Note: As I told you before, I'm no medical expert, so this may or may not be medically right.

Xxxxxxx

Rhythm of Silence

Chapter 3

The sight of his partner on the ground, his legs stretched out before him, an arrow protruding from his chest had nearly paralyzed Sam before a dose of adrenaline overrode the nearly unfathomable image and he dashed forward.

Sam's knees sunk into the ground by his partner's side, and he reached for the other man's shoulders, too afraid of reaching for his carotid artery to check if he was still alive. Callen's eyes rolling over to him was answer enough and some of the complete and all-encompassing terror of already having lost his partner, his brother, abated. Sam's eyes met Callen's and he could see pain in them, could hear each puff of breath that sounded like a struggle.

Callen's fingers were curled loosely around the arrow's shaft, the tips of his fingers hooking over the edge of the breastplate of his vest seemingly the only thing keeping his hand in place.

Distantly, he heard Deeks speaking behind him. "We have an agent down. We need immediate medical assistance."

His SEAL training took over and Sam let the calm wash through him as he felt himself responding to the knowledge floating up from where it was stored inside of his head to get a handle on the situation quickly and make sure his partner survived - or at least that he got a fighting chance.

Just as he was about to move to implement what he knew he had to do, a weight barreled into him from the side, bowling him over. And since he'd still held onto his partner, Callen was taken to the ground along with them.

"Deeks, what the hell?" Sam shouted even from his supine position on the floor, half curled around his partner to protect him and half straining away from him so as not to hurt him further. A brief glance showed that Callen's eyes were now closed. He was lax on the ground, obviously unconscious - at least Sam hoped he'd merely passed out. Sam knew this careless movement could have a devastating impact on the injury and he was about to lash out again when Deeks shoved at him while disentangling himself.

"Get him to cover," Deeks ground out before the blonde turned, rolling over and bringing his weapon up. Just a heartbeat later, several shots exploded from Deeks' gun.

Sam hadn't noticed an enemy creeping up on them, focused on his partner as he had been. Sitting up, his eyes slid over a bolt sticking out of the wooden wall of the pool house not far from where Deeks had stood moments before. So, the shooter was still active, and Sam would have made a prime target crouched down by his partner's side. Deeks' full body tackle had probably saved him from a similar fate as his partner.

Shocked into action by the continued threat and knowing there wasn't another second to wait, guessing that Deeks was shooting more or less blindly into the woods and therefore their attacker might get another shot off, Sam's fingers latched around the shoulder straps of his partner's vest. He tugged firmly, dragging Callen over the ground as he pushed himself up and started running in a low crouch.

Several things happened at once:

Deeks' shout of "we need backup now!" was drowned out by a hoarse shriek of pure agony from Callen that nearly made Sam lose his grip on the other man. Another arrow striking the wood just inches from Sam sealed the deal though and Sam hardened himself against his partner's pain as Callen flailed, only half-conscious, trying to get free from the pain that was being inflicted. Sam tugged harder, digging his feet into the ground, and gaining speed as he dragged the injured man around the far side of the building and hopefully to sufficient cover.

A second later, Deeks sprinted around the corner of the building, pressing himself against the wall in his back. "I can't see the damn shooter," Deeks growled. "If he's moving, we will be in his sights again within moments. We need to move into a more defensible position."

"ETA on the QRF ten minutes," Nell's voice came over their earwigs, her voice clipped and vibrating with tension.

A quick reaction force may be on their way to offer backup, but they were needed much more urgently than ten minutes.

Sam grimaced, bending over his partner as Callen lay on the ground. "We don't have ten minutes," he ground out. A thin line of blood was tickling down Callen's chin. "G? You with me?" Sam asked, watching his partner's eyes slowly moving over towards him. At least there was still awareness in the gaze even as the pain was more intense than it had been before their reckless dash for cover.

"Pool house?" Deeks suggested behind him.

Sam was fearful of moving his partner again, especially of once more dragging him over uneven ground, but the pool house was a more easily defensible position. It would give them protection against another attack. With Callen in need of medical attention, Sam wouldn't be able to help in keeping them covered otherwise. Also, locating the shooter was far more difficult with a silent weapon like a crossbow. The sounds of bullets being fired, and the muzzle flash usually gave a shooter's position away, but not this time. So, they needed better cover and that was easiest found inside. "Pool house," Sam agreed with a slow nod.

"Guys, I'm coming towards you," Kensi advised a few moments before she barreled around the corner from the other side of the building. She skidded to a stop beside them. Sam glanced up briefly and saw his own still lingering shock reflected in Kensi's mismatched eyes when she took in their fallen leader on the ground, the shaft of the arrow easily visible and grotesquely protruding from his chest.

"Can we move him?" Deeks asked over his shoulder, still scanning the area around them, his weapon up and ready.

"No, but if we don't it's not going to matter either way," Sam forced out between clenched teeth, his focus back on his partner. "Kensi, take the rear. Cover us. Deeks, grab his legs," Sam directed. He moved around and behind Callen's head, bending over his partner, trying to gauge his state of alertness. Once more, Callen's eyes went to him, and Sam read the trust in them. Callen didn't trust easily, but he trusted them to do everything they could to see this through right now. He spared a brief second to feel humbled by that trust, before he rested his fingertips against his friend's cheek for a mere second. "This is going to hurt, partner," he muttered.

Callen's jaw clenched under his fingertips and his eyes fell closed, but he gave Sam a small nod in response, letting him know he'd understood.

Sam adjusted his position and made eye contact with Deeks, "don't lose your grip. We stand and we move - as smooth and as quickly as possible."

As soon as Deeks gave him a nod, they heaved their leader up, both men ignoring the breathless whine of pain falling from Callen's lips amid a new dribble of blood. The arrow still protruded up from Callen's chest, the shaft swaying slightly with each step they took.

They moved as quickly as possible, Kensi taking up the rear until they approached the corner of the building that would lead them to the front where the pool was. Callen still hung in their hold, but the tension in him let Sam know that he hadn't lost consciousness yet.

Kensi moved past them before they stopped at the corner, checking the coast was clear out front. Only when she called out a "clear" did Sam and Deeks continue on their journey and around the corner. Moments later, they reached the safety of the inside.

Sam nodded towards the bed. "Put him down on the bed," he directed Deeks, already heading there with the other man following.

Another grunt of pain fell from Callen's lips when they carefully laid him down. Other than sounds of pain, Callen hadn't spoken a word. Sam wasn't sure if that was due to the pain robbing him of coherency or the obvious struggles for breath.

"Deeks, get me some towels," Sam ordered, "Eric, we need a MedEvac. G took an arrow to the chest." Sam ignored the sharp intakes of breath and the half-aborted repetition of the word 'arrow' he could hear from the techs. Of course, their team in Ops already knew that things had turned bad, and that Callen was injured, but the nature of his injury hadn't been revealed to them yet.

Sam shifted forward and carefully slid his fingers underneath Callen's body, nudging them between his vest and his back. Callen voiced a strangled moan that Sam forced himself to ignore. "I know, G, I'm sorry," he murmured but continued with his exploration while silently praying he wouldn't feel the carbon fiber shaft of the arrow protruding from Callen's back. The wound was bad enough as it was but finding the arrow had gone right through his partner would make it even worse. He released a small sigh of relief when there was no exit wound and no shaft that he could find. Quickly but carefully disentangling his hand, Sam instead reached for his partner's neck, easily finding his carotid, checking his pulse. "The arrow went through his vest. Upper right chest. Can't say how far it's penetrated. No exit wound on his back. Advise the medical personnel: Difficulty breathing, pulse is thready and weak. Internal bleeding. Still conscious."

Sam reached for the towels when Deeks rushed back into the main room and held them out to Sam. Kensi was still by the door, covering their backs, glancing over her shoulder every few moments.

Fingers tangled in his shirt sleeves and Sam glanced at his partner, finding pale blue eyes on him.

„G?"

Callen gestured faintly, but the sign was unrecognizable. His lips were moving, and Sam instinctively bent down closer. "Can't… air."

Cursing, Sam straightened. Underneath the faint outline of blood, Callen's lips had a blue tint to them that hadn't been there before, suggesting he was going into oxygen debt.

He hoped he hadn't exacerbated Callen's injury with his probing, but then again, their previous trip around the pool house certainly hadn't helped matters either.

Still… "Your lung is probably filling with blood," he explained before glancing up at Deeks who was still hovering nearby. "We need to turn him onto his side once I've packed the wound." Sam grabbed one of the towels he'd let go off when his partner had tried to get his attention. "Hang on, G," he ordered before he blew out a breath to steel himself before proceeding to stuff the towel underneath his partner's vest, ignoring the way the other man writhed to get away from him. Even though he was trying to be careful, Sam knew that stuffing the towels around the wound would make the vest shift, a movement that would be forwarded to the arrow lodged inside, aggravating the wound.

Sam kept a hand on the vest to keep it as immobile as possible while moving the towel as close to the arrow as he could.

Callen kept fighting to gulp in air while feebly trying to shift away from the pain that Sam's ministrations were unleashing.

A second set of hands grabbed Callen's shoulders and pushed him down, holding him in place so Sam could finish what he was doing. Sam gave Deeks a grateful nod before he tucked a second towel into place. "Tighten the straps on his shoulders once I'm done with those on his abdomen," he directed, proceeding to do exactly that, opening the Velcro, and strapping it more tightly, trying to get as much pressure on the wound as they possibly could to slow the blood loss. Both men ignored the breathy sounds of pain while they worked in tandem. Once Deeks had tightened the shoulder straps of the vest, Sam rolled his partner onto his right side, hoping the blood would pool into the right lung but leave the left one free to ease Callen's breathing.

The change in breathing was nearly instantaneous, but at the same time, more blood appeared on Callen's lips. Turning his head, Sam saw blood running from Callen's mouth and seeping into the bedcovers. The arrow had definitely penetrated the lung, possibly fracturing a rib or two on the way. Sam only hoped that the arrow - or any loose bone fragments - hadn't also hit the pericardium or the heart itself.

"A MedFlight chopper is en route to you," Hetty's voice rang out over the earwigs.

"As long as there's the possibility of an ambush, they won't be able to land," Kensi spoke up from her place at the door. She glanced back briefly, and Sam returned her gaze, one hand on Callen's shoulder to keep him stable in the position he had been moved into and the fingers of his other hand on Callen's neck, monitoring his pulse. There wasn't much more that he could do right now.

"We've managed to…" Eric hesitated for a second, the tone of his voice and the pause tipping them all off that a possibly maybe certainly slightly totally illegal extra-curricular activity had occurred, before forging on, "get a satellite with thermal imaging. We're detecting a faint heat signature north-west of the pool house, moving westwards and away from your position."

Both Deeks and Kensi shifted in barely concealed desire to give chase. They glanced at Sam, and he was torn in his desire to get the unknown attacker and the consideration of whether or not he would need a second pair of hands.

"ETA on the chopper and the QRF?" Sam asked instead of answering the silent questions from his teammates.

"Three minutes on the QRF, five on the chopper."

Callen was as steady as he could be, barely moving beneath Sam's hands, his pulse thready and weak under Sam's fingertips but no different from before. He glanced up at his teammates and gave them a nod. "Go," he ordered.

Neither Kensi nor Deeks needed any further encouragement as they both dashed out of the door. Sam listened to their fading footsteps as they moved away from the pool house. "Guide us in, Eric," Deeks ordered over their com.-system.

"Nell, coordinate with the QRF. Make sure that Kensi and Deeks get backup as quickly as possible. Direct the QRF to meet up with them," Sam added his own command.

"On it," Nell acknowledged.

"How's Mr. Callen?" Hetty's voice came on the line. Her voice was steady, but Sam knew her well enough to suspect it was a front. She would see this op through with as much poise as possible, but Hetty felt deeply about all of them - and about Callen in particular.

Sam glanced down at his partner, squeezing his shoulder. "He's holding on." Callen's eyes slid open. The usually vibrant blue of his eyes had washed out to a pale hue. He knew his partner had a high tolerance for pain, but Sam could see the harsh lines of it set deep in his face.

Sam shifted, crouching down in front of Callen and bringing them at eye level. "Medics will be here any second," Sam told him, even though he knew that Callen was still on coms and would have heard, but at the same time suspecting that his partner wasn't focused on their chatter, but on breathing and clinging to consciousness.

Callen gave a small nod of understanding, his eyes squeezing shut and his jaw clenching just a moment later.

"Hang in there, buddy," Sam murmured an encouragement.

He distantly listened to Kensi and Deeks' progress in hunting down Callen's attacker, but kept his focus on his partner, watching so he wouldn't miss the slightest change in his status.

The sudden whoop-whoop-whoop had Sam glancing up, even though the roof obscured his view. The sound of rotor blades coming closer was music to his ears.

"Chopper's approaching, G," Sam advised his partner.

There was a shuddering breath that fell from Callen's lips, half relief, half pain. His eyes opened briefly once more, but his gaze seemed somewhat unfocused. Sam's hand tightened on his partner's shoulder, wordlessly imploring him to stay conscious.

Not even another minute later, two people dashed into the pool house. Having expected them and recognizing the uniform of a chopper crew, Sam didn't move to intercept, instead let them set up around them. Sam gave them what information he could, telling them what they had done to stabilize Callen, from packing the wound to changing his position to ease his breathing.

He listened to the stats that were called out, grimacing when they had worsened from his own assessment several minutes before. His partner's blood pressure was dropping, his body centralizing the blood flow to keep his vital organs going while shutting off the infusion of limbs.

The emergency physician tried to get some answers from Callen, but his partner's responses were slow and consisted mostly of aborted nods or shakes of his head.

The medics didn't mess around, instead worked quicky, putting an IV-line in and administering several drugs in short order. Neither the insertion of the IV-line nor the administration of drugs drew a response from Callen, which in itself was cause for concern. Callen wasn't known for playing well with medical personnel and usually it was difficult to get him to agree to getting checked out, let alone anyone getting close to him with a syringe.

Sam took the bag of saline that was attached to the shunt in the back of Callen's hand, firming his grip on it when the flight paramedic gave him the court order to "squeeze it".

Before long, they had Callen strapped onto a gurney. The transfer to the gurney hadn't drawn more than a grunt from his partner, but Sam wasn't sure if that was because of the drugs he'd received or if Callen was growing less coherent.

Sam followed alongside the gurney towards the waiting helicopter, its rotors still swinging, the pilot flicking switches and obviously preparing for a quick takeoff. Helping the medical personnel slide the gurney into the chopper and secure it, Sam glanced inside, checking if there was room for him. The flight paramedic obviously saw his glance because he put a hand on Sam's shoulder. "No room to take you, Sir. He's in good hands. We're doing all we can."

Sam grimaced but gave a short nod, watching the medic hop into the chopper and helping in sliding the door closed, making sure it latched. Sam allowed himself another glance inside, his eyes hanging on his partner's prone figure, that damn arrow sticking out of his chest. Sam could only hope that this wouldn't be the last mental picture he'd have of his friend. It was enough to induce nightmares, adding to the collection he'd already acquired since being partnered up with Callen.

He swallowed with difficulty before resolutely turning away. Ducking down to avoid the rotor downwash, he moved away from the helicopter. He had done all he could, now it was in the hands of the medical personnel and his stubborn partner.

Sam gave a silent prayer as he watched the helicopter lifting up from the ground and veering off to the side just moments later.