"Did you see the dress Sarah has on?"

A whistle, followed by, "I saw it."

Callen stopped. He was in the corridor of Sarah's school and had been walking toward the main gym when he heard the two men talking just outside the doorway. From the waft of the wind, one was smoking.

"This is my year, man. I'm telling you – before the night is out, I'm going to have her screaming my name."

"Yeah? 'Cause I heard she has man."

The man Callen was trying to decide whether to throw off a roof replied, "Either he's made up, or he doesn't give two shits about her. He hasn't been at any of the events this year. He missed her award last month. Nah, if he exists, he won't be any competition. I've been planting the seeds."

"You what now?" A good question, Callen thought.

"I've been the concerned colleague all semester. Every time some social event has happened and this ghost hasn't appeared, I've commented on how hard it must be – that his work must be very important. When he doesn't show tonight, because he won't, I'll be there to pick up the pieces of her broken heart as a man who actually cares enough to be there for her. It'll be perfect."

Callen's jaw was working double time. So, Romeo had been working game on Sarah all semester? Well, he'd be in for a surprise. Callen changed direction, wanting to see who it was that was talking.

The man with a cigarette was staring off into the night. His buddy was watching the parking lot. Cigarette started talking again, "Look, Dave. I know you don't want to hear this, but you need to let it go. It's been years, and you've never closed the deal. She just doesn't see you like that, regardless of whether she has a boyfriend." Alright, Callen thought, Dave gets a trip out of a moving car, but Cigarette can live.

"The timing has never been right, and that brother of hers never liked me, which made it all but impossible. Now that he's gone, I have a clear shot. I'm not giving up." Dave responded with heat in his voice.

Dave was stocky, with a bit of a football coach build. He was likely about an inch shorter than Callen, but had a good 40 pounds on him. From an objective point of view, Callen could see some women having an interest. It would seem, however, that Sarah was not one of those women. The thought made Callen smile. Whatever Dave thought was going to happen, he was not prepared for the firestorm that Callen would rain down upon him if he tried to swipe Sarah.

Backing away quietly, Callen moved back toward the gym. The school was having a holiday party to celebrate the end of the semester. They didn't have the funds to have it at a rented facility, so the gym was decorated and tables had been set up. Standing in the doorway, it reminded Callen of every prom movie he'd ever seen: streamers, balloons, twinkling lights and a DJ. The attendees were in various versions of formalwear.

He scanned the crowd, looking for her. He spotted her when a couple moved from the far side corner. She was talking with a group of men and women, laughing at some story that was being told by a smaller brunette. She was also stunning. Her dark blue dress fell across her curves so smoothly that it looked like liquid. There was a slit in the dress that could be seen when she moved; it went up about three inches above the knee. The back of the dress swooped down, exposing her spine because her blonde hair was piled high on her head. She made his mouth water.

He walked toward the group, thinking first that he'd just join next to her but deciding at the last minute to come around behind her and slip his arms around her waist. She started in surprise at first, but relaxed.


She felt his hands come around from behind her and was about to protest when she smelled his aftershave. Her smile brightened. Grisha hadn't known if he was going to be able to make it tonight, so she hadn't really expected him. She'd been having a good time, but now it would be better. She placed one of her own hands over the top of his and leaned into him.

"Hi, there." His words were said directly into her ear and they made her shiver. Good Lord, the man could undue her.

She turned a bit and kissed the underside of his jaw. "This is a nice surprise." Her eyes were sparkling into his when one of the group turned to them and said, "Sarah? Who is your friend?"

Janet was one of her good friends, and nosey as hell. Sarah had told her a little about Grisha, but not much because she wasn't certain what role he'd play once he'd finally met everyone. "Sorry, Janet. This is-"

"Sean Thomas. Nice to meet you," Grisha moved his hand from Sarah and extended it out to Janet.

"Sean," Sarah said, "this is Janet. She's our local English teacher. Next to Janet is her husband Steve, shop teacher Robert, and his wife Jane. Everyone, this is Sean." On the last word, she looked up at Grisha. She'd been right not to tell people his name, then.

"Nice to meet you all," he smiled at them.

"Sean," Robert said, "we were just exchanging stories about some of the more ridiculous stunts some of our students pulled this semester. You came up on the one about the kid who brought a ferret to Janet's English class, causing her to spend the remainder of the day on top of a desk." He finished with a laugh.

Janet squinted at Robert and said, "Careful, Bobby. Remember that I know all about the last time you decided to build a 'special project' out in that shed you call a classroom. You really want to poke?" Janet and Robert continued to spar while Callen and the rest of the group looked on. It was obvious the two were friends. The banter was similar to what Sam and he engaged in on a regular basis.

As the night wore on, Callen felt the eyes of another coming back to him and Sarah. Dave, it would seem, was not thrilled about the fact that Callen did, in fact, exist. Although he was quite comfortable with where he and Sarah stood, he'd be lying if he said he didn't play up some of the displays of affection and if he hadn't held her a bit closer during their dance than he needed to. He wanted to leave no question that Sarah and he were solid – and that Dave could go jump in a lake. He was both surprised and resigned, however, when Dave approached him while Sarah was in the ladies room.

"So. You're the boyfriend?" Dave dislike was palatable.

Callen turned to face Dave more squarely and raised an eyebrow. "Boyfriend?"

"You're saying you and Sarah aren't serious, then?"

"No, I didn't say that." Poor Dave. He had no idea how easy this was going to be.

"So you are serious?" Dave puffed up his chest a bit, as if he were trying to intimidate Callen.

"I'm not in the habit of discussing my relationships with strangers." Callen replied. Refusing to directly respond to Dave's questions was going to drive the man insane.

"Pft. Relationship. You don't have a clue what you have, or you don't care. Either way, she'll be mine in the end."

Callen breathed through his nose. Slowly. He was generally not a jealous man, and he didn't have any true concerns about Dave, but he was losing patience. "You think so?" he asked.

"You're never here. You haven't come to any of the chaperone requirements, the games, the dinners. Hell, you missed her award ceremony last month. Every time you miss something, you make if clearer to Sarah that what matters to her doesn't matter to you. She's smart. She'll figure you out."

Again, a comment about an award ceremony. Callen was going to have to ask Sarah about that. He wouldn't give Dave the satisfaction of knowing that Callen didn't have a clue what he was talking about. He stepped closer to Dave, his voice lowering somewhat. "Sarah makes her own decisions and she's chosen me. You'll just have to learn to live with that."

Just as Dave was taking in the look Callen was giving him, Sarah came up. "Sean, you've met our math teacher, Dave?" She looked at Dave and said, "I was going to introduce you earlier, but I wasn't sure where you'd gone off to. Sean is my boyfriend, for lack of a better term." There was happiness in her voice, but what the hell did she mean by that last sentence?

Dave's eyes switched from Callen to Sarah. Callen nearly punched him when he saw Dave's eyes linger too long on Sarah's hips. "Yeah, we were just talking. Sean has been a bit of a mystery man around here. A few of us had been wondering if you'd made him up since he hasn't come to any of the year's events." Right, so Callen was definitely going to have to throw Dave in a lake or some other body of cold water.

"Sean is a busy man and you know I don't like those things anyway." Callen watched Sarah. There was no hint of attraction for Dave coming from her, which made the muscles in his shoulder blades ease slightly. "I'm glad you two got to meet, though. You've been giving me enough shit about it all semester that at least now you know I'm not engaging in a fantasy relationship." She ended with a smile, but Callen could see that she was serious.

Dave shifted his feet and said, "You're right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you."

"Meh. We're good. But I think Sean and I are about to head out. Have a good night." On those words, Sarah grasped his bicep and angled him toward the door.

"Something you want to talk about?" Callen asked. Sarah's mouth turned down and she shook her head. Recognizing that she'd tell him about it later, he let it go for now. They were just about out the door when Sarah said, "Oh, shoot. I have to get my coat. I'll be right back."

He saw her walk over to a table and grab a black jacket. On her way back to him, Janet stopped her. "What's the Russian word for idiot? I need to drop a bomb on Michael over there."

Callen stilled when Sarah said, "идиот." As far as he knew, Sarah didn't speak Russian. She walked toward him, smiling slightly and tiredly. "I'm ready. You?" He didn't speak, merely nodding his head while his thoughts swung wildly in his brain. He'd taken a car to the school, so he took her keys as they left the building.


The drive to her home was quiet. She put music on and leaned back, resting her left hand on his thigh. From his peripheral vision, he could see that she was relaxed. Nothing, not one thing, showed signs of upset or of deception. And yet, she was hiding things from him.

Back at her house, she slipped upstairs to change into yoga pants and a light sweatshirt. His mind was occupied by the revelations of the night. Sarah was keeping things from him, and he'd had no idea. So far, it appeared to be just the award ceremony and the Russian, but since he hadn't had an inkling about either of those, he wasn't certain that there wasn't more. He briefly considered ignoring it, but he couldn't. She had become too important to him for him to just pretend everything was okay. So, he stayed where he was, waiting for her to come find him in the kitchen.

She glided in on socked feet. There was an air of total unconcern about her. Either she was the best liar he had ever seen, or she had no idea that he knew something was up. Giving himself some credit for being able to read her, he believed it was the latter, rather than the former. It didn't make the turmoil inside him any better, however, to know that he'd never considered the possibility it was the other before tonight.

She looked at him and smirked, "What say we spice it up a bit tonight?" She reached into the cupboard and pulled out a bottle of rum and then grabbed soda from the fridge. "Want one?" She asked as she poured herself a double with a splash of Coke.

"No, I'm good." She picked up on it then. He hadn't disguised his voice.

"Grisha? Is there something wrong? You seem… off." Her eyes were quizzical.

"What was this ceremony I heard about tonight?" Her eyes darkened at his question. She tried to hide it by taking a long drink from her glass.

"It was just an award I got for work I did last year." She took another drink, finishing off what was in the glass. Considering he'd never seen her do more than nurse a glass, he knew he'd struck a nerve of some type.

"What award? Why didn't I know about it?"

She didn't answer the first question, seizing on the second instead, "You were out of town on an operation. It was last month, on the 5th. Remember? You and Sam had to head out for …well, something. It was while you were gone." She poured herself another drink, this time skipping the soda.

"Okay," he elongated the word. "But that doesn't answer why I didn't even know about it. Sam and I left suddenly. The impression I got was that this was a big ceremony. You would have known about it for a while. Why didn't I? And what was the award?"

She was halfway through this glass now. If she kept at it, she'd be lit up before he got to the Russian. "I forgot about it. Yes, there was a ceremony. But it doesn't matter because you couldn't have come anyway."

"What. Was. The. Award."

"I told you. It was an award for work I did last year. Why is this a big deal to you, Grisha? What's the problem?"

"The problem is that you're hiding things from me. You apparently received some kind of award for something, complete with a large ceremony, and you didn't tell me about it either before or after. I then find out, while we're leaving your school, that apparently you speak Russian? How did that never come up, Sarah?"

Another drink. Given the size of the glass, she'd had about 5 shots worth. He pointed to the glass, "You're downing rum like it's water and avoiding my questions. What the hell is going on?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Grisha."

"Talk about what, exactly? You're not talking. You're hiding something and I want to know what it is."

"Grisha," she started to say, but then her demeanor changed. She had been contained, controlled in her reactions, but she must have changed her mind. When she looked back up at him, her eyes were glazed with unshed tears.

"I was awarded Teacher of the Year last year. Last month was the ceremony. I was supposed to go with Ja-" she took a breath, "Jacob. Then he died. I forgot all about it until the day before, when administration reminded me. You were already gone on your mission, so I went without you."

"You went without me, but did you go alone?" She pulled back on the question as if he'd slapped her. There was pain in her eyes and he knew he'd caused it, but there was more to this story and he needed to know what.

She sighed. "Yes, I went alone."

"There's more, Sarah. There's more to what happened that night and you're not telling me. And, you've yet to tell me when you started speaking Russian."

"What's the point, Grisha? You seem to have already decided what I did."

"No. Do not turn this around, Sarah. You don't get to hide things from me and then make it my fault." He took a step toward the counter that separated them. "Tell me the truth."

She pulled her lips together and nodded her head a bit, eyes downcast. "The truth," she whispered. "Okay," she said, looking directly into his eyes. "I sat there feeling sorry for myself most of the night. There was no one to share the moment with. My parents were long dead, my brother just passed a few months ago, and the man I loved was off doing something he couldn't tell me about. And while I sat there, I got to thinking how I didn't have anyone at that event, but that I'd had Christmases, birthdays, 4th of Julys, dances, and just everyday things that I'd been able to share with my family my whole life. I remembered that, even if they were gone now, I knew who my family was." She stopped for a minute, wiping a tear that had escaped from her left eye.

"And I thought of you. I thought of all the things, the memories, you didn't have. So, I pulled myself out of my pity party and I came home and ordered an audio class on Russian. I thought-," her breath skittered, "I thought that maybe, I could be your happy memories. I thought that learning to speak Russian – since I couldn't find anything Romanian – would show you I was in this for the long haul."

He stood immobile; disgusted with himself. He had looked down when she was explaining, but looked up now, finding her around the counter, within reach if he just tried. "I thought," she said, "that we were both in this for the long haul." She walked out of the room on the last word. He stared back at the counter.

He stood there for a few minutes, soaking in the idiocy of what he'd just done. Taking a deep breath, he turned and walked out of the kitchen. Sarah would have gone up to bed. He had to talk to her; to apologize. He needed to fix this.

As he walked up the stairs, his senses started to come back. He didn't hear anything in the bedroom, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. Picking up the pace, he looked in the room. She wasn't there. He searched the upstairs and then bounded down to the main floor. Her running shoes were gone. He looked at the clock. It was almost midnight. Her neighborhood wasn't bad, but she had to be feeling the effects of all the shots she'd done, and she was likely only in the yoga pants and sweatshirt she'd changed into.

After fifteen minutes of searching, panic ever increasing, he called Sam. "Sam, I need your help. I can't find Sarah."


Sam met him at Sarah's place. "What happened?"

"We got into a fight. I screwed up. She's had the better part of a bottle of rum and I think the only things she's wearing are yoga pants and a sweatshirt. She's upset." He took a deep breath and looked Sam in the eye. "Man, I really screwed up and now-"

"Alright, calm down. Sarah's smart. She might be upset, but she's still going to be looking out for her own safety. If she's running, then it will likely be a route she's familiar with." They spent the next three minutes talking about which routes seemed likely and then split up.


Sam was driving past a park when he saw her. He got out of the car and walked toward her slowly, trying to gauge what he was in for. She was seated on a park table, staring off into the trees. There was a small bottle next to her. He couldn't tell in the dim light, but he'd hazard a guess it was more rum. It would seem Sarah had stopped by a liquor store on her way to the park.

He made some noise so that he didn't startle her, but she didn't move. "Sarah?" He called. She kept staring at the trees. He came up to the table and sat next to her. "Sarah, honey. Will you talk to me?" She shivered a bit; Sam took his coat off and hung it on her shoulders.

"He doesn't trust me, Sam. I thought," she started to say more, but stopped and stared into the trees again.

"G trusts you."

She scoffed at him, saying, "No, he doesn't. I thought he did. I thought there was room in there – that he knew I wouldn't hurt him. But, he doesn't. And where does that leave us?"

Shit, Sam thought. Whatever G had done tonight had shaken Sarah's faith in them. Sam knew that G was all in, that Sarah had become an anchoring force for him. Apparently, however, G had managed to cast doubt on that for Sarah.

"Sarah, G didn't tell me what happened, other than you two had been in a fight and that he'd screwed up." She smiled a bit at the last part. "He loves you, Sarah. He's not always great at knowing what to do with that feeling. It leaves him vulnerable and since he learned at an early age that vulnerability gets you hurt, he can say stupid shit. But I've known him a long time, Sarah, and I can tell you right now, there's not a woman on the planet that could turn him from you. He's hooked. He said he screwed up, and given the amount of alcohol I understand that you've had, it sounds like it was a doozy, but he does trust you and he does love you."

"You're sweet, Sam, but you weren't there. He practically interrogated me."

Sam sighed. "Yeah, when he gets on something, it's like a dog with a bone. He can't let it go. But when he saw you left, he panicked. He couldn't find you and so he called me to help. He's terrified you'll get hurt out here somewhere. Come on, let me take you home. Talk to him. You two will figure this out."

"Nope. I'm not going home right now. You can't make me." Sam looked at her, surprise etched on his face so much that she burst into laughter. "Grisha has shown me a few things, Sam, and I'm a wily and a good runner." She hopped off the tabletop, swaying a bit under the influence of the rum, but otherwise stable. "I can't be made to go anywhere I don't want to be."

"Are you challenging me, Sarah?" Sam asked incredulously. "Because you know I was a Seal, right? If I want your butt in my car, it's gonna happen."

"You think so?" She taunted back at him, taking a step toward the trees.

"Sarah."

"Yes, Sam?" Her voice was full of feigned innocence. She was going to make a break for it and then he'd be in a hell of a spot. He'd texted G their position. Where the fuck was he?

"Sarah, you've had a lot to drink and you're not in the best clothing for a midnight run. Come on, don't do this."

"You know, Sam. I used to be excellent at hide and seek. I realize that you'd doubt this, seeing as you just found me, but I didn't think I was being looked for." She took another step toward the trees.

"Sarah, this is silly. Let's warm you up in the car." Sam had stepped off the table, his hands were spread out as if he were talking a jumper down. "There's no need for this," he said.

"For what?" She asked. "I'm merely exercising, Sam, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. You are welcome to head off back to Grisha and tell him that I'm fine. I'll come home when I'm good and ready." Sam could see that she was serious, which meant that he was going to have to wait here until G got there.

"Sarah, you're 'exercising' after midnight. You've had enough to drink that you should be under the table at this point."

"Nope. I can hold my liquor. How about this? I challenge you to a drinking contest. If I keep it together longer than you, I win. If not, you win and I'll let you take me home."

"Sarah, that would take hours and G is looking for you. He's worried. And besides, you already have a start - it'd be like taking candy from a baby."

"That's what you think-"

"Sarah," came a new voice. Sam sighed with relief, G was going to have to talk her down from the ledge. He looked at G, giving a little nod, and then walked back to his car.


"Grisha." Sarah's voice had been edging on laughter while talking to Sam, but it was full of pain again when she said his name. He closed his eyes, hating that he'd caused her to feel this way.

"I'm sorry. Forgive me," he pleaded. He walked slowly toward her, not wanting to spook her into running again. He wasn't sure how she'd react.

"Of course I can forgive you," she whispered as he closed the distance between them. "But I don't know if I can stay with you." He felt his heart tear open on her words.

"Please. Don't walk away. I do trust you. I love you. I don't want to know life without you." His eyes begged and his hand came up to her cheek. "Please."

Her eyes had closed with his touch. "Grisha. I don't want to feel like this."

"I don't want you to, either. I'm sorry. It was a mistake, a stupid, thoughtless mistake. I know better. I know you better."

She looked at him, searched his eyes, and said, "I need to know, to be sure, that you are in this with me. I can't stay if I think I'm the only one in the deep end."

"You're not, Sarah. I'm right there with you. I let insecurities about my life get in the way of us." He leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her mouth. "It won't happen again. I swear to you."

Something in his eyes must have convinced her because she melted against him. He wrapped his arms around her, still aching at the pain he'd caused. He had to do better. He couldn't lose her. "Let me take you home?" he asked. She nodded into his chest and they walked toward the car.


"You going to tell me what happened?" Sam asked him while they were driving to the scene of an 'accident'.

Callen breathed out heavily. "I let some amateur get in my head about Sarah. We were at her school holiday party when I find out that she won an award last month but hadn't told me. Then I overhear her friend asking her to tell her a Russian word. Those two things, combined with the knowledge that the amateur – the math teacher - had been sniffing around her all semester, got the better of me."

Sam raised an eyebrow at Callen, indicating he should continue. "So, we got back home and I questioned her motives and what else she was hiding that I didn't know about. Turns out, she won a teaching award last year and the ceremony was when we were in San Pedro. She'd forgotten about it because she'd intended to go with her brother, but then he'd passed away. Instead of wallowing in her own pain, she thought about me and the fact that I'd never had family who could go to something like that."

"So, she started taking Russian to have something to share with you?" Sam asked.

"Yep," Callen replied, looking out the window.

"Whoo," Sam whistled.

"Yeah. I'm an ass."

"So, what's the resolution?" Sam asked, hopeful that G had managed to fix this.

"I have a lot of work to do, but I think she understands that I trust her and that this won't happen again." Callen continued to stare out the window. He was damn lucky Sarah loved him.

"So what about math teach?"

"Well, on the one hand, he's been trying to steal my woman."

"Which deserves a solid punch to the face," Sam interjected.

"Right," Callen said. "On the other hand, if he hadn't done it, I wouldn't know how it feels to think I was going to lose her."

"And that's a good thing?" Sam asked, glancing at G.

"Yeah. I'd suspected it, but now I know I don't want to live without her." Callen responded.

Sam's smile widened. He'd hoped G would find the right woman. It would seem that he had, and even better, that G knew it. There'd be no stopping G from making it right, and the math teacher didn't stand a chance.

"Out of curiosity, how long after I left did she pass out?" It was Callen's turn to raise an eyebrow. "The rum. The bottle she had with her was down to the last quarter and you'd said she had some before she tore out of the house. She had to have passed out."

Callen gave a wry smile. "She didn't. The woman can drink like a fish."

"Who knew?" Sam said, smiling.

"Not me," Callen said. "But I learned last night that even though I don't know everything about Sarah, I know her heart. I think I'm going to like figuring things out as we go along."

"Just no interrogations, okay? She doesn't take kindly to that." Sam poked at Callen.

"Lord, ain't that the truth." Callen chuckled. He was relieved. He'd made a mistake, but Sarah had forgiven him. Now, he just needed to show her that he trusted her. Thankfully, it would seem he had plenty of time to do it.