Chapter 10 – only one-way out
"Nell… Nell do you copy?" Kensi says.
"miss Jones?" Hetty says. There is no response from either Nell or Eric. There has been silences for more than 5 minutes now since Kensi jammed the laser signal. there is no picture from Nells neckless camera or any sound from Nells headset. The camera from the building is dead.
"Nell… do you Copy?" Callen says very loud in to the headset.
"don't yell Callen. My ears a little blow up but I'm not death." Nell says and she sounds a little dizzy.
"Miss Jones what happened?" Hetty asks.
"when the laser went back on so did the pressure bomb. It all blow up. Luckily it wasn't a very big load of explosives do. But it was big enough that it could have taken a man down."
"how is Eric?" Deeks asks.
"I'm good." Eric says a little shaken up. He landed face first on the concrete. He got some bruises but nothing serious. Nell landed on top of him so he took the fall from her. She got hit in the forehead with something from the explosion so she has an open wound on her forehead.
"you are bleeding." Eric says and places his hand on her face. He uses his thumb to wipe some blood away from her face. She gives him a little smile.
"I'm fine." She stands up and helps him op.
"Nell we are blind." Callen says.
"sorry Callen my neckless camera got taken out in the explosion. What about the other camera?"
"also blind, Nell." Callen says. "you are on your own Nell."
"okay we got it. Callen"
Everyone in ops look concerned at Callen.
"we can't let them on their own. Eric isn't trained to be in the field." Kensi says.
Everyone is looking at Hetty. She is just standing and thinking.
"go. But… only go in if they need it. Remember the C4."
Everyone nods and then leaves ops in a hurry. Hetty look concerned at the screen.
"be careful."
Nell opens up her backpack and takes out a pieces of a 9mm semi-automatic rifle and put the weapon together. Then she takes out a sig Sauer P229 handgun. She handles the handgun to Eric.
"please don't shoot me." She says. He looks at her with a little nervous smile. Then he takes the gun. He clearly doesn't know how to handle the gun.
"don't point the gun at me and keep the finger off the tricker unless you have to shoot someone." She helps him hold the gun correct.
"stay behind me." She orders. Then they walk towards the door. They still have the oxygen masks on. When they come to the door Eric makes sure that nobody is shooting at then through the window while Nell is trying to safely remove the c4 from the door.
In the meantime, Sam, Callen, Kensi and Deeks is packing up and on their way to help Nell and Eric as soon as they get out of the building.
Nell is working slowly on safely remove the C4. She finally gets the last piece of C4 safely removed and she slovly puches the door open. Eric is about to get out but Nell grabs his arm tight.
"Don't." she says.
"av." He looks at her with a look thet tells her that it really hurt.
"sorry. But we are not going anywhere."
"why not the door is open." Eric says like it is the most oviously thing. Nell takes out a little makeup puch from the back pack.
"Nell you look amazing. No time for make up now."
She holds the foundation powder op to her lips and close to the door and blows a little. Lines of laser become visible.
"you are kidding me." Eric says.
"one-way in. one way out." Nell says.
"I start to say: no way out."
Outside the building Sam, Callen, Deeks and Kensi arrives. They see Nell and Eric is sitting inside the door.
"why are they not going out?" Callen asks.
"properly some sort of booby-trap." Sam says.
"ohh you mean more booby-traps than the gas, laser, bomb and the C4. Just in case none of that killed them?" Callen sound sarcastic. Sam is clearly not in the mood.
"Nell?" Kensi screams while she is running from the car.
Nell and Eric is sitting inside the warehouse. Suddenly Eric seea black person behind a parked car a about 30 feet behind Kensi. Eric pulls his gun and shoots the person. Everyone get surprised by the shot from Eric. Especially Kensi. Sam runs over to the man.
"all clear!" Sam screams.
"what are you doing?" Nell shouts at him.
"he was shooting after Kensi."
The man is wearing a black ski mask and a black jumpsuit. Sam pulls off the ski mask. It is Ira Wells.
Inside the warehouse Nell and Eric is still sitting a Nell is trying to figure out how they get out of there.
"Nell…" Eric says.
"not now I need to focus on this. Just a few more minutes and then I think I know how we get out of here." She says.
"we don't have a few more minutes Nell…"
"just trust me on this Eric." She sounds annoyed with him now.
"Nell…" Nell doesn't respond to him. "Nell…" he sounds even more insisting now.
"what?" she looks up at him with a very angry look.
"look at your oxygen tank. We are almost out of oxygen." He says. She looks at her tank. It is almost empty.
"what are we going to do?" he asks.
She looks at him and then at the lasers in front of the door. He realizes what it is she wants them to do.
"no. no. no. you are not going out that door before the lasers is turned off." Eric says.
"we don't have a choice, Eric. If we stay, we suffocate to death. If one of us stay that one will be burned alive with chemicals before suffocating." Eric look confused around in the warehouse and then at Nell for clarification. "There are chemicals in the sprinklers as soon as the lasers get broken the chemicals comes out. But…" he doesn't look very comfortable with the sound of that.
"but if we jump out together at the same time. We will only get bruised a little and we both survive."
he looks very scared at the door and at the tiny pieces of C4 still connected to the door.
"Eric listen to me." Eric hear Nates voice in his ear. "Nell can't hear what I am going to say to you right now. So just listen for a moment." Nell look up at Eric he looks like he is listening to someone but she can't hear anything in her earpiece.
"Eric think about how the person is that you trust the most in the world. You don't have to answer me. Just think about it…" Eric is looking at down at Nell with a smile. Nell is confused. "okay Eric you trust this person and this person isn't just your colleague and your friend but also your family, right?"
"yes." Eric says. Nell look even more confused now.
"who are you talking to?" Eric doesn't answer her.
"Eric relax. Think about all does amazing things you two have done together over the past few years. You guys make an awesome team together in OPS. You can make an awesome team now also. You have to believe in yourself. You two make an incredible team when you are together. You can work this out together also."
Eric look at Nell. She starts smiling.
"okay. I trust you." He says. She gives him a little reassuring smile. Not sure what exactly just happened. She takes his hand. Then they walk a few steps away from the door to get some speed on their run through the lasers.
"okay let's do this". She says. He nods. They take off their oxygen masks some they don't have to jump with them.
Nell is holding up her hand to count on her fingers when to run. 3… 2… Eric starts to look at the lasers.
"I can't do it." he says. He sounds terrified again. Nell look panicked at him.
She pulls his arms while they jump through the lasers.