My name is G. Callen. Unfortunately, no one has ever told me what the G stands for and I just don't care anymore. I used to when I was a kid looking for my family. Now I have a family of my own so I'm not looking anymore. For close to a year now I've been in love with my wife Sara and fallen completely under the spell of our daughter, Gretchen. The people that matter most in my life see me as a different person. I am content with my new life. We live in Narragansett, Rhode Island, in a house with a white picket fence. It is perfect. It is close enough to the beach that I can surf when I have time, although the water is a little colder than what I was used to in California. Currently, I work at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, teaching agents to do what I used to do, Special Operations.

I brought my wife and daughter home from the hospital on a cold day in mid-November. I helped Sara from the car and rose from unbuckling Gretchen's car seat when I noticed a flash on the hillside across from our home: the same hillside the Comescus camped on a month before. It could have been a runner with a water bottle or a shooter with a rifle and a scope. Jethro Gibbs trained me to think with my gut so I trusted my training. I hustled my ladies into the house and snuck out the back door. When I got to the hilltop, the person, whoever they were had swept the clearing clean and left. I found no footprints, nothing left behind. I'd expected that from someone who meant us harm.

I started running every day even though I hadn't run in a real long time. I wanted to keep track of who went to the clearing and how often. Visiting the hilltop became part of my run. I varied where I put the visit to the clearing in and even though it could've compromised me, I did it anyway. Stopping on the hillside was a risk I would willingly take to protect my family.

Three weeks after Gretchen was born, we left for California. Every year, NCIS holds a conference where I usually teach and I take a few classes as part of my continuing education. The whole team is expected to attend. That year, Sam's new partner would be there. I heard she was able to hold her own with the team and even had impressed Sam: that's hard to do.

While I waited for the day to leave, I spent time at home and more time examining the running trails on Luther's farm. I also talked to Luther to find out if he'd been up there the day Sara and Gretchen came home, but he said that he had worked with his attorney in Providence all that day.

That flash unnerved me and kept me going back up there. Any forensic evidence should have disappeared. I decided to visit the site where the flash had come from one more time before leaving for Los Angeles. I don't know how I missed it, or if I missed it, but there was a candy wrapper lodged between a tree and a rock. Something told me the watcher had come back. I sent a picture to Eric Beale, our technical wizard in Los Angeles. I trusted him to help me out and Hetty had given her permission for using the Op center to assist in my investigation. While up at the hilltop I felt eyes on me. Maybe they were Sara's, but I doubted it.

The night before we left, we finished up packing clothes, baby equipment -and my Sig Sauer. It's nice being a federal agent who could carry on a plane. Sara and I both felt that we were going to be followed, and I actually hoped we were. If I could spot the tail, maybe I'd find out why they were here.

We flew out of T. F. Green Airport in Rhode Island on Friday on a non-stop flight to Los Angeles. While driving to the airport, I knew we were being tailed. Sara knew it too. I just couldn't spot them: this person was a pro. We checked in and checked the bags, went to the gate and still had the feeling of being watched. I started taking pictures of Sara and Gretchen and surreptitiously, the other passengers, and then sent them to Eric for facial recognition. I could wait until we reached Los Angeles for the answer.

On the plane and I still felt watched. I got up on the pretense of getting things from the overhead but I never saw anyone familiar.

When Sam picked us up at LAX I felt relieved to see him. Sam and I thought that we'd been followed from the airport. Sam dropped Sara, Gretchen and me in front of Hetty's house where we had planned to stay. I had Sara walk through the house with Gretchen and out the back gate. I hung back and watched for anyone that might have followed us, but I never saw anyone. Sam sat and waited for us around back and drove us to another of Hetty's houses. I left Sara there with express instructions not to open the door to anyone except me. From there I went to the Mission to get a car, pick up the gifts, and talk with the team, just in case I needed their help.

Sam walked into the mission before me and an enthusiastic group of two, Kensi and Deeks, greeted me. They wanted to know about Sara and Gretchen, and Kensi begged to see pictures. I'm a very proud father, so I showed her every picture in my bragbook.

Hetty waved at me from her office and motioned for me to follow her to OPS. She watched as Eric ran facial rec. He shook his head as if to say, "nothing yet" so Hetty nodded and went back to her office.

I leaned over the back of Eric's chair and patted him on the back. "Hey Eric, it's good to see you. Where's Nell?"

Eric looked up at me through those geeky glasses he favors. "Callen, welcome back. Fatherhood agrees with you. Nell's in the armory. She'll be back soon."

I leaned over the back of his chair and looked at the computer screen he was working at and it wasn't what I was looking for. The information looked like it might have been Sam's case. "What did you find out about the candy wrapper?"

Eric changed the screen to our search. "Oh, the candy is sold widely in Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Romania. It is a malted milk panel covered in white chocolate." Eric's brain went somewhere else and he began to think out loud. "Hmm, I wonder what a white chocolate malted milk ball tastes like." There was a moment of hesitation. "Oh sorry…. Ah, I mean I'm sorry it's not more Callen."

I chuckled at Eric. "Don't worry about it. We'll get other clues." Something about the candy bar seemed familiar, though.

I would have to do some thinking about this. "Thanks Eric. I'll catch up with you later."

I went downstairs and met up with Sam. "Hey where is your new partner?"

Sam looked up with a look of mock indignation. He put his hands to his chest with the fingers all extended and he "simpered."

Since I had just seen him fifteen minutes ago I gave him a look of "What?" My hands extended downward.

"It's nice to see you too, man. She should be back soon." Sam turned to check out the door and then scanned the room. "Oh she is back." He pointed to where Kensi, Deeks and Nell were talking to a woman with long brown hair. Her back was to me so Sam yelled across the bullpen to her. "Hey, I'd like you to meet my former partner." She turned to face me.

I was stunned because I knew her. We'd worked together in Europe. Her name was Ziva David and now it's Ziva DiNozzo. "How are you, Ziva?"

Sam thought he knew everything there was to know about me, his former partner. I can still surprise him, especially with my classified past. "What? You two know each other?"

"Yeah, we've known each other for years." She was obviously as surprised as I was. I turned to her as she came to us. "I thought that you had left NCIS."

She smiled up at me and laughed. Ziva was happy to see me. I expect filling my shoes hadn't been easy: Sam's a tough taskmaster. "I am back and quite happy about it. I heard a rumor that you got married."

I smiled at her and apparently it was a huge grin. (Sam teased me about it later.) "Yep and became a dad too. Want to see pictures?"

Her eyes popped open. "Of course I do."

I unfolded my billfold and took the picture of Gretchen out. "Are you going to be at Hetty's for Christmas?"

"Yes, though neither Tony nor I celebrate Christmas. This feels like this is mandatory. I know that Hetty wants to make sure we all are together as a family. We will meet each other's spouses. Your daughter is precious. What is her name?"

"Gretchen." I had seen Sam fidgeting and then he motioned for me to follow him. "I'll be right back. Something has come up."

Sam motioned me over into the alcove right off of the bullpen, curious about how I knew Ziva.

His curiosity was unexpected. "We worked on several ops in Europe and Russia."

Sam looked up at Deek's box on top of the cabinets and then with an exasperated sigh he asked the question that was bothering him. "Just how well do you know her?"

I tilted my head and met his eyes, "Is that partner jealousy I'm seeing? I just worked with her, nothing more. We had kind of a friendly rivalry. I was with the CIA and she was a new agent with the Mossad. We crossed paths in Europe quite often."

Sam's face showed relief. He seemed glad that he didn't have to sidestep delicate issues. "That's all there is to it?"

I started laughing. "Yup. It's just a friendship." I hesitated a second and then looked at Sam. My eyes must have expressed how funny I thought this was. "Wait a minute, do you think I slept with every woman I worked with?" Sam's laugh answered the question.

He looked away and got real serious. "What's going on, G? I saw you up talking with Eric."

At that moment, I wasn't sure how to explain it. I scratched my head and started telling him about what was happening. "I'm not really sure. It started as a flash on the hill where the Comescus camped, the day we brought Gretchen home."

That got Sam's attention. "Did you check it out?"

I watched him from the corner of my eye. I was watching Hetty in her office: she was brewing tea. "Of course, I actually started running to mask what I was doing. The first day the site was swept clean, period. There was nothing there. Then yesterday I found a candy wrapper that had been left behind, stuck between a tree and a rock. I'm pretty sure I hadn't missed it before."

Sam looked past me and out the mission door. When his focus came back I knew we were thinking alike. "You didn't miss it. The person came back again."

"It's a possibility." I felt like I was missing something.