"Okay, here's the plan." Callen began to address the team, with the addition of Eric and Nell, as they hid out in a van a block away from their target. They were preparing to infiltrate an unsurprisingly nefarious security company.

"With the intelligence we recently received, we now know there's a central mainframe and a decoy mainframe. So far, we haven't been able to tell which is which. It'll be best if Nell and Eric are on separate teams. They each have a copy of the necessary software."

Everyone was nodding in agreement as Callen continued.

"Eric, you'll be with Sam and Kensi. Nell, you'll be with me and Deeks."

This order garnered some confused and curious looks from the others.

Kensi was the first to ask what everyone was thinking, "Full partner split?"

Callen nodded. "Full partner split. We're dealing with a higher risk than normal. It makes sense for the senior agents to be on different teams." The team leader continued, "Plus, we need to keep our open comm talk to an absolute minimum. This place has extreme surveillance. We'll probably need to improvise code talk to communicate from team to team what we find, and your partner's the best one to decode."

This explanation seemed to satisfy all their questions.

"Makes sense. And each team has a beauty, brains, and brawn," remarked Deeks.

"Do I want to know which one I am?" asked Callen, receiving solely a grin from Deeks in reply.

Callen resumed business talk.

"Sam, you and Team B will enter the facility first –"

"If we're entering first, why are we Team B? Doesn't make any sense."

Sam's question received a raised eyebrow and short silence from Callen.

"I rank the highest. Whatever team I'm on is Team A." Callen's tone suggested he thought this should be obvious logic.

"But we're going in first."

"Sam, I'm just going by standard naming protocol."

The partners shared silent looks for a moment before Callen offered a compromise. "Fine. We'll be Team A, and you guys can be the A-Team. Would you like to know your code name?"

Sam's face had "Don't go there" written all over it. Callen just smirked.

"Alright, everyone, check your watches. We're at three past the hour. Team 1," he took a moment to grin at Sam before continuing, "you go in. Team A will be in 13 minutes after you enter."

Sam just shook his head as Kensi and Eric followed him out of the van.

Callen watched the door close before shaking his head. "So petty."

"I can still hear you."

"I know, Sammy. I know."

Deeks smiled at Callen's last comment, thinking about when in the future he'd be using the name "Sammy." He then figured, Why wait?

"Oh, don't give him a hard time, Callen. Clearly Sammy's suffering from separation anxiety."

Sam restrained himself from commenting this go-round. He knew they knew he could hear them. Best to let the idiots grin to themselves in the van, he thought.

As they waited for Team 1 to enter the facility, Deeks commented to Nell. "Well, Velma, looks like it's you, me, and Scooby on this one."

Callen's brow furrowed as he turned to Deeks.

"Wait. I'm Scooby? Why am I Scooby?"

"What? Come on. Scooby's awesome! He's the titular character. Plus, when the gang splits up, it's usually either Scooby and Shaggy or Scooby, Shaggy, and Velma."

"I can't be Fred? I'm the leader. I'm the one who told the gang to split up. Scooby was a total chicken."

Deeks wanted to say, "Now you?" but instead continued on the Scooby argument.

"Nell and I already have this Shaggy and Velma thing going, though. Shaggy was a chicken, too, remember?"

"Fair point. But Scooby would jump into Shaggy's arms. Am I supposed to jump in your arms when I get scared?"

"I mean, you're welcome to," Deeks grinned. "But I am also up for giving you a Callen Snack when this mission is over."

They sat in silence for a few moments, realizing Team 1 could comment at anytime if they hadn't entered the building yet. No one said anything, but they did hear Sam introduce himself as Fred to one person.

Nell was shaking her head. She had been relieved at the partner split earlier because she figured she'd be spared this kind of back-and-forth banter the pair of partners were wont to do. She was kicking herself for not having seen this coming.

As Team A prepared to exit the van, which Deeks had taken to calling the Mystery Machine, Nell just sighed and mumbled a low, "Jinkies."