As always, thanks so much for reading and supporting this story. Now, a warning…This is a big cliffhanger chapter so if you don't like that sort of thing proceed with caution ;)

xxxxx

As Sam sat, keeping his silent and so far uneventful vigil, he wondered if Bart and his henchmen would be trying to hunt them down during the night or if they would wait for daylight. The only good thing was that they would be carrying flashlights and he and the team would definitely be able to spot them coming from a distance and well before they began closing in on them.

"Sam?" Deeks whispered. "I'll take over now."

"Thanks Deeks," Sam replied. He was dead tired now and pretty sure he'd finally be able to get some sleep. He thought that Callen had dropped off, but he wasn't quite sure, knowing that his partner's sleeping habits weren't the best, especially when they were tense and on edge the way they were now.

"No problem." Deeks moved a little bit away from where his teammates were resting and forced his eyes open a little wider. He was pretty tired, but had found sleep to be elusive during Sam's watch. He found a suitable tree and settled back against it to take over the watch duty. Callen appeared to be asleep so Deeks had figured he might as well take over now. They hadn't really discussed a formal schedule. After about a half hour or so, Kensi crept over to where he was sitting.

"Have you noticed anything suspicious?" she asked softly, snuggling up against him.

"Nothing so far," Deeks whispered.

"I can take over if you'd like to get some sleep."

"I've only been doing it for a half hour, Kens," Deeks replied. "You're the one who should get some sleep."

"I'm really not that tired," Kensi said.

"Well, you're the only one whose not," Deeks stated, not believing her for a second. "I'm wiped out and I'm pretty sure Callen and Sam are as well."

"I guess I must be stronger than you guys," Kensi said, smiling.

"You're hilarious, Kens," Deeks replied, "but seriously sweetheart, why don't you try to sleep?"

"You'll wake me to take over for you at 2?" Kensi asked.

Deeks nodded. "I will."

"Is that a promise, Deeks?" Kensi asked. "Because I won't be happy if you don't…"

Deeks sighed and then nodded. "I promise, Kensi. At 2 a.m., I will wake you up."

"Okay…" She pressed a warm kiss over Deeks' lips and then went back over to Sam and Callen, not wanting to distract Deeks from his guard duty.

At 2 a.m. exactly, Deeks did what he had promised and quietly made his way to Kensi's side. He had thought briefly about not waking her, but he knew that Kensi hadn't been paying him lip service when she demanded he wake her. They already had more than enough problems without adding a petty quarrel to the list. "Hey baby," he whispered as he kissed her lips to wake her.

Kensi opened her eyes and immediately sat up. "Thank you for waking me," she said very softly.

"I knew the consequences wouldn't be good if I didn't," Deeks said.

"Get some sleep, Deeks." Taking her blanket with her, Kensi moved over to the same spot where Deeks had been sitting and wrapped the blanket tightly around her. She was becoming accustomed to the night sounds and was relatively calm, considering the situation. She still wished they were able to have a campfire, but at least the moon was close to full and cast a relatively bright light over their campsite. She settled back against the tree and alertly kept an eye out for any unwelcome visitors, either human or the possibility of threatening wildlife.

At 3:30 a.m., Callen quietly approached Kensi. "Hey, Kens…I'll take over now," he said.

"You still have another half hour before your shift," Kensi protested. "Try to sleep a little bit more, Callen."

Callen shook his head. "Trust me…I'm not going to be sleeping anymore tonight. Go and get some shuteye."

"Is this because I'm a woman, Callen?" Kensi asked, looking at him suspiciously. "Because I'm just as good as any of you at keeping watch."

"You know better, Kensi," Callen said quietly. "It has nothing to do with the fact that you're a woman. If it was Sam or Deeks keeping watch, I'd be doing the same thing. Please…just go and get some sleep."

Kensi gave Callen a long look before finally nodding. "Alright…fine." She went and curled up against Deeks as Callen settled down in her vacated spot. He had slept a little bit, on and off, but the distance traveled the previous day had taken its toll on him. He wished he had some ibuprofen or Tylenol…anything to dull the pain in his side. Lying on the hard ground only aggravated it more and he longed to just be able to lie down in a comfortable bed. He knew that wouldn't be happening any time soon though…if ever…

xxxxx

Sam, Kensi and Deeks were all awake even before the sun rose. "Good morning, G…how are you doing?" Sam asked, observing his partner closely. Callen's face was pale and drawn-appearing. He was obviously in pain. It did nothing to make Sam feel better about their situation.

"I'm good, Sam. How are you?"

I'm fine, G."

"Well, I'm not fine," Deeks said, breaking into the conversation. "I am starved. I sure wish we had something to eat for breakfast."

"I'm pretty hungry myself," Sam said in agreement. "Maybe we'll come across some berries or something today. If you find any, don't eat them until I've checked them out. They could be poisonous so unless we're positive they're safe, we can't eat them." The last thing they needed was for any of them to become ill or even worse. "In any case, at least we're by the river and we can fill our canteens. Keeping hydrated is the most important thing, especially as we haven't seen any source of food."

"Berries, those won't be very filling anyway," Deeks muttered under his breath. "We haven't even seen any rabbits or anything like that."

Kensi raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. "We can't build a fire, Deeks. Are you going to eat raw rabbit?"

Callen, who was listening to them, made a face, feeling slightly queasy at the thought of it.

"No," Deeks said, grinning at Kensi. "I guess raw rabbit would be pretty disgusting. Imagine if you got a mouthful of fur?"

"Do you two mind talking about something else?" Callen asked, glaring at Deeks.

"No problem, Callen," Deeks said.

"Hey, G? You sure you're feeling alright?" Sam asked, noting that his partner's mood was not the best.

"Yeah, Sam. As I've told you before, I'm just sore…nothing I can't handle."

"Then you should be able to handle me checking you out…I'm not going to hurt you."

Callen rolled his eyes. "You've discovered my secret…I don't want you looking at me because I'm scared you're going to hurt me." He picked up his canteen from the ground and headed towards the river to fill it.

"I think you made him mad," Kensi said to Sam.

Sam sighed as he picked up his own canteen and headed after his partner.

"Should we follow them?" Deeks asked, glancing at Kensi.

Kensi quickly shook her head. "No, let's just leave them alone." Wanting to change the subject, she put her attention entirely on Deeks. "Did you sleep well?"

Deeks shrugged. "I slept. Well would be a bit of an overstatement. How about you?"

"The same. It's kind of hard to sleep when you know a pack of crazed murders is on your trail."

"Yeah…there is that," Deeks replied, looking discouraged as he put his arm around Kensi and she rested her head on his shoulder. "I really wish we had guns and food and comfortable beds…"

"So, basically you wish we weren't in this situation," she said softly.

"Yeah…yeah, that's pretty much sums it up…"

xxxxx

Sam approached Callen who was squatted by the riverbank, his head tilted back as he drank from his canteen.

"What's going on, G?" Sam asked quietly.

Callen lowered the canteen and got to his feet, a questioning look in his eyes. "What are you talking about?" he asked. "I'm drinking water, staying hydrated. Isn't this what you told us to do just a few minutes ago?"

"Yeah, it is…Listen G, I know you don't want to be coddled, but…"

Callen shook his head, obviously irritated. "Come off it, Sam. I have one or two bruised ribs, or maybe they're cracked, I really don't know. In either case, they're going to hurt, especially after trekking around in the wilderness all day long and then sleeping or trying to sleep on the cold, hard ground. What exactly are you going to do about it?"

Sam sighed and shook his head in discouragement. "I don't know…I can't explain it. You're right. I know I can't do anything about it."

"So, just give me a break, okay?" Callen said. "There's no point in looking at my bruises, Sam. I really don't think you're going to accomplish anything."

"I can't help it if I worry about you, G…that's never going to change."

"Well, there's no need to. I'm alright, Sam. I promise you I am," Callen knelt by the water, filled his canteen to the top and tightly closed the cover. "I think we just need to worry about this whole situation and how the hell we're going to get out of it." Callen then walked away, leaving Sam standing alone by the river, and he headed back to Kensi and Deeks. "We need to get going soon," he stated, then watched as his two younger team members picked their canteens up from the ground and headed towards Sam and the river. Callen picked his blanket up from the ground and shook it out then proceeded to roll it up. He then sat on the ground and waited for his teammates to return.

xxxxx

Kensi and Deeks approached Sam who was staring out at the rushing water, appearing to be deep in thought. They went over to the edge and proceeded to fill their canteens with the fresh water and then drink. After Deeks drank a satisfying amount, he stood up and faced Sam who hadn't even acknowledged their presence. "Hey, man…are you okay?"

Sam came out of his thoughts and nodded at Deeks. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"What is it you think is wrong with Callen anyhow?" Deeks asked. "If it was anything serious, there's no way he'd be able to keep up with this romp through the wilderness, Sam."

"Yeah, yeah, I know you're right, Deeks," Sam said with a sigh. "I know I'm just irritating him and I need to lay off."

"But you're worried," Kensi said as she flung the strap to her now full canteen over her shoulder.

Sam shrugged. "Sometimes it's hard not to worry, no matter how hard you try. I'm worried about all of us, not just him. I'm afraid Bart's band of goons could be surrounding us somehow, and we'll never even see it coming…"

"Well, that's a cheery thought," Deeks said.

"Sorry," Sam said. "I'd like to think we'd see some sign of that happening. I'm hopeful they're not too close or we would have seen some kind of light during the night. Anyhow…we'd better get moving. Did you two drink enough?"

Deeks and Kensi both nodded.

"Then come on, let's grab G and get going…

xxxxx

That morning's hike was rougher than the day before. For one thing, the temperature had markedly increased. Although the cover of the trees blocked them from direct sunlight, the heat and humidity were making things difficult. Their pace was definitely much slower.

"This is a definite beach day," Deeks paused to brush his perspiration-soaked hair back from his forehead. "I would give anything to be out on the water surfing right now."

"Yeah, well unless you feel like fighting the rapids, that's not going to be happening any time soon," Sam stated. He glanced over at his partner, who was breathing heavily, his arm pressed against the right side of his abdomen. "Why don't we take a five minute break?"

Callen didn't protest. He just immediately sat on the ground. Kensi and Deeks did the same then Sam followed suit. Sam tried not to question Callen, but he couldn't stop himself. "You holding up okay?"

"I was thinking of that scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," Callen said musingly. "When they're on that scary boat ride? There's no earthly way of knowing, which direction we are going…"

"I remember that," Deeks said. "It was really creepy.Are the fires of Hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing? Yes, the danger must be growing…"

"That was a great movie," Callen said. "It used to give me hope that things could someday be okay. Not that I'd get a golden ticket…I knew that wasn't true, but…"

"I read that no one told the actors that the boat ride was going to be creepy the way it was. They did it to get natural reactions out of them," Deeks said. "They did the same thing when the kids entered the chocolate room so they could film their honest first impressions. Also at the end when Wonka was yelling at Charlie about drinking the fizzy lifting drinks…they really upset the kid…kind of mean."

"I thought the chocolate room was awesome," Kensi said with a smile, remembering. "I wanted to go there so badly."

"Kamran loves that movie," Sam said. "We watch it at least two or three times a year. She used to want me to get her an everlasting gobstopper when she was little. I had a hard time making her understand they weren't real."

"What kid who saw that movie didn't want an everlasting gobstopper?" Deeks asked. "And actually…I wish I had one of those right now. It would make things just a little bit more bearable out here."

"Well…I don't think we have those in our future," Sam said, slowly getting to his feet. "I hate to say it, but we'd better get a move on."

xxxxx

As the day wore on, the terrain became rougher, with harder, rockier terrain, causing their progress to slow even more. Sam was trying to balance the pace between making decent progress and not causing Callen too much pain. It was pretty obvious his partner was struggling, but they had to keep going. There just wasn't any choice.

They kept on walking, with very little discussion. They were just focused on moving along and watching for any possible booby traps that might exist, although there hadn't been anything like that for a while. Sam knew they needed to remain diligent, however, knowing that a lapse in attention could have very dire consequences.

xxxxx

As with many things in life, it happened suddenly, with no warning whatsoever. The sound of a single gunshot and the shock in the eyes of Callen, Sam and Kensi as Deeks silently fell to the ground.

xxxxx

Sorry about that, but I did warn you… The Willy Wonka stuff was in my head since I watched it with my nephew over the weekend J