Hi all,

I am back and, hopefully, will be consistent about updating going forward except when planned to skip a week. We have the rest of season 6 and all of season 7 to finish, after all!

I hope all of you are being safe right now. Take excellent and gentle care of yourselves and one another, okay?

Enjoy!


Season 6, Episode 6: SEAL Hunter


All the joking aside, there was an undercurrent in Callen that was still very, very angry.

His partner had been wrongly accused, arrested, lost in the system by a pair of conniving, selfish paper-pushers, and all for a man who didn't have the courage of a snail. There were only a few things that had made the whole experience bearable.

First, of course, was the fact that Sam simply hadn't done it, and no amount of DNA evidence could have changed his mind. Nor, it seemed, the minds of the rest of the team. Their staunch loyalty, even in the face of such facts, had mollified him considerably.

Second was Granger, as much as that surprised him. But Granger had watched Sam's back for the whole case, had been two steps ahead of Callen in finding and retrieving him, and hadn't doubted either — when he wasn't exactly known for his overall willingness to stand by the team. It had felt a little bit like he was being schooled, since Granger reveled in showing Callen up and he knew it, but that was a small price to pay for the assistance he gave Sam.

The third thing, though, was the fact that Hetty let him work the case in the first place.

"Confined to my desk," was what he had said, and she had nodded. But that nod wasn't agreement to his words — rather, she had silently, and without giving anything away to anyone, endorsed his actual plan.

He hadn't needed to tell her that the sea would turn to jelly before he'd just sit around and wait while Sam was in trouble. He hadn't needed to ask her to look the other way as he bent and broke rules while also not compromising the investigation in any meaningful way — just in case they needed their evidence to hold up in court without charges of being a rogue agent. He hadn't needed to warn her that he was stepping outside the lines without losing control and ask that she trust him.

All of that had been communicated in a single glance. And while they both said the correct and proper and legal things out loud, they both had known that nothing of the sort was what either really meant.

If there were no other reason — and there were so many other reasons — Hetty would have Callen's eternal loyalty and trust for just that.

As they cleared out of the office, waiting in the fresh air while Hetty supervised the burning of Deeks's awful vegetable, Callen looked at Granger a little more appreciatively.

He still didn't exactly like the man — but he respected him a little more. Anyone who would go so far for Sam was worth that much.

Granger gave him a measuring look back, and Callen could see the amusement and also the censure in the expression. The Assistant Director knew exactly what Callen had done, and why, and though he wasn't going to cause trouble about it, they both knew he'd be within his rights to punish G for his actions.

Then Hetty emerged from the office, still chastising Deeks over that stench, and looked up at both of them.

Callen wasn't quite sure what she communicated to Granger, but it made him roll his eyes and look away.

Her smile for him, though, and her wry, smug amusement, told him everything he needed to know.