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xxxxx
Callen groaned softly as he opened his eyes, feeling the beginnings of a dull headache. The first thing he saw was Kensi watching him and his mood darkened immediately. "Don't you have anything better to do than watch me?" he asked with a scowl as he pulled out the bottle of water he had drank from a few hours previously. He twisted off the cap and gulped some of it down before staring back at Kensi defiantly.
"I'm just trying to make sure you're safe, Callen. That's all," Kensi replied quietly. She was tired and really didn't feel like getting into a quarrel with him.
"Yeah, right," Callen said, drinking some more water. "You're just looking for the best opportunity to sic Sam on me or maybe Burke. Are you in cahoots with him too?"
"Will you please shut up?" Deeks voice abruptly entered the conversation. "Geeze, Callen. If we wanted you dead, you'd already be dead. You were sleeping. How hard would it have been to take you out?"
"Deeks!" Kensi turned her head towards her fiance, surprised at his reaction. "Not helping."
"Whatever," Deeks said unrepentantly. "You know it's true."
Kensi sighed, but as she looked more closely at Deeks she could see a light sheen of perspiration covering his face. She went over to him and lightly touched his forehead, feeling the heat emanating from it. She immediately pressed the call button for the nurse.
"What did you do that for?" Deeks grumbled.
"You're running a fever," Kensi said matter-of-factly. "You need to get checked out."
Deeks rolled his eyes but didn't protest again. In all honesty, he felt like crap.
Kensi turned her attention back to Callen who was just sitting there, looking a little bit shell-shocked. "Callen? Are you okay?" As difficult as he was being, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. She knew none of this was his fault.
"I need to leave," Callen said as he made a move to get up out of the recliner.
"Where are you going?" Kensi was by his side in an instant, ready to intervene.
"I...I don't know…" He looked confused for a moment but then shook his head as if clearing his thoughts. "I'm going home." He then looked around the room, appearing to be searching for something or someone. "Where's Hetty?"
"Hetty? She's not here right now, but she will be a little later."
"Oh." Callen appeared a little bit lost, but he didn't say anything else nor did he attempt to leave again.
At that moment, a nurse came into the room. "Good morning. Can I do something for you?" she asked pleasantly as she went to Deeks' bedside.
"I don't know, ask her," Deeks said with a pointed look at Kensi. "She's the one who called you."
"I think he's running a fever," Kensi explained to the nurse.
The nurse nodded. "I'll go get a thermometer." She left the room and came back a couple of minutes later then proceeded to take Deeks' temperature. "Hmm...101.8. I'll let the doctor know." She glanced at Callen on her way out of the room, but didn't say anything as she went on her way.
xxxxx
Sam was sitting on the recliner, staring at Callen's empty bed, when Dr. Carlisle entered the room. "Sam?" the doctor asked with a look of concern. "Where's Callen?"
Sam shook his head as he looked over at the doctor. "He's in Deeks' room...he didn't have a very good night."
"Why wasn't I notified?" the doctor asked. "I was on call."
"Oh…" Sam said nothing, looking momentarily at a loss for words. "I didn't know...I just figured I'd tell you this morning."
"So what seems to be the problem with Callen?" the doctor asked, deciding to pursue the matter of why he hadn't been notified would prove fruitless.
"I don't know…" Sam began. "He's been really paranoid. For some reason, he's afraid of me. He thinks I'm trying to kill him. He's really out of touch with reality."
"Has this kind of thing happened with him before?"
"No."
"What about before you all were rescued?"
"He was kind of out of it a few times when he was running high fevers," Sam said. "But this is definitely very much out of the norm for him."
"Okay," Dr. Carlisle said with a nod. "Why don't we head over to Deeks' room and see how your friend is doing this morning."
xxxxx
After checking out Deeks' shoulder, his doctor determined that he had developed a postoperative infection. "I'm going to change his antibiotic," the doctor said to Kensi, since Deeks had fallen back to sleep. "I'll have the nurse give him some Tylenol and we'll keep a close eye on him."
"Thank you," Kensi said softly. She had really thought everything was fine with Deeks and that he was out of the woods. She should have known that was too much to hope for. After the doctor left the room, she glanced over at Callen who was sitting quietly and had started on his second bottle of water. "Callen? Do you need anything?"
"Like what?" Callen asked angrily. "More poison so you can finish off what Bart started?"
Kensi stared back at him for a long moment, but didn't say anything. She had really hoped he would have been better after getting a bit of sleep but that didn't seem to be the case. She looked up in relief as Callen's doctor entered the room, followed by Sam.
"Good morning, Callen," the doctor said with a friendly smile as he approached Callen. "How are you feeling today?"
"Well, I'm still alive, so I guess that's a good thing," Callen replied.
"Why wouldn't you be alive?" Dr. Carlisle asked. "You really turned a corner yesterday and were doing a lot better."
"That was then," Callen mumbled.
"So has something changed?" the doctor asked. "Are you experiencing additional symptoms?"
"I have a headache," Callen answered.
The doctor nodded. "How bad is it on a scale of 1 to 10?"
Callen shrugged. "I don't know...maybe a four."
"Okay, that's not too bad. We'll give you something for it. I have to say, I was surprised when I went to your room earlier and didn't find you there."
Callen just stared down at his blanket-covered legs and didn't say anything.
"Is there a reason for that?"
"I didn't want to be there with him," Callen said, turning his head to glare at Sam.
"Why not?"
"I don't trust him...he's trying to kill me…"
"I see...Did he do something to harm you?"
"He's working for Bart. He whipped me and won't let me have food or water. None of them will," Callen stated, briefly shifting his glare towards Kensi. "I can't trust any of them anymore."
"Well, I really think you should get back to your room. You can't rest comfortably here."
Callen shook his head. "I don't want any of them in there."
"That's fine," Dr. Carlisle responded. "What about Hetty? Can she come into your room?"
"Yes, of course," Callen said with a nod. "I want to see her. They won't let me…"
"G… that's just not true," Sam protested, unable to keep silent any longer.
"Sam…" the doctor cautioned as he shook his head at the other man.
Sam rolled his eyes with a slight huff, but didn't say any more.
"Can I bring you back there now?" the doctor asked.
Callen hesitated and then nodded. "Not Sam?"
Dr. Carlisle shook his head. "Not if you don't want him there."
"I don't."
"Okay, just you and me then."
Callen hesitated again before nodding slowly. "Okay."
"Come on then, we'll go get you a wheelchair and get you situated back in your room."
xxxxx
"What the hell!" Sam exploded after the doctor had escorted Callen out of the room. "Now I'm not even allowed to be in the same room with G?"
"Sam, calm down," Kensi said wearily. "He was right. Right now, us being with Callen is detrimental to his recovery. We're just stressing him out." In all honesty, she was glad he had been taken off her hands. Not that she didn't care about Callen. She cared about him very much, but she needed to worry about Deeks right now and she just didn't feel equipped to competently cope with whatever Callen's current issues were.
"Still...he shouldn't be alone," Sam stated, still very worried about his partner. "I'm going to call Hetty…"
"It's really early," Kensi protested. "Maybe you should wait a bit."
"Do you really think Hetty would want me to wait?" Sam asked.
Kensi briefly considered the question before slowly shaking her head. "No...no, she wouldn't."
Sam nodded in satisfaction as he pulled out his cell phone to call their operations manager.
xxxxx
Hetty quietly walked into Callen's room and was glad to see that he was asleep. She sat down beside him and took stock of his appearance, noting that his sleep appeared peaceful. That didn't last for very long though. After about 20 minutes, he began murmuring in his sleep and moving about fretfully under the covers. She was about to try to awaken him when his eyes popped open and he looked around the room before his gaze settled on her. "Hetty...I didn't think you'd be able to come…"
"And why would you think that?" Hetty asked with a gentle smile as she took his hand. "I would think you'd know by now how important you are to me."
"I do," Callen replied. "But...I didn't think they'd let you come."
"And who is it you're talking about?" Hetty already knew the answer to her question from her conversation with Sam, but she wanted to see for herself just how badly off Callen really was.
"Sam...the team. They're working for Bart."
"I see," Hetty said quietly. "That's not good. Are you sure that's the case?"
Callen nodded. "Sam whipped me...he won't let me have water…and he wouldn't let you come to see me."
Hetty shook her head. "Oh Mr. Callen, if I know anything about your partner, I know that he would never willingly hurt you. Anything he may have done which hurt you was done against his will. I can also assure you that he has never attempted to prevent me from visiting with you."
Callen looked back at Hetty as he thought about what she had said. He wanted to believe her, but, he knew that he couldn't. She just didn't understand. "You weren't there, Hetty...you don't know what it was like. Sam has changed. Kensi and Deeks have too. I'm sure that they're against me and they're probably against you, as well. You need to watch yourself. I don't want you to get hurt."
"Don't worry, ," Hetty said sadly. "I'll be sure to take care. I won't let them hurt either of us. I can promise you that."
"Thank you, Hetty." Callen was suddenly very tired once again as he allowed his eyes to close. "I knew I could count on you…" he murmured, just before slipping back into sleep.
At that moment, Dr. Carlisle came into the room. "How's he doing?" he asked quietly.
"Perhaps you can tell me what your theory is about that," Hetty replied. "His state of mind isn't very good at all."
"No, no it isn't," the doctor said, nodding in agreement. "I'm pretty sure it's a side effect of the drug cocktail he was given. One of the drugs used can have these kinds of paranoid thoughts as a side effect."
"And how long do you expect that it will last?" Hetty asked.
"Perhaps another day or two, until the drug is totally out of his system. Hopefully, he won't become violent. If he does, I may have to sedate him, but I'm not sure if that could make matters even worse. I'm reluctant to add any more drugs into his system. If he gets out of hand, we may have to restrain him."
Hetty shook her head. "No, I don't want him in restraints. He's gone through enough already. He hasn't yet displayed any violent tendencies, has he?"
"Not that I know of," Dr. Carlisle responded. "He seems more afraid than anything."
Hetty sighed to herself. Callen openly displaying fear told her everything she needed to know about his current mindset. "Well, he seems very calm right now," Hetty said. "I'll stay with him until he's doing better."
Dr. Carlisle nodded. "I'll agree to that for now, however if he displays any violence towards any of my medical staff, we're going to have to rethink that."
"I understand, doctor," Hetty said, looking fondly at Callen, relatively sure he'd be okay as long as she was with him. "I think he'll be just fine."
xxxxx
"I can get out of here if you want," Sam said to Kensi reluctantly. He didn't particularly want to leave the hospital, but he felt like a third wheel hanging out in Deeks' room.
"You don't need to leave, Sam." Kensi gave him a surprised look. "Why would you even think that?"
Sam shrugged. "I don't know. I'm going to go get something for lunch. Would you like something?"
Kensi looked over at Deeks who had remained asleep except for restlessly moving about every so often. "I guess so. Are you going to the cafeteria?"
"I was thinking of getting some pizza. There's a place nearby. I can get you something else if you'd rather though."
Kensi shook her head. "Pizza sounds good to me. Thank you, Sam."
"No problem. I'll be back in a little while."
After Sam left, Kensi went over to Deeks and tucked the blankets a little tighter around him. "Thanks, baby," Deeks said hoarsely when she had finished.
"Deeks…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."
"You didn't...not really," Deeks said. He looked around the room, surprised to see that they were alone. "Mr. Paranoia is gone?"
"Deeks, that's not nice. He can't help it."
"Yeah, I know...I'm sorry."
"So how are you feeling?" Kensi asked as she placed her hand gently on his forehead. "You feel a little cooler."
"I'm fine," Deeks said.
"Hmm...why don't I quite believe that?" Kensi asked.
"I don't know," Deeks said, smiling at her.
"You need to get plenty of rest," Kensi told him. "You developed an infection after the surgery. Not surprising considering you had one before the surgery too."
"I'll be okay. Don't worry about me."
"I always worry about you," Kensi leaned down and tenderly kissed his lips. "Sam's going to be bringing back some pizza. Maybe you'll feel up to having some?" she asked hopefully.
"I think I'll be able to manage a slice or two," Deeks said with a grin, "but until then, another kiss or two would be nice."
"I think that can be arranged." Kensi smiled as she kissed him once again.
xxxxx
"How could you...I trusted you," Callen called out as he tossed and turned in obvious distress.
"Mr. Callen...Grisha, wake up," Hetty called softly as she gently rubbed his shoulder.
Callen awoke abruptly and stared at her. "Grisha? Who said you could call me that? You NEVER call me that."
"I…" Hetty looked back at him bewildered at the change that had taken place in him. "I didn't mean to upset you. I'm sorry if I did."
"You're not sorry. I know you're working with them. I heard you…All of you are against me. I can't trust any of you! You're a traitor. You're all traitors!"
"I don't know what you think you heard," Hetty said gently, "but I assure you, I'm not working against you. I would never do that."
"I don't believe you," Callen said, narrowing his eyes menacingly, "but they shouldn't have sent you here alone. It was a very stupid of them and you…"