A/N - Thanks for the support for this story. It's been great.

Disclaimer in chapter 1

Chapter 10

As Annabel drifted slowly awake, she knew she was warm, except for her nose. Instinctively, she turned her head to the source of the warmth, burying her face in his neck and taking a deep breath as she woke up. When she realised what she had just done, she tried to sit up, but his arms were locked around her, holding her still.

"Stop moving, you'll let the cold in," Callen said, his voice slightly sleepy. He'd slept for a while, drifted the rest of the time and enjoyed having her close and warm.

"Sorry," Annabel replied and stopped moving. She narrowly avoided moaning as the pain went through her shoulder when she'd tried to move.

"You okay?" Callen asked, noticing she wasn't as relaxed anymore.

"Okay, just a cold nose," Annabel said.

"I noticed," Callen said, a smile to his voice. It had been hard to miss when she had turned into him.

"I should switch with Grey and keep watch," Annabel suggested, though she didn't move. Getting up just wasn't appealing right now. She was warm and as long as she didn't move, she wasn't hurting.

"Sam's just switched, but you can watch if you want, just don't move," Callen told her, shifting slightly to get a bit more comfortable. Annabel settled back into him once he had, even though she continued feeling like she should be getting up.

"How can I keep watch from here?" Annabel asked, fighting the urge to let her head rest against the side of his and close her eyes again.

"You can listen, then you are right here to protect me," Callen said.

"Yeah, if I can get untangled," Annabel replied sarcastically. Between the parachute, him and her injuries, she doubted she could move quickly.

"Then I'll just have to hope no one comes won't I?"

Annabel felt a slight shaking of his chest and frowned. Was her laughing at her?

"Meaning?" Annabel asked as she turned her head to look at him.

"Meaning I don't want you to move," Callen said softly as he looked down into her eyes. He didn't really know what he was feeling for this woman in his arms, but he felt something, and he'd barely known her twelve hours. Annabel didn't reply, even if she had wanted to, the look in his eyes had made her mouth go dry. She didn't really want to move either and was in no way willing to admit that. She turned her head and gave in to the temptation of closing her eyes and just enjoying feeling safe in his arms. Strange, since she was his bodyguard, not the other way around.

She had fallen asleep again. Callen didn't so he listened, but there were no sounds that needed checking and by the time she woke up again, it was starting to get light.

"Sorry," she said quietly. "Didn't mean to go back to sleep."

"You needed it. How's the arm?" Callen asked.

She moved it slightly, a slight grimace appearing on her face. "Sore, but nothing I can't handle. Had worse … I think," she added.

Callen remembered the rest of the fight. "What about the rest of you?" he asked.

"Will let you know when I move."

When she didn't, Callen smiled.

"Is that going to happen anytime soon?" he asked.

Annabel chuckled softly. "You in a hurry to leave these five star comforts?"

"Whilst the company is five star," Callen answered, "the bed really doesn't come close to being luxury."

Annabel smiled. "Not so bad for me, but I don't have a tree in my back," she added as she started to sit up away from him. His arms slipped from their position around her, allowing her to move easily. Annabel groaned and fell back against him.

"What's wrong?" Callen asked concern in his voice.

Annabel took a couple of slow easy breaths against the pain, before she answered.

"Ribs and stomach. Hurt when I sat up."

Callen glanced over and saw Sam watching them. He tilted his head at Sam indicating he wanted his help and Sam stood up and came over.

"What's up G?" Sam noticed the concern on his partners eyes and restrained himself from any teasing comments.

"Can you help Annabel? Ribs and stomach took a beating."

Sam frowned a little and looked Annabel over to determine how he was going to do this. Ribs, stomach and shoulder. That didn't leave a whole lot left to get her up off the ground without hurting her.

"I can get up, it just-"

"Let Sam help," Callen interrupted her protest.

Sam stepped around so he was on her right side, away from the shoulder injury. Bending down carefully, he slipped on arm behind her, her arm went around his neck as she followed his lead. Sam slipped the other carefully under her legs, behind her knees, then he looked at her. "You ready?"

Annabel nodded. "Don't try and help," Sam added.

Carefully he lifted her and Callen got up quickly to help, adding his support to her whilst Sam let her legs down to the ground.

"Thanks," she said softly.

"Let me see," Callen said as Sam stepped away.

Annabel frowned.

"Stomach and ribs, let me see," Callen repeated.

"I didn't know you were a doctor," Annabel said, raising her eyebrows at his demand.

"I'm not." Callen continued to look at her expectantly.

"Look Callen, I'm fine," Annabel said, "It hurts, but it's just a combination of bruising and not moving much last night."

There was something intimate about the thought of him checking out her injuries and she wasn't sure she was ready to deal with those feelings.

"Bel," Grey came up beside them, "You all right?"

"I'm fine."

"No you're not," Callen disagreed. He looked to Grey as he continued. "She couldn't stand. Sam needed to help her up."

Annabel glared at Callen. "I can stand. I just couldn't get up without it hurting."

"Show me," Grey demanded.

Annabel rolled her eyes. "Good grief. Pushy, both of you."

"Annabel," came Hetty's firm voice, "I am sure they just want to help."

"Not you too Hetty," Annabel said. So much for her being the leader of this mission. Seemed like she was right at the bottom of the list at the moment. Guilt went over her as she knew they just wanted to help. She was just feeling a little out of sorts at the moment. She really needed to get a grip on that.

"Bel, come on," Grey asked, this time in a less demanding tone.

Annabel carefully lifted one side of her shirt, unable to do both, though Callen obliged and helped with the other side. She flinched slightly as his fingers grazed over her skin. She wasn't entirely sure whether it was because it hurt or just because it was him. Grey gently ran his hands over her ribs, checking for breaks. She sucked in a breath at one point from the pain.

"Just bruising, but you won't be carrying anything today," Grey assured her, as he stepped back. Annabel pulled her shirt back down and looked at Callen.

"Told you," she said.

"Needed to be checked," Callen added.

Callen glanced over and saw Kensi and Sasha getting up. Annabel noticed too, and started to move away. She went to the bag Sasha had carried off the plane and opened it. She pulled out a bottle of water each and some energy bars. They all moved over toward her.

"A bottle and bar each. Not much for breakfast but better than nothing," she added as she opened up hers. "We leave as soon as we are packed and have eaten."

"You know where we're going?" Kensi asked as she opened her water bottle.

"There's a town about four hours walk away. There are a few properties for rent that are furnished and empty. We should be able to get into one of them and get some bearings on what we are going to do and get some decent rest."

"Breaking and entering being added to speeding and major property damage?" Callen teased her. She glanced over at him.

"Not breaking, just unlawful entry," Annabel smiled.

"All right, lets get moving," Grey said and moved to start packing up the chutes. The rest followed as Annabel slowly finished eating. She felt Callen's eyes on her as he helped Sam with another of the chutes.

Callen was worried about Annabel. She seemed tough, but the way she had fallen back against him this morning was anything but, so he knew she was in pain and not just a little. He was relieved when Grey said she hadn't broken anything, but he was still concerned. There was a bruise he could see, that just came out from her hairline and he wondered how bad her head was. At least he knew it wouldn't be hard to keep close to her today.

"Bel, you know where we are going," Grey said as they finished packing and moved to where Annabel was sitting, waiting for them. "You lead. Your pace okay. The rest of us shouldn't have a problem keeping up with you," Grey advised.

Annabel nodded. "Let's move and leave this luxury hotel shall we?" She smiled briefly at Callen as she turned and started walking, after checking the watch for which way to go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o

Gibbs had just left to head into the office, keeping up appearances, so to speak. It was going to be odd enough that Abby wasn't in today, let alone Gibbs as well. After Abby closed the door of her apartment behind him, she turned to Eric and started pacing.

"This doesn't make sense. I mean I know McGee he wouldn't do this. Leon wouldn't either," Abby frowned. "I think anyway."

Eric stood up and stretched. They'd been slaving over the computer for hours, not getting much for their efforts.

"The emails seem real Abby. They've been going on for a few weeks," Eric added, not really wanting to believe what they had found. Or more importantly, hadn't found. It looked legitimate. He had hoped with a little more digging they would find that it wasn't for real.

"But why would they use their work emails?" Abby asked. "McGee's smarter than that."

Eric had to agree. He didn't know McGee well, but surely this was just asking to be caught.

"Do you think they would have used other emails as well? We could hack into their personal accounts," Eric mused.

Abby started to pace again. Something just wasn't right with all of this. "No, I'm having one of those Gibbs moments."

"What's a Gibbs moment?" Eric asked, confused.

"Gut, instinct... when something tells you things aren't as they seem. You know, a feeling."

Eric nodded. "Yeah, Callen gets them sometimes. So what's yours telling you?" He sat back down

"That McGee didn't do this. Vance, hmm, he sometimes seems a little shifty, but McGee," Abby shook her head. "He might do dodgy things to find stuff out for work, but that's not 'bad' stuff like this," Abby finished her pacing and just looked at Eric for a moment. Then it was like a light bulb went on in her head. Her eyes brightened, she straightened up, seeming to grow a good couple of inches in a matter of seconds.

"I knew it," Abby exclaimed, as she moved quickly over to the computer and, with speed that left even Eric impressed, she pulled up some information.

"There it is," she pointed to the screen.

"Server maintenance?" Eric was confused.

"Look at the times. It was a random routine maintenance of the email server. They take it offline for an hour, run diagnostics, virus checks and and serious sweep of all emails for any 'iffy' words that suggest a problem. No one knows when they are going to happen."

"Sorry Abby, I haven't slept in over a day," Eric apologised. He couldn't follow.

Abby pulled a few more emails around. "These three emails, couldn't have been sent then, because the server was down."

Eric pulled his very sleep deprived wits together to follow. "So if three of them were sent during that time, then someone had to have planted them after the server maintenance was done."

Which could mean that all of them may have been planted, Eric mused in his mind.

"Right. So these were sent three days ago, supposedly. That means that someone had to hack in after that."

Abby was all excited, this could mean that her team weren't involved. She felt like she'd just down a couple of massive cups of Caf-Pow in one fell swoop. She was awake and raring to go, where just minutes before, she was about ready to close her eyes and go to sleep where she stood.

"So we only have three days of data to track," Eric added with a tired sigh.

"Eric get some sleep, I'll keep going."

Eric shook his head, but Abby continued. "Eric, you don't want to pass out on the keyboard, trust me. I've done it. Ribbed by Tony for days because of the squares on my face."

Eric was tired. "Okay, just an hour though. Where can I sleep?"

"Couch. Don't know that you would be comfortable in the coffin." Eric's eyes went wide slightly and Abby grinned. He wasn't exactly game enough to ask if she was for real.

"Couch will be fine," Eric agreed as he stood up and left Abby to it.

He wondered how the team were doing. He didn't know how long this would take before he could send Hetty a message through the message board he'd set her up on for emergency contact a while ago, just in case. He honestly hadn't thought they would ever need to use it, but he had humoured her when she'd asked for it.

He settled back on the couch, pulled a blanket, red with a big black Gothic cross on it, over him and closed his eyes. He was asleep within seconds.