I'm an awful person, I know, I should start updating sooner... I still love you guys though...3 Enjoy!
Callen.
Entry time- 5 minutes.
Myself and the team have been briefed with the Tac plan. We go in quiet, through the side entrance and back doors.
We're parked in an empty lot a mile and a half from the warehouse. AJ's standing beside the van, trying to fix in her earwig. And failing. Her shaking hands make it practically impossible to fix in an earwig, much less shoot a gun with any degree of accuracy.
"Here, let me." I say, bending down to pick up the listening device she just dropped.
"Thanks." She says as I gently place the device into her small ear. "You don't think I can do this, can you?" She says, as her green eyes lock on to mine.
"What I think doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you know you can do this without letting your emotions get in the way."
"I know, I know. But-" She says turning away. "I need to do this. This guy has ruined my life so much by now, that I don't think I can come back from it this time, unless that sonovabitch is in cuffs or in the ground."
"AJ, look, I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I know you are the most determined person I have ever met. I know you need to go in there, to get closure. So I'm telling you now, as your boss and your friend, if you step even one toe in front of me, I'll put a bullet in you myself. Clear?" I say, with a joking smile.
"Clear." She says, smiling the first smile of hers I've seen in days.
"Agent Callen, we're taking positions." Informs Tactical Advisor Richard Kelly.
I nod, and AJ looks at me.
"You'll do great in there." I say. "Watch your six."
"Always do, G." She smiles.
"Team 1, ready?" Hetty's voice asks over our coms.
"Team 1. Ready." Says Penny Faraday, leader of Team 1, entering through the back entrance. Penny, although relatively young, only thirty years of age, is one of NCIS's most valuable assault weapons. How Hetty managed to steal her away from the FBI is one of NCIS's great mysteries.
"Team 2, ready?" called Hetty.
"Team 2 is a go." Kensi Blye says from the other end of comms. While her partner is on Penny's Team, Nate is Kensi's Number 2. I can see from where I'm standing that Kensi has her weapon pointed at the side door and ready for entry.
"Team 3?" Hetty says.
"Team 3, ready." I answer through the comms. I can feel AJ's tension behind me. Her breathing has accelerated, and I can tell her bloodstream is being flooded with adrenalin. Her weapon, and mine, are poised at the front door, our sidearms on our hips.
"And Team 4?"
"Team 4 is a go, Hetty." Sam says. His team is out of my line of view, around the other side of the building.
"Everyone is a go. Breach on my command." She pauses, presumably to give Nell and Eric one final look of confirmation.
"1..." The sound of the rest of my team of ten raising their weapons fill my pounding eardrums.
"2..." The distinctive 'click' of the teams loading their guns rings around the isolated warehouse.
"3..." I position my hand on the doorknob.
"Execute. Execute. Execute." Hetty's voice calls one last time over the comms.
The team rushes in. Across the large space I can see Penny and Deeks shuffling in the rear door. I feel a whip of air rush past my neck as AJ quickly turns, her silky hair brushing my neck.
"Michael Sanders!" I hear Kensi shout. "Federal Agents. Put your weapon down."
My eyes turn to the cause of Kensi's outburst. Caucasian male. Brown hair. Black hoodie and dark jeans. I look to his raised hand. A tiny piece of weaponry hidden in the palm of his hand. A cellphone.
"Michael, put the phone down and slowly raise both your hands above your head." I say.
"One push of a button and I can blow all of us to hell. This whole place is rigged with explosives. I can't believe you agents. You're meant to be one of the best. And you couldn't even tell that I had explosives. Geniuses." He says.
"Michael. Please. Put the phone down. Please." A meek voice says from behind me.
AJ's voice startles Sanders. "AJ? I didn't think you'd show. All the better for me. We'll both go to hell together."
"Michael. You don't have to do this. These people have done nothing wrong! You killed three people, Mike. All people I knew when you last saw me. All people I hadn't seen in years."
"You loved all of them, once. I kill someone you love, because you killed someone I loved. My son." He says, his eyes glaring at the woman beside me.
"I didn't kill him, Michael. It was an accident. I didn't mean to." She says, her voice slowly becoming more assertive.
"Oh, like hell you didn't. You didn't want him. You didn't love him like I did."
"I loved him, Mike! I loved him!" She shouts. Her gun is still trained on him. "You wanna know something?"
His head cocks ever-so-slightly to the side. "Try me."
"He didn't die because of something I did. He had a defect. Even if I had carried him to term, he would have died minutes after he was born."
"You're lying." He says with a shake of his head.
"Do you really think I would lie about him like that?" She replies. "He was my son too. Goddamnit, Mike, he was my son too."
"I saw the ultrasounds. He looked perfectly fine."
"Well, he wasn't."
Michael's face is slowly falling to an emotionless mask.
"Michael, please. Put the cellphone down, and you'll walk out of here." She pleads with him.
"No. AJ, you know this can only end in two ways. Me leaving in handcuffs, or all of us leaving in bodybags. And I can tell you, I would rather the latter." He threatens.
"What happened to you, Mike? You aren't the man I fell in love with eighteen years ago. You aren't the man who proposed to me on the spot when you found out I was pregnant. You aren't the man I once knew."
"I'll tell you what happened. My son died. Because of you."
I steal a glance at Kensi and Penny. And then at Sam. Their guns are still trained on Michael Sanders, but their guns are focused on specific parts of his body.
"You all have five seconds to lower your weapons," he addresses the rest of us, "or this whole place gets blown to hell."
"You know that's not going to happen, Michael." Kensi says matter-of-factly.
"Well, then, have fun in hell."
His thumb lowers onto the trigger button.
"Now!" I call.
It all happens so fast. Kensi's shot hits his leg. Penny's, his arm. Sam's his trigger hand. AJ's, his head.
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