Chapter 14: Home
"Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward." – E.E. Cummings.
For a moment Deeks' world comes to a crashing halt. He locks eyes on his partner and can't look away. Her dark eyes are blown wide in shock, hair tangled in a messy halo. There's a scabbed over cut high in her hairline and her bottom lip is split and still bleeding sluggishly. Obviously she'd tried to fight back against the man now holding a gun tight to her temple and the fact that he'd bested her sends fear curling in Deeks' stomach, because his partner's the strongest person he knows and she never backs down from a fight.
The man shoves her forward suddenly, the move so unexpected that Kensi nearly trips, and Deeks tears his gaze away as the gun at her temple never wavers. "Here's how this is going to go," Kensi's captor says finally, voice calm and definitely American, and Deeks feels rage building in his gut because he sounds like he should be discussing the weather instead of holding a gun to his partner's head. "You're going to drop the gun, nice and slow, and then we're going to leave. If you try and stop me, I kill her. If you follow me, I kill her. If you don't do exactly as I say… well you get the picture."
That rage spikes in Deeks' gut, tearing at his insides with all the ferocity of a wild animal and the detective's grip goes white-knuckled on his Beretta before Deeks forces himself to breath deep, pushing his own particular brand of viciousness back into the corner of his heart that usually only Max Gentry can reach. He's not going to risk Kensi's life just to threaten this man, no matter how much he wants to put a bullet between his eyes, and Deeks takes half a step backward in concession, before focusing again on his partner.
Kensi meets his eyes in return for the first time since they'd stepped out of the darkness of the low cave that she's obviously been held in, and shakes her head carefully, mindful of the gun held to her temple. Her eyes are clear again, shining with determination and an edge of something else that makes Deeks uneasy. It looks out of place on her and it takes Deeks a moment to recognize almost the same edge in his partner's mismatched orbs that he'd seen in Callen in the street outside The Star when he'd jammed a gun in Jack's ribs. Then Kensi blinks and it's gone with the ease of flicking a switch and the detective is suddenly unnerved, feeling icy prickles crawling up the back of his neck.
"Don't do it, Deeks," Kensi says, voice strong and nearly covering the waver he can hear in her tone. She falls silent when the man behind her presses the gun tight against her ear in warning, but her eyes are still locked on him and in that moment Deeks wants nothing more than to reach out and hold her close. This is the Kensi he's risked his heart and career over and Deeks suddenly wonders if this thing of theirs isn't going to be his undoing. Sunshine and gunpowder, two of his favorite things and somehow she's the best of both.
"You don't have to do this," Deeks modulates his voice, hopes it comes out soothing the way he wants instead of just plain murderous, and steps back again, still without lowering his gun. He's not going to be able to talk him down, knows it with a surety that settles deep in his bones the same way Deeks knows he's not letting Kensi spend another day in this backwater hellhole, and part of him wonders if he shouldn't feel bad about deciding that this man isn't going to leave here alive.
"He's right, Booker." Kensi speaks up again, startling the both of them and that edge of vindictiveness is back in her eyes. Deeks shifts, feeling nervous butterflies in the back of his throat because this isn't like her. Kensi's the level-headed, practical one and Deeks wonders what all has happened since he's seen his partner last. "The Ghost is done, over. You have to know that."
The man, Booker, scoffs and suddenly Deeks notices that it's quiet again. The gun shots have stopped lighting up the cave opening behind them and the lack of sound is stifling all of a sudden, like they've been dropped into a bubble. The Afghani sun is blindingly bright, silhouetting Kensi and Booker even though it's still shockingly chilly in the desert morning. His laugh is mocking, rough, and it grates on Deeks' nerves, "Don't you see, Agent Blye. The Ghost is a legend. I'm hardly the first, if it's not me, than someone else." He taps the gun twice against her temple and again Kensi hears the edge of something not unlike regret in his voice, "Now back away, unless you want her to die."
"Take it easy," Deeks warns, stepping back and to the side in the hopes of clearing Callen's line of fire. The sniper's his best chance of getting Kensi out of here but Deeks isn't sure just how good a sightline he has from the ridge and there's no way he's going to risk using his radio and alerting Booker to the fact he has backup. Deeks sidesteps again to his left, trying to buy time for space. Callen isn't using a laser scope though so the detective has no idea if he's got a clean shot, but the longer Booker stays standing the more he worries that maybe the agent's found trouble of his own up on the ridgeline.
"Put the gun down," Booker says, voice still calm and in control, he's holding all the figurative cards and he knows it. "You can't stall me forever."
A figure steps out of the low cave opening behind them, squinting against the bright morning sun, and it takes Deeks a moment to recognize Jack behind the glaring anger in the former soldier's features. He's clutching an old school Beretta in his right hand and he tips his head at Booker before meeting Deeks' gaze. The detective grins suddenly, frighteningly wide because Booker has no idea just what kind of trouble is coming his way, "Who says I'm stalling?"
Jack echoes his grin over the traitor's shoulder and Deeks' nearly scowls at the sudden sense of comradery he feels with the CIA operative, it's ridiculous and more than a little childish but he doesn't want to have anything in common with this man that broke his partner's heart. Still he tips his head in a barely there nod to show he understands because her safety is a thousand times more important than this petty, livid jealousy he feels curling in the pit of his stomach.
Jack raises his gun, his lips twisted into a smile that's just on the chilling side of cruel, and then the world jumps into fast forward. Kensi's former fiancé raises his voice, loud but just shy of yelling, "Let her go. You've got nowhere to go."
Booker startles so hard that for a moment Deeks is afraid the gun in his hand is going to go off, then like a switch being thrown his composure is back in half the space of a heartbeat, and Booker pivots on his heel to face Jack, his Walther outstretched at the former soldier.
Before Deeks can make a shot though, his partner's ducking away from Booker the instant the gun's away from her temple. Kensi twists to the left, one hand digging into the folds of her vest, and Deeks catches the dull glint of a blade in the blazing morning sun before Booker's staggering away from his partner, the handle of her ceramic knife protruding from his shoulder.
There's a flash of contempt in the traitor's eyes and Deeks throws himself to the side as gunfire rings out frighteningly close. He hits the ground hard, feels sand digging into his cheek, and tastes blood on his tongue. His ears are ringing, pulse pounding behind his eyes, and distantly he notices Jack jerk to the side before falling. Kensi's the last one left standing and Deeks revels in the irony for a moment, before his brain catches up with his body, and he lunges for his partner, tackling her around the waist, and sending them both crashing into the sand. He reaches Kensi at the same moment that Booker pulls the trigger, and Deeks feels a bullet whoosh past his ear as they fall, until the retort of a much larger caliber weapon echoes off the ridge walls around them.
Callen's the only one who could have possibly fired that shot and Deeks feels relief rush all the way down to his toes even as he rolls carefully off of Kensi to confirm that Booker's dead, laying half a dozen feet away with a hole in the side of his head. It's a gruesome sight and Deeks tears his eyes away to look back at his partner, except Kensi's scrambled to her feet already and her mismatched eyes are fixed on a form over by the cave she was held inside of.
"Jack!"