Brothers in Arms
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS:LA, if I did, this wouldn't have taken so long to finish.
A/N: It has been quite a while since I've updated, at the beginning of the break I was too busy and too cross-eyed-tired to turn on my computer, then I wasn't sure where to take the story, then I wrote the ending, and finally have finished this part. I decided that whoever has stuck around deserves a good ending. Thanks for to SwanQueen4055, Sweet Lu, Dalek Warrior, a guest, and tmmdeathwishraven for leaving reviews on the previous chapter.
The next update will be in two weeks.
Day 16
Deeks glanced out the window as he paced the room. Alfonso had sent his lieutenants to keep an eye on the Ortega house and follow Ricardo and Callen. They had reported back that they found the hide-out house and secured vantage points in various buildings surrounding the house. The room that Deeks was pacing was in the house directly across the road and they could see in the front windows. Alfonso had broken out some surveillance equipment and they were scanning the house for body heat signatures. Presently, there were two.
Alfonso ambled over to the box Lucinda had packed into the car before they left. He dug around and pulled out a container of food. Some more digging yielded a fork so he settled back into his chair and tucked into the food.
Deeks crossed the floor five more times, sometimes with big steps and sometimes with little steps before Alfonso broke the silence.
"Are you going to sit at any point?"
Slightly startled, Deeks froze. He turned towards Alfonso who was watching him with an amused grin.
Sheepishly Deeks admitted "I've never really been on this side of an operation with this much danger."
Alfonso grinned, "You are worried about Callen? Have you not heard about how he turned this town upside-down by himself? I worry more about not finishing all of this food. Come, help me."
Deeks sighed, dropped his hands onto his hips, and then gave in. He walked over to the bin of food and dug out a container and fork for himself. He settled into the chair beside Alfonso and stuck his feet up on the table. They each cleaned out their respective containers as they rotated between watching the screen and the front of the house.
Deeks had finished cleaning out his container when he asked the question that was nagging at him. "How did you get access to all these houses so fast?"
A look of satisfaction spread across Alfonso's face. "They all decided to go on a vacation or visit some relatives last night."
"Uhh...like an actual vacation...right?" Uncertainty coloured Deeks' tone.
"Yes, my men suggested that the residents would not want to be present for the next few days. We have gentrified our operation. Besides, the desert only has so much room for bodies."
A quick look from Deeks confirmed that Alfonso was being semi-serious about the last part.
The day dragged on as Deeks and Alfonso kept an eye on their side of the house. Reports would come in on the hour from the people watching the other sides of the house. No one entered or exited the house. Deeks had asked about whether or not it was possible for there to be an underground escape route and Alfonso had tasked some of his men to figure that problem out. How they did it, Deeks didn't want to know. As the day became hotter, the usefulness of looking for heat signatures was lost and the equipment was packed away.
A knock sounded at the back door and Alfonso moved to answer it. He came back to the room, followed by three dirty men.
"Deeks, meet Mario, Esteban, and Julio, they are my best tunnel men and have a report." Alfonso pointed out the men and then motioned for them to talk.
The one in the middle, Esteban, stepped forward and cleared his throat. "We have checked the official records and there was no basement listed. We found Luis, who built the house, and he swears on his mother's grave that there is no basement and no tunnels. Then we checked ourselves and we can confirm that there is no basement and no tunnels. The only exit from that building is through the doors and windows."
Alfonso shook each of the men's hands and Deeks thanked them and then they went on their way. Once the door was shut, Deeks shifted in his chair and finally stood up and began to pace the room.
"Aw, you are not going to start that again, are you?" Alfonso settled back into his chair. "You make me feel tired."
Deeks smirked, crossed his arms, and turned around at the wall to start back. "Maybe you could use the exercise."
"Tell me this, why are you so worried?"
He finished that length, walked to the centre of the room and sighed. "Do you really want to know?"
"Si, it is my friend in there as well, I would like to know if I must be more concerned."
Deeks dropped his arms to his side and stared at Alfonso, who had turned to face him. "You have heard stories of what this man is capable of doing; however I lived through it. He's beyond ruthless. I won't feel good again until he's unable to hurt anyone else ever again." With that, he turned and walked from the room.
Alfonso was left staring at the empty space that Deeks had just occupied. "Well," he said to himself, "maybe we will make room in the desert for this one."
Unknowingly, Callen's actions during the morning had mirrored that of his partner. With nowhere to go and an unstable and unpredictable hitman roaming the house, Callen had taken to pacing the front room. The blinds were shut tight and every lock locked, but he trusted that Alfonso had done his part and had the building surrounded.
Ricardo had convinced an edgy Mikhail that the safe house he had set up years ago was still viable so they had run across town and snuck in. Ricardo had locked himself inside the windowless room in the centre of the house, leaving Callen to fend for himself. He had laughed to himself; Ricardo's partners historically had very short life-expectancies and now he knew why. Bolstered by the deep sleep he had gotten the previous night, Callen catnapped in one of the other beds, never fully falling asleep.
The morning had been uneventful, Callen had gone around checking out all the doors and windows while Ricardo had rummaged around in the very small, hand-dug basement. Ricardo finally came up, cursing and snapping. Apparently he had been under the impression that there was a tunnel system that the house was linked into but there was no entrance. The only way out was through the doors. Callen had learned that there were a series of cameras and sensors hooked up around the outside of the house. That meant that any attack Alfonso and Deeks planned would be seen. Especially since Ricardo had barricaded himself back into the little room. There was only one way Callen could pass on a message but there was nothing he could do until it was dark. Good thing he was patient.
Deeks had returned from his roam around the neighbourhood. At first he wasn't paying attention where he was going, but then when the fog of anger cleared from his head he realized that what he was doing was incredibly dangerous. He spun around as he felt a presence behind him to find one of Alfonso's men following him. They stared at each other for a moment and then Deeks felt a burst of pain go through his leg. He'd forgotten about the fact that he had been shot and the leg was nowhere near healed yet. He sagged against the nearest wall and the man assigned to follow him ran up. The man handed him a cane and Deeks rolled his eyes at the ground.
Before Callen had hopped out of the truck to 'casually run into Ricardo' as he had termed it, he handed Deeks a cane while Alfonso roared with laughter. Apparently it had been Callen's when he had come to their town the first time but forgot it. Lucinda had packed away, certain that Callen would return one day and claim it.
Deeks breathed through the pain and when it was manageable, he took a few hobbled steps with the cane. The man walked beside him with his arms up, ready to steady his boss's new friend if need be. Together they walked back to the house and Deeks was surprised how far he had managed to come. Then again, he was more focused on the scenes playing in his head than the scenery around him. Finally they found themselves at the back door of the house and Deeks went inside to find Alfonso throwing a tennis ball up and down.
"Manuel get you back here safe?"
A little sheepish, Deeks gave a small smile. "Yeah, I wasn't really thinking straight when I took off." He hobbled to his chair and settled into it. "Any movement?"
"No, but the light is fading so we should be able to put our plan into action."
Callen peeked outside yet again and decided that it was dark enough. He lifted the corner of the curtain to get a good grip and angled the lamp into a better position. He then opened and closed the curtain in a precise sequence. He repeated it numerous times. Finally, he decided that any more times would not help his cause. He walked over to the gas stove and turned on all the burners. One end of a long strip of fabric ripped off of the curtains was stuffed in the crevices of the stove and Callen lit the other end that was hanging off of the stove with a battery that he short-circuited with a wire.
He walked over to Ricardo's door and with more calmness than he felt, knocked on the door and told him that he had some supper. When Ricardo twisted open the lock and turned the handle Callen sprung into action. With a giant shove, the door popped open and Callen rammed through it. He slammed it shut again, but not quite fast enough as he could hear the hiss of the fireball coming around the corner. The fabric had burned up faster than he expected. A flame shot through the crack in the door as Callen pushed it shut against the pressure of the exploding gas. His left side paid the price and he felt the sear of the heat as it blistered his exposed skin.
Ricardo, shocked into silence, exploded once the explosion outside finished. He launched himself at Callen, throwing a punch straight for his face. Callen's arm went up in an attempt to defend himself, but Ricardo had momentum on his side. The energy was dissipated by the arm block, but the punch carried through and bounced off of Callen's forehead. Dazed, he spun to the side to present a smaller target. The next punch hit him squarely in the shoulder, the pain of which was compounded by the burned skin. Callen composed himself and caught the foot coming towards his stomach. He grabbed it and twisted it violently. Unfortunately Ricardo spun with it and ripped it out of his grasp.
Callen fought to get on the offensive; a left hook here, a right jab there. Ricardo was matching him with every hit. No punch went unanswered. Callen found he was landing as many as he was taking. A particularly nasty uppercut seemed to daze Ricardo and Callen stepped back to set up for a combination. Ricardo snapped out of it quickly and landed a blistering kick to the side of Callen's ribs. He felt a crack reverberate through his midsection but there was no time to waste as Ricardo was coming on strong. Unfamiliar with the room, Ricardo pushed him back and right over a suitcase. Footing lost, Callen landed hard on the ground and Ricardo pounced on top of him, kneeing him in his injured ribs.
Unwilling to let his partner down, Callen moved and kicked, trying desperately to knock Ricardo off of him. His head twisted to face Ricardo and his eyes grew as he saw a fist coming straight for him and nowhere to move.
Alfonso scrunched up his nose, "My men are reporting some light coming out of the corner of the house." He spoke rapidly into the radio. "It appears to be Morse code. The letters are: A...F...E...R...O...O...M...S. What is 'afe rooms'?"
Deeks' face soured. "There's no such thing." He wrote the letters on a piece of paper and stared at them. "Wait! He means 'safe room' or 'room safe' but under the conditions, I'm going to guess the first one. Why does he want us to know there's a safe room?"
The two stared at each other, each trying to get into the mind of Callen to figure out what he was trying to tell them. In the midst of their thinking, the house across the street erupted. The windows blew out, fire raced out and leapt for the sky. Everyone in the vicinity ducked and covered their heads. As fast as the fireball appeared, it whooshed out of sight, never to be seen again. The two men, frozen with eyes round, found their minds blank. After a beat, they raced into motion, grabbing their guns and running over to the house. Alfonso's men followed close behind.
"We're looking for the safe room!" Deeks shouted out and then blasted through the broken door. He scanned the empty rooms and launched himself into the hallway. There he found a closed door and smirked to himself. He was about to kick the door down when Alfonso pulled him back and did it for him. It swung open to show Ricardo holding Callen down and about to hammer a fist down onto his face.
Sheer adrenaline pushed Deeks through the door. He grabbed Ricardo by the back of his shirt and threw him at Alfonso who met his head with the butt of his gun. The hitman sunk like a rock to the floor, unconscious. Callen lay on the floor staring up at Deeks and half-grinned at him. Deeks held out his hand to help him up and Callen grabbed onto it.
"Oh! No, this isn't going to work." Callen let go of Deeks hand at the same time as Deeks hissed in pain. Callen grabbed at his ribs and Deeks fell against the table holding his leg.
Alfonso smirked. "Well, don't you two make quite the pair." He laughed and gestured at his men to pick up the fallen Ricardo. "Come, let us return to the house across the road to plan our next move."