Hey everyone!

Here is the next chapter as promised! And now we are finally to the point where we last left off with Annie! So expect the next chapter to be action filled and moving on from when Annie woke up! :D

Thank you for all the lovely reviews and putting this story under alert and/or favorites!

Disclaimer is in Chapter 1: Who?

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Proof of Life

Director Smith was right; they needed to focus on getting Annie back. Callen was mentally kicking himself for forgetting that even if for a brief amount of time. It didn't matter how shocking Carson's performance was when she interrogated the mercenary in there, Callen shouldn't have dropped the ball like that. It seemed that Johnston opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by the scream of a heavily pregnant woman.

"JASON!" A blonde-haired woman darted towards the dark-haired young man who bolted out of his chair at the woman's voice and then to catch his wife as she launched herself into his arms.

"Emma," He barely choked out as he clutched the woman to him. Well, as close as the huge baby bump would allow the couple to get to one another. When Emma let go, she let out a strangled noise as she located every minute injury on Jason.

It seemed that bruises were starting to appear where previous red marks were. There was a rather nasty bruise on his bottom jaw that was making its way up towards his cheekbones on the left side of his face. On the right side, below the black eye there was a gash. Callen was surprised that he didn't notice this before and now was really beating himself up for getting so caught up in whatever was what happening at the moment to not notice these things.

"Ssh, Emma, I'm fine. How are you? How's the baby?" Jason stated as he removed her hands delicately from his face and glanced down at Emma's protruding stomach. Emma just sighed in relief.

"We are both doing better now that we know you are safe." She replied softly as Jason bent down to rub her stomach, kiss it, and then after his wife answered he pecked her on the lips. Callen then noticed a figure hovering by the doorway.

The man could have been Jason's twin with black hair cut to a short buzz-cut and muscles to match. They also both had striking masculine features that reminded Callen of movie stars from the classic P.I. films back in the '40s and '50s. But while Jason had also dark brown eyes, this man had unusual steel grey eyes. However, this figure's identity no longer remained a mystery to Callen when Jason seemed to spot the man as well.

"Thank you Ben for staying with my wife, even after I called in to tell her that I was safe and sound." Jason stated and walked over to the man and shook hands with them. When Ben stepped out of the shadows, Callen finally could make out the military fatigues Ben was wearing and he assumed that Ben and Jason were a part of the same unit hence why Ben was there to help out Emma.

"Don't sweat it; 'never leave a man behind' is our motto right?" Ben replied in good humor and got a chuckle out of both Jason and Sam.

"Then you won't mind, watching over Emma a bit longer do you?" Jason asked and Emma rounded on her husband.

"Jason Isaac Smith, what are you going on about? You are coming home with me this instance!" The petite blonde exclaimed while popping out her hip for emphasis. Jason, in turn, sighed.

"Babe, I can't go home just yet." He began but was cut off by Emma.

"And why is that?" She questioned and her tone was dripping with venom. Callen knew that Jason would have to tread lightly with what he was going to say next to his heavily pregnant and very emotional wife if he didn't want to spend the rest of the pregnancy on the couch.

"Because Mom is now in danger from trying to save me. Em, you know that I need to rescue her. I can't leave her there, wherever she is, to rot." Jason explained gently and Emma gasped. She then began to weep openly for Annie. Apparently, Annie was an excellent mother-in-law, if Emma's reaction was of any indicator. That or her pregnancy was affecting her mood swings: probably both. Jason's relatively tough exterior melted at the sight of his wife's tears and he pulled her in close again. When Callen looked over to Ben, he could see that the man was also saddened by this news.

"We understand bro, come on Em. Give me a call if you need the unit for anything." Ben said and he tried to coax Emma to let go of her husband.

"Please, please don't get yourself hurt or killed trying to save her Jason. I know you, and I know that you will do anything to save your mother. But please, just remember that you are going to be a parent soon as well. Please, for the sake of our baby, please come back in one piece." Emma pleaded with her husband, although it was pretty muffled due to the fact that she buried her head into Jason's chest. Callen could see Jason visibly crack at this.

"I promise Emma, that I will come back in one piece with my mom." Jason said with determination that Callen envied. If that was Callen, he wasn't sure how he would have remained emotionally stable let alone be able to handle the situation right now. But, Jason's answers appeased Emma for she sniffed and let go of him.

"Hey, Emma, do you mind if you took Aisha with you? I don't want her to see what is going on or to be in the middle of this. It will just be until later tonight, I will drop Jason off and pick Aisha up at the same time." Johnston stated and Emma gave him a bright smile with a nod. Johnston then went up the stairs to grab his daughter before returning and handing her over to Emma.

"Aisha Annabelle Johnston, you behave for Mrs. Emma you hear me?" Johnston asked his daughter and the little girl nodded her head in understanding.

"That's my girl, now come give papa a hug." But before Johnston could finish the sentence the little girl had already flung her arms around his neck while he was still bent forward to talk to her at eye level. Johnston hugged her back, pecked her on the temple, detached himself from the little girl, and then placed Aisha's hand into Emma's open one. Everyone was silent as they watched the small group of three depart from the boatshed.

"Aisha Annabelle Johnston, I like that." Sam stated after silence descended on the group.

"Gabriel and I did too." Johnston replied softly. However, the moment was cut short by the monitor changing from the video feed of the mercenary in the interrogation room to of Eric back in ops with the video of the mercenary shrinking and moving to the corner of the screen so they could all still watch him.

"Yes, Mr. Beale?" Hetty asked and it was obvious that this was not going to be good news by the look that Eric was giving them.

"There is something you all got to see." He stated in a panic tone and before they could question him about whatever it is that has gotten him so anxious, Eric changed the video feed once more. Callen's heart stopped when the video feed showed an unconscious Annie hanging from the ceiling by cuffs.

He quickly noticed the obvious wardrobe change from what she was wearing when he last saw her. Now, Annie was wearing one of the shortest denim skirts possible on her. He wasn't sure if it could even be considered a skirt by how short it was. To top that, Annie was wearing a green bikini bra covered with black mesh revealing every scar on Annie's torso. Basically she looked like one cheap hooker that probably didn't even cost a dollar and had more viruses than imaginable.

"What the hell?" Deeks and Carson exclaimed in a knee jerk reaction as soon as the feed popped up.

"Annie," Johnston gasped as Mrs. Smith clutched her husband for comfort.

"Annie," Director Smith murmured. But the most heart-wrenching reaction came from Jason who practically shouted "MOM!" in a voice that sounded like a wounded animal.

"Explain, Mr. Beale." Hetty barked, her own voice a bit hoarse. Callen knew that he, Hetty, Sam, and Kensi were all remembering the situation with their previous co-worker, Dom. However, it was Nell who responded and broke them all of that thought process.

"We were monitoring Annie's email account to see if she would access it but instead she got an email from the same account that sent her the video feed of Jason and Aisha. We opened it and this started playing. Eric and I got a hold of you immediately afterwards." She explained rapidly although Callen's eyes, like everyone else's, were glued to the image of the still unconscious Annie.

"This isn't a recording is it?" Johnston asked and got a negative from the technical analysts.

"Is she still alive at least?" Kensi asked and so Eric and Nell zoomed in to show an up close image of the rather peaceful looking Annie, but it was clear to see the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest, signaling that she was still alive and just knocked out.

"Can you track the signal to her location?" Carson questioned next. Eric and Nell gave her a quick look over before deciding to answer her question.

"No, like the last time the video feed is going through several proxies that don't lead back to the source and the account is a dummy account." Eric said and Callen felt whatever hope he got from seeing that Annie was alive dwindle at Eric's words.

"And you can't scrub it for background noises or characteristic markings to narrow down where she could be held?" Director Smith asked next and still got a negative. This was not looking good to anyone.

"What can you tell us Mr. Beale, Ms. Jones?" Hetty stated.

"That she is alive." Nell replied solemnly.

"Very well then, we will be on our way back. Director Smith, I assume that the CIA is going to take our nameless mercenary in there." Hetty aimed at him and the Director nodded in affirmative.

"Mr. Beale, make sure that we get back to OSP without anything impeding us." Hetty ordered and left before the technical analysts could say anything.

"Forward the video to our tablets too Eric." Callen said and got a nod from Eric.

"It should be there now." Nell responded and his team began to mobilize.

"I'm going with Travis and Jason back with the others to headquarters. See you there." Carson told her parents who nodded in understanding.

"Wait, Eric is it?" Mrs. Smith stopped the surfing hacker from signing off.

"Could you… Could you keep the video up while my husband and I wait for some agents to pick up the mercenary in there? I need to see proof that our baby is still alive." Mrs. Smith pleaded with Eric who could only give a brief nod with watery eyes. He signed off but he kept the video feed playing as per requested. As Callen was filing out with the rest of the group he could see every little exchange between Director Smith and his wife.

Mrs. Smith, due to briefly stepping towards the screen to talk to Eric, returned to her husband's embrace. She then watched silently, with Director Smith, the T.V. screen. He could see Mrs. Smith trying not to tremble. It reminded Callen of Annie earlier that day when she was trying not to cry either. This reminder made Callen ache for Annie and he wished that he could have gone back in time to stop her from becoming a martyr.

"It's going to be okay Rose, we will get her back. We will get our baby girl back." Director Smith said soothingly to his wife and rubbed gentle circles into her back, echoing the same motions that Callen did for Annie. Callen needed to get out of there quickly or else he was going to break.

Thankfully, Sam remained silent as he waited for Callen to get to their car and then as they drove all the way back to OSP headquarters. He allowed Callen to stare at the video of the still unconscious Annie in peace. He was focusing on anything that would tell Callen where she was located. Also, this allowed him to think of why Stryker was keeping her. What could possibly be his motives for kidnapping a currently reinstated-ex NSA agent and create a live video feed of her current condition before sending it to her monitored email address. It just wasn't adding up for Callen, and even though he didn't know it, everyone else who was striving for rescuing Annie was thinking along the same lines as him.

Unfortunately, by the time everyone got back to OSP headquarters, there were still no leads to follow up on and no change in Annie on the video feed. Apparently when Eric and Nell went through the Kaleidoscope video, the spot that Stryker picked for the exchange was in a blind spot so that they couldn't find out what actually went down at the exchange other than Jason's perspective or could figure out which black van that Annie traveled in. Also, Eric and Nell could not keep track of the three black vans that barreled out of the vacant parking lot. They got lost in the sea of rush hour traffic in L.A. Essentially, they had nothing so far.

So, Callen and his team continued to go over every inch of the file on Stryker. Carson and Jason went up to ops center to read the letter Annie left behind for them. Callen was just glad that they did this upstairs so he didn't have to see their reactions to the letter. It was bad enough seeing his team's expressions as well as Annie's best friend's when they heard the contents of the letter; he did not want to see how her family would react to it. But when the two came down stairs Callen could read across their faces that it was a major blow to Carson and Jason like it was for everyone else who has read it. He could remember Hetty's expression, she was livid whereas Eric and Nell were stunned into silence; both blushing bright red and Nell had tears in her eyes. Callen was just thankful that she didn't actually cry.

Now Carson was working on getting the un-redacted file on Annie, they were all hoping that maybe that in comparison with Stryker's file that something will jump out at them and Jason was with Callen reading over Stryker's file. Johnston had gone back up to ops center to work with Nell and Eric, while Hetty was still making her calls about Stryker. Director Smith would join Hetty about half an hour later while Mrs. Smith and Carson followed Callen and his team's actions in reading over the file on Stryker and then about Annie when they got it. It would be two hours later when Johnston quickly ran out of ops center, calling out to tell them that Annie was awake.

This got all of their attention and they all raced to get to ops center. Callen entered to see Annie slowly shaking her head and taking in her surroundings. However, she wasn't alone for long.

"I see that you are finally awake. And here I was afraid that I used too much and you had OD, Annie. Do you like the outfit change?" Stryker said gleefully and his eyes raked her body lustfully and that made Callen clench his fists in anger, he wasn't the only male in the ops center to do so. She opened her mouth to say something when Stryker stopped her.

"Ah, ah, ah, my dear, be careful of what you say next because we are streaming live." He pointed to the camera in the left corner of the room and then to the right corner. Annie widened her eyes in surprise at this before turning to glare at Stryker.

What the hell does he want with Annie? Was the thought of everyone in the room.