Chapter 10: Safe?
Having left their female teammate back at the boatshed, Callen and Sam made their way towards the address Eric had sent to their phones. For once they made surprisingly good time in the traffic and arrived much earlier than anticipated, which was only a good thing considering they did not know what state Young would be in, if he was even there.
The neighbourhood was an old run down district, with loads of ramshackled properties, several of the wooden decks on buildings were in various degrees of rotting and decay. The few lots without houses, were sprinkled with crooked, rusty tin-sheds and fences. It was clear that this had once been an average neighbourhood, but had now deteriorated into something that could easily resemble some post apocalyptic scenery.
The two agents exited the vehicle further up the street to ensure they would stay out of sight before breaching the building. They quickly put on the bulletproof vests as they had many times previously. Once they had ensured that the vests were on properly, they started making their way towards the decaying house.
Standing by the front door, Callen started retrieving his lock picking kit that he would always carry with him on missions. As he began putting pressure on the lock, the agents could hear shuffling from inside the house. Within seconds of hearing the noise from inside, Callen was diving to the ground attempting to dodge the hail of bullets now raining through the door he had attempted to unlock.
Sam, who had been standing slightly off to the side to give him teammate some room to work, was in a safer position behind the sturdier wall rather than the rotting, wooden door. Crouching down and grabbing Callen's shirt, he dragged him away from the immediate danger of being in front of the entrance, now filled with holes.
Taking a short moment to regain his composure, Callen stood up and hugged the wall next to Sam, padding him twice on the chest as a silent 'thank you'. Looking at each other they silently discussed how to go about dealing with the predicament in which they found themselves. Callen's eyes flickered towards the side of the house, and Sam immediately understood what his partner wanted him to do. The ex-SEAL moved towards the back of the house to ensure multiple points of entry, which would hopefully give them the edge, since the intel they had only led them to believe that there was only a single assailant inside the house.
After a few moments to allow his teammate to get into position, Callen kicked in the front door. The action rewarded him with another volley of bullets in his general direction. Already cautious that this would be the result of forcing the door open, Callen had pre-emptively taken refuge behind the solid wall once more. The suspect stopped firing his automatic weapon, presumably to reload. Knowing that Sam was going to enter silently from the back whilst Callen was causing a distraction in the front, he saw no reason to risk confirming his theory regarding the reload.
The team lead was about to peek the front door to act as a distraction once more, when he heard his teammate yell from within.
"Federal agents, drop the weapon!"
Taking the command as his cue, Callen rushed into the house to back up his partner, the suspect quickly swinging around, aiming the weapon at him. A loud crack sounded the house. The man went down, Sam having used his training, shooting the armed assailant in the shoulder to both keep him and his partner safe whilst keeping the suspect alive for questioning later. Moving quickly, Callen stepped in, swiping away the uzi, thus securing the immediate area.
Callen knelt down and started searching for other weapons on his persona, grabbing his phone, roughly handling him, showing no form of sympathy for the man lying, groaning on the floor. Finding no weapons he cuffed the man and stood up. He called Eric to arrange an ambulance. As he did that, Sam searched the rest of the house looking for Young.
"G. In here!" A yell sounded from somewhere else in the house.
He stepped into a room that at one point must have been a bedroom. An unconscious man lying on the floor, Sam crouched next to him checking for a pulse. Finding one the large agent nodded to the team lead, who promptly picked up his phone to call Eric for a second ambulance. No doubts in either of their minds that the first one arriving would be going to the senseless form of Young.
...
After the second, very uncharacteristic declaration of excitement towards a date coming from agent Kensi Blye, the room had fallen quiet. Both people present content with looking into each others eyes, finding nothing but sincerity and wanting, Marty let a smile shine through on his face, bringing up a warm and fuzzy feeling in the pit of Kensi's stomach.
Not sure how long they had been sitting in comfortable silence, Marty, of course, was the first to break the silence, and soon after they were talking freely about everything and nothing. The conversation was flowing nicely, as if it was one between age-old friends catching up. Kensi had even found herself asking mundane questions that she usually did not care to know about her dates, such as his hobbies and work life. Somehow they both seemed to know to stay away from deeper topics regarding their past and families.
She had found herself laughing a lot more than she usually would with people whom she did not know well, or anyone really. That was the sound that permeated through the boatshed as Callen and Sam returned from the hospital with Bakaj in tow. They halted for a moment, the unusual sound of their female co-worker's laughter taking them by surprise. Deciding not to embarrass her too much, Sam closed the door hard, so it could be heard clearly, giving her time to regain the composure of her usual tough exterior.
Marty noticed the immediate change in the demeanor in the female agent, which he found he had a really good time chatting with, especially considering the circumstances and the fact that she technically was his protective detail right now. He lifted one of his eyebrows and looked questionably at her.
Taken aback by the fact that he, once again, had been able to read her body language like an open book she shook her head, letting him know to let it go for now. Happy that she was able to wordlessly communicate her intent, he pressed his lip into a tight line but nodded, letting her know he had understood her flawlessly, in return she flashed him a shy smile as thanks.
The silent interaction between the two went unnoticed as Sam pushed the suspect, who was now confirmed through facial recognition to be Bakaj, into the interrogation room. Callen veered off and went to the two, now silent, people sitting in the couch and chair.
"I see everything went well?" Kensi half-asked, half-stated to the team lead.
"Yeah. Young had been drugged but the paramedics assured us it was just a sedative to keep him under control. I think Bakaj got the information from him that he wanted, but we'll have to wait for the Wonder Twins to get something from his phone and computer."
"So how did it go down?" Kensi asked, momentarily forgetting that Marty was in the room. Callen did not seem to mind the civilian present, after all, he had already seen their team in action when they came to his rescue not that long ago. Marty listened intently to the short briefing from the agent, impressed by the detail and reasoning behind how they had approached the situation.
When Callen was finished talking, Marty cleared his throat and asked, "So uhm… that was the guy who was supposedly after me as well, right?"
Sensing his uncomfortable state and also what seemed to be a tinge of fear, Kensi tried calming him, "Yes, but… we're not even sure he was after you."
"But you suspect it," he reasoned.
She sighed, feeling bad for the man she had yet to go on a date with. Deciding the truth would be the best way to go about this, she nodded and answered his question, "We do."
He slowly exhaled through puffed cheeks before asking, "Okay. So… what do I do now then?"
"Now we see what we can get out of this guy," Callen interrupted, "And if we find that he was after you, we'll see if he was alone to ensure your safety."
Not entirely grateful that this was what was happening, but knowing that he did not have any real say in any of it, Marty merely nodded at what he suspected to be the leader of Kensi's team. The shorthaired agent turned around and went down the same corridor that his larger partner had previously, presumably to interrogate the man they had just brought in.
The room fell silent once more, Kensi found herself wanting to comfort the injured lawyer, but did not know how. She could not tell him that it was not a big deal, because, as his plethora of still healing bruises proved, it was a potentially very real threat. Finally settling on using her own way of finding comfort to hopefully help lighten the mood, she stood up, "C'mon let's go."
He looked at her quizzically, after all the other agent had just told him, that they did not know for sure whether or not he was still in actual danger. "Where are we-"
"Food!" She interrupted. He chuckled at her antics, and she was glad that she was able to lighten the mood, even if only momentarily.
She quickly sent a text to Callen and into OPS, stating they would be going to one of the nearby food trucks, letting them know their location. Marty was right on her heels, moving as quickly as he could without agitating his still healing ribs, and together they went out of the boatshed and towards her vehicle.
After the less than two minute drive they found themselves having to choose between three different food trucks. Kensi seemed unable to pick one and Marty found that he would be contempt with whatever the female agent would eventually pick. She ended up finally settling on chicken and beef wraps, seeing as they were, not only very tasty according to her, but also the easiest of the options to transport back to the boatshed without making a mess.
Just as they entered the boatshed again, the two agents, Callen and Hanna, came rushing out of the interrogation room, when they realised that their fellow agent and the lawyer in protective custody stood before them they visibly relaxed.
Marty just looked perplexed at Kensi searching for answers, when he received none, he got a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was not right.