The team gets a new case when a Navy Commander is targeted. What will they find when they start investigating?

I only own my own characters which include Stefan and Mark in this story.

Anything in italics within single quotes is a quote from my one-shot "Can't Stay Away". Anything in italics and double quotes is thoughts.

Nope…no matter how hard I wish, NCIS LA nor any of the characters on the show are mine. And sadly, they never will be.

Reviews are always welcome. Thanks so much to bjq, blue dogs rock, Caro0909, Acquamarin28626, JC419, jimi18 and BlackBear53 for your reviews. Thanks also go out to my two guest reviewers. I really appreciate you taking the time to review.

My minions are still pouting. There is grumbling going on in their hiding place. It sounds like they are planning on taking over the world to make everyone read NCIS LA fanfic. Something about they'd get more reviews that way. I keep telling them to be patient, but being patient isn't one of their strong suits. If you are enjoying this story, especially this chapter, leave a review and tell me why.

Enjoy.

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CHAPTER 6: A New Case

He was ready for the next step in his plan. Mark had contacted him and gave him the name of the selected target. He arranged to meet Mark and give him the small bomb to place in his target's car. Mark had a list of the target's schedule for the next three weeks. They looked over it together and decided that the classified briefing the target attended every month was the perfect time to put the next step into action. He assigned two of his men to set up on a ridge overlooking the road the car would travel on so that they could trigger the bomb remotely at exactly the right time. One of the two men had trained as a sniper and would target Sam Hanna when NCIS arrived on scene and was looking over the accident site. He knew that NCIS would come and investigate the accident because of who the target was. From his research, he was reasonably sure the NCIS agents who would be assigned to investigate would be Callen and his team. If it so happened that the two younger members of the team went sent to the accident site, he could still kill one of them and make Callen suffer. After all, he was going to kill his whole team before he killed Callen.

His wanted to have Sam shot and killed by his sniper as the first victim to make Callen suffer the loss of his partner like he had suffered the loss of his family. By killing Sam first, he hoped the NCIS team would not connect his family to the event and he could go forward with the next step in his plan but even if one of the others was killed first, it would serve his purposes. Killing Sam was just the first step in his plans to make Callen suffer the loss of everyone close to him. He wanted to destroy Callen and make him suffer for a very long time before killing him.

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Large and small cases came the teams' way and were either solved quickly or over the course of several days or weeks, depending on how complicated they were. Eric and Nell backed the team up as usual providing their normal high level of support. No one got hurt and everything was humming along…well, as well as could be expected with the types of cases they caught that is. About four months after Nell and Callen began seeing each other outside of work, the team experienced several days without a new case arriving. The team had been finishing some long overdue paperwork which made for very long days.

By the beginning of the third day of paperwork, all four of them were complaining in one way or another. Sam and Callen were arguing about Callen's dietary choices with Sam going all mother hen on Callen about living longer if he ate better. Callen was getting back at him by trying to tempt him with greasy hamburgers and bacon sandwiches. Kensi was going on about her techno music or complaining about Marty. Marty was being his usual smart-ass self, coming up with quips and shooting rubber bands at anyone who looked like a good target. In fact, he had nailed Eric the day before with a very nice shot from his desk to where Eric was standing at the top of the stairs. Hetty was beginning to think she would have to read them the riot act to get them to act their ages.

Lunch had just been finished, and the team was dreading the prospect of another long afternoon of more paperwork. Deeks groaned, ran his hands through his hair and rubbed his jaws. He grumbled "Someone, just put me out of my misery now."

Kensi replied "I'm with you partner. I can't feel my hands anymore, I've been typing so many reports and forms."

Sam and Callen were looking at each other in sympathy when Eric appeared at the top of the stairs and whistled "We have a case."

"It's about time" Callen muttered as he headed upstairs. Sam had a relieved look on his face as he followed Callen. Kensi and Deeks looked at each other and grinned as they walked toward the stairs shoulder to shoulder. All four of them proceeded up to OPS to hear about the new case. Sam and Callen took their place standing toward the front of the plasma while Deeks and Kensi stood behind the data table shoulder to shoulder as usual. Hetty was already there.

Hetty turned to Eric and stated "Mr Beale, begin."

Pulling up images from traffic cams on the I10 using his iPad, he began. "What you're seeing is an accident that occurred about 40 minutes ago. Turns out the cause of the accident was a small incendiary device placed in the wheel well of the car, causing the front tire to blow and the driver to lose control. As you can see, the car became airborne and then rolled multiple times before coming to rest upside down. The driver and the passenger both died on impact."

"And that concerns us how?" Callen asked.

"The passenger was Commander Jeff Connelly," Eric informed them. "He was EO on the USS Dubuque. The ship's home port is San Diego. Commander Connelly was on his way to a monthly classified briefing at the time of the accident. We don't know how or when the car was rigged and we don't know what the classified briefing was about yet."

Nell took over seamlessly from Eric "We're looking into the background of both Commander Connelly and his driver. So far, we've found nothing out of the ordinary but we're still looking. The car was assigned to him from the motor pool on the base so we're also looking into who had access to it there."

Callen took over. "Okay. Deeks, Kensi see what you can find out on base. I want a list of everyone who might have a grudge against the commander; any enemies or anyone who could have rigged the car. Also see what you can find out about who the Commander had contact with and what the briefing was about. Sam and I will go to the crime scene to see what we can find. We'll meet back here later and go over what everyone's found so far. Nell, you and Eric keep digging. Look at financials, phone records, the works for both the Commander and his driver. If any other names come up, check them as well. Locate any traffic cams in the areas around the base and check them to see if anything suspicious shows up."

"That sounds like a plan Mr. Callen. Keep us informed and be careful. We don't know what this case is really about yet" Hetty commented.

The two teams left the OPS center to go their separate ways hoping to solve the case quickly and easily.

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Sam and Callen began bantering with each other as they headed out of the mission for Sam's car. As Sam was driving to the crash site, he noticed that Callen was deep in thought. Sam glanced over at him every so often but Callen didn't notice anything. Finally Sam had enough of Callen's brooding and decided to ask. "What's going on? Out with it G, what has you so deep in thought?"

Callen wasn't sure how to respond to Sam's question. "Just thinking about this case, Sam." He hoped Sam would accept his explanation.

"That's not it, G. Something's going on with you. You've been different for the past several months."

"What do you mean different, Sam? I'm the same old me."

"Yeah, right. Don't mess with me G. You haven't been coming to the house as much lately. Could it have something to do with a certain redheaded analyst?"

"Oh shit" Callen thought. "He can't know about Nell and I, can he? I don't think we've done anything to make him suspect us. Naw, he's just fishing for information. Play it cool G." Callen looked over at Sam and replied in what he hoped was a normal tone of voice for him. "Come on Sam, what makes you say that? You trying to play matchmaker again? You know I don't like it when you try to match me up with someone on a blind date." G didn't want to talk about Nell and tried to deflect Sam.

"No. I'm not trying to play matchmaker." Sam said with disgust. "Come off it, G. I know you. I can read you like a book. You've been watching Nell like a hawk for weeks now and suddenly you're busy on most weekends. You haven't been to the house in ages and the last time I was at your house I find there's furniture in the living room. Furniture, G! And this is from the guy who says all he needs is his bedroll and a change of clothes. You've lived in that house for months now without showing the least interest in buying a single piece of furniture, but suddenly you feel the need to decorate? Not that I mind it, since you're happier than I've seen you in a long time. But I know something is going on so you might as well admit it."

"Fine! Fine, Sam. I'm seeing Nell. Satisfied now?" Callen gave Sam a dirty look before turning and looking out the window again.

"Why keep it from me then? We're partners aren't we?" Sam had a pretty good idea why Callen hadn't said anything to him, but it bothered him never-the-less. He was used to Callen confiding in him; well at least as much as he confided in anyone.

"I…We don't want anyone to know yet. We've gone out to dinner a few times, but we're taking it slow because neither of us wants to rush into something that might be all wrong for us." Callen grumped. He should have known he couldn't keep it from Sam much longer. Sam was like his protective older brother or...come to think of it, like a mother hen. He didn't dare say that to Sam right then though so kept his mouth shut. Thoughts of screwing up and hurting Nell began invading his mind again. "What if I mess this up? I'm not the world's most well adjusted man that's for sure. So many things could go wrong and now that Sam knows, he'd really be pissed if I hurt her. I don't want to do anything to hurt her, but what if I end up hurting her anyway? Damn, this is why I don't get involved. But it's too late now. Besides, I can't stop thinking about her...I want her. Suddenly I want all of it, a lover, a family, some place that really feels like home. With Nell, my house isn't just house any more, it's a home when she's there with me."

Sam waited for Callen to say something else but could tell he was lost in his own thoughts. He decided to let him be for now. When they arrived at the crash site, Sam got Callen's attention and they introduced themselves to the police "Hi, we're federal agents. I'm Callen and this is Sam Hanna. What have you got for us?"

They received a briefing on what had been determined by that point in time. They then proceeded to sift through the debris looking for anything that might have been overlooked or missed. The police had done a thorough job so nothing stood out to them.

"Send everything you find to NCIS. We'll keep you informed of our analysis of the evidence." Callen told the officer on duty.

"Sure thing. Do you guys know anything useful about this yet?" came from the cop they were talking to in reply.

"Nothing so far, we just got the case a couple of hours ago. This is our first stop. We wanted to see the crash site and talk to you. All we have are the identities of the victims. Both of them were Navy which is why we're involved" Sam informed the officer.

After completing their detailed inspection of the site but not finding anything new, they said goodbye to the cops. Sam and Callen returned to Sam's car to begin the trip back to OSP. Callen passed in front of Sam as he was reaching for the door. A shot rang out causing Callen to slump against the side of the car while Sam took refuge behind the front end of the car. Looking toward the sound of the shot, Sam questioned "Damn, where did that come from G?" When he didn't get an immediate reply, he yelled "G, are you okay…answer me!" Looking over toward where G had been standing, Sam could see an ashen faced Callen with blood dripping down onto the pavement.

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Dun, duh dun!...evil cliffhanger, I know.