Allies by WickedBlue
Warnings: h/c, swear words, torture, irate blonds and mean bad boys
Summary: NCIS Los Angeles – The Magnificent Seven ATF AU crossover: Callen's past as an undercover agent gets him into trouble.
Many thanks to my wonderful beta achillies-eel.
skippy1967: Awe, thanks :-) I hope this one won't disappoint.
Chapter 5
Callen was surprised they'd managed to make it out of the house. Fortunately, Mayfield's people had stopped paying attention to their prisoners after the big boss left, and the surveillance room had been totally empty.
There had been only three of Mayfield's men watching the building in his absence, and Larabee made short process of them; Callen, meanwhile, had a hard time just trying to keep upright against the wall where Larabee had stashed him before the fight. Like Sam had said, a good man to have in a fight.
At least as long as you were on his side. But Larabee still didn't know who he was, and it was far too late now to tell him that he was, and had always been, an undercover agent. The man would never believe him. He was far too set on hating Callen, and he wondered why that was. Ducking behind the shed away from the building, Callen voiced his question.
"So what's your problem with me, anyway? Darkov was just a small, unimportant henchman, not a big fish like Karadinov," he asked the irate blond, who was watching the rest of Mayfield's estate intently for any remaining threats, a weapon he had taken off one of Mayfield's men ready in his hands.
Slightly startled by the question, Chris turned back to the other man. The surprise quickly gave way to a renewed anger once he'd processed the question.
"You're asking me what my problem is with you?" He snapped, nearly forgetting to keep his voice down. "You killed three people - three good DEA agents - in Kiev, just because they were in your way, you bastard." Curling his hands into fists, he suppressed the urge to rip Darkov apart, barely holding back his fury.*
Realizing that voicing the question actually hadn't been such a good idea, Callen tried to calm him down. "Look, I know you won't believe me, Larabee, but I didn't kill anyone in Kiev."
Chris just shook his head in contempt, not believing the audacity of the man. "Nice try, you murdering bastard, but I know that you did it. I saw you killing them, Darkov."
That stopped Callen short. Larabee must have been one of the ATF agents working together with the DEA in Kiev. Damn, so he had seen the staged killing of three of his fellow agents, that had gotten him the trust of Karadinov and an in into his business. No one had actually been harmed. He had only fired blanks, and the agents had carried bags filled with fake blood under their clothing.
This had been at the beginning of the undercover operation, when the ATF hadn't been as much involved as they had been at the final bust. They must not have seen fit, then, to inform the other agents of their plans. In those days, co-operation between agencies, even when sharing a case, was not always a given. This would explain why Larabee was so pissed at him. And it sure as hell didn't make things easier.
Callen needed the other agent to get away, but Larabee certainly didn't need him. Actually, it was surprising that he hadn't killed him yet, or at least hadn't left him behind for Mayfield to find and kill him.
Following his accusation, Chris could see surprise, then resignation in the other man's eyes before he seemed to get a hold of himself and his expression became mostly unreadable again. But a bit of something seemed to linger; Chris just couldn't interpret what it was.
Suddenly, Darkov's eyes widened, and Chris was pushed hard to the ground. Damn, it had been a trap, Darkov had betrayed him, was his only thought as he went down, trying to struggle for his gun. But before he could push the other man away, he heard and felt bullets whizzing over their heads, hitting the shed behind them.
An instant later, Darkov rolled off him, grabbed the gun he had lost in the fall, and returned the fire. He had taken out the two gunmen before Chris even managed to take cover behind the next tree. And now he had a gun; his gun.
Realizing that the threat had been neutralized for the moment, the tension ran out of Callen. Taking a deep breath that made his ribs scream at him, he turned to check on the other agent, starting slightly at what he found. Larabee was staring right at him, his entire body tense and ready to strike.
Only then did he note the situation they now found themselves in.
Larabee didn't trust him and thought he was a killer, and now Callen had a gun in his hands. He had to do something to diffuse the situation. His body couldn't take another fight with the agent, and he didn't want to shoot him. Putting the weapon down seemed to be the only way, even though it wasn't safe here, and more of Mayfield's men could jump out of the bushes at any time. But before he could go through with it, he saw something.
Chris kept his eyes trained on the other man, prepared to take him down should he make one wrong move. He knew he had a chance if he just reacted quickly enough. Darkov was hurt, and his injuries would slow him down enough to give Chris an opening. He saw Darkov turning around to look at him, taking in his battle-ready stance. For a moment he looked resigned, almost ready to give up, when he suddenly lifted the weapon again.
Chris pounced before the weapon was totally pointed at him, taking the man down hard. He heard a shot going off just before he impacted with Darkov, and then only a pain filled cry and a grunt. Twisting the weapon out of Darkov's grasp, he kept it trained on the man he was half lying on. Only then did he stop to take stock of the situation, suddenly realizing two things. One, injured or not, Darkov was a dangerous man; and two, the pain filled cry had come from somewhere behind him.
Never taking his weapon off Darkov, he got up quickly and turned around to survey the situation. He was astonished to find another of Mayfield's goons lying unmoving on the ground. Looking back at Darkov, his mind ran on full speed. Darkov hadn't tried to shoot him. He had actually saved his life by killing another attacker Chris hadn't even noticed.
"Shit," Chris swore, running his fingers through his hair. He felt slightly perplexed, as this was a turn he hadn't expected.
Callen was in world of pain. He knew that he should get up, get somewhere safe, but he couldn't get himself to do anything else but try to keep breathing for the time being. His back and his ribs were on fire, and he had to fight hard not to pass out. He had known from the moment he'd lifted the weapon to shoot the man behind Larabee that the other agent would feel threatened by his actions and try to take him down. But he'd had to do it, otherwise their new assailant would have shot them both.
Eyes pressed tightly shut from the effort, he finally managed to get somewhat of a hold on the pain. Trying to roll on his side, he was unexpectedly supported by a surprisingly gentle hand on his shoulder. When he opened his eyes, he found Chris Larabee crouched next to him, an inscrutable expression on his face.
Looking at the injured man, Chris was, for a minute, at a total loss. He knew Darkov had killed people, other agents, and that still made Chris furious, but he had just saved his life, the life of the man who had gotten him into this situation and who had treated him like shit; and in the process, he had gotten hurt even more.
"We need to get out of here," Chris said eventually, pushing his troubled thoughts aside to deal with later.
"Yeah," Callen rasped in reply, not sure if he would even be able to get on his feet, not to mention keep standing or trying walking.
He was surprised, however, when he saw Chris Larabee standing over him, his arm stretched in an unspoken offer of assistance.
Looking into the other man's eyes, he could still see mistrust and a hint of contempt, but there was also a tint of remorse and unwilling respect.
Grasping the offered hand, he was pulled up with surprising gentleness. When he was half standing, the sudden dizziness nearly made him keel over again, but two strong arms stopped his descent. It took Callen a moment to get his body under control, but soon he was standing upright.
Chris kept a supporting grip on one of Darkov's arms while surveying the estate around them for threats. For the moment everything seemed quiet, but they really needed to get out of there as soon as possible, particularly before Mayfield came back.
"You think Mayfield has some more cars stashed somewhere around here?" Darkov spoke up, apparently having come to the same conclusion.
"Probably," Chris replied succinctly, thinking hard, before stopping in his tracks. "Does that look like a garage to you?" he asked, pointing with his gun arm to the other side of the house.
Looking up to see what Larabee was pointing at, Callen grinned, finally feeling a gleam of hope.
"Let's find out," he prompted, and they slowly started to make their way to the farther end of the building. Chris never stopped keeping both eyes on their surroundings, one hand on his gun and one supporting the injured man walking beside him.
Arriving at the garage, Chris left Darkov leaning against a tree next to the driveway while he went to check out the garage door.
As he'd assumed, it was one of those new, high tech doors that didn't have a normal lock but were operated via a remote control. Just great.
But before he could figure out what to do next, heard a click right next to his left ear that stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Loose the weapon and turn around slowly," a voice on his side ordered.
When he followed the orders, he was sadly only half-surprised to see that Darkov had disappeared, and he was now surrounded by three of Mayfield's men who had trained their weapons on him. It figured that the bastard would leave him behind without so much as a warning as soon as there were any problems.
His mind running at full speed, he tried to find a way out of the situation. He could probably take the guy right next to him out without problems, and maybe even one of the other guys, but then there were still a third man. Goddamnit, Darkov had chosen a totally wrong moment to leave. He sure as hell could use the guy now. Injured or not, he had proved to be quite a resilient bastard, and - Chris admitted to himself, albeit reluctantly - not a bad fighter to have on your side.
"This way," one of his assailants said, effectively pulling him out of his thoughts and proceeding to push him in the direction of the main building. The other two trailed behind them, their guns still trained on Chris.
Just before they reached the flight of stairs that led to the entry of the villa, Chris heard a commotion behind him. Recognizing it as his only chance to escape, he twirled around, taking the man closest to him by surprise. He managed to twist the gun out of the guy's hand and let it come down hard against the side of his head, making him fall boneless to the ground.
The gun ready he quickly turned to the other goons. What he saw shouldn't really have surprised him anymore, but it did: Darkov, just in the process of using what was definitely a black ops move to take out one of the remaining two men, the last man still standing stopped short by Chris pointing a gun at him.
Seeing that Chris had everything under control, Callen went to retrieve the gun his fallen opponent had left lying in the grass. Trying to get his breath back, he began taking stalk of his situation. The fighting certainly hadn't helped his condition any, but for now the adrenaline still rushing hot through his body was keeping him on his feet.
Suddenly a soft voice surprisingly close to him interrupted his thoughts. "You okay?" Larabee asked, with a tinge of concern actually clouding his voice.
"Yeah, as long as we get out of here now," he replied, seeing for the first time that Chris had rendered the third man unconscious while he had been occupied with inspecting his condition.
"I thought you were gone, Darkov," Larabee stated quietly without looking at him once they'd made their way back to the garage.
This made Callen stop and look at the other agent, waiting until he met his eyes. "You don't know me, Larabee."
Chris took in the guarded look on Darkov's face, then let his eyes sweep to the three men on the ground to look back at Darkov.
"No, I don't," he admitted, just as quietly.
Darkov looked straight into his eyes as if searching for something. What, Chris didn't know, but it seemed he found it, as he just nodded slightly and started walking again.
Stopping at the garage door for the second time, Chris turned questioningly to Callen. "You don't know how to open one of these by any chance, do you?" he asked, gesturing at the door.
"Not exactly," Darkov replied. "But we could just take the open side door," he added with a slight half grin that said, 'I know something you don't know'.
Chris just shook his head. Not even bothering with a reply he gripped the injured man's arm again, and turned to the other door.
~ End of Chapter 5 ~
A/N: This fic is complete, but it is still being edited. I will upload the next chapters as soon as possible.
Please review if you liked it. :-)