MAGGIE

It had been over a year since I had been in Los Angeles—thirteen months, to be exact. They had been the longest thirteen months of my life because I had been separated from the man I loved, NCIS Special Agent G. Callen. I, like Callen, was an NCIS agent who worked for OSP, the Office of Special Projects. We had the ability to go undercover anywhere, anytime, and for anything. Our lives were filled with secrecy and paranoia, but it came with the job, and we accepted that.

Callen was the best in our line of work; he could become anyone and could make people believe his story. Working with our team of Sam, Kensi, Nate, and Eric, we had taken down everything from international and domestic terrorists to drug dealers to murderers. We were unstoppable.

Callen and I had worked together for three years, half of which we had been in a secret relationship outside of work. After placing our lives in one another's hands on a daily basis, it was hard not to develop a relationship. We continued to work together with no problems, both knowing that the other could, at any moment, be deployed on a long term covert operation.

It had happened to me thirteen months ago. Director Vance had ordered me to the Cayman Islands to spy on a man suspected of helping to finance 9/11 had been discovered living. I packed my bags and left Los Angeles with no clue that I would be gone for as long as I had.

"I'll be right back." Those had been my last words to Callen as we said our private goodbyes the day I departed. He had kissed me, long and sweet, and then I left. Throughout the months of my mission, I had thought of him daily, wondering if he missed me. When I got the news that he had been shot multiple times and was probably going to die, I begged Director Vance to bring me home, but to no avail. Instead, I was forced to keep working undercover while the man I loved—and the man who loved me in return—lay in a hospital bed, fighting for his very life.

I had missed a lot during my absence. According to Hetty, whom I loved, revered, and feared at the same time, we had gotten a new NCIS agent, Dominic Vail. He had been kidnapped, held prisoner for weeks, and then killed during a rescue operation. Now, an NYPD liaison named Marty Deeks was working with our team and, Hetty had whispered confidentially, it was only a matter of time before he and Kensi finally got together. Another change was that Nate was gone. Hetty wouldn't say where or why, and I already knew I would miss his comforting presence. The biggest change that had happened while I was away was the changing of HQ. OSP was now housed in an abandoned Spanish-style hacienda that looked condemned from the outside but stunning on the inside.

I sat in a desk chair in the bullpen, observing all the details of our new building while waiting for the team to arrive. I had gotten up an hour early just so that I could be there to surprise them when they arrived first thing in the morning.

Callen and Sam walked in first, arguing over the phrase "same difference." Kensi and some shaggy blonde-haired guy were behind them.

"Sam, you can't have something that's the same, and yet different," Callen insisted. "It's a complete contradiction."

"You know, I think you argue about little things like this just to irritate me," Sam declared.

"Hetty didn't tell me that you two got married while I was gone," I laughed, standing up.

Callen stopped with his mouth still open, prepared to spar with Sam more.

"Maggie!" both Sam and Kensi exclaimed, smiles spreading across their faces.

"You're back," Kensi said, stepping forward to hug me. "I'm so glad! It's been really hard being the only girl around here for over a year!"

"I bet!" We laughed together as Sam walked around his desk to greet me. Callen rushed to reach me first, knocking Sam out of the way.

"Hello, Maggie," he said quietly.

"Hello, Callen," I replied seriously. "Did you miss me?"

"You bet," he told me, pulling me into a warm, loving hug. He wrapped his strong arms around me and pressed my body against his. Immediately, I knew that I should never have doubted that affection for me would last until I returned.

"I missed you, too," I whispered so that only he could here.

"Did I miss something?" Deeks asked Kensi, speaking in a hushed tone.

"I'll fill you in later," she hissed, elbowing him in order to get him to shut up.

I wanted to hold onto Callen for a lot longer, but I knew that Hetty would probably come sneaking in, catch us, and probably make some incredible embarrassing remark.

"Okay, you've got to share with Sam," I teased, pulling out of G's arms reluctantly. "You know he's got a tendency towards jealously."

Callen laughed as I hugged the big, black man quickly.

"It's good to have you back, Maggie," Sam assured me, smiling his warm, happy smile. For such a large, intimidating former Navy Seal, he was quite the softie at heart.

"It's good to be back," I told them all, putting one hand on my hip and running the other through my long blonde hair. "Let me tell y'all, the Cayman Islands are not all that they're cracked up to be!"

"You spent a year in the Caribbean and you're complaining?" Kensi exclaimed. "You've got to be kidding me! I was stuck here with these two," she pointed to Callen and Sam, "and this thing!" She jerked her thumb towards Deeks, the new guy.

"You must be Detective Marty Deeks," I guessed, extending my hand to him. "I'm Special Agent Maggie Dawson."

"It's nice to meet you," he said, shaking my hand firmly. "And I'm really not as bad as she makes me out to be."

"Yes, you are," Kensi insisted, folding her arms across her chest.

From upstairs, Eric whistled shrilly, getting all of our attentions. I looked up and smiled at our resident computer geek.

"Hello, Eric," I called, waving up at him. "I'm home!"

"Maggie! Hetty didn't mention that you were coming back this week. We were beginning to think you had decided to stay down there."

"No," I replied definitely, following my teammates upstairs. "Definitely not."

"That bad, huh?" Callen asked.

"Yes," I replied. "And that's all I will say about that.