Friend and Foe

"Sam, status," Callen yelled into his earpiece, but got no response.

"Kensi, status," Callen demanded. Wishing they were all within sight of each other.

"I'm good," Kensi replied, her response immediate, "One suspect down. Callen have you heard from Sam?"

"No," he replied in a low voice, his concern evident.

"I'm good, too," Deeks said in Callen's ear, "Where was Sam the last time he checked in?"

"He was over on South Duncan, behind some taco place," Callen answered.

The team had split up as they each chased different suspects from an arms sting, which hadn't gone as planned.

"I'm close to that location, Callen," Deeks responded as he started running, "I'll find him."

"Deeks, be careful, " Callen said. "I think another guy might have joined up with the guy Sam was chasing. Kensi and I will get there as soon as we can, so keep us posted on your location."

"Will do," Deeks replied.

Callen had a very bad feeling about this. Sam had to be badly hurt if he didn't respond to his status call, and now Deeks was rushing towards a situation that was unknown. Callen was now worried about two team members, but especially Sam. He didn't want to think about losing Sam. Not Sam.

"Eric, locate Sam," Callen directed as he began to move through the bleak streets. It would be dark in a couple of hours, and no one wanted to be on these streets after dark, even if you were armed.

"Deeks," Eric spoke into his ear, "Sam's in an alley off South Duncan, just below Whittier."

"Copy that, Eric," Deeks said in a low voice, "I'm almost there"

Deeks stopped running as he approached the alley. He walked slowly, his gun drawn now, alert to anything that moved. It was getting late in the day, and he was on his own with no backup. Just like being undercover, he thought to himself. He was worried about Sam. They had their differences, but he admired him, and it was fun to tease him because he took most things way too seriously. Deeks had watched him banter with Callen and Kensi, but for some reason he and Sam had never quite connected. Deeks wasn't even sure Sam liked him. But, tonight, none of that mattered. Tonight he wanted to find him fast, and find him alive.

He paused to check the building entrances as he stepped into the alley, his back to a dirty brick wall covered in graffiti. The place smelled like the garbage hadn't been picked up in months, and it probably hadn't been. The light was diminishing as he carefully checked around the corner. The alley opened up into a wider area cluttered with large garbage containers from the boarded up taco place, and a discarded commercial air conditioner.

As he slid around the corner of the building he thought he saw a slight movement in the shadows behind the old air conditioner.

"Sam!" he whispered, not wanting to alert any bad guys. "Sam, it's Deeks, are you here?"

He heard a low moan, and moved instantly towards the sound. As he approached the area, someone shot at him from one of the surrounding buildings. He dove behind the AC unit, landing on something soft. He heard a weak cough and then a familiar voice.

"Watch what you're doing, Deeks," Sam said, his voice catching as he spoke.

"Sam, you OK?" Deeks asked, relief flooding through him. He turned to look at Sam, and his feeling of relief vanished. Sam was bleeding from two wounds, one in his upper leg and the other to his chest. Deeks knew it was bad. Sam was barely conscious, and his breathing was raspy, making Deeks afraid he had taken a bullet through the lung.

"Callen," Deeks spoke into his earpiece, "I'm with Sam, he's alive, but it's bad. Get an ambulance here as soon as..."

A barrage of gunfire from multiple locations interrupted his message. As he tried to move Sam further back for better cover, Sam pointed and said hoarsely, "Deeks, your six!"

Deeks fell to his left against the wall, covering Sam with his body and firing into the chest of the incoming shooter. The man went down in a heap at his feet, but the guy behind him moved forward, firing as he came, hitting Deeks in the arm. His gun flew out of reach, and he looked up to see two shooters with their guns pointed at them and he thought it was over.

They didn't fire. He heard the taller man yell, "Ramos, Stop," as he pushed the other man out of his way, and knelt down on one knee and stared into Deeks' face.

"Marty?" he asked, "Is that you, mijo?"

"Miggy?" Deeks replied, totally shocked to find a close friend from his high school days holding a gun on him, and who, a few seconds ago, had been trying to kill him.

"You hit bad, man?" Miggy asked, touching Deeks' arm, and then helping him lean up against the building.

Deeks heard Ramos tell Miggy, in Spanish, that they were cops and they should just shoot them. Miggy stood and shoved the man, stuck his gun in the guy's chest and told him to back off.

"You really a cop, man?" Miggy asked as he turned and stood over Deeks.

"Yeah, bro," Deeks answered, and grimaced as a searing pain coursed down his arm. Miggy immediately knelt down to him and examined his arm.

"You're bleeding pretty good, mijo," he said, pulling a bandana out of his back pocket, and tying it tightly around the wound.

"I knew you'd end up being a cop," Miggy said laughing. "In fact, I made a bet with Lupe, that you'd be a cop. I'd collect, but Lupe got killed in a drive-by a couple of years ago, over by our old high school. You were always stoppin' fights and stuff, man. Hey, remember that time Carlos tried to steal Mr. Quintero's Chevy? You ratted him out before he could do it, man."

Deeks wasn't sure he liked the direction the conversation was going, but he and Miggy had history, so he wasn't too worried.

"Hey man, your friend don't look too good," Miggy moved to Sam's side and checked him out. He told his partner to throw him his bandana, and the man reluctantly threw it over. Miggy tied it tightly above the wound in Sam's leg, and the blood flow started to slow. "You got to watch those leg wounds."

He sat down with his back against the air conditioner, and spoke to Sam.

"You a cop too, man?" he asked, and then tightened the bandana a little more.

"Navy SEAL," Sam replied weakly.

Miggy seemed very impressed by that, telling him, "I never met no Navy SEAL before. I saw on the news that you guys got that Bin Laden guy. That's good, bro! That guy was a mass murderer, man."

"Miggy, how's Angela?" Deeks asked quietly, wondering what response he would get, knowing she was a sensitive subject, even after all these years.

"She moved to Texas, mijo, right after I went to jail." Miggy said, hanging his head. "She married Casilla, and I heard from my cousin that she's got a couple of kids. Thanks for askin', man. She always liked you, you know."

"Hey, how's your mom doing, Marty? I think about her all the time." Miggy said, his face lighting up as he spoke.

Deeks put his head back against the wall, and looked up at the sky. He was surprised at how fresh the pain felt.

"My mom died just before the end of my junior year in high school," Deeks said softly, and looked at Miggy with a small smile. "She still worried about you, Migs, even when she was feeling bad she always asked about you. I never told her you went to jail. She didn't need any more pain."

Miggy was a big bull of a man. He worked out daily, a habit he developed in prison. He had several tattoos on each arm and a couple wrapped his neck. He wore his hair long to cover some old scars on the back of his head, but he kept his face clean-shaven. He was a tough gang leader, who commanded the respect of his neighborhood, and put the fear of God into rival gangs.

But, when Deeks told him about the death of his mother, Miggy rose quickly to his feet and walked a few feet away from them all, and stood with his head down for a few minutes. Then he wiped his nose and came back and sat down in front of Deeks.

"I'm real sorry, Marty, I didn't know" Miggy said quietly putting his hand lightly on Deeks' shoulder. "You were just a kid, Marty, and I know your dad was in prison. What did you do then, mijo? Where did you live?"

"I lived with Ray until the end of the school year," Deeks said quietly. That lost feeling that had almost overwhelmed him after his mom died, suddenly flooded his body again and he looked at Sam to try and bring himself back to the present. But all he saw was sadness in Sam's eyes, and he turned away.

"Ray's dad slap you around like he did Ray?" Miggy asked angrily.

"The few times he could catch me," Deeks laughed, "I was pretty fast back then."

"Hell man, you won every track meet you were in," Miggy said, slapping Deeks' knee.

"I left during the summer," Deeks said, looking up at the sky again, remembering it all. The nights he was too afraid to sneak back into Ray's room, and slept under the bleachers at the school; the time Ray's dad caught them smoking pot behind the garage, and beat the living crap out of both of them. Deeks wished he had been able to run away that day.

"Where did you go, mijo?" Miggy pressed. It was like he needed to know. Deeks really didn't mind telling him, but having Sam hear the details, that was different. So, he shook his head and told him he'd said enough and it was all in the past. He said all the things he could think of to get Miggy to drop the subject, but it didn't work.

"You lived on the streets didn't you, Marty?" he said quietly, putting his hand on Deeks' arm. Deeks shook his head again and looked away.

"It's none of your business, Mig," Deeks said, his voice low and threatening.

"You don't say that to me, mijo," Miggy said, grabbing Deeks shirt and yanking him roughly towards him. "You don't ever say that to me, man. You were like a brother to me, pendejo. If I had been around, you would never have been on the streets."

"But, you weren't around, were you Migs," Deeks yelled into his face, "You were in jail for doing something I told you not to do." Deeks pushed Miggy back. They struggled and shoved against one another, until Deeks heard Sam yell a warning. Deeks looked up and Ramos hit him across the side of the head with a pistol, and he collapsed into Miggy's arms.

Sam tried to sit up and get to Deeks, but Miggy motioned for him to stop. The look in his eyes made Sam realize just how dangerous Deeks' friend really was. He laid back down as Miggy gently rolled Deeks onto his back, and examined the injury to his head which was now bleeding badly.

Miggy spoke coldly to Ramos in Spanish, and the man took off his shirt and tore it into strips and handed them to him. Miggy bandaged Deeks head, taking his time and doing a neat job of it. Then he cleaned the blood from his face and leaned back, letting his breath out slowly.

"You hear Marty ask me about Angela?" Miggy asked, looking at Sam. "She's my sister. They dated a little when they were fourteen, and she really liked him. They were good friends and he always looked out for her.

Miggy leaned over to check on Deeks and then started talking again.

"I been in trouble my whole life, in and out of jail, doin' my own thing, you know," Miggy nodded to Sam, "so I wasn't always around for Angela. One night coming home from the store, a couple of local gang bangers jumped her...She was fifteen." He stopped and swallowed hard before continuing, "She punched one guy and then tried to run. They tackled her and had her down on the ground when Marty came by and saw them. Marty was a skinny kid back then, but he was fearless, man. He tore into those guys, and they were big, macho guys, you know? He yelled to Angela to run find me"

Sam saw the man's jaw clinch as he finished the story, with his hand resting on Deeks' arm.

"When I found him, he was doubled over by the side of a dumpster, in an alley kinda like this one." Miggy said looking around at the bleak surroundings, "His face was all messed up and they had kicked in his ribs pretty good. He was in bad shape; coughing up blood...it scared me. When I got him home, his mom kept thanking me for helping him. She even made me some tea. Can you see me drinkin' tea, man? She was something. After that she would invite me over for dinner and make me cookies..."

His voice trailed off and he looked at Deeks with a soft look in his eyes that didn't seem to fit him.

"He stopped those guys from raping my sister," he said quietly, "I owe him, man."

Sam watched as he adjusted the bandage on Deeks head and arm, and then stroked his hair like he was a little boy. Deeks came awake swinging, but Miggy just laughed and held him down until he stopped.

"Calm down, mijo," Miggy said laughing, "You're gonna hurt yourself, man."

When Deeks quit fighting, Miggy got to his feet and stood looking down at the two of them and then pulled his gun and held it at his side.

Sam tensed and waited. He watched as Deeks sat up and eased himself over until his back was against the dirty brick wall of the taco shop.

"What now, Migs?" he asked quietly.

"I'm real sorry about your mom, Marty," he replied "She was good to me. She treated me like she treated everyone else...you know, like a regular person."

"You are a regular person, Migs," Marty said and grinned at him.

"Only to you, Marty," Miggy said.

Then he turned and shot Ramos in the head.

"Take care of yourself, mijo," he said, and walked out of the alley.