A/N: This has taken a long time for me to write, for various reasons of that pesky RL. But I want to tell you about a couple of things that are going to make a difference to the fic.

He came into the college one day – I was working at a college at the time, and he was a student – and told myself and another member of staff that he wanted permission to go home. On the way home from getting groceries, his dad had been shot dead, and his eighteen-year-old brother kidnapped. Just because they happened to have money. The brother has been released now, and is completely safe, and the man himself is still studying in England, but it shocked me. This stuff isn't just the kind of thing that happens on NCIS and in fanfic. It happens to real people who are good students and want to be safe in the world. So I want to dedicate this fic to the people who are living through these kind of things in the real world. For what it's worth.

There is an OC who appears in this fic, named Reece Jackson. The surname came from nowhere, but the character is dedicated to Reece, who was my little brother's best friend and like a second brother to me, until about seven years ago, when he died in an accident. I don't remember him very well, but he meant a lot to my family, and Jackson is devoted to his memory.

Chapter Two

"Eric, I want to hear good news," Callen ordered, and there was a sigh from the other end of the line.

"I can give you half that. I've been watching the guy that drove into Sam, and his behaviour is just all wrong for an accident. The car swerves a couple of times, like he's trying to make the decision to crash. He doesn't want to do it."

"So he was being blackmailed?"

"I think so. His wife isn't answering her cell and his son didn't show up at school this morning. LAPD are out looking for them as we speak. Now, when the driver does go at Sam, he's instantly killed. But he's just a little too late in the collision to kill Sam, and the way he's driving, it looks very deliberate. This guy is willing to die to save his family, but he's not willing to kill for them."

There was a long silence, and it was Callen who spoke first. "What was his name?"

"Reece Jackson. He was a prosecution attorney, so we think the killer might have chosen him as a result of a grudge. Deeks is working on a suspect list."

"I'll want to see it when it's done," Callen said. "I'm heading to the hospital now, and Kensi and I will take protection detail; I'll send Nell back to OSP. Keep us in the loop."

Kensi tilted her tablet and zoomed in to focus on one face. Eric had sent her the tape so that she could read what onlookers were saying, and the frustration was killing her. How was she supposed to watch this tape with Clara right across the room, dying to ask? With Sam on the bed in front of her, just… just dying? How was she supposed to live with this?

A sound interrupted her thoughts, and when she looked up Clara was staring out of the window. "Is she one of yours?"

The noise was raised voices, arguing, and Kensi suppressed a small smile when she saw, stepping out into the corridor. "Is there a problem, Bertha?" she asked the enormous nurse who had been charged with holding down the fort.

Bertha started to answer, but the other voice cut across her. "Kensi, thank God. Can you help me out here? They're not letting me do anything. I mean, I've got the kids, they want to see Sam, I can't just…" Nell trailed off, looking helplessly at Kensi. She nodded.

"It's okay, Bertha, you can let them through."

"My orders say NCIS only. She don't got no badge."

"Let them through, Bertha," Clara said, appearing behind Kensi in the doorway. Bertha met her eyes.

"You sure, ma'am? The folks that attacked your husband—"

"Are nothing to do with his colleagues," Clara finished firmly. "My husband doesn't hand out trust like popcorn in a theater. His friends can be trusted absolutely."

Bertha glanced at Clara, glared at Nell, and stepped aside.

"Oh, and if you try to keep my children away from me again, I will have your job on a silver platter."

"Any luck?" Nell asked Kensi, depositing coffee cups on the table and taking a seat. Kensi stopped the video on her tablet.

"A couple of people who were obviously involved, but nothing groundbreaking. Deeks is cross-referencing them in his suspect list, but otherwise there'll be nothing for the investigation." She switched off the tablet and put it away, glancing quickly up at the door. They had left to give Clara and the kids some privacy, but Kensi was nervous, and didn't want to let them out of her sight. "I just wish there was something more we could do. I hate sitting around like this. It isn't right, and Sam's d…" Kensi cut herself off suddenly, reminding Nell of a child about to say a naughty word.

"Dying," she said softly. "He's not. He can't. Sam is too strong, and his wife seems like she could drag anyone from death's door if they didn't have her permission to be there." Kensi laughed despite herself. That was Clara exactly.

"So why do I feel as if I'm about to lose a brother?"

"I think we all feel like that," Nell said. "But it's not going to happen."

Kensi sighed, and managed a little smile. "I hope you're right."

A second later, she had jumped to her feet. "Callen. You got anything?"

"Nothing you won't have heard from Eric," Callen said, coming to a stop in front of them. "Deeks just checked in, he's narrowed down the suspect list, but there's still one hell of a pile to go through. Nell, he's going to need your help with that back at OSP. We'll stay here on protection detail."

Nell collected her things quickly and was gone in an instant. Kensi was right. It was impossible to do nothing.

Nell slammed her hands down on the steering wheel as she hit a third red light in ten minutes. This wasn't right, it shouldn't be happening, not now. She needed to get back to OSP, to help Eric and Deeks, to help Sam. Dammit, she needed to move.

A horn blared, and she looked up to see that the light had changed. Crap. She stepped on it at once, offering apologetic looks out the window at angry drivers, and that was when she saw it.

Just a black Jeep, but a black Jeep that had nearly knocked Chris over in the parking lot at the hospital. A black Jeep that had been there when she left. A black Jeep that must have followed her this far.

She took a sudden left turn, into a residential area. The Jeep followed.

Crap.

Her fingers shook a little as she dialled. This wouldn't be the same. The car that hit Sam hadn't been tailing him; she was going to be alright, she would not be killed. She couldn't…

"This is Ops."

"Eric? I'm being tailed," she said, cursing her voice for shaking. "I'm trying to lose it, but I don't know if I can. Can you help me?"

"Deeks is on his way," Eric said. Nell was a little too distracted to notice the tone in his voice, as he guided her to a rendezvous.

Ten minutes later, she was in the passenger seat of Deeks' car, and he had shaken not only the Jeep, but a Challenger and a Ford that had also been following Nell. What might have happened…

"You okay?" he asked her, getting back onto the highway.

"Yeah," she said, and he gave her a smile.

"It's okay, you know. I'm impressed you went so far to shaking the guy. He was doing a good job, but you did great."

Nell smiled. Deeks had been the first to warm up around her, and she always felt a little more relaxed with him than the others, with the possible exception of Eric. In another world, Nell would have had a huge crush on him. And he was trying. "Did they want to kill me?"

"No," he said confidently. "If they did, you'd be dead."

"Well, that just fills me with courage."

Deeks chuckled. "Don't worry. They probably just wanted the location of OSP. They'd want to inhibit the investigation, that's all. Assuming it's connected."

"They were at the hospital. The Jeep nearly ran Chris down. They're connected."

"Okay. Then we've got nothing to worry about." He pulled into a parking lot not far from OSP. "We're good."

"Okay," she said with a smile, and hopped out of the car.

As they walked, Deeks had his cell out, talking in a tone that sounded like he was straining to be relaxed. "Kensi, Nell was followed on the way back from the hospital. Yeah, she's okay. Listen, double up on security, be on the lookout for tails. We shook three on the way back here. Oh, and can the hospital staff send the tapes to Eric? Thanks."

He didn't bother with any niceties, taking care of the necessities and then returning to looking after Nell. She wondered if he was always like this in these situations. He was being so nice, so gentle, so… careful. It made her feel safe.

And then he dragged her to the floor.

"Gun," he hissed, shoving her behind a car, and Nell saw that he already had his pistol out. He jumped up from behind the car, shooting in about three different directions, and when he dropped back down, Nell caught hold of his arm.

"Give me your backup," she told him, and he stared at her for a second before deciding not to waste time, and pulled it from his ankle.

"Careful," he ordered, and she nodded, before going up with him and shooting at the first gun she saw. He fell to the floor in a moment, and she quickly turned on another as a bullet whizzed past her ear. The clip emptied, and she dropped back down. That bullet, a few inches… A few millimetres and she would have been in trouble! She couldn't…

"Nice shooting," Deeks said suddenly, dropping beside her and easing the gun from her grip. "You took one out and wounded another. I didn't know you could do that."

She grinned at him, but didn't speak. He nodded.

"Come on, let's get out of here."

It was less than five minutes before Nell was settled back in her own chair at her own desk in Ops. Without thinking, she had grabbed her jacket as she walked in and pulled it on at once. It was another five minutes before she realised Eric was watching her, and that was only when he had plucked up the courage to ask if she was okay.

"Yes," she said, and went back to the list Deeks had given her. There must be something here. Did that face look like the Ford's driver? Or was she imagining it?

"Nell. You're shaking."

Was she? Nell looked down at her hands, and swore internally. "Eric. Work."

He didn't stop watching her, but he fell silent, and Nell could see that he was actually working. Good. That was what she needed.

She sipped her tea. Hetty had waived the food-and-drink-in-Ops rule, just this once, and limited to one cup of chamomile tea, and it was helping. She had also been ordered not to leave OSP without an agent, as had Eric. That helped, too, in its way. She didn't want to be alone for a while yet. She wasn't sure she'd be safe. She didn't want to be killed.

"Did you collect all the necessary documents?"

"I did," Callen answered, getting up and moving to the corner of Sam's room, meeting Kensi's eyes briefly. At once she moved to distract the children, who were watching Uncle G with wide eyes.

"And?"

"And I think it's possible. What happened with Nell-"

"Indeed, Mr Callen. What happened with Nell is certainly worth considering. It seems that there are more of them out there than we ever supposed. Mr Hanna's enemies are beginning to unite."

"They're strong."

"Miss Jones took out two men herself, Mr Callen. We have the best people in the world working on this. However strong these people are. We are stronger."

"I guess that-" Callen broke off suddenly. He had heard Kensi speak.

"Sam?" was what she was saying. Clara was silent, holding tightly to Sam's hand, but they were both staring into his face, searching him. And Sam's eyes opened.