Sincere and utter apologies for the delay. Hopefully there're still people who'd like to read it :)

Enjoy… R&R!

Chapter Eight: Unexpected Visitors

The moment he heard the footsteps, he already knew it was too late. Although he was fast and well trained in several sports, never would he be able to fight off the person standing behind him whom caught him by surprise.

Callen was fast enough to turn around and to lift his arm halfway in the air, but as predicted his attacker was faster and Callen felt a pain exploding on the left side of his head when the attacker's gun made contact with his skin. The blow was hard enough to leave the Special Agent unbalanced and disoriented. Soon, another blow followed, this time on to his right temple. He felt his uncontrollable body completely losing balance and sliding to the side. The open drawer of the cupboard appeared to be an obstacle on his way to the ground, and G felt another stabbing pain in his head when it made contact with the drawer. With a loud thud, his body crashed down on the floor, leaving him temporarily paralyzed. Miraculously, he didn't lose complete consciousness. Large black spots were dancing before his eyes when he felt droplets of warm liquid leaving his head on both sides. Between the spots, a shadow appeared above him. Although he tried, his head was too banged up for the Agent to see any details of the guy's face.

The person slowly made his way down towards him when Callen felt a piece of paper underneath his left hand. The picture. The details of the picture flashed before his eyes. Never had he seen a more beautiful girl than the one in that picture. How he would've wanted to go through all the pictures in that box, to save them in his head so he could never forget them again. The most beautiful and happiest girl.. His thoughts were roughly interrupted when he felt a knee collapsing into his torso. A hand around his collar harshly rose his head up so it was facing the intruder who took G by surprise. Even though their faces were inches apart, the black spots he was seeing were growing bigger and were now almost completely blocking his view. He tried to strengthen up, to hold his head up and to put up a fight, but the person had him in a hold and his will to stay awake was no longer enough. He was just in time to put his last energy into folding the picture into his trouser pocket which went unnoticed by the person on top of him. A second later, he felt a needle entering his neck vein and the liquid flowing into his system burned like hell. Before he was completely aware what was happening, the black spots amalgamated and his body went limb.

Callen's attacker waited another minute to make sure the Special Agent was really unconscious when he rose up. He stood there for a short while, bending over the limb form of the NCIS member, clearly pleased with the result. Without any hurry, he made his way towards the front door and opened it. A van was already waiting behind it, the backdoor of it open. Another man stepped out of the car and joined him next to G's body. With ease, both of them lifted G up and threw him in the back of the car without much love. The other man took his seat behind the steering wheel while the intruder took a can out of the back of the van. He stepped into the van and emptied the content onto the front of the house and the grass field in front of it while the van slowly drove away. Just before the attacker closed the backdoor, he threw a lit match. He quickly closed the door.

They just turned around the corner in front of Callen's motel when the house was already completely on fire.

Sam turned his head for the millionth time to the passenger seat. He was again relieved when he saw the little black bag still lying there on the place which had been occupied by his partner till 10 minutes ago. Sam felt very protective of the little bag. The content of it was the only piece of evidence they had found after a near one and a half hour during search in the soaking heat. When remembering that time, Sam let out a small snort. Although it was a horrible thing to do, he had been glad to be doing it with his partner. They had been making fun of each other the whole time, laughing and sparring too. How different he had thought the afternoon was going to be. Sam's mind wandered back to the conversation he had with Callen in the car right before they left to get donuts. Although the worry about Kensi was a plausible reason, it still wasn't enough to get Callen on edge so much. His behavior had been weird, driven, angry. Usually G was the only person who never showed his emotions, but this time had been different. Something inside Sam though had told him not to push it any further.

Sam soon found himself parking his Challenger in front of their office. He let out a silent prayer when he picked up the bag and quickly made his way towards the building. Inside, he found Hetty sitting at her desk, carefully looking up when she saw Sam entering. She only slowly nodded which was the sign Sam needed to finish the last part towards the OSP centre running. There, he found Eric and Nate still working whom both turned around to greet Sam. Nate quickly rose up with a worried expression on his face.

"You found something? And where's Callen?" Sam smiled.

"Take it easy, Nate. I dropped Callen off at his motel before I came back here. And yes, I found something." He held the black bag up when they were joined by Eric.

"What it is?" The lab tech asked.

"It's a cap from a syringe, probably the one that was used on Fortell to kill him. I'd like you to get someone to run an analysis on it, to search for any fingerprints or what liquid could've been used to kill him." Eric nodded enthusiastically, happy that they had finally found something. His search to get an ID off the attacker had come up empty and his hope had been slowly fading. He quickly took the bag Sam was holding.

"I'm on it." And with that, he made his way out of the OSP room and towards the Pathology Centre. Sam was left alone with Nate.

"You guys find anything?" Nate eyed him suspiciously.

"Unfortunately, no. The brother and the wife don't seem to be involved, so that leaves us with still zero possible suspects. Didn't do the full profiling of the victim yet, though."

"Hmm.." Nate kept looking at him when Sam only gave a sound as an answer. After a couple of awkward seconds, Sam stared back at him, beginning to look annoyed.

"What is it?" Nate quickly looked away.

"Oh, nothing.. it's just…" Sam rolled his eyes.

"It's just what?" Nate knew both Sam and Callen weren't at all pleased to talk to him about their feelings and emotions, but he still had to try.

"I was just wondering why Callen didn't come back with you, that's all." Sam looked at him with careful eyes. He knew how much Callen hated it when they were talking about him behind his back, especially when it came to his 'mental state'.

"It was unnecessary of him to come. It'll take some time to get the syringe processed and there's nothing else we can do right now." Now it was Nate's turn to only make a sound.

"Hmm.." Sam rolled his eyes again, arms throwing in the air for defeat.

"Oh come on, Nate. You don't have to analyze every step we take. For you there's a double meaning behind everything, right? Is there a double meaning behind us eating donuts on the way to the crime scene? Is that an expression of our inner youth to you?"

"You stopped for donuts?" The psychologist only got a look from the guy in front of him.

Although he was sincerely curious, Nate knew that quitting the subject was the best thing to do.

"Okay, okay. I'm just saying. Good night." With that, Nate left the OSP and went to his home to get a good night's rest before another long day was ahead.

What he didn't know was the effect his question had on Sam. While staring at Nate leaving the room, the Special Agent could only think about the truth behind Nate's words. No matter how tired G was, he would double his shifts and work twice as hard when a team member was involved in the case somehow. But when Sam had suggested to drop him off at his motel earlier that evening, Callen had given in too easy. Way too easy.

Sam sighed. There's no reason to think about this now. He looked around the OSP room. Big piles of paper, CD's and DVD's were scattered around the room while the big screens showed multiple pictures of the security camera showing Glen Fortell getting murdered. Eric and Nate had been working hard too. Although a viable part of the team was now missing, Kensi, Sam knew they would find the murderer eventually. With another sigh he left the OSP room, on his way to getting his so much deserving rest before another day would begin.

His thoughts were soon replaced by images of his tv and his bed, but he couldn't help but keeping the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

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