******two weeks later******

"Let me out of this damn hospital" I yelled as the nurse ran out of the room. I could walk and almost run. They wanted to make sure everything was all right and I wasn't going to need another surgery. Well to hell with the surgery I would go through another one for a taste of freedom. Mind you Callen visited me every day but they had a new case that I was dying to help with. I threw a metal pan at the door and it clattered. I heard a laugh that I didn't recognize and pulled the gun out that Callen had given me and pointed it at the door. A shadow loomed in the door and then stepped in. There stood my best friend from navy training, Tessa. She had saved my ass many times from being caught by our commanders and she had saved me from a bomb that had been put on our boat. I lowered the gun and set it on the nightstand next to my hospital bed.

"God you scared me" I said then thought for a second "wait, what the hell are you doing here."

"Well, I figured I would come visit you while I could still find you and Maria called me scared to death when she saw you were bleeding at her house and when that guy carried you away from her house she was terrified" Tessa looked so serious.

"She didn't need to worry I was fine I think I mean it wasn't that bad" I said under exaggerating by a lot.

"From what I heard you had more metal than blood in your body" she said smiling at me for the first time.

I looked at her closely and noticed a bruise on her neck that resembled a hand print. That was odd then I noticed the bruise on her face and the bloody lip she had and the first thing I thought was abuse.

"You look a little beat up what happened to you" I said with a frown on my face that she knew well.

"I had a run in with some Iranians who weren't too fond of me being in their land" Tessa said in a tired voice.

"Ohh well come sit down have you been looked at here I was the medical person on the U.S.S. Lincoln let me look at you please."

She came and sat in the chair next to my bed. I pulled the tray of supplies that thy always left in my room in case I hurt myself and began to clean the long narrow cuts that went up her arms to her shoulders. Then I moved on to the long deep cuts that were on her legs. I finished with her lip that was still oozing clear liquid. At that moment Callen walked in smiling with what he called dinner in is hands. It consisted of Chinese food and beer. This didn't bother me in fact I preferred this to a fancy dinner with wine but right now was not the time to be having a guy show up when your friend from the navy was sitting there. Tessa spun around pulling her gun out and pointing it at Callen. Even better Callen went to reach for his gun. I yelled at him and he looked at me. I shook my head and he instantly froze. I got up and stood in front of my friend's gun.

"Tessa this is Callen my team leader and boss now put your gun away please" I said slowly so she could absorb every word I said.

"Sorry" she said lowering her gun "I have a few problems with people who want me dead."

Callen stepped in and lowered his gun. He looked from me to Tessa and back again. He made eye contact with me and my heart fluttered like I was a school girl and the bad boy was staring at me. Why does he affect me like this I mean this is so silly. Why do I get worked up he already said I couldn't tell anyone.

He walked toward me and wrapped his arm tightly around my body in a half hug that showed he was uncomfortable in front of people.

"How are you holding up" he whispered in my ear.

Well if the Nazi's would let me leave I am doing just fine" I said smiling at him.

Tessa cleared her throat and got up making her way to the door "well I am gonna leave Christy, I will see you later, Callen, if you hurt her so help me god no matter where I am in this world I will come back and kick your ass." As she stepped out the door a bullet imbedded itself in the frame next to her. Tessa reached for her gun at the same time Callen and I ran for cover drawing our guns. I ducked behind the wide open door so I could have a perfect shot as soon as one of the people shooting came down the hall after Tessa. I had a few thoughts running through my head right now chief among them was that I would not get shot because I was not sitting on my ass for three more weeks waiting to get to the job I had never started. At that moment I saw the men coming down the hall and recognized the man in the front. It was a man named Maliki.

Maliki was once my leak into the black market when I was working in foreign countries but after a bad deal I was banned from almost all of the Middle Eastern countries. I wouldn't have minded but Maliki went down with me and he still doesn't hold a grudge against me. Well at least that's what I thought. Then I saw that the guns were not pointing at where I was but where Tessa had disappeared. Oh so that's why I am getting shot at because my friends were fighting. It feels like I'm in third grade all over again except with guns. I looked over at Callen and slid my gun across the floor at him. He had a question written all over his face until I got up then it was like a little light bulb coming on and he went to grab my leg to stop me but I was almost out the door. He did trip me though and I went tumbling out the door. I looked up and glared back at the room. I heard guns cock and whispering in a foreign language. I turned toward them and saw Maliki and smiled. His face lit up and he lowered his gun. I got up and walked toward him and he came toward me wrapping me in a huge hug.

"How are you" I asked him smiling.

"I am good but I need to go and find someone so it is good to see you but I need to go bye" he said running toward the place where Tessa disappeared.

"You can't do that Maliki" I yelled at him which stopped him in his tracks.

"What did you say to me remember who left me out of a job and home I think you owe me" he snarled at me. Great he was still angry about what had happened between us.

"I work for NCIS now and you can't kill someone and you can't kidnap people" I said glaring.

He yelled incoherently at me and dropped his gun. What the hell. As he fell to the ground I saw the blood running out his back from a bullet wound.