Falling Through the Cracks
Chapter 5
They were once more going over leads - or rather the lack of them.
A certain air of desperation had settled over the team during the last two days.
They had no hits, no leads, no nothing that could help them find their missing team leader. Sam took out his frustration on the heavy bag, Kensi took her worry and anger to the gun range, Nell and Eric were digging down deep into the fabric of the earth to find anything at all, while Deeks was having a hard time working through unwarranted guilt while being incapacitated due to his bullet wound.
Sam knew that Deeks felt he had done something wrong by letting Callen out of his sight and not being around to back him up. All of the team knew he had done nothing wrong, that undercover operations often necessitated changes of plans, but Deeks was holding on to the responsibility and the guilt. Being physically unable to exorcise his demons due to his bullet wound also didn't help. He couldn't outrun or out-surf this hellhound nipping at his heels.
They all did their best to help the Detective while floundering as well.
"There's just too many places that could fit the criteria of what Deeks said the secondary compound was supposed to look like," Eric shook his head, "I'm sorry, guys, but I've exhausted all avenues I could think off."
Everyone felt the effect of the words, literally heard the door clang shut on that lead.
There wasn't much more that they could try.
"Are you monitoring his aliases?" Sam asked.
Nell gave him a small nod. "Yeah. Nothing on any of them."
Deeks made an undecipherable sound and dragged a hand through his hair, his gaze down. Kensi reached for him and squeezed his shoulder.
Sam shared a worried glance with their operations manager. He got the feeling that they would lose Deeks to his guilt if they couldn't get Callen back. On top of his worry for his partner, Sam felt the nagging fear that the whole team might break apart over this because if they lost Deeks, they would eventually also lose Kensi.
He could only hope that Hetty had an ace in her sleeve to keep that from happening.
Nell tilted her head to the side in confusion when she glanced at her tablet. "Director Vance coming online in 10 seconds," she announced and everyone straightened and turned to the screen.
Hetty stepped in front of them, possibly to shield them from whatever fallout this whole debacle would have in political terms. "Director," she greeted mildly when the connection engaged and the man appeared on screen.
He returned the greeting with a nod. "We got news about Agent Callen," he said without preamble and Sam saw the jolt run through all of them.
"Is he alive?" Hetty asked, her voice tight. Sam gripped the table. Deeks looked paler than he had moments ago. Kensi glanced worriedly between the screen and her partner.
"Yes, he's alive," Vance reassured and they collectively sighed. A moment later, everyone straightened once more, animation returning to their bodies. Without being prompted, Director Vance continued, "Portland PD checked his fingerprints. When they noticed his classified status, they called me," Vance continued. "He's in hospital, has been for the last few days as an unidentified patient. I have no information about his injuries other than he's in bad shape, but I'm certain you will take care of that as his medical proxies, Henrietta… Agent Hanna." He glanced to the side for a moment and gave the person with him a short nod, "contact information for the Portland PD and the hospital has been sent to you."
Distantly, a beep sounded and both Nell and Eric reached for their tablets.
"Until they called me, no criminal investigation had been launched as the incident where he sustained his injuries could have also been an accident. I assured them that he most certainly was not an accident but rather part of an ongoing investigation in L.A. It is being classified as a suspicious incident now and an investigation will start. You'll get more information from them I guess. Keep me up to date."
Hetty gave a sharp nod, "thank you, Leon."
With the typical cut-throat motion from the Director, the feed was terminated and silence fell over the Ops center. Several heartbeats later, Hetty turned towards them. "Mr. Hanna, with me. The rest of you, contact Portland PD and find out about the state of their investigation and whatever they can tell you."
"I want to go to Portland," Deeks said quietly.
Hetty turned towards the Detective and gave him a gentle smile, "let us find out about his state first, then we'll assess what needs to be done and who needs to be where."
"No, seriously, Hetty, I…" Deeks started, his voice half strangled and everyone could see the guilt plain on his face.
Hetty stepped close to him and put a hand on his forearm. "I know, Mr. Deeks, I know." With that, she glanced at Sam and beckoned him to follow her out of Ops center and down to her office.
Xxxxxxx
Sam was still reeling from the news that his partner, his best friend, was in hospital fighting for his life… again.
The list of injuries G had sustained was substantial. He had been found at the base of some steep hillside that he had 'fallen' down. Sam suspected more that he was pushed or had been dumped there.
The injuries were consistent with those sustained in such a fall: massive trauma to his body, including a serial rib fracture of the left side of his chest which had resulted in a pneumothorax, a broken pelvis with internal bleeding, a broken left leg, broken collarbone, an orbital fracture, lots of deep and superficial bruising and some head trauma.
He was lucky to be alive.
He had been operated on as soon as he had been delivered to the hospital by rescue flight and ever since then, he had been put into a medically induced coma to allow his body to heal. He was listed as critical but stable.
Hetty had sent G's previous medical records to the attending physician during their phone call, knowing it would help the medical team to better take care of him.
Silence reigned between them as both Hetty and Sam digested the information they had been given.
Eventually, Hetty released a soft sigh and their gazes met. Sam waited.
"Take the team with you. Mr. Deeks needs to be there and Ms Blye needs to back up her partner and help catch his fall. Keep an eye on him, Mr. Hanna," Hetty implored.
"And G?" Sam asked.
"Hopefully, he does what he always did best: fight to survive."
Sam gave her a sad smile and stood.
Before he could turn to leave her space, she once more met his eyes.
"Take heart, Sam. Help him fight," she told him. Sam wasn't quite sure whether she meant his partner or Deeks… probably both.
Xxxxxxx
They had been met by the attending physician who had explained in more detail just what had been done and what to expect. Nothing had changed since they had left L.A. G was still critical but stable.
The hospital had tried to identify their John Doe… or rather Cal Doe, as the paramedics had told them he'd answered their question for a name with the word "Cal". There had been no missing persons' reports that fit his description in Portland or the state of Oregon. He also hadn't had any identification papers on him. Eventually, when no one had come forward looking for their patient, the police had been asked to match his fingerprints against the database, finally making NCIS aware of his whereabouts.
Sam was the first one to enter the ICU. On the one hand he knew that Deeks needed to see the man who he had been partnered with, on the other Sam wanted to get a head start to be able to evaluate just how badly Deeks might take seeing G laid down like this. Deeks hadn't been around back after G's near fatal shooting all those years ago and while the Spiral virus had wrecked havoc on G's body as well, the worst days of his illness and a lot of his initial recuperation had been spent in Georgia at the CDC's headquarters and no one but Sam had been present.
On top of hoping to be able to gauge just how much this would affect Deeks, Sam also admitted to himself that he, too, desperately needed to see his partner, see for himself that G was alive, even if he was not well.
Sam sighed when he got his first glimpse of G, a sheet barely covering his lower half before being stopped by several metal pins belonging to an external fixator stabilizing his broken pelvis. A draining tube could be seen protruding from the left side of his chest. Other tubing snuck in and around his body in various areas, some of the tubing smeared red with blood that was still draining from various wounds.
His casted left leg was elevated and his right arm was strapped to his chest to support his collarbone. Massive bruising could be seen all over his body and his right eye was swollen shut courtesy of the facial fracture, with interesting colors on full display. Beneath all the bruising, he looked ashen, his skin having lost color.
The whooshing of the ventilator and the sounds of the heart monitor filled the otherwise quiet space.
Dr. Riverdale stood a step behind Sam, respectfully silent while Sam took in the sight. After a few moments, the man stepped up next to him. "I know it's a difficult sight to see."
Sam turned his head to the other man. "Sadly, it's not the first time I see him like this."
"Yeah, we all saw the scars and by now, we've seen his medical history." The man paused, glancing around the room. "Your friend is quite a fighter, Agent Hanna, or he wouldn't be here."
"I know," Sam murmured, his gaze still on his partner.
"We've adjusted his medication after reviewing his medical files. We've deepened the sedation. As with any medication, you're trying to go with the lightest dose possible, but he tried to break from sedation several times."
Sam smiled slightly, his shoulders relaxing just a little bit as relief tentatively crept through him because, "yeah, he tends to do that." It showed that his partner was still there and fighting.
Dr. Riverdale returned the smile, "so I saw in the files. As I said, we've adjusted the sedation to a dose he tolerated well before. We need to keep him under for a while longer to give his body a head start to recover. The dose he's on now means that he won't be fighting the sedation to regain consciousness. I know it's probably not what you want, but remaining in an induced coma is really the best thing for him right now."
Sam nodded, giving the physician another short glance before pushing forward, quietly stepping over to the bed. He reached out, putting a hand on his friend's good shoulder. "You've got to stop doing this, man," Sam said softly, "scared us to death."
Sam let his eyes move over his friend's frame once more, taking in the damage. "You're safe now, G. The team is here. We've got your back so you can relax your guard and let us keep watch."
Only the machines answered his words while his partner remained asleep.
Xxxxxxx
Kensi had seen Callen before in a state like this, but her features revealed her worry for both G and her own partner when they came back outside to meet up with Sam.
Deeks was paler than he had been before entering the ICU. Sam internally sighed. He had expected this to impact heavily with their already guilt ridden team member.
For the moment he couldn't do much more than keep an eye on him and give him an assignment he could complete even with his own injuries and one that might help a small way in assuaging the guilt.
"We'll get a bite to eat, then Kensi and I will head to the police station to see what they managed to uncover so far. Deeks, I want you to stay with G," Sam told them both, taking the lead.
"I…" Deeks broke off before shaking his head, "I should be with you guys, do my job and liaise."
Sam watched the younger man for a moment, trying to gauge whether he had miscalculated and Deeks actually needed to be away from the hospital so he could come to grips with this. Sam didn't have the same canny ability his partner often displayed when it came to understanding the moods and needs of his team mates. But Sam also knew his team mates well and as he observed Deeks, he suspected the man was offering not because he wanted to be somewhere else but rather that he felt it was his job.
Sam shook his head. "Your job is to liaise with LAPD, not Portland PD," he told the other man calmly, "and your job now is to stay here with G on protective detail. We still don't know everything that happened and if there might be someone from the group trying to finish what they started." It was a slim chance and Sam doubted that would be happening, but for one thing he didn't want to take the chance and for another, he hoped by giving Deeks the same job the other man felt he had failed at before gave him a chance to redeem himself and to also show him that their trust in his ability never wavered and that he could protect his partner and watch his back.
With Deeks being preoccupied with his guilt, he might not understand what Sam was doing before he felt the effects of it settle inside of himself. At least that was what Sam hoped would happen.
He shifted his gaze behind his team mates when two police officers approached. Withdrawing his badge, he met the two officers and they shared a few words. G would be protected by the Portland PD as well - courtesy of Hetty and her connections - and Deeks would be stationed inside as a last line of defense 'in case of'.
He returned to his team mates a moment later. "Food, then we'll get going," he told them firmly. He doubted any of them felt like eating after seeing G like this, and after the last few days of worry, but Sam also knew they needed to keep their strength up. This would not blow over within a few hours. With G's injuries, he would have a long road ahead of him - and until their team leader was conscious and getting grumpier by the day to be laid up, it was Sam's turn to hold the team together and help all of them through this.