One of my new stories! Apologies to those reading A Promise Made - I will finish it (I promise ;-) ) This one has been started for a couple of weeks, and I really want to finish it before it's too late and the new season actually starts lol :-)

The title translates as No One/None Abandoned, which was as close to the Seal motto 'Leave no one behind' as I could get :-)

CHAPTER ONE

Heat.

Flames.

Smoke.

Noise and smell and fire and flames and burning.

Disorientated but nonetheless with a crippling feeling of urgency, Callen opened his eyes, and in a kaleidoscopic flash, despite the pounding in his head, it all came flooding back.

The car.

The rocket.

The car was on fire, and they were all still in there.

He yelled, not sure what he was saying. Yelled at his team mates to wake up, to wake the hell up and get out of there. The car was on its side and Sam, oh God, Sam, was below him.

He heard Kensi yelling too, yelling for Deeks. She was alive, thank God, she was alive. He shouted her name, and she turned to him, and the relief that crossed her face, the staunch belief that now he was in control they'd all be okay, churned his stomach.

"Callen!" she gasped. "You've got to help me! Help me get him out of here!"

Callen was trying. He hurt, damn he hurt. He could hear Sam groaning too, and thanked the fates for it, for Deeks' silence was far more ominous. Scrabbling, coughing, ignoring the pain in his left arm and leg, Callen fought his way to the back of the car, and, relieved, he could feel Sam below him trying to do the same.

"Sam!" he coughed, and they looked at each other for the briefest of seconds, reflected flames dancing in their eyes along with the burning relief that they were both still alive, though if the car wasn't soon to become a private crematorium, they needed to get out like five minutes ago. They both used the butts of their assault rifles on what was left of the back windscreen, and it wasn't enough but with the flames building thick and fast around them it would have to do.

"Kens!" Sam choked. "Get his seatbelt undone!"

Kensi was already working on it, fumbling in the smoke. "He's free!" she coughed, trying not to sob. This couldn't be it, this couldn't, couldn't be it. Deeks hadn't even wanted to come, he'd only come for her. He was only there for her…

"KENSI!" Callen yelled, roughly, snapping her back to attention. "We'll get him, get the hell out!" He pushed her fumbling hands away, pushed her away from Deeks, and she knew he was right and she had to try to get out herself but she wanted to fight against him, wanted to stay with Deeks… She could see Sam already with his arms under Deeks' shoulders, and she had to obey, had to trust her team…. Leave no one behind. Callen was helping Sam, pulling Deeks hard to the back of the truck and the broken window they could all escape from if only they had time before the flames engulfed them all. Time, dear lord give them time.

Callen's relief that Deeks was free quickly turned to panic again as he realised that Kensi wasn't with them, but Deeks was still making no effort to help himself. Quickly he helped Sam, and between the two of them, grunting, sweating, they dragged the unconscious detective with them, hampered by the seats, by the smoke, catching themselves on broken glass, but finally, finally, they were out of the burning car.

NCIS:LA

Sam collapsed to the ground, Deeks almost on top of him. Callen stood over them breathlessly. Their survival could not yet be taken for granted in this hostile land with enemies still close by. He knew they were running out of time, and he still needed to help Kensi…. Where was she? He glanced back at the car but the smoke was too thick to see what was happening. He started to go back when he heard Deeks moaning, just about conscious. Apart from bleeding scratches on his face and arms he looked relatively unscathed. His moaning turned into incoherent words and he opened his eyes, immediately trying to sit up, but Sam had his hand on one shoulder and was telling him urgently to lie still, they didn't know if he was injured, he had to stay still…

"For God's sake," Deeks said crossly, his voice quiet but lucid. "I banged my head. I'm seeing stars amidst this firework spectacular, but I'm fine, let me sit up." And they would have both laughed at his tirade if it hadn't been, if it wasn't all so deadly serious. Sam took his hands off Deeks, and they sat together on the ground, coughing, gasping, but they had no time to rest.

"You need to move," Callen ordered. "That way." He pointed to the scrub behind them. "The General and his men… we haven't got long."

"Kensi?" Deeks choked, his lungs full of smoke. "Where's Kensi, we gotta get her…" He was trying to stand up but he swayed and would have collapsed if Sam hadn't firmly grabbed him.

"Well this just keeps getting better," Sam muttered darkly.

"Can you move?" Callen asked him, urgently. "You need to move." He felt like a stuck record, the needle bouncing urgently in the same groove, making a noise no one wanted to hear.

Without speaking, Sam clambered stiffly to his feet. A growing red stain on his trousers indicated where the tossing of the car had re-opened his stitches, and he pressed both hands over the wound in an attempt to stem the bleeding. He wouldn't meet Callen's eyes. He knew he couldn't move far, not until he was able to sort his leg out, and moving would only make the bleeding worse. On top of that, he had a blinding headache from hitting his head on the side of the car when it had bounced over onto his side, and like the others he was covered in small cuts and abrasions from their desperate escape from the burning vehicle. His cammo gear had offered a degree of protection both from the broken glass and the flames, but some of the skin on the back of his hands felt singed.

"Dammit, Sam, you shouldn't have come!" Callen spoke in a low voice, guilt and pain making him cross.

"We need to get Kensi."

"I will go and get Kensi," Callen said with emphasis. "You two, you're both injured. Get the hell out of here. That's an order. We'll be right behind you." And giving them no time to argue, Callen spun on his heel and limped back to the car. Leave no one behind. He would save the others if it killed him.

NCIS:LA

It was just as hot.

The flames were just as big.

The smoke blinded his vision and choked his lungs.

"Kens!" he yelled, trying desperately to see her.

"I'm okay!" he heard her shout back. "I need a knife!"

Callen dove into the back of the car again to see Kensi still struggling to get out of her seat belt. He scrabbled frantically in the flame engulfed trunk, pulling out a pack which turned out to be the first aid kit, and emptying the contents desperately he found a folding knife. He passed it quickly to Kensi and she sliced through the belt and took his offered arm to help drag herself through the awkward gap between the front seats, and all around the flames roared and the smoke choked them and made it impossible to see and Callen shunted backwards the way he had come, out of the broken back window. They'd barely hit the dirt when he heard an ominous crack and he quickly flipped over to shield Kensi underneath him as the flames reached the fuel tank and exploded, tossing the car once more up into the air. They both scuffled away, keeping low to the ground below the smoke, too stunned anyway from the explosion to get up and run.

"That will… buy us some time…" Callen coughed, anxiously scanning eyes over Kensi to see if she had been hurt, and hugging his injured arm to his chest as they crawled behind a bush and lay there, panting.

"Deeks?" Kensi said with panic in her eyes as well as her voice.

"With Sam. He's okay. They're both okay."

They didn't have time to talk more. The shouts of the General and his men were getting closer.

"Hide!" Callen ordered, still coughing. They were both covered in smoke, dust and debris from the final explosion. Kensi's hair had been singed and she had a long bleeding cut on her bare forearm. He didn't have time to assess the rest of her, but he trusted her skills and tenacity to survive.

"Callen… wait! Where are you going?" Kensi gasped.

"I'll… draw them this way. Go now! I'll distract them and skirt round to meet you."

Helplessly, trying not to feel scared and alone, Kensi did as he ordered, crawling commando-style on her stomach in the direction Callen had pointed, while he skirted away in the other. He was limping, she noticed, and though her mind was still full of Deeks, the intensity of her thoughts almost paralysing her, she found herself saying a silent prayer for Callen as well… For Deeks, for herself, for Sam and Callen. For all of them to get out of this mission, that had been cursed from the start, alive.