Thanks so much for all the nice comments on this story. It is so much appreciated and means a lot to me. This chapter is pretty cliffhanger-ish again lol. Anyhow, hope you enjoy :)

xxxxx

Callen watched two of Bart's men who appeared to be drawing or writing on large pieces of cardboard. He couldn't help but wonder what Bart's latest brainstorm was. This freak needed to be back in prison or better yet, dead, as soon as it could be accomplished.

"Are you teaching an art class?" Callen asked as Bart approached. "I wouldn't mind taking part in it. I'm always looking to expand my creativity." The pain from being bound so tightly and for so long was nearly unbearable. He wasn't sure how much more he could stand.

Bart didn't crack a smile. "I want to know what happened to my men," he said.

"Your men? Aren't they right over there?" Callen asked, his expression the picture of innocence.

"Don't toy with me, Agent Callen. If you do, I'll send Burke over here and let him have his way with you. He's an ex MMA fighter and his punches have proven lethal to others in the past." Callen looked uneasily at Burke who was smiling evilly, a short distance away from them. Burke waved at Callen, as his smile growing into a full-fledged laugh. "You know who I'm talking about."

"They're dead," Callen replied.

"I figured that out for myself," Bart stated. "How did you kill them?"

"With a rifle… One of their rifles."

"And who killed them?"

"I did."

"Both of them?"

Callen nodded. "Yes, I killed both of them," he said matter-of-factly.

Bart shook his head skeptically. "I don't believe you."

"Believe what you want," Callen said. "It doesn't matter to me." He certainly wasn't about to throw Sam under the bus for killing Bart's men.

"And what did you do with the bodies?"

"They went down the river."

"And I suppose you had no help with that either?"

Callen just shrugged.

"Those men had families, lives beyond this job. They didn't deserve what you did to them."

Callen shook his head in disbelief. "Are you really this crazy or is this some kind of a joke? You're the one who initiated this whole thing. This game certainly wasn't our idea. You're the one who set the rules. Kill or be killed. In case you forgot, we're here against our will. If anyone is to blame for your men being dead, it's you."

"You know…I was going to reconsider and allow you to have some breakfast this morning," Bart said. "But now, because of your smart-ass attitude, I'm not going to."

"Well, I don't really believe you were going to do that anyway," Callen said. "So I guess we're a just a couple of non-believers."

"I was actually beginning to feel a little bit bad about what I'm going to have to do with you, but now…I'm pretty sure that you deserve it." Bart then turned and walked back to his men who were still writing on the cardboard squares.

"I don't believe you felt bad either! And you don't have to do anything with me either. I do believe you're delusional though," Callen shouted angrily. He'd had just about enough of Bart, enough of being tied up, enough of this whole damn thing. He wondered if his team was at all close to coming upon this campsite. He just hoped they didn't completely miss it. It was far enough from the river that it could be a very definite possibility. He just prayed that they would discover the camp without being uncovered themselves. The thought of his team coming into camp, guns blazing, was the only thing that was keeping him from losing it entirely.

xxxxx

After Sam had left Deeks' wound exposed to the open air for a short time, he rinsed it with a copious amount of water and then used some more sterile saline before re-dressing the wound. "There you go, Deeks," Sam said. "Are you two ready to get moving?"

"Thanks, Sam," Deeks replied with a nod. "I'm ready. How about you, Kens?" he asked.

Kensi nodded as she grabbed the canteens and flung the straps over her shoulder as well as one of the rifles. "I'm all set, Sam. Let's go."

xxxxx

Callen was left alone for about a half hour before Bart approached him again, accompanied by another man who was carrying a large duffle bag. Callen was immediately apprehensive, sensing that something was up and he was relatively certain, whatever it was, did not bode well for him.

"Agent Callen, I'd like you to meet Michael Shaughnessy. He's one of the finest explosive experts around. Graduated top of his class from M.I.T. You should consider it a great compliment that I've chosen him to work with you."

"Nice to meet you, Agent Callen," Shaughnessy said with a grin. He was young and small, very thin with glasses, looking very much like the stereotypical definition of a nerd. "I hear you're going to experience some of my work first hand. Bart has told me a lot about you. I'm honored to have been chosen to...well…" He blushed and turned his head away, then stared down at the ground.

"To kill me?" Callen asked coldly, staring at Shaughnessy, flabbergasted. He was really beginning to wish the sniper who had shot at him the previous afternoon had been truer with his aim. At least he likely wouldn't have even known what hit him. Every one of these guys was a damn psycho. How the hell had Bart managed to find them all? Was there a Psycho for Hire network that he was totally unaware of? He couldn't help his sudden attack of nerves. This kind of a threat was one he had no real defense against.

Bart smiled at Callen. "What's the matter?" he asked him. "Suddenly, you're not looking as smug as you were before. Don't you like the idea of being blown into a million pieces?"

"Go to hell," Callen said.

Bart shook his head sadly. "You've already said that to me today…I would have thought you'd have a bit more originality. Even telling me to fuck off would have packed more of a punch, I think. Not very original either, but better than saying the exact same thing…I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed. In any case, I'll leave you to do your work, Michael."

Bart started to walk away and Callen's mind started going a mile a minute as he tried to think of something he could say to this kid to persuade him to help him. Suddenly, Bart turned around and then returned. He proceeded to pull a long piece of cloth out of his pocket. "I don't think Michael wants to be disturbed as he works." He tied a large knot in the middle of the cloth and jammed it into Callen's mouth, then tightly tied the ends of the cloth around his head. "There…now he won't be bothering you, Michael. Let me know when you're done."

"Sure thing, boss," Michael said, smiling, as he opened up the duffel bag and began to pull out some of the items it contained.

xxxxx

Sam walked slowly, setting an almost leisurely pace, in an attempt to not tire Deeks too quickly. His thoughts were all over the place as he was assaulted by a flood of memories he found impossible to keep at bay. He remembered back to the first time Callen had met his family. Michelle had wanted to meet his partner for the longest time, but Callen had kept making excuses, until that day she had shown up at work unexpectedly and cornered his partner.

"Good afternoon. Are you Agent Callen?" Michelle asked, her eyes piercing, as she stood in front of Callen's desk, seemingly having arrived out of the blue.

"Yes, I'm Agent Callen."

"I'm Michelle Hanna. Sam tells me you refuse to come to our home to meet me and our children. Is there some reason for this? I'm not sure what I could have done to offend you since we've never even met until now. Have I done something to offend you, Agent Callen? Or is it my children who offend you? Do you dislike children? Is that it?"

Callen stared at Michelle, his cheeks flushed, looking somewhat shell shocked as she talked on and on. Sam had been amused by Callen's plight at first, but had finally taken pity on his partner. "Michelle, I think that G's calendar finally opened up, didn't it?" he asked Callen. "You'll be able to join us Friday night?"

Callen quickly nodded. "Yes, yes Friday night sounds perfect."

"Wonderful," Michelle smiled at Callen. "Six o'clock sharp. Don't be late." She had then kissed her husband goodbye and had left the office as quickly as she had come.

On Friday night, Sam's doorbell had rung and he had opened the door to find his nervous-appearing partner, wearing dress pants with a shirt and tie, holding flowers and two giftwrapped boxes. "Hey G, come on in." He had stepped aside so Callen could enter the house. The two men had then walked into the living room. This is my son, Aiden and that little one is my daughter, Kamran."

"Nice to meet you, sir," Aiden said politely.

"It's nice to meet you too, Aiden," Callen said, handing him a box. "This is for you, and you can just call me Callen."

"Thank you, Callen," Aiden said as he took the box. "Can I open it, dad?"

Sam nodded his assent and Aiden eagerly tore into the box, pulling out a dump truck moments later. "It's awesome. Thank you!" he said, delighted with the unexpected gift.

Kamran had just sat on the floor gaping up at him until Callen handed her one of the boxes he was carrying. She had squealed in delight, pounding on the box with her hands until Callen had helped her open it. "Doggy!" she had screamed when the floppy-eared stuff dog was finally revealed.

Kamran still had that dog to this day. It was a little bit tattered with its worn off patches of fur and one ear which had been practically ripped off his head, but skillfully sewn back together by Michelle. Sam knew that Kamran wouldn't dream of parting from it though, no matter how old and battered it was. Both children loved their Uncle Callen, but Kamran had always been especially attached to him. His daughter had had a rough summer after the death of her mom, but things had been a little better for her since she had gone away to school. Now, Sam was going to have to break the news to her of Callen's death. He knew she was going to be devastated.

Sam had left Callen to get acquainted with the children and had gone into the kitchen where his wife was putting the finishing touches on their meal. "I think you're going to have to lighten up on my partner," he said with a chuckle as he put his arms around her playfully. "He's out there with gifts and flowers, wearing a tie. I'd say you scared the daylights out of him."

"Oh Sam, you're kidding, aren't you?" she asked, looking dismayed by his joking accusation. She had then gone out into the living room and Callen had given her the flowers. By the time the night ended, she had gotten him to loosen up considerably and also lose the tie, much to her relief.

"Your partner is adorable, Sam," Michelle said as they had lain in bed together that night. "He really doesn't have a girlfriend? I find that hard to believe."

"Should I be worried that you're talking about my adorable partner while you're in bed with me?" Sam asked in amusement. "No, he doesn't have a girlfriend and no, we're not matching him up with any of your friends. Are you trying to scare him away for good?"

"Of course not," Michelle replied. "He was very sweet with the children though, especially with Kamran. Did you notice? It wasn't what I expected."

Sam nodded. "I did notice." He grinned at Michelle. "Guess we may have ourselves a new babysitter."

That night had been the first step toward his partner and his wife becoming the best of friends and of Callen becoming a part of their family.

Once again, Sam felt the tears in his eyes as he realized he had now lost his partner as well as his wife. Two people who had been so important to him were both gone from his life, quickly and unexpectedly. Just a few days ago, he and Callen had been making plans to see a Clippers game on the weekend, now he couldn't remember ever feeling as lonely as he did right now.

xxxxx

Callen had watched with increasing trepidation as Michael had constructed a complex structure of criss-crossed wires around him, all connected to one device which he placed by Callen's side. "Now you don't want to move your legs, Agent Callen," Michael informed him. "If you touch that wire just above them, well…I think you get the picture…kaboom." He looked at Callen apologetically. "I really am sorry about this. Bart has been great to me though and when he asked me for this one favor, well…I couldn't very well refuse him. He's provided funding for me to have my own lab. It's a dream come true for someone like me. I'm going to be moving on to bigger and better things very, very soon. One day I'll be a household name." Michael's eyes were glowing and he sounded power hungry, the way he was talking. At first, he had appeared to be very non-threatening, but now Callen was sure he was anything but that. "In any case…it's possible you'll get out of this…improbable, but possible…" He then carefully maneuvered his way out between the wires, leaving Callen alone in the middle of what was basically a death trap.

Bart walked over, grinning like a Cheshire cat as he inspected Callen's predicament. "Oh Michael…this is superb," he gushed, patting the young man's back. "You see why I hired him?" he asked Callen. "A true mastermind at his craft. I love surrounding myself with brilliant and creative minds. It's just so inspiring. Now, we're going to take our leave of this area. I want to send off your picture to Henrietta and take care of a few little things. Michael has important work to do so I need to get him back to his lab. But I just have to get a picture of this too." He raised the camera he was carrying and took a quick shot. "Henrietta will just die when she sees it!"

Bart paused to take a breath before he went on. "So, up until now, I admit I've been playing with your team a bit. You really haven't proven to be the challenge I had expected. Hopefully, with the addition of rifles, your remaining team members will step thing up a bit. If not, well, they'll be dead relatively quickly. Perhaps I'll see you again, but most likely not. You'll probably be best served by keeping awake. If you move your legs in your sleep…well…there won't be very much left of you, maybe just a finger or toe scattered here or there. Might be a nice thing for your partner to preserve and keep, if he's into souvenirs. It wouldn't be my taste, but everybody's different. Good day, Agent Callen. Enjoy the rest of your day and/or life."

xxxxx

They had been walking for a couple of hours and Deeks was already having a difficult time keeping up. He knew that Sam was setting a slow, deliberate pace, which made him feel even worse about things. Basically, he just felt lousy. His shoulder was throbbing and he just felt tired and weak and he'd stumbled once or twice as well. He knew he was holding them up.

"Deeks? Do you want to take a break?" Kensi asked.

He really wished she wouldn't keep looking at him in that worried way that made him feel guilty for being the cause of her distress. "I'm good, baby," he said, forcing a bright smile onto his face. Kensi nodded, but he could tell he wasn't fooling her. He wasn't going to stop trying though.

Suddenly up ahead, Sam stopped short. "What's he doing?" Kensi asked.

"It looks like he's staring at a tree," Deeks whispered back. The two came up behind Sam and saw that he wasn't staring at a tree, but rather a sign on a tree which read: "CALLEN DEAD OR ALIVE?" with an arrow pointing further into the forest.

"What the hell?" Sam said, shaking his head grimly. The three team members were all thinking about the same thing, when Tahir had hijacked Michelle's body. "They must have found him," Sam said with a catch in his voice. He couldn't bear the thought of these sick bastards having G's body.

"Or they're just playing us," Deeks said.

"What if it's a trap?" Kensi asked.

"You two can stay here," Sam said gruffly. "I'll be back."

"Wait, Sam," Kensi grabbed his upper arm. "We just need to be smart about this. We can't just go carelessly rushing in there. She turned to Deeks. "You should stay here though."

Deeks shook his head. "No way."

"Deeks, please," Kensi said. You can't handle a rifle. We don't even have enough to go around."

"I don't care, Kensi," Deeks stated. "I'm going with you."

"Look, I don't care who's going or who's staying, but I'm not waiting," Sam said impatiently as he started to walk in the direction the arrow had been pointing. Kensi and Deeks both followed along behind him. It wasn't long before they came upon the next sign. "YOU'RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK!"

"This guy is a real sick fucker," Deeks mumbled as he glanced at Sam's face. The man looked positively tortured.

The next sign had no words. It just showed a stick figure, a tree and a bunch of lines everywhere. "What do you think it means?" Kensi asked, looking puzzled.

"They're probably just messing with us," Deeks said. "Let's keep going."

xxxxx

Callen didn't know what to do. He was in so much pain and he really saw no way out of this situation. If his team was to find him, he would never want them to risk their lives to try to save him. There was only one solution. Michael's words reverberated in his head. The wire above his legs was the only possibility. He knew it would be fast, likely instantaneous death. The only thing keeping him from doing it was his team finding out what he had done. He knew it would eat at them, especially Sam. There was no doubt they would hear the explosion, but if he wanted to protect them, it was what he needed to do. He finally made up his mind. Hopefully, they would just think it was an accident, that he'd accidentally hit the trip wire. He took a deep breath as he tried to get up the courage to do what needed to be done. He slowly began to raise his leg, but then he saw them and he knew he had lost his chance. He could never do it now.

xxxxx

Looks like a clearing up ahead," Sam stated. "Be careful." This was looking more and more like a trap. They could walk into the clearing, out into the open, and be easily ambushed. When they got to the edge of the clearing though, all three stopped short and stared in shock at the figure at the opposite side of the clearing. He wasn't moving but they couldn't tell if it was because he was tied up or if he was dead.

"G!" Sam shouted as he began to run. Luckily, no gunshots were fired in his direction and Kensi and Deeks went after him, at a slower pace, as Kensi kept a careful lookout for anything suspicious. Finally, they arrived at the location where Sam was standing, but he had not approached his partner any further. One look told them why. Callen had moved his head and was staring back at them, obviously very much alive. However, it didn't look like he would remain that way for long, trapped in the midst of what appeared to be a complex booby trap of trip wires rigged to explode.

"It's going to be okay, G," Sam called out to him, trying to hide the horror he was feeling at his partner's plight. "We're going to get you out of this."

Callen nodded, but his eyes looked scared, not that any of them could blame him.

"Does this remind you of anything, Kens?" Deeks asked, sharing an uneasy look with her. He could see that she remembered as well as he did. It wasn't something easily forgotten…the time when she had been trapped in the explosive laser room and the two of them had barely escaped with their lives.