A/N: For those of you who need a good dose of Brody woes...

Crescent City Hospital

Laurel Pride entered the waiting room nearly breathless. She had been in the middle of a music theory exam when she got the call that her father needed her.

"Daddy?" Laurel's voice questioned as she crossed over to her tired looking father.

Pride opened his arms, engulfing her. "Hi, Pumpkin."

"I can't believe this happening," Laurel whispered holding tight. "It seems like we were just here." It still seemed like yesterday since her boyfriend; Orion, had been seriously injured in an explosion meant for Pride.

Pride kissed her forehead as they parted. Gently, he slung his arm around her shoulders and the two walked over to a set of chairs on the far side of room.

"How's Chris?" Laurel asked as she sat in the vinyl covered chair.

"Yes, how is Christopher?" A voice that Pride knows better than his own echoes.

Linda.

Pride stared at his estranged wife for several seconds before she crossed the room so that they are nearly toe-to-toe. Linda looked up at him, her brown irises filled with concern. Chris had been more than a partner to King over the years. Though Pride didn't talk about it much, she knew that the lifesaving went both ways.

"He is going to make it? Isn't he?"

"Honestly, I don't know." Pride said, putting his arms around his ex.

From across the room, Agent Percy watched as the emotional family reunion unfolded.

"Pride really takes this family thing seriously doesn't he?" she asked as Brody played with the clasp on the medallion. Luckily, the clasp itself had just been separated and not broken, making it rather easy for her to pry back together.

"That he does. I think he and Linda adopted LaSalle when he joined NCIS."

"That's gotta say something," Percy sighed, tearing her attention from the estranged couple. "You wouldn't see my ex comin' around if my partner got shot."

"Mine either," Brody returned. "But for the record, our partner did get shot…by me."

Percy's lips began to part. For the first time in her life she almost didn't know what to say. Pride had already apprised her of the situation, but given that she was new to the team she didn't think that Brody would actually open up about it."

"You know this is not your fault, right?"

Brody gave the NCIS rookie, a tight smile. "Then whose fault is it? LaSalle's?"

"Maybe. Word has it he didn't follow protocol."

"Protocol?" Brody scoffed. "You think this happened because of protocol?"

Percy jutted her out her chin, her tone hardening slightly. "Honestly, I think sometimes things just go sideways and you gotta deal with that the best you can."

Brody was a seasoned agent. She knew all about how things could turn on a dime and get sideways, but for her this was personal. She'd been down this road before on the Moultrie. Ironically, during that situation she hesitated when she should have fired and now she'd fired too quickly when she should have waited.

So, I'm just supposed to deal with the fact that my partner might die because I acted too quickly."

"LaSalle ain't gonna die," Percy retorted a little more loudly that she meant too earning the attention of Loretta as she walked into the waiting room.

"There will be no talk about dying. Lord knows we've had enough death in this family where Christopher is concerned." She was referring to Savannah and although the sweet woman wasn't technically a part of their family she had been important to Chris.

"How is he?" Brody asked letting her words out in a one large whoosh.

Loretta hesitated for a moment, allowing Pride and his family to gather around before explaining that doctors needed to go in and repair Oliver's handiwork. Technically, it had saved his life, but had only provided a temporary fix. The fishing line that Oliver had used in place of sutures was definitely going to have to be removed along with any repairs that the backdoor surgeon had made.

"And the possibility of sepsis?" Pride asked, his arm slung tightly around Laurel.

It was no longer a possibility; it was reality. "For now they're treating it with a broad spectrum of antibiotics in the hope that he'll respond soon."

"And if he doesn't," Percy dared to ask.

"Then all we can do is pray."

Thirty minutes later, Brody stood at the observation window in the ICU watching nurses wrap her partner in temped insulated sheets.

"What are they doing to Chris?" She asked as Loretta stepped up next to her.

"His temperature has spiked. So, they're trying to bring it down quickly."

Brody's lips pursed. The method seemed a little old fashioned given the advances of modern medicine, but who was she to question. She was the reason her partner was in this mess. The idea that she had been the one to put the bullet in him made her insides twist. It didn't matter what anyone said to her. No matter how you looked at it, she was the one who had pulled that trigger.

"Can I see him?"

"As soon as they are finished," Loretta smiled patting the younger woman on the back before noticing the medallion that was clutched tightly in Brody's hands. "May I ask what that is that you are holding in your hand?"

Brody opened her palm. "Saint Christopher's Medallion. Savannah's father found it and gave it to Chris." She would keep the part about her sister's necklace to herself. That was something private between just she and Chris.

"It's beautiful," Loretta took it from Brody's hands, reading the inscription on the front. St. Christopher. Protect Us" Loretta smiled warmly looking back at Chris before giving the medal back to Brody. "He certainly does."

"The only problem with that is who protects him?" Brody tossed out.

Loretta looked at the agent stunned. She'd seem this look before, the day of the security detail shooting.

"Merri-"she began only to have Brody cut her off.

"I'm his partner. I'm supposed to have his back!" If things had gone according to plan she would have. Originally, the two of them were supposed to have gone in after Eddie, in Bonnie and Clyde type scenario looking after one another every step of the way. But a twist of fate had changed all of that.

Harley Moon, who ever thought of that name clearly had never met Meredith Brody. That name sounded like it should belong to a stripper. At least LaSalle had been given a cover that somewhat fit his personality. Nevertheless, it was the cover that she'd been assigned so she would roll with it.

The two of them had just made friends with an associate of the man who Percy had helped to bust for selling military weapons on the open market. Jackson Hall was the middle man and their way into Eddie Duquesne's organization. Jackson had been easy enough to play. As it turned out, Brody was just his type. A little flirting, a little drinking, an intentional caress here and there and wham. He was all hers.

The very next day Jackson introduced Chris to Eddie at a party. She'd been watching all of Eddie's people gathering Intel while Chris sought to befriend the arms dealer with a stor relating a similar background to Eddie's former military career. She envied LaSalle at times for his charm and the way he had with people. The plan had been for her to possibly seduce Eddie, but the man was instantly drawn to LaSalle like a magnet. She hoped for Chris' sake that the man was just interested in business and not anything else. Poor LaSalle, he'd never be able to keep his cover intact if Eddie were to make an advance.

She was holding her phone in her hands when Chris walked over to her, nursing a longneck beer. "Eddie wants us to do a trial run with him tonight."

"When?" she asked keeping her eyes at her shoes.

"Tonight," Puzzled as to why she wasn't making eye contact, Chris touched her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Merri raised her eyes to him. "My Mom, she just had a stroke. Pride uh…he said…uh…it's my call."

"I got this, go" In LaSalle's mind, the only call Brody needed to make was to the airline to see about getting the first flight home.

Brody closed her eyes as the memory faded. If she had stayed with him instead of going home maybe he wouldn't have fallen so deep that it had taken an entire SWAT team and her bullet to pull him out. Maybe she could have saved him from selling his soul to the dark side. Maybe she could have saved-

"Here, give this to him when he wakes up," she told Loretta placing the medallion back into her hand before doing an about face and heading down the hall.

A/N: I am dating myself here, but the bit with the insulated sheets stems from personal experience.