Thanks for the reviews.

Believe me, I thought about this many times before writing the story's description as to whether I wanted to kill off a major character. I decided to keep everyone alive even though my writing name is Tragediane which to me denotes tragedy and mayhem and killing off important characters. Alas, once was enough for me... for now...

Reviews appreciated and welcomed.


AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Title: Troika

Rating: M

WARNINGS: Slash: G/Sam; Squick: M-preg G Callen; Whump: G Callen

Story Details and Full Disclaimer in Chapter 1: My stories are a work of my imagination and I do not ascribe them to the official story canon. This is a work intended for entertainment outside the official storyline owned by CBS and the producers of NCIS:LA.


Angst Times Five

Chapter 11

The room around his exhausted and depleted body reminded him of a bust involving a drug cartel, the LAPD, and his NCIS team. Except he wanted to find something to throw at the blinking lights and sounding alarms. In his foggy half-dream state, he failed to find that one item which could silence those alarms and banish the blinking lights from his mind forever.

A warm, inviting body encompassed his backside. He pushed back into it and sighed. The familiar fragrance of the body told him it was someone he knew well. Someone he loved. Someone he desperately needed in his life. G grasped the arm which encircled his upper chest and drew it closer to his lips. Still half in his dream state and partly awake, he kissed his lover's arm and hand. "I love you," he said with a groggy, drugged whisper.

Sam kissed his husband's hair and trailed kisses down his neck. "Glad you are alive."

"I thought… don't want to talk about it… not right this moment…" His voice weakened with each word spoken.

"Don't try to talk too much at first, sweetheart."

"Babies…"

"In the neonatal intensive care unit and doing fine."

"Better than me."

"Surprisingly, yes." Sam planted more kissed along G's neck to his left ear and sucked on the earlobe. "As far as Dr. Daniels determined our babies are not preterm."

"Impossible…" G whispered.

"Possible with the state-of-the-art fertility drugs they used."

"What?" He attempted to move and that proved to be too much for his compromised physical state. "Hold me."

Sam encircled his husband's upper chest with both arms and drew him upward in the hospital bed until G rested fully on Sam's body. "We good?"

"Need this." It was all the words he could muster and those two words exhausted him further.

"I thought about naming them," he said. "I like names beginning with M. Maddox, Michael, and Marquois for the boys and McKenzie and Makala for the girls."

"Love them." He sighed and half smiled. Sam had been busy thinking about their new instant family and taken some of his worries away.

"Good because we need to add them to the birth certificates as soon as possible."

"Scared."

"What?" Sam kissed his hair again. "Of feeding, diapering, and loving five new babies?"

"Yes."

"Me too."

"Responsibility."

"Did you see how they all relaxed in your capable arms, sweetheart?" Sam asked. "It was as if they knew you were the source of their sustenance and not just your breasts, everything. You definitely still have the touch."

G snuggled into his husband's body and arms. "Thank you."

A nurse entered the obstetrics intensive care unit suite and checked the infusion equipment and noted some things in her patients' charts. "I see you have awakened, Mr. Callen."

"How long?"

"Three days of instability followed by a better day," she said, coming over to the bedside. The nurse took G's temperature and vital signs. "Everything looks much better than yesterday."

"The babies?"

"All but one will be in your room on a permanent basis starting this evening."

"Permanent basis… crap, I…" G stared at the window not wanting the nurse to see his fears coming to the surface.

"You'll do just fine, Mr. Callen," the nurse said, noting the vitals on a chart. "From what I've heard, you are a natural at mothering and fathering."

"See, G, your reputation precedes you and your babies are in good hands."

"And the littlest girl?"

"We'll show you how to take care of her in and out of the incubator."

Damn it. I want to hold her in my arms.

"Don't worry she's recovering fine from being the smallest one of five."

"No illness?" G asked, his voice gaining strength and no longer quavering.

"No, her only illness, if you could call it that, was being the last one born and the smallest."

"I'm confused that just their size would make them preterm."

"Dr. Daniels will be in later this evening to explain things further." The nurse left their room.

"In this case, size does not matter," Sam said.

G chuckled and held his abdominal surgical site.

"Wasn't supposed to be funny."

"It was."

"Supposedly, they are the appropriate age for the state-of-the-art fertility drugs."

"I'm confused and tired and nervous and—"

Sam enveloped his husband's mouth and passionately kissed him. "And I'm on your side."

G closed his eyes again and snuggled closer to his husband. "Just hold me tight."


NCIS:LA NCIS:LA NCIS:LA


G awakened from his late afternoon nap to the sounds and sights of his new family entering the obstetrics intensive care unit suite. He pressed backward hoping to find his husband in the bed behind him. Right now, G desperately needed his support. To say he was nervous about caring for his new instant family was a seriously understated reality. Instead, G found the bed empty. He attempted to sit up in bed and failed once. Another try gave him only an inch or two of movement. His weakened body failed to respond to his desires.

"Easy, sweetheart," Sam said, coming over to his husband's side. "Let me help you sit up." He drew G upward in bed and raised the hospital bed's head. "Tell me when."

"Enough, feeling dizzy."

"Okay, down one, we good?"

"Much better." G scanned the bassinets beside his hospital bed to the left. He gawked at his new family unable to articulate the diverse emotions and thoughts welling up within him.

"Did you hear me?"

"What?" He gazed up into his husband's face.

"Who would you like to hold?"

"All of them and I want you to take a picture of us." Again five days had passed since he had given birth to his babies. This was too familiar. The grieving threatened to surface again and he pushed those feelings back down. He refocused on the his new family.

"How about three—"

"No!" G covered his mouth surprised at his own outburst. "Sorry, Sam, I… just sorry."

"Okay, all of them and only for a picture."

"More than one picture."

"All right, more than one." Sam gathered a son and a daughter and brought them over to his husband. He positioned them on his lap. Next the boys and placed each one by G's sides. Finally, he brought the littlest baby over.

G stretched both arms out to receive his little girl. Tears cascaded down his face. "Damn it." He failed to hold it together as he had hoped.

"Sweetheart, it's okay."

"I… damn… wanted this to be special and not cry."

"And it's okay if you do," Sam said. "I've cried a few tears myself. This is a stressful time."

"Just a few?"

"More than a few," he said. "When the doctors and nurses took me from you after you gave birth to our babies, I cried and they had to sedate me."

"What?"

"I wanted to keep this from you."

"I'm glad you didn't." G glanced up into his husband's eyes. "I love you and thank you for telling me. And I'm sorry you suffered."

"Thought you were going to—"

"Damn it!" He lowered his eyes to the window. "Don't say it."

"They said it, they feared it, they predicted it, and I'm glad they were wrong." Sam placed a single finger under his husband's chin and gently pushed it upward until their eyes met again. His eyes wet with tears, Sam gently kissed his husband's lips. "I love you and I'm glad you survived." He removed a camera from the bedside table and positioned himself to take his family's picture. "Smile sweetheart."

"Can't."

Sam lowered the camera. "Why?"

G sighed. "Afraid."

"What?"

"Afraid I can't do this." Tears threatened to spill over his eyelashes again.

"Join the club, me too, and we can and will, together." He raised the camera to his eyes again. "Smile, there you go." He took five more pictures moving about the suite to get different angles.

"I wish I could take at least one of you with them."

"Not happening for at least a month."

"What?" G jaw dropped open.

"Doctor's orders, bed rest for one month and possibly more if needed."

"Sucks."

"Yes, it does and you need to recover from the life threatening anemia." He put the camera down. "Which two do you want to breast feed first?"

"Her." G drew his smallest daughter into his body. He cuddled one of their boys in his other arm.

"That settles it." Sam picked up the three remaining babies and settled them back into their bassinets.

A nurse entered the suite and brought over a special bottle for the littlest girl.

G pushed her hand away. "No, she feeds from my breast."

"Sweetheart, she can't take a regular bottle."

"I don't care." Tears welled up in his eyes again. "I need to feed her my breast milk."

"Your breast milk is in the bottle," Sam said.

"Liar!" He brought his daughter to his breast.

"G, we pumped your breast while you were recovering from the—"

"I would've known, you are lying."

"I wouldn't do that to you." Sam took the bottle from the nurse and nodded for her to leave. "Let me help you—"

"We're doing this, she and I, and I'll prove to you she can do this."

Sam picked up his baby boy and cradled him in his arms while he watched his husband. He set the warmed bottle on the bedside table.

G cradled his daughter in his arms. "I'd like to change her name to Makana, which means priceless gift."

"It fits her well."

He helped his daughter with the nipple opening her mouth and expressing some breast milk into its tiny opening. G watched her swallow her first drops of milk from his breast. His mouth formed into a half smile, half smirk. "Makana, my sweet girl." G expressed more breast milk into his daughter's mouth and observed her attempting to suckle. He pressed her to his breast and felt her suck. Makana received some more milk and G felt it this time. "She's doing it, I told you she could."

Sam settled their boy down at G's right breast and covered both babies tucking their blankets around them. He laid down next to his husband's right side and rested his head on G's upper chest. "They're beautiful and as usual there's no fussing from a Hanna baby because they're in good hands."

"And I was freaked out about this and thought I wouldn't be able to feed any of them."

"You freaked out about feeding your babies?"

"Okay, don't rub it in."

"How about after you feed our babies I give you a rub down?"

"Now there's a way I loved to be rubbed." G winked at his husband and invited him into a kiss. After a lingering kiss, G and Sam resumed watching their babies receive sustenance.


Thanks for reading. More to come soon...