Life For Rent

Chapter 21 : Ubiquitous

Author's Notes :
- Spoilers for S1E16. Some dialogue is taken directly from the episode. It doesn't belong to me, it belongs to the writers of NCIS: LA.
- Thanks to all my wonderful readers and reviewers. You really do brighten my day.

Callen's phone alarm went off at 7:03 am and he groaned silently. Jared was draped across him, limbs mixed with Callen's, keeping him warm and keeping him put.

"Mmm," Jared mumbled. "Stay."

"Gotta pick Sam up," Callen answered softly. He ran a hand through Jared's blonde hair, tangling his fingers in the strands.

"Throw him off his game; be late," Jared answered, sighing softly in contentment.

Callen laughed softly. "I don't know how much he'll appreciate that."

Jared looked up and his bright blue eyes met Callen's. "I want you, G," He said, voice husky with lust. "Please."

Callen groaned as Jared's words sent a jolt straight to his groin. "You're insatiable, you know that, right?"

The younger man smiled lazily. "Yeah."

"We'll have to be quick."

"Nuh-uh," Jared said with a shake of his head. "Slow. Slow and deep."

Callen moaned as he wrapped his arms around Jared, rolling them over so he landed on top of the other man. "Sam is never going to let me hear the end of it if I'm late."

Jared smiled up at him, he looked beautiful in the early morning light. "Take me, G."

"Yes," Callen breathed against Jared's lips. "Okay."

"If you tell me you're picking me up at 9, 8:50 I'm curbside," Sam said as they entered headquarters.

"Got caught up in something," Callen answered.

"What?" Sam asked. "You don't have a TV, you don't read the newspaper, you clearly don't spend anytime getting ready."

Callen dropped his bag by his desk. "Well maybe I was working out."

Sam laughed lightly. "You don't work out."

Callen headed for the stairs. "I run."

"Yeah, when people are shooting at us."

"Alright, you know what?" Callen asked, glancing back at Sam. "I slept in."

"With who? You barely sleep."

Callen was pretty sure Sam knew the answer to that and he was also pretty sure that Sam didn't want to know he knew the answer to that so he was playing dumb.

"There's nobody," Callen answered with a small smile. 'Nobody' of course meant Jared.

"C'mon," Sam said with a smile, patting Callen's shoulder with his hand. "I think it would be great for you to be in a relationship."

Sam had been trying to convince Callen to call his thing with Jared a 'relationship' for the past month. Just because Callen didn't call it that, didn't mean it wasn't a relationship.

"Sam how many times we going to have this conversation? You are my partner, not my mother."

"I just want you to be happy and find a good girl."

Callen laughed, "I don't think Jared would appreciate being called a girl."

"Well I think he probably would appreciate you calling it a relationship."

"You…" Callen said skeptically. "You are giving me relationship advice?"

Sam grinned and held his hands up in defeat, "Point taken."

"Thank you."

Together they stepped into the tactical room upstairs.

"Finally," Hetty said. "Nice of you gentlemen to join us."

Jared grabbed the order slip off of the metal shelf. "I need two salmons, one pot roast and one… hamburger?" Jared looked up at Mark, the waiter had just delivered this. "We don't serve hamburgers."

Mark shrugged haplessly. "I tried to tell him that, over and over, but he's really old and insists that he had a hamburger here once. The best one in his life or something."

Jared sighed. "Old?"

"Probably gonna croak tomorrow," Mark said uneasily. "He was really, really old, sir."

Jared exhaled, "Okay."

"Thank you," Mark sighed in relief and then left to go back out onto the floor.

"When did I become such a pushover?" Jared muttered to himself.

Brandon, his sous chef, snickered as he walked by. "You've always been a pushover, Jay-Jay."

"Fuck off, Bran," Jared replied without heat.

Brandon just laughed, walking away. Jared went to the fridge to track down some meat for the old guy's hamburger.

Ten minutes later he was molding a patty when his phone started buzzing. Jared quickly finished and ran his hands under the sink before wiping them off and digging through his pockets for his digital leash. He glanced at the name and frowned before answering. "Hey, G. What's up?"

"Jared?"

Jared blinked. "Sam? Did you steal G's phone?"

"He's in the bathroom, so I only gotta minute." Sam sighed. "Look, today was a bad case, for everyone but I think G's taking it really hard."

"Sam?" Jared asked in concern. "What? What happened? Is he okay?" Jared walked over to their large freezer and stepped inside for some privacy.

"He's fine, it's just--our case today involved a gay lieutenant commander, his boyfriend was killed to get to him and he ended up killing himself."

Jared inhaled sharply and closed his eyes. He moved his free hand up to his forehead and ran his hand down over his eyes. "Thanks for letting me know."

"Sure. I'm taking him to my house."

"Got it."

The call ended and Jared took a second to compose himself before leaving the freezer. He walked back over to the counter and put the burger on the frying pan.

"Brandon," He called lightly, gently grabbing the other man's sleeve.

Brandon stopped and look at Jared. "What's up?"

"I need to leave early. Can you cover for me?" Jared asked.

"Yes, of course. Is everything alright?"

Jared nodded, "Yeah, I just--there's somewhere I have to be. I'm going to finish up this order and talk to Bert before leaving."

"Okay, take care, Jay, okay? Call if you need anything."

"Thanks," Jared said softly.

"No problem."

"Holy shit."

Callen looked up and winced. "It's not as bad as it looks."

"Not as bad as it… G!" Jared strode across the room and fell to his knees beside the couch Callen was laying on.

Callen glared at Sam as he walked past but Sam just shrugged and continued on to the kitchen. "Really, I put ice on it."

"I hope you hurt the motherfucker that did this," Jared muttered darkly. His fingers lightly probed the area around Callen's left eye.

"Yeah we got 'em."

"Them? As in more then one? And we? Is Sam hurt?" Jared asked, a concerned tone in his voice. He glanced over his shoulder and towards the kitchen. "He looked like he was limping a little."

"He'll be fine," Callen assured the younger man.

"Where else are you hurt?" Jared's hands lifted the front of Callen's shirt without pause and his fingertips ghosted across the light bruising there, it would be darker in the morning. "It's okay to duck."

Callen laughed softly. "I'll remember that next time."

"See that you do."

"What are you doing here?" Callen asked, looking at his watch. "It's barely nine. On a Tuesday. You don't get off this early."

"Sam called."

"Sam has your number?"

"He called on your phone."

"You stole my phone?" Callen called to his partner.

"I gave it back," Sam answered.

Jared let go of Callen's shirt and picked up one of Callen's hands in his. "Let's go back to my place. I'll make you an actual dinner and then I'll let you fuck me into the mattress."

Callen grinned. "You always say the nicest things."

Jared laughed, "I'm sure."

The younger man stood up and reached a hand down for Callen. Callen grabbed it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. "Let me say goodbye to Sam."

"I'll wait in the car."

Callen nodded. "Thanks."

Jared left them alone and Sam came out of the kitchen, beer in hand.

"You gonna say something, G?"

Callen had thought about saying something along the lines of 'I don't need you to take care of me' and then he thought better of it because, actually, when Jared had entered, a warm feeling had taken root in Callen's chest. He wanted Jared there and Callen never would have called the other man on his own.

"Yeah," Callen answered quietly. "Thanks."

Sam smiled, "Sure thing, G. You know I've got your back."

"Yeah. I know."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jared asked.

They were lying in bed, naked. Jared was on his stomach, head turned on a pillow to face Callen while Callen was on his side, head propped up with his hand and looking down at the younger man. Callen's free hand was tracing random things on Jared's bare back.

Callen inhaled. "Are you ever scared that someone will come after you because of me? I mean, already someone had pictures of you because you were with me."

Jared appeared to think about the question before answering, "Maybe a little, but this is worth it, G. You're worth it."

"I'm not worth your life," Callen countered.

"And neither is driving, but I do it anyways. And I ride in elevators and use vending machines. People have died from doing all of those things. I--" Jared laughed lightly. "I surf in the ocean, G. You want to talk about me risking my life? Sometimes surfers go under and they never come back, but I still go out, still take that chance. Being with you makes me incredibly happy and maybe you'll call me stupid for wanting to stay with you, but I do. I want to stay. If I wasn't a risk taker I wouldn't even get out of bed in the morning."

"Jared," Callen sighed. "It's not that simple."

"It is," Jared countered. "And I think you're forgetting something, G."

"I am?" Callen asked skeptically.

"Yes. Yourself."

"Myself?"

"You think that I don't know that if I were in danger you wouldn't do everything you could to help me?"

"I might be too late," Callen said softly. "Lee was too late."

"Then you'll just have to learn how to run faster."

Callen smiled softly. "Yeah. I guess I will."