Sam let Callen sleep for an hour before he reached down, placed a hand on Callen's right shoulder and gave the man a little shake. "Rise and shine."
With his eyes tightly shut, the prone man grumbled, "Never slept. You were stomping around here like an elephant." Callen slowly cracked an eyelid. "Make that a three-legged elephant." Opening both eyes he saw the crutch Sam had fashioned out of a piece of wood. "A three-legged elephant with a crutch. You've been busy," Callen noted wryly, running a hand through his hair and groaning as he attempted to sit up. It took him several tries but he eventually succeeded. Stretching his stiff limbs only increased his pain so he stopped. "Were you beating me with that thing while I slept?" he asked eyeing the crutch.
Sam chuckled. "Thought you weren't sleeping."
Callen started to work his way up to fully vertical and Sam had to reach out at one point and steady him with a quick hand. Callen grinned ruefully at his partner. "Aren't we a sorry pair."
Letting go of his partner's arm, Sam bent over, picked up a canteen of water and handed it to Callen who took a few sips. "I don't know about you, I am raring to go." He handed Callen one of the remaining protein bars; Callen took it and promptly shoved it in his back pocket.
"You're supposed to eat that, not use it as a pillow to sit on," Sam chided.
"Uh-huh. Later. We gotta move out." Taking a few steps, Callen stumbled before finding his equilibrium. He stopped at the backpack on the floor, picked it up then held it awkwardly in front of him with one hand; because of the cuts on his back he could not sling it over his shoulder. Sam hobbled over, took it from him and slung it on his own back. When Callen saw it was not hurting Sam, he accepted the solution.
"Can you find your way back to where you left the car?" Sam prodded as they started walking or more precisely limping into the woods.
"Of course I can," Callen said indignantly. "I always look for a landmark when I park a car. I left it next to a tree," which made Sam smile since they were surrounded by trees.
"I seem to recall two Christmas' ago you lost the Mercedes in the mall parking lot and had to call Eric to locate it," Sam reminded him as they slowly made their way thru the woods.
Callen held up a hand. "Whoa there buddy. Let's get the story straight. The only reason we were at that mall was to buy your daughter a Christmas present because you forgot to do it earlier."
"I didn't forget," Sam objected. "I was busy."
Callen shook his head. "Not buying that. Because you forgot, I had to go to the mall on Christmas Eve along with three-quarters of the population of LA."
"There are good sales at the last minute," Sam informed him as they hobbled along.
"Of course there was no parking because it was Christmas Eve and you," Callen jabbed finger in Sam's direction, "wouldn't let me park where I wanted too."
"That wasn't a parking space!" Sam exclaimed.
Callen shrugged. "The car would have fit. But you made me drive around for 45 minutes trying to find a legal spot. Is it any wonder I couldn't find the damn car later?"
They tottered along a few more minutes before Sam added, "But we got the doll."
"You got the doll. I got pushed, shoved, stepped on, sprayed with perfume and almost arrested," Callen grouched.
"You can't blame that security guard. You really scared him," Sam pointed out.
"Yeh, well he deserved it," Callen said grouchily.
Sam stopped for a moment to catch his breath; his leg did not like all this activity. "How much further?" Callen peered around him appearing confused and Sam grew worried. "Please tell me you're not lost."
"No, no we're good," his partner hastily replied leading Sam to believe they were lost. "It's another five minutes in," Callen paused a heartbeat, "that direction," he pointed as he started walking again.
Good to his word the two did emerge from the woods alongside of the car five minutes later. Sam walked over to the driver's door, opened it and peered inside. "Give me the keys," he told Callen.
"You're joking right?" Callen replied puzzled. "I had to hotwire it."
Sam leaned against the door to take some of the weight off his injured leg. "Huh. I thought you snuck into the house and stole the keys too. I would have."
"Yeh, well I didn't," Callen stated as he walked over to the driver's side of the car. "If you get out of my way, I'll start it for you."
Sam opened his arms wide and moved. "Be my guest."
Callen bent over, reached under the dash, reconnected the correct wires and the engine turned over. Leaning heavily on the seat, Callen pushed himself upright. His triumphant victory smile at Sam would have been better if a wave of dizziness hadn't wash over him causing him to lurch sideways and desperately try to grab the door frame to stop from falling to the ground. Sam moved closer to his partner but there was nothing he could do as Callen clutched the door, eyes closed, battling to stay conscious.
"Lean on me," Sam instructed and when Callen complied, Sam slowly walked with him to the passenger side car. He opened the door and helped Callen get in the car. By habit, he started to reach for the seatbelt then stopped; between Callen's back and shoulder wounds it would be cruel. Casually, he pressed two fingers to Callen's throat to check his pulse and he didn't like what he felt; his partner's health was rapidly deteriorating. Moving out of the way and shutting the door firmly, Sam watched as his partner slow slumped against the closed door. Moving as quickly as he could to the other side, he climbed behind the wheel, found the best position for his injured leg, shut the door and drove off.
They had been on the road for more than two hours when Sam noted his restless, semi-conscious partner was shivering. As the minutes wore by, Callen's tremors grew more violent and Sam's concern increased exponentially.
Pulling the car over to the side of road, Sam fished in the back seat with his long arms for the pack. Dragging it to the front, he took out the thermal blanket and wrapped it as best as he could around the shivering Callen. Sam could tell by touch alone that Callen's temperature was on the rise again. There wasn't much left in their depleted medical kit that would help other than the Motrin so Sam shook the dosage out of the bottle and then cajoled, threatened, pleaded and nearly forced Callen to swallow the pills.
Sam set out again and after a few miles it seemed like the blanket was helping as Callen's shivering grew less. However, delirium set in again and Callen muttered and mumbled incoherent snatches of conversation and words. Unlike the last time back at the stream, Sam couldn't make any sense out of his partner's ramblings.
After a few more hours on the road, Sam pulled over again. He needed to stretch his aching leg. Callen didn't even rouse when the vehicle stopped moving and the only thing Sam did was try to get the dehydrated man to drink some water. After he was done, he checked the DAGR to confirm their location and swore when he realized how much further they still had to go.
For safety and security reasons, the extraction had to take place under the cover of darkness. Sam checked his a watch and then the map again and knew he'd have to call Hetty and tell her to put off the rescue for another day; even driving straight thru the night, the sun would be well up before they reached the rendezvous point on the coast.
Glancing over at his injured partner, the weight of the world descended upon Sam's soul. He knew they had to be extraordinarily cautious not to get caught leaving this country as it could cause an international incident. However, he also had grave doubts how much longer Callen could survive without serious medical attention. Slamming his fist down hard on the car's hood, he swore, his face a mask of anger and sorrow. He knew what he had to do, knew what Callen would tell him to do, but he hated that the fact he might be signing his partner's death certificate.
With great reluctance, he pulled out the satphone and called the Ops Center. "Hetty, we're not going to make it to the pickup spot before sunrise. We need to push out the time table by a day."