Turn of Events
By BH72
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from NCISLA. They all belong to Shane Brennan and CBS. I am thankful that I am allowed to borrow them and return them, ready for the next episode.
A/N: What more can I do to Callen, you ask? Haven't I done enough to him? I know life appears to suck badly for him at the moment, but we need the hurt for the comfort to come, right? Answers will be revealed on exactly what happened to Callen and how he ended up so ill. Thanks for your continued support and the wonderful reviews.
Chapter 28
Elise made the return trek back along the trail to the cabin and gasped when she found Callen lying on the floor. "Matt." She checked his breathing and saw that it was shallow. Beside him she saw her old notebook and swore out loud that he had found it. "Oh Matt, I am so sorry." She kissed him gently on the temple and held him in her arms.
Callen thought for sure he had now died from a heart attack. He could hear Elise talking to him and crying. He heard footsteps but couldn't open his eyes. They felt heavy and he wasn't strong enough to open them.
"Callen?" Nell. Nell is here. Her voice pulled him out of the darkness as she fell to the floor beside Elise. "Matt? What happened?" She turned to Elise hoping for an answer.
Deeks and Kensi followed Nell in with worry on their faces. "I'll call for an ambulance." Kensi pulled out her burn phone and dialled 911.
"I don't know. I left him sleeping and went for a walk. I just found him lying like this." Tears fell down her cheeks as she continued holding Callen.
Nell bent over and kissed Callen on the lips. "Don't you dare die on me, Matthew Summers. I love you and I will never forgive you if you leave me now." Her voice cracked under the emotions. She looked at him with surprise when she felt his hand grab hers.
His eyes fluttered under the lids as he tried to open them. "Nell." His voice croaked, but he'd returned to the living. He opened his eyes and his cerulean orbs stared back at her.
"I'm here, Matt. And I am never leaving you." Tears poured down her face and fell onto his shirt as she held onto his hands firmly.
"Ambulance will be here soon." Kensi walked over, relieved to see Callen awake. She knelt down on her knees and studied him. "What happened, Callen?"
Callen swallowed hard, his mouth was dry. "Water." Deeks poured him a glass and handed it to him. "Thanks." He swallowed as much as his body would allow and handed the glass back to the detective. "What are you all doing here?"
"For you, you silly goose." Nell chided. "You keep forgetting how much we all love you."
He looked from Nell to Kensi and Deeks. "Deeks loves me too?" They all laughed at the comment, with tears in their eyes.
"Yeah, but don't tell the big guy or he'll get jealous."
"Who are you calling big?" They turned around and found Sam Hanna standing at the door looking at them. "What's going on?" The scene might have been amusing with them all hovered around his partner, if concern for Callen hadn't been on his mind.
"We found him unconscious on the floor." Kensi brought him up to speed. "Ambulance is on it's way."
Sam moved in and assessed his partner. "Can I have some space here?" Kensi and Deeks moved away and Elise gently moved out for Nell to replace her. Nell nodded with thanks as she sat holding Callen's upper body in her arms. She had worried over him for over a week, but she hadn't been prepared to see him unconscious on the floor when she walked in.
"Are you in pain, G?" Sam looked into his eyes and checked his heart rate before he moved back to give him some space.
"My heart." He croaked out. "The pain in my heart hurt too much." He took in a breath of air before he continued. "Tingling up my arm. Hard to breathe."
All around him came to the same conclusion, he had suffered a mild heart attack. His complexion still looked a bit grey but the fact that he appeared fine now, gave them the comfort that he would be okay. The sound of a vehicle pulling up outside caught their attention. Kensi and Deeks exited the cabin to direct the paramedics through and update their prognosis of a possible mild heart attack.
Sam stood back and watched the paramedics deal with his partner. Once again they had come too close at almost losing their team leader. They led Callen out on a stretcher into the ambulance, with Nell joining him in the back. She continued to hold his hand all through the journey to the hospital, half an hour away at Roanoke.
Back at the cabin, Sam looked at Elise who remained in shock, clutching the notebook in her hand. He walked over to her and placed his hand on her arm, hoping to gain her attention. "Elise?"
"It's all my fault." She remained focused on some distance spot, that Sam couldn't work out. "He," she looked down at her hands holding the notebook, "found this."
"What is it?"
Elise looked up at Sam with sadness in her eyes. "My journal. Something I forgot I left here," her voice cracked, as her body trembled, "private thoughts I had written sixteen years ago." She held it tight to her chest, unwilling to allow anyone else read it. "Matt found it, he must have read it before he collapsed." She turned and walked out onto the deck, hoping the scenery and fresh air would soothe her.
Sam followed, knowing that she felt guilt for something she wasn't responsible for. "What happened to G is not your fault, Elise. He's been through a great deal of emotional and physical strain of late. You can't blame what you wrote in there that long ago to be the cause of this?"
"You don't know what's in there." Her statement concerned Sam, who suddenly needed to know what was in there. Before, he was content to keep it private, but now it worried him.
"Is it that bad?" He raised his brow as he studied her.
Elise shook her head. "Not in that way. Bad in the fact that it reveals that I found out I was pregnant when we were both here and I never told him." Her admission surprised Sam, who up to this point thought she had found out that she was pregnant after they were back at the Bureau. "I've broken his heart, Sam. And I can never take back what I've done to him."
"You two need to talk about this. This has nothing to do with anyone but the two of you. Why don't we head over to the hospital and see how he is?" Elise nodded. "I'll drive." Sam knew that Elise wasn't in the right head space to drive, although he'd been driving for days himself.
Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital…
The team sat out in the waiting area for a few hours, pacing the floor, shuffling their bodies in a variety of positions, but Sam sat still in the one spot. He was used to this with this partner, waiting and praying for another miracle. He chided to himself over this latest health scare. Why did he continue to ignore my pleas to take better care of himself? I've told him over and over again to eat better. Stop eating those pigs and waffles he loves so much and all that bacon he brings into the office. But no, he mocks me and tells me to stop being his mother. Sam was determined after this latest incident that he was going to ensure G listened to him. Eat salads and slow food.
Finally the doctor exited the folding doors and came over to Nell. She had remained quiet and unfocused for the time she had sat there, unaware of the company of the team and Elise. Each of them appeared to be in their own thoughts over Callen and reflected on their own relationship with the man.
"Are you Mr Summers' next of kin?" Nell looked up at the doctor and suddenly realised he was there. She shook her head, although she wanted to be the one. "I need to speak with his next of kin before I can talk to anyone else. Are you his girlfriend?"
Nell was unsure what to answer as the truth was, they had yet to out on a first date. Elise came to her rescue. "Nell is in shock over Matthew's condition. We are all family, here. Matthew's father is still in Los Angeles. Please tell us, how is he?" She had managed to pull herself out of her own thoughts and fears with a strength of her old self.
When the doctor hesitated, Sam walked over and showed him his identification. "Look doc, he's my partner, he's been through a lot recently and we came to take him home when we found him unconscious. How is he?"
Doctor Bassett nodded and capitulated after seeing the looks of concern for his patient in Sam's eyes and those with him. "He's resting at the moment. We've done tests and they do support your prognosis of a mild heart attack."
A knot tightened in all of their stomach, the news didn't sound good at all.
"There has been some damage to his heart, but his arteries are all clear." Dr Bassett explained.
"I don't understand?" Sam was expecting bad news that his partner's health that had caused it, although he was well aware of the stress Callen had been through recently, particularly what had happened to him a week earlier. Sam was never good at being kept in the dark and was determined to get to the bottom of it all. Even if he had to drag the information from his partner by force. But knowing how ill Callen was, he knew he couldn't ever do that to him. From the sounds of it, Callen had been pulled through the worst of the worst by the Serbian woman. Why else did he jump ship?
"Your partner has suffered a virus that attacked his heart, Agent Hanna." I need to know about his movements over the past few weeks to rule out chemicals or drugs as a cause. All of the other tests we've done have come up clear. I tried to ask Mr Summers, but he began to panic."
"We don't know." Sam told him sadly. "We couldn't tell you even if we did know. I need to pass this by my boss." He pulled his cell out and made the call.
"Mr Hanna, have you found him yet?" Sam knew she meant the rest of the team as well, but her worries for their team leader was evident in her slip of the tongue.
"Hetty, he's in hospital. When we arrived, he was unconscious on the floor. Elise found him just before Nell, Deeks and Kensi arrived. When I arrived soon after, he was conscious again." He braced for the next detail. "He's suffered a mild heart attack from Myocarditis, Hetty."
Hetty gripped the edge of the desk and sat down. Her head went light and fuzzy from the news. "How is he?" She tried to remain stoic but it was too much for the older woman.
"We're just getting an update from the doctor now. He needs to know about G's movements to eliminate chemicals or drugs as a cause. He said a virus attacked his heart and the most common causes have been eliminated from their tests. He needs to know about G's kidnapping by the Serbian, Hetty. But even we don't know what happened down there, without G's help, the doctor's working in the dark." Sam waited in hope that perhaps Hetty knew more than she'd let on and she would have no choice but to divulge to him.
"Agent Gibbs has been firm in stating that he promised Matthew to never reveal the details on what happened to him. However, he did take a blood sample from him on board his boat and it was sent to Miss Scuito for analysis. I will give her a call. Which hospital is he in, Mr Hanna? John and I will be there as soon as possible." She had no idea of where any of them had gone, since they had gone dark in the first place. She trusted Sam to find them and never asked Eric to search out Elise's GPS on her mobile, like her intelligence analyst had done.
"Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, South West Virginia." Sam knew it would be simpler if he could call Abby himself, but with Gibbs standing firm like he was on what state he found G in, he knew he needed Hetty to speak with the Goth Forensic Scientist for the intel. "Thanks, Hetty."
Nell and Sam walked in together to see Callen laying asleep on the bed. For someone who hated hospitals, he knew how to end up there too often. Both sets of eyes peered to the heart monitor attached to him and the fluid that flowed into his body via a shunt in the back of his hand. He looked peaceful without a care in the world, lying there like that. But they both knew it was a facade. Deep inside Callen had a million wounds taring apart his heart and other vital organs, from the pain that had been inflicted on him either mentally or physically. They sat on either side, neither daring to speak, afraid of waking him. And after all he'd been through, whether they knew what it was or not, they knew it had broken him. Rest was the best thing for Callen, therefore they left him in peace as they sat their watching his every breath.
The damage to Callen's heart had been minor, but until John and Hetty arrived, all the finite details of his condition had to wait. Sam looked to see a text had arrived from Abby, which surprised him. "Callen's blood sample showed presence of Ritalin in his system. Hope this helps Callen get well again soon. Abby." Sam shook his head with sadness in his eyes. He stood up and left the room, in search for Dr Bassett. He knew in his gut that this drug had not only caused him grief whilst in the hands of Namena, but also his lack of trust that Gibbs or their team could help him and then to his heart attack.
If you feel any of the symptoms that G. Callen has displayed, please call your medical practitioner or emergency phone number immediately. Poor Callen, how much more can he bear? He needs to heal now and he will need each of his team and Elise to have an integral part in healing him. If only he would let them in. Love to know your thoughts, please leave a review.
