CHAPTER TWELVE

"Shay." Hetty rose to greet the former Assistant Director, nodding a curt, sharp little nod. She pursed her lips as she looked the woman up and down. Mosley held her gaze almost defiantly. "I'm very sorry to hear about Derrick."

"He's in good hands," Mosley replied. Somehow it was of little surprise to her that Hetty clearly knew exactly what was going on, and why the pair of them had returned to LA.

"How is he doing?" Hetty asked gently.

"He's up and down," Mosley admitted, with a slight crack in her voice. "He needs the next stage of treatment very soon." Hetty nodded, not without sympathy, but Derrick's long-term illness worked perfectly for the plan she had worked up.

"And is he… safe?" she enquired.

"He's in a good hospital… But somehow I don't think that's quite what you are asking is it?"

"I think it will be wise that we arrange some proper… protection… for him," Hetty agreed.

Tiring of the niceties, Mosley sighed. "What do you want from me, Hetty?" she asked.

"Three years ago, I confided in you that Mr Callen was the closest thing to a son that I have ever known. Not long after that, he risked his life to save your son, Derrick, and then again several months later he came to Vietnam to save me… We owe him nothing less than the same courtesy, wouldn't you agree?"

"Hetty…" Mosley stalled.

"Director Vance will focus on one thing and one thing only," Hetty said with emphasis.

"Incognito." Mosley said slowly.

"Indeed. And rightly so. You consulted on the initial stages: you know full well how dangerous it could be." Hetty paused. "But I think, with your help, we can do both. Secure Incognito, and save Mr Callen." There was a long pause as the two women, each powerful in their different ways, stared at each other across the room. In the periphery of her vision, Hetty was aware of the remainder of her team - she still thought of them all as her team, individually hand-picked that they were - assembling in the bullpen below, and she knew that meant Director Vance's arrival was imminent. "Yours is not the only storm we are facing," Hetty said eventually. "I will do what I can to help Derrick get the treatment he needs to survive. But this office, this team," she gestured with her hand through the glass walls of Mosley's old domain down to where Sam and the others waited, "I truly believe it will not survive the loss of Mr Callen."

"What do you think they're talking about?" Kensi said to Deeks, looking up at the goldfish-bowl office above them.

"You're the lip reader," Deeks reminded her, glancing up also. "Hetty knows something, that's for sure. Something she can use to engineer Mosley here and helping us."

"I wonder what it is," Kensi mused.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't matter," Sam spoke firmly. "Mosley's affairs are none of our business. We need her help to find Callen, that's all."

"It would be nice to know her motives," Deeks muttered.

Sam continued as if he hadn't heard. He knew full well there was little love lost between the detective and their ex-assistant director. "We need to work out how Mosley can contact Janvier…"

"Won't it seem suspicious?" Nell enquired.

"Hetty must have that angle covered. She wouldn't have suggested bringing Mosley in if there was any chance Janvier would know it was a set up. She knows how dangerous he is – she wouldn't risk Callen's life." The others all knew Sam was right.

"I wish we knew more about how Callen got involved in all this to begin with," Kensi sighed. "Why didn't he tell us? We could have helped… Taking on Janvier on his own… it was madness, surely?"

"It's not the first time Callen has gone off on his own," Deeks pointed out. "Some might say he's well known for it."

"That's usually only when he's trying to distance us, protect us…" Kensi's voice faded away. "Do you think that's what this was?" She turned to Sam, upset. "We could have helped him."

"Callen goes lone wolf when it's his family, or when he wants to protect us, that's true," Sam said slowly. "But I don't know… I feel like it's more than that this time. He was troubled… When I spoke to him on Friday, it felt like he was holding out on me…"

"Well, he was," Kensi said. "He must have known then what he was planning to do, go off on his own."

"Yes, but I think he wanted to tell me more. Look, it's no secret G and I aren't as close as we used to be…" Sam looked down with embarrassment. "Not working together… Callen took Hetty's job because I asked him to, not because he wanted to…" Sam paused, and Kensi and Deeks raised their eyebrows. They'd often wondered about Callen's out of character decision to move out of the field and take on Hetty's desk-based bureaucratic role. He'd been surprisingly good at it, but despite that, within the team, it had never felt quite right. "Anyway. I don't think he hid this from me because he was holding a grudge or anything. Callen's not like that. He wasn't being obtuse. I think he wanted to tell me more, maybe even have my help, but he wasn't allowed to. I think it came from the top – from Vance." He paused again, heavily, his frustration and anger at the danger Callen had put himself in on his own barely concealed. "I think Vance is coming here, is in a spin, because this mission to recover Incognito was him and Callen going off the books… a black op."

The bullpen was silent when Vance walked in. Hetty and Mosley were still talking up in the glass office, and all the others were reflecting on what Sam had told them. A black op, a mission so secret that even Sam as the lead agent had not been involved, or even informed. They all knew it was the kind of mission that had been Callen's bread and butter when he was working for the CIA – but that had been a long time ago, before he was one of theirs.

"Agent Hanna." Director Vance's clipped voice broke the silence. They all turned in his direction. He beckoned his head towards Callen's office and Sam got up slowly to meet him. Neither man sat down. Vance hitched his hip up to rest some of his weight on the edge of the desk, and Sam remained on the threshold, as if by avoiding crossing into Callen's new domain he could distance himself from the unpleasant situation.

"A sit-rep, Agent Hanna?"

"Beyond my partner being abducted by a psychopath who has got hold of some of our most dangerous weapons technology?" Sam challenged, unable to help himself.

"Beyond that, yes," Vance replied calmly. "I'd like to get up to speed. I understand you will have questions regarding Agent Callen's assignment, but first…"

"Damn straight I have questions!" Sam exclaimed, his voice rising. Vance coming to LA so quickly only confirmed to him what he already suspected – that he and Callen had been working a mission covertly. And that mission had gone horribly, disastrously, perhaps terminally, wrong. All of Sam's tension and fears for his partner bubbled up, rising heatedly within him like volcanic lava in the face of the man responsible for the ill-fated mission Callen was engaged in. "How could you let this happen?" he demanded, all inhibitions forgotten in his fury. Around him, activity in the building grew ever hushed and his team mates in the bullpen sat frozen as the enormity of what was going on confronted them. "How could you let him do this, without back up? Without me? Are you crazy?"

In the bullpen, Deeks muttered to Kensi, "Sam is crazy, challenging Vance like that…"

"Can you blame him?" Kensi whispered back. "I still can't believe an op like this was allowed to happen."

"Agent Hanna." Vance's voice was cold as he interrupted the tirade still flowing from the furious big man. "May I remind you where you are, and who you are speaking to."

Visibly shaking with anger, Sam took a deep breath as he looked around at his colleagues watching their confrontation.

"A word in private?" he said, returning his look to Vance. "Outside." He turned and stomped off down the corridor leaving a stunned silence behind him. Vance slowly followed, pausing to address Kensi.

"Agent Blye?" Kensi cleared her throat and nodded. "Believe me when I say I understand how you must all be feeling. But I am sure you all have work to do, and I would be grateful if you would see that it gets done." Kensi nodded again, not trusting herself to speak.

"Understood, Director," Nell said quietly, as around them staff in the mission began to gradually fade away back to their duties. Vance nodded, and headed after Sam.

Outside, Sam had managed to get his emotions back under control. He heard Vance open the door and turned to him ready to apologise, but the director held up his hands.

"I don't want your apology, Agent Hanna. I understand where you were coming from. But if you ever speak to me like that in front of junior staff again, there will be consequences, do you understand?"

Sam nodded sheepishly. "I hear you," he said. "But… Callen…"

"I know," Vance replied, and Sam could see that beyond the necessity of his actions, beyond the duty Vance upheld to his country, there was a man who regretted the current turn of events against an agent he held in high estimation.

"Is the op blown?" Sam asked. "We're still working to intercept the sale of this tech, right? We can work to save Callen too, if you let us."

"We don't know for sure if he's even still alive," Vance said, and Sam diagnosed the faintest hint of regret in the Director's voice. Sam made to interrupt but Vance stopped him. "Sam, Callen knew this was a risky mission. Riskier possibly than anything that he's ever done. He went into it knowing he might not come back. Securing the stealth technology and preventing it from being sold into enemy hands always was the primary objective, and remains so in spite of Callen's current situation. The welfare of an agent is secondary to the mission, you don't need me to spell that out." He paused, his penetrating stare boring deeply into Sam. "Can you handle that, or do I need to engage someone else to head this case?"

"I understand the objective," Sam said heavily. Everything about this case reminded him of the last time they had been involved with Janvier, when Michelle's life had been on the line undercover with Isaac Sidarov. First Michelle, now Callen. When would it end? He took a deep breath and continued. "But who's to say the two can't go hand in hand? Janvier has Callen, we have to accept that. How he managed it I guess we might never find out. And I dare say Janvier wants Callen dead. But Janvier is involved in the sale of this stealth tech thing, he must be. Callen as good as said as much on the video. And that will be more of a priority to him right now than any revenge against Callen. So if we get to Incognito, we might also get to Callen at the same time."

"Well then, I wish you the very best of luck," Vance said, stepping forward to shake Sam's hand. Sam took it, and as they shook, he made a silent promise to himself. He would get Callen back, dead or alive.

A/N: I know no one likes Mosley lol. Bear with me, she doesn't have a huge part overall, I promise! This is the biggest story I have ever attempted and I wanted to challenge myself by bringing in more people... On that note - Vance pops up here and there but as I don't watch the original NCIS I'm only going on his appearances in LA to get the character right, so I hope I have done so.

Painter yes you're right, the chapters away from Callen serve to indicate the passing of time and the building worry everyone has for him the longer he remains in Janvier's clutches... Rest assured, the waiting is nearly over... back to Callen in the next chapter!

Please keep reviewing, it really does inspire me particularly through the trickier parts of this story! I love reading your thoughts. We're back in stricter 'stay at home' measures again here in the UK so I am hoping to have more writing/editing time over the next week. Which leaves me for now to say Merry Christmas to you all x