"You need to get some rest, Sam."
Easier said than done, G. Sam rolls onto his side and looks up to see his partner standing by his bedside. It's been a few hours since he placed the pendant in Deeks' hand and last spoken to anyone. He doesn't want to explain anything else about what happened that day anymore- he doesn't even know. All Sam wants to do right now is spend time looking between the slow moving clock on the wall and the unconscious, perfectly still detective lying in the bed across the room.
Sleep is the last thing on his mind.
"Callen's right, you know," Michelle calls out as she lies on her back in her own bed. She doesn't bother opening her eyes as she continues, " Get some sleep, babe. We'll still be here when you wake up. Deeks, too."
"I'm not….I can't," Sam says, shaking his head. He rolls onto his back and begins to stare at the flickering light bulb in the opposite corner of the room. It reminds him of when he was sitting in the warehouse room, watching an old flickering light in between passing out and praying that Deeks was alive.
"Don't make me call Hetty on you," Michelle jokes and it elicits an immediate response from Sam. He shoots up in the bed and feels the same irritating, unecessary sharp pain in his chest.
"Hetty? I haven't even thought of her," Sam stammers, "Where is she?"
Callen rubs the back of his neck again and it gives Sam the automatic clue that something else is wrong. "Remember when I said that we couldn't find the nuclear weapons?" Callen asks tiredly.
One of the things a man doesn't forget. Sam nods and steals a quick glance to the clock and back to Deeks.
Still no movement.
"The director and pretty much every other agency is beyond pissed that we screwed this up. Hetty is currently running around town trying to put out the fires and save all of our jobs."
"Basically- everyone is trying to cover their asses in saying that they didn't know about the weapons and since we were the only ones who knew about it, we shouldn't have screwed up," Michelle calls from her bed, once more not opening her eyes.
"Go figure," Sam chides in. He can see that Callen's left eye droop slightly and decides not to push the conversation any further. At the moment, he's too tired to nag or care about the missing nuclear weapons.
Nothing.
"Like I said before," Callen yawns, "You need to sleep. Deeks is going to wake up and everything…..might turn out alright."
Ah screw it. He should take his own damn advice. Sam snorts when he sees Callen yawn again, this time slightly rocking to the side. "Look who's talking."
"Sam, I've been up for 72 hours trying to keep everyone safe," Callen unintentionally snaps. He quickly drops his shoulders and sighs, "Sorry- I didn't mean to sound like an ass."
"No, it's fine." Sam settles back in the bed and for the third time in the last five minutes, looks up to the clock. He half hazardly glances over to Deeks' bed, expecting the same thing. This time, he turns to see Deeks lying perfectly still with his eyes wide open. The detective is staring straight dead ahead past his partner's sleeping form next to the bed and at a spot in the wall. He's barely blinking or taking a breath.
"Deeks?" Sam calls out. Deeks suddenly begins inhaling and exhaling quickly as his eyes dart all over the room. He grips the sheets next to the bed in terror and Sam knows that he's about to go into a panic. Callen bolts to the detective's bed side and makes the mistake of attempting to grab Deeks' hand- it sends Deeks into a full blown hysteria. The first thing he does is begin thrashing his arms and legs in the restraints and accidently kick Kensi in the face.
"No, no, no- Deeks, look at me," Callen yells out. Kensi, who's now on the floor, pulls herself up with one hand while rubbing her cheek with the other. It doesn't take more than a second for her to begin limping around the edge of the bed and attempt to grab one of Deeks' arms.
"Deeks, stop it! Calm…calm down!"
"Hey, look at me! The doctors will take the restraints off in a sec! But you got to stay calm!"
"Kens, hit the call button!"
"I'm trying….got it!"
In the midst of the chaos, Sam is sitting straight up in the bed, shell shocked. He's never had a moment like this, a moment where he's so out of it that he can't do anything. It could be PTSD or not; he's been lucky enough to never go down that road. Whatever it is, Sam feels like a helpless animal.
"Where the hell are those doctors?"
"Hey, just….just…you aren't in the warehouse anymore!"
Sam continues to sit, trying with every ounce to even open his mouth. Nothing, not even a squeak comes out. He's about to try and force himself to look away when all of sudden Deeks stops in his state and freezes. He stares Sam straight in the eye with his blue eyes burning with anger, fear, confusion, and pain.
Sam can only stare back sadly, thinking, He's never going to come back from this. None of us will.