A/N - so this chapter has been written only in the last couple of days and was prompted from an interesting conversation with zeilfanaat and a touch of prompting from countrygirluk56. Perhaps not as polished as the rest since I haven't sat on it for long but it's mainly a little bit of fun and fluff and simmer. Thank you both, I've had a lot of fun writing this chapter!

I'm not quite sure I'll be able to get the next chapter up tomorrow - it's a big one and life has gotten in the road the last few days for getting ahead. Sorry for that but hopefully it won't be too far away and will be worth the wait.

Enjoy and love to hear what you think when you're done.


Chapter 52 - Coffee

Callen had just left Hetty's desk to return to the bullpen when he saw Jessie come through the entry doors and down the corridor. He didn't miss the yawn or the eye rub as she walked toward him. He changed direction.

"What's up Doc?" Callen asked. "Big night?"

Jessie looked at him, a small smile lifted the corners of her lips but disappeared into another yawn. "Coffee machine broke this morning," she said, rather sleepily.

"Can it be fixed?" He was tempted to ask if she'd driven or not but he refrained. He trusted that if she wasn't in a position to drive herself safely she wouldn't have.

Jessie shrugged. "I'll have to call tomorrow. I'm at the hospital from four this afternoon so -" She yawned again. "Hopefully."

Callen chuckled. "I don't think I've seen you this sleepy first thing in the morning."

"Have you seen me before my first cup of coffee before?"

Callen thought for a moment. "A couple of times." He couldn't count their time in Vienna since she'd managed to be up before him every day. "Why didn't you stop and get some on the way?"

"I was running late."

"Did you drive?"

"No. Going straight to the hospital from here."

"Maybe you should've called and I'd have come and got you. I could've even brought coffee with me."

Jessie smiled. "I'll try to rem-"

"Mr Callen." Callen turned to see Hetty beckoning him over.

"Duty calls," Jessie murmured and headed down the corridor to her office. Callen watched her go before he answered the summons.


Callen didn't wait in her doorway this time. He simply walked up to Jessie's desk and put the coffee in front of her along with the donut.

Jessie looked up. "You brought me coffee?"

"Don't forget the donut. And," Callen grinned, "don't forget to thank Sam for bringing them in this morning otherwise I'd have had to raid Kensi's secret stash of twinkies."

Jessie smiled and the dimple on the left side that Callen had noticed but hadn't really registered how tempting it was, showed up.

"We can't have you being in Kensi's bad books can we?" she said. "Thank you." Jessie lifted the coffee cup to her lips and sipped. "You do make very good coffee."

"I try." Callen moved away from her desk and stepped backward toward the door.

"That's it?" Jessie said. She tilted her head, a confused expression on her face. "You just came to bring me coffee and a donut?"

"That's it Doc," Callen agreed. "No ulterior motive." Unless you counted getting to see her again.

"No next step?"

"That's coming but you're not ready yet. Plus, you'd know with the look right?"

"Do I want to know what you have planned?"

Callen chuckled. "Nope, plus I don't have a plan yet." He might have more than one though. He just hadn't decided which way to go. He continued backwards toward the door. "Just remember to trust me and you'll do fine whatever is I get you to do."

Jessie raised an eyebrow. "Why do I have a feeling you're not talking about my issue with guns anymore."

Callen grinned. "I don't mind if you want to apply it to everything else." He turned and walked out the door and tried not to think just where he could go with that.


Jessie slid the key into the lock of her apartment door, turned it and pushed the door open. The brightness inside the apartment, rather than the darkness she usually found, had her freeze, door open, key still in the lock with one foot in and one foot out. She started to breathe again when she saw Callen's jacket on the back of the couch, right near the door. Perhaps a sign for her that he was here, perhaps just coincidence but she was relieved either way to know just who was lurking in her apartment at this time of night. She hadn't spotted his car when she'd gotten out of the taxi but that didn't mean it wasn't around somewhere. Why he was here though was something she didn't know but intended to find out. Jessie stepped through her door and closed it quietly. She put her bag and jacket down along with her keys and walked toward the kitchen where, since the light was on, she assumed he would be. A familiar tapping and clinking reached her ears. Oh no. She moved quicker but stopped when she saw him.

"G?" Jessie stared at her kitchen bench. There wasn't any part of it that wasn't covered with things that were most likely, given that her coffee machine was no longer where she was sure she'd left it this morning, parts of her coffee machine. "What -" She let out a breath on a sigh.

"I can't be in trouble," Callen turned and her eyes were drawn from the horror on her bench to him, where her heart jumped a little at the cheeky half smile he already in place. "It was already broken," he added.

"But it was in one piece. Do you even know how to fix it?"

"Working on it."

"Why?" The word was filled with bewilderment. Jessie wasn't sure she was up for this right now. The why had a multitude of questions behind it. Which one he would answer she wasn't sure.

"Can't have you without coffee."

The phrasing confused her and Jessie gave her head a little shake not quite sure what he was saying. Because it could be taken a couple of different ways.

"You know what," Jessie said. "I'm going to bed because I'm obviously too tired to make sense of this." She took three steps away before she backed up again and turned to face him.

"Wait. How did you get in?" Jessie frowned. "Did you pick my lock?"

"No," Callen denied. "That would be illegal."

Jessie raised her eyebrows as something in her distant memory jumped out at her. "You've done it once before though." She still remembered opening her eyes to see him in her bedroom and the worry that had been in his eyes, combined with a hint of anger that had confused her but had been easily explained.

"Probable cause," Callen said calmly. "Nothing illegal then."

"Probable cause?"

"I was worried about you."

Okay she'd give him that. "And this time?"

"Key."

"Since when do you have a key?" Jessie frowned as another thought came to mind. "You brought my car back from Sam's but I only left you with the car keys. How did you get in?" That was another moment she would never forget finding him there for her when she desperately needed him but didn't even know it until she'd seen his car on the street.

"Keys then too."

The man was infuriating. He knew exactly what she wanted to know. "G." Her tone was firm and her look warned him not to play. At least she hoped it did.

"I kept a set when we changed the locks," Callen admitted and took a step closer to her after he'd wiped his hands clean.

"Again ... why?"

"In case of an emergency."

Jessie ran her hands through her hair in frustration. "My coffee machine isn't an emergency."

"That's debatable." Callen grinned. "Go to bed Doc," he said, his tone soft and comforting. "Trust me. I promise it will be back together by the time you wake up."

"That's less than five hours from now G. I'll be up at eight to be in the office by nine."

Callen stepped closer and Jessie took a step back. "You need to sleep," he told her. "No point waking up coming into the office and trying to go back to sleep. You'll sleep better here."

"I sleep fine in the office G. That couch is very comfortable."

"I'm sure it is, but not as much as your bed."

Jessie backed up a little more. Him talking about being in bed was sending her thoughts in a direction that, while she was sure would be very interesting, wasn't something she was up for right now.

"You are not to be in the office before twelve Doc."

There was a warning note to his tone she'd be wise to listen to. Whilst under normal circumstances she would've listened to the warning, she wasn't always wise around him, especially when she was slightly sleep deprived … or almost anytime she was around him for that matter.

"Or," Callen continued, that warning tone still there, "I'll pick you up and take you back to bed."

Jessie raised an eyebrow. "Is that a threat Agent Callen?" She started to back down the hallway toward her bedroom, a brief part of her being wise and getting her out of there, even if her tongue was hell bent on finding trouble. "Or a promise?"

The look in his eyes changed, his voice dropped. "A promise Doctor Blake. Always a promise."

Her heart flipped and her body felt hot. Jessie was lucky she was at the door to her bedroom and not closer to him because during that moment of potential that hung between them her feet almost started walking forward of the own accord. But her day had been too long and she wasn't sure if she was seeing something she wanted to see or something that was actually there.

"Good night G. Do try and keep it down." It took a lot to keep her voice light. She turned toward her door.

"Doc."

Jessie turned back to him and felt a shaft of disappointment shoot through her that the heat was gone from his voice, just concern to be heard now. She turned her head to look at him but kept her body facing her doorway, just in case.

"How was the hospital?" Callen asked.

"Busy," Jessie replied. "But nothing big." Just a tonne of patients that never seemed to stop coming through the door. It may or may not have had something to do with the full moon.

"Kids?"

The man was a danger to her heart because it flipped again and the butterflies in her stomach jumped up and down, awfully happy to know that he remembered and was concerned for her. "Nothing more than the usual colds and stomach bugs," she said, "where the visit was more reassurance for the parents rather than treatment for the patient." She smiled softly. "Night G."

"Night."

Jessie quietly closed the bedroom door and leaned her head back against it for just a moment. She took a slow breath. One day things would fall into place and she'd figure out what it was between them. Or she'd just come right out and ask - she just wasn't sure she was brave enough to do that without being somewhat surer of what he felt for her. For now though, she'd bide her time and hope that when it came to being brave she chose the moment well, because she wasn't sure what she'd do if it caused him to walk away instead of come closer.

With a sigh she moved off the door, got changed and was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow; the gentle tapping and clinking sounds not quite as disturbing as the first time she'd heard them at Sam's. Perhaps it had something to do with knowing exactly who was making it this time.


Jessie leaned against her car door and sipped her coffee. The doors opened and Callen walked out and headed straight for her. She took another sip and waited for him to get closer before she spoke.

"Technically I'm not in the office yet." It was just before twelve.

"You are on work grounds." There was that mischievous smile lurking in his eyes and she couldn't help but smile back.

"But you said not to be in the office before twelve," Jessie told him, "so I'm not in trouble."

"I could fix that," Callen lifted one side of his mouth in that half smile that was doing more to her this morning than it usually did. "I'm sure I could carry you a few steps inside," he added.

"What would the point of that be?"

"Then I get to take you home."

"Ah home." But he hadn't said home this morning when he'd threatened, sorry promised. "There was something not quite right this morning," Jessie said. Aside from you not being there when I woke up that is.

"What was that?"

"My coffee machine."

"Looks like it was working." Callen pointed at her travel mug. "Does it do a good job?"

"Much better than it did before."

Callen took the cup out of her hand and tried it. "Pretty good."

Jessie wasn't sure if it was deliberate or not but his lips ended up in the same place hers had just been and he'd kept his eyes on hers as he'd taken his sip.

"Hmm." Jessie took back the mug and tilted her head a little. "It was strange," she said. "I swear my coffee machine was silver, but now it's black."

"That is strange. But then," Callen smiled, "you do have some issues with your powers of observation of certain things."

"I will admit that there are certain … things … I seem to have difficulty noticing when it comes to a certain someone's stealth mode, however getting back to my coffee machine, I actually had to read the instructions. I haven't had to do for at least two years. In fact, when I moved into my apartment here I threw them out because I didn't need them anymore."

"Really?"

Jessie chuckled. "G why do I have a new coffee machine?"

"Couldn't fix the old one."

"I could've had someone look at it and fix it. That's what I was planning to do."

Callen shrugged. "And now you don't have to."

"How much do I owe you?"

"You don't."

"G," she said firmly.

"Jessie," Callen said her name just as firmly as she had done his. "You needed a working coffee machine. I couldn't fix your old one so I replaced it."

Jessie stepped a touch closer. "My old one," she said. "The one that you were trying to fix in the middle of last night."

"Yes."

"I know you can order online anytime but to get something delivered in said middle of the night?" Jessie shook her head. "Didn't think that was done."

"Who said it was the middle of the night when it was delivered?"

Jessie chuckled. "You were gone by seven this morning. Deliveries don't usually start til after that."

"What are you suggesting Doc?"

Yeah, she was onto him. The tone might be innocent but Callen certainly wasn't keeping the twinkle out of his eyes, or the smile off his lips that would've reinforced the innocence.

"I'm not suggesting anything," Jessie told him. "You already had one to replace it."

"So?"

"How much?"

Her stubborn blue eyed agent remained silent.

"Fine." Jessie shrugged and stepped back from him. "I'll go to the shops, find out how much and get Hetty to put the money in your bank account."

"Or you can accept it for what it is," Callen countered.

"What is that?" Would she finally get some answers from the man this morning that she could actually follow?

"An investment."

Nope. Of course not. "In what?"

"My health."

"What?"

Callen grinned and stepped closer. Close enough to make her breath catch. "If my doctor's not awake," he said softly, "how is she going to take care of me?"

"Maybe you should be taking care of yourself a little more so she doesn't have to patch you up so often." Her words were softly and way more breathy than she wanted them to be.

"Who else is going to take care of you?"

Jessie almost sighed when Callen tucked her hair behind her ear and his fingers brushed her skin. The slightest touch from him had the potential to turn her into a puddle at his feet. Her alarm went off at that point and when he pulled his hand away the backs of his fingers brushed along her jaw. Deliberately she was sure.

Jessie took a step back from him. "That's my cue," she said.

Callen frowned.

"It's twelve. It's safe to go inside."

Callen chuckled. "You were that worried about what might happen?"

Jessie started to walk toward the front door. "Not worried," she threw over her shoulder.

"Then what?" he called out.

Jessie ignored the question and stepped through the doors.

"Terrified," she murmured to herself. "Incredibly tempted," she added. Because the idea of what might happen if she did arrive early had had Jessie standing at those doors ten minutes ago with her hand on the handle ready to go inside.