Hey everyone!

So this is my last my chapter for you all until August but I think you will all love this chapter. I know I did writing it :) I'm sorry its a bit later in the day then I normally update but I wanted to make sure that this chapter was perfect so as to keep you all wanting to read this fanfic even though I am planning on taking a break from it. So enjoy and see you all again in August!

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

Disclaimer is in Chapter 1:Who?

luvs,

crzychigurl343

Need

One week later and Annie's parents, Travis, and his daughter Aisha had all left to return to their homes and jobs in Washington D.C. The Director of the CIA and the woman who taught at the training facility, also known as the Farm, could not leave their jobs for very long and a week was pushing it. Her parents took with them the protection detail now that they knew that Annie wasn't going to try to escape from the hospital and that there were no indications that anyone was going to come after her while she was still weak.

Travis also left after the first week because he needed to get his daughter back to school now that she was no longer kidnapped and Annie was no longer in mortal danger. Plus, he needed to start finding new living arrangements for him and his daughter now that they no longer had a home.

Also during this week, Annie didn't see much of Jason, Emma, and their new addition, Riley. While Emma and Riley were released the next morning, according to Jason, Riley was one tough baby to keep up with let alone try to condition into a schedule. So this left Annie with her coworkers and Carson as her daily visitors even though everyone at NCIS: OSP went back to work as well during that first week.

Every NCIS agent when they visited tried to sneak in something to Annie that she technically wasn't allowed to have. Hetty always brought her some exotic tea that Annie was craving from the disgusting generic black tea they served at the hospital. The other field agents mostly brought Annie some form of food whether it was chocolates and other junk food or an actual dinner with real steak and grilled vegetables, courtesy of Sam's excellent barbeque skills. Eric and Nell always brought some video game that would entertain Annie only because that it was amusing to watch Eric, Nell, and Deeks play against each other. But Annie appreciated what everyone did to make her comfortable in the hospital that she so dearly wanted to leave.

The second week came and went and the only noticeable event was that her stitches were removed and she got her first physical therapy sessions. Mostly it was Annie lying in her cot, trying to move and twist her injured leg in different ways. But towards the end of that second week, she was finally learning how to walk on it again. But it was painful and slow, so slow that Annie would have to stay in the hospital for another week much to her chagrin. The only upside for her was that she no longer had to wear a hospital gown but her own clothes. Albeit it was a tank top and sweats, it was still less embarrassing then a backless sheet.

These past two weeks and a half had been just as frustrating for Callen as it was for Annie, but for an entirely different reason. Every time Callen visited Annie they were never alone to talk. There was always her sister and/or one of Callen's coworkers visiting her. There was even this one time where he came alone and waited until Carson left, only to be greeted by Annie making nice with the nursing staff until visiting hours were over and he had to leave. Sure, he could have snuck back in but he knew how exhausted Annie was lately after enduring physical therapy on an almost daily basis. But Callen needed to talk to Annie, he needed to tell her how he felt about her and if she reciprocated those feelings like he thought she did. He needed to know because it was driving him insane in the meantime. It was this that consumed his thoughts day and night, even when he was working on something else like this night in particular.

Callen was taking apart his toaster oven, while simultaneously learning Farsi, and constantly thinking about how he was going to breach such a sensitive topic with Annie. He was taking a break to drink some tea when his phone went off. The caller ID read Carson and he picked it up immediately in fear of what had happened to Annie this time for Carson to be calling him at 11 o'clock at night.

"What's wrong with Annie?" Was his first question as he picked up the phone and turned to put his shoes and leather jacket on.

"She is pushing herself too hard; she is trying to speed up the physical therapy by doing it by herself late at night. I need you to come down and talk to her because she won't listen to me. We don't need her straining herself anymore while her heart is still trying to heal as well." Carson explained and Callen started to mentally curse Annie for her impatience with staying at the hospital for as long as she needs too.

"Alright, tell me where she is exactly and I should be there in about ten minutes." Callen sighed as he double checked to make sure he had his keys and wallet in his jacket before jumping into his car.

"She is in the workout room down the hall from her room. Please hurry Callen." Carson said before she hung up. With her plea, Callen sped up his timing to five minutes before he reached the hospital. He just prayed that the red lights he ran were not monitored or else he was definitely going to get it from Hetty in the morning. If Callen had to take that ridiculous driving class again, he would not be a happy camper. But he put those thoughts behind him as he went straight to the room that Carson told him about and walked in to see Annie trembling as she attempted to walk on her own in between two waist length bars. When the door clicked closed behind Callen, Annie looked up and gave him a weary but bright smile.

"Hey G, fancy seeing you here this time of night." She stated casually and took another shaky step forward. This got Callen to bolt straight to her side and try to help her. She would shake him off every time though, so he was left to just walk by her side until she made it to the end and slumped into her wheelchair.

"What are you doing here Callen?" Annie exhaled as she lowered herself into her wheelchair and looked up at him.

"I got a call from your sister who is worried that you are over-doing it." He replied and walked behind her so he could push her back to her room. Thankfully Annie allowed him to do so because he was not going to let her stop him from helping her this time.

"Carson called you? I thought she went back to my place hours ago." Annie said in surprise and Callen shrugged it off. Carson was right in the end about Annie and Callen hasn't seen Carson around which meant that he finally had the alone time he needed to talk to Annie. When they got back to Annie's room they noticed a piece of folded paper taped to the door with both of their names written across it. Callen took it off and opened it while bending over slightly so that Annie could read it too.

'This is a date for the both of you, so enjoy it. Your welcome, Carson and Hetty.' Callen and Annie just gaped at this. Annie was the first one to recover and she opened the door to her room to reveal plastic, electric, candles all over the room attempting to give it some form of ambience. She then narrowed her eyes to the fact that there were two bowls of ice cream on her bedside table, roses and their petals everywhere in the room, and slow music was playing softly in the background. All in all, in her opinion, it was relatively romantic despite being located in a hospital room and impressive seeing how Annie had only left this room about thirty minutes ago.

Callen continued to gape and his mind ran in all different directions as to what he should do. Yes, he was interested in Annie and would love to go on this date with her but he didn't want to push her into this either. He respected the fact that she might not want to date anyone ever again after everything that has happened to her. But Callen couldn't just shrug what Carson and Hetty did for them off and act like this never happened. Neither Callen nor Annie could, not with the room like it was. They both would have to talk about it whether or not they decided to go on the date.

Damn, those two are good… He thought as he wheeled Annie into the room slowly, trying to give himself more time to think of what he was going to say to the woman in front of him. He smirked when she held her arms up for him to pick her up and put her on her bed.

"Look Annie, I just want to say that if you don't-" Callen began when he was abruptly stopped by Annie placing her finger on his lips to silence him.

"I know G, but let's talk and eat this ice cream before it melts." Annie replied with a small smile as she remembered the conversation she had with Hetty just this morning.

"Annie, what do you think of Mr. Callen?" Hetty asked randomly after she cracked a joke about where hospitals get their tea from. Annie gaped for a good five minutes as to where that came from and how, technically, Annie has been thinking about him non-stop since she woke up in the hospital.

"What do you mean Hetty?" She countered with a light blush, wondering what the little woman was trying to get at.

"Stop stalling, you know what I mean." Hetty said with all seriousness and Annie's smile faltered at this.

"You must know about his feelings towards you Annie." Hetty continued unfazed by Annie's change in demeanor and just stared Annie down afterwards, urging Annie to respond this time. At remembering the conversation she eavesdropped in between her father and Callen, Annie nodded.

"And you feel the same about Mr. Callen, am I correct?" Hetty went on after Annie's nod. Once more, Annie nodded and this time added a not-so-subtle blush to her cheeks.

"Then why haven't you said anything to him? You can't keep postponing it by making sure the two of you are never alone." Hetty scolded and Annie cringed at how Hetty was able to see through her like Carson, who has also been pressuring Annie to talk to Callen about them for some time now.

"I'm afraid…" She began to say but trailed off in embarrassment.

"Afraid of getting hurt like with Ryans and then with O'Riley?" Hetty questioned and Annie shook her head at this.

"No, not that….well, I guess I'm a bit scared of that too, but I learned a long time ago that yes ending a relationship is going to hurt but I can recover from it. I won't let it bring me down from starting new relationships whether they be romantic or not." Annie stated as she thought about what Hetty was trying to understand about her hesitation to even broach a topic of dating with Callen.

"Then what are you afraid of Annie?" Hetty asked with a hint of frustration in her voice. It vexed the older woman immensely when she couldn't comprehend something and the person couldn't effective explain to her what she wanted to know.

"I'm scared that someone will use Callen against me, to get to me. Hetty, I can't go through someone kidnapping him, like what happened with Jason and Aisha, or have a psycho hurt him just because I am dating him like what happened to Kevin." Annie finally spat out after choosing her words carefully out of the torrent of emotions she was feeling at this particular moment. Hetty sighed at this and closed her eyes in understanding.

"Annie, that will always be a possibility. But in the case that someone does try to use Mr. Callen against you like you fear, then you are going to stop them just like you and I did in Nepal to save our preferred anonymous friend." Hetty told Annie and the recovering woman felt this new sense of hope well inside of her. Hetty was right, if someone did try hurting Callen or kidnapping him then Annie will get him back and if he got hurt then she will be right there by his side to nurse him back to health.

"You are always right Hetty." Annie chuckled and Hetty began to chortle as well.

"So you are going to talk to Mr. Callen and tell him your feelings." Hetty prompted and Annie couldn't miss the obviousness of her boss's statement making Annie laugh some more.

"Yes Hetty, as soon as I can get him alone long enough to do so. I promise." Annie said and Hetty nodded approvingly. After that they went back to their previous conversation about tea and fashion as well as some new designers or boutiques that they might want to buy from.

Why do I have a feeling that Hetty was going to pull this off whether or not I agreed to talk to Callen? Annie thought ruefully as she passed a bowl of ice cream to Callen before picking up the other bowl and taking a bite of the vanilla scoop of ice cream. Each bowl had three scoops of ice cream; one vanilla, one chocolate, and one strawberry.

She wondered how she was going to bring this all up even though technically they were on a date. Callen was thinking along the same lines as he too started to eat his ice cream, leaving the two of them to just stare at one another as they ate.

"Annie-"

"Callen-" They both began and then laughed at the same time.

"Ladies first," Callen prompted with a circular motion of his spoon and a small bow of his head that made Annie giggle.

"I just want to say thank you for everything. I have never met a man who went to such lengths to take care of me since Kevin." Annie began and then wanted to smack herself because comparing your ex to your current crush was not the best move. That much was so with the small wince Callen gave at her words.

"Not what I meant exactly. I mean, the way you both care so much is similar but in a lot of things you are totally different. I mean…this is not how I wanted this to go." Annie sighed at the end with an uneasy chuckle before taking a huge bite of her strawberry ice cream to shut herself up as well as averted her eyes from Callen.

"What you are trying to say is that you like how much I care?" Callen asked with an unsure tone that made Annie look up at him with a big smile.

"I also like how well you understand me." She added thinking about how Callen also never pushed her like almost every male did when she would spurn romantic advances. Callen smiled at this as well as he ate his ice cream and he let out a small scoff that probably was a chuckle he was trying to hold back because he was eating. Unfortunately for the both of them, they lost the security blanket of ice cream because they both had polished their bowls off. They put their bowls back on the side table and went back to awkward silence. Annie once more broke the silence when she gathered all of her thoughts and made sure she wouldn't say anything that would give Callen the wrong idea again.

"G, I know that my life is pretty messed up right now. I put my family through hell by getting my son and my goddaughter kidnapped, my exes were killed because of their connection to me, Travis lost his home and the love of his life while Aisha lost a father, and then to right this situation I was handed myself over to a crazy guy who thought that beating and torturing me would make me fall in love with him resulting in me landing here in the hospital and having to go through physical therapy. Throw in my family and the fact that I'm technically a grandma and anyone would understand why you would probably change your mind on dating me. That is a lot of baggage on my part that even scares me and-" Annie ranted on and lost all calmness that she had in the beginning. Everything she came up to say in her mind just went out the window as she started to explain her situation to Callen, hoping to seem understanding of his situation and give him an out without him feeling guilty about it. During her rant, Annie didn't notice Callen get up from his seat and move to sit on the edge of her cot to face her directly.

"Annie," He said stopping her midst tirade and he gently took her hands into his, gaining her absolute attention.

"You are not the only one with baggage; you forget that I don't even know what my first name is." He said to reassure her and received a soft smile from her. Annie did know that much about Callen, how he has been in and out of the foster system since he could remember, that no one knows what the "G" stood for as his first name, and that Callen was still looking for these answers after all of these years.

What Annie didn't know, like the rest of the agents at NCIS: OSP, is that Callen had a few memories of his sister and his mother that he clung to desperately, that Callen knew who his mother was thanks to Hetty even though that left him with more questions. He had kept that information even from Sam because Callen wanted to do his some digging on his own; he wanted to keep the information about his mother to himself. But now that he has met Annie, and seen how she felt she would burden Callen with her own baggage, that he didn't think he would mind opening up to her. However, he stopped himself from doing so when he realized that he just needed to tell Annie that he wasn't going to run away like she was giving him the option too. Callen can tell her all about his mother another time, but for now he needed to focus on Annie and convince her that he was going to be there for her no matter what.

"I don't care how much baggage you have Annie, I just care about you. And besides, I happen to think that you are looking good for being a grandma." Callen stated with his signature sexy lopsided smirk that made Annie's soft smile grow bigger and her heart literally skipped a beat at that as she chuckled.

"Thanks G," Annie replied gratefully for the compliment and she squeezed his hands to show him.

"You're welcome, just know that I will always be here for you whether you want to go further with me or not." Callen told her honestly and left the ball in her court. He knew that he was ready to date Annie and can handle any more surprises she had left for him. And he knew he was willing to keep waiting for her or to completely drop any hopes of dating her if she asked him to. Yes, he was going to upset if she decided not to pursue a relationship with him but Callen understood why she would want to give up and he respected her too much to push it.

Annie's widened when she finally understood the full force of what Callen was telling her. She knew that Callen meant every word he said, even if Annie didn't want to date Callen which was contrary to the case. But this time it was Callen who was giving her a way out without her feeling guilty. He was doing the same for her that she tried doing for him. Callen simultaneously told her that he was going to stick around and now turned the tables on her with her own tactic but with less ranting and more eloquence. One thing Annie knew for sure, Callen was one of a kind if he could do all of that and still make Annie's heart race.

"The last time we were in the hospital, our roles were reversed but there is one thing that is the same. I still need you G." Annie said softly as she sat up and leaned forward from her spot on the hospital cot, remembering the words she said to the unconscious Callen, and made sure she kept eye contact with him so that he knew she meant a 100% what she said. Callen's lopsided smirk turned into an actual smile at those words as he too leaned forward, let go of one of Annie's hands so that he could cup her face.

"I need you too Annie." He whispered back and leaned fully in so that their lips finally met. Annie only deepened the kiss slightly to allow entrance to her mouth but even then Callen kept the kiss slow and gentle. Annie was already in the hospital, trying to recuperate, and if Callen deepened the kiss anymore he wasn't sure if he would be able to restrain himself anymore then he was doing now. And even though Annie couldn't read Callen's mind, she appreciated that Callen didn't deepen the kiss either because she would definitely forget that she was in a hospital and going through physical therapy if he did deepen the kiss just by the way he was expertly kissing her at the moment. Both held back, but both were happy to finally be where they were at after over half a year of foreplay between the two of them. Both were happy that they were finally together.

Out of nowhere there was a slight cough that broke Callen and Annie out of their kiss. When they finally looked at who was there, they noticed a smug looking Carson, who both Annie and Callen guessed was the one to cough, and an embarrassed and equally stunned Ivy staring at them with wide eyes. Callen just smirked at the two intruders while Annie blushed with a brilliant but still embarrassed smile.

"As happy as I am that plan 'Get Annie and Callen on a Date' was a massive success, Ivy says that all visitors must leave so that Annie can get some rest and be ready for tomorrow's physical therapy. So, let's go Romeo." Carson stated after the agents realized that Ivy was still stunned speechless by Callen and Annie's kiss. This made both Callen and Annie laugh at the last part. Callen then turned to face Annie once more.

"I will see you tomorrow." He said before pecking Annie's lips.

"It's a date." Annie chuckled as she pecked him again, neither wanting to leave now that they were so close to one another. Callen winked at this and stood up, but not before he kissed her one last time, and then walked towards the door where he exchanged places with Carson who went to Annie's side.

"Thank you so much Carrie, you are the best sister a girl could ever ask for." Annie whispered as she hugged Carson.

"Glad we both agree." She replied that made the two sisters laugh again and then Carson and Callen finally left the room. Ivy was still red as a tomato in the face as she went around the room and turned off the IPod and the electronic candles. She didn't say anything to Annie or even look Annie in the eye as she did this which made Annie want to laugh even more. But Annie held it back until Ivy was able to scurry out of the room, trying to distance herself from the memory of Annie and Callen kissing so gently but still passionately. When the door closed and the lights were out, Annie let out the chuckle she couldn't hold back any longer and drifted into a peaceful and restful sleep with dreams about her and Callen. Well, before the nightmares returned in full force.