A/N: Sorry for the delay. The muse has been having a hard time keeping things going. Well, not the muses fault really, more like RL.

Brody propped her head in her hand as she watched Chris sleep. He looked so peaceful lying on his back, his breathing even and deep. She wasn't certain of the exact moment she had fallen in love with him, but it had been somewhere around the time of her kidnapping. Boy saves girl syndrome perhaps she thought trying to over analyze her feelings. There had to be a reason. His sexy accent maybe? She had a track record for falling for men who had unique characteristics about them and Chris LaSalle was no exception. Kind hearted, willing to do anything for a friend, he was the exact opposite of almost every man she had dated in the past which was probably the reason she had resisted his southern charm for so long.

Daisy whimpered softly from where she laid nestled in between them next curled up against Brody's stomach. Shifting, Brody scooped up the little dog setting her on the pillow. She watched as Chris' face began to twitch as the dog playfully began to paw about licking at Brody's face.

"Morning," he breathed still caught up in the throes of sleep. "What time is it?"

"I don't know, but it's still dark outside." Brody whispered pressing a kiss to his rugged lips.

Chris kissed her back in time with the peel of his phone prompting his spring up.

"Is everything ok?" Brody asked as he turned away from her squinting against the bright glare from the screen.

"It's Pride. He wants me to come in early," It was a little after 5 a.m., which made it awfully early if there wasn't a dead body involved.

Pride? Brody's brow furrowed over the thought that her phone wasn't ringing as well. "How early?"

"Now"

Chris walked into the bullpen to find Pride waiting with a cup of coffee in hand. "What's going on that I needed to come in so dang gum early?" He too was wondering why Pride had not called Brody in as well.

"You'll see," Pride handed Chris the coffee.

"Well, where's Brody?"

"She can't know about this. This is just between you and me." The older agent replied watching Chris' brow furrow as an alert sounded that they had a conference call coming in on the plasma screen. It was an operative who had information on Fod's wife and Brody's adopted sister, Sophie. As it turned out, Brody's abduction had been ploy to draw Sophie out of WITSEC and back into Fod's hands.

A few moments later the two agents stood in front of the Plasma screen conferencing with FBI agent, Gina Lance. Lance was the commanding member of the FBI's task force that had been created to bring down Fod.

"Good Morning, Dwanye." Agent Lance beamed looking at the two agents. "Who's your friend?"

Pride placed a hand on Chris' shoulder. "Special Agent, Chris LaSalle, meet Agent Gina Lance."

"Nice to meet you ma'am," LaSalle greeted in his polite southern demeanor as the woman's face lit up. "Special Agent LaSalle, so you're the one we have to thank for taking out Fod's number one assassin." Chris hadn't planned on taking out Fod's right hand, but the man had been intending to finish off Brody and had tried to put a bullet in his chest.

"I was just tryin' to save, Agent Brody," Chris returned modestly as Pride's hand slipped from his shoulder.

"What can you tell us about Sophie, Gina? Anything new on Fod and her whereabouts?"

Chris did a double take. The last thing he knew was the Sophie was off living a new life somewhere under the protection of WITSEC.

"We have confirmation that Sophie is definitely still alive, but where she is at the moment is still anything one's guess. What we do know is that some of Fod's operatives have been spotted in New Orleans."

A picture of two of Fod's associates flashed up onto the screen as Gina began to relay their connection to Fod. As it turned out, Fod was picking right up where he left off smuggling drugs and arms throughout the city.

Specifics continued for several more minutes with the conversation ending with Pride promising to take care of the unwanted associates on his end.

Chris felt his jaw clench as Pride turned off the big screen. " How long has Fod had Sophie?" he said tightly trying to keep his anger in check. Brody sister was in danger and she knew nothing about it.

"Since the day he tried to blow up the parking garage with you in it." Pride said calmly watching Chris's facial expressions go from frustration to betrayal. He watched as the younger man looked away for a moment, processing the thought.

Pride had known for all these months and hadn't said anything? This was Brody's sister we were talking about.

"I know what you're thinkin' Chris, but just hear me out before you decide to go off half-cocked. Gibbs and I had our reasons for keepin' you and Brody in the dark."

Chris took in a deep breath and exhaled, "I'm listenin.'"

There were very things that Pride ever kept from him, but when he did he usually had a good reason. Aside from the fact that Brody had been tortured and nearly killed, Director Vance had managed to plant an international agent within Fod's organization who had been keeping tabs and making connections to gather information about Sophie whereabouts. Tonight that information had finally paid off.

"So, what are we gunna do?"

"Nothin,'" Pride answered watching his young sidekicks eyes grow wide.

"Nothin? We'll when are we gunna tell Brody?"

"I already told you, we're not."

Chris pursed his lips, his face growing tense. He was trying to understand this he really was but he was becoming too wrapped up in Brody's point of view. If someone had kidnapped Cade he would definitely want to know about it the second that it had happened. Not to mention he would be crushed if he ever found that Pride had been keeping something like that from him.

"Then why say anything to me at all?"

Pride saw the frustration in Chris eyes and could tell that he was wrestling over being loyal to his fellow agent. "Because there's a chance, that Fod will come back to New Orleans and if that happens we need to be ready, but if it doesn't we need to let the feds and the international team do their job."

"And you don't want Brody going off all half-cocked." Chris knew how Brody would react, hell he would react the same way. He'd been down this road before when Cade had been accused of killing his girlfriend, Wendi Stewart.

"Exactly," Pride nodded. "But I need to know that I can count on you not to say anything to Brody. When the time is we'll tell her but until then I need to know that I have your word."

"Not a problem, King." Chris agreed reluctantly knowing that it was going to be a huge problem to keep this from the woman he had just about decided he loved.

A/N: Uh...oh dilemma on Chris' part. Does he risk being loyal to Pride and possibly losing Brody?