Disclaimer: The characters of N.C.I.S. Los Angeles are property of CBS

A/N: 1) I do to proof read my stories before I post them, but sometimes I miss some parts. So I do apologize if there are some errors that I missed. 2) This chapter is rated M for graphic violence and a torture scene.

It was 4 in the morning by the time he made it to Riverside Memorial Hospital to see Callen. It turned to one heck of a day. Kensi and Sam had been kidnapped; and was Deeks nearly executed.

{And I still have to have to debrief Callen.} Nate thought.

He pulled up and parked his car in the E.R. parking lot and walked in.

"What room is Jason Wyler in?" Nate asked approaching the nurses station.

"And you are?" The nurse asked.

"Operational Psychologist Nathan Getz." Nate said.

"Mr. Wyler is in a coma Mr. Getz." The nurse said.

"That's okay I'm actually looking to have a chat with his protective detail." Nate said.

"Protective detail? Oh you mean Mr. Callen; 6th floor, room 203." The nurse said. With that Nate gave the nurse a smile, a nod and headed for the elevator.

{Let's see if we can finish this debrief without anymore interruptions.} Nate thought. As he approached the elevator Nate caught a suspicious figure out of the corner of his eye. He didn't let on that he notice that he had company, all Nate did was pull out his phone and text Callen.

N.C.I.S L.A.

Callen felt his pants vibrate, and realize it was his phone. He pulled his phone out and saw that he had a text from Nate.

[I came by to continue our debrief from yesterday, but I noticed that I was being followed. So expect trouble.]

Callen look up from his phone as he put it back into his pocket. Not that Callen was surprised that somebody was coming back to finish the job, he was expecting it to happen a lot sooner. There was a knock at the door that pulled Callen out of his head and back in to reality. He went to answer the door and saw that it was Nurse Wendy. But something was off; she seemed nervous. Then he remembered Nate's text and realized that this was the beginning of the trouble.

"Everything okay Nurse?" Callen asked, knowing the answer to the question. What he didn't expect, but wasn't surprised, was the knife that came his way. Callen dodged the knife and threw a punch that knocked the person out cold. He checked to see if Wendy was alright, and then search the unknown suspect. Check him for a wallet, or some form of id. He found his wallet on the inside jacket pocket. Callen opened it and saw that the owner was of Hispanic back ground.

"Juan Sanchez, huh? Who paid you and your partner to come and finish the job?" Callen asked knowing that Sanchez would not being answering.

"I want you to dose him with him with something that will put him out for about 12 hours." Callen said to the nurse.

"Why?" Wendy asked.

"Mr. Sanchez was here to finish the job that nature was supposed to do earlier." Callen said pointing over at Sam. "There is one more man coming up, so don't try and stop him."

"Help me get him behind the nurse's station." Wendy said to Callen. The two of them grabbed both ends of Juan Sanchez and carried him over to the Nurse station. After they put him down, Wendy went to get a sedative and Callen went back to Sam's room. Just as he was entering the room, Callen was hit in the back of his head knocking him to the floor in the room. Callen got his hands up in time before he hit his head. Callen got turned over onto his back, but before he could react he was being chocked by another Hispanic looking gentleman. Bigger than Mr. Sanchez; Callen tried to fight back, but his vision started to get cloudy. Then it started to darken due to the lack of oxygen to his brain. Just as Callen was starting to pass out and possibly die, he felt the grip on his throat disappear and he could breathe again.

"You okay Callen?" asked a voice. A voice that was strangely familiar, but couldn't place it because of the fog that was clouding his brain. Next he felt was getting slapped across the face that cleared his brain of the fog. Callen looked and saw that it was Nate, who was flanked by an army of nurses and doctors. Callen was lifted off the floor and into the chair that was in the room. He was checked out and then they dragged the big man out.

"Hey." Callen said grabbing the last nurse to leave the room.

"Yes." He said.

"That man is a suspect in an ongoing investigation. Put him with his partner. I will get some of my people to come and take these people off of your hands." He said.

"Yes, sir." The nurse said, and turned and left the room. Another nurse came back with some medicine and drink to take it with, which Callen had accepted willing.

"I owe you one." Callen said to Nate.

"You owe Nurse Wendy one. I came in after she had knocked the big guy out." Nate said with a smirk on his face.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom and get cleaned up. Why don't you grab a chair from the hall and get comfortable." Callen said.

"Okay." Nate said as he went into the hall and grabbed a chair. He brought it back into the room and placed it on the opposite side of the room and waited.

{This is the craziest mission this team has ever done.} Nate thought. He heard the toilet flush, followed by the sink turning on for a few seconds and then shut off. Callen came out while shutting the lights off. Callen sat down and then he wait for a second. Not for Nate to ask a question, but to gather his thoughts.

"Trying to figure out where to start?" Nate asked.

"Yeah, but I guess I'll start from the beginning." Callen said.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

"Why are we in Afghanistan? You know why that man did what he did for you." The shadowy figure said as they watched the village that Sam had been hiding in had been burned to the ground. Its inhabitants either died by fire or being shot. It was a bloody massacre. The insurgents that were chasing Sam and his unit had come back within 24 hours of Sam's escape and punished the village leader for protecting him. They killed everybody in the village: men, women, children and babies. Vultures came to feed on the corpses of the dead villagers, even fighting over a few of the corpses. Only the village elder and his nephew were the only two to escape. Yet again Sam felt the same nausea and revulsion he always felt whenever the innocent were slaughtered without hesitation, and with extreme prejudice. The insurgents were laughing and playing games as the massacred the village.

"The village elder granted Lokhay to you. So why are you haunted by this when he has already accepted the blame for what happened?" The figure asked.

"Look I know what he did and accept what he did, but it doesn't make it any easier to swallow when he lost his whole family! He even shot his own nephew to protect me. I understand his sacrifice, but that doesn't make it any easier to accept and sleep at night!" Sam snapped at the figure.

"So are you saying that he should have given you up and let you die?" The figure asked.

"That's not what I'm saying." Sam said. "I accept what he did and I'm grateful for his sacrifice, I wish there would have been another way for that to play out. It's just…. I don't like when others suffer because of me."

"Like Detective Marty Deeks?" The figure asked.

The room went from the mountains of Afghanistan to that auto body shop in west Los Angeles. Sam turned and looked at the screen. He knew what would happen; he saw what happened first hand. Even though there was a door with glass; it was cloudy and it obscured his view, but he still saw what happened. Sam could have turned away, or said to skip the torture, but he owed Deeks too much to look away and not accept his sacrifice. Sam watched in horror as Sidorov's lackey had place the torture device in Deeks mouth and cranked it to full extension. Sam saw Deeks flinch after the lackey stepped away from him. Then he watched as they turned the drill on and shoved into Deeks mouth; utterly destroying it. The figure walked around and saw Sam was crying for the detective.

"Did you know that they broke his mandible and destroyed seventy-five percent of his teeth?" The figure asked and all he could see is more tears stream down Sam's face.

{That explains why I saw Deeks flinch as the lackey was stepping back from Deeks. His jaw was starting to break.} Sam thought.

"What is the detective to you?"

"Family." Sam said cleaning up the tears he had shed.

"Family, but you made it impossible to be on the team. How is Deeks family?" The figure asked.

"I made it hard for Deeks to be on the team and even questioned his character, but how could I deny Deeks a place after what he did?" Sam asked point at the screen where Sidorov and his man where still playing dentist on Deeks' mouth. "Deeks gave me C.P.R., and then suffered through five hours of torture, ten hours in the hospital just to turn around and save Michelle, Kensi, and me from Sidorov and his man. I made a mistake by not respecting him; it's not one I will be making again. I also said that I owe for the rest of my life. So yeah I can be a hard headed fool at times, but Deeks has more than proved himself. And I never demanded that Deeks get sent back to L.A.P.D.; I may have wanted to harm the Deeks for some of his comments, but I never asked for Deeks to be removed from the team." Sam said.

"Why?" The figure asked again.

"Because Deeks had a lot of connections in places that made our life easier than if we had to make them ourselves. And sometimes when he would talk about celebrity gossip it bugged me, but it normally had an angle that we could follow and it helped solve our cases quicker." Sam start to drift off into his thoughts about what life had been like with Deeks around. Yeah it was annoying, but a lot of cases were solved because of his unorthodox methods. Sam just watched in silence as he watched the rest of the events play out. Their rescue from the body shop, their stay and checking out of the hospital A.M.A, and the showdown at the hotel; it was a crazy case. A case that he wanted to forget, but knowing darn well that he, or the rest of the team wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon; or forgetting ever.

N.C.I.S L.A.

"So what happened while you were in Afghanistan Callen?" Nate asked.

"When we first arrived we went to the base camp were Granger, and Kensi were stationed. We stayed there for the night and rested up." Callen said. "In the morning we geared up and left for the caves that the White Ghost had been known to "haunt," metaphorically speaking, and waited for signs of the insurgents, or the target."

"What happened when you went in and cleared the tunnels?" Nate asked.

"Sam and I split up and check one section of the tunnel system while Deeks and Granger check another section. As we were search we ran into C.I.A. Sabatino, who had captured and we got into a fire fight with the insurgents or the Ghost's men to free him. After we dealt with them and cleared Sabatino, we heard a fight from another part of the system, so Sam and I ran to check it out. We ran into Granger who was wounded, but it wasn't critical. As Sam was patching Granger up, I hear gun fire and then I see Kensi and Deeks come running. I sensed something was off because they weren't bickering, or joking around. Before anybody could ask what happened to them we came under fire. So we shot our way out of the caves back to the caravan. On the flight home Kensi and Deeks were arguing the entire time. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it was bad. I remember that a few times last week those two almost got into a fist fight in the middle of the mission."

"Do you think it will destroy their partnership?" Nate asked

"I don't think so. I got a look at them yesterday, and they seem to be healing. There was a little bickering between the two when Deeks walked in late yesterday. They have a long way to go, but knowing them it'll pass with time." Callen said.

"Gentlemen I hate to interrupt, but you are going to have to carry on this debrief somewhere else." Hetty said walking into the room.

"Why?" Callen asked.

"I called her while I was on the way up to see you." Nate said.

"I have a safe house prepped and a medical staff on standby until Sam has recovered from his coma." Hetty said. Callen got up as a team of doctors had come in and prepped Sam for the transport to the safe house.

"Is there anything else you want to talk about Nate?" Callen asked

"No, I think I have everything I need." Nate said. He shook hands with Callen and then left.

"There are two guys over at the nurse's station that tried to kill Sam and me. They were given a sedative and are waiting to be taken into custody." Callen said pointing towards the station.

"I will send somebody to collect and to interrogate them when they wake up." Hetty said.

"What time do you want me into work Hetty?" Callen asked.

"I don't want you in." Hetty said dryly.

"Why?" Callen asked

"Our team has been requested to take part in an operation to stop a person of interest from helping a terrorist group carry out a terror attack against the United States, or any other country for that fact." Hetty said.

"Hetty." Said a voice Callen that couldn't recognize. They both turned and looked and saw a man standing in the door way.

"Ah, Callen this is Jon Doe; Jon Doe this is Callen." Hetty said introducing the two men. The men shook hands and Jon spoke next.

"Can we take this somewhere a little more private? I have sensitive information to discuss." Jon said.

"There is a team of doctors in the E.R. parking lot that will take care of your patient and finish prepping him for transport to one of our safe houses." Hetty said to one of the doctors.

"Yes ma'am." The doctor said. With that Hetty, Jon and Callen left the room so the doctors and nurses could finish prepping Sam to be moved from the hospital. They went and found a conference room and shut the door. It was as private as it was going to get in the hospital.

"So I have you to thank for saving my team?" Callen asked Jon.

"Yes you do." Jon said, and the men shook hands again.

"So what information do you have to discuss with us?" Hetty asked.

"Well we interrogated the suspect and at first he gave us spotty information. Then we had to start to use more creative methods to get the information. When he started making sense, we verified his information and came up with this." Jon said as he pulled out a folder and put it on the table. A folder that Hetty and Callen didn't see he was carrying at first.

"You got creative?" Callen asked. "Are you an American citizen?" Callen asked.

"Let's just say that my unit is a necessary evil Mr. Callen. I know you don't approve of the methods we used, but let's say just say we gave Mr. Murdoch a taste of his own medicine." Jon said. Callen was uneasy, but remained quick and let Hetty do the talking for the rest of the meeting. While they were talking Hetty was looking over the information. It made light of an Ari Akbar and an Italian man by the name of Matteo Romano.

"Who are these people? I see reference to an Ari Akbar and a Matteo Romano." Hetty asked.

The first picture Jon pulled out of the folder was, of no surprise, an Arabic man. Late thirties, about five feet six inches tall, and in the range one hundred twenty to one hundred thirty pounds, with black hair. He has no facial hair. The next picture he pulled out was that of Matteo Romano, but it was strangely familiar. It had an uncanny resemblance to Deeks.

"Isn't that Deeks?!" Callen questioned.

"Yes." Jon said

"Like I said earlier, our team has been request to take part in this operation." Hetty said cutting off Callen.

"Does he still have the violin?" Jon asked

"I have it back at our base, but I'm supposed to be meeting him there in two hours and twenty-five minutes." Hetty said checking her watch.

"Give him this." Jon said pulling out more paper from the folder he was holding. He handed it to Callen.

"Sheet music? What is Deeks going to need sheet music for?" Callen asked.

"Mr. Akbar has a penchant for symphonies. And word has been swirling the music world that Matteo Romano is a person to see live. How are Deeks people skills?" Jon asked

"In our unit, his skills are top notch." Callen said "I get the feeling that you are going to give Mr. Akbar a free back stage pass, and while he is visiting Deeks that's when we, my team and your team, move in and take him down." Callen said.

"That's pretty much the operation in a nutshell." Jon said. Callen handed the sheet music over to head and started to leave.

"Where are you going?" Hetty asked

"To go find Sam." Callen said.

"The safe house is near the P.C.H.; have Eric text you the address." Hetty said as she threw Callen a key to let him into the house.

"Thank you Hetty." Callen said and then left. When Callen had left the room Jon continued the brief.

"The symphony is still six months away, and I'll update Deeks when he needs to meet with the director." Jon said.

"I'm guessing you know somebody that is traveling with the symphony that is willing to "implant" Mr. Deeks to assist with this little operation." Hetty said.

"Yes I do. I have friends everywhere, and nowhere." Jon said. With that he packed papers back into the folder and shook hands with Hetty.

"Next time you see Deeks, tell him that I want to see him and Kensi at the boat house." Jon said.

"Why?" Hetty said.

"Jack wants to talk to Kensi, and I want to talk to Deeks." Jon said.

"Jack and Kensi talking sounds like a bad idea." Hetty said.

"It's the request of a man who knows his death is imminent." Jon said.

Hetty let Jon's words sink and understood the gravity of his meaning.

"I'll tell them to meet there at 12 P.M.; anything else we need to discuss?" Hetty asked.

"No that's all for now. Thank you Hetty." Jon said.

Hetty knew that letting Kensi talk to Jack, for a lack of a better phrase, was going to be a bad idea, but she fears that if she doesn't it might affect the mission. The talk is going to affect both of her agents. Hetty smiled when the thought "agents" went through her mind, but it's the game she chose to play when she joined the C.I.A.; and the again when she accepted this position from Macey.

{I hope that chat with Jack doesn't affect Kensi and Deeks that deeply,} Hetty thought, {because if it does it could be a long six months.}

N.C.I.S. L.A.

Next thing Sam saw was that was that the room had returned to the sterile white hospital look and feel and no longer the auto body shop that Deeks and him were tortured in.

{When did that happened?} Sam thought.

"So what did you learn?" The shadowy figure asked breaking Sam out of his thoughts

"No matter how hard I try I can't protect everybody." Sam said

"But what can you do as a consolation prize?" The figure asked again.

"Protect those closes to me. My wife and my child, Callen, Kensi, Deeks, Hetty, Nell, and Eric; I can protect those I see on a daily basis." Sam said with a smirk.

There was a pause between the two figures: one man of the flesh, and one of the psyche. And then a door appeared behind Sam. He turned and looked at it in amazement, and then he remembered that he was in his mind. So things can just appear out of nowhere.

"When you go through that door, you will be on the return trip to your body. But beware: you will see images of your life flash across the walls. All from your past, and possibly from the future that has yet to play out; do not fear these images. Accept them and keep moving. If you fail and become overwhelmed with fear you will never make it back to your body." The figure said. It started to turn and leave, but it sensed Sam's hesitation. "There is nothing left to see here, so open that door and return to the real world."

With that the figure disappeared. Sam walks towards the door and puts his hand on the knob. Sam took three deep breaths preparing himself for what he was about to see and then opened the door and walk through it and shutting it firmly behind him.

N.C.I.S. L.A

Callen was walking through the door to the safe and found the atmosphere to be a buzz with electric energy. He saw a doctor in passing and asked.

"What's going on?"

"Who are you?" The doctor asked.

"G. Callen, N.C.I.S.; that's my partner that your team is working on." Call replied showing his badge and Id.

"Mr. Hana's brain waves are spiking." The doctor said.

"Is Sam flat lining again?" Callen asked out of fear.

"No this is more when he is about to wake up. I have to say your partner is a strong willed person. Most patients that are comatose don't show that kind of brain activity that quickly. I think he could wake up anytime." The doctor said.

"That's great news!" Callen said excitedly.

"But don't get all excited just yet. Just because I said he could want anytime doesn't mean you should break out the champagne just yet. Mr. Hana could wake up now, or within the next 24 hours. It could take him a few days to wake up." The doctor said.

"I'll take a few days as opposed to a few months any day of the week." Callen said. The doctor smiled at this and got back to work.

Callen figure that if anything changed, or should Sam wake up the doctors would notify him. So Callen snuck off to one of the rooms and tried to get some sleep. Between the guard duty and the six month stretch waiting for the symphony operation, it was going to be long and boring. Callen yawned just as he was entering the bedroom. He shut the door and walked over to the bed. Callen put his phone on the night stand, took his shoes off, and got between the sheets. As soon as his head got comfortable on the pillow, Callen was out and sleeping peacefully.

T.B.C.