Operation Formosa

Disclaimer: NCISLA characters belong to Shane Brennan. All original characters and this story are mine.

Chapter 14

Sicily, Italy

The sky was as blue as Callen's eyes. Bronte stood on the balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and she didn't want to move. Their time here had been more perfect than she could ever have envisioned. The villa nestled into the west end of the beach with the perfect view of the sandy cove that was only metres from their door.

She felt Callen's hands as they made contact with her skin and he rubbed her shoulders. She appreciated him working at the knots from hauling up the sail each day. He was a selfless man with a heart of gold. For the past two weeks she'd been asked what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go. Today was their last full day before they headed home. She shivered. Not from the cold, it had been warm into the seventies and eighties their whole time here. But from the effects from Callen's hands on her shoulders that roamed further afield.

"G." A moan escaped her throat. He lifted her up and carried her back to bed.

The sun had risen higher into the sky by the time they made it out of bed. They'd become lazy, but wasn't that what honeymoons were about? Once they returned to their life in Los Angeles, there'd be no time for luxuries like this. She was sad to say goodbye to the villa they'd called home for the past few weeks.

"I never thought I would suffer from sea sickness," Bronte furrowed her brow. "I never used to."

She'd thrown up every time they went out on the yacht, her face turned grey and he wanted to take her back to land. But she only shook her head, she loved it and she wasn't going to let a little sea sickness spoil their time out at sea. She only threw up the once and she felt much better afterwards.

"Don't feel bad, I get motion sickness from Kensi's driving." He saw the strange look she gave him. "What?"

"Oh. I was just thinking. You know I will have to split Deeks and Kensi up now that they're a couple, don't you?"

"Aah, no. As long as they prove that it won't affect them at work, I don't see why you need to split them up."

Fear clenched tight in his gut, there was no way he was giving Sam up as a partner. He couldn't face Kensi driving and the thought of having Deeks as his partner had him panicking.

"But if it does, I'll have no choice."

"Vance hasn't moved you out of our office to San Diego."

"But that's different. I'm not your partner."

"Were you and Greg ever partners?"

She nodded. "But once we became more than just work partners, our boss split us up."

Callen shook his head in protest. "There is no way I'm losing Sam as my partner. I'm alive today because of Sam."

Bronte furrowed her brow. "What do you mean?"

Callen gulped. He was sure she'd seen his file, all of their files since she'd taken over from Hetty. "Sam is like a big teddy bear, he worries about me like you do. I need someone I can depend on, I trust Sam."

"And you don't trust Kensi or Deeks?"

"I ah…"

"You do but you don't want to admit it because if you do, then you can't prevent the inevitable."

"Deeks was your mother's idea to give Kensi a partner. They work well together. Just like Sam and I do. There's no way I'm agreeing to this as team leader."

She saw fear in his eyes. "Okay. I'll partner up with Deeks and Kensi can partner up with you and Sam. Problem solved."

Callen's eyes widened, "no way. No." He turned her back to face him. "There is no way you're going back into the field."

"Says who? I only came here to fill in for my mother. She retired and Vance offered me the position permanently so I could stay in L.A. with you. But I am a field agent. Surely you understand the need to be out there doing something good."

"You do something good everyday when you take care of your people, Bron." She turned away from him. "Bron."

He frowned, they were having their first marital fight and he hated it. But there was no way he was going to have Bronte back in the field.

"Bron." He caught up with her.

"I knew you would behave like this. I see it in your eyes and in my mother's when we dealt with the Formosa case. Both of you were thankful that I was office bound. But I can protect myself."

"I don't doubt that, Bron, but you've been through a great deal. Can't you understand that I want to protect you from getting hurt or abducted again?"

He'd revealed his greatest fear and it caught her off guard. She gripped the doorframe firmly as dizziness took over her. She ran to the bathroom and emptied the contents from her stomach into the toilet bowl.

"Bron, are you sure you're okay?" He stepped in behind her, she flushed the toilet and washed her mouth and face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I must have eaten something I reacted to."

"And every time we went sailing?"

"No, that was…" She furrowed her brow, she wasn't sure why that had happened.

"When did this start?"

She knitted her brows as she thought back. "The day of our wedding." Her eyes met his as the realisation hit her, a smirk crossed Callen's face but she shook her head. "No." She stepped back from him. "No. I can't be."

"Bron?" Callen looked at her worriedly.

"No. It must be the food."

"But I'm not sick." Callen reasoned. Excitement at the possibility burst inside of him. But her reaction worried him the most.

She pondered a moment, she wiped her brow and gripped the door to keep herself standing. She felt Callen's hands come around her to hold her up.

"Yes." He picked her up and carried her back to the bed. "You stay here, I'll fetch us breakfast."

She laid on the bed looking over the Mediterranean Sea, her eyes moist from tears. She couldn't face loving another child and then losing it. She'd lost too much, it was a huge feat for her to love again. To risk loving and losing him. He made her happy, but she couldn't go there again. She had a horrible history of being a mother. She looked to Michael as her other child she had with Callen instead. She had two sons, shouldn't that be enough?

She heard Callen's footsteps as he climbed the stairs to their villa and unlocked the door. Even in this location he was vigilant with security.

"I've bought breakfast and this." He held up a paper bag, she frowned looking at it.

"What is it?" Puzzled she took it from him and looked quizzically at him. "It's in Italian. I can't read Italian."

Callen emptied the box with the pastries, placing them on plates and brought them over to the bed. "It say, pregnancy test."

She tensed and her hands shook. Callen sensed her worry, he sat down beside her and wrapped his arms around her. "Do the test, Bron. If it turns out that you are, then we will know for sure. If you're not, then we'll put it down to an upset stomach to food and nerves."

"I can't…"

"I'm right here, take all the time you need." He gently pressed his lips on her forehead and released his hold on her. Bronte ran her hand through her hair and took in a deep breath. Her breathing was shaky, her nerves overwhelmed her. What if she was? She dragged herself to the bathroom and locked the door. She sat on the toilet lid and stared at the box. She had no idea how long she sat there when Callen knocked on the door.

"Bron, are you okay?" Silence met him on the other side, he turned the handle, but the door remained locked.

"I'm fine, G. I just need some time."

"Okay."

He paced the bedroom, his muscles tense. He turned when he heard the bathroom door lock click. Bronte stood in the doorway, tears in her eyes. He moved swiftly over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "It's going to be okay, Bron."

"You don't know that, G."

"No one ever does. It takes faith to love someone. To risk your heart that they won't break it. That you won't lose them too early." He knew too well, he'd lost so much just like she had. Loving her had been much of a huge feat for him as it had been for her. "But what I do know is that we have been given this chance of a new life, our child and that is a beautiful thing." He brushed his lips on her temple and held her close. Bronte could hear his heart pound quickly inside his chest, hearing it comforted her.

"Let's take the yacht out one more time now you've already puked for the day."

She lifted her head up and looked lovingly into his eyes. "I love you, G. I'm sorry if I sound like I don't want this, I'm just scared."

He held her jaw tenderly in his rough hands."For good reason too, Bron. I get it. But I will do everything I can to make sure that our family remain safe."

"I know you will, G." He gently brushed his lips on hers.

"Okay. Let's go sailing." She gave him a smile, it reached her eyes and his heart missed a beat.

Office of Special Projects, Los Angeles - the next day

Sam, Kensi and Deeks looked up when Hetty entered the mission. She walked by them and headed immediately up the stairs to Ops.

"Was that just Hetty?" Deeks shifted for a better look.

"Who just walked past us without saying hi." Sam added.

"Something's not right." Kensi looked at the older woman until she disappeared from sight.

"No." Deeks and Sam agreed.

The three followed her up the stairs into the tech filled room. Eric and Nell looked their way with worried glances and quickly returned back to work. They looked up at the large screen, the Director of NCIS, Leon Vance, stood in MTAC in Washington D.C.

"Have we any word from Agent Gibbs' team yet, Leon?"

"Not as yet."

Sam looked to Nell and Eric for more information, he didn't like the look on their faces. He saw worry etched in Nell's brow, his chest tightened.

"Let me know. I'll send my team to help them."

"I'll let you debrief them, Hetty."

The screen went blank.

"Your team? You're back?" Deeks asked her in shock. His voice had an edge of worry to it.

Henrietta Lang took in a deep breath to keep herself strong. She turned and looked at what was left of her team. "Mr and Mrs Callen didn't make it to their jet last night. Two bodies were found at the villa after it exploded around noon. We're waiting for clarification if it was their villa and confirmation on the identities of the bodies." She kept her voice level, until everything was confirmed, she would keep going until she knew they were safe or…no, she couldn't think the worse. There was no way she would concede the loss of her daughter and son-in-law yet. "As soon as the pilot raised the alarm I called Vance and he sent Gibbs and his team immediately to Italy. You will be joining them in their search. Gear up." She dismissed them and headed for her old office. She knew it would be difficult for her to be there, her things had been replaced by her daughter's. This case was going to be difficult for all of them.

Back in Ops, Nell and Eric filled in the rest of what they knew. "Reports of an explosion was reported around noon yesterday, when the ground shook and large ball of flame exploded from a villa on the west end of the beach. Local police and fire brigade arrived on the scene, we're waiting on the identification of the two bodies found and if it was their villa."

"Is this where G and Bronte were staying for their honeymoon?" Sam's eyes studied the footage.

"Yes, in the same location. There is another villa slightly lower to the beach, but the authorities have yet to confirm if Callen and Bronte were staying in the other one. It's vacant and doesn't look like anyone has been staying there recently."

"G's good at covering their tracks, it wouldn't be hard for them to make it look like the place had been vacant."

"I agree, which is why we can't think the worse yet." Nell took in a ragged breath, her nerves were beginning to get the better of her. "They also had a yacht available to them, compliments of Philipe. There has been no trace of the yacht, the coast guard is looking for them as we speak."

"If the yacht was out at sea when the villa exploded, then they are okay." Sam relaxed slightly, although still very concerned for their safety just the same. "How far out could they have been if they had seen it." Sam knew he was asking a difficult question, but he needed to know facts to keep his mind from wondering the worst. No sign of the yacht, that was one hopeful sign. He take it until he had more to go on.

"They could have been as far north as Naples and seen the explosion, but they wouldn't have been able to figure out it was their villa from that distance, so…" Nell typed in her calculations, "they would have been as close as a mile out to have realised it was their villa."

"Have the local authorities determined yet if this isn't just a random gas leak?" Kensi stepped forward and looked at the images of the charred out villa.

"There was a gas bottle for a barbecue, but that wasn't the source, it came from underneath the villa itself. Explosives have been found at the scene. This was an intentional act of violence on either Callen or Bronte," Nell explained.

Sam heaved out a sigh, he didn't like the odds of either of their identities being burned. "Give us all you can find on who could be in Sicily and linked to old cases for both of them. Send it through to us on our flight." They were heading for Naples, Gibbs and his team thought it was safest to land there just in case Callen and Bronte had made it that far. Neither of their GPS trackers on their cells were working, they were either destroyed in the explosion or switched off for safety. He prayed they were safe. That was all that he needed.