Hey there everyone! I'm a little late on the update, I know, but hopefully this will make up for it. It's a little longer than the other chapters, has nothing really to do with the main storyline, yet is one of my own favorite chapters (it was really fun to write). I hope you enjoy! Thanks again for all the reviews, too. I love reading them!

Once again, italics are in Russian. Last chapter of that (I think).

It was difficult to see where they were headed amid the maze of abandoned boxes. From the look of the factory, Kensi imagined it hadn't been used in a number of years. Whether it was a victim of the economy or outsourcing, it didn't matter; it now provided a use it was never intended for. And as much as Kensi hated it, there were far too many of these places to keep track of what happened in all of them.

The dull, florescent lights barely lit the path through the rubble, but Kensi followed the man all the same. Thoughts and scenarios raced through her mind as they moved, but were silenced as the three men came into view. The second man (Nikolai, as he'd been called) was still arguing with the older one and Callen was still watching with that same hard set to his jaw.

They turned as though in slow motion as the man in front of her called out to them. Kensi tried not to watch the line of emotions flash through Callen's eyes as they lead her into the light. She instead looked to each of the other men. The older man looked surprised (but hid it well) and quickly looked from Callen to Nikolai. The latter glared at Callen and began fiercely speaking again.

"You see, Alek? We have been followed. I told you he could not be trusted!" There was a quick motion and Nikolai had his gun pointed at Callen's head. Kensi watched as Callen's expression changed from one of surprise to mild amusement, but deep in his eyes there was a glimpse of something that worried her; fear.

"Put it down, Nikolai. You'll hurt yourself."

"Be quiet! I do not listen to you."

"But you do listen to me," Alek responded, stepping in and waving off the men at her side. They left after handing him the gun she had carried in with her. Kensi could see the worry plainly written in his dark eyes as he held the gun and walked a circle around her. "Do you know this woman?" he asked, turning to Callen.

"I do not," Callen answered. She tried to read what was in them, but couldn't once Alek came and stood in front of her.

"Then shoot her, if you do not know her," Nikolai muttered as Alek rejoined them. "Shoot her or I will shoot you."

"I plan to. But be patient." Callen fixed Kensi with a chilling stare. "She could tell us who is after you," Callen stated, stepping out toward Kensi and bowing his head slightly. "It would be a shame to kill her before she has the chance to speak." He slowly walked around her as Alek had, and she jumped when he spoke in English from behind her. "Who are you?"

She wasn't sure where this set-up was going, if it was going anywhere at all. She had come to trust Callen (or as close to trust as she allowed), but wasn't completely sure that he wouldn't shoot her now that she had stumbled on something he didn't want found. All the same, she decided to go with her gut.

"Agent Blye, NCIS," she gritted out, glaring at him.

Callen smirked as he continued to circle her. "Well, Agent Blye, NCIS. It seems that you have picked a very bad time to do reconnaissance work." She didn't miss the double meaning in his words as he stopped in front of her. He leaned in closely, his eyes piercing and she was reminded of their conversation in the market. How long ago that all seemed. "Hang on," he breathed, so quietly she thought she imagined it.

Suddenly, the quiet of the abandoned factory became pure chaos. Callen grabbed the back of her shirt and threw her behind an old crate just as the bullets started flying. Callen must have gotten off the first shot, as Kensi could see Alek through the slats of the wood, lying on the floor and groaning in pain. Callen dove down across from her as Nikolai's shots began ricocheting off the surfaces around them.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Me?" he hissed back, ducking as a shot came dangerously close. "What are you doing here? Did you follow me?"

"You forget I'm an agent too…and a damn good one!" she nearly screamed over the noise. "You think you're the only one who can run a tail without being seen?"

Callen ran forward and fell beside her as Nikolai began yelling and kept shooting.

"Those are some friends you've got," Kensi muttered over the sound of splintering wood.

"What can I say?" Callen rose, fired two shots off, and crouched back next to her. "I'm a likeable guy." Their heads collided as they ducked in unison, and Callen quickly moved to his knees. "Move along these crates." He paused as Nikolai yelled again and the sound of shuffling feet came from their right. "And shoot to kill," he added, handing over his gun. Before she could ask what he was doing, he ran out of their makeshift shelter. She yelled after him, but heard men rushing toward her and turned to move deeper into the building.

Kensi ran between rows of crates and threw herself against one, listening as the pounding of feet came closer. She guessed that the goons from outside had found their way back in, and only hoped Callen was carrying a back-up. Her thoughts were thrown off when she heard heavy breathing around the corner. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and turned.

The burly man who had pushed her into the building was standing in her path, gun drawn. He popped off a quick shot, which flew wide to her left. She answered by putting two in his chest, and he went down with a loud thud. Kensi continued through the dark maze of trash, weaving through machines and containers all while keeping an ear on everything around her.

She could hear Nikolai calling out to Callen, and felt a wave of relief when his voice answered. The loud crack of shots filled the room once more, followed by a crashing of wood. Kensi thought of running back toward them, and quickly checked the clip in Callen's gun. Two bullets.

The sounds of a struggle continued as Kensi wound her way back to them. Before she could reach Callen, a shot went high and shattered the glass of an office window behind her. Another blew into the door and she took the opportunity to dive into the room, setting herself up for a shot inside the relative security it would provide. Kensi threw herself against the inner side of the doorframe and crept up to the window, peeking through its grimy pane.

"Wh…who are you?"

Kensi startled and nearly shot the owner of the voice behind her. There was fear in the woman's eyes as the gun remained pointed directly at her head, and she crouched further into the corner of the dingy office. Kensi quickly lowered her gun and ran over to the woman. She had a zip tie around her wrists and the agent could make out bruises on her arms in the dim light.

Before Kensi could respond to her question, footfalls outside the door brought her attention back to her pursuer. "I'm here to help," Kensi stated, not knowing if that was the full truth or not, but knowing she would do everything she could to follow through. The words seemed to relieve the woman and tears began falling rapidly from her eyes.

After asking if she was okay and receiving a tearful nod, Kensi returned to the window. She could see the second goon outside the room and he was about to enter. Without a good angle on him, she put the pistol into the back waist of her jeans and stood at the ready.

His gun came first, and she used the advantage of surprise to lunge on him and try to pull it from his hands. A shot went off and smashed into the opposite wall, sending a flurry of screams up from the room's other occupant. The large man wouldn't let go easily, and jerked his arms upwards, catching her off guard. Kensi felt a sickening crack as the gun connected with her jaw, and she realized she wouldn't be able to fight his strength for it. A well placed kick aimed at his groin gave her the split second chance to get the gun from her back and fire off a shot.

Her bullet caught him in the chest and the large man went down hard, falling half out of the room and half in. Kensi cautiously stepped over his body, keeping her gun trained on him as she inched closer. Bending, she kicked the gun from his limp hand and placed two fingers on his neck. Dead.

The sound of a final shot echoed through the building and silence fell once more. Kensi quickly grabbed the gun from the ground and went back into the office.

"Take this," she stated, cutting the tie and quickly pushing the weapon into her hands.

"I…I can't…" the woman started, fumbling with the gun. Kensi replaced it more surely in her hands before backing away.

"Yes, you can. Just stay here, I'll be back."

Kensi hurried forward, keeping her eyes and ears trained for movement. After winding her way through broken boxes and shards, she found herself near where they had started. There was a man lying on the floor, breathing deeply. She recognized Alek and looked around for one of the others. She wasn't sure who she would find, and only hoped it wouldn't be Callen lying on the ground and bleeding out.

A wave of panic hit her as the image flashed across her mind, and she quickly scanned the area. She spotted a foot sticking out from the wreckage of a shattered crate and hurried over, keeping her gun raised and her senses alert. The surrounding crates were spattered with blood, and she could feel her own blood pounding in her ears as she inched closer to finding the identity of the man.

There was a hand on her shoulder and she spun quickly, seeing nothing but the bright blue eyes of Callen.

"Easy, Kenz," he exclaimed, removing himself from her line of fire. He had a cut above his left eye, but was alive and standing in front of her. She felt an immense wave of relief that he was okay overtake her and fought the urge to throw her arms around him. Instead, she settled on lowering her gun and letting out the breath she'd been holding.

"What is going on?" she repeated, exasperation evident in every word.

Callen glanced once more at Nikolai's dead body before grabbing the gun from her hands and handing her own recovered gun back to her. She felt his gaze linger on the wound on her jaw and absently put a hand up to it. "I'll get to that. I will," he added, seeing her expression. "First we've got to find someone," he stated, putting his gun into his belt covering it with his shirt. He began walking in the wrong direction when Kensi spoke up.

"Let me guess, blonde, 40's, tied up and scared to death?"

He stopped in his tracks and faced her, surprise evident on his usually unreadable face. Kensi gave him one of his patent smirks as he stared back at her. "Where is she?"

She could tell that she should hurry, and obliged him by jogging while leading him back to the office. But there was something she needed to know before she let him near the mysterious woman she had found. When they arrived at the bullet-riddled door, Kensi put a hand on his chest to halt him. "What are you going to do to her?"

Callen threw her an impatient look and sighed. "I…we…are here to take her back to her husband. And we need to do it now," he finished, and Kensi couldn't deny the look in his eyes. She could feel his heart pounding underneath her hand and became aware that she was still touching his chest.

Withdrawing it as though she'd been burned, she broke eye contact and nodded. "What is her name?"

"Angie Redding."

She must have heard her name being said, because after a moment a blonde head popped out the door of the office, holding the gun up in her shaking hands. Kensi sent her a reassuring smile as the woman eyed Callen suspiciously.

"Angie?" she asked, hesitantly, moving forward and grabbing the gun from her hand before she could accidentally shoot someone. "Everything is okay."

The woman nodded with wide eyes and leaned against Kensi for support. Her gaze flicked from Callen to Kensi and back as she drew in a shaky breath. "Who are you people?"

Callen answered, using the same calm voice from the night he told her about her father. "Look, Angie, I know you're confused right now but I need you to move. Can you do that for me?" Her frightened eyes flicked to Kensi, who smiled once more, and she nodded. Kensi gently prodded her toward the outside door while Callen walked ahead.

Before walking out, Callen stopped and pushed the now awake and struggling Alek down with his foot. "Dosvidanya, Alek."

Kensi took a deep breath of the thick LA night air as they emerged on the other side. There were sirens in the distance and the sound of the ever living city relaxed her. A screech of tires broke her from her reprieve as a dark blue sports car flew into the lot. She was about to raise her gun when Callen put a hand on her arm. A well-dressed but disheveled man jumped out of the driver's seat and looked frantically at them.

"Oh, my god! Angie!"

"Tom!" Kensi winced when the woman's cry pierced the night as she flew from their side to her husband. "Oh, god, Tom…"

They embraced for a moment and Kensi felt like they should leave the two alone. She looked over to Callen, who seemed to want the same thing, but had to follow other plans.

"How…how can I repay you?" the man asked him, clutching his sobbing wife.

"Listen," Callen stated, ignoring the man's question and walking over to the black sedan he'd arrived in. "The police are coming. When they get here, you tell them everything about Alek and the kidnapping."

"And if they ask how they're all dead?"

"Let's just say Alek will have screwed over the wrong Iranian jihadist group," he grunted, bending down to the underside of the car and fiddling with something there. "Just tell them you got an anonymous call telling you to come alone. When you got here, the car was already burning and they were dead. Besides, our friend Alek isn't dead. Between the LAPD and the CIA, they'll be more worried with questioning him than you."

"Wait. What burning car?" Kensi asked.

"Oh yeah," he started, standing. "One more thing – back up." Kensi and the Redding's complied and Callen darted back before an explosion ripped through the night. When Kensi uncovered her face, the town car was nothing more than a ball of flame and groaning metal.

Kensi could already hear the sirens moving closer and looked at Callen incredulously. He threw her a quick glance before addressing Tom Redding once more. "And remember, stick to the blackmail and kidnapping. None of this," he motioned around with his hand "ever happened."

Redding nodded and Callen returned to Kensi's side. "Let's go."