"I can't believe we're doing this," Sam complained in a whisper.

"It's not like we have much choice in the matter." Callen pointed out, hands on his gun.

They really didn't have a choice. Not at all. Sam sighed heavily and looked around him warily. Not that there was much to see, just lines of yellow and green as far as the eye could see. Because, yes, they were in a field of corn. To be exact, they were in a corn maze. Because nothing was ever simple with them, was it? Actually, that question didn't need answered. It would probably jinx them or something, knowing their luck, and things did not need to get worse.

Their suspect, who was - let's be honest here - rapidly becoming their very guilty party, had decided that, for some reason, bolting into a corn maze was a good idea. Thankfully, it had been after the farmer had closed it for the day and there were no civilians in it, the team hoped. But still. Their suspect was in a maze. That they now had to navigate. Oh, sure, they had LAPD surround the damn thing to make sure their guy didn't escape but it was a big maze and they didn't want to run the risk of him just waiting them out. They were kind of on a time crunch here (when were they not?). Which meant, of course, that the team had to go in. Did Callen mention that it was a maze? And that the farmer would really prefer it if they didn't wreck it on him? Lost revenue and all that and of course Hetty agreed.

They decided to enter together, mainly because the only other option was the exit that was far too far away (the maze covered an entire field) and there was no point in wasting time. Then they would split up at the first crossroads, so to speak.

"Now, this feels like an adventure rather than a case," Deeks whispered jokingly despite the fact that he was very obviously on high alert. "Or one of Eric's video games."

"I have one where you have to battle a Minotaur in a maze just like this one," Eric said over their comms. "Except, you know, it wasn't corn and the Minotaur uh-"

"Eric?" Sam said interrupting him. "Not the time."

"Of course, sorry," he said hurriedly.

"I don't suppose you have any sort of eyes on our guy?" Callen asked.

"No security cameras anywhere on this property except around the barns," Eric said apologetically after a few clicks.

"And we can't use satellite cover for this," Nell added. "There's none in position for this area at all."

Callen sighed. Of course there wasn't. They were just going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. A good, old-fashioned manhunt. Through corn.

"Deeks! Don't!" Came from behind them.

Callen sighed amd turned around with Sam. Deeks apparently thought it was a good idea to pull a stalk of corn towards him amd bat at Kensi with it.

Kensi grabbed the stalk that Deeks was attacking her with and pinged it back at her partner, which narrowly missed his face.

"The sooner we split the better," Sam muttered.

Callen had to agree. As amusing as watching those two bicker could be, they did have a job to do, after all.

"Do you think that it would be more effective if we just ran through the corn instead of staying on the path?" Deeks asked, he and Kensi jogging to catch up with them.

"There's no visibility in there," Sam replied, gesturing at the corn.

"And do you really want to fight off corn to get anywhere?" Callen asked.

He certainly didn't. That was a surefire way to get smacked in the face with it. Or get jumped on by their suspect.

"Okay, maybe it's not a good idea," Deeks said, looking at the wall of corn and pulling a face.

"Why don't we just one of these nice paths?" Sam asked sarcastically, gesturing to a split in the road.

"We'll take the right and you guys go straight ahead?" Kensi suggested.

Callen nodded. "Sounds good. Don't get lost."

"Ye of little faith," Deeks chided as he and Kensi turned down their path.

"More like me being realistic," he whisper-called after them.

The rude gestures that both younger teammates sent him were just uncalled for. And they were lucky that Hetty couldn't see them.

"I don't like this. I don't like this at all," Sam muttered to Callen as they continued their way through the maze.

"Are you scared, Sam?" Deeks asked jokingly over their comms.

He got a scoffing noise in response.

"Mazes don't scare me."

"Getting lost in them doesn't scare you?" Callen asked.

"We aren't going to get lost," Sam said confidently.

Callen looked at the seemingly endless, waving corn in front of them and then back at Sam.

"We aren't?"

"It's a maze, G. One that kids go through."

Callen wasn't too sure of that. This maze was definitely bigger than any small, kiddie one. It covered a field for a start. But whatever.

"It's your fault if we get lost."

"We aren't going to get lost!"

Callen was pretty sure they were lost or, at least, further from the exit than they really should be after all the time they'd spent in here. Or had they even spent that long in here? It was hard to tell how much time was passing in here. And, sure, he coukd check his phone but that wasn't really in the spirit of the maze now, was it?

Sam suddenly jumped backwards, crashing into him.

"What the hell?" Callen whisper-shouted.

Sam's body meeting his body was never a comfortable thing. Actually, it was quite painful.

Sam just pointed ahead of him. Callen peered around his partner and almost immediately snorted loudly. He couldn't help it. He knew he shouldn't but at least it wasn't a laugh, right? A snort was definitely better than a laugh.

And he would have had full right to laugh, in his opinion, because what had made Sam, his oh-so-tough ex-SEAL partner who was built like a tank was... a scarecrow. Now, no ordinary scarecrow would have been able to scare Sam Hanna. No. This was a clown scarecrow of all things. A zombie one, to be exact.

"Ah, I may have forgotten to mention that this particular maze is advertised as a haunted maze," Hetty informed them.

"A little heads up would have been nice, Hetty."

"Apologies, Mr Callen. It escaped my mind."

Now that was something Callen didn't believe. Nothing ever escaped Hetty's mind. That and he could hear the amusement in her voice. As could Sam of his disgruntled expression was anything to go by but, of course, he wouldn't dare tell Hetty off.

"Zombie clowns aren't real," Callen teased his partner, earning him a dark look, which didn't stop him at all. "Want me to hold your hand so you can be brave?"

"I don't need my damn hand held," Sam told him irritably, stomping ahead.

Hopefully there were no more clown zombies ahead. They did want to have some element of surprise when it came to their suspect.

"Will you hold my hand?" Deeks asked Kensi in a fake scared, little boy voice. "I'm scared."

Callen could almost hear the eye roll from Kensi but she said nothing leading him to assume that she now was holding Deeks' hand.

"Hey!" Deeks complained.

Or, maybe not.

"Baby."

"You pinched me."

"I did."

"Why would you pinch me if you could hold my hand?"

"I'm not holding your hand, Deeks, we need both hands free," she chided.

Thankfully the next few minutes passed in silence as they all trailed down their respective paths. Probably going around in circles but Calllen decided not to voice that thought. After all, there was a good chance that their suspect was also doing that.

"I think we're lost," Callen suddenly heard Deeks say.

Almost immediately Kensi replied in a scathing tone. "We aren't lost."

"Yes, we are."

"No. We aren't."

Callen rolled his eyes at Sam. Of course those two started arguing. It's what they did. Callen was just impressed that it took them this long.

"How on earth can you be lost?" Sam asked.

"Sam, I don't know if you've noticed but we are surrounded by miles of corn that all looks the same."

"It's not miles," Sam scoffed. "The maze isn't even a mile square."

"Whatever," Deeks grumbled. "But I'm pretty sure not knowing where the exit is classifies as us being lost."

"Just keep moving."

"They're going to have to send a rescue squad in to get us. And then they're probably going to get lost and-"

"Deeks. Shut up."

"Sam, do you know where you are?" Deeks asked.

Sam, notably, stayed silent - much to Callen's amusement. He didn't look at his partner as he felt his glare on him, daring Callen to say something.

"Just keep moving," Sam growled before Deeks could say anything else.

"Boo! We found you," Callen couldn't help but say as they made Kensi and Deeks jump.

Sam was actually the one to give him an exasperated look at that comment. Hey, what else were you supposed to do when you came across your teammates in a maze from behind?

"Really, G?"

"Couldn't help it," he shrugged.

"Why did you do that?" Kensi demanded in a hiss.

"Couldn't help it," he repeated.

It had just been too tempting.

That got him a glare from her. He was getting a lot of glares today.

"We're probably still in the middle of this damn thing, aren't we?" Sam asked, running a hand over his face.

"Most likely," Callen agreed.

Seriously, how big was this maze? Should it even be this big or was the endless waving corn making him go crazy?

And speaking of crazy, it was at this moment that their suspect decided to come bursting out of said corn with a wild look on his face.
Callen and Sam didn't wait around and pounced on him. Soon he was on the ground when he saw their guns and all handcuffed (or, well, zip-tied) up.

"If you thought you were safe just because of the maze, you thought wrong," Callen told the guy, who was looking incredibly spooked.

It really backfired on the guy, running straight into them like that. Eh, it made life a bit easier for them.

"Corn. So much corn." He mumbled. "So much. Corn. Corn. Corn."

"Great, Sam sighed, holstering his weapon. "He's cracked."

"It's what happens in corn mazes," Deeks said solemnly.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Let's get out of here. We've been in here long enough."

"Corn getting to you too, Sammy boy?"

"Don't call me that. And I've had enough corn to last me a lifetime."

"Me too," Kensi said emphatically, unbraiding her hair so she could finger comb the sticky bits of corn that were still stuck in it.

"Well, then, it looks like your lifetime is shorter than you thought, Mr Hanna," Hetty's voice came over their comms. "You're wife wants you to pick up some sweetcorn for your dinner tomorrow."

"Why was Michelle talking to yo-" Sam began and then shook his head. "You know what, never mind."

"At least you can get her some fresh corn," Kensi joked.

"There will be no theft of corn, Miss Blye."

"Of course not, Hetty," Kensi said hurriedly.

"Uh, guys?" Deeks asked, looking around and scratching his head. "Um. How do we get out of here?"