:facepalm: okay so I had the dictionary set up wrong. As often as I write her name you'd think I'd catch that.
Chapter 6: Time For Me To Fly
It's time for me to fly, time for me to soar, time for me to open up my heart and knock on Heaven's door
"He's awake!" Kensi shouted to the nurse behind the desk.
The nurse grinned and made a shushing gesture.
Kensi clapped a hand over her mouth; "Sorry!" she said a little more quietly, "He just woke up!"
The nurse picked up the phone and paged Dr. Crandle. "The doctor should be here in a few minutes. Let's check on your friend."
Kensi could hardly contain her exuberance; she was practically dancing all the way back to the room. She bit her lip to hide the grin she knew Deeks would tease her about when he saw how happy she was.
"Mr. Deeks?" The nurse asked, a puzzled frown on her face as she checked the readout on the respirator.
Kensi stood on the other side of the bed. "Come on Deeks, quit clowning around and answer the nurse." her smile faded as her partner didn't respond.
He lay still, blinking slowly but his eyes never shifted to either of the women hovering over him.
"Deeks?" Kensi's voice wavered. She looked at the nurse, "What's wrong with him?"
"I'm sorry." the nurse pressed a button on one of the monitors and a strip of paper spooled out of it and into her hand. She shook her head, "This happens with some coma patients, their eyes open but they aren't regaining consciousness."
"You mean he's still in a coma?"
"Yes." she made some more adjustments to the rest of the equipment, "I'm sorry but we're going to have to prep him for some more tests. You'll have to come back later."
Kensi's shoulders slumped and she stepped back, glancing sadly at her partner. "Okay." her voice was barely audible.
XxXxXx
Kensi drove to the OSP building and parked outside, so numbed by the news that she was badly startled by a knock on the window of her car.
"Kensi?" G asked, concern narrowing his eyes. "You've been sitting out here for fifteen minutes just staring at the wall. What's wrong? Did something happen to Deeks?"
She pushed open her door, nudging the operative back with it.
"Is he dead?" Sam asked, reaching out to take her arm. "Kensi?"
She looked up at him, tears pooling in her eyes. Sam pulled her into a hug.
"I thought… he woke up," her voice stuttered, "His eyes were open…"
Callen's arm circled her back.
"He's still in a coma," she shuddered, burrowing closer into the comfort of her friends' embraces. "They want to do some more tests."
Hetty met them at the door.
"Miss Blye." she eyed Kensi, "I have an assignment for you."
"Hetty I don't want…"
"You will." Hetty interrupted, and her stern tone brooked no argument. "You are going to go home and take a nap, take a shower and put on fresh clothes. I do not want to see you back here for at least four hours. Am I making myself clear?"
Kensi nodded, straightening. "Yes, Hetty."
Hetty turned to the other two agents, "Mr. Hanna, Mr. Callen. I would like for you to check Mr. Deeks' car and his apartment for anything that might give us some clue as to what he was working on."
Sam nodded to his partner. They knew that Hetty was completely aware of exactly what had happened at the hospital, probably more so than even Kensi.
XxXxXx
Deeks' car had been towed to the OSP lot from where he had left it parked near the Beverly Hills Playhouse. The little red four-door Chevrolet looked forlorn, parked alone in the far corner of the lot. Sam and G searched it thoroughly.
They found a penny under the driver's side floor mat, an empty coffee cup in the cup holder and Deeks' service pistol in the glove box with a pack of gum and a book of stamps.
His apartment yielded little more. It was uncluttered, almost spartan in its lack of personal touches.
The living room contained a slate-colored couch and matching chair, a battered coffee table, a matching pair of plain black floor lamps with white plastic shades and a medium sized entertainment center consisting of a flat screen TV and a DVD/CD player. Two DVDs from a local rental store and six CDs of various genres were in the cabinet above the television.
The kitchen was separated from the living room by a bar that held a toaster, blender and coffee pot. A microwave was on the counter behind the bar. One coffee cup, a plate and a butter knife were in the dish rack beside the sink.
The carpet in the short hallway still bore the marks of the vacuum cleaner. The door to the left opened onto the bathroom.
The medicine cabinet held toothpaste, a toothbrush, mouthwash, Band-Aids and antibiotic ointment. An electric beard and mustache trimmer was plugged in next to the nightlight.
The shower curtain was pulled closed and it matched the color of the towels that hung perfectly straight on the rack between the tub and sink.
The seat was up on the toilet.
"As tidy as this place is, I'd have sworn he had a woman staying here with him." G laughed.
"Well, you're missing the chaos." Sam said, opening the other door.
Deeks' bedroom looked nothing like the rest of the house.
The king sized, four-poster mahogany bed took up most of the space in the room. The sheets and comforter were balled at the foot of the bed, pillows scattered across the bed and one on the floor.
Clothes were hung on the mirror of the matching dresser; most of its drawers were half open and the items spilling out as though the wooden chest were vomiting out the articles.
A few ties were knotted and hung on the knobs of the open closet doors. The clothes inside were crowded, and hung in no particular order; winter coats hung next to sleeveless tee shirts. More clothing and shoes were strewn on the floor of the closet.
"Why is the rest of the house so Martha Stewart and this…" Sam waved at hand, "So… so…"
G snorted a laugh, "You know what they say about people who have messy bedrooms."
"I don't even want to think about that," Sam grumbled, "and thanks so much for the visual."
They completed their search of the apartment and found nothing that pointed to any case Deeks might have been working on.
They reported their lack of progress back to Hetty. She was entirely too quiet.
"Thank you, I know you two have done your best." she said, "Kensi is going to meet you at the hospital to meet with Dr. Crandle. He has some results back he'd like to discuss with you."
XxXxXx
Kensi was waiting upstairs when Callen and Sam arrived. She looked a little better now that she'd had a shower and a change of clothes.
"Couldn't sleep?" asked Sam.
Kensi shook her head.
Callen wrapped his arm around her and kissed her on the temple.
Dr. Crandle was waiting at the nurses' station. Kensi introduced the agents to him.
"I spoke with his adoptive mother, Mrs. Chang this morning." He gave a short laugh, "She brought an EEG tech from Keck at USC in to 'translate' for her." He made air quotes.
Dr. Crandle walked back to an office, he offered them chairs and he sat on the corner of the desk, opening Deeks' chart on his lap. "Mrs. Chang is an intriguing woman." he said with a smile.
"That she is," Callen agreed. "Our boss said that you wanted to discuss some of Mr. Deeks test results with us."
Crandle nodded and cleared his throat, "The spinal tap came back clear; there was nothing to indicate any injury or illness in his spinal fluid that would account for the coma so we did another CAT scan this morning to check for any differences. Normally we wouldn't have picked it up on routine scan but since we are looking closely at everything we did find this."
He laid the chart down and walked over to the wall and turned on the light box that held films from the CAT scan.
"The only change we noticed from his initial scan was this." The doctor used his ink pen to indicate a small area on the scan. "There is some minor swelling here. This is indicative of a pressure injury."
"Son of a bitch!" Sam got up suddenly and started pacing, his fists clenched, he looked mad enough to kill someone.
"What? What is it Sam?" Callen asked, watching his partner.
"It's a restrain and disable hold every Seal learns. It's a quick and silent way to take out sentries."
"You learned how to put guys into comas?" Kensi asked.
"It's just supposed to knock them out for a few hours," Sam argued, "leave them with a raging headache when they wake up."
"It doesn't look like much of a hold, the elbow is right under the chin, and no pressure is put on the larynx so breathing isn't affected." Sam explained, "All the pressure is on the sides of the neck, over the carotid and jugular veins. No blood flow to the brain and the target quickly loses consciousness. That's if the hold is applied correctly."
Sam twisted his right fist into the palm of his left hand, eyes on the floor.
"If it's not done right, it takes longer to take the target down." he began to pace again, "It's instinct to fight against something like this but even after they lose consciousness sometime the target will continue to move, it's the body's automatic response in trying to breathe and it's often mistaken for a continuation of fighting back so more pressure is applied and that's when you see accidental death." His shoulders slumped and he turned away from them.
"But if that kind of hold is applied for too long it can trigger a seizure in the part of the brain that controls breathing, causing respiratory arrest and death." Dr. Crandle explained. "We believe that is what happened to Mr. Deeks. He suffered a mild seizure and that is why he slipped into a coma."
"If he's still in a coma why did he open his eyes this morning?" Kensi asked.
"Sometimes, while a patient is in a coma, they may exhibit behaviors which mimic conscious behaviors. For instance, they may turn their head toward a sound; this may not be a purposeful movement. It is best to view these behaviors realistically. The hard truth about coma is this; we do not know if or how well any particular patient will recover. Coma is rarely like it is portrayed in movies and on television, where one day the patient opens their eyes, smiles, and is discharged the next day, recovery from any type of brain injury takes time."
The doctor settled back on the edge of the desk, "We've been running a continuous strip since he came in. The fact that he opened his eyes this morning is more of a warning than an optimistic sign." He sighed, "The results that we've seen on his EEG seldom have a positive outcome. Nine out of ten patients that have these results die within two weeks."
"He's not those guys." Sam growled.
"I beg your pardon?" the doctor asked.
"Deeks, he's that tenth guy, the fighter who pulls through." Sam insisted.
Dr, Crandle promised to call them if there were any changes. The trio left his office and went down to check on Marty.
XxXxXx
They had removed the ventilator; breathing on his own, he now had an oxygen tube under his nose. The bed had been inclined to keep fluid from settling in his lungs and leading to pneumonia.
Deeks looked like he was awake; it was hard to not expect him to make some kind of wisecrack.
Kensi had taken one look at her partner, turned and hurried from the room.
Callen looked at Sam and shrugged his shoulders. "She'll be alright."
Sam stood near the bed with his head down, eyes closed and arms crossed on his chest. He looked exhausted.
"I can't figure this out, G." he said softly. "This case just doesn't make any sense. We're hitting one dead end after another."
Callen's voice held a trace of anger, "Literally and figuratively."
"I don't want Deeks to be one of those damn dead ends."
"He won't be." Callen asserted, "Deeks is the key. When he wakes up, he can solve it for us."
"When. If. What if it never happens? Are we just supposed to move on and make like none of this ever happened." he gestured angrily. "Damn kid."
"Me too." G grinned lopsidedly.
Sam tossed him a glare. "I am not."
Their partnership was so close that they could read the unspoken emotions.
"We all have gotten pretty attached to him Sam, and there's no way we can possibly let him go now. We'll follow him wherever we have to."
ZZZzzzzzzz
LostForeverInHisEyes
GLOMP! Do you have any idea how much I adore you? Not in the stalkerish way but I always perk up when I see your name in the reviews. Thank you so much for letting me know about the errors. My usual beta is getting the poop stomped out of her by Real Life right now so I'm pretty much on my own with my fics.
Penelope the Perky Penguin
I collect penguins; will you be my lucky charm for this fic?
Ryla
Thanks! But it may end up being pretty parallel at some points.
amblue36
You are my inspiration! Thanks for kicking me back into gear!
Motherofmytwo and grs4ever
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Anyone else noticing errors, please let me know ;)
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