Sorry about the delay – I hope this chapter will be thoroughly enjoyed.
I guess I should also point out that I'm no doctor and I don't understand all the finer points about the medical world, so please forgive me any inaccuracies in injuries or treatments. Thanks!
-Lady Winter
After G had passed out, Sam had stayed by his side, assessing his own injuries. He was fairly certain only one rib was broken – but he had to admit he might have a concussion to match Callen's. Other than that, he was achy and his head was pounding, but he was in better shape than his partner.
Once he was convinced that he was going to be ok, he started to try to more thoroughly examine G, but the space was too cramped, and he just couldn't move enough.
G had been right – they needed to get out of the car. That had been step two in the plan anyway now that he had seen to Callen's gunshot wound.
Sam rose up, standing as much as the car would let him and he examined the broken mass of windshield. It was hanging at an odd angle, held in only by some of the rubber that normally sealed it. How it hadn't come off completely was a miracle.
Sam fished around in G's duffel bag until he found a towel. He wrapped it around his hands and reached up to pry the windshield out of the front of the car. He wrestled with it for a minute or two, his movement limited because of being trapped, sideways in a car, but he finally was able to free it.
It came loose suddenly, and Sam dropped it. The glass crashed onto the ground and the car shook for a second and Sam felt fear tightening in his chest, afraid that the car would shift again and hurt G worse.
To his relief the Challenger stayed put.
Taking a deep breath, Sam glanced back at G. The agent was still unconscious, unmoving. Sam judged the opening of the windshield, and then delicately began to climb out. He held his breath, hoping that his antics wouldn't cause the car to move. At one point, he became stuck because of his limited mobility, but finally, his right foot touched the ground and he finished sliding out. His ribs hurt like crazy from moving that way, and instantly he wondered just how he was supposed to get G out of the car.
Callen was smaller and slimmer than he was – but still, it had taken some special contortionism to get out – and with how injured G was, he wasn't sure that was possible.
Once he was free of the Challenger, he looked around, flashlight still gripped tightly in one hand. The moon was half full and shed only a little light around him, but it was enough to see the path of destruction that the car had caused on its roll down the hill. Several small trees had been crushed and there was a wide swath of ripped up bushes and displaced dirt and stone.
The Challenger had come to rest initially up against an old Beach tree – and the impact had scarred the tree and Sam's car. The black car was now completely on the passenger side, its roof leaned up against the corner of a massive boulder – and Sam shivered as he realized how lucky they'd been to not hit the boulder.
His first thought was to check the bottom of the car, realizing he hadn't even considered a gas leak since he'd first woken up. He made his way around to the underside of the car, squeezing between the tree and the chassis. Miraculously, the gas tank was intact, though other parts of the undercarriage had been ripped away.
In total, the body damage was pretty bad.
"Lucky…" Sam muttered. He couldn't get over the fact that since he'd partnered with G Callen, he had escaped more near misses than ever. Somehow, they had managed to miss being killed more times than Sam could count, though there had been more than enough heart-pounding, fear raising moments.
This afternoon had been just one more in a long list. That got Sam wondering just who the shooter had been, and how it had even been possible to find them, out there on the road.
Was G the target? He certainly had a lot of enemies – people he knew and people he didn't know. But it had been Sam's assigned car – ever since G had wrecked the Mercedes S Class, he'd been practically in love with the Aston Martin Rapide that Hetty had replaced it with. They had argued for a few minutes before leaving earlier in the day over which car they were taking. Sam had won – but now he was wondering what would have happened if he'd let G drive instead.
That kind of thinking wasn't helping though – it could have been an attack against NCIS or it possibly could have even been random. There was just no way to know at the moment.
What Sam needed to focus on was getting out of there – and getting G to medical attention. By now, Hetty must have tried to contact them and would realize they were missing. The damage to the embankment looked pretty bad from the bottom, but there was no way of telling how bad it was at the top – there was always the chance that nothing looked disturbed – people could drive right past and not notice anything was wrong.
The highway had been relatively deserted as they'd cruised along it earlier in the day – Sam had picked that route because he knew it wasn't going to be congested in the way the new highway was. He wanted to kick himself for that decision now. If they'd taken the new, main route, this might never have happened.
Sam stood there, trying to focus. It would do him no good to place blame right now.
He scanned the embankment again – it was pretty steep – it would be a hard climb for him – and maybe impossible for G – provided Sam could even get him out of the car.
Sam hesitated at the bottom. Part of his instincts drove him to try to make the climb – to try to wave down help or maybe even find his phone (though that was probably a lost cause). The other half of him screamed that he couldn't leave G alone – not even for a little while. He was injured and virtually trapped in the car – and Sam had always been taught to stay with his partner no matter what. Together, you could help each other – alone, you increased the risk of neither of you getting out.
He had a feeling he knew exactly what G would say about the matter.
Still torn, Sam turned back to the Challenger and circled around the boulder to check out the trunk. He very badly wanted the first aid kit that was back there, but soon found that was a pipe dream. The whole back of the Challenger was basically crushed – only the Jaws of Life would be able to free the first aid kit from its final resting place.
"Great," the former SEAL muttered and made his way back to the front of the car. "Hetty will be looking for us," he reminded himself.
By now, the indomitable little woman would surely know something was wrong. It was part of the reason that Sam knew his phone was probably irrecoverable – he had been listening for it, hoping that it was in the car someplace. If it had been – it would have been ringing already. Hetty would have tried both himself and Callen – and when she got no response, like a good handler, she would start to worry.
The problem was, with G's phone basically destroyed and his phone missing, Eric would be unable to track their exact position – and although Sam didn't put it past Hetty to have put a GPS in the car, chances were it would have been damaged or destroyed in the crash – and since they always carried their phones, that was a much more reliable way to follow them.
Still, she knew where they were going, and there were only two main routes, but that still left lots of miles for them to search.
Which meant that more time would pass before they were found – and that left Sam wondering just what to do with G. He made his way back to the front of the car and peered inside. G was still on his back, head tipped to one side, eyes still closed. Shining the light down, Sam could just make out the gentle rise and fall of Callen's chest, proving that his partner was still breathing.
Sam sighed, examining the windshield opening and silently cursing just how impractical the Challenger was at this moment. Sure, it was fast – it was his style – and most of the time, it got the job done, but now, in a wreck, with it tipped on its side, he realized getting G out was going to be next to impossible.
It was a grim realization when Sam realized that his best chance at getting Callen out was to tip the car back the way it had shifted when he'd gotten out of his seat belt. Now that he was on the outside, he could see that getting G out the passenger side window would be his best bet. That would require rocking the car back onto the beach tree – which would require jostling G. Sam hated that idea.
For a moment, he toyed with leaving G in the car and just simply waiting for help to arrive, but the temperature was cooling as night arrived and they would stand a better chance of being rescued from the road, especially in the dark. They were close to civilization, but down in the gully they were in, they might as well have been in the middle of the ocean.
Decision made reluctantly, Sam poked his head in through the missing windshield.
"G? Can you hear me?" He waited a few moments, but got no response. "G!" he tried again, a little louder, but still, Callen didn't so much as twitch. Finally, Sam reached in with the long handled flash light and tapped G on the left foot, and almost instantly, his partner's eyes opened and his right hand twitched, reaching for his gun, but that was followed shortly by a muffled cry of pain as G rediscovered his broken right arm. "Hey! Take it easy, it's just me!" Sam urged.
He knew better than to wake Callen out of a dead sleep – he didn't have a death wish, but this was necessary, and G wasn't exactly in a position to shoot or assault him, accidentally or not.
Sam waited a moment until G's bleary eyes found his.
"Thought you didn't like it when I made you do all the hard work," G finally drawled, his voice weaker than before.
"Like I said, Sleeping Beauty, you need the rest," Sam said with a wan smile, still grateful that his partner was able to joke around, even if it was a coping mechanism. "But seriously, G, no more sleeping – you have a concussion."
Callen blinked at him owlishly for a moment, as if recalling the finer details of their situation. "You got out of the car."
"That's right, Captain Obvious," Sam said sarcastically, but he didn't mean it that way – and G didn't take it that way. "It was a fine use of my contortionist skills," he said with a grin.
"I'll tell Nate you're ready to join the ballet," G quipped tiredly.
Sam rolled his eyes. "If you do, I really will kill you this time. Seriously though, it wasn't easy – and to be honest, although I know you think you're Superman – or Batman – there's no way you're going to make it over the dash and out."
"I'm offended that you doubt my abilities Sam…" G said, but he didn't look like he was about to jump up and wiggle his way out. "Besides, I always viewed myself more like a Spiderman."
Sam snorted. "Well, considering you're my sidekick – I'd say you could be Robin or Suberboy or something."
G arched an eyebrow despite his distress. "Robin? Really? With the shorts and cape? You think you'd make a good Batman?"
If had been another situation, Sam would have groaned. G loved these types of debates - somehow, Sam figured it was because he'd missed out on a lot of this growing up. Secretly, Sam like the debates too.
"So, boy wonder – this is what we're going to do," Sam said patiently. "You're going to turn back on your side, and I'm going to push the car back up against the tree it was leaning on, and then I can get you out through the window."
G grimaced, clearly thinking of how much banging around that was going to do to his body.
"Dukes of Hazzard style, huh?" he said finally, and Sam chuckled.
"Let's not get started on that. You up for this or not?" he asked, genuinely concerned.
G nodded. "Alright," he said, all joking aside, the serious agent in him coming out to play.
Sam waited patiently as Callen awkwardly managed to turn back onto his right side, grunting softly in pain every few seconds, breathing hard. The task was made worse because of his broken arm and the bullet lodged in his leg, but after a few painfully long minutes, he was finally lying back on his side, just like he had been when Sam had first come to after the crash.
"I'll be as careful as I can," Sam promised his partner, and Callen gave him a little nod of understanding, but otherwise said nothing.
Sam moved then, taking the light with him, and he leaned against the Challenger a little, putting his weight into it. At first, the car didn't move, so Sam applied more pressure, straining to tip the car back.
When it finally moved, Sam knew there was absolutely nothing he could do as the car tipped back and thumped heavily against the tree, no doubt jarring Callen badly. Sam heard the cry of pain that G hadn't been able to hold back and he rushed back, having to drop down into a crouch to see in the passenger side window, now that it was up off the ground again.
G looked dazed, but he was somehow still awake, and his face was a mask of pain.
Sam cursed quietly – it was his intention to never hurt the people he worked with, even with the best of intentions. He knew this had been unavoidable and basically the only way to get G out, but that hardly made him feel better.
"G, you still with me?" he asked hesitantly.
It took a moment for G to turn his head back towards Sam, and when he did, his eyes were dark with pain, but he nodded just a little.
"I thought I said I was done with the theme park rides. And Sam – I'm nobody's sidekick."
Sam couldn't help but laugh.