Ha, so I was rather inspired by all the great reviews and messages I got from you guys and decided to give you a super long chapter! Thank you so much for all the support! It means so much!

Special shout out to justdreaming-83 (For the reviews and the messages! You are awesome!), daughter of ewan (Thank you also for your message!), Babs123 (I hope you enjoy the length of this chapter!) Gabi2305 (you are awesome!), Skippy1967 (Thrilled you're loving the hurt comfort!), and finally Gillian Gutfright (You area always so encouraging! Thank you!)

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Chapter 9

Time had passed, the crime scene, or at least what was left of the crime scene had been processed. With much frustration the team still were no closer to finding the madman who had caused all the trouble. Sam was furious, pacing the empty floor space near G's bed. The anger helped keep the overwhelming guilt at bay. Now that G was near him and on his way back to being okay Sam was better. After the two agents had arrived at the hospital Sam had lost sight of his friend for a while, although not for a lack of trying to stay with Callen. Now that they had been reunited Sam had no intention of leaving until G was awake and they had officially talked about what happened.

During the time apart Sam's back was treated for the burns he had sustained escaping the burning building. Bandages were set in place over a generous amount of burn cream smeared over the scorched skin. His lungs and throat had been checked and treated from the copious amount of smoke he had inhaled.

Sometime later Sam found himself in a waiting room, balancing the worry for his partner and answering calls about the ongoing case. Kensi and Deeks were doing all they could to find their masked man, but as time passed it began to appear as if the man had vanished into thin air.

The guilt remained behind Sam's expressionless eyes as he stared at the ground hunched over in an uncomfortable hospital issued chair. Hazy memories became clearer with each passing moment since the drug left his system. G had already bit hit by a car, Sam saw in his memories how Callen had fought so hard not to hurt his crazed partner, despite the treatment he received in return on top of his already serious injuries.

"God damn it, Sam it's me!" The panicked words echoed in Sam's ears. The big agent knew how close he had come to killing his partner that day. The realization crushed him like a towering, building wave threatening to take him under for good. On the outside Sam managed to remain as calm as a lake on a windless day, but inside his soul raged an ocean of emotions tossed by the most fierce of storms. If for some reason Callen didn't pull through this Sam was positive he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

An hour or so later, Sam had lost track of the exact time, the doctor who had worked on his partner approached him, "Special Agent Sam Hanna?" The older man inquired. His face was kind, hands weathered with experience, but it was his small smile that calmed Sam's raging worry. He looked hopeful.

Sam nodded his affirmation and offered his hand in return, "How is G?" The big agent cut to the chase after the doctor took and shook Sam's hand and released it.

"Your partner has sustained extensive bruising over his entire body. I understand he was hit by a car and…" The man looked at the chart, apparently to get the facts straight, "And proceeded to chased down a suspect? Who beat later him rather severely."

Sam didn't bother correcting him, his face expressionless as he made no attempt to speak or nod.

"Right," The doctor seemed uncertain of Sam's lack of response. "Your partner was fairly lucky considering what he's been through. The vehicle that hit him thankfully was not going very fast, the damage done was mostly bruises, although bad bruises nothing life threatening. His ribs and left leg took the worse impact, badly bruising the muscle but not cracking the ribs. Mr. Callen's arm did have a rather nice gash, took eighteen stitches to sow up. Another gash we believe was caused by a bullet stretched across the back of his shoulders, it was long and deep in places. We sowed the deeper sections of the graze together, about fifty tight stitches in all. It's bandaged as well as the bullet wound in his leg. Through and through," The doctor paused again looking at his chart, "We stitched it up nicely, however he was shot at close rang, it left decent damage, but mostly to the muscle. It will heal, though it might give him some problems in the future. Sharp pain and soreness."

Sam visibly winced, looking down briefly. The doctor caught the change in the man and hesitated before finishing. Taking a moment to regain control of his emotions Sam looked up again, directly into the doctor's eyes, "What else?"

With a short nod of acknowledgment the doctor looked down at the second sheet of paper and once again continued his account of Callen's condition. "Um, he was struck on the back of the head, we detected a mild concussion as a result. This of course means we cannot give your partner painkillers just yet, we will re-evaluate this once the agent wakes up."

At this news Sam just glared. He'd been in the field long enough to know why doctors were cautious with concussions, still the idea of his partner in pain was not a happy one. Especially after the extent of Callen's injuries had been read off to Sam. The worst of which having been delivered by his own hands.

"I think that about covers the physical damage. The drug he was injected with had nearly left his system by the time he arrived, we still managed to get a sample. It was a nasty mixture of psychedelic drugs Dimethyltryptamine or DMT, a very small amount of Lysergic acid diethylamide otherwise known as LSD and a third we haven't quite identified yet. We believe the third was developed organically from a plant we haven't identified; we have nothing like it in our archives."

Sam's dark eyes flooded with the wave of emotion he had been desperately holding back, "Will there be any lasting healthy issues due to the drug?" The memory of finding his friend after his heart had stopped plagued him in that moment.

The doctor shook his head, "There shouldn't be. The extra dosage of the drug caused Mr. Callen's heart to beat rapidly, along with the pain he was in and the blood loss sustained his heart faltered and stopped. Your actions on quickly resuscitating Mr. Callen saved his life. I'm sure he will be very grateful to you. Thankfully your partner is young and healthy, his heart was able to bounce back nicely from the episode. We will be monitoring him closely until he wakes, but there is no reason why you can't sit with him in his room. A nurse will take you." With that the doctor headed off leaving Sam alone to follow the nurse to Callen's room.

Taking in a deep breath Sam only hesitated for a moment before entering his partner's hospital room. G lay in the bed covered by a thin white sheet that was eerily the same pallor of the unconscious man's skin. Letting out the breath slowly Sam moved forward, standing next to the bed stiffly. His eyes found the black bruises forming around Callen's throat, the bruises his own hand had inflicted.

It was then the waiting game began.

Eric was still filtering through the feeds of the cameras from the surrounding area, trying to get a clear picture of the man behind the devil mask. As of the moment they still had nothing. "Should have something by now," Sam grumbled quietly as he continued the back and forth movement across the floor, deep in thought. So deep he nearly missed when his partner's eyes fluttered open.

_

The first thing G's foggy eyes focused on was Sam's form pacing back and forth in the space next to his bed. The agent looked troubled, more so than the normal guilt Sam tended to suffer from after an experience like this. Something else was wrong, G just wasn't sure what. He did know he needed to do his best to lighten the stress load on his partner's broad shoulders.

"You look nervous." G's voice floated through the spinning thoughts in Sam's mind, causing the large agent to stop and turn towards the bed. Callen would have smiled, but his head hurt too much, the throbbing pain dulling the memories that brought him to this place. It was a haze, G remembered small things.

The clearer memories were in the car riding to the square, getting hit by the SUV and short scrambled flashes of Sam after the big man was shot with the drug. G had no clear memory after that, judging by what he could remember Callen was pretty sure he had been knocked out at some point.

"Being your partner tends to do that to a man." Sam shot back, seemingly relaxing at the familiar banter between them, but the feeling didn't last long. Walking across the room Sam stood next to Callen's bed, eyes locking with the tired blue orbs of his partner. "Are you in pain?" The question didn't quite fit the expression on Sam's face.

"Nah," G scoffed lightly, though sobering fast. "So, did we get the guy?" Callen shifted slightly as he spoke, pain spiked up through his leg causing the agent to groan, biting back a louder noise. He leaned forward, curing around the injury only to aggravate his other injuries in the process. "The hell? Was I shot?" He moaned out between heavy breaths, a cold sweat covered his already pale and clammy skin as a result of the sharp and intense pain.

Looking up questioningly into Sam's concerned eyes waiting for an answer, "How much do you remember?" Sam answered with a question of his own.

Well that wasn't fair, G thought, here he was in pain and his partner was avoiding giving him answers. Definitely not something Sam did often. "Not much, I assumed you knocked me out…" Callen saw the guilt filling Sam's eyes and shifted his comment, "Hey, I would have done the same thing to you if I had been shot with the drug." When the guilt only deepened in Sam's expression G frowned. "What's wrong?" Callen questioned again, frustrated with the lack of information he was getting. "What the hell happened Sam?" G demanded, eyes narrowed not in anger but in uncertainty.

"I," Sam started, fumbling at first as the emotions like a rollercoaster ran through him, "I didn't knock you out. You were able to subdue me before…"

Callen saw his partner struggling again and immediately felt bad. Here Sam was being consumed by guilt from the inside out and the core cause of the unnecessary emotion was yelling at him. "Sam, you know I don't blame you for anything that happened, right? This was unfortunate, but it wasn't you, it was the drug."

Sam winced, "But I shot you," He admitted, closing his eyes as Callen reacted. At first G blinked, mouth hanging open slightly in surprise, a flash of memory came back to him.

"Oh," Callen frowned, glancing down at his leg. With a shrug of his shoulders his eyes raised back up to Sam before a smile broke out on his face, "Well, it could have been worse. Could have shot me in the head."

The glare didn't cover Sam's guilt completely, "This isn't funny G! I could have killed you."

"But you didn't." G pointed out easily, leaning back in the hospital bed, "Now, can you please tell me what happened? The suspense is killing me," Callen grinned at that, "No pun intended, of course."

Rolling his eyes Sam hissed out a sign. "I'm not sure what happened, you cuffed me and disappeared. Next thing I knew my mind was coming out of a haze and some psycho was trying to kill me. I managed to ditch the cuffs, snapped his wrist and knocked him out…found you. Apparently you had been shot up with two doses of the drug." Sam paused, letting the information soak in.

"So," Callen let the word stretch as he considered the information, trying to remember what had happened. Nothing surfaced in his mind. "What did he say?"

"Who?" Sam asked, suddenly confused.

"You got the guy, didn't Kensi and Deeks interrogate him? Do you have any idea why he did this?"

Sam fell silent for a moment but eventually found his voice again, "He got away."

"What? You just said-" G blinked, feeling shocked once again.

"Apparently he came around while I was…with you, set the hotel on fire when he left. Eric is still trying to get a clear picture of our guy, but we've got nothing yet."

Callen took a minute to process the information and finally nodded in acceptance. "Alright, get the nurse." G hand went to free his other from the IV securely tapped there. Sam's hand roughly stopped him.

"What?" Sam questioned, tensing as if he knew exactly what was coming next.

"What do you mean 'what'? I'm not sitting around in a hospital doing nothing while this guy is still out there! I can-"

"No." Sam's firm voice stopped G from abandoning his bed. "You can not be serious. You were hit by an SUV, nearly beaten to death by me, shot, and injected with two doses of a very nasty psychedelic drug. On top of that you appear to have amnesia and some delusion that you leaving here before you are ready can make a difference on this case."

"Sam," Callen attempted to get a word in edge wise.

"No, G. I am putting my foot down. Don't make me call the doctor and send you to the psych ward." Sam's voice was low and dangerous, eyes piercing and serious.

"I would ask you if you are serious, but I can see that you feel very strongly on this subject." G pouted, forcefully relaxing himself back into his bed.

Sam huffed out a breath and settled himself into the plastic chair near Callen's bed, "You've got that right." He hissed, crossing his thick arms over his chest as he stood watch over his partner.

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