Thanks for the reviews—I'm glad you liked my first chapter. The next few chapters will be about life at home for Livy and Callen—not too much action. Also, I will not be posting very often because I'm still working hard on my novel and school.
LIVY'S POV:
That night when G and I got home from work, I immediately began cooking supper. I was in the middle of browning beef for spaghetti sauce when my cell phone began to vibrate on the counter.
"Baby, can you get that for me?" I called to Callen.
He didn't answer and then I remembered that he had gone downstairs to get our mail, so I left the stove and dove for my phone.
"Olivia Lam—Callen," I answered the phone.
"Still haven't gotten used to the name change, huh?" Gibbs asked me.
"Gibbs!" I exclaimed, happy to hear his familiar voice. "Not yet, apparently," I said in answer to his question.
"How're you doing, Livy?" Gibbs wanted to know. I could tell that he was smiling, wherever he was.
"I'm fine," I replied quickly. Too quickly.
"Just fine? C'mon, Livy, what's up?"
"The nightmares are back," I admitted. "Worse than before."
Jethro was silent for a moment and I knew he was worrying about me.
"I'll get through it, Gibbs," I assured him. "And this time, I have Callen to help me."
"He's a good man, Livy. I'm glad he's there for you."
I took the pan of meat off the stove burner. "I'm glad he's here for me, too, Gibbs. I honestly don't know what I would do without him to help me out."
"That's good," Gibbs agreed. "So, listen, I called to tell you something."
"What's up?" I wanted to know, pouring the beef out onto paper towels to drain the grease off.
"Ziva and Tony are getting married," he told me. "They announced it to everyone last night!"
"That's great!" I exclaimed, jumping up and down excitedly. I had wanted the two of them to tie the knot for months now. "It's about time DiNozzo got up the courage to ask her."
"Listen, I've got to run though. I'll talk you later."
"Bye, Gibbs. I love you." I smiled into the phone, picturing Gibbs on the other end.
"I love you, too, Livy. Bye."
CALLEN'S POV:
I had gone downstairs to get our mail out of the box out in front of our apartment complex when my cell phone rang. One glance at the caller ID told me that it was Gibbs calling.
"What's up, Gibbs?" I asked, answering my phone.
"I just talked to Livy," he informed me. "She said she's having nightmares again about what happened in Kuwait."
I leaned against a palm tree outside of the building. "Every night, Gibbs. I've never seen anyone so scared. She wakes up, drenched in sweat, sobbing and trembling violently. It's as if she's living the whole thing over again every night."
"Have you tried getting her to talk to that psychologist you've got out there?" he wanted to know. "I've heard they can help sometimes."
"Yeah, she started doing that today. She and Nate are going to start having regular sessions, I think."
"Listen, Vance told me a week ago that they had recently gotten some new intel about who might've been responsible for the ambush of Livy's team in the Middle East," Gibbs told me.
"You're saying that it wasn't just some random attack?" Instantly, I became alert and tense, like I did whenever anyone mentioned the attack on Livy's team. She was my wife and I protected her.
"That's what I'm saying," Gibbs replied. "Her team was a target, but we just have to find out why."
LIVY'S POV:
The next day, when G and I arrived at the office, things were already in motion.
"Hey, Livy, c'mon," Kenzie called to me. "You and I have to change. I'll explain it to you while we get our uniforms."
"Uniforms?" I repeated, rushing after her.
As it turned out, she and I were going undercover as flight attendants on a private jet that had just been chartered out of LAX. Sam and Callen, who were both pilots, were going to be accompanying us as pilot and copilot of the aircraft.
Our stewardess uniforms were some of the more modest things that Kenzie and I had worn during our undercover missions. I had gotten used to the high heels that Hetty always encouraged us to wear, so there was no longer any need for me to lean on Callen for support, although I still did sometimes.
We got to the airport half an hour before the people we were investigating arrived in order to bug the jet with listening devices and recorders. When the two separate cars pulled up, four men and two drivers emerged and prepared to board the plane.
"Welcome to your flight, gentlemen," I greeted them, standing on the tarmac. Two of them were Middle Eastern men, and the other two looked to be American, but I couldn't be sure until Eric confirmed their IDs though photo recognition software.
"We're ready to take off whenever you are," Callen told them. He looked very suave and handsome in his pilot's uniform. "Just say the word."
"We're ready to leave now," one of them barked gruffly to G. "And you, woman, I want a double shot of scotch, right now."
"Yes, sir," I replied, cringing inwardly at the way he looked me up and down. Beside me, I felt Callen tense up as well, just like he did whenever anyone looked at me too closely. His possessiveness was romantic and chivalrous to me.
We followed them up the steps into the plane where Kenzie was already beginning to make drinks for the men. Callen headed into the cockpit to join Sam at the yoke.
"At this rate, they'll all be drunk before we've been in the air for thirty minutes," Kenzi whispered to me. "We'll never get anything good out of them."
"Too bad we don't have some sort of truth serum to put in their drinks," I muttered ruefully, setting the tumblers of bourbon and scotch on a metal tray. "That way we'd get everything we need to know."
"Good afternoon, gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. We're next to take off, so please buckle up and enjoy your flight," Sam's voice came over the intercom. "Ladies, that means you, too."
"Sam's such a gentleman," Kenzie chuckled, following me as we hurried to serve the drinks and then take our seats for take-off."
Let me know what you think…I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with all of this, but we'll see…