Author's Note: I have no excuses for my atrocious lack of updating other than the fact that … nope wait, that isn't one either. Sorry. Here goes. This chapter is set right before 'Tin Soldiers', enjoy!

"Barry?" he asked the cat sitting in front of him. It couldn't be Barry. Barry was gone. And Barry did not have a blue collar on his neck. This was an interloper, a vagabond. He reached over to the cat to push him off his desk when the cat ducked under his hands, and ran towards his face. Callen was so shocked at the speed of the cat that he didn't see the paw until it made contact with his nose. BAP! The bell tinkling as he moved.

Callen sat back, startled. He looked at the cat, his paw still raised, ready to give Callen another tap to adjust his head. "Barry? That really you?" He couldn't believe it. There was no way that Barry had come back. Things like this just didn't happen to him. He reached out to the cat to stroke him. He reached under his neck to the spot that Barry liked best and was rewarded with a deep rumbling purr that rattled the pens on his desk. He grabbed his beloved pet and held him close to his chest, tears flowing from his eyes as he stroked Barry and mumbled to him in Russian.

The purring got stronger, and Deeks could hear it from across the room. He saw several emotions play across Callen's face. Shock, anger, shock again followed by relief, joy and happiness. He smiled and left the two of them to catch up. He knew that Callen would quickly figure out how Barry had returned. Well he did leave a pretty big clue. He headed out the back and quietly walked back to his car. Monday morning was going to be very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

Callen gathered his pet up and went over to the couch. He lay down and placed Barry next to him, under the crook of his arm. He stroked his pet and felt the collar under his fingers. He sat back up and moved it around to look at the tag hanging from it next to the little silver bell. The side he was looking at contained the number for the alias that he used at his home. He turned it over and was a little taken back by what was on the other side. (My Name is Barry D). Callen looked around suddenly to see if he could see the detective anywhere. After a moment he figured that he had left after dropping Barry off.

He rubbed his thumb over the name tag for several moments before he noticed a piece of paper wrapped around the collar. He carefully pulled it off and read the small note written there in Deeks handwriting.

Callen, I told you that there were a lot of things that Barry needed to go to the vet for, and getting him a microchip and a collar were just two of them. The animal catcher had gotten a hold of him. You're lucky that I was told that he was making his rounds in this area.

Callen smiled and patted Barry. He sent a silent thanks to the detective and thought about how he could properly thank the man. He wondered how he had found Barry and decided that a lunch at a restaurant the next day would be the best way to find out. He fired off a quick text message then lay down next to a purring Barry and instantly fell asleep.

Deeks had just put the key into the lock of his apartment when he got a text message. He looked at it and smiled. He fired off a response and headed in for the night. The last two days had been tiresome and he was still recovering from the bullet wound. He had a shower and wondered what the two friends had got up to after he left. He put the pondering to one side and after feeding Monty, headed to his bed.

Callen woke the next morning, still in the same position as when he had laid down. It was the first time in two days that he had been able to get a decent nights' sleep. He never realised how much of a comfort Barry was at night. The cat would find his tension points and lay on them. His purring would loosen any knots there and his body heat would warm away any pain he had. He opened his eyes, noticing that he hadn't woken from a nightmare like he usually did. He stared at the ceiling and pondered.

He couldn't believe that he had been on the verge of resigning from NCIS. It would mean that everything that had happened here; finding friends, learning to trust someone to have his back, creating a family that cared about him; would have been lost. He would have destroyed his family.

He was shocked from his thoughts when Barry whacked his nose again. "You know, my nose is going to be permanently bent out of shape if you keep doing that." He said as he rubbed the side of his nose with one hand and patted his cat with the other. He sat up and took the cat over to his feed bowls. He noticed that they were full and guessed that Deeks had found and filled them.

When Hetty had first approached him regarding appointing Deeks as a liaison between NCIS and LAPD, he thought that she hadn't been serious. After a few weeks however, and especially after rescuing him from the traffickers, Callen found himself liking the man and could see what Hetty had in regards to what the man could bring to the team.

Lunch later that day was uneventful. Callen took Deeks to one of his favourite places on the water front that actually served beer with the meals. They talked about the extraordinary things their pets had done for them, things they had heard others do and about anything that didn't involve work. Deeks told Callen about how he had found Barry and how happy the cat had been to see a familiar face.

Monday morning rolled around and Callen as usual was early. He found Hetty already at her desk.

"Mr Callen, have a good weekend?" she had watched the video footage of Saturday night and knew what had happened. She wanted to hear from him how he was doing.

"I'm good." Callen had a pretty good idea that Hetty knew what had happened. He reassured the older woman that he was fine by nodding; then he turned his head as he heard the bell from Barry's collar. He was up in the roof again, and by the sounds of it, following him. He was about to let Hetty know about the bell when Sam, Deeks and Kensi walked in.

Deeks had seen Callen nod to someone just out of sight pretty sure that's Hetty as he walked in and heard the bell that he had put on Barry. "Who finally managed to put the bell on Hetty?" he called out, as though he had no idea that Hetty was just there.

"Perish the thought, Detective Deeks. If there was a bell on me, no one here would have been able to do it." she had a feeling that the young man had known she was there and had said it to draw attention away from the bell and onto himself so that no one would have to explain what was going on. She wagged her finger at him as he blushed and dipped his head as Kensi elbowed him while Sam and Callen sniggered.

The day was as interesting as Deeks thought it would be. Every time Callen moved, the sound of the bell followed him. Just as Sam and Kensi started to notice that fact, the bell started to follow him too. Then after a while, Hetty. It seems that Barry is following those who had helped him. Hetty for allowing him to stay, me for finding him and Callen for loving him and giving him a home. Deeks thought as the bell followed Hetty to the kitchen, then turned after him as he headed to the gun range. His sense of smell must be remarkable to be able to tell us apart when he can't even see us.

Deeks saw Callen hide a smirk or a smile on more than one occasion throughout the day as Sam and Kensi and the other staff tried to find the source of the noise. Even Deeks had a hard time of keeping it together as one time Kensi spotted her usually neat desk in complete disarray after coming back from lunch. Callen and he had been the first to walk back in afterwards and had seen the cat jump onto her desk, scattering files and then jump onto the ironwork above her desk, knocking over her pen holder and making more of a mess. He then sat there for several minutes, while she ranted at her partner about leaving her things alone.

Deeks would have been a little more defensive if it weren't for the fact that he knew that Barry was getting her back for replacing one of his pens with one that squirted ink out of the top when you went to write something. He guessed that Barry had seen her hanging around his desk shortly before he got covered in ink and put two and two together. He was rather smart for a cat.

Callen was having the time of his life. He was finding it very hard to keep a straight face every time Barry and his bell moved. After the incident of messing up Kensi's desk, Barry had stayed out of the ceiling. He managed to keep out of everyone's line of sight either by staying up high or behind the couch or behind others. More than once he head the bell as Barry followed someone for a bit until they figured out the noise was coming from behind them and turned around. Only to find nothing there.

He had gotten very good very fast at stopping the bell from making any noise. Callen wasn't sure how he was doing it, but figured he would soon find out. He watched as Barry followed one of the tailors from one end of the room to the other until the man noticed the noise and turned to find the source. Barry tucked his chin against his neck, silenced the bell and jumped up onto the top of a shelf. Mystery solved. The cat stayed there for the rest of the afternoon until everyone had left for the night.

Once he had fed Barry, Callen headed home, only to find someone snooping in his house.

Author's Note: Anyone pick up on the bell comment Deeks makes? Couldn't resist.