Sam and Callen walked into the mission trading barbed comments. Callen turned into the bullpen and noticed the Halloween decorations placed on his desk: He grimaced. Halloween had never been one of his favorite holidays. As a kid he spent more time avoiding evil and demonic behavior from his foster parents than enjoying collecting candy from friendly neighbors. He never talked about his childhood so Sam never knew about how he spent Halloween.
Sam, on the other hand, spent his Halloweens as any child would: collecting candy with his friends. His grandmother would hold small parties for him and his close friends. His other grandmother made all his costumes. He had spent a rather an idyllic childhood even if he had been in a poor neighborhood.
Both men were woolgathering when Eric whistled from Ops. "Hear Ye, Hear Ye, You are all invited to the annual Halloween crime fest.
Callen and Sam looked at each other and laughed. Deeks and Kensi joyfully joined them in the climb up the stairs. They talked about the party in the Boatshed that Nell and Hetty had put together for the office. Deeks had gone by before work to peek. His description said it all: Awesome. Callen just shrugged.
"Velcome to Ops." Eric said around a plastic set of vampire teeth. Everyone laughed except Callen.
Callen just looked at him as he took them out. "Really Eric?"
As Eric took the teeth from his mouth he grumbled. "Callen this is part of the season. Can't we have some fun?" Quietly he added another grumble. "Halloween Grinch." After a few seconds Eric began the intro to the crime. "Let me introduce you to The Gangsta and the Gentleman. They are a set of burglars that have terrorized Lafayette Park. Until now it was petty theft from the food carts. Today they mugged two sailors and tried messing with a Marine. LAPD called requesting us to take that part of the case."
Callen hated shared ops with LAPD but since it involved service men he had no choice. "We got pictures of them?"
Eric looked at the team and didn't smile. "Apparently our duo knows where the cameras are and they didn't smile for us. We have several shots and this, well it's the best we have."
Both men had their backs to the camera but The Gentleman had his head slightly turned so that we could see a partial profile.
"Eric can we get a better look at him? We got a partial profile there." Callen was trying to see the face.
Eric began to smile again. "On it." He began to enlarge and clarify the photo. It got clearer and clearer until they could make out the face.
Callen just watched as the picture became clear. His jaw dropped when he looked closer at the picture.
Kensi turned to Callen. "G, it's you."
Callen had turned white with shock. "No it's not."
Sam laughed. "That's what you do in your spare time?"
While clarifying the picture another attribute had shown up. The build of the Gangsta looked real familiar.
Deeks noticed it first. "Are you two always together?"
Sam rounded on him. "What do you mean by that?"
"Look closely Sam. The body shape is all you." Deeks gave his megawatt smile while saying it. He enjoyed this.
Callen began barking orders to his team. "Kensi and Deeks, go to Lafayette Park and bring in our Gangsta and Gentleman. Sam and I will meet you at the boatshed. Eric and Nell, talk them into our bad boys."
Eric and Nell agreed in unison.
An hour later Kensi and Deeks arrived at the boatshed with the bad guys. No one waited for them in the outer part of the boatshed: just all the decorations Nell had placed around the room. They went to deposit their guys in interrogation and were met with a huge surprise. In interrogation were the Gangsta and the Gentleman. Both sets of Gangstas and Gentlemen were on the same side of the table and no one spoke. Both sets sat and watched the other. Sam and Callen sat quietly while the others began to sweat and worry as to what happened.
The real Gangsta started the conversation. "What all dis?" obviously he's listened to one to many Gangsta Rap songs.
The Gentleman knew they needed another way to handle this. "May I ask why we are here and who you might be?"
Sam didn't find anything amusing with either man. He spoke rap just as well as the next rapper so he tried it on for size. "What you doing Bro? Why you hitting on others?" He got tired of sounding stupid. "We are NCIS and you are under arrest. You are here because you mugged sailors and Marines and stole from food vendors. LAPD also gets a shot at you. That's what up, Bro!"
Callen just smiled and then laughed. "We will bring the full weight of the law against you for this. Is this gentlemanly enough for you?"
The two criminals were stunned.
Callen had a huge smile on his face and Sam enjoyed watching Callen have fun. "Sam for the first time in my forty-four years I have actually enjoyed Halloween. I really can see why you like dressing up."