Chapter 8

Peeks out meekly from behind door. Accepts fate and stands before angry townsfolk and waits until all charges have been read out before speaking. "Ahem I know that there can be no excuses for not updating and all I can say was that I have been preoccupied. But then again I have started a new story which was a very stupid thing considering this one had been left unattended for so long. I'm truly sorry for what I have done and ask for a second chance and the right to continue" Nods head and steps back. Townsfolk mutter between themselves and eventually turn back to me.

"Never again should this atrocity happen, be careful or you shall be cast out until you are worthy again.

Now with that slight weird encounter and the fact that the townsfolk are staring at me and waiting, I must continue this story. (Could not resist the slight Thor reference there, if you understood then I salute you good sirs and madams) Now as a side note, I know nothing about bombs or proper protocol but what will happen will be logical, I think.

Callen and Sam hurtled through the Los Angeles streets towards the hospital. There had still been no response from Kensi, and Callen was praying that it was just because the hospital had bad signal. It had been hard enough the first time that Deeks had been taken and since he was still recovering Callen feared that Deeks would not survive another. The view out his window was blurred into one but by now he was guessing that they couldn't be that far away from the hospital. Pulling his gun out of its holster Callen gripped the door handle ready for when the cars stopped.

Sam slowed the car down and swung the steering wheel round to do a sharp left turn into the car park. Pulling up outside the hospital but careful not to block the emergency bay, Sam stepped on the brakes and along with Callen threw himself out of the car. Racing through the hospital they chose not to wait for the lift but instead to take the stairs. Running on pure adrenaline and fear they barely felt the burn of their muscles. Both praying that they would not be too late the hurtled through the ward dodging nurses and Doctors and calling out for people to get out of the way. They slowed when they saw Kensi at the vending machine, hand hovering over the buttons, turning away when there was a small ding in order to grab her coffee fresh from the machine.

She turned when she heard the commotion coming from further down the ward. Seeing them she strode towards them.

"Hey guys, Deeks was sleeping so I thought I would run out and grab some coffee…" She trailed off taking in their drawn guns,

"What happened? Tell me, is Patterson here?" Watching their faces, her own face hardened and she drew her gun, Coffee forgotten and ran back down towards Deeks' room. They paused outside it before kicking it open and pilling into the room. Callen lowered his gun in absolute shock at the scene in front of him.

Deeks was sitting up in his bed clearly awake and for once his eyes were open. Someone must have left a newspaper in the room because Deeks had it propped up on the table that lay across his bed, one finger moving across the page and his brow furrowed as if trying to see better. To Callen it looked more like they had entered Deeks' apartment on a lazy Sunday morning, all that was missing was a cup of coffee and a pastry of some kind. At their entrance Deeks dropped the paper and looked up in fear and apprehension.

"Please tell me that's you guys" The fear in Deeks' voice was clear and it sent shivers down Sam's spine.

"Yep it's us Deeks, it's okay false alarm it seems" At Sam's voice Deeks clearly relaxed but still didn't pick the paper back up.

"False alarm?" Deeks pushed himself higher on the bed but Kensi crossed the room and pushed him back down.

"Deeks I thought you were sleeping and can you actually see that?" The tone of Kensi's voice was almost what you would expect a mother to use on a naughty child.

Deeks gave a grin and waved the paper towards Kensi "Hetty had the paper printed with bigger words to see if I could read them, which I can't but I suspect holding this paper I look more sophisticated than I feel right now. As for sleep, yeah that didn't really work out"

"Well you need sleep, so sleep" Kensi tried again but Deeks batted her hand away and focused on the gap between Callen and Sam.

"No, tell me what you meant by a false alarm. Did you think Patterson was coming here? Is he coming here? Is he coming back?" With every question Deeks was becoming more and more agitated and his heart rate began to increase.

This time Sam stepped forward and he moved round the bed to stand opposite Kensi. "Deeks, Deeks hey listen to the sound of my voice. It's okay Patterson isn't here and he isn't going to get to you again and if he does, we would not stop looking until we had found you that is if Kensi hadn't killed him before he even got near you. Just breath, it's going to be okay"

Once Deeks' breathing had come back down to a normal level Sam continued to talk "We had Eric track a car we believe Patterson has and Eric saw it pulling into the hospital and we thought he was coming to you. But as you can tell he isn't here and we need to find out where he went. He's got to be close."

He turned to Callen and they locked eyes. Callen nodded years of partnership allowing him to understand what Sam meant. Callen stepped forward and gripped Deeks' arm.

"We have to leave again Deeks in order to kick Patterson's arse. Kensi will stay here and please try to get some sleep. Nothing can hurt you" Squeezing his arm, Callen withdrew and headed out the door and waited for Sam to join him. After a few more seconds Sam joined him.

"Okay so now what, Eric saw the car pull up here, why would he come and then leave? It makes no sense" Callen questioned Sam as they headed back along the ward to the lift they had run out of barley five minutes before hand.

"We call Eric and find out what the hell happened"

The two of them headed down to the car park again and Sam called Eric.

"Eric can we get a location on the car, Paterson was a no show"

"The car is still there Sam, just round the corner from you. The camera angle isn't the best but the car pulled in there and hasn't moved since"

Sam and Callen approached the car with caution, not wanting to risk anything while they waited for Eric and Nell to find out if they could find out where Paterson had gone after stopping the car. Reaching the car they quickly noticed that nobody was in it but they still acted with caution, Callen grabbed one door handle while Sam stood back ready. Easing the door open, a very audible click could be heard. Callen froze and Sam moved to check the underside of the car before stepping back.

"Callen whatever you do don't let go of the handle" As Sam spoke he leaned down to try and look round Callen's hand.

"Why Sam, I'm not getting a very good feeling about that" Even if Callen managed to hide his fear, Sam could still tell that he was worried.

"There's a bomb under the car and I think the pressure pad is on the handle. If you let go it will detonate immediately."

"Great that makes me feel so great. I thought this was going to be a good day but I seems this is rapidly going downhill" Callen's other hand moved his gun towards Sam and shifted his feet while keeping his hand still, in order to get in a better position to wait in.

"Yeah, when do we ever get a normal day, just hang in there G, I'll get Eric to send bomb squad, for now we wait."

As soon as the words left Sam's mouth, Callen started to shake his head "Sam you need to go out and find Paterson not wait with me. I'll be fine"

The indecision was clear on Sam's face "I'll wait with you until bomb squad gets here and we know what we're dealing with."

It wasn't very long before bomb squad did turn up, meanwhile Eric had checked in and said that Paterson had parked the car and then left. He was still trying to locate him and it may take a while because of all the traffic and buses that were leaving the hospital at around the same time. The bomb squad finished checking the car and then made their way over to where Sam was standing, not too far away from Callen.

"You were right about the pressure pad but that's not the only problem. If that was the only problem we could disarm it very easily but the bomb is very sophisticated and it has another part to the bomb. This part looks like it is controlled by a remote. We would need to destroy the remote before attempting to disarm the bomb in order to make sure Agent Callen will come out of this unharmed"

Sam nodded before asking "So the bomb could detonate at any time"

The nod of conformation made Sam's heart sink as he took in this new information and glanced at his partner. Callen's back was to Sam but he was hunched and trying to stay as still as possible. Sam walked over to Callen and told him all the information that bomb squad had said. Callen's face was emotionless and to anyone else it would look as if he was unconcerned but Sam could see that Callen's face hardened and the light in his eyes dimmed a little bit.

They faced danger on a daily basis but a lot of the time you could be killed instantly with no warning, this was different Callen knew that it was coming. At any time Paterson could chose to detonate the bomb and kill him. Or he might not and this was a way to get them away from the case and to allow Paterson to get away. In any case Callen knew that Sam had to get away from him and back on the case. It was just the case of persuading him to do so.

"Sam…" he started and paused. He was expecting Sam to interrupt but he did not. Sam just stood there, his face closed off and eyes hard. Callen took a breath before continuing.

"Sam, you need to leave. Get after Paterson and make sure that Deeks is safe, besides if you find Paterson, we will be able to disarm the bomb."

Sam gave a stiff nod "Stay in one piece G, I don't need the hassle of a new partner when I finally got you trained" Sam gave a little grin before turning round and heading back towards the car.

"Don't you mean I finally got you trained" Callen yelled after him, with a laugh. As Sam turned the corner, Callen's grin dropped and he heaved a heavy sigh. Was it too much to ask to ever get a quiet day like back in the good all days before Paterson took Deeks and all they had to worry about was what lunch was going to be that day. G shook his head, sometimes it seemed like he was getting to old for this.

The only thing that would complete his day was a bomb squad member telling him that the hospital had to be evacuated. Unfortunately that is exactly what happened. According to some calculations, if the bomb went off, due to the cars proximity with the building, it would make the building structurally unsound causing patients' lives to be at risk. Now normally patients could be moved with ease but the ward closest was ICU. Where Deeks was.

Callen lifted his head to the sky and growled. Damn it, this was really not what they needed. Callen called over a bomb squad and asked for a phone, which he then used to call Hetty and arrange for Deeks and the other patients to be moved. The patients would be moved to another hospital and this time Deeks was going to a safe house, as Hetty said she could arrange an emergency doctor and Deeks seemed well enough considering it was mainly just his sight that was the worst thing. All Deeks would have to do is rest and wait for them to deal with Paterson.

….oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox ….

Kensi and Deeks in the hospital just after Sam and Callen have left.

After the nurse had checked on Deeks and then left them with Jell-O, some Twinkies and some coffee for Kensi as Deeks was still not being allowed any, they had fallen back onto their normal banter. Despite this Kensi could tell that Deeks was acting more reserved, which was most likely because of the information Sam and Callen had brought to them.

Deeks had still not fallen asleep but despite his best wishes Deeks knew that he was slowly falling asleep again and no matter how much he tried to fight it, he fell asleep in the middle of Kensi speaking and entered the darkness of a dreamless sleep, although that did not differ from when he was awake anyway.

"And anyway it's not like he could actually…" Kensi trailed off when she saw that Deeks had fallen asleep. "Well Deeks, if you didn't want to hear about Sam and Callen then you should have just said so" she chuckled slightly to herself and settled back in the chair that was to the left of Deeks bed. It had the best vantage point of the door just in case they had any unwelcome visitors. Her hand rested near her holster, ready to protect Deeks at a seconds notice. He had suffered too much and was still suffering. For the first time Kensi allowed her imagination to wonder what would happen if Deeks never fully regained his sight. Hetty would fight to keep him near the team and she knew that herself along with Sam and Callen would also fight for him. He obviously wouldn't be allowed into the field as much or at all but he would still be nearby.

It would devastate him but Kensi knew that he is strong and that she will stand by him no matter what happens. Kensi glanced over at Deeks, after losing him she found that just being in the same room and being there was enough to sooth her worries and keep herself calm. A grin hinted at the corners of her mouth as she watched him sleep. He was twitching, his nose crinkling almost like a rabbits and quick as a whip she pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of him.

Gazing at his face, Kensi pushed a piece of hair gently back being mindful of the bandage. Just as she did this, a whimper escaped Deeks' mouth and his twitches became more violent and he started struggling with his dream assailants.

Kensi placed both hands on his shoulders gently shook him.

"Deeks you need to wake up, Deeks please wake up. I need you to wake up Deeks. Marty, please for me?" Her voice broke on the last words, her eyes filling with tears. She blinked them back and focused on Deeks and luckily Deeks woke up. Before Deeks woke up fully, Kensi turned her head and blinked rapidly to clear them away, despite the fact that Deeks would not be able to see her.

Sighing heavily Kensi sat back down and waited until Deeks was more awake. Deeks' head tossed a little but seemed to realise that she was sitting in the chair.

"Kens, you there?"

"Yeah Deeks, I'm here. Are you okay?"

She wasn't expecting Deeks to answer but instead deflect the question but Deeks however did answer her.

"I'm not great to be honest. I mean, how can I be? Everyone keeps saying, just get some rest and you'll heal up and it'll all be over but how can it ever be over if I can't even sleep without having nightmares. I can't even tell sleep from being awake very well either. Both are dark and unpredictable and knowing that Paterson is out there and you guys could get hurt, doesn't make it any easier. What happens if my sight never comes back huh, then what happens? I'm a cop, cops need their sight. So no Kensi I am not okay but I think I have a right to not be." Deeks sat back in the bed and turned his head away from Kensi.

Kensi said nothing because for once she didn't have anything to say. It was defiantly expected for Deeks to say those things but it was still hard on her even if Deeks was not necessarily mad at her. Before she could even begin to think of an answer, her phone rang and she saw that it was Hetty.

"Ms Blye, we have a situation." After explaining about Callen and the bomb and how Sam was on his way back to ops in order to start the search on Paterson again, Hetty added Kensi's new orders.

"Ms Blye, we need to move Mr Deeks. He is too open to attack which Paterson has already proved with the car bomb. Agents are on their way to your location and they will take Mr Deeks to a safe house. I do not want you to leave his side for anything. We cannot afford to take any chances at this time."

"Okay Hetty I understand. How's Callen holding up?"

There was a pause before Hetty spoke again "To the untrained eye he seems almost bored by the whole thing. But to the trained eye you can tell he is concerned and knowing Mr Callen it is most likely more for Mr Deeks then himself." Hetty and Kensi shared a chuckle before saying goodbye and turning to their tasks.

Explaining the situation to Deeks was hard. The look on his face almost broke Kensi and combined with the fact that he didn't say a word, Kensi would have thought that he was sleeping. But his nose was not twitching which informed her that her partner was still very much awake and aware of what was being said.

The time passed quickly after that. Two agents arrived, Agents March and Summers. Neither of which Kensi had ever met but Kensi knew that she could trust them. One, because Hetty had sent them and two, because well she just had a feeling about it.

The journey to the car was filled with the banter of the March and Summers but the silence from Kensi and Deeks although Deeks couldn't keep the smile off his face at the two agents. Once Deeks was settled in the back of the Sedan, the others pilled in and they started the seemingly endless journey to the safe house. Not that it could really be called a "house" it was really a bungalow. Small but still spacious and it was the sort of place Kensi had looked at before buying her apartment.

Settling Deeks onto the settee, the TV got turned on and Kensi settled back, breaking a grin when Deeks let out a playful groan at the sounds of top model that Kensi put on. Her gun rested on the table and to outsiders she seemed almost relaxed. Deeks breathed in deeply before commenting about the absence of the antiseptic smell, before some banter and grumbling about the lack of Coffee. Things seemed to be better now but this period of time was simply the calm before the storm that was just on the horizon. The only physical showing of this was the rain clouds gathering over the city as the rain began to fall. Kensi and Deeks blocked out the rain and focused on each other, staying warm and staying positive and for Deeks staying awake. Agents March and Summers took turns watching but both were calm and confident. It was peaceful and soon all the occupants of the bungalow were settled for the night and coming days which were going to be filled with waiting.

….xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxo…

Callen

The day wore on and Hetty kept him informed with what was happening. Deeks had been moved to the safe house. Eric, Nell and Sam had no leads on where Paterson went and to make it worse, it was beginning to rain. By three in the afternoon, G was downright annoyed and very hungry. He was tired and was getting very worried. He couldn't stay there forever but there was nothing he could do. If night fell and he was still here, he promised himself that he would be taking a two week holiday using one of Hetty's credit cards.

He sighed once again and ducked his head allowing rain to run down into his eyes. He shook his head and blinked to clear his eyes. Hearing someone coming towards him, he turned to see a bomb squad member coming towards him with a chair and umbrella.

"Is that a good idea, shouldn't I stay standing?" he questioned

"As long as your grip stays the same, you should be okay but it's your choice" he left the chair and umbrella and retreated back to safety. Deciding to take his chance, Callen slowly lowered himself into the chair and under the umbrella and so out of the rain. That was until the wind turned and blew the rain at him from a different way.

"Great, just great" he mumbled to himself. If anyone was walking past he must look really stupid. Glancing up he noticed with distain that the rain looked like it was set to continue for quite some time.

Sighing once more, he started muttering in Russian, practicing while also cursing Paterson and also deciding to allow Sam to take the lead when they dealt with cars in the future.

Awwww don't you feel sorry for Callen. Well that wasn't great but it's something. Don't worry next chapter is already in progress and it has much more action. This was just more of a filler, setting the scene and lying in wait is the plot bunnies.

As for you lucky American readers that already have season 5 grrrrrrr I have to wait until January. This is the only time I hate living in England, well that and the weather but I'm used to the weather.

Well I apologise again for the wait especially for the not so great chapter but more is coming and that more is much better.

Reviews are love and if you don't love, love then I understand but still review please….. Reviews also get Callen a blanket and some bacon

Until next time – Babyliss12 xxxxx