"Excuse me Miss, are you still there?" Dr. Adams asked after Zoë didn't response for a while.
"Yeah, I'm still here. Are you sure? I'm pregnant?"
"Yes, according to the blood results we have here you are. But just to be sure I will refer you to a gynecologist."
"Wow, I wasn't expecting this. My husband and I have talked about having kids but we would just see when it would happen so I wasn't expecting this."
"Well it has happened now so congratulations."
"Thank you doctor."
Dr. Adams gave Zoë the information for the gynecologist before hanging up. Zoë sat there in her chair for a minute processing what the doctor just told her. She was pregnant! Pregnant with Callen's baby! She and Callen were going to have a little baby! She was happy about it but also this was a bit awful timing considering that Callen was gone for work and she didn't know when he would be back. After recovering from the first shock she called the gynecologist to make an appointment. She could come the next morning.
That night Zoë lay in bed, she couldn't really sleep, thinking about everything. They had talked about having kids but now that it was actually happening Zoë wondered what it would be like. Would Callen be happy about it? Would they be able to handle raising a baby together? She had no idea how to tell Callen. She wanted to tell him but she didn't want him to be distracted from his mission and it felt weird telling him something like this over the messaging app. She lay awake for a while just thinking about everything but eventually she felt asleep.
The next morning before work she went to the doctor's office.
"Good morning, Mrs. Moore, so your general practitioner told me that your tests came back positive for pregnancy," Dr. Fuentes said.
"Yes that is correct. But she referred me to you to make sure."
"Alright, I have the test results here as well and I think she's right but we'll have a look just to be sure. You can change yourself in a gown behind the curtain there and then I'll check you out."
Zoë went to get changed and lay down on the bed so that the doctor could examine her. Dr. Fuentes grabbed the ultrasound machine and put some sort of condom on the wand.
"This may feel a bit weird in the beginning," she said as she inserted the wand into Zoë. She moved the wand around a bit before she found wat she was looking for. "Ah yes, there it is. There is the little baby."
Zoë looked at the screen where the doctor pointed. It was only small but Zoë could see her little baby, her and Callen's little baby on the screen. There really was a little baby inside of her.
"That's the baby?"
"Yeah it is. By the looks of it you're ten weeks along."
"Is everything okay?"
"Yes so far everything looks fine. We'll do a few more exams but everything seems to be in order."
The doctor looked around Zoë's uterus for a while before she removed the wand. She felt around Zoë's stomach and took her vitals and weight and drew some more blood.
"With the next appointment I will have the results but so for everything seems perfectly on track for a healthy pregnancy."
"Thank you doctor."
"You're welcome and congratulations."
Dr. Fuentes gave Zoë a picture of the ultrasound and Zoë made an appointment before leaving the doctor's office and going to work. Zoë went upstairs to her office and closed the door. When she sat behind her desk she pulled the ultrasound picture out of her bag and looked at it. There on the picture was the little baby, hers and Callen's little baby. She still couldn't quite believe it that she was really pregnant. She was expecting a little baby. She was happy about it and hoped Callen would be too. She wanted to tell him right away but she wanted to tell him in person and she didn't want him distracted from the case. But she wanted Callen to be the first to know so she decided not to tell anyone else just yet. She wasn't showing yet and wouldn't be for a couple of weeks so she hoped Callen would be home by then. And if Callen wasn't home yet then she would just have to wear a bit of baggy clothes.
Zoë was shocked out of her thoughts when her computer beeped. She looked at the screen and saw she had a message from Callen. She quickly put the ultrasound picture back in her bag and opened the message.
'Hey Zoë, good morning. How are you doing?' The message read.
'Hey G, I'm good. How are you?' She responded.
'I'm good too. Everything is still fine here. Managed to get some intel already but we're nowhere near finished yet. I'm sorry.'
'It's okay honey, it's your job. I miss you terrible but I know this is your job.'
'I miss you very much too and I can't wait to see you again.'
'I can't wait to see you again either.' Zoë thought about what a surprise it would be for Callen that he would come home to her being pregnant. Her fingers itched to tell him, but she couldn't. 'Just promise me you'll be careful, I don't wanna lose you.'
'I promise I'll be careful honey, you're not gonna lose me, I promise.'
'I will hold you to that promise. I so wished you were here next to me.'
'Me too Zoë, me too. It feels so lonely without you at night.'
'Oh yes I know what you mean, I miss you next to me at night. Most nights I snuggle up to your pillow, pretending it's you. But I miss the real thing.'
'Oh yes I miss that too. But before you know it I'll be back again and you can snuggle up to me as much as you want.'
'I can't wait, I've gotta go, Nell's calling with a new case. I love you.'
'I love you too.'
Zoë closed the app and went to OPS to get briefed on the case. Now that Callen's was away Sam was acting team leader and Nell went out in the field with him. Zoë stayed at the office to help Eric.
"What have we got?" Sam asked once everyone was in OPS.
"LAPD was chasing a car this morning after they ran a red light and then failed to stop when they gave the signal," Eric started explaining. "They finally managed to catch up to the car but the driver and passenger had already fled the scene. LAPD is still searching the area for them."
"Just a typical driver who doesn't stop. Why is this a case for us?" Sam questioned.
"Because," Nell started. "When the LAPD officers searched the car they found this in the trunk," Nell said and she put a few pictures up on the big screen. The agents looked at the screen. On the screen where several pictures of the trunk which contained a couple of empty weapons crates. "According to the records these crates belong to a shipment to Camp Pendleton that went missing last week. So far none of the weapons had come up yet."
"But the questions is why where they running if the crates are empty? Where are the weapons?" Deeks questioned.
"That's what we need to find out," Sam said. "Nell and I will hit the crime scene. Kens, Deeks talk to Pendleton, see who was in charge of this shipment."
"Camp Pendleton has already been briefed. Sergeant Jason Reeves will meet you at the boatshed."
"Alright Kens, Deeks boatshed. Eric, Zoë see if you can find out who these guys are and where they got these crates."
With everyone knowing what to do the agents left the office and Zoë sat next to Eric to see if she could get some inside into these guys. Eric managed to get a clean shot of their faces and ran them through facial reg.
"Alright, facial reg got a hit. It are Petty officer Michael Thomas and Petty Officer Robert Williams, both are stationed at Pendleton," Eric spoke.
"So this could've been an inside job," Zoë stated.
"Yeah possibly. I'm gonna see if I can find out where the car came from or if I can catch them on any other cams once they ditched the car."
"I'll look into their service record, see if I can find a red flag."
Zoë went to her office to look into the service records. As a operational psychologist she had access to files that the others didn't. She logged into the system so she could look at the files. She looked through their service records and their evaluations but couldn't really find something that would suggest that they would be involved in something like this. They had been in the service for a while now, first at the naval air station in Coronado and Thomas had been working for five years at Pendleton and William for two years. The had great recommendations and not even a spot on their service records. Both of them had a psych evaluation when they joined the service but nothing alarming came out of it.
About an hour later she walked into OPS.
"Did you find something?" Zoë asked Eric.
"I tracked them after they ditched the car but they went into a dead zone. No cameras have caught them leaving the area so Kensi and Deeks went to check it out, see if they can find them there. Kaleidoscope is tracking where they came from but nothing so far. How about you?"
"Nothing in their records that would indicate that they would be involved in something like this. Did Sam and Nell find anything at the scene?"
"No, not much. Just that the crates were definitely from the missing shipment from Pendleton."
"And what about Kensi and Deeks? Did Reeves give them any information?"
"No not that much. He has sent the file over of what the MP's have gathered so far in the investigation of the missing crates but he had no reason to suspect that Thomas and Williams were involved in this. He never had any problems with them."
Zoë sat down next to Eric and looked through the files Reeves had sent over. They had questioned everyone inside Camp Pendleton that had access to the shipment but they all were cleared.
"Guys, we found Thomas and Williams," suddenly Kensi's voice sounded over the coms. "They seem to be in trouble."
"Where are you?" Sam asked. Kensi gave Sam the address. "We'll be there in five."
Sam and Nell were already in the car and Sam quickly made his way up to the address Kensi had given him.
"Seems like they were working for someone and that someone is now mad at that." Kensi was trying to read their lips. "He says he's blaming them for losing the crates. He's says they better fix this or else…"
"Eric, Zoë, do either one of them have any family?" Sam questioned.
"Checking….," Eric responded. "Thomas has a wife and Williams has a wife and two kids."
"Send agents to their address to keep an eye on it just in case."
"Got it."
About thirty minutes later they heard the agents again over the radio.
"Eric, we're gonna need an ambulance," Deeks said. "They shot Thomas and Williams before making a run for it. Sam and Nell are in pursuit."
"Copy that."
A little later there were two ambulances to look after Thomas and Williams.
Sam was speeding through the streets, trying to keep up with the other car. Sam managed to get in front of the car and to get it to stop.
"Federal agents! Out of the car!" Nell yelled as she got out of the car with her gun raised followed by Sam.
"Nell! Watch out!" Sam suddenly yelled when he saw a gun.
Nell quickly ducked away and she and Sam shot back at them. Sam saw one of them running and he went after him as Nell continued to shoot at the other guy. She managed to hit him in the arm causing him to drop the gun. Nell quickly ran up to him and saw he was going for his weapon.
"Don't you dare!" Nell yelled at him as she aimed her gun at him.
The man hesitated for a minute but then decided not to go for his gun. Nell got him up and put his hands in cuffs.
"Au! You shot me! I need medical attention."
"You'll live."
A little later Sam came back with his guy in cuffs as well.
"You good?" Sam asked Nell.
"Yeah I'm good. You?"
"Good too."
They took the guys to the boatshed so they could question them. Nell's shot had only grazed his arm so Sam put a bandage around it.
"Hey Sam," Zoë said when she accepted the video call from the boatshed.
"Hey Zoë, any word from Kensi and Deeks?"
"Both Thomas and Williams are in surgery but so far they are stable."
"Okay good. I'm gonna send you two pictures, see if you and Eric can ID them. They are the two shooters but they didn't have any ID with them."
"Yeah, I've got the pictures. We'll run them through facial reg."
"Thanks."
Sam disconnected the call and he went to the upstairs interrogation room as Nell went to the downstairs interrogation room.
"Kensi, Deeks, you busy?" Eric asked after about an hour.
"Yeah Eric, go ahead," Kensi replied.
"We looked into our two shooters and we've got a home address for them. Can you and Deeks go check it out?"
"Yeah, send it to our phones."
"Any update on Thomas and Williams?" Zoë asked.
"No, nothing yet. They are still in surgery. I'll leave the number so they'll call when they got an update."
"That's good. Let us know what you find at the house."
"Will do."
Kensi and Deeks left the hospital and went to the address Eric had given them. First they knocked, wanting to see if anyone was home but there was no sound. Deeks peeked through the window but he couldn't see anyone. Kensi picked the lock and they grabbed their weapons before moving in. They cleared the house but no one was there.
"Kens!" Deeks called from the shed in the backyard. "You gotta come see this."
Kensi made her way over to the shed and she found Deeks down a hatch. Kensi climbed the stairs down.
"Looks like we found the missing shipment from Pendleton," Kensi stated.
"Yeah, looks like we did. They could outfit an army with this. I can't even think about what the bad guys could do with all this if it got in their hands."
Kensi and Deeks called it in and someone came to collect the weapons. They wrapped up there and returned to the office.
When the day was over Eric, Nell and Zoë walked down the stairs to go home.
"Great work today everyone," Eric said. "The hospital just called and both Williams and Thomas are expected to make a full recovery."
A sigh of relieve was heard around the bullpen.
"That's good to hear," Sam replied.
"And all the weapons from Camp Pendleton are accounted for," Nell continued. "All the weapons were in that shed."
"Williams and Thomas are both awake and they spoke to their commanding officer and they were tricked into helping these two guys," Zoë said. "They were threatened. Their family was threatened if they didn't help and if they talked about it to anyone. They made a plan to have someone find these empty crates so someone who look into it."
"That's brave of them," Sam replied.
"Well, good job everyone and I'll see you tomorrow," Zoë said and she left.
…..
Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into almost two months that Callen had been away already. Zoë missed him terribly. She wished he would come home so she could share the news of their baby with him. Her fingers had itched to tell him every time she chatted with him but she didn't, she wanted to tell him face to face. It was getting harder and harder to hide it from the others. She was now almost 18 weeks pregnant and she had a little bump already. She suffered a bit from morning sickness but other than that she couldn't complain so far. Just that her normal clothes didn't fit her anymore. At work she wore a bit of baggy clothes so her growing stomach wouldn't show.
So far everything was fine with her and the baby. The baby was growing nicely and it was very healthy. The doctor could already see what the gender was but Zoë decided to wait for that until Callen was here, she didn't want to find that out without him.
…
It was late in the evening when Callen pulled up to the house. He parked the car in the driveway and walked up to the house. He was so glad to be home again. It had been way too long this undercover mission. He had missed his wife terribly and he couldn't wait to see her again. Since it was just past 11pm he hoped that she would still be awake but just to be safe he quietly opened the door and walked in. He saw that everything was dark outside but he saw that the light was still on upstairs. He walked up the stairs and heard the sound of the blow dryer coming from the bathroom so he knew that Zoë was still awake. He reached the bathroom and looked at his wife from the door opening. He was so happy to see her again.
Zoë looked into the mirror as she was blow drying her hair and she suddenly saw someone appear in the mirror. She saw it was her husband! He was finally home again!
"G! You're back!" Zoë exclaimed as she put the blow dryer down and turned towards Callen.
Callen was shocked when she turned to him. She was only wearing her underwear and he could see a clear bump around her stomach.