"Hey, baby. It's me."

Sam's heart nearly jumps out of his chest when he finally hears Michelle's voice for the first time in three days. He was in the middle of a checkup with his physician when the small yellow satellite phonr had gone off under the bed. Sam kicked out the physician through a threat, almost fell out of the bed, and landed hard on his knee just in time to answer the satellite phone. He had expected Callen, but instead got Michelle.

"Where the hell have you been?" Sam exclaims. He moves his legs in front of him and begins to rub his sore knee. "You left almost four days ago! And you weren't even going far like Kensi and Callen!"

"I know," Michelle draws in a sharp breath. Her tone comes out much softer, " I should have called or sent another text-"

"Yeah, what was that text about? Is there something you aren't telling me?"

"Do you trust me?"

Sam freezes as the same uneasy feeling that seems to appear always around mentions of Sidarov or the CIA shows once again. "With everything and you know that. Talk to me, babe."

"I'm not in Washington D.C."

Shit. " What do you mean you aren't in D.C?" Sam explodes much louder than intended. Through the small gap between one of the bed legs and the hanging bed sheets, Sam can see a nurse in the hallway look up towards him in concern. " You told me that you were taking the girls to D.C while you go testify at the CIA?"

Michelle's tone turns from the steady calm to an anxiousness he's never heard before. "The girls are safe and sound with my sister."

"In Boston?!"

"They're safe, just like you."

Just like me? Sam walks over to the window and peers through the dusty white blinds. Three stories below, there's a black Escalade parked in between two LAPD vehicles. The day before, Sam had spotted the Escalade and had assumed it was just a civilian vehicle. " Let me guess…FBI? CIA?"

"CIA. I told them that I would go on my own before I left."

Sam tightens his grip on the phone. He's torn between the urging rage to whip the phone across the room in anger or to just scream. He's never had moments where Michelle's gone rouge- it's more so his thing. " Why didn't you just tell me?"

A siren noise suddenly blares on the other end of the line followed by what Sam believes is a man yelling in French and Arabic. " I couldn't tell you because I knew you'd come running. You are in no condition to be in this fight and plus, Deeks needs you. He's your partner right now. I have to go."

Sam's now on his feet with his heart racing. "No! Michelle, baby, listen to me- whatever you're up to, don't do it alone. We, as a team, can end this!"

"We are doing this as a team. Everybody is doing their own part- yours is to stay where you are. I love you." The click, signaling the end of the call feels like a bullet hitting him in the chest. Sam slowly places the phone on the ground and pulls himself to his feet. His gaze slowly falls on the sleeping detective on the other side of the room. Deeks is lying on his side in pain again and has so for the last twenty minutes. Sam would have pushed him onto his back again, but he had been tired and out of sorts all morning and is currently a complete panic right now.

My role….my role, my ass. Sam picks up his cell and starts flipping through the contact list. He's a man with little contacts in his phone- at most times, it's his wife, doctor, accountant and teammates ' numbers. The only number in his phone that he keeps outside the group is the number to his old friend, Sergeant First Class Philip Daniels, US. Army.

Sam pulls up Daniels' number and clicks dial. While the phone dials, Sam begins to pace in front of the window, stealing a glance at Deeks every time he reaches a wall.

"Daniels."

Sam suddenly stops and smiles when his friend answers the phone. " Daniels, hey, it's Hanna," Sam says.

"Hanna," Daniels grunts in his deep voice, " Haven't heard from you since '96."

"Well, life's been kind of hectic."

"Don't worry about it- I'm not some chick who's going to hold it against you."

Still a chauvinistic bastard. Sam shakes his head at Daniels' statement. "And I can see no woman has clocked you in the mouth yet."

Daniels chuckles. " I almost forgot- you're married. Marriage makes a man docile. Especially a Navy boy."

Sam feels like he's back in Afghanistan nearly ten years ago, laughing at Daniels' arrogance. When he makes another half turn and can see Deeks, he immediately gets back on track. " I need your help on something, man."

Daniels replies with what Sam can imagine to be an eye roll,"Of course you do."

"Ever hear of Khalid Nahili?"

Daniels pauses before lets out a low grumble. " He's on the top of my hunting list. Why?"

"Well, I work for NCIS now," Sam says as he turns his pacing to walking between the end of Deeks' bed and the window, "And we have Intel that Nahili is now in possession of stolen nuclear weapons. I'm out of commission and half of my team went to Afghanistan and decided to leave me out of the loop. My wife is also working the case and left for the Middle East without telling me where she's going."

"So you want me to spend valuable time and money looking for your friends and wife?! Why don't you just call one of your techies or whatever to find them? And what do you mean you're out of commission?"

"The weapons had been in Isaak Sidarov's hands before Nahili. We tried to intervene before the sell but I was made and tortured on the mission along with my…..partner who I'm protecting."

"Protecting? What is he- four?"

"He took the brunt of the torture and isn't in the frame of mind to be on his own. Plus, he's a cop."

Sam swears he can hear the shatter of glass hitting the ground from the other end of the line. Along with being chauvinistic, Daniels is also very elitist and known for insulting or discounting any individual ranked lower than him with cops being considered the bottom of the barrel.

"You're a fed on daycare duty?" Daniels exclaims, " Hanna, you're really getting docile. Say screw it to the cop, get your ass out of the hospital, and find your wife and teammates! I'd never take you for hanging out with the rats of law enforcement."

Sam grips the phone tightly in anger. He's put up with Daniels' stupid comments and arrogance way more than he should have in the past, but times have changed.

There's too much on the line right now.

"I need everything you can get me on Nahili," Sam orders, "Consider it calling in one of my many favors that you owe me. And you must have misunderstood what I meant by being a cop- he's a cop that has full authority of a federal agent."

"Fine. I'll get you and your…partner those files in a few hours. And consider this your last favor."

"I remember that you owe me at least three more, unless you want your subordinates to know about the snake and the Jack Daniels bottle up in Hindu Kush," Sam retorts. Game, set, and match.