Life For Rent

Chapter 7 : Galley-West

Author's Notes :

- I am so sorry this took so long. I've been pretty busy lately, but I apologize for the delay.
- Galley-west : to be knocked askew or to become confused.
- There is a line from How I Met Your Mother in here that I do not own.
- Neosporin belongs to Johnson and Johnson.
- I had some trouble uploading this so the format may be a bit off.


"How's life?" Callen asked.

Sam gave him a dark look. "Fine."

"And the cats?" There were a few neighborhood cats that seemed drawn to Sam's place.

"Also fine."

"Well… that's good." Callen concluded.

"Yes." Sam agreed.

They were sitting at a table on the ground level of headquarters. Callen had a mug of coffee in his hand, feet up on the table, while Sam did the crossword puzzle. They were waiting for a case… and for Nate, Kensi, Dom and Eric to show up. Hetty had dropped by earlier with the excuse of car accidents and traffic to explain the rest of their team's absence, Callen just assumed that meant she had sent them out for donuts. While they were waiting, Sam had found something to do while Callen was left watching Sam do whatever it is he had found to do.

He nervously fingered his phone. Part of him was waiting for Jared to text him with some stupid joke he'd heard. Jared had decided that Callen needed to laugh more and as a result jokes, pictures and videos made their way to Callen's phone from Jared's. Jared texted at least once a day, sometimes if only to say 'goodnight' or 'do you like snow peas?'.

It had been almost three weeks since Jared had made Callen dinner that first night. He'd seen the younger man sporadically since. A couple nights ago they had watched a new movie that had just come out. Callen wasn't sure what he thought of it but Jared seemed to like it well enough.

Of course the movie followed another great dinner. Jared really did love to cook and he didn't seem to mind cooking great meals in his time off. A couple times he had even tried out a recipe on Callen since he had pretty much accepted that Callen really would eat anything.

"Will you stop that?" Sam asked suddenly.

Callen stilled. "Stop what?"

"That," Sam said, pointing towards the hand with the phone in it. Callen had unconsciously been spinning the phone in circles on the table.

"Oh, yeah." He pulled his hand back from the phone.

"You expecting lover-boy to call or something?"

Lover-boy was Sam's current name for Jared.

"No."

As if to contradict him, Callen's phone buzzed against the table.

Sam laughed. "Sure."

Callen ignored him and picked up the phone.

How are American beer and making love in a canoe similar?

Callen smiled as he sent back: *shrug* I dunno.

They're both fucking close to water, came his instant reply.

Callen laughed. Haha, that one was great.

I try. =)

"Calvary's here." Sam said suddenly.

Callen pulled his feet off the table and sat up straight. Nate, Kensi, Dom and Eric all entered together. Dom was carrying a suspiciously large pink box and Callen could smell the donuts from where he sat.

"Traffic, huh?" He asked while reaching for the donuts.

"Lots." Nate confirmed as he took the chair to Callen's right. Dom sat down on Callen's left and Kensi across from them. Eric just grabbed a donut and headed upstairs where all his computers sat.

Callen selected a round donut with chocolate frosting. It was soft and moist and when he took a bite it seemed to melt in his mouth. He looked around as he chewed his breakfast. His team was taking advantage of the momentary downtime to relax and unwind from Director Vance's recent visit. It always seems a little bit like having someone constantly looking over your shoulder and, Callen supposed, that's pretty much exactly what it is. They were used to Hetty's disapproving glances or slight reprimands, but it was different when the one glancing or reprimanding was the director of NCIS.

His phone buzzed again and Callen swallowed the last of his donut, wiping his fingers off on his jeans, before reaching for the phone. Dinner tonight?

If I can. Callen responded.

I'll plan on you coming by unless you say otherwise.

One good thing about Jared is that he's extremely flexible. Not in the limber sense, although Callen knew that he was pretty bendy, but in the sense that he didn't hover and he understood that Callen's work came first. Callen was half afraid to ask Jared what exactly he thought Callen did for a living.

"Getting a lot of texts these days huh, G?" Nate asked curiously.

Callen pushed his phone deep into his pocket. "I guess."

Nate gave him a curious look but went back to his maple bar without anymore questions. There was a moment of silence and then Callen heard Eric whistle from the balcony. Like trained dogs all five of them got up and proceeded to make their way up the stairs.

"Director Vance on the line." Eric told them.

Callen nodded and Vance appeared up on the view screen. "NCIS just received word that one of our most wanted will be arriving at LAX within the hour. I need your team to mobilize as quickly as possible and apprehend him before he steps onto American soil. I've sent Eric all the information we currently have on him."

Callen frowned. "He has to know we'd be tracking him, why risk it?"

"It seems that he was required to meet in person with a local arms dealer. He flew under an assumed name and by the time we realized it was him the plane had already taken off."

"And you're sure he got on it?" Sam asked darkly.

"We're positive." Vance answered. "We have footage of him entering the plane and staying there until take-off."

"What about after take-off? He could have waited in the skywalk." Kensi suggested.

"We thought of that too, but the security cameras don't show anyone leaving the skywalk that matches his description. Just a few personnel that the Airline has vouched for. Do what ever you need to, to get this done, Callen." Vance said.

"Copy that, sir." Vance made a slicing motion and the video cut out. Callen turned to his team. "Well, you heard the man, let's get to it. Eric we're gonna need surveillance of the entire airport, Kensi get some people together, we're gonna need as many of our guys on the floor as possible, Sam…"


*click* "…in other news a car exploded today at the International Terminal in LAX. Officials are unclear as to the reason…"

*click* "…it's gonna be legend… wait for it and I hope you're not lactose intolerant… dary!…"

*click* "…try Veggie-lite today to get all the great nutrients but none of the flavor…"

Jared clicked the television off. He sighed as he looked at his watch: 10:12. G hadn't called or texted to say he wasn't coming, but he was usually here by now. Jared's stomach growled but he ignored it.

"I'll wait a few more minutes." He mumbled to himself.

Thirty minutes later as he poured himself a glass of wine, he heard a soft knock at the door. Jared couldn't help the smile that stretched across his face as he abandoned the glass and went to open the door. His smile quickly fell when he took in G. The other man had a few scratches across his face and an arm was cradling his stomach.

Jared quickly ushered him in. "Are you alright?"

G nodded and shrugged out of his jacket with a wince. "Yeah. Rough day at the office."

Jared frowned but let it go. "You need to sit down, I'll get you some juice."

The older man shook his head. "I'm fine." G followed him back to the kitchen and took a seat on one of the stools.

"I was just about to make dinner." Jared said quietly as he went about getting G a glass of apple juice despite declining one. "Is chicken alright?"

"Sure."

Jared placed the glass down in front of G and didn't wait to see if he would drink it before moving on to collect the items he would need for dinner. Fifteen minutes later rice was in a rice cooker and the chicken was in a pan and as he waited for it to cook, Jared subtly looked G over. G had a hand wrapped around his glass of juice, which was mostly gone. His eyes were alert and followed Jared around the kitchen, watching with interest as Jared cooked them dinner. Jared had noticed that G liked to watch him cook and sometimes Jared even enlisted his help, after demonstrating how to do something.

Jared used some tongs to flip their chicken breasts over when the pink began to fade. "Are you sure your okay."

"Positive." G replied easily. "How was your day?"

Jared shrugged. "Spent most of it with a couple sous-chefs writing the menu for next week."

"Anything good?"

"I added in that pork dish you said you liked last week."

G offered him a half-smile. "I'll have to tell Sam to find someone to take there then, because that was really good."

All Jared knew about Sam was that G worked with him and was more or less G's best friend. Jared wasn't even sure if Sam was a man or a woman. "We're serving it on Thursday, if Sam does come by."

"Cool."

The rice cooker made a popping sound and Jared looked over to see that the on button had popped up, indicating that the rice was done. "Want to plate some rice?"

G nodded and got up to get two plates before scooping generous amounts of rice onto them. Jared had some mushrooms and a light gravy in with the chicken to add some flavor and to mix with the rice. When the chicken finished he set each breast on top of the rice before pouring half the gravy onto one plate and half onto the other.

He set the pan into the sink to be washed before turning back to G. "Let's eat at the table today." He suggested. Despite G's assurances, Jared was almost positive he was in some kind of pain and a kitchen stool was probably only going to make it worse.

G gave him an unreadable look but shrugged. "Okay."

He picked up both plates and walked them over. Jared followed with silverware, napkins and their drinks all juggled in his arms.

Later that night after an exhausting round of sex (Are you sure you're okay? Yes.), Jared lay staring at G's body in the soft light streaming in from the street. There were tiny scratches covering all over and Jared wanted to ask what the other guy looked like. Instead he rolled out of bed and onto his feet, padding quietly across the floor to his bathroom. He searched through a couple drawers before finding what he was looking for. On his way back he turned his lamp on and G blinked up at him. "What are you doing?" G asked quietly.

Jared didn't answer, just twisted the top off of his Neosporin and got to work. G hissed the first time Jared's fingers rubbed some of the ointment onto his skin but didn't say anything. He just watched as Jared carefully searched out every cut. When he had finally finished, Jared put the lid back on and set the ointment aside, turning the light back off.

"Thank you." G said, his voice a strange mixture of confusion, awe, appreciation and something else Jared couldn't quite figure out.

"You're welcome."

He slung an arm carefully over G's body, hugging him close, before drifting off into sleep.