Sam could tell that Hetty was getting worried, she had tried calling G on his cell, but there had been no answer. G had taken three weeks of his holiday leave, which he rarely did, and no one had seen him since he had last been at work. He had been due to return to work that morning but never showed up or called to say he would be late. Nobody knew where he was or what he had been doing the past few weeks.

The cameras in his house were down, so there was no way of knowing what was going on inside the house. Sam was always on edge when something like this happened concerning his partner; the man was seemingly always in some kind of trouble or danger and he rarely seemed to care or notice. Often the team found out he had gone rogue again on some personal vendetta, forgetting that the team wanted to help him find the answers he needed.

Even Kensi and Deeks were getting frustrated with the lack of contact and had both gone quiet, the loss of their usual banter and Eric's whistling made the office seem dead. With Eric and Nell focused on trying to locate G.

"Hetty!" Sam called, seeing the Operations Manager making her way towards her office. "I'm going to his house!" Hetty nodded and Sam motioned for Kensi and Deeks to come with him; when G was involved, anything could happen.

"What do you think we are going to find, Sam?" Kensi asked as they neared G's neighbourhood. Sam had no idea, there was no limit to what they could walk into.

"I don't know Kens, call Kerry." Sam decided, thinking perhaps she could shed some light on the situation. Kensi seemed displeased to find that Kerry wasn't answering, the phone was just ringing out. Deeks tried the house phone again but it was dead.

"Something's not right Sam." Deeks said, obviously having the same uneasy feeling as Sam, that only worsened as they neared their leader's house.


Although Neal missed his life in New York, he was delighted to be back with G, his brother. He was still in regular contact with Mozzie so he knew that everyone back home was safe and healthy, although apparently Peter was in a permanently foul mood. Mozzie still met with Elizabeth every couple of days - making sure to avoid Peter in the process - so he knew that she was alright.

According to Moz, she was under the impression that Neal had needed to rush off somewhere to help an old friend - that was the only thing she would consider and Moz had told her nothing. She had tried to convince her husband, but Peter had decided that Neal had finally taken his chance and run. From what Moz could gather, Hughes had threatened to take Peter off the case but conceded due to the fact that the agent knew Neal like no one else - or he thought so at least.

The past three weeks were spent with G and Neal both using their various resources to find leads and attempt to track down Thomas Hart, the last remaining member of the Comescu family. With Mozzie working the entire Eastern Coast and all the way to Detroit, and Neal and G trying to cover everywhere else to the west, they should have found Hart by now.

"I don't understand!" Neal roared the one evening. "He has to be somewhere, how can we not have found him yet?" He was so frustrated he could no longer think straight, but luckily G was there to calm him down.

"Neal, calm down. He is somewhere, we haven't found him yet because he's good. Think about it, no one could find you for years while Peter searched for you. Hart isn't as good as you, so we will find him soon." Neal supposed that G was right.

"I guess so, I am the best aren't I." Neal smirked, not bothering to make the statement a question. "But then, you found me during those years. You were the one that could." G had been the only one to find him with no help or effort.

"And you found me when I disappeared, so we must be as good as each other." Neal laughed and Kerry walked in with a beer for G and two large glasses of red wind; one for her and the other for Neal.

"You boys being modest again?" She asked with a grin and sat on the sofa beside Neal, seemingly happy to have someone to share wine with her - or at least someone that actually appreciated it.

They took a break from their searching and thought processing, enjoying their drinks and sharing various stories between them. The trio were diverse but Neal felt they worked well together, and Moz would even have fit in well too. Kerry told them stories about normal life, after her Aunt had raised her. The stories were happy and full of good memories that made both Neal and G wonder at the idea of a normal life. G's stories were action-packed and incredible, Neal already knew a couple of them and noticed that certain parts were redacted by G. Neal understood that though, Kerry didn't need to hear those kinds of things. G had only told Neal because they trusted each other completely and G had needed someone to talk to.

Neal's anecdotes were the same as always; they were thrilling, unbelievable and seemingly impossible. Kerry was enthralled and Neal never told her a single lie. He recounted heists and forgeries and even told her which galleries held some of his work right then. She wasn't easy to convince when it came to his Degas forgery after the U-Boat incident, finding it difficult to believe that Neal had actually parachuted off the Penthouse balcony, landed safely in the street below and then hidden in the small room where Peter had locked him, with no one being any the wiser that he ever left. It had taken a video of the heist that G had to convince her.

"Where did you get that?" Neal asked, astonished.

"Mozzie sent it to me a couple days later, he knew you had discussed it with me and thought I would want to see you in action. Don't worry, I won't let anyone find it." Neal smiled, that sounded just like Moz.

"That's not what I meant. I might give Peter a copy, when he asked how I swapped the paintings I told him exactly the truth and he laughed. He didn't believe a word of it, although I don't know how; he once watched me jump out of a four-storey window and land on the awning of a bakery." G laughed.

"How ironic, he's taken in by some of your blatant fabrications and half-truths, yet disbelieves the truth when it is actually more conceivable than the lies." Neal knew Moz had seen the irony of it too, he had said virtually the same as G.

The trio took a longer break than intended and ended up talking late into the night and well into the early morning. Eventually, they all fell asleep right where they were. G was asleep with Kerry sprawled out across him, and Neal on the other end of the sofa with his head on Kerry's arm.

They all slept unnaturally long, Neal only awoke to G's deliberate shaking. Neal's mouth was covered by his friend's hand and Kerry was silently staring up at G.

"There are people here." G said. Then Neal's phone buzzed in his pocket and he checked it.

Duck.

Was all Mozzie said, when Kerry asked what it meant, Neal whispered. "Hit." Kerry froze and started shaking, before Neal knew what was really happening, G was pressing a fully loaded handgun into his hands. His expression told Neal all he needed to know, protect Kerry. Neal would have given the same look concerning Sara.


Callen felt terrible handing Neal the gun, but there was no alternative. Kerry pulled her own weapon from inside one of the cushions and awaited Callen's instructions. Neal glared at the weapons with distaste but he knew how to shoot and would shoot perfectly well.

"Take Kerry upstairs. Barricade yourselves in the bedroom if you need to, but don't come down, whatever you hear. I don't know how many or why they are here, understand?" Neal and Kerry both nodded to Callen, and then allowed him to usher them upstairs. The early morning light threw the shadows of the enemy so Callen could predict their movements relatively easily.

He was able to take care of the first group that came through the back, but when more came through the front and continued to pile into the house, Callen became more and more outnumbered. He started panicking when he heard gunshots being fired from upstairs. He recognised the sounds of both Neal and Kerry's weapons firing, plus a number of enemy fire.

It was times like this that Callen wished his team were with him, protecting his family as he protects theirs. But they weren't there, Callen hadn't been given enough time to call them. Sam would probably be pissed, thinking that his partner had gone all lone wolf again, but he hadn't. This time, Callen hadn't.

Callen continued to fire at intruders and wouldn't stop until they were all dead or he was, but at the rate things were going, the second option seemed more likely.

A sudden burst of gunfire just as Callen swapped magazines came from the back door, as Callen peered around the table that covered him, he saw intruders falling to the ground dead. He couldn't see the shooter and presumed it was his team, so he carried on taking out the remainder of the men dressed in black.

When someone came to take cover beside him, Callen turned expecting to see Sam or Deeks, but instead he found himself face to face with Arkady Kolcheck. Callen raised his eyebrows but smiled at his trusted old friend.

After what seemed like an eternity and an apparent end to the stream of intruders, Callen stood and helped Arkady to his feet. "What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I heard about the hit, it was only ordered half an hour ago, I knew you wouldn't have any warning and well… I didn't want you dying before you paid your debts." The Russian man laughed, although joking, he wasn't entirely.

"Great, so I owe you two now?" Callen groaned but Arkady shook his head.

"No, still just the one, that last favour you did me was pretty big, Callen." The two men shook hands and embraced briefly, then Callen looked towards the stairs and asked Arkady to get Kerry and Neal, them all knowing and trusting the Rusian man. Callen needed to see who all these men in black were.

Arkady had just greeted Neal and Kerry, Callen could hear them from downstairs. Before the agent reached the first body - of a great many - there was a noise behind him and then his head erupted in agony. All Callen could feel was blinding pain and he groaned before falling to the floor. The commotion must have been heard by the others upstairs because he heard two pairs of rushing footsteps. Just as another hit landed to the back of his head, a gunshot sounded and Callen was engulfed in darkness.


Sam heard the gunshot as he ran towards the open front door of G's house, Kensi and Deeks hot on his heels. They all paused and drew their weapons, when Sam motioned for the two junior agents to take the back and he would take the front.

Sam burst into the front room, slamming the front door closed behind him and aimed his gun at the figure leaning over a body on the floor. The figure was desperately trying to awaken the body and hadn't even noticed Sam's entrance, at first Sam thought it was G, but he wasn't so sure.

"Stand up and put your hands behind you head." Sam called, startling the dark figure. Before Sam could react, the man spun around, crouched over the body and aimed the gun directly at Sam's forehead. Sam recognised the stranger, although he couldn't place his face or recall a name. Then he realised that the body he crouched over was G.

"Move away from the body!" Sam growled, but the man refused. Just then Kensi and Deeks swarmed in to the left of the figure and G's unconscious body, their guns both trained on the stranger.

"You have no escape, put down your weapon!" Sam shouted, noting the wall and agents on each side of the other man.

"So shoot me, either you kill us both or leave." Sam frowned, what the hell did he mean? Why would he think they wanted to kill G?

"Put the weapon down and we can sort this out." Deeks tried.

The stranger laughed. "You sound like Feds. Oh, you're not suits are you? That would be all I need."

"No, NCIS. Put down your weapon, you are under arrest." Kensi shouted.

"No I'm not. I have no proof that you are who you say you are. So either shoot me or leave, I don't have time for this." So now the stranger was being demanding and apparently had somewhere better to be. Sam was all ready to shoot him and be done with it, he needed to check his partner. He noticed that the strangers eyes kept going to G, as if checking him, so Sam guessed he was still alive.

"Kens, do you have a shot?" Sam asked, right in front of the criminal.

"Yes." She assented, and Sam opened his mouth to order her to take the shot, but then Kerry came barreling down the stairs and threw herself directly in front of the stranger.

"Sam, please… stop." All three agents stopped in their tracks and Sam became even more confused as Arkady Kolcheck came down the stairs.

"Kerry, you need to go back upstairs. Callen would kill me if you got hurt." The Russian hardly even acknowledged Sam's presence.

"No, Arkady. Sam was going to shoot Neal. I hadn't heard them from upstairs until I came to check on Gabriel. Is he alright?" Kerry asked the stranger, who shrugged shakily.

"Sam, please put the guns away. No one here is an enemy. Sam please, Gabriel needs help." Sam nodded to the other agents and all three put their guns away and made their way towards G. But the stranger threw his weapon to the floor and turned to check on G himself, before they had even moved a step.

"Nick, is he alive?" Arkady addressed the stranger.

"Yes. He took two hard hits to the back of the head but he'll wake up soon enough. He always does." Sam couldn't deny that the man - Nick? - knew G and at least wanted him alive, but both he and the rest of the team wanted some answers and explanation.


Kerry couldn't believe Sam had been about to order Neal shot, she didn't think Gabriel could ever have survived that. His partner and best friend killing the only family he had really been able to find (except for his team). But the situation was complicated and not for Kerry to explain, she knew that Gabriel and Neal had intended for very few people to ever know they knew each other. That was going to have to change now, to include the team but there had been no way around it. Luckily for her, the team weren't demanding answers, they were only worried about Gabriel for the moment.

"Nick, is he going to wake up?" Kerry asked, only now remembering not to use Neal's real name just yet.

"He's had worse and been awake by now. He'll be alright Kerry, we both know he hasn't slept properly since Hart escaped." Kerry did know, and she felt terrible for not finding a way to help him rest more - but what could she really have done?

"Don't blame yourself Kerry, there was nothing more you could have done. If anything, I should have been here sooner, perhaps we could have found something together." Kerry was grateful for Neal's uncanny ability to practically read her mind, it meant she didn't have to tell him things but he would still give her advice.

Kerry helped Neal patch Gabriel up, figuring it was best done whilst he was asleep. She gasped as light fell on the wounds and blood seemed to be everywhere, but Neal assured her that head wounds really did bleed a lot and that it wasn't too serious.

With Sam's help, Gabriel ended up on the sofa and he started to wake up not too long later.

"Gabriel?" Kerry asked, trying to coax him out of darkness.

"G… you need to wake up now. They're all dead and everyone's here waiting for you. We don't have time for this." Kerry shook her head at Sam who glared at Neal, or some reason the Seal didn't trust him. Although Neal was a conman, so it wasn't completely ridiculous.

Kerry didn't think anyone could look as relieved as Neal did when Gabriel finally opened his eyes and tried to sit up.