Author's Note:

Hey everybody. I can't apologize enough for the long wait. Part of that is due to a concussion I have recently sustained, and haven't been able to concentrate on anything for a while. Despite that, I hope you enjoy and thank you all again for the continued support.

-C

"How could this happen?" Kensi demanded of nobody, still staring open-mouthed at the television screen.

"We knew the Salinas Cartel was dangerous, but I never thought…" the team leader trailed off. He broke off abruptly and drove a fist into the wall with a cry of rage. The plaster crumbled underneath his strength, leaving his knuckles ripped and bloody.

"Callen!" she cried exasperatedly. They both had serious injuries, it was plain idiotic to further hurt themselves. He began pacing the length of the hotel room, not taking his eyes off the news report.

Kensi stared into space, letting the words sink in. They kept repeating themselves over and over in her head but it didn't make sense no matter how many times she silently said them. She held her head in her hands, surprised to find that her fingers were suddenly damp. Trembling, Kensi stared down at them, coated with tears. A few more fell to the sheets below, creating tiny puddles.

"If this happened then nobody's coming for us," Kensi let the fear roll of her tongue. "We're on our own."

"No!" Callen insisted. "Hetty will have a back-up plan. She always does."

The brunette swallowed a lump of grief. "We don't know if-"

"Don't say it," G protested. He finally sat down on the chair in the corner with his foot tapping relentlessly. "There's another way."

"What are you talking about? We can't use our phones," Kensi reminded him. She had never seen Callen in such a state of emotional disarray. Even though her head was fleeting with worst-case-scenario situations and tears were streaming from her eyes, it was part of her job to keep her friend from doing anything stupid.

"Not phones," Callen said. "Sam and I have a safe house location in case anything went wrong. If he and Deeks made it out, they'll be waiting for us there."

"Can you make it?" Kensi inquired, testing her injured ankle on the carpet. With a hiss of pain, she quickly retracted it.

"Can you?"

"I'm worried about them," Deeks said absentmindedly. "It's been almost forty-eight hours."

"Thirty-six," Sam corrected.

"We need to go looking for them," the blond suddenly sprung out of his seat.

"Deeks, listen to me. I know you hate sitting still, but it's the best thing to do. They'll figure out things have gone wrong and will come find us. Callen knows how to follow a trail."

"And what if they didn't get away from the Salinas Cartel? What if they're injured?"

"Tell you what," Sam began. "If they're not here by tomorrow morning I'll go looking for them."

"Okay, good." Deeks agreed. He stayed silent for a moment, and then caught onto what his temporary partner just said. "Wait, just you?"

"You're injured and need to be here in case they do show up."

"I need to be there for her," he insisted vehemently. Deeks sank back into the couch.

"For her?" Sam repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"For Kensi, for Callen, for our family."

"It depends," Kensi admitted. "How far away are we from this safehouse?"

"By the time we steal a car, ditch it, and then walk to the apartment, you're going to need a splint of some kind to get through it."

He grabbed the wooden chair off the ground and immediately snapped two of its legs over his thigh. Kensi sank back onto the edge of the bed, grimacing with pain. She propped up her wounded ankle and allowed Callen to bind it using duct tape and the broken chair legs.

"I'm no doctor, but it's the best I can do," the team leader mumbled.

Kensi tentatively put a little weight on her injured foot. A new wave of pain shot up it. Growling with stubborn rage, the brunette proceeded to half launch herself off the bed. The agony was like nothing she ever felt before, but she managed to take a few labored steps to the door.

"You good?"

"No. How can we be?"

"Touché. Come on, let's go."

Kensi froze with her hand lingering on the door handle. She couldn't bring herself to open it.

"Something wrong?" Callen inquired, putting a light hand on her shoulder.

"That was something Deeks was say is all," Kensi brushed him off and left the crappy motel room.

The image of Ops burning was imprinted in her mind, no matter how hard she tried to push it out. It had been her home for several years now. But this wasn't about some building, because they had moved before. They were done. There was no going back after this. And even if there was, would there be anybody to go back to? Or would all the new faces and not enough of the old ones ultimately be their undoing?

"Shut up," Kensi berated herself.

"What was that?" Callen asked as he smashed open a window to a car.

"Nothing."

Deeks was always the optimistic one. Sometimes he rubbed off on her and other times in a situation like this it failed. Was he in the building when…no. He couldn't have been. Deeks was still alive, Kensi could feel it.

Callen killed the alarm and quickly got the engine going. It wasn't long before the pair were tearing down the backstreets of Los Angeles blindly. Kensi trusted her friend's instincts, but she still had a bad feeling about taking this particular route when the cartel was so closely on their heels. If they found Ops, then they could easily find them.

"We're almost there, let's get rid of the car and move out," Callen finally broke the silence.

He turned off the road and ended up underneath a bridge. With some great effort, the two hiked back towards the street and began making their way in the direction of the safe house. Kensi limped heavily, her leg going numb with the pain. When the high velocity round had cracked her rib she thought that was bad. Now she would gladly have that three times over.

"Stay close to me and try not to limp," Callen said lowly.

She nodded a response and fell slightly into his body, although it was a little uncomfortable. Kensi wasn't used to leaning on anyone like this except for Deeks. Callen wrapped an arm around her waist, trying to take some of the weight off her ankle. Although he would never admit it, she could tell that he was hurting too.

Kensi narrowed her eyes at a man standing outside a closed shop, his face only lit by the glowing embers of his cigarette. The smoke nearly choked her, and her heart began pounding against her chest. For comfort, she began reaching for her gun but Callen's hand promptly stopped her.

They were growing closer. Kensi's anxiety rose.

He was in striking distance.

A puff of smoke bombarded their orifices.

She was waiting for something to happen. It never came.

Suddenly, they were several yards past the man, and continuing on their way.

Kensi exhaled deeply- a feeble attempt to calm her nerves. Her eyes darted around, searching for predators. She knew how to take care of herself, so it wasn't the slums that made her chest tighten. It wasn't that she was afraid of the dark either- it was whatever lurked unseen in the shadows. And Kensi had the overwhelming sensation that they were being watched.

"We're here," Callen at last said.

They were standing outside of a convenience store that had seen better days. Hand -painted signs hung sideways almost covering the cracks in the windows. Callen carefully pushed open the door, surprise to find it was unlocked.

Callen lead the way into the store, but it was completely abandoned. Even if something was arranged with the owner, he should have been here if Sam and Deeks took refuge. Kensi remained in the doorway, eyeing her surroundings suspiciously. Her gaze rested on the cracks in the glass. She ran a hand over them, surprise to find holes in the center of the spider web complex.

Bullets.

"What the-?" Callen began as Kensi heard something snap.

On a pure adrenaline rush, the brunette grabbed G by the shoulders and hauled him backwards and out of the store, just as they were thrown back into the middle of the street by an explosion that sent them both spiraling into darkness.

"I can't wait here any longer," Deeks complained not for the first time.

"So you've said," Sam snapped. "I'm worried about them too, Deeks. I get it. But whining about it won't get us anywhere."

"Do you remember what it felt like when our cover was blown, Michelle was left out in the operation, and there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it?"

Sam eyed him before nodding.

"Well that's what I'm feeling right now."

The Navy SEAL, despite his mood, smirked. "When were you gonna tell us that you and Kensi finally worked out your thing?"

"We haven't. And wait, how do you know about that?" Deeks inquired, crossing his arms.

"Deeks, everybody knows about it except you two." Sam concluded by clicking the ammunition into place. "I might as well go out looking for them. Stay here in case they get back."

Glad for the change in topic, Deeks asked, "And what exactly am I supposed to be doing until then?"

Sam grabbed a pen and slammed it down on the kitchen table in front of him. "I want you to write down every detail of the Salinas Cartel that you know."