A/N: Day late - so sorry but I'm just so super busy right now... But you'll get a nice long, Deeks whump chapter as an excuse :) Maybe that already implies it, but I tell you again just to be sure: there is some torture in here and also in the following chapters. So, be warned :)
Thanks to my wonderful beta and the guest reviewers!
Enjoy!
Despite the painkillers, Deeks had woken up earlier than Kensi but that wasn't really unexpected. He was an early riser having been shot or not. When he had gotten out of bed this morning, he had been relieved to find is head not hurting anymore and the vertigo gone as well. According to the doctors, he should have to deal with the symptoms of his concussion for at least a week, but Deeks was fit as a fiddle only three days after the blow to the head. He could only hope that his knee would heal as fast because he was already tired of sitting on the couch all day long. Although Deeks knew he didn't need to, he was determined to get into loose-fitting jeans – what he finally managed despite the brace - and a blue hoodie he loved.
Deeks hobbled on his two crutches back to the couch, a freshly brewed mug of coffee somehow clutched in his hand, when a sound caught his attention. Even before he realized that that sound were steps in front of the door of the apartment, said door already flew open. Yes, this was a safe house but that didn't automatically mean that there were steel doors or something alike that were able to withstand a battering ram. The security chain as well as the lock were ripped from the moorings and landed with a clank on the ground. Deeks brain screamed at him to do something but he wasn't able to grab his Beretta from the waistband of his jeans without drawing attention to it or risking falling over. The only thing that he could use to defend himself was the mug he still held in his hand. He just had to try and occupy the men until Kensi woke up, understood the situation and helped him out.
Deeks threw the mug as hard as he could at one of the attackers, who unfortunately was fast enough to avoid getting smacked in the face by it. Seeing that this wouldn't work out, Deeks decided that he just had to get rid of his crutches and get his gun, or even use the crutches as a weapon, but before he could even finished that thought, he felt a bat making contact with the already existent cut on his temple. That was all it took to have him blacking out.
Kensi was ripped from her sleep by a loud noise. Her body was in full agent-mode before Kensi was even fully awake so that she found herself with her SIG already in her hand when she opened her eyes. One grab to her left showed her that Deeks was no longer lying next to her. Another clattering noise coming from the living room reached Kensi's ears. Panic flooded through her body together with a huge portion of adrenaline. In a matter of seconds, Kensi was standing on the threshold to the living room, tearing the door open with her gun at the ready, only to find a deserted room in front of her. While running toward the front door, which hung quite impressively out of its hinges, Kensi noticed the mess surrounding her; Deeks' crutches lay forgotten on the ground, not too far away from them the shards of a mug with a dark stain spreading from them, looking like coffee.
When Kensi's bare feet touched the street in front of their safe house, she could only see the back lights of a huge black car that was speeding away, probably breaking every Californian law with that tempo. Kensi knew that it was hopeless but she emptied her clip trying to hit the tires or at least the windows of the car nevertheless. The car turned around one last corner towards the rising sun and Kensi knew it was a lost cause. Her partner was gone.
Eric and Nell had just stepped through the automatic door at ops and put their headsets in, when Kensi called.
"Eric, we're looking for a black SUV, no license plate, driving with too high tempo eastbound of my position," the two heard her rushed voice.
"From where do you call, Kensi? What's going on?"
Eric was already typing the parameters in Kaleidoscope, but he needed an area he could search in, or it would take forever until he had results. He could have just located Kensi's cell phone, but this way it was easier and probably faster, too.
"I'm at the safe house. Someone just kidnapped Deeks."
There was anger audible in her voice, but no trace of resignation or desperation.
Nell's eyes widened for a second and a scared expression settled on her face. "I'll call Sam and Callen."
Twenty minutes later, Sam, Callen and Kensi were standing in the living room of the safe house – or rather former safe house. Kensi had told the two of them what had happened and wasn't able to keep her anger against herself hidden. Even if Sam and Callen had told her over and over that this wasn't her fault, she felt responsible for his kidnapping. She came across that word several times. Kidnapping.
"Why didn't they just kill him?" Kensi mumbled and got the attention of the other two agents. "I mean, they're scared that Deeks saw something important, right? Well, if they wouldn't want him to spill the information, why did they abduct and not kill him right away?"
Sam narrowed his eyes and tried to follow Kensi's line of thought. "It would only make sense if they didn't know what information he has."
"It isn't the Sanchez Cartel. It has to be the buyers of the weapons, the ones that fled from the wreck yard. They hope that Deeks saw the dates of the other shipments so that they can get the arms without having to pay for them!" Callen ended the train of thought and pulled his cell from his pocket.
"Eric, do we know who bought the weapons when we interfered?"
Callen heard some typing before Eric answered. "Another cartel under the control of Stephen Wells, American, taken into custody multiple times for illegal gun possession. Seems like he sold the guns to radical groups."
"Any idea where they have their HQ or any place where they could hold Deeks?"
"There is nothing in the reports, but I'll check the names of the known cartel members and see if there is anything suspicious. But there is one thing you should know: Wells has one hell of a hacker within his group. He hacked into the traffic cameras and digitally followed Kensi's car to the safe house. That's the way they knew where Deeks was."
"What about you? Were you able to follow the car?"
"Nell and I gave our best, but we lost him. I promise we'll keep looking, though."
"Thanks." Callen hung up and looked at Kensi and his partner.
"Buyer's called Stephen Wells; he has quite an impressive criminal record. Eric and Nell are searching for buildings that Deeks could be held in and they keep looking for the SUV," he stopped for a second before trying to silence his teammates' consciousness's, "He knows a hacker who was able to follow our cars to the safe house. It isn't our fault that the location was blown."
Callen's gaze wandered through the messy living room und eventually stopped at the sight of Kensi, who was out of her pyjama by now, but looked utterly out of place.
"I'd say we all drive back to OSP; there is nothing we can do here."
Kensi and Sam nodded; relieved to get out of the house and maybe do something that would help them to find Deeks.
Pain radiated through his body when he came to. That was the first thing he noticed. Then the cold floor he was lying on, then that his hands were tied behind his back.
How the hell did I get here?
He could find no answer to that question. He remembered being in the safe house with Kensi and then everything was blurred. Deeks shook his head and tried to collect his thoughts but the only thing he got out of that was a nasty headache that didn't help his situation. He was lying on his right side and by that also on his injured knee what he realized shortly before he felt the pain. Deeks came to life and sat up as fast as possible, trying to get weight off of the limb, and then looked around, hoping to find a distraction from the throbbing. The room he was being held in had simple walls without any color and only one window near the high ceiling, but there was no light shining through it.
Either it was really, really dirty or the sun was still rising. If the sun was still rising, he couldn't have lost consciousness for too long. When his eyes had adjusted to the twilight, Deeks saw something on the supposedly bland walls that turned his blood to ice. About two and a half meters above the ground, there were manacles on the wall. Without having to think about it, Deeks knew that they were made to restrain someone with spread arms by their wrists, hanging just so high that the toes wouldn't touch the ground.
Before the detective had a chance to dread was going to happen to him, he heard how several steps neared the door and then a key turning in it. Deeks swallowed his fear, stuffing it to the back of his head and tried to steel himself for the coming minutes, possibly even hours – he was not going to show the men his fear; he was not going to give them that satisfaction.
His hands still tied behind his back, his knee throbbing like hell and mentally absent, Deeks was in no position to defend himself and the two men who came in knew that. They switched on a light and Deeks tried to adjust to it while memorizing everything he could – anything could be of help to get the guys once he got out – if he ever got out, that is. His vision still blurry from the sudden change of light, Deeks never saw the first punch coming that opened a cut on his cheek and had warm blood running down his face. Another two strikes later, Deeks was dazed enough to let himself get dragged to his feet and before even realizing what was happening, he found himself chained to the wall, upper body free from clothing. It was exactly how Deeks imagined it to be; his wrists were in the handcuffs above his head, all of his weight hanging on his arms and shoulders as his toes barely touched the ground. It already hurt like hell.
He was with his back to his kidnappers and by that wasn't able to see what was going to happen, but the evil laugh from one of the men let him know that it was going to hurt.
"It is really easy, detective. We ask questions, you answer and you die fast. If you don't answer… well, let's say I can be very persuasive," a deep voice explained to him with a slight accent.
"I'm not going to tell you anything," Deeks said nonchalantly and heard the crack of a whip the moment he felt the burning pain on his back. He gritted his teeth and suppressed a grunt.
Do not show your fear.
"What did you see on the laptop?" the same voice demanded, and Deeks could swear that he could hear anticipation in it.
Wait a minute - the men didn't know what he saw on the laptop? Weren't they from the cartel Julio is a member of? He couldn't show them his confusion. If they figured out that he in fact did not know a single thing from that laptop, that he didn't even remember looking at it, they would just kill him faster. Deeks laughed and knew that he was provoking his torturer. The faster he blacked out, the faster they would stop flicking that whip, at least he hoped so. Result of that equation was that Deeks needed a very angry opponent who didn't get what he wanted to.
"Go to hell."
No matter how often they asked him something, they always got a snarky retort, resulting in more powerful whips until Deeks could swear that the next ones would slice the flesh from his bones. When it felt as if his whole back was on fire, he finally gave in to the darkness and went slack in his chains.
A/N: Well, I said that the bad guys were going to catch up, didn't I? Sooooo, how'd you like it? I'd certainly like to know, but no pressure :D
