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: Yay, glad that you liked it. :)

Chapter 6

"Nice car," Callen whistled appreciatively when they stopped in front of a blue sixties or something Ford Mustang. "I can't believe Mayfield drives a car like that. Must be his wife's, or girlfriend's, or his other girlfriends".

Chris rolled his eyes at the younger man's antics.

"Yeah, nice car," he said dryly as he pulled the other man away, "but we're taking that one." Chris pointed to the second car in the garage, a silver Cayenne.

"Fast and a four wheel drive. I can deal with that," Callen agreed. "I'll look around, see if I can find the keys somewhere," he said over his shoulder.

Chris nodded absently, letting his gaze rove, checking the garage while his mind was occupied with the mystery that was Alexander Darkov.

Darkov had surprised him quite often over the past two days. Unexpectedly, Chris found himself wanting to trust him more and more. He had saved Chris's ass, not once but twice today, and when he actually stopped to think about it, the man had tried to get him out of this already, yesterday at the restaurant.

Shit! He now felt totally confused. He knew Darkov was a killer. He had seen him killing those agents, no matter what Darkov said otherwise. He also knew that he dealt with weapons and drugs, and altogether that made him exactly the kind of man Chris detested deeply, and usually wanted to take out of the picture by any means necessary.

Maybe this was some kind of Stockholm Syndrome, Chris tried to convince himself, but then just shook his head. Yeah right, he said to himself sarcastically. There must be something wrong with you if you suddenly start to respect and even somehow like a killer. Sighing deeply, he tried to push that last thought out of his mind.

"You all right there, Larabee? I found the keys, and even a remote for the gate in another car," a voice interrupted his disturbing thoughts. Darkov was back, the car keys in his hand.

"I'm fine," Chris snapped, still annoyed with the turn his thoughts had taken.

Looking taken aback, Darkov flinched and his eyes took on a guarded look. Chris knew that look. Actually, he should have recognized it before; he had seen it on Darkov's face a couple of times today, but had always refused to acknowledge it. It was a look he had seen too often on Vin's face, and on too many people before him. It was a look of someone who expected to be hit. It was a look someone had after surviving abuse.

Now Chris really felt like a total asshole. He had to admit, he had been quite rough with Darkov at the beginning, and the treatment Mayfield had him go through certainly hadn't helped either.

"We need to get going," Darkov interrupted his thoughts stiffly. His face was now totally shut off and his tone matter-of-fact. "Mayfield is probably already on his way back."

"Yeah," Chris agreed quietly, not knowing what else to say. Darkov simply nodded and turned to head to the passenger side of the car. But before he could reach his side of the car, he was stopped by a hand on his arm.

When Darkov turned back to him, Chris studied him quietly for a moment, taking in the bruises on his face, the slight crouched posture which spoke of at least bruised ribs, and the still defiant glint in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," He apologized quietly, taking in the surprise in Darkov's eyes while trying to convey what he wanted to say. I'm sorry that I got you into this, I'm sorry that I hit you, I'm sorry that you had to go through so much.

Callen just opened his mouth and then closed it again, not knowing how to react to Larabee's admission. He'd thought the man hated him, or at least detested him strongly. Or rather, Darkov, anyway. But looking at him now. he couldn't see any of that hate in his eyes. No, there was respect, compassion and even concern, instead.

A bit bewildered by this change, Callen reacted the only way possible in this situation.

~~x~~

"I set myself up for that one, didn't?" Chris half-grinned.

"Where the hell did you come up with that, 'It's a kind of weakness' thing, anyway?" he added, glancing at Darkov as they were finally leaving Mayfield's estate.

Callen just looked at him, a slight grin on his face. "A friend used to drill it into my head. It kind of stuck."

Looking back on the road, the grin froze on his face. "Look out, Chris!" he shouted when he saw a big black car heading straight at them.

Chris managed to swerve at the last minute, glad they had taken the right car.

"Damn!" he swore when he saw the other car turning around and coming after them. It gained on them quickly, and Chris was forced to go even faster, despite thinking that the roads didn't look like they were made for that kind of speed.

He heard the shots just before the car jerked suddenly to the right. Chris fought hard to keep it under control, but the small movement had been enough to drag the car halfway off the narrow road. "Hold on!" was the only thing Chris could scream before the sudden loss of traction on one side sent the car spinning downhill into the forest.

The first thing Callen noticed when the world stopped turning was that they weren't dead. He had seen the trees inevitably coming closer, and had braced himself for the impact, but somehow, Larabee had managed to avoid all trees and bring the car to a stop several hundred meters away from the road.

Taking a deep relieved breath, he turned to look at Chris.

"Nice driving," he quipped.

Larabee looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. "They also call me speed racer,"* he deadpanned.

Callen looked at him, then burst out laughing. "Don't… quit… your… day…job," he panted, the pain of his broken ribs forcing tears into his eyes.

But Chris was already scanning the forest behind them. "They're coming; we need to get out of here."

Turning to Callen, a concerned look fell over his eyes. "Do you think you can run?"

~ End of Chapter 6 ~

A/N: This fic is complete, but it is still being edited. I will upload the next chapters as soon as possible.

Would love to hear what you think. :)