N.A.: I know, I know, sorry for the waiting. I hope you guys like it! thank you for reading!

Chapter 37

In an impulse G hugged Sam, letting both of them surprised at the reaction.

- "I didn't know you were here. How are you?" he asked anxious, he had started to feel dizzy some minutes ago and he knew that Sam would notice it at once.

- "Amazed. It's the first time since we know each other that you said more than three words altogether. What a speech!"- he said, the banter coming natural to him. G smiled.

- "Yeah Callen that was impressive. I didn't know you were such an orator. Hello Sam!" - said Kensi approaching and hugging her two friends.

- "Hi Kens; you look good."- said Callen happy to have a distraction from Sam's examination.

- "Thanks, sunshine and beach."

Deeks was some steps behind the group; he saluted Sam without looking at G. On the other hand Sam didn't take his eyes off Callen.

- "What's this, G?" - he said doing a vague gesture with his hand.

- "Just one of Hetty's fancy suits."

- "I mean this" – Sam said this time taking G by the chin and turning his head to have a more clear view of his cut eyebrow and the bruises.

Sam let some of his frustration out and his touch was more brusque than pretended. G not expecting that, reacted and pushed Sam's hand in the same abrupt way, looking at him hurt.

- "A bigger guy?"- asked Kensi feeling the sudden tension between the two friends.

- "No, four of them."- answered G still annoyed.

- "Five Mr. Callen, they were five"- intervened Hetty who had followed the exchange from some distance and sensed problems.

- "Hello Sam"- she saluted- "it's good to see you".

- "Thank you, Hetty, is good to see you too."- he said hugging her. Addressing to Callen again he exclaimed:

- "So you were alone for some days, you become a politician and you get in trouble" -his tone wasn't kind, but all the emotions of the past three weeks were surfacing.

- "Not that I had much choice, believe me."- G answered in low voice, sweat started to form in his forehead. He touched his ear unconsciously. He was feeling weaker by the minute and it scared him. Last thing he wanted was their team mates saw him passing out.

- "Congratulations are in order Mr. Callen, you had everyone eating right out of your hand."

Callen looked at the floor blushed without a quick joke or an ingenious or cheeky sentence to answer Hetty, and that was also a first for Sam to see.

- "Let's go to have dinner"- proposed Kensi -"it looks that Eric had already started and I'm starving."

They looked at the wonder twins. Eric was explaining to Nell how the screen system worked while eating a big sandwich. G looked helpless for a second and Hetty went to the rescue.

- "I'm afraid that Mr. Callen and I couldn't join you today. We have a teleconference in exactly two minutes and we'll be busy for the next hours."- she lied.

- "C'mon Hetty we have to catch up!"- begged Kensi.

- "You can blame the Secretary of Defense, my dear, he's such a party pooper!"

- "Ok, let's go."- said Deeks speaking for the first time and initiating the march.

- "See you tomorrow Callen"

- "Good night, Kens. Guys."- he answered.

- "Talk to you later G."- said Sam with a look that meant business, going with the others reluctantly.

Callen made a farewell gesture with his hand, and the moment the others left he leaned his back against the column and closed his eyes. Even if he was willing for the guys to go he couldn't help but feeling excluded from the group; the bond between them was stronger than before. Hetty approached looking at him worried.

- "Can you make it to the couch?"

- "Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine, I just need to lay down for a second"- he said as he walked feeling his legs like jelly. When finally he sat down he had to bit his lip for not crying.

- "Is your ear hurting again?"

- "Everything hurts and I don't know why"- he said with a grimace as he laid. Hetty knew that he wasn't exaggerating.

- "You didn't eat today, did you?"

- "Yeah I did!"

- "What?"

- "Donuts"

- "Yes, in ops and at six in the morning, Mr. Callen, it's eight thirty in the afternoon."

- "I was busy and not hungry. I forgot. Are you telling me that I'm in pain for not eating?"

- "I've seen it before, in Vietnam, prisoners in the camps deprived of food and sleep were permanently dizzy and their suffered hyper sensibility among other symptoms."

- "Hetty this is not a forced-labor camp. The doctor in Washington said I'm fine!"- he said weakly supporting his head between the arms.

- "Are you?"

Hetty gave him a mug and two pills. G looked at her, he didn't want to end sedated like last time.

- "It's just ibuprofen, Mr. Callen. Drink, all of it."

- "Disgusting" - he protested, but he took the pills and drank it anyway.

- "Yes, tea with a lot of sugar, but apparently is what you need."

He was paler than some minutes ago and his skin looked clammy.

- "Try to rest now. I come back in a minute."

When Hetty come back she found G sleeping on the couch, the shirt wet with sweat and the suit all wrinkled. She touched his front, it was lightly hot.

- "Bugger!"

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Still munching their burritos the rest of the team were talking about the strange mission and Callen's teleconference.

- "Hey Beale wake up! You've spent all day with him. What the hell is doing Callen?"- Called Deeks.

- "Don't remind me! I arrived at 6am and Callen was already working, it was exhausting!"

- "But what did you do?"- asked Sam

- "We prepared the teleconference. He needed the grid on the map, but he supervised every street such that in each one of the intersections we'll find at least a security cam. Then I did the program in order that every agency could have access to the web cam and the signal on live simultaneously with the same information. Then he made me double check the statistics of every operation done by the Molina cartel the last ten years and after…"

- "All right, Eric, we get an idea."- cut Deeks earning a nudge from Kensi.

- "Why didn't you call me, Beale?"- asked Nell.

- "Callen didn't want to."- he said not wanting to elaborate. Luckily Sam changed the subject:

- "How was he, Eric?"

- "Well, you know Callen, he ate nearly all my donuts in ops, but he was all business. He passed more than 3 hours studying documents and files without raising his eyes from the screen. No time to chat really."

Somewhat reassured Sam didn't insist, the conversation changed and he expend the next minutes talking about their kids' first day of school. Eric felt asleep again and they decided to go home. Next day they will have the opportunity of knowing more details about the mission.

First thing Sam did the moment he closed the door was to phone G. He needed to talk to him. What was that of a quarrel with five guys in Washington and that crazy mission? At the third tone the voicemail biped. G knew he was going to call and he disconnected the phone. He felt more hurt than disappointed this time.