank into her couch cushions.
She was exhausted; there was work left to be done.
Her fingers clenched around the envelope in her coat pocket and laid it out on her lap. All the secrets of Henrietta Lang bound in one, meaningless, piece of paper. She ripped it open and pulled out a key taped to an index card. In penciled script it read:
203 Ocean View Ridge
Didn't think I'd forget about Nell's part in the story, eh? More of her to come. Sorry she hasn't made any appearances lately.
