Verbum Sapienti
...
Something was burning.
It smelled like old rubber mixed with oil and it stung Kensi's mouth as she gulped in the contaminated air. Her head was still spinning from the explosion and when she cracked open one eye, the world was turned on its side. White-gray smoke wafted through the destroyed windshield in front of her and she could make out the flames that were licking their way from the engine compartment. She could feel the heat on her face as the fire crawled closer and closer to where she was hanging from her seat-belt.
Someone coughed and gagged from behind her, Kensi thought it sounded like Callen but she was not sure because her ears were still ringing from the concussive blast. Even though her entire body was screaming in pain, she slowly turned her head to check the status of the rest of the vehicle's occupants.
Her heart clenched in her throat at the image that befell her eyes. Deeks was crumpled against the top edge of the door frame and the roof of the vehicle with Sam pressed into his shoulder and neither of them were moving. She could not even tell if they were breathing. She tried to call out to her ... well, her fiancé but the razor blades cutting the inside of the throat would not let her utter more than a strangled gurgle. Swallowing the pain, she managed to choke out a broken cry.
"Deeks?"
He did not move or make a sound. Kensi went to call out again when Callen's muffled voice came from behind her seat. "Can you get free, Kensi?" He was in pain, she could hear it in way he gritted his teeth without actually seeing him do it.
She went to move her right arm, but a lightning flash of pain in her forearm made her hiss and stop that movement. It was either broken or severely bruised but she would worry about that later. Right now, she needed to get free so she could get to him. "Give ... me ... a sec ..." Her left arm actually moved fairly pain free and she was able to grasp the release for the belt. She shifted her hips in order to brace against the center console so she would not tumble against the bodies of her friends. With a quick push with her thumb, she was free but had to suck in a breath when hot knives shot between her ribs. "Ohhhh ... God."
Callen moved around behind her until his head appeared over her right shoulder. "You okay?"
"My ... my ribs ...
His hand reached up to support her shoulder as he moved closer. "Broken or bruised?"
Kensi took a deep breath and when the pain remained steady, gave him a shaky reply. "Bruised ... I think."
Callen gave her a gentle pat then turned his attention to the men laying below them. His left side had taken most of the impact when the vehicle had flipped, his and Sam's bodies colliding together in the back seat then he hit the door. There was blood seeping from the wound on his partner's thigh and the big man still had not moved. Maneuvering in the limited space, he leaned in close to call out. "Sam! Hey, Sam ... you here?" The was a moment of silence then a soft grunt. "Come on man, we've got to get out of here."
Sam took a deep breath and rolled onto his back against the broken door panel. "Oh man." He shook his head to clear some of the cobwebs and the haze, letting the blurry form of his friend coalesce into a clearer vision. "Well, that was fun."
Callen let out the breath he had not realized he was holding, relaxing as his partner managed to grin up at him. The smell of the burning vehicle pulled him back into the present. "We've got to move ... the cars on fire."
That comment snapped Sam even more awake but he let out a loud groan when he tried to move his wounded leg. "Arrrggghh … I'm gonna need some help getting out …"
Callen braced his feet against the seat brackets so he could survey their current predicament. The front of the SUV was destroyed and the flames were growing in intensity, fueled by the oil and remaining fuel. There was too much twisted metal and glass to make any attempt of escape that direction. Pivoting to inspect the rear, he was glad to see that the flames in the back were subsiding as they consumed whatever flammable materials remained.
Through the gray-white smoke, the team leader could see that the rear door, along with the window had been ripped apart, leaving a mostly open pathway out the back. There was just the rear seat, the side panels that had been blown loose and the fire that was consuming the plastic and carpet from the rear cargo area. Not much better but if he could smother the flames, they should be able to scramble out that way.
That is, if they were all mobile. If one or more were dead-weight, this was about to get ugly.
Making up his mind in second, Callen called out to the rest of his team. "Out the back … it's the only way out without having to climb out the doors." Leaning over, he yanked hard on the ripped seat until a large chunk of fabric tore free. He then used it to smother the flames until all that remained were small wisps of smoke that posed no real danger. Hearing a grunt from below his feet, Callen looked down to see his partner trying to lift himself from off of Deeks.
Deeks, who still had not moved on his own or shown any signs of regaining consciousness.
Callen clamored down until he could reach under Sam's arms and tug him into the cargo area. He choked a little on the smoke but pulled until his arms felt like they were about to pop out of their sockets.
Using his one good leg, Sam timed his movements with the man tugging him across the seat until they both fell into the back of the burning SUV. They moved together, inching along until they began to clear the vehicle. Just before Callen pulled him free, Sam saw one of their M4's tangled in one of the rear seat-belts and he grabbed it, hoping that it would still function. They pushed and pulled in tandem until they were clear and Callen eased him against a thick bush before turning back to the burning vehicle.
"I'm going back for Kensi and Deeks!"
Sam finished checking the weapon, relieved that the bolt cycled and the magazine was intact and full. If they had to fight, at least they had the option of defending themselves, for a short time at least. He watched as Callen limped over and reentered the rear as more smoke and flames consumed the engine compartment. The big SEAL just hoped that the younger members of his team would make it out and they would, by some miracle, survive this mess alive. This had been a bad call from the beginning with no real prep and absolutely no back-up in case … well, in case this happened. Saving Mosley's son had been the mission but jumping into it on foreign soil with no real threat to the boy's life, made him wonder how this could have been handled in a much better and professional way.
He did not have the time nor the inclination to armchair-general the situation at the moment, but rest assured, when they made it out of this fiasco, there would be one helluva debrief. Scanning the road that he could see, Sam knew that danger was close and they had to move, he just hoped they would have the time. As he watched, the smoke obscured his view of the SUV and he stopped himself from calling out. If any of the soldiers were close, he did not want to let them know his position or that any of them were conscious … it might give them an advantage when the moment came.
Callen climbed over the rear seat and saw that Kensi had managed to move down and was assessing her partner and fiance. When she looked up at the older agent, her mismatched eyes were filled with a look that despite all of their close calls and brushes with death, he had never seen that look on her face. It was absolute terror. Her hands were shaking as she grabbed Deeks' vest and tried to pull him off the metal and broken glass.
"Come on, baby … we've got to go."
The blonde detective remained motionless.
Callen grabbed her forearm as gently as he could, stopping her movements. "Easy, Kensi … let me get under him and we can go out the back."
Kensi started to yank free from her friend's grip, but she saw the determination in his eyes and knew that time was limited. She nodded as she moved to kneel beside Deeks so she could help turn him while Callen began to pull him toward the rear of the vehicle. Her ribs screamed with a burning pain but she choked it down as she tugged her lover's legs across the destroyed interior, moving them closer and closer to fresh air.
For what felt like hours, she and Callen crawled on their knees, working together until they finally cleared the wreckage. Forgetting her bruised ribs, Kensi took a deep breath until the stabbing pain stopped her but at least they were out of the SUV. Now that she could see him better, Deeks looked worse than she could have imagined. There was blood coming from his nose and his ears, his skin looked … off … like it was a shade too light and his breathing was rapid and shallow. Grabbing his wrist, she was first elated that there was a pulse but it was too fast and weak.
Something was wrong.
Bad wrong.
They reached Sam who was sitting up, watching the road ahead of them, covering it with his rifle. It dawned on her then that that was the only weapon that she could see among the team. Callen must have had the same epiphany at that moment, as he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "I'll go see if there's anything else … "
The explosion was deafening. It had been a matter of seconds and if any of them had been inside, they would be dead now.
"Came from that direction." Callen felt Sam tugging on his leg and then he pointed where the road disappeared over the hill. He could just make out the fading trail of another rocket propelled grenade, just like the one that had been fired at them earlier. That meant the general's men were closing in and they were in no condition to put up much resistance. In milliseconds, the former CIA agent's mind ran through every available option until he found one that would give them a chance at escape.
"Move into the brush!" Callen hissed as he snapped off a limb from the small tree next to Sam who was already trying to help Kensi move Deeks. "It'll take them time to discover we aren't in there and if we're lucky … the calvary will get here before they track us."
While their team leader quickly used the limb to erase their tracks in the dirt, Sam and Kensi dragged Deeks' limp body slowly off the side of the road, obscuring them from view. The large agent's leg was still bleeding but he had staunched some of the flow with a hasty pressure dressing, using a scrap of torn shirt. Kensi had barely taken her eyes from her lover's form, anxious that he would at least groan as the rocks and dried sticks scratched at his skin. The longer he went with no signs of regaining consciousness, the more serious his injuries would have to be. They reached a small, dried creek bed and Sam tumbled backwards, landing hard on his one good leg.
When she heard her friend grunt in pain, she finally looked away from Deeks. "Sam …"
Rolling up onto one knee, Sam gave her, what he hoped was a reassuring smirk. "I … I'm good … Kensi, just landed on my ass." It was a lie; his injured leg was throbbing and he kept getting light-headed … which probably meant he was losing too much blood. He gave up trying to stand and simply laid down on his side beside the unmoving detective. "Go help Callen, I'll watch over Deeks." When he saw her begin to resist, he reached out to lay a supportive hand on her trembling one. "We aren't going anywhere and you'll be right back … go."
Kensi felt her heart tug in her chest, torn between her duty and her love. For a moment everything froze moving around her as time stopped. There, right at her feet was exactly what Deeks had been warning her about for months: the choice that one of them would have to make one day, the job or the other. If the situation was not as dire, she probably would have laughed at the irony and the absurdity of it all.
One one hand, she had her entire world wrapped up in the man who had her heart and always would and then there was the part of her that knew that her actions in the next few moments might save him. It was one of the fates' way of showing her once again, that sometimes there is no 'right' decision, no way to see what each path would lead her down and what the end result would be. There was only what she could do in this moment and at this moment, she would do everything in her power to get them all out of this mess.
And so help her God, of any of them did not make it home, especially the love of her life … there was no power on this earth like the wrath of one Kensi Marie Blye. Giving Sam a quick nod, she turned and slipped back up the bank and quickly disappeared into the bush.
With Kensi out of the way, Sam began a detailed examination of Deeks' injuries. The man's pulse was still thready and rapid … not good at all … and his color had only grown paler since they had left the roadside. He removed the man's assault vest and after palpitating the man's chest and abdomen, found no indications of any serious injury.
But when he went to check Deeks' head, Sam moved the sweaty blonde hair to the side, there was a visible depression behind the left ear. Looking at his face, he noted the blood coming from his nose and ears was a deep red, prompting him to tug open his right eyelid. The pupil responded as it should, shrinking when exposed to the bright overhead sun.
But when he opened Deeks' left eye with his hands trembling, he let out a soft curse as the pupil remained open, completely fixed and dilated.
"Dammit, Deeks."
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A/N: Verbum Sapienti translates as "a word to the wise".