"What was that?" Joelle asked.
"Not sure, but it sounded like gunfire."
They were at the back of the store so they couldn't really see what was going on. Callen spotted an emergency exit at the back, just behind them.
"Come on Jo."
Callen pulled Joelle to the emergency exit. As soon as Callen opened the door the alarm sounded. Callen quickly pulled Joelle outside and went to find them a safe place. They were now on the side of the building, in the parking lot with not much cover around. Just outside the door was however some closed fencing with some plants on top. It would at least give them cover from the door. Callen pulled Joelle there and kept her covered. Luckily he had his gun with him. Callen watched the door but nothing happened. He heard sirens in the distance coming closer. Him opening the back door probably triggered something with the local police. The cop cars pulled into the front parking lot. Callen pulled Joelle with him to the front, still keeping an eye on the door. Callen peeked around the corner and saw the cops standing in the parking lot, looking over someone lying on the ground with some people standing around it. Callen deemed it was safe so they came out from their hideout. They walked closer to the scene and saw someone lying on the ground, he appeared to have been shot.
"Officer, what is going on?" Callen asked one of the police officers.
"We had reports come in from shots fired at this location and then also the alarm of the store going off."
"That alarm was me, I opened the back door. I heard the shots but I didn't know where they came from, I thought perhaps they were at the store so me and me fiancé got out of the store." Callen softly spoke: "I'm a federal agent off duty."
"Okay sir. Did you see what happened?"
"No, we were at the back of the store. We didn't see anything and we didn't see a car speeding off from the scene."
The police questioned the others and they reported seeing a car drive up and shoot this man and then drive off. It seemed to be like a drive by. The paramedics took the man away. Once they were cleared by the police Callen and Joelle went inside to finish their shopping before going back to the house.
"You okay honey?" Callen asked as Joelle sat down on the couch.
"Yeah, I just can't believe someone would just pull up and shoot someone."
"Yeah, maybe he was involved in something bad. I don't know. It happens more often than you think. Usually whoever gets shot has some ties in the criminal world."
"Yeah perhaps, but he's still a human being."
"Yeah I know. But he didn't appear to be badly wounded so I'm sure he'll make it and the police will gets the ones responsible for it." Callen sat down next to Joelle on the couch. "It'll be okay honey."
Callen wrapped his arm around her and Joelle leaned her head on Callen's shoulder. They sat like that for a while. After lunch they went outside to lay by the pool after changing into their swimsuits.
The next morning they left early. They were going on a trip. Callen pulled out of the driveway and drove towards the South Palm Canyon Drive. At the intersection he made a left and an immediate right onto West Palm Canyon Drive. At the crossing he took a right onto East Palm Canyon drive. He then took a left onto South Sunrise Way. He followed the road until they were at the crossing with Ramon Road. He took a right here onto Ramon Road. He followed this road until they came at the crossing with the Thousand Palms Canyon Road. He drove down this road and then turned left when they reached the parking lot for the Coachella Valley Preserve. Callen parked the car and they got out of the car and went to hike the trails. It was all pretty flat so no big climbs for Joelle. They walked for about two hours, with the occasional rest and had lunch at the picnic spot before going back to the house.
"Was it not too much for you?" Callen asked as they were in the car back to the house.
"No it was fine. Really honey, I'm fine."
"Alright good."
Callen drove them back to the house and they just relaxed around the pool. That evening they went to eat at Giuseppe's. Joelle wore a lavender blossom knot front dress while Callen was dressed in a pair of short dress jeans with a blue and white plaid button down shirt. They got in the car and drove to the restaurant.
"Buonasera," a waiter greeted them. "Do you have reservations?"
"Buonasera. Yes we have, Walinsky," Callen replied.
The waiter checked the book and showed Callen and Joelle to a table. Callen helped Joelle sit down before he sat down himself. The waiter handed them a menu and took their drink order. Callen ordered the spicy buffalo wings as starter and the spaghetti marinara as main course. Joelle took the crispy raviolis as started and the cheese ravioli with Bolognese sauce as main course. Dinner was absolutely delicious. After dinner they walked to the Cold Stone creamery and had some dessert. Joelle had a waffle cup with chocolate ice cream and whipped cream while Callen had strawberry frozen yoghurt. They sat outside on the bench to eat their dessert before walking back to the car.
When they got home Joelle went to use the bathroom.
"G honey, could you help me with something?" Joelle called a little later.
Callen walked towards the bedroom. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Joelle lying on the bed in a sexy black see through lace lingerie dress with matching panties.
"What…?" Callen swallowed. "What are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious," Joelle spoke in a cheeky tone. "Why don't you come over here and find out?"
Callen didn't have to be told twice. Callen quickly walked up to the bed and they had some fun before going to sleep.
The next day they relaxed around the house in the morning and went to do grocery shopping in the afternoon.
"I've got a surprise for you," Callen spoke as they pulled into the parking lot.
"Oh really? What kind of surprise?"
"You'll see."
Joelle followed Callen and he took her inside a spa.
"Hello welcome to Studio M salon and spa, how can I help you?" A friendly woman behind the desk greeted them.
"Hi, I made an appointment for Ms. Taylor."
The woman typed some things in on her computer. "Ah yes, Miss," the woman addressed Joelle. "If you'd follow me we can get started."
"What did you make an appointment for G?" Joelle asked Callen.
"I arranged for a nice massage for you. Just relax and enjoy it and I'll be back to pick you up in an hour."
Callen gave Joelle a quick kiss.
"Thanks G."
Joelle followed the woman as Callen went to do grocery shopping. An hour later Callen was waiting inside for Joelle.
"Hey honey," Joelle spoke once she saw Callen.
"Hey baby." Callen stood up and walked over to Joelle. He gave her a kiss. "How was it?"
"It was so nice. They gave me a nice mommy-to-be massage. It was really nice and relaxing. Thank you for this. It was really nice."
"You're welcome sweetie."
They went back to the car and drove back to the house.
..
Before they knew it their second week was up too and they had to go back home. Callen had cleaned the place and washed the sheets. Just before 10am the owner was there and he did a quick walkthrough before Callen and Joelle went back home. Just before they came at the exit towards Riverside Freeway they heard on the news that a big traffic accident had happened there and that the road was completely closed. Callen now followed the signs for Los Angeles and stayed on the left lanes. They were driving on the 60 now. They followed the signs for Santa Ana and they come on the Orange Freeway. They followed this road and took the exit for Los Angeles. They were now on the Riverside Freeway. The accident had happened earlier on the Freeway so they weren't bothered by it here anymore. They followed the road and followed the signs for Artesia onto the Artesia Freeway. Callen took the exit towards Valley View Street and Orangethorpe Avenue. Down the ramp he took a left onto Valley View Street and then a right onto Panama Drive. Next he took a right onto Puerto Rico Drive then a right onto Oak drive. Around the bend the road changed into Brian Lane. Callen drove it straight to the end, here was their house.
Callen parked the car in the driveway before they got out. Callen grabbed their suitcases as Joelle went to retrieve the mail. Joelle's parents had taken care of the house while they were gone. Callen took the suitcases to the garage and sorted out the laundry and put it on. Callen and Joelle had enjoyed the two weeks but it was nice to be home again. Callen still had one more week off before going back to work. Joelle would go back to work on August fifteen and then work till September second. The kids would be back on August sixteen but the teachers already had to work August fifteen, which was on Monday. It was now July twenty-forth.
After going through the mail Joelle called her parents to let them know she and Callen were back home again and to thank them for looking after the house. Callen had cleaned out their suitcases and put everything away. Callen looked through the fridge but there wasn't much in it anymore.
"Jo, do you need to me to get some groceries or do you want to go somewhere for dinner tonight?" Callen called into the living room.
"I was actually thinking about takeout, I feel like having some French fries and a nice juicy burger."
"Sure that's fine too. I'll get that later then."
"Great."
They just relaxed around the house for the rest of the day and around dinner time Callen went to McDonalds to get takeout.
"Oh G, could you bring me back one of those ice creams with M&M's?" Joelle asked as Callen was about to leave."
"Sure."
Callen grabbed the car keys and left. There was one close by, only about a five minute drive. Callen went to the drive-in and told them his order. Within twenty minutes he was back at the house. He put the ice creams in the fridge and they sat at the dinner table outside to eat.
"Mmmm, just what I wanted right now," Joelle said once she had taken a bite of her burger.
"Anything for your cravings honey," Callen smiled at her.
They relaxed the evening on the couch before going to bed. Callen was woken up early by his alarm the next morning. Joelle grunted when Callen's alarm went off.
"You just stay in bed honey, I'll see you later tonight."
Callen gave Joelle a soft kiss on her cheek before getting out of bed. He put his clothes on, grabbed some breakfast and left for work. It was still early but he wanted to get a workout in.
"Morning Sam," Callen spoke surprised when he walked into the gym and Sam was already there.
"Morning G, you're here early."
"I could say the same about you."
"Yeah wanted to get a workout done before work."
"Yeah me too."
Callen went to bikes as Sam was punching at the machine.
"How was your vacation?" Sam asked.
"It was nice. Joelle and I rented a house in Palm Springs. It was beautiful. We just relaxed around the house and did some sightseeing. It was nice. How about you?"
"Michelle and me took Kamran to Disneyworld in Florida. It was nice. We stayed at one of the resorts there. Kamran loved it."
"That's great."
They both worked out individually and then sparred together on the mat. After sparring they went to get a shower and went to the shooting range before going to the bullpen.
"Morning," Kensi and Deeks spoke a little later as they walked in.
"Morning," Sam and Callen replied.
"How was your vacation?" Sam asked.
"It was nice. We went to Lake Tahoe," Kensi replied.
"That's nice."
Eric whistled at the top of the stairs. "Vacation is over boys and girl."
Eric walked back to OPS, knowing that the others would follow him.
"What do we have Eric?" Callen asked as they walked in.
"This morning LAPD responded to gunfire downtown. When they entered the warehouse this is what they found," Eric spoke and he put some pictures up on the screen.
The agents looked at the pictures and saw several people dead on the floor, dead tied to a chair or dead hanging from the ceiling, in total there were six. Everyone single one of them was dressed in a Navy uniform.
"They're Navy?" Sam asked.
"Yes, we got the ID's," Nell continued. "And we ran facial reg to double check but they are all listed in the Navy, SEALs to be exact. They all had just gotten home from a deployment overseas. They were scheduled to go back in two months."
"Anything on who took them?" Callen asked.
"No, we're still looking. They had some time off so they weren't scheduled to report to the base. Three of them don't have a family but the other three did and they were reported missing two days ago."
"Alright, Kensi, Deeks, check in with the family. See if they know something."
"Got it," Kensi replied and she and Deeks left.
"Eric, Nell, find out what you can about these people, see if you can found out where they were last seen, maybe we'll catch them being taken."
"On it," Eric replied and the two techs sat down at their desks and started typing.
"Let's go check out the crime scene," Callen spoke to Sam and the two partners left.
….
Joelle went to babies"r"us to by some more stuff for the baby. Joelle bought a badger basinet basket natural hooded Moses bedding with gray/white bedding, a few baby books to read to the baby, a plush giraffe and hippo, a Mickey Mouse blanky, a pair of blue soft baby loafers, Mickey Mouse sneakers, a pack with six blue and white socks and a baby blue quilted pram for outside. She also went to buy some maternity clothes for herself.
…..
Callen and Sam returned to the office after checking out the crime scene. It was pretty brutal. They had been tortured before being killed. They didn't find anything on who could have taken them and they didn't spot any security cameras in the area.
A little later Kensi and Deeks walked back into the bullpen.
"Did you guys get anything useful from the families?" Callen asked.
"No, not much. They were all model sailors, they weren't in any kind of trouble. They all couldn't think of anything why this would happen. But they all did have the uniforms, so whatever uniform these guys were found in weren't their real uniforms."
"So someone purposely put those uniforms on them," Callen stated.
"Sending a message of some sort," Sam added.
"But what? Something to do with their mission overseas?"
"I just had contact with their superior officers," Hetty spoke, appearing behind Callen and walking into the bullpen. "They are shocked that all of them turned up dead. They were all part of the same unit. A unit hunting down high value targets in countries as Afghanistan, Pakistan. As far as they knew their systems hadn't been breached but perhaps one of the targets they captured has contacts here in Los Angeles. They've send over a list of their suspects and Mr. Beale and Ms. Jones are checking them now."
About two hours later Nell and Eric came down the stairs.
"We may have found something," Eric spoke as they walked down the stairs. "We checked into our dead SEALs and we caught one of them being taken."
Eric hit a few keys on his tablet and a video appeared on the screen. The agents watched the video. They saw the SEAL being ambushed, drugged and then dragged in a van.
"We tracked the van with kaleidoscope and we got a hit," Nell continued. "We tracked the van to a parking garage downtown. It's been there for about a day now."
"Send us the address, we'll check it out," Callen said.
Nell typed a few keys on her tablet. "On your phones."
"Thanks."
The team left and went to check out the van. They pulled their cars up to the van and with their SIGs drawn they made their way over to the van. Kensi and Deeks went to the front.
"Clear," Kensi and Deeks spoke and they moved to the back where Sam and Callen were.
With their weapons pointed at the back door Sam carefully undid the handle. He heard a click and he spotted a wire.
"BOMB!" He yelled and everyone quickly ran away and dove for cover but the bomb exploded already.
