Question of Deeks has come up. I really like his character so he might get a peak in. Thanks for all the reviews!

Chapter 4

"What missing? What do you mean missing? The guy couldn't walk out of there even if he tried and believe me G would," Sam started to yell over the phone.

"Mr. Callen was in no condition for that. We had sedated him heavily so he could get a good night's sleep. So sir you'd better come down and see for yourself. He didn't walk out…we think he was taken," said the Director of Nursing.

"Taken?" asked Sam as he put the phone on speaker whilst trying to get dressed.

"We found his hospital bed near the ambulance exit. We're preparing the surveillance footage now for you and LAPD...I'm really sorry sir," said the Director, "Nothing has ever happen like this before."

"We're on our way…and thank you," finished Sam and thought to himself, only you G…only you, then he called Hetty.

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Hetty was asleep, but barely. Since the Krakow incident she always slept with one eye open, or so to speak, when she heard her phone and she suddenly felt her heart sink. Night calls never brought good news. Her mind thought of Callen. The boy she had watched over for many years, now a man; the man she would like to call her son, the man who would have all the answers one day.

"Hello Mr. Hanna," she said having seen the caller ID.

"Hetty… it's G," said Sam.

"What's happened? Has he…" Hetty didn't finish, unable to finish the question.

"No, well I don't know. He's missing Hetty…The hospital seems to think someone's taken him. I'm heading over to the hospital. They've got LAPD involved as well," said Sam getting into his car.

"Missing? Taken? Why and how, Mr. Hanna?" asked Hetty.

"I don't know. Maybe it's tied in with Dom's abduction or maybe something else. With all the enemies G has, it could be anyone," said Sam shifting the Challenger into drive.

"Get there as soon as you can, Mr. Hanna. I'll ring Mr. Beale and get him started on scanning the area and then I'll ring Miss Blye and have her start interrogating our prisoner and I'll meet you down there," and she hung up.

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The first thing G noticed was the darkness. The same darkness which filled the cupboard, then the hitting and the memories of one particular home where he lost his innocence and discovered the monstrosity of men. Still disorientated the darkness felt impervious. He felt suffocated by it. He started having trouble breathing. Panic started to rear its ugly and threatening head. But the more he moved, the more pain he was in. That's when he noticed a constant whirring. There was no whirring in that cupboard. Then he felt himself lying on a hard cold surface. He ran his hands along the edge of the makeshift bed. It was a slab of concrete. He tried to sit up but he felt the lancing and blinding pain in his side. He was disorientated. He ran his hand over his face and felt stinging in the fold of his arm. That's when the memories started to drift in. He remembered Rafi, he remembered getting shot, the hospital, Hetty and Kensi and arguing with Sam. Then he remembered sleep.

Callen wasn't in the hospital anymore and this wasn't Sam's spare room, nor Kensi's cluttered 'study' as she termed it. Where was he? He tried to move but he lacked the strength he often called upon. He just had to face the fact that he wasn't strong enough to do anything. He was trapped and he was powerless. At this very moment Callen felt fear. He had known fear intimately while growing up in the multitude of abusive foster homes. But he had built walls to shield himself from their miasma. However this time was different. Those walls wouldn't help him; they'd only hinder him. He would play this out calmly and analytically. He'd be the brilliant agent not the frightened child. He'd wait until he knew more about the situation and then he'd strategise and plan his way out. Hoping in vain that Sam and his team would find him.

So he decided to do the next best thing, and that was to lie there, get stronger, rest and wait until he knew more. That's all he really could do. He closed his eyes and wished he hadn't argued with Sam.

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Sam stormed into the hospital making himself seen and heard. He walked up to the front desk which was abuzz with activity; nurses, couple of doctors and LAPDs finest. Suddenly a tall woman dressed smartly for 4am, saw Sam and walked immediately over, "Special Agent Hanna?"

Sam kinked his head to the side and looked her over, "Yeah NCIS and you are?"

"I'm Ms. Sandra Best, Director of Nursing. I called you earlier," she said calmly and in control. She wasn't going to let Sam intimidate her.

"So what happened?" asked Sam so bewildered.

"Like I said on the phone Special Agent Hanna, we don't know. Nurse Talbot had just begun her rounds of the early morning shift and that's when she immediately reported Mr. Callen missing. The bed was gone. The monitors and IVs all disconnected. We started a search calling in extra personnel and security. We found nothing except Mr. Callen's bed near the ambulance bay. We've left everything the way we found it and we haven't touched a thing. Then I called you and security called LAPD. Their liaison officer is Detective Deeks," she explained pointing to a scruffy looking individual.

"First things first…I want to speak to Nurse Talbot," demanded Sam.

"Of course. You may use my office and I'll send her straight in," she said compliantly.

The scruffy individual finished speaking with security and caught Sam's eye. Concerned flashed in his eyes. Sam reciprocated by nodding as Deeks excused himself and walked over. He extended his hand, "Hey Detective Deeks."

"Deeks huh? I've heard of you. Pretty good under cover. I'm Special Agent Sam Hanna NCIS. What can you tell me?" asked Sam.

"Oh you guys have heard of me? Cool," then he noticed Sam's scowl appearing, "Oh ok not now…yeah. Obviously it's your crime scene. The boys in blue haven't touched a thing except for going over the security tapes. But as security played back the tape, it was deleted, interfered with…we don't know. Maybe your IT guy can do something with it. We've taped off the room and the area around the ambulance bay…sorry agent Hanna," said Deeks.

Sam noticed this guy was thorough and respectful of procedure…and sensitive to the fact that it was a fellow law officer who was missing. "Call me Sam. Did you talk to Nurse Talbot yet?" he asked.

"No," said Deeks secretly hoping to be asked to sit in.

"Come on then…we're a bit short staffed. Do you think your boss would lend you out until this is solved?" asked Sam, probably overstepping his authority. But this guy was known to NCIS, he was confident, thorough and a bit left of centre.

"No love lost between he and I…" smirked Deeks. Sam smiled. They both walked into the office and saw a petite blond sitting looking like a deer caught in headlights; she looked scared. Deeks smiled at her and sat quietly near the door. Sam moved closer trying to make his large frame as less threatening as could be.

"Jeannie Talbot, I'm Special Agent Hanna NCIS," said Sam smiling finding a chair and sitting close to her. Then he turned to Deeks, "And this is Detective Deeks LAPD." She flashed a tiny smile and shyly looked away. This poor girl was sacred out of her wits. "Jeannie, we just want to talk to you about what happened this morning. Can you run through exactly what you did?" asked Sam gently and meekly. Jeannie started talking and Deeks listened. She did. She was very particular and very descriptive.

When she had stopped, Deeks had a question, "Jeannie who did you relieve?"

She thought the question odd but Sam could see Deeks train of thought and then he remembered that girl. She thought for a moment, "Oh yes, Sally Jacobs I think her name is. She only started yesterday. New to Los Angeles from Missouri I think."

Sam's mind was racing and he continued the questioning, "Did she do or say anything strange or odd?"

Jeannie thought for a moment, "No…well I don't know. I only met her when she finished her shift. But now that you mention it she did say something rather odd but I thought it was just a Missouri thing."

"What did she say?" asked Deeks.

"She looked at me and said well my job here is done and left," said Jeannie. Sam glared at Deeks; that was a red flag.

Deeks saw Sam reaching for his phone so he took over. He walked up to Jeannie and flashing his brilliant smile, "Jeannie thank you so very much for all your help," and escorted her out.

Sam was on the phone to Eric, "Eric that girl you scanned yesterday, Sally Jacobs try again…she's in on this. We have to find her."

"Ok but I ran her name and face through everything, Sam. Nothing came up. I don't know what else to do?" said Eric exasperated.

"Do something Eric…think out of the box. G's life is at stake. I'm also sending you the security video footage. LAPD said it was tampered with and erased. I think you can do something about that. Please Eric, we need something!" pleaded Sam. As he hung up he turned around to see Hetty.

"Mr. Hanna, what's the update?" asked Hetty.

"We have nothing Hetty. We might have a lead that Eric's following up on and a deleted security video," huffed Sam.

Hetty pursed her lips and nodded her head, "There must be something we're missing." As she said that Deeks walked in the room and froze. She turned to him and greeted, "Oh Mr. Deeks, I'm so glad you're liaising with us. I've spoken to Captain Turner and I've advised him that you'll be giving us a hand. So do you have any ideas?" Deeks shook his head still in shock that he was known to the project manager of NCIS.

Sam looked at Hetty puzzled, then looked at Deeks who returned his puzzled look shrugging his shoulders. She picked up on their questioning looks and smiled, "Now come gentlemen…you really think I'd let anyone help on our investigation! Now Mr. Hanna fill me in while we go down to the ambulance bay."

She started to walk as Sam followed her, giving Deeks a sideways glance to hurry on. Deeks shook his head no. Hetty stopped just outside the office and without looking back, "Mr. Deeks, do you need a personal invitation?"

"Coming, coming," said Deeks as Sam smirked.

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The video footage arrived at OSP. Eric loaded it into a machine and yelled, "Ty…come up and bring the BZX 200…we need it to filter static and enhance video."

Ty ran up the stairs, found Eric and without saying anything, attached the machine through a USB port and started typing, "This video is damaged. They've used military equipment Eric. I don't think…"

"No we have to find a way. They're relying on us, Callen's relying on us Ty," said Eric.

Ty nodded, "Yeah…look if this doesn't work…I've been tinkering with something. We could give it a go."

"Ok..Ok," said Eric as they both started working tirelessly.

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"So this is Mr. Callen's bed," Hetty said noticing the droplets of blood left behind from the removal of the IVs. "Mr. Hanna and Mr. Deeks anything unusual?" asked Hetty padding around like a cat.

Sam and Deeks were looking everywhere but nothing. Forensics were already doing their job; tagging and bagging, swabbing and swiping. Hetty recognize one of the forensic team, "Mr. Gates."

"Oh Miss Lange…one of your agents?" asked Harry.

"Yes unfortunately…what can you tell me?" asked Hetty.

"Nothing so far. However we've found some threads and hair. They'll take a while to be analysed. Oh yes, and we've found a partial print, maybe too small but we'll process as soon as we can Miss Lange," said Harry.

"Good good…Sam there's nothing here for us. Let's head back home and see what Eric has for us…let me know as soon as you know anything Mr. Gates," said Hetty.

Both Sam and Harry nodded. "Mr. Deeks…you ride with Mr. Hanna," said Hetty.

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Callen had managed to sleep. He was certain it was the residue of the drugs he had been given at the hospital. But now they were wearing off and the pain had woken him just when he heard rattling. Keys, maybe? Then the room started to lighten until it became so bright that he had to shield his eyes. He tried to sit up but the pain brought him crashing down. A young man of fairly large build of North African appearance entered and made eye contact with Callen but remained silent. He walked over, grabbed Callen's arms and pulled him to a sitting position. The pain that radiated through Callen's body was intense and paralyzing. Callen let out a blood curdling scream as he felt the stitches rip.

"Quiet!" said the young man, "screaming won't help. Don't fight me or the pain will be worse." He pulled Callen's arms together behind his back and tied them together with ties, tight. Then he pulled him up to his feet. But Callen's legs couldn't hold his weight and he started to collapse. The young man summoned superhuman strength, bore his entire weight and walked him to a chair that Callen saw for the first time. He sat Callen down making sure the arms went around the back of the chair and then tied his legs to the chair.

"It's not like I'm going anywhere," said Callen through clenched teeth trying to keep the pain at bay.

"My boss doesn't take chances, especially with you Agent Callen," said the young man, "He'll be in soon."

"What's all this about?" asked Callen, wishing the spots would disappear, wishing he was pain free, wishing he hadn't had an injury.

"You'll find out soon enough…just keep this in mind, we are all pawns, a means to an end," and the young man left.

Callen was confused. What on earth was going on? He thought to himself then he felt the wound start bleeding again.

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a/n next chap…kensi's interview