181We'd like to thank everyone who is still reading and supporting this story. It means the world to us. Hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and well during these difficult days.
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"What's up, Eric? Did you find Cheerios instead of Cap'n Crunch?" Sam asked, from his position crouched beside their diminishing stack of food. But as soon as he raised his gaze to meet Eric's, he knew that something must be very wrong. "Eric, what did you find?" He asked again, his tone a lot more serious this time.
Getting no response from Eric, Sam got up and began slowly moving forward towards his teammate, all thoughts about breakfast and the stack of food gone from his mind.
For his part, Eric said nothing. He continued to stand rooted in place, face pale and eyes wide. Lips parted but no words coming out, he just moved his hand to grab the box and flipped it so it's content fell down onto the kitchen counter with a loud thud. One that told everyone around that whatever was inside was anything but cereal.
"What's wrong guys?" Callen inquired, having woken up a few minutes ago and catching the end of his teammates' conversation. Getting no reply at all, he tried lifting himself from the bed but ended up just groaning and plopping back down as soon as his back protested in pain.
"What's in the box?" Deeks asked next, reminding everyone of another box from a long time ago and signaling that all men were now awake and waiting tensely for Eric to reveal his discovery.
"We sure have a problem." Sam responded eventually, having reached the kitchen counter and lifting the offending object in his hand.
"Is that...?" Callen began to ask, but promptly trailed off and closed his eyes. Silently wondering how unlucky they could be.
"...A brick of some kind of drug." Deeks completed Callen's observation. "Which I guess explains why this cabin is so much nicer than the other one. Dealing sure pays well."
"Definitely better than trying to stop those who deal." Callen added, rolling his eyes.
"Maybe... maybe... it's not a dealer. Could be that whoever lives here just likes to have some fun while spending time in their cabin?" Eric proposed, voice shaking as he stared at the wrapped object in Sam's hand.
"Unfortunately, I don't think they'd need this much for that." Sam responded drily.
"I bet if we looked around we would find a lot more." Deeks agreed, remembering his many undercover assignments and all the ingenious places where dealers stacked their merchandise.
"I don't think we need to look for more, this is proof enough that we need to get the hell away from here as soon as we can." Callen again tried to get up, and this time already expecting the pain, managed to groan his way up to a sitting position.
"Ok, then I will be on my way." Eric said, quickly moving to grab his jacket before anyone could stop him.
"On your way where?" Callen asked, wondering what he had missed.
"Eric here wants to walk back towards the parking lot and get help from the rangers." Sam explained, a twinkle in his eye as he expectantly waited for Callen and Deeks to also turn the idea down.
"Oh, that makes sense, thanks, Eric." Deeks responded first, a loopy smile gracing his lips even as pain lines were still visible on his face.
Sam fought the urge to berate Deeks for his comment, instead just rolling his eyes as he attributed what he thought to be Deeks' lack of judgement to his concussion.
"I don't like it." Callen began, making Sam smile. "But, I get it. Just be careful, Eric." The last bit making Sam's smile disappear as quickly as it had come.
"Are you both crazy? Did you also hit your head, partner? There's no way we're letting Eric go alone into the wilderness." Sam interrupted before anyone had a chance to add another absurd idea.
"I hate to break it to you partner, but you just can't do it all, and neither one of us is in any condition to go get help." Callen said, pointing to himself and Deeks. "It just makes sense for you to stay here in case Deeks needs any medical attention." He said, as if his younger teammate was the only one that could be needing some of that.
Deeks rolled his eyes, having caught the implication of his team leader's words. "I agree, Sam. As much as you want to always save the day, sometimes you just can't do it alone and you need to delegate and trust in your friends." Deeks added, sounding the most coherent in the last 24 hours. "Eric can be the hero this time."
"I really don't like this." Sam uncharacteristically pouted, starting to see that he would be defeated.
"We don't either, but we don't have too many alternatives. And I don't want to wait until whoever owns that decides to return." Callen said with an ounce of finality in his tone, his finger pointing to the brick of drugs still on Sam's hand.
"But..." Sam began to say, until Eric stopped him with a hand on his chest and a very determined look on his face.
"You're forgetting I'm still here." Eric began, as he pulled his hand back and kneeled down as he continued talking. "And as much as you're the bosses when we're in ops, here I'm my own man and I can make my own choices. You don't have to let me do anything because it's my decision and I'm going in search of help." He concluded his argument as he finished tying his boots. Then he got up from the floor and walked towards the door, making his teammates realize that while they argued, Eric had quietly taken off his pajamas and dressed in the warmest clothes he could find.
"Wait, Eric." Sam finally let go of the package and rushed towards Eric before the man had a chance to open the door. "You're right, I'm sorry. Let me just give you some pointers." He said in a more gentle and apologetic tone, before he moved to his bag, coming back a few seconds later with a scarf which he tied around Eric's neck and some cereal bars and a bottle of water which he gave to his teammate. Finally, making sure that Eric's jacket, gloves and beanie were warm enough, Sam nodded to himself then walked outside, Eric following close behind.
"Do you think he will be okay?" Deeks asked when he and Callen were alone.
"I don't know. I hope so." Callen replied, wishing he could sound more optimistic, but already aware that seemingly everything that could go wrong in this trip, was in fact going very wrong.
"I think he will be. Eric's stronger than he looks." Deeks said, for both his sake and Callen's. He had wanted to ask if the team leader thought they were making a mistake by letting Eric go, but he knew they were out of options, and second guessing themselves wouldn't do anyone any good.
With Deeks' last comment, the conversation trailed off, as both teammates remained silent, barely able to listen to the words drifting from outside, as Sam explained to Eric how to best get to the cars and what to do and not do while walking through the woods.
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Sitting on the plane, Kensi tried to distract herself by checking maps of the area Nell had pointed out as the guys' most probable location, wanting to be prepared to hit the ground running. Out of the corner of her eye, she kept glancing at the time, seemingly willing time to move faster out of stubborness alone.
"We will find them, I promise." Nell said, hand coming to rest on Kensi's knee to stop it from continuing to bounce up and down, a habit she had apparently picked up from her husband who could never sit still, especially when he was feeling nervous and impatient. Getting no response, but pleased that Kensi had willed her leg to settle down, Nell blew out a breath before shifting her eyes back to her tablet. She continued to read in peace for about five minutes, right until she noticed that Kensi's nervous energy had shifted from bouncing her leg to tapping her fingers on the plane's window and chewing her bottom lip. "Kensi."
"Sorry." The agent had the decency to look sheepish as she also willed her fingers to stop moving, arm coming to rest on her lap.
Nell nodded but said nothing else, knowing she didn't yet have any real way to alleviate Kensi's worries, or her own. She just seemingly had a better way of handling said nerves. Which actually surprised her, Kensi being the agent that was usually in control, but maybe that was always bound to change once Kensi and Deeks moved their relationship forward. Content for now that Kensi had calmed down, Nell resumed her search.
Unfortunately, Sam's email hadn't yielded an exact location of the boys' location. Nell had found email communications with the owners of three cabins, only one of which responded that it had already been booked, leaving the other three as fair game. Nell hadn't been able to find any confirmation of which one he had decided to book, assuming that Sam had called the owners instead and finished the deal over the phone. She felt bad enough about hacking her teammate's email and she knew Sam wouldn't be happy, so she would need to leave hacking anything else as a last resort. For now they would hopefully soon arrive in the town where the boys' had stopped for the night and start following leads until they could find them.
Nell's thoughts were pushed back to reality when Kensi started snapping her fingers and clearing her throat every few seconds. Drawing in a breath and blowing it out slowly, Nell tried to focus back on the screen in front of her, knowing that unless she decided to tie Kensi up to the chair, she would most likely find another nervous tic once she made her stop the current two. And here the boys thought Deeks was the only one that had picked up on his spouse's quirks, but seemingly Deeks had taken up on his wife's tv and food habits, while Kensi had taken up on her husband's nervous energy and behavior. Doing her best to tune her teammate out, Nell continued writing a message to Hetty, updating them of their current location and so far lack of further progress, until she felt the plane start to descend. Finishing the short email, Nell hit send, before shutting off her tablet and turning to look at the window on Kensi's side. The town didn't look so big so hopefully they could get some answers soon, or even better yet, find the boys safely back at the inn, only needing to berate them for leaving the ladies in the dark, instead of for getting themselves in any kind of trouble...
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At least it was a pretty nice day, Eric thought to himself as he trudged through the snow. It was cold, but not bitterly so and the sun was shining brightly. He wondered how long the snow from this freak snowstorm was going to last. It would probably be gone almost as quickly as it had arrived. That would be fine with him. He much preferred a warm day at the beach to the snow. He glanced at the compass which Sam had given him and was relieved to see he was still going in the right direction. So far, it had been a very quiet day. He hadn't heard anything at all except for the chirps of occasional birds and the sound of his own breathing. He had been really nervous when he had first started out on this trek, but as he moved along, he found that he was feeling much better about things with a renewed sense of confidence. It made him feel really good that he had actually taken charge and was going to see to it that his friends were saved.
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Sam sighed softly to himself as his mind went over their predicament once again. Callen and Deeks were both asleep which was good, but he couldn't help but think that maybe he should have gone for help after all. As a man of action, he couldn't help but feel helpless just sitting here, waiting and worrying about Eric. It made him feel useless and it wasn't a feeling he liked. He was distracted from his thoughts when he heard a soft moan from Callen who was once again moving restlessly underneath the covers. As Sam approached him, he could see the perspiration covering his partner's face. Not good. "G?" he asked quietly, putting his hand gently on Callen's shoulder, cursing under his breath as he felt the heat radiating off his partner's shirt.
Callen awoke immediately. "What's wrong?" he asked, looking pale and somewhat panicked.
"Nothing. Everything's fine." Sam used a soothing tone, trying to reassure his friend. " I was just worried about you. How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine...just a little cold."
"I'm going to take your temperature." Sam retrieved the thermometer from the first aid kit once again and put it into Callen's mouth, almost daring him with his eyes to protest, which Callen didn't. "102.3" Sam said, reading the thermometer after it beeped. He got some ibuprofen and handed them to his partner who obediently took the tablets with some water. Just the way Callen was complacently doing everything worried Sam further. "Why don't you get some rest."
Callen nodded and allowed his eyes to close, huddling further under the blankets.
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"Deeks? Are you in there?"
"Kens? Kens, are you here?"
"Of course I'm here. Where else would I be?"
"Where are you?"
"I'm outside in the snow. It's so beautiful. Come and find me."
"I'll be right there."
Deeks groggily opened his eyes and pushed his covers aside. He then unsteadily got to his feet and began to walk towards the door, swaying and almost falling dizzily to the floor.
"Deek!" Sam rushed to the other man and led him back to his cot. "What are you doing? Where do you think you're going?"
"Kensi is here. She's calling to me," Deeks said. "Let go of me. I need to go out and find her."
"Kensi isn't here. If she was, she'd come in here. She wouldn't be asking you to find her. And you don't even have any shoes on. Were you going outside in your bare feet?"
Deeks stared back at Sam appearing bewildered, but finally his confusion started to clear.
"You good?" Sam asked.
"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine," Deeks replied. "Sorry."
"How's your head?" Sam asked, ignoring his apology and also any possible grim meaning behind his words, or whatever dream or hallucination Deeks had been having. Suddenly glad that he was here because he wouldn't have liked Eric's chances trying to stop Deeks if he really tried to push forward and leave the cabin.
"Well, I definitely know it's still there," Deeks quipped, though neither man smiled.
"How about food? You feel like eating? I can get you some lunch."
Deeks shook his head. "Not really. Don't let that stop you guys though. Feel free to have something."
Sam glanced over at his partner who seemed to have drifted off again. "I'm not all that hungry either."
"How's Callen?" Deeks asked, noticing the worry that instantly came to Sam's eyes as soon as he looked at his partner.
"Temperature up to 102. He's not doing great."
"He'll be okay. Eric will be back with help soon."
"Yeah, yeah I know," Sam said, hoping with all his heart that would be the case.
xxxxx
After Kensi and Nell's plane landed, they obtained a rental car that Hetty had already paid and booked for them and headed towards the inn where the men had stayed. Kensi drove and glanced at Nell who was now anxiously wringing her hands together. "Hey, are you okay?"
Nell nodded with a smile that was more like a grimace. "I...I'm fine. I'm just worried. Eric is not an outdoorsman." Her fear having increased as soon as the plane got closer to the town and she took sight of the massive stretches of forest all around them. Nothing but trees visible except for the small town and the highway that passed through the parks.
Kensi sighed. "Well, Deeks isn't either and he was really anxious about this trip… I wish I had taken his concerns more seriously. I should have tried to talk Sam out of it. A different kind of trip would have been much better for him."
"Deeks wouldn't have wanted you to do that, Kens," Nell said. "He wouldn't have wanted to back out. Peer pressure isn't just for kids, you know."
"Let's just try to be positive," Kensi said, not wanting to focus on the horrible thoughts she was having. "We should be at the hotel soon. We can grab something quick to eat there and maybe get some answers as well."
"You're right," Nell said, nodding in agreement. "We have to believe that everything is good. They are going to be just fine."
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Kensi parked the car and she and Nell went into the 'lobby' of the hotel. It looked more like a big living room, but still not big enough as the one she had just seen in Hetty's house. They waited patiently for the front desk clerk to finish with the family in front of them and then went up to the desk. "Hello," Kensi said with a friendly smile. "We were wondering if you recalled seeing these men here recently?" She handed her phone to the clerk with a picture of the boys on it which had been taken at the wedding. A pang of sadness stabbed at her heart as she remembered that day and how happy she had been when Deeks finally moved from fiance to husband, it had been a long road.
The clerk shook his head. "I'm sorry. I don't recall seeing them. You may want to check in the restaurant though. They may have eaten there if they stayed here."
"Thank you, we'll do that," Kensi said. She then turned to Nell. "We may as well get something quick to eat while we're here." They hadn't had breakfast and as much as she didn't want to waste any time, she knew they needed to keep their energy up.
"Okay," said Nell. She wasn't really hungry but she didn't want to keep Kensi from eating so she would just force something down.
The two women made their way into the restaurant and were seated by the hostess. Almost immediately, a friend-appearing man made his way over to their table and gave them each a menu. "My name is Lucas, would you like some coffee?" he asked.
Nell and Kensi both nodded. "That sounds wonderful," Kensi said. He headed off and came back with a pot of coffee which he poured into the mugs on the table. "Lucas?" Kensi asked after he finished with the coffee. "Can you tell us if you've seen these men in here recently?"
Kensi handed Lucas her phone and he immediately gasped. "Marty!"
Kensi and Nell shot each other a look. "You know him?" Kensi asked.
"So… which one of you is the wife?" he asked. An embarrassed smile gracing his lips.
"That would be me," Kensi answered quickly. "Did you see them recently? Were they just here?"
"You are one lucky woman," Lucas said. "He has one incredible head of hair and those eyes… But I digress. No, they were here, maybe a week ago? Maybe less. I'm not sure exactly."
"They didn't happen to mention where they were going?" Kensi asked hopefully.
Lucas paused for a few moments as he thought back but then shook his head. "No, I don't recall them saying anything like that. I'm guessing they were going hunting or fishing or something like that?"
"Oh." Kensi's face fell.
"Why?" Lucas asked. "They're not in some kind of trouble, are they?"
"We hope not," Nell said when Kensi didn't answer the question. "They were supposed to check in here though on the way home and they didn't. They haven't called us either."
"So which one is yours?" Lucas asked, giving Nell a curious look. "I'm assuming the guy in the glasses? The other two are kind of old for you."
Nell blushed and nodded but didn't say anything.
"Well, I'll leave you to peruse the menus," Lucas said when an awkward silence developed. "I'll be back in a few minutes to take your order." Not far from the table, he stopped suddenly and rushed back to them. "If they stopped here, I assume they were going to the National Park on the other side of the 395. The rangers should have a list of all the cabins that are being occupied at any given time. If you take this same road and go south for a quarter of a mile, you will find the Mount Whitney Ranger Station. Might be worth checking in with them." He added as an afterthought, before rushing back to tend the other tables.
"Once we find them, I think you're going to have to keep Deeks on a leash," Nell said, trying to keep Kensi's spirits up. "It seems that Kirkin isn't the only man who finds him irresistible."
"Kirkin would be worried sick if he knew he might be in danger," Kensi said with a sigh, not able to find the usual humor in the situation or the mention of her husband's Russian admirer. "I don't know why I'm so disappointed. We knew they didn't check in."
"I know," said Nell, "but I feel the same way. We're so close but yet so far. At least we know where to go next." She finished, hopefully.
"You're right, And we'll find them," Kensi said with a fierce determination in her eyes. "We will find them."
xxxxx
"Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door"
Eric sang the lyrics to the familiar song from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" The snow was making him think of Christmas and he'd been singing Christmas songs for the last hour or so. It actually wouldn't be such a bad day if his friends weren't in peril and it went without saying that it would be better if Nell was there singing along with him.
"I hope I see you soon, Nell," he said before sighing heavily. He took out one of the cereal bars Sam had packed for him, ripped off the wrapper and began to munch on it. Walking was definitely making him hungry. He finished the bar and was debating on having another one when his attention was drawn to three figures up ahead. As he drew closer, he saw that there were three men, one black, two white, all appearing to be in their 30s. Finally, they drew close enough to speak. "Howdy," one of the white men spoke. He had long brown hair and a beard.
"Hi," Eric said. "How long will it take for me to reach the parking lot?"
"Probably about another couple of hours in that direction." One of the men responded pointing Eric into the direction they had come. "Why? You lost?"
Eric shook his head. "No, I'm just trying to get help for my friends. "We rented a cabin and ran into some trouble. They need medical attention."
"Well, we won't keep you then. We're in kind of a hurry to reach our destination also. Good luck. We hope your friends will be okay."
"Thanks. Have a good day." Eric said cheerfully.
Paying no attention to the interaction, Eric continued along his way as he and the trio of men parted ways. But, if Eric had been a more perceptive man – which of course he was, through a screen, but not so much in real life – he would have noticed the way one of the men's fingers tapped impatiently on his pants leg as they stopped to chat, or how the vein in his friend's neck kept popping out next to a scar that looked suspiciously like an old bullet wound, and more importantly, the gun that was briefly visible on the waistband of the third man's jeans when his shirt raised as he lifted his hand to point Eric in the direction of the parking lot…
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Special thanks to Bkworm4life4 and MMc. You two got our wheels spinning with the mention of bad guys lol ;)
