Five hours later, and a crap ton of paperwork, I'm finally able to get away from the station. Eric gave me Callen's location, and drive their as quickly as possible. It was out in the Mojave Desert, which is out in the middle of nowhere. I see the suv, and pull up behind it. I park the SRX, turn the engine off, and then go get in the passenger side of suv.

"Is Sam gonna be able to stay away from Vaziri?" I asked, looking at the video feed on the lap top.

"He better. Vaziri knows him." Granger said.

Sidorov's entourage had pulled to a stop, and everyone got out.

"I should stay back to cover." Michelle said.

"No, he stays back. You come with me." Sidorov said.

Sidorov and his gang walked out as Jack was pulling in, but stopped near Jack's suv. A few seconds later, Vaziri and his group arrived. Vaziri and his group got out of the suv and walked over to Jack's suv.

"How is my handiwork? Is it healing?" Vaziri asked, and then offer Jack his left hand knowing full well he could shake it.

"Ouch. That was gangster." I said.

"Forgot you didn't know about that." Callen said, but we return our attention to the deal.

"Some wounds never heal, my friend. Let's do this quickly. Twenty million for each weapon. Payment in gold at, uh, one thousand five hundred and ninety U.S. dollars an ounce." Jack said.

"That's a lot of money for forty-year-old technology." Vaziri said.

"Sell him on it." Callen said.

"A nuclear weapon is not about capability. It's about potential. It's about Iran finally being able to sit at the big kids' table with the United States. It's about giving the Israelis night sweats." Jack said.

"He's good." Kensi said.

"He better be. He's had one hundred and twenty-three years to perfect his craft." I said.

"You chose this meeting place, we choose the exchange location." Vaziri said.

"Okay, but I want a down payment first. I'm not exposing the weapons until I see the quality of the gold. Five million in two suitcase." Sidorov said.

"Twelve and a half percent. It's reasonable." Jack said.

"Okay." Vaziri said, agreeing to the terms.

"Anything goes south, we keep the gold." Sidorov said.

"Well. I guess that's in his hands, or should I say 'hand.'" Vaziri said, and then started chuckling.

Jack grunted.

"Ouch." I said.

"You see anything, Kensi?" Callen asked.

"All seems okay." Kensi said.

"As soon as the gold is delivered give us the exchange location. The deal will be done. Good?" Jack asked Vaziri.

Vaziri started chuckling, and then said. "Good," and then Vaziri and his men walked away.

"Good?" Jack asked Sidorov.

There was a moment of silence before Sidorov said. "Very good. Thank you."

The three groups part ways. "Something's not right." Callen said.

"As soon as we have eye son the bombs, this all ends." Hetty said.

"There's a lot of chips on the table." Callen said.

"It's a lot to win." I said.

"It's a lot to lose." Callen said.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

Sidorov's mansion-

I followed Sam, Michelle, Sidorov and his gang to a house even further out into the middle of nowhere. So far out if something goes wrong, we're screwed. And I know were screwed because my senses are on high alert. Vaziri's men had just dropped off the down payment, when I hear a motorcycle pull up. Great, we don't get to continue this conversation from—however many days it's been since she left for Iran. I thought.

"So, Vaziri's guys just dropped off the down payment." I said, as Kensi was pulling off her bag to a set of binoculars.

Everything is a planned. They test the gold. Sidorov sends his men to make the deal, and then for some strange reason, Sidorov splits Sam and Michelle up.

"Uh. That's not good." I said.

"Sam and Michelle are doing what the situation dictates." Kensi said.

"I know that, but this is how bad things usually happen." I said.

More silence, which was ended with Michelle kissing Sidorov.

"Wow. We should not mention that to Sam, like, ever." I said.

"It's not like she had a choice. She's protecting her cover." she said, and then put her binoculars away.

"Oh, that's interesting. Kind like me when I was undercover with Monica?" I asked.

I looked at Kensi a moment, and then look back into the binoculars, keeping an eye on Michelle.

"Undercover or under the covers?" she quipped.

"And there it is again, the little green-eye monster makes an appearance." I said, as I pulled my binoculars down surveying the scene in front of me.

"What, what does that even mean?" she asked.

"Nothing. It means nothing." I said, and then put the binoculars back up to my face.

"Like I said, poor communication skills." she said.

Kensi walked back to her motorcycle, rambling on about pointless nonsense, and I was sick of her crap. Kensi was about to say something about working with a fourteen year old, but I cut her off. I reach out with both hands and grabbed Kensi's head tilting it back so I could kiss her flush on the lips. A kiss that only last seconds, felt like an eternity. I should have enjoyed it. Kissing Kensi, but she is too childish, and too unprofessional for it to be enjoyable. When we broke the kiss, Kensi blinked twice. I'm not sure why, but the shock was still on her face. I had a million things running through my brain, but all that came out was. "How's that for communication?"

Kensi watch me step away her, as I licked my lip. Kensi was still in shock, but the first words out of her mouth were. "I gotta stay with Michelle."

Kensi was giving off some serious vibes, but I couldn't get a read on them. Kensi body posture was also unreadable. I walked back over to where I left the binoculars, and the only thought going through my mind was. Whatever? She wanted communication. She got communication.

I lift the binoculars back up to my face in time to see Sidorov come back. Everything was going fine until I see Sidorov hit Sam at the base of his skull, sending him into the pool. Sam had a case of gold cuffed to him, and he was slowly drowning. One of Sidorov's goons was using the pool net to assist in Sam's drowning.

"Hetty, I'm going in. Sam's in trouble." I say, as I break cover.

I jump in the SRX, turn the engine on, throw it in gear, and floor it. I pull into the driveway, put it in park, and get out. I run up forty steps from the SRX, and drew down on Sidorov and his man. The man standing next to Sidorov points their gun at me, while the second man comes up from behind and trains his gun on me.

"Backup, I presume. If there were anyone else, I'm sure they'd be here. The keys to the handcuff for your gun." Sidorov said.

"Show me the keys." I said.

The man standing next to Sidorov pulled out the key and dangled it over the pool. I didn't even hesitate, I surrendered my gun. "Give me the keys." I said. But being the dick that the man was, he continued to dangle the keys over the pool. "Give me the keys!" I shouted.

The man drop the keys in the pool, which was nice of him. I run and dive into the pool. I grab the keys, and then struggle to get the cuff off of Sam. When I pull Sam from the pool, Sidorov doesn't even try to stop me from resuscitate Sam. Two prisoners are better than one. I thought as I began CPR. It took me about three minutes to clear the water from Sam's lungs, and get him breathing again. I helped Sam to the SRX, and put him in the back, while Sidorov's guy rode shotgun with me.

We drove to a body shop. One guy took an unconscious Sam and put him in a room, and tied him to a chair. I happened to be tied to a chair next to a work bench. They turned the lights off, and shut the door. I knew what was coming, one of Sidorov's men started to beat on me until Sidorov got the answers that he wanted.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

Boat shed-

Callen returned to the boat shed, and check interrogation room one to see that it was empty.

"Hold on." Callen said, as he entered to main hall.

The two axillary agents stopped what they were doing: transporting Jack to from the boat shed. "Get out. Leave the building." Callen ordered, and then agents got out without a backwards glance.

Callen walked up to Jack, and just glared at him, but Callen also had a smile on his face.

"What's so funny?" Jack asked.

"You think you won. That Sam is going to die, but he isn't. Sidorov is going to buy my team some time to get all the pieces in order, and we're still going to make this deal work. And when it's all said and done, you're still going to die. How does it feel to know that even you attempted to hurt this team, and still fail? Although I gotta ask. How did you tip Sidorov off?" Callen asked.

Jack showed his tongue, which had a whole in it, and then closed his eyes to reveal the words—David, agent—written on his eyelids.

"Nice one. I'll give you that, but you still failed." Callen said, and then walked Jack back to interrogation one.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

Body shop-

Sidorov and his man tortured Sam for about five minutes, give or take, and then they got bored with him. I knew what was coming. My turn. I thought.

The goon came out first, and then Sidorov came out. Sam and I locked eyes for the first time. The goon had pulled some kind of contraption out, holding it about foot from my shoulder.

"That doesn't look very fun." I said, blinking. I prepared myself for what was about to come: my eyes started to glaze over, my breath started to slow down, and I picked a spot on the wall.

I felt Sidorov's hands on both sides of my neck, and it brought me back to reality. Crap. He wants to talk before getting down to business. Enough of the small talk, and just get on with it. I thought.

"Is it safe to sell the bombs, or are there other undercover agents?" Sidorov asked.

"I already told you, I'm an LAPD narcotics officer. We were casing the house—" Sidorov grabbed my head, and braced my jaw. "I don't even know him man."

The goon put the contraption mouth, and started to open it up. I felt my jaw pop, and I yelled for them, just to make them happy. What they didn't know was that I was going to claim their heads when this was all said and done.

"Is Quinn an undercover agent? Yes or no?" Sidorov asked.

Sidorov braced my head, so that I would be looking at Sam. I could see Sam shaking his head. Not that I need any prompting, but I shook my head. I relaxed my body as the goon fired up a drill. I closed my eyes; I didn't want look at Sam, or the goon as he brought the drill to my mouth. I gave these idiots the theater they want, even screaming when they applied the drill to first tooth, but something weird happened: as my body was being tortured my psyche was pulled from my body, and with clarity, I remembered a scene with Kensi.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

My apartment-

Sometime in the past, I don't remember when, Kensi and I had just got back to my apartment. It was a long day of paperwork and not much else. I offered to buy dinner, and Kensi consented. I took her to Yuma's Yum. It took Kensi a moment, but she like it. A lot. She like it so much that we went there once a month.

"So what do you think?" I asked.

"It's a weird first bite, but I'm loving it." she said.

"I know. Its delicious isn't it?" I asked.

"Mm. Although, given that it's Chinese, it's probably bad for us." she said.

"You think it might cause a heart attack?" I asked.

"Well, at least it tastes good." she said.

I almost spit my food out. I grabbed my beer, rinsed my food down, and started laughing.

"What?" she asked, swallowing her food.

"We can call it yummy, yummy heart attack." I said.

Kensi burst out laughing, and it was uncontrollable at first. But she reigned it in, took a sip of her beer, and we continued eating.

N.C.I.S. L.A.

Present day-

Even though Sidorov, and his goon were still torturing my body, scenes of the times I spent with Kensi were flashing through my mind. Her smile, her laugh. Everything about Kensi made the pain bearable, but at some point I lost consciousness. Sidorov's phone rang, and he call his dog off. The pair left because the Iranians were still interested in buying the nukes. The pair dropped what they were doing, and then went to make the meet.