A/N: Finally....the action begins :D!

Chapter 18: Party tricks

El collected his guns and placed them carefully on his person. Then he grabbed one last thing before heading back out to the car. Sands was still on the backseat, his head back. As soon as he heard El coming however he sat upright, he didn't want the Mariachi knowing how badly he was hurting but El has already guessed. Sands wanted to move to the front of the car again but the thought of moving when he didn't have to was almost as painful as the motion itself so he stayed where he was. No matter, he wasn't driving anyway, he didn't want to do that again. He would never have admitted it to anyone but driving blind was one of the most frightening things Sands had ever done.

"I brought you something," said El as he climbed in the car.

"How sweet," said Sands unable to stop himself.

"Well, if you don't want any painkillers then I'll..."

"Fuck El, give them to me." El did so; he wasn't cruel enough to tease the man any further.

The journey was not a particularly long one but it was long enough for the painkillers to spread their magic. Sands twisted a silencer onto his pistol. He had not done anything as crazy as this since the Day of the Dead and even then he'd been so hopped up on cartel drugs he was barely aware he was doing anything dangerous at all. He knew the Mariachi thought this a pointless quest but he didn't care if El left him once they got there, it was the getting there that Sands couldn't do on his own. El stopped the car.

"We're here," he said unnecessarily.

"No shit," said Sands. El took a deep breath to stop himself getting angry at the American which would be both pointless and counterproductive. They both got out of the car.

"Guards?" asked Sands.

"Four," replied El. Four men, possibly cartel members but more likely hired muscle, stood guarding the entrance to the somewhat rundown looking building that El knew to be the cartel's last remaining hideaway. He had been planning to take it down one day but had wanted to wait for a plan to form, he hadn't wanted to go storming in unprepared and he had not wanted anyone with him least of all a blind man. He shrugged, sometimes things just refused to go the way you wanted them to. El had parked just out of sight of the building so although the guards would know a car had parked there they couldn't see them yet.

"Ready?" he asked Sands. Sands did not answer. His movements were much easier now and although his face still retained the pinched look of constant pain he was less tense. The guards were pacing, their boots crunching on the gravel. El raised his gun but before he could fire a single shot all four men fell down dead. El turned to see Sands' pistol smoking.

"Well, what did you expect?" Sands asked sensing El's look of disbelief. El shook his head as Sands walked forwards.

"How did you do that?" asked El as he caught Sands up, he could not keep the astonishment from his voice.

"It was nothing more than a party trick," said Sands expressionlessly.

There were some steps up to the building's entrance. Sands of course did not know this and almost fell up them.

"Fuck," he cursed as he righted himself. He hated steps, stairs, anything like that. He only had three steps up to his own porch, that was all, there was no upper storey. El hesitated.

"Can I help?" he asked. Sands was supremely reluctant but then he thought of Evelyn.

"You're going to have to," he said resentfully. El could have taken the piss, and was sorely tempted, but then he decided he valued having his eyes intact. He gripped Sands' elbow and gently lead him forward. They carried on shooting guards as they found them as easily as if they had practised this for weeks. Sands' aim fascinated El; he never missed, not once. Sands could feel something burning inside him, something very like the feeling of power he had once exerted over his surroundings. Today he had a purpose. The gun felt comfortable in his hand, it meant he was in control; it made him a killer again.

Three guards, two killed by two bullets, one from El and one from Sands. The third had ducked as had El but Sands was still standing. He was utterly motionless the arm holding the gun outstretched. El hissed at him to get down but Sands silenced him with a sharp wave of his hand. He was waiting, listening and El remained silent knowing that another sound from him could ruin everything. For several moments nothing moved. And then the guard made his mistake. He looked over the desk he was crouched behind and that was all Sands needed. He struck like lightening, the trigger was pulled, the bullet hit home. The man splayed backwards from the force of the bullet and he landed on his back, dead.

El looked from the dead man to the blind gunman before him.

"That was amazing," said El frankly. Sands' gun fell limply to his side.

'That was amazing' He had spun round with his gun out. Evelyn had put her hands in the air, somehow he had known she would do that even without being able to see it.

'I'm sorry. I knocked but no one answered, the door was open...I should have waited outside." Her voice came back to him. Soft and quavering as it had been that day. God, he loved her.

"Sands?" that was El. He would have to let go of her voice to reply to him and he didn't want to.

"Sands? Snap out of it." But Sands wanted to listen to her. Evelyn's voice was in his head and Ajedrez's wasn't. In that moment he knew he would never dream of Ajedrez again. The pain would always be there but Evelyn had saved him, the cycle was broken. Now he had a new voice to listen to. A sharp pain jolted him back to reality. El had slapped him round the face. Sands head jerked to the side and stayed there. His cheek stung. His glasses had slipped down his nose slightly; he pushed them back up, every movement icy cool.

"I had to," said El his voice staccato with nervousness, "You know that." Sands still hadn't moved and for one crazy moment El thought he was listening ready to shoot as soon as El moved but Sands' pistol remained firmly by his side.

"Don't ever fucking touch me again," he said in a cold voice.

"Ok," agreed El. Sands gave a small inexplicable shiver and then said, "Am I that interesting that you must stare at me?" His composure had fractured.

"I wasn't staring," lied El, "Let's move on." Sands let El go first.

The building was quiet. It was impossible to know whether the gunfire had alerted everyone else but El thought that was most probable. All was quiet until El heard a dull thud. He span round gun at the ready only to see Sands had walked squarely into a table. The table edge had been just the right height to hit him right in the stomach, where the car door had sliced through him. Sands stumbled backwards gasping. El rushed over and went to steady him.

"Don't-fucking-touch-me," Sands said his fingers outstretched towards El so he couldn't come any closer. He was struggling against the fresh pain, a deeper darkness than normal gathered in the corners of his mind but he pushed it away. He couldn't fail Evelyn now, he just couldn't.

"El," he said with difficulty knowing he would have to admit defeat, "I can't breathe." El stepped forwards and Sands' outstretched hand closed around his shirt. The Mariachi let Sands lean on him until Sands was ready to stand alone once more.

"I have to find her," said Sands and he released El. El understood. He just hoped they had not left it too long to help Evelyn, or come too soon and risked Sands' life. It was the first time he had felt properly guilty about not rescuing the girl because it was the first time he had allowed himself to consider the possibility of her being alive. But Sands believed, that's why he had never mourned her. He did love her. El could not help thinking that hell must have actually frozen over for such a thing to have occurred.

They moved through the house silent once again. Sands did not blame El for the table incident, though that was probably only because he was concentrating on other things, but El blamed himself. He stuck close to the Agent, occasionally too close. Sands bumped into him if El stopped suddenly. At first the American cursed when this happened but then he stopped cursing, he stopped communicating completely. He was tired and the effect of the painkillers was wearing off far too quickly. Very soon he would find it difficult to move at all. El hated himself for allowing this to happen. Why hadn't he done this before? He should have attempted a rescue alone and not let Sands get out of bed. Sands should have been in hospital under the influence of morphine or some other pain relieving drug. Better yet the cartel should have left him alone. They had tortured him and left him to die but the problem was he had ruined their plan and not died. Sands had beaten all the odds and still the cartel wouldn't leave him alone. Now they had taken Evelyn and they had tried to kill Sands again. El was reminded of his own desperate situation with the murdering General Marquez. The constant need to look over your shoulder, the ever present deadly threat, the total lack of security. Until the cartel were dead, every last one of them, Sands would never be free.

"Don't you think it's a bit quiet?" Sands asked cutting through El's thoughts. El stopped and listened.

"Yes," he said with finality. They kept on moving.

The cartel must have known they were coming. It felt like a trap but still El kept moving. He had to finish this before Sands faded completely.

"Fuck," said Sands. El turned. Sands had not bumped into anything this time but he was clutching his abdomen obviously considerably distressed.

"Are you...?"

"Cut the crap El," snapped Sands, "I had a car door shoved through my stomach, of course I'm not fucking ok." There was a pause and then Sands smiled. It was a flickering effort-laden smile but it was a smile and El returned it knowing Sands would see it in his own way. He was just thinking that things might turn out all right after all when a scream ripped through the air. The unmistakeable sound of a women in pain.

A/N: Uh oh...another cliffhanger...don't kill me. :)

Thank you for all your reviews, I really enjoy reading them and they really encourage me to update quickly.

(Sylvia: I'm glad some people picked up on the 'could taste blood again' thing. Very pleasing. Your temporary blindness sounds horrible! How often does it happen? Sands would not have been able to drive any further than he did, he really REALLY didn't want to drive at all but his plan to make El help him wouldn't have worked otherwise. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!)