"You have a way with dogs, pal"

No, can't remember Buddy...

PUPPY POWER!

Although Deeks did not often bring his scruffy dog with him to the Office of Special Projects, today had been one of them. Not that there had been a special operation which required any assistance of Monty but just because the dog definitely liked the company of the team every now and then. And to be honest, his co-workers tried to make some laughing stuff of the dog and its owner but they all seemed to like to have Monty around.

It was an unusual hot day which was filled with most office and paperwork for the team - filing and closing cases.
In fact, it had been one of those rare and early summer days that both Marty Deeks and G. Callen longed for visiting the beach. Deeks needed to surf the waves that were at their best by this time of the year and Callen, well, he simply wanted to cool down, loosen up after the continuous deskwork he despised so much.

To some co-workers it came quite unexpected to see the two hanging around with each other since they usually spend time with their direct partners. When it came to time on the beach however, they had much in common, more than a shattered youth or a shared job. Once outside the office, once done with work and knowing he would be out there fighting the waves all on his own, Deeks got less talkative while Callen, once he was listening to the never-ending sound of the waves could finally let go his serious thoughts and managed to relax.
Both men had decided at lunchtime to stop work early, spend some hours at the beach and grab some pizza and beer together afterwards. That was exactly what they had done and now the probable most unlikely couple of team mates sat on the beach, enjoying the high waves at Venice Beach.

"Monty? Be a good boy will ya? Stop looking at all the girls in here. Hey, Monty! C'mon buddy, come to daddy!"
The dog looked at its boss but decided, without any reason like dogs tend to do, to turn its attention from the female visitors of the beach and from Deeks to Callen, looking up as if to ask for some crawling behind the ears.
Without thinking, Callen did exactly what Monty asked, wordlessly.

"You have a way with dogs, pal", Deeks noticed. "Or would it be the other way and dogs have a way with you? Ever thought of having a dog keeping you companion in that empty house of yours?"

"Not now, no", Callen answered.

'C'mon Buddy'...

It felt like yesterday Callen called the same words to his dog. He remembered the fluffy pup he had to pick up that afternoon.
The CIA had issued a pup as if it had been a secret weapon in the everlasting battle against unknown or known enemies. The purpose of teaming up Callen and Buddy had been to get close to a rich mobster girl who had just lost her own dog. Buddy was supposed to function as a chick-magnet. Puppy cuteness and the good looks of a sturdy young man should strengthen each other and certainly would get to get to the young lady.
'Never underestimate the puppy power," his handler had told him. How right had he been!
Buddy - that was how Callen called the dog - did what he had to do. Nobody could resist the funny yet sweet red with brown pigmented young cocker spaniel that was bursting of energy, flirting with the right person and helped Callen to nail the girl and her family in some weeks only.

Beside Buddy being the perfect cover it was a whole new experience for the young CIA-agent to share life with another living being for a longer period. The longest period he had lived in a house with others was, as far as he could remember, a three weeks period. Raising a pup was fun, real fun. It was... maybe like having a family of his own.

"Not now?" Deeks felt as if he was intruding the team leader's personal life by asking this while Callen was obviously thinking back of something special that he experienced in his long career.

"Yeah. I know about the fun you can have with a dog in your life. But no, I don't think it would be a good idea to have another dog".
In fact, Callen was scared to death that he would be hurt again when somebody would take something dear from him. Losing Buddy had been awful enough.

Deeks was certainly not used to Callen's opening up like now. "You mean you hád a dog?" he asked, surprised as he was about that remark.

"Never told you about Buddy?"

"Buddy. Great name for a dog. No, can't remember Buddy. What happened?"

Talking about the dog that once was the most important 'person' in his life made Callen less reluctant to share anything personal and it was another new experience to Marty Deeks.
"Buddy came to live with me when he was only 13 weeks old. A cute bunch of hair that cocker spaniels have, in all kind of colors, with those brown demanding and irresistible eyes. I had to use him as a secret weapon and it worked like magic. Having another living being around that trusted me, without prejudices was a real new experience to me. At that time, I worked alone, was sent to long undercover operations and had no place for myself. But where-ever I went, Buddy joined me from then on. I cared, shared and we had lots of fun, we got along fine. I had to go on a mission only twice without Buddy."

Callen was quiet for a while.
Monty probably sensed some sadness that came up with that guy that gently scratched his throat and caressed his left ear in exactly that way Monty liked. There was more, Callen's voice was a bit like the one he loved to hear on the radio and Monty would love to hear the owner of the voice continue to talk.
Deeks hardly had the nerve to ask anymore. He decided to wait until Callen continued.

"The first time, a guy of the bureau offered me to take care of Buddy. He and his wife desperately wanted to have kids, but they never got any. Their dogs were their kids and having Buddy around for another four weeks was like having a nephew around, or a foster kid." Callen sighed. "Yeah, I can see you thinking, how could I trust them? Can't reason it, but it was a kind of gut feeling that Buddy would have a great time in there. And so would they. That time went alright."

"But there was a second time. Do I sense second thoughts about that?" Deeks watched Callen, whose far away gaze never left the waves.

"I have, but in life you sometimes take some decisions you regret only after you took them, because they seemed so right at first. Remember Tracy?"

Surely Deeks remembered Tracy.
A good looking woman, yes, beautiful from the outside. Probably a talented agent as well but one that betrayed the head agent twice, as far as he knew. Of course Callen had not told his team all the things of his past and if he ever decided to do so, Deeks knew he would have serious problems remembering all the missions, aliases, cover-ups and specialties. A legendary legend G. Callen was indeed.
"Yes, I do", he nodded. "Your wife, Tracy." Although he knew the marriage had been a cover only, he also noticed that there must have been more than that. The whole team had witnessed a slight difference in the behavior of Callen. Maybe, he thought, Callen really once had some genuine feelings for his fellow agent, feelings that Deeks had for his partner himself?

However, Callen sent his younger partner a smirk. "My wife. Sure. Fake, Deeks, we faked for the sake of our jobs."

"But I thought..." Deeks reacted.

"Oh please Marty. You've seen her and so you must have noticed her character? Yes, we were a good team and the CIA noticed that too. They sent us from one place to another as a married couple, easily blending in all kinds of surroundings and easily able to solve cases all around the world. And where-ever we went, Buddy went. The ever loyal friend of an innocent and very hip young couple, who would suspect any troubleshooters? Yeah, it was a good time for as long as it lasted."

Callen took one of the Budweiser he just bought and offered Deeks another. He opened the bottle and took some sips, staring at the waves.
Monty had decided to get what he wanted: the full attention of the agent. He found himself a left child's scoop and took it to Callen, hoping that the man would start to talk and start to play with him. It was some kind of automatic action and before he knew it, he had put the bottle of beer away and laughed out loud when the dog splashed into the ocean.

"Gosh, I've missed this," he laughed.

"As I said, dogs have a way with you, or was it the other way around?" Deeks smiled. He was curious and wanted to hear all about Buddy, sensing that there would be an unexpected twist in the story, one that Callen hesitated to tell.

"Guess it is a way from both sides on. A dog is a man's best friend, true?"

"Like diamonds are a girl's best friend, indeed!"

"That I should have told Tracy. All she cared about were material things, things money could buy. She was cold, Deeks, cold on the inside yet jealous as can be when it came to caring and loving. I think that she, deep down inside, was envying the bond between Buddy and me. There was no way she could come between that. Maybe she never learned to care or really feel love in her life and for that I pity her. In a way, I was not surprised she turned out to be corruptible in the end. And yes, she would have done anything to keep herself safe in the last case we worked on, but the magic was gone and she never cared that I got shot saving her pretty ass. That is why I asked for a transfer to another team, with different missions."

"Our team?" Deeks asked.

"No, way earlier. CIA too. I got paired up with a senior agent at that time. You must have met or heard about him, Jethro Gibbs? Washington team? Did some missions with him before we both joined NCIS."

"Huh. He was around on May 5, so I've heard," Deeks said.

"He was not, he just left and took a return flight when he heard about the shooting. Yeah, we know each other for a long time. But that first mission together was a special one. Chechnya, black op. No place for my Buddy to come around. And what would be a better place for a dog to stay with than with the one you might have experienced as family? Indeed, Tracy offered to take care of Buddy. Generously. And I accepted, generously as well. Should never have done that, it was one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made."

"How's that?"

"We've had some quarrels about my request to be transferred. All she wanted was to continue to work the way we did, but I really couldn't do it anymore. While I was away, Tracy managed to pursue our handler that she needed to work with the dog from then on. So, once I came back from Chechnya, three weeks later, she was gone. Our 'marriage', our relationship was over. In her opinion I was the one who wanted to split up and therefor she arranged custody over Buddy. No co-parenting, they both simply disappeared."

By now there was a grim smile on his face. He remembered all too well, the fury he'd felt, the betrayal of the woman. She had known exactly how to hurt him, by taking away the dearest thing he ever felt so far: the deep love for another living being he really could experience if only he dared to let it in.

Deeks really could not imagine what effect this action of Tracy must have had on the ever distrusting agent he was sitting next to. Due to his youth, Callen had trouble trusting other people - people that hurt him so bad. Working for some time with one partner meant that one needed to trust that partner, trusting to have one's back. But a partner violating the trust in the end like she'd done must have been devastating to Callen.
Besides that, Deeks shivered by the thought someone would simply take Monty. Carefully, he asked that one thing he maybe did not want to know. "Did you ever see Buddy again?"

A slight shake of the head said it all.
"No. All I heard was that only five months later, Buddy got hit in a drive-by shooting and died soon after. She never had his back, like she'd forgotten how to have mine in the end."

"Poor guy," was all Deeks managed to say, not really knowing if he meant Buddy or Callen, but actually feeling sad for both of them. "But hey pal, you've got a lot of love to share, even Monty feels it."

Callen tried to shake off his sadness. "Yeah, a great buddy he is to you… Well, he is to all of us. Even though Sam might try to let you think he prefers fish, he secretly likes to hang around with Monty too, you know."

Deeks finished his beer and noticed Callen already put his empty bottle aside earlier. "Time to go home, I guess. C'mon buddy, let's go!"

Callen got up. "Yeah, time to go home," he sighed.

"Really, you could use some company. Sure you don't want another dog in that empty place of yours, mate?"

"Sure as can be. Not now," Callen answered.
Perhaps only Henrietta Lange's eyes were trained enough to note the shortest twitch of his lips when he turned around to his car.

"See you tomorrow, Marty," he said, "and thank you for sharing Monty!"

'Not now',' Callen had told Deeks.

Because right now, the cute little bundle of black hair and baby-blue eyes meowed as soon as he opened the door.

"Hey Buddy, did you have a good time?"

Little Buddy must have had all the fun. Callen smiled as he noticed that a kitten could play chess all by itself as well.

Hope you liked this short story. Please let me know, as ever, your comments are useful!