Author's Notes:
The first draft of this was completed before I saw "Avengers: Infinity War." I knew going in that this was AU, but wow, is it ever AU. Not that the series wasn't, anyway, but this story is most definitely AU and therefore non-canon compliant.
As always, all rights in this work are hereby given to the respective creators of both canons.
When G and Sam don't return from an overseas mission, Natasha and Michelle have to extract them.
Natasha Romanoff could count on her fingers the number of times she'd knocked on someone's door and have fingers left over. At least until now, she amended the thought as she rapped on the door before her.
Now, she was seeing G Callen somewhat regularly. She amended that thought, too. She was seeing G Callen regularly enough to have met his partner, Sam Hanna, and Sam's wife and children, and to sometimes get together with said partner and said partner's family, as she was tonight.
G - her Raven - and Sam were due back from an undercover operation in Eastern Europe, and Michelle Hanna had offered to make dinner for all of them before they went on a wine-tasting trip to Temecula the next day. Natasha understood the offer, from both sides of the operation. For Michelle - and her, if she were typical - it was a way to show affection and love for the returning operators. For G and Sam, it was a return to normal life.
Even if, as G had told her, Michelle's casseroles fell somewhat short of exacting culinary standards.
The Michelle Hanna who opened the door wasn't the one Natasha had been expecting. The Michelle she expected was calm and in control. The Michelle she faced now had a frantic, worried expression.
"What's wrong?" Natasha asked immediately.
"Sam and G didn't return on schedule," Michelle said. "And they haven't checked in. I'm on my way in to NCIS for the details."
"I'll come with you," Natasha offered immediately, thanking whatever gods might ever have existed for the training that kept her voice calm and her expression neutral, even as her heart thudded with fear. Something's happened to my Raven.
Michelle's expression slid into relief so quickly Natasha almost missed the transition. "Thank you."
"The kids?" Natasha asked reflexively. While she wasn't as close to Aiden and Kamran Hanna as she was to Cooper and Lila Barton, let alone her namesake baby Nathaniel, Natasha would always protect the children if she could.
"Aiden can keep an eye on Kamran for a few hours," Michelle said.
Though her stomach tightened as if she readied for battle, Natasha could only nod an agreement and follow the other woman to her car.
Despite L.A.'s infamous - no, make that hellacious - traffic, forty-five minutes later, Natasha followed Michelle into a condemned building of old Spanish Mission architecture.
Natasha looked around at the cracked stucco and the signage suggesting the building had been condemned. "Really."
Michelle's smile, however weak, was reward enough. "It's like The Purloined Letter - hide in plain sight. Believe me, the building's not really ready to fall apart."
"I believe you." But it did raise the question of how an agent's wife would be given access to so secret a base.
Natasha shoved that question aside. Now wasn't the time for that particular set of questions. Without further comment, she followed Michelle into the building - where they were met almost immediately by Kensi Blye and Marty Deeks, the final two members of G's and Sam's team. Their expressions grim, they still managed to offer greetings.
"Hetty's waiting for you in Ops," Kensi said as soon as the basic niceties were done. "This way."
"I remember," Michelle said, but allowed the other woman to lead the way. Natasha followed them both up the stairs, Marty Deeks pacing her.
"Bella, right?" Deeks asked, and Natasha only nodded. The name would do for now.
"I didn't realize you and Callen were close," Deeks offered.
"Close enough," Natasha replied, and quickened her pace so that she walked into Ops in step with Michelle. She didn't mean to be rude, but if Michelle Hanna were worried, she was … concerned.
Natasha's quick survey of the room revealed two people she already knew - Hetty Lange and Eric Beale - a redheaded woman who seemed to be surgically attached to Beale - based on G's description, she must be Nell Jones - and a handful of other staff members, all of whom fairly hummed with tension.
"Michelle." Hetty Lange approached them, then fixed Natasha with a frown. "Bella."
"She got to the house just as I got your call," Michelle said. "And it concerns her, too."
Natasha would bet good money that Hetty knew who she really was. For now, though, Natasha kept her cover. "Ms. Lange."
"I prefer Miss," Hetty said. "But that's hardly important in the circumstance."
"What is the circumstance?" Michelle asked.
"Some time ago," Hetty said, "we began tracking suspected terrorist activity in Southeastern Europe. The details of that are not relevant. What is relevant is that five days ago, we heard a rumor from a reliable source that a shipment of weapons would be running from Ukraine through Constanta, Romania, and then via ship through the Bosporus, and across the Mediterranean to Tunis."
"How does that fall within NCIS's mandate?" Michelle asked.
Hetty's expression turned even graver, if that were possible. "Agent Callen was tapped to confirm that rumor by questioning a suspect and then working assets in the region to stop the shipment. Agent Hanna went as his backup."
"Why?" Natasha couldn't help asking. "Surely there were other agencies, other agents, who could do the job."
"But none who speak Romanian and Romani fluently," Hetty said. "Let alone with a native accent, as Mr. Callen does."
Natasha concealed her surprise - she hadn't known her Raven spoke those languages. Then again, he didn't know all the languages she spoke, either, so she supposed that was only fair.
"And?" Michelle prompted.
"It was a straightforward mission," Hetty continued. "But they failed to check in last night and again this morning. When we attempted to contact them, their phones went straight to voice mail, and their GPS trackers had been disabled."
Natasha's lips pressed together. She knew what that most likely meant.
"We scoured all intelligence networks and spoke with our contacts in Romania," Hetty said. "None of them have any information other than Agents Callen and Hanna met with their contacts as planned."
"So who's gone in to extract them?" Michelle asked. "CIA? SEALs?"
Hetty's expression turned even more grim. "No one."
Only Natasha's reflexes stopped Michelle's lunge toward Hetty. Thankfully, the other woman didn't fight back. Natasha would hate to have to disable her over an emotion Natasha herself felt, however surprised she was at the professionalism of Michelle's movements.
"What do you mean," Michelle asked, her tone low and dangerous, her body still tense where Natasha held her, "no one?"
"Precisely what I said," Hetty answered. "It is not my choice, I assure you. The orders to stand down came from SECNAV through SECDEF and, if rumor is to be believed, originated with SECSTATE himself."
SECSTATE. The word echoed in Natasha's mind. Secretary of State Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross - the man who had pushed the Sokovia Accords through without even pretending to follow established parliamentary procedure or Constitutional precedent - had ordered NCIS to stand down when two of its own were threatened.
So much for never leave a man behind.
"You can't tell me you're abandoning them." Michelle sounded desperate, but under control, so Natasha cautiously released her grip on the other woman.
"I am truly, deeply sorry, but my hands are tied," Hetty said.
Natasha was already running several possible plans in her mind when Hetty spoke again.
"Fortunately, before I received those orders, I managed to get word to a friend that Mr. Callen and Mr. Hanna might need some assistance."
"What friend might that be?" Michelle demanded.
Hetty's expression lightened, just a little. "Leroy Jethro Gibbs."
Gibbs. Natasha recognized the name. G had spoken of him once or twice and considered the man a friend - or at least as much of a friend as G allowed anyone to become.
"Who?" Michelle asked.
"Another NCIS agent and a former Marine sniper, whom Mr. Callen has worked with in the past," Hetty replied. "He should be landing in Bucharest as we speak and will make his way to Constanta as soon as he can."
"One man won't be enough," Natasha observed, and felt both Michelle's and Hetty's gazes on her.
"No." Hetty's voice was full of regret. "But it was all I could manage."