Hi again. I'm incredibly sorry for the long wait between chapters, but I really struggled with this one and thought I'd never get it done. In any case, thanks as always for all your reviews and nice thoughts. I wish I could thank some of the guest reviewers personally because there were some that just made my day and I appreciate them so much. Also, to the one person who asked about the cat in the wall – it was a real thing. There was a hole in a closet wall where I used to live. He got scared when the movers were in the house and hid inside the wall. He only came out to eat at night when no one was in the house. He finally came out and he's fine now lol I also want to give a special thanks to JaniceS and cjanff. Your notes and encouragement when I was lacking confidence in this story were so helpful and appreciated more than you know.
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"What is that?" Kensi looked curiously at the device Sam was holding then switched her attention to Deeks when Sam didn't respond to her question. "Deeks, what did you find?"
"It's a locator beacon," Deeks replied. "It was in a pocket in the bag. If it's working, I think it will get us rescued."
"Oh my God, that's wonderful!" Kensi exclaimed, a huge smile on her face. She wrapped her arms around Deeks and hugged him. "I can't believe we might be found. Sam? Can you tell if it works?"
Sam stared at the device in his hands, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that it had been in the bag all along. His eyes settled on Callen and he was immediately wracked by guilt as he realized all the suffering he could have spared his friend if he had searched the bag more thoroughly on day one.
"Sam?" Deeks looked at the other man, a little confused about why he wasn't taking action and why he didn't appear more excited. "Do you know how to work it?"
"Directions are here on the back," Sam said. He held it up to show Deeks and then passed it back to him. "You found it. You deserve the honor."
"Uh…okay," Deeks was clearly puzzled as he took the locator back from Sam.
"Come on, guys…I don't think it matters who does this," Kensi said impatiently. "I just think we should do it now."
Deeks nodded and quickly read over the instructions. They seemed very simple so he read them over again to be sure he wasn't missing anything. "Not much to it." He extended the antenna of the unit then turned the power switch on which activated a blinking light.
"That's it?" Kensi asked dubiously.
"Yeah…that's all it says," replied Deeks.
"How do we know if it's working?" Kensi asked. "Do they signal us back when they get our signal?"
"It should work," Sam said, trying to inwardly assure himself as well as his friends. "We're out in the open here. They should be able to pick up our signal easily enough. I don't think we'll receive a signal back from them though. We just have to wait." The blinking light gave him hope that the unit was doing what it was supposed to do.
"I wonder how long it will take them to come after us," Deeks said musingly. "Does this give them our exact location?"
Sam shook his head. "There are different kinds. Some of them pinpoint location more accurately than others. We have the signal fires all set though. I think they'll spot us pretty easily once they come out looking for us."
"But they probably won't begin searching until daylight," Kensi said with a small sigh, her worried eyes shifting to Callen's still form.
"He'll be okay," Sam stated with much more certainty in his voice than what he felt inside. Callen had barely moved since he lost consciousness. Sam would even welcome his partner having to endure another nightmare at this point, just so he could hear the sound of his voice. "G's going to pull through this."
"He will pull through," Deeks said, nodding in agreement, his blue eyes fixed on the blinking light of the locator which seemed to have almost a hypnotic effect.
"You guys should try to get some sleep," Sam said. "I'll wake you if I hear anything."
"I don't think I could sleep now even if I wanted to," Deeks said. He was much too amped up to even think about sleeping.
"I know I can't sleep," Kensi stated. She felt very restless and wished she could get up and walk around.
Sam ran his hand over his face and sighed deeply, then turned his gaze to his partner. He took his hand and squeezed it gently. "Hey G…I don't know if you can hear me or not, but if you can, help is coming really soon. You need to hang in there for me, okay? Just hang tough, buddy. I know you can do it." He hoped and prayed that Callen would make it through this. If he didn't, Sam knew that he would never be able to forgive himself.
xxxxx
The remainder of the night passed excruciatingly slowly. Sam resumed his obsessive vigil, keeping a close watch over his partner. Deeks and Kensi were mostly silent, both reluctant to express any excitement over the possible impending rescue with Sam so clearly upset. Finally the sun rose and as it did, expectations for the rescue rose as well.
"I wonder how long it will take," Kensi mused, her head turned up towards the sky.
"Could be minutes…could be hours," Sam replied. There was really no way of knowing. He just hoped it was the former rather than the latter.
"You guys hungry?" Deeks asked as he reached for some protein bars. Kensi nodded and Deeks passed her one. Sam didn't respond. "Sam?" Deeks tried again as he held out one of the bars.
"Thanks." Sam took the bar from Deeks and placed it down on the ground beside him. He made no move to open it.
Deeks sighed and ripped the wrapper off his own protein bar then took a bite. He couldn't help thinking how good it would be to be able to have regular food again. He had never really thought about how lucky they were to have so many available food options. He didn't think he would ever take that for granted again.
xxxxx
The morning seemed to drag on as slowly as the night had passed. The three conscious team members were getting more anxious as time went by with no sign of rescue. "What if it isn't working?" Kensi finally voiced out loud what they had each been thinking.
"It has to be working," Deeks said. "It's blinking… doesn't that mean its working?"
"I would have thought so," Kensi said, "but maybe the signal isn't reaching whoever it needs to reach. Sam? What do you think?"
"I don't know what to think," Sam replied despondently. All he knew was if help didn't get here soon, Callen wasn't going to make it. He wasn't sure how much more he could take of his emotions going up and down like a yo-yo. The whole thing was making him physically sick to his stomach.
"I still say it's working," Deeks insisted. "It hasn't been that long. Help is going to be here soon. I can feel it."
They lapsed into silence again and another 20 minutes went by before Kensi cocked her head, listening intently. "Hey guys, listen. Do you hear that?"
"I don't hear anything," Sam said.
"Me either," Deeks answered with a sigh. This was the fifth time this morning Kensi had thought she heard something. Every time it was a false alarm.
"No. I really heard something this time," Kensi said adamently.
"Wait," Sam held up his hand, signaling the other two to be quiet then whispered, "I hear it too," before quickly getting to his feet and staring upward. Deeks followed his example.
"I still don't…" Deeks started.
"Shh," Sam said, still looking upward. Finally, after what seemed like an endless wait, he pointed with a grin on his face. "There!"
Deeks looked in the direction where Sam was pointing and then smiled widely as he saw a helicopter off in the distance. "Oh my, God, I see it. He bent down to Kensi and kissed her enthusiastically. "You were right, baby!"
"We need to make sure they see us," Sam said as he started waving his arms. Deeks did the same with his one uninjured arm and began jumping up and down.
"Hey, we're here!" Deeks shouted. "They're coming closer. I think they see us!"
"They do see us," Sam said. An incredible feeling of relief swept through him as he watched the helicopter's downward approach. He squatted down next to Callen. "The rescue crew is here, G," he said as he patted his partner's shoulder. "They're going to help you and you're going to be fine, you hear me? You're going to pull through this."
xxxxx
Hetty sat at her desk reading and re-reading a file of paperwork, unable to concentrate on any of it. She had just decided to put it aside when a grim-faced Owen made his way into her office. She immediately knew there was news. "What is it, Owen?" she asked, inwardly bracing herself in anticipation of the worst possibility.
"A signal was received from the locator beacon on the team's flight. A rescue helicopter is currently in route to find them."
"So, I take it there is no information about their condition?" Hetty asked, distressed at this newest development, her head filled with images of a downed aircraft.
Owen shook his head. "No, but this is good news, Henrietta. At least they were able to signal us…"
"Yes," Hetty said with a nod, "but..." She stopped, not wanting to voice the possibility that some of the team members could be badly hurt or worse. Negative thoughts like that wouldn't help. She needed to stay positive. "I need to go to them, Owen. Do they know where they'll be brought?"
He nodded. "They're somewhere in a remote area of Washington state. They'll be brought to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. I've got a private plane on standby. As soon as you're ready to go, we can be on our way."
"We?" Hetty questioned, looking at him curiously. "You're going with me?"
"I care about them too, Henrietta," he stated gruffly. "Whenever you're ready…"
"I'm ready now, Owen," she stated. "Let's go."
xxxxx
It didn't take long before the helicopter landed on the beach, a short distance from the campsite. Sam got to his feet and headed over to meet the three crewmen who disembarked. "Hi, I'm Sam Hanna," he said, extending his hand to the man in the lead. "Boy, am I glad to see you."
"I'm Jack Califano. This is Miguel Borjas and Tommy Peterson," the tall, spiky-haired paramedic said as he shook Sam's hand. "Are any members of your group injured?"
Sam nodded at the other two men. "Yeah, I'm pretty much the only one who's not," Sam replied. "My partner is badly hurt and our other two team members are injured as well."
They reached Callen and Jack immediately squatted down beside him as did Miguel who put down the equipment box he was carrying. Tommy went over to Kensi and Deeks. "So, how long has he been like this?" Jack asked as he placed a blood pressure cuff on Callen's arm.
"He's been unconscious since late yesterday afternoon," Sam answered, nervously watching the men working on his partner.
"Miguel, his blood pressure's really low. Let's get an IV going to get some fluids into him. What happened here?" Jack asked as he carefully removed the gauze from Callen's abdomen.
"He was stabbed on the plane before we crashed," Sam replied.
Both Jack and Miguel appeared troubled when he relayed that information. "Uh, is the assailant in custody?" Miguel asked as he hooked up the IV to Callen's arm.
"Not exactly, but he won't be hurting anyone else," Sam stated. "He killed himself."
Jack raised his eyebrows as he and Miguel glanced at each other, but didn't say anything, and continued attending to Callen.
"Seems like you folks have had quite the time," Tommy said as he recorded Kensi's pulse. He had been unable to avoid listening to what Sam was saying. "Are you in a lot of pain right now?"
Kensi shook her head. "No. I'm good."
Deeks brushed his hair back in frustration. He knew that Kensi was anything but good. "Come on Kensi, we're finally getting rescued. You can stop playing superwoman now."
"When are you going to stop playing superman?" Kensi retorted.
"Ma'am? On a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the worst, where would you rate your current pain level?" Tommy interrupted.
Kensi sighed softly. "Maybe about a six."
"Okay," said Tommy, "I can give you something for the pain or you can wait until we get to the hospital, your choice. It looks like your ankle is immobilized pretty well so I'm going to just leave that alone. Doesn't make sense to disturb it right now. It would just increase your pain. We'll get you to the ER and they'll take some x-rays to find out exactly what's going on with it."
Kensi nodded. "I don't need anything for the pain. I'd prefer to just wait until we get to the hospital."
"Let me know if you change your mind or if the pain increases." Tommy turned to Deeks. "I'd like to take your vitals now."
Deeks obediently turned towards the paramedic, giving him easy access to his arm so he could take his blood pressure. "Your pressure is a little high," Tommy said after he finished and removed the cuff from Deeks' arm. "Is that usual for you?"
Deeks shook his head. "No, it's usually on the low side."
Tommy nodded. Well, this is a pretty stressful situation and you're injured. It's not surprising that it would be elevated. How bad is the pain in your shoulder?"
"It's not too bad," Deeks replied. "Maybe a four or five." There was no way he was going to rate his pain higher than Kensi had.
Kensi snorted. "A four? Really Deeks?"
Tommy sighed, wondering if he could believe anything these two were telling him. "Well, the same thing goes for you. I can give you something for the pain or you can wait until we reach the hospital."
"I'll wait," Deeks said quickly.
"Yeah, I figured that's what you'd say. Tell me if anything changes," Tommy said then turned his attention to his co-workers. "You guys need any help?"
"We're good, Tommy," Jack replied.
At that moment another man came over from the helicopter, carrying a stretcher. "That's Chris Harris. He's our pilot," Jack informed them.
"Thought you guys could use this," Chris said as he placed the stretcher down on the ground next to where the men were working. "Anything you need me to do?"
"We're going to need another stretcher," Tommy said. "We've got a probable ankle fracture here."
Chris nodded and headed back to the helicopter. "Be right back."
While all this had been going on, Sam had been paying close attention to the two paramedics who were working on his partner, trying to read their expressions. "So…how's he doing?" he finally asked.
"How long ago did he obtain this knife wound?" Jack asked.
"Um," Sam thought for a few moments. It seemed like the days were just all jumbled together. "I think it was five days ago."
"Okay," Jack turned to Miguel. "Let's get ready to transport him."
"Is there enough room for all of us in the helicopter?" Sam suddenly felt very uneasy. It was obvious Jack had deliberately avoided his question. He didn't want to be separated from his partner, but Kensi was first priority after Callen.
Jack nodded. "Yes. We'll be able to take all of you. When you activated the locator beacon, it was registered to the plane you were on. From there, the flight manifest was retrieved, so we knew the number of passengers onboard."
Sam nodded, feeling somewhat relieved to know he could accompany Callen to the hospital. "Anything I can do to help?" he asked, watching as they secured his partner to the gurney.
Jack shook his head. "No, we've got this. You might want to put those fires out before we take off."
"Yeah, okay." Sam put the fires out with sand while Jack and Miguel picked Callen up and started toward the helicopter. Chris and Tommy secured Kensi to the other stretcher and followed soon after as Sam and Deeks trailed behind.
"How's Callen?" Deeks asked Sam as they walked.
Sam just shook his head. "I don't know, Deeks. They wouldn't give me a straight answer…"
"Try not to worry. I don't think they're supposed to say much. They leave it to the doctors," Deeks said, trying to reassure Sam. "Callen's a tough guy, Sam. He'll be okay."
"Yeah, I know he will," Sam managed to force a smile and waited as the paramedics helped Deeks onto the helicopter. Then, with one last look back at their home for the past few days, he climbed into the helicopter, mentally preparing himself to face whatever was in store for them next.