Glad I could finally find some time for finishing up this chapter... Hope you will like it!
Playing around with some of the characters of NCIS-LA is fun, though we can never owe them.
Callen tried hard not to show his feelings. And in fact, he wasn't too sure which feeling was the strongest. Shock, rage, despair, fear.
"Don't… Let her go! She… she is not my girl." He even noticed himself that he didn't really control his voice. He breathed in calmer now.
"Leave her alone," he pleaded, "she's not involved, just let her go".
Instead, he heard the shot and saw the bullet hit her limp body.
"NO!" Callen cried out.
"Da, Callen. Dar aceasta nu este o rană mortală [but it's not a lethal wound]," his enemy said, and he continued furiously: "And she is not innocent at all. The bitch has been tailing me for months now. Ea știe prea multe! She knows too much!"
"You bastard."
"Am I, mister Callen? I call it an eye for an eye."
Kat still did not move at all, and blood was running from the wound right beneath her left collarbone. What had they done to her that she was completely insensible?
Callen desperately wanted to look away from the screen. In fact, he wanted to wake up from this nightmare.
There was this ongoing thing in his life, that whenever he decided to let anybody get close to him, when he let people into the spot of trust, love and confidence, he would reveal a weak spot and an easy way for the world to hurt him. This situation proved he was right.
With Kat, he had felt at ease. He had liked the relaxed way she talked about all kind of things. He had liked to see her smiles that made her grey eyes sparkle, and, last but not least, her well trained body with long, suntanned legs. He could easily have loved her as well, perhaps, after some great nights together on the beach and at that house.
And right now, he wished he could banish all feelings, just so that he would not feel the sorrow or the feeling of what might have been. There would be only one feeling left.
Anger.
Callen hardly could think clearly.
He needed to get away from this room and find a way to help Kat. But for the moment, there were three men in the room, keeping an eye on him.
A door behind him opened and he heard two people entering the room. Strong arms kept him seated on the chair as the sheriff unlocked the handcuffs.
"Need the handcuffs with my uniform, Dracul. I have to go to the ferry now. You know about that team coming to search the island with me to find Katherine Franks."
"Da. You go, Young. Juan will join you on your trip to Avalon. He will wire the place. Easy come, easy go…"
Instead of the handcuffs, one of the crew put Callen's wrists in tie wraps. Then, right in front of him, was Dracul Comescu.
"Well, well, G. Callen. We meet again."
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They gathered at the ops of NCIS LA headquarters, to see if there was any new intel on the Catalina case.
Deeks had picked up Kensi, who was still sleepy.
Sam had been waiting for them and smiled as he saw the combination of the ever talkative Deeks and the obviously tired Kensi.
"Eric, anything new since I left you last night?"
"Wait—what? Last night? Kenz, you and Eric did what? How come I wasn't invited?"
"You haven't checked your phone yet, you mean?"
"Guys, there's time enough to make up once we're on the ferry," Sam intervened. "Eric, what can you tell us?"
The blond, bespectacled surfer-tech looked nervous for a moment. "Well… there were more names, files and so on popping up last night, all from the same servers. And there was this video" he said, as he swiveled his chair, hit his keyboard and turned back to the big screen.
"Eric called me last night and we watched together. I was too tired to recognize the language. It could be Serbian. Anything you pick up from it?"
Neither Sam nor Deeks heard anything familiar.
"Sent some stills to your phones".
"Time to leave now, the ferry from San Pedro should be the one to catch in half an hour", Sam said. "The sheriff will be waiting for us at Avalon. We can watch the pictures with him, he might know the location. Now, rush, kiddo's!"
Sam had enjoyed the bantering between Deeks and Kensi, as he enjoyed it most of the time. It made him want to have his own partner back in the team soon. It felt wrong, working with the three of them. As if part of his eagerness had disappeared while being cut off from Callen.
"Eric, will you brief Hetty once she arrives?" he asked, hurrying downstairs behind the two younger special agents.
o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)
"Can you imagine how happy I was to see YOU coming here? I had planned to pay your colleagues a visit. Ask them where I could find you. Instead, you were dropped on a plate and served without having asked for," he smirked.
Unable to hide his frustration, he shouted "Stay away from my team, Dracul. It is ME you were after, no-one else".
"No problem G. Callen. There is just a little something first. Now that you're here, I can go on with making money. The nice appetizer in there," as he nodded to the screen, "will be picked up by Daničić. One mil cash. And guess what? Daničić's partner knows you só well. You remember Pranić, don't you? Two and a half. Not too bad, quick money. Just say hi to Pranić".
Astonished that he found out right now who had revealed all about his identity and whereabouts, who had him compromised and endangered his agency, Callen was too angry to keep quiet.
"How do you know…" He stopped as he saw one of the capturers filmed him. The only thing he could do was looking away.
It made Comescu even more angry and being an easy target right now, Callen got punched several times by him and his partners.
Defenseless as he was right now, his kidneys and ribs were hit more than once.
Gasping for air, he heard "Fata este inteligent. Ea a descoperit mai devreme [the girl is clever. She found out earlier]. But she did not know who Keelson was.
Money, Dollars, Callen. All that paperwork was in online files as well, of course, and for Keelson too, money was the key to everything. And you helped me and got rid of Keelson, and his paperwork. The rest of it is mine!".
Another punch made him fall to the floor, where the three of them beat him up even more.
What it was that hit his head, he did not know. What happened after that, he did not know either, as blackness had surrounded him.
o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)
"—allen."
It took some time to focus. Breathing hurt and his head felt terrible. Callen knew for sure that another concussion would have him nauseous and with headaches for the next few days.
"MacAllen."
The voice was there again, more forceful. It was tempting to not open his eyes and just drift away for a longer period. He blinked a few times and finally turned his head to where the sound came from.
"George? How are you?"
Feverish eyes from a pale face looked at him. "Can you move, MacAllen?"
He nodded.
"I'm so sorry Kat. This should not have happened."
Callen swallowed as he noticed the condition she was in. Still standing, or rather hanging, tied to a unit on the wall, it was clear that all energy had washed from her body.
He did not want to imagine the pain she would have from the nasty and still bleeding bulletwound.
"Can you move, MacAllen? Can you reach my watch please?"
Callen slowly got up, nauseous as he thougth he would be. With his hands still tied up with wraps, it was an awkward action. He felt how warm she was, although her hands were as cold as ice and she shivered continuously. Fever indeed.
"Why, what's with the watch"?
"I will explain," she said. "Maybe you will see."
After some minutes he managed to put her watch off.
"It is a transmitter when you push the PM-button. Will you do so," she asked softly and tired. "There is an agency in Washington who will get the 'distress-code' and he will contact his colleague in Los Angeles. The NCIS might help."
Thanks for reading!
Richtsje