Thank you again for the support - I'm continuing for now, the idea I had for this story just won't leave me alone so I hope I can make it work!
CHAPTER THREE
"Hey," Callen's low voice sounded loud in the darkness, and the three shadowy outlines in front of him visibly jumped. "Only me," he said, clambering up from the hollow where he'd been crouched down, invisible, waiting for them. "Sorry." His apology was uncharacteristic but he was relieved to have found them all again.
"God, G!" Sam exclaimed crossly, though there was relief in his voice too.
"You almost gave me a heart attack on top of my bump on the noggin!" Deeks tried to joke.
"Did they follow you?" Kensi asked.
"Not this far. They gave up when it started getting dark. I gave them the slip, at least until it gets light again. You haven't got as far as I thought you would. Everything okay?"
"Define okay," Sam grumbled. "We're all still alive."
"We need to find somewhere to rest for the night," Kensi said pointedly. Callen read between the lines, though it was already obvious they were all struggling from how little progress they'd made. He'd expected them to get much further along the heading he'd sent them on, and he'd had to double back, worrying in the dark that he had missed them, that they could have passed unnoticed like ships in the night. In some ways it might have made the next stage of his plan easier, but he had needed to check they were all okay and Kensi had met up with Sam and Deeks successfully after he sent her off on her own.
"If we can all get just a bit further, there's some rocks we can shelter under. No 5* luxury hotel here, but it'll offer some cover…" Even in the darkness, he could see the unease on all their faces as they understood what he meant despite his casual tone. "I'm sure they've canned the search for the night and they'll regroup in the morning," Callen said with a calmness he didn't wholly feel, but he was their leader and he had a job to do. "We'll have time to rest."
"Come on then," Sam said gruffly. His leg was hurting him a lot, and the idea of somewhere relatively safe to sit down and rest appealed strongly. He started to move in the direction Callen had indicated. Callen watched him for a second before he turned to Kensi and Deeks.
"Are you two okay to keep going?" he demanded, his concern for Sam inflecting his voice with more sharpness than he intended. "We need to make it to those rocks for the night."
Kensi and Deeks nodded miserably, silently helping each other though Callen could clearly see the tension between them. He shook his head and moved past them, catching up towards Sam who was limping badly. Kensi once again noticed Callen's uneven gait, twin to Sam's.
"Callen!" she said in a low voice. "You're bleeding."
Ahead, Sam stopped and turned back to Callen, and they all looked concerned. They hadn't given a thought to the possibility of their leader being injured, each too wrapped up in their own injuries and angst over their survival, the terror in the burning car still prominent in all their minds. Callen had been giving them orders, had been focusing on them and their rescue, and none of them had thought to check him out.
"We need to get to the rocks." Callen stubbornly repeated. "Now!"
And because they all knew he was right, they followed his unsteady lead, Sam limping whilst trying to keep firm pressure on his wound, and Kensi and Deeks supporting each other, one still dizzy, one hobbling. In this slow fashion, they made their way to the rocky outcrop Callen had seen, and there, feeling only marginally safer, they lowered themselves to the ground again.
NCIS:LA
"Where are you injured, G?" Sam demanded, once they had all caught their breath.
"Leg. Piece of metal when the car exploded," Callen muttered. Sam pulled a small flashlight from an inner pocket and miraculously it was still working. He shone the tiny beam over Callen's leg.
"Son of a…" Deeks swore as he saw the shrapnel embedded in Callen's thigh. Blood was slowly spreading, adding dark red splotches to the desert coloured camouflage trousers he wore.
"We need to get that out!" Kensi exclaimed.
"No!" Sam was quick to respond. "It might be plugging the wound. Unless we've got something sterile to pack the injury with, he could bleed out if we remove it!"
"I'll just click my fingers and rustle up a first aid kit," Callen said tiredly, hugging his left arm, which also hurt, to his chest. "God knows we all could do with one." He looked around at his team, all with dried blood on their faces and necks, and Kensi's bare lower arms with the deep cut on her left forearm. "How's your arm, Kens?" he asked her.
"Still bleeding. Sore," she admitted. "Not as bad as that though." She gestured back to his leg. They were all so exhausted, the come down from the extreme adrenaline fuelled by their escape from the burning car so immense, that none of them noticed how Callen still held his left arm protectively to his chest, avoiding using his hand on that side. He didn't draw attention to it. There was no point. There was nothing any of them could do, but his wrist was swelling painfully and he suspected one of the bones in his forearm was broken. He leant his head back on the rock behind him and shut his eyes, gathering himself for what was to come.
"So now what?" Deeks was fractious, rising to pace like a caged tiger.
"Sit down, Deeks, you have a concussion," Kensi pleaded, but he ignored her.
"Kens is right, man," Sam spoke in a low voice, well aware of the angst between them that had been there even before they'd got to Mexico, before this ill-fated mission had ripped them still further apart. "Sit down."
"Look," said Callen, in the tone of voice Sam knew meant he was going to say something they all weren't going to like, and he cautioned,
"G," low and rumbling in his throat, but Callen ignored him.
"The General will still be looking for us. They might believe one or two of us burned without trace in that car…" the others all made a face… "But not all of us. They'll come looking as soon as it's light. We're out-numbered… And we can't rely on a search and rescue mission to come swooping in and save us. We're not meant to be here, remember?"
"As if we could forget," Deeks muttered.
"I want you three to keep moving," Callen continued, raising his hand against their protests. "Find somewhere safe to hide out, find some help, whatever. But get away from here. I'll hold off the General's men as long as I can."
"Callen, you're injured!" Kensi said softly.
"None of us are in great shape, Kens," Callen responded gruffly. "And this was MY mission, my promise to Mosley. It's because of me you're all here, so the least I can do is try to get you all out."
"Why can't we just all stay together?" Kensi persisted. She didn't want them to split up again, she felt safer now they were all together. Callen looked at Sam, and from Sam's silence Callen knew he understood, even if he didn't like it. None of them were in a shape to move fast enough to evade the General's men, in a land they didn't know, with only themselves, injured and minimally armed, and no way to contact or get support from their colleagues in LA. For a brief moment, Callen thought of Hetty. She wouldn't take this lying down he knew, but even she didn't have the strings to pull to mount a rescue to save them from an unsanctioned mission gone bad. For now, they were on their own.
"You're offering yourself up as a bait," Sam said gruffly. "To distract them while we escape."
"Wait, what?" It was Deeks who protested now. "Callen… You're going to LET them take you?"
"Callen, you can't!" Kensi choked back a sob.
"We don't have a choice." Callen stated. "Sam's injured…"
"So are you," muttered Sam.
"They don't know about you," Callen continued, ignoring his partner as he continued to answer Deeks. "And they think Kensi is a Spanish riding instructor."
"You're kidding, right?" Kensi exclaimed. "They know I was the one who got the kid out of the compound!"
"Yes, but for now, it's still plausible that's all you are and maybe Sam and I as Americans, kidnappers most likely, pressed you into helping us… Spencer Williams is rich, he may already be thinking it was a kidnapping gone wrong. It's believable…" Sam nodded. "Either way, I'm more valuable to them than you are." He didn't add that he was trained and experienced in being captured and tortured. It wouldn't have offered any of them any comfort. "I can make them believe you all died in the car and give you time to get out of here. It's our only play, and it isn't up for debate."