"So when I'm all choked up
And I can't find the words,
Every time we say goodbye,
Baby, it hurts
So when the sun goes down,
And the band won't play,
I'll always remember us this way."

- "Always Remember Us This Way," Lady Gaga

...

Kensi couldn't breathe, her vision blurred. Blood poured from burst eardrums, and dribbled from her mouth and down her chin. The blast had gone off about half an hour ago, and Kensi had been thrown chest first into the wall, a few ribs giving way with a sickening crack. She'd woken up disoriented and out of it, but managed to drag herself to a pile of rubble, rolling over and sitting up with a pained wheeze.

She looked around with glassy eyes. She was all alone, it was dark, her vision was tinged darkly around the edges. Kensi inhaled, a slow, painful breath. She couldn't get enough air, and she gasped as a painful bought of coughing caused her to almost black out. Her lips and the skin around her mouth began to turn a blue color from lack of oxygen.

"Kensi! Kensi!" Deeks' voice echoed through the destroyed corridors. Kensi tried to call out, but ensued a bloody coughing fit. "Kensi!" Deeks called again. Kensi weakly reached out and grabbed a chunk of debris, tossing it out the door of the room she was in. She tossed another one, and another one, until she could hear Deeks' footsteps pounding quickly down the corridor. "Kens!" Deeks burst into the room, taking in the sight of his pale, bloody partner sitting on the rubble covered floor.

Kensi rolled her head weakly over to look at him with glazed eyes. She fumbled with the hem of her shirt, trying to use clumsy fingers to pull it up. Deeks rushed to her side and helped pull her shirt up to her collarbone, revealing an angry red and blue mark on the left side of her rib cage.

"Oh, Kens," Deeks mumbled, gently running his fingers down her ribs. Kensi's already shallow and labored breathing hitched, and Kensi's face contorted in pain. "Okay, baby, you've got a punctured lung. That's gonna need to be fixed okay?"

Kensi nodded quickly, taking another hitching breath.

"This is a little trick Sam taught me. I'm not gonna lie to you, it's gonna hurt." Kensi nodded weakly as Deeks pulled her knife from the sheath on her hip, and a pen from his pocket, quickly dismantling the pen, then slid a finger underneath the band of her sport bra, pushing it up farther and baring the spot he would need to make the incision. He took a deep breath, and Kensi squeezed her eyes shut. He poked the tip of her knife into the skin between two of her ribs.

Kensi tried her best to hold back the scream. She arched her back at the pain.

"Stop moving," Deeks said quickly, shaking hands quickly inserting the hollow part of the pen into the incision. The air in her chest cavity let out with a hiss, and Kensi took a deep, gasping breath. She started breathing quickly, eyes going wide. "Hey, hey, hey, slow down," Deeks said, as he used gentle, yet shaking hands to pull her shirt back down over her torso.

"D-Deeks?" Kensi stuttered, blinking several times to clear the bleariness. It didn't help.

"Yeah, Kens, I'm here," Deeks said, slotting Kensi's knife back into .

"T-thank-k-" Kensi's words were cut off by a painful bought of bloody coughs.

"Shhhh," Deeks hushed, holding a finger to her lips, not caring about the slick of blood over Kensi's mouth and chin. "Don't try to talk, okay? We'll get you out of here."

Kensi nodded weakly. Deeks held out a hand and Kensi grasped it. Deeks pulled her up to her feet, and slung her arm over his shoulder, supporting part of her weight as the two navigated through the rubble filled corridors. Deeks touched a finger to his ear.

"Eric, get me an ambulance," he said as he guided Kensi outside the partially demolished building. Kensi gasped, breathing in the clear, dusky air of the night, coughing again.

"You got it," Eric replied over the line. Sam and Callen rushed towards the pair, but Deeks waved them off. Deeks sank to the ground, bringing a half conscious Kensi down with him, resting her upper body against his knees until the ambulance arrived. he rubbed her back and shoulders, trying to soother her as much as he could through her coughing fits.

Kensi started up at him with glassy eyes, a slightly loopy smile on her face. Deeks grinned,

"What?" he asked. Kensi just smiled, in too much pain to speak. She didn't know what to say anyway. Before Deeks even knew what he was doing, he leaned down and kissed Kensi on the forehead. A phone camera clicked off to his right, and he looked up to see Callen pocketing his phone. He smiled and shook his head ruefully.

When the ambulance finally pulled in, sirens shrieking, Kensi winced, and Deeks immediately covered her damaged ears with his hands. Sam ran to tell them to shut them off as a team of EMTs came at Kensi and Deeks with a stretcher. Gently as possibly, Kensi was lifted up and onto it, and buckles were secured around her chest, waist and legs.

Deeks' face grew dark when he was told to stay behind, that he'd have to see Kensi after surgery. The ambulance's doors were slammed shut and Deeks disappeared from her line of sight.

"Deeks!" she shrieked, struggling against the restraints over her body. Several medics rushed to pin her down as another tugged aside the waistband of her jeans, jamming a sedative into the skin behind her hip. As the sedative slowly took effect, and she slowly began to lose consciousness, Kensi felt her heart rip in two.

...

Some of you may recognize this from an old story that's not up anymore. I just split up the chapters and tossed this one here.

Anyway, prompts are accepted!