Morning came too early for Emma… she wished she could pull the covers over her head and disappear but knew she needed to resolve this case. Signing, she pulled herself up and started getting dressed in her running gear. Grabbing her iPod and earbuds, she opened the door and as soon as she stepped out she saw someone leaning against the container.

"Thought you would like some company." Zach said with a smile.

"I would love some company." Emma smiled back as she locked the door.

Walking towards the gate, Emma couldn't keep the smile off her face. She missed him so much and hated that they didn't get to say a proper goodbye. Showing him that she was going to put her earbuds in, he smiled at her and did the same. Somehow, she figured out to add his earbuds to her iPod, so they could listen to the same music. As they ran, they stole some glances knowing that they needed to keep their distance from each other because they didn't want someone to see them and get the wrong idea. They ran for a good hour before they turned back towards base. Once they passed the room he shared with the team, he stopped and smiled at her before heading in. Unlocking her door, Emma dropped her iPod and earbuds on the table and went to take her shower. Wrapping her hair in a towel, went to make herself some tea before she made sure she had her bag packed for the day. Sitting on her bed, she towel-dried her hair before French braiding it. Putting on her clothes, she grabbed her tea and backpack before heading out to meet the team. As soon as she was halfway towards Walker's office, she spotted Wallace looking at her with a slimy smile. Fighting the urge to flip him off, she just gave him a fake smile before she knocked on Walker's door.

"Not eating breakfast today?" Walker asked as he let her in, "Kitchen made their famous breakfast burritos."

"No thank you. The last time I had the 'famous breakfast burritos, I spent the entire day in the bathroom." Emma said as she placed her bag on the table.

"Not the image I needed in my head for the day." Keaton said as he walked in and the rest of the team just laughed and Emma just snugged her shoulders.

"Morning team, nice to know you guys can eat in a rush." Walker said, "Grace, you have the floor." He finished before he sat down.

"Nothing like putting me on the spot." Emma said as she made a face. Walker just smiled and she knew she was keeping him on his toes. "I don't know what AD Hayes told you why you're here but let's start at the beginning."

"That is normally where you start, at the beginning…" Billy said with a smile.

"We're here to dismantle a group called Abboud Abd Al-Rashid. They bomb small villages, making the locals move to bigger and more radical villages. They use stolen US weapons and ammunition and place them in the hands of kids as young as 6 years."

"What happens to the people who don't want to move?" Kyle asked.

"They don't have a choice. You either move with or you get killed." Walker said.

"How do they get the weapons into Afghanistan?" Hunter asked before taking a bit of his toast.

"They travel from the US to Mexico, some of them stay in Mexico as payment and then the rest travel to Sierra Leone on fishing boats. Then they travel to Iraq and Afghanistan." Emma said.

"Do we know how's the head of this group?" Zach asked as he took a sip of his coffee.

"That's where it gets complicated…" Emma said. "Most of the higher-ups of the group have been taken care of. There are two main peanuts left – Hasan Ghani and Andrew Wallace."

"Wait isn't there a solder on this base named Andrew Wallace?" Ben asked.

"You mean the jack-ass eating outside and making my life hell, yeah that will be him." Palmer said as he walked in.

"Hey Grace, why is he still alive?" Keaton asked with a smirk.

"Can't kill a US solder, Keaton. Unless he put people's lives in danger." Emma said with a smirk.

"So, this guy is allowed to steal, kill and Lord knows what else and we can't do anything to him?" Billy asked shocked.

"He's the link to Hasan and Hasan, like the snake he is, hasn't shown his face yet." Emma said. "I have a tracker on Wallace but they both know that someone in this base is out to get him."

"How would they know that?" Zach asked.

"The ladies in the village told me. They were the ones who have been helping me out and giving me the information of Abboud Abd Al-Rashid. All I need is to get Wallace and Hasan together and then I can take them both out."

"You don't want one alive?" Alex asked.

"My orders are to take the whole organization out." Emma said while looking down. Zach knew that look. He knew this was killing her knowing she hated this side of this job and he hated it too but this was their lives.

"Did the women give you an idea when a meeting would take place?" Palmer asked.

"According to Shae it will be soon but she can't tell me the exact date." Emma said. "But for now, we go do what we do every day."

"And what's that exactly?" Billy asked. "I mean we blend in but you kind of stand out, Grace."

"I'm an English teacher and a reporter. If you play nice, I'll let you read some of my work and see what I report on here in the Wild West." Emma said, "But for now, you boys are my bodyguards."

"You need to keep her safe and if something happens to her, I'll make sure AD Hayes deals with you." Walker smiled, "Now, Grace you have kids to teach and you boys are on duty as of now."

"You heard the man, let's get our stuff and get the day started." Zach said.

Emma just smiled and placed her files back in her bag. Zach was holding the door for her and she just smiled at him and then made their way to the trucks waiting on them.

Los Angeles

"How did the school visit go this morning?" Sam asked Callen as they waited for the light to turn green.

"Maeve likes it but I'm not sure I want her in school yet." Callen said with a worried look.

"You and I both know she needs to go to school at some point and you heard what Dr. Zara said. She's ready to go to school and socialize with other kids."

"I know how hard it was for Emma to be younger than her classmates. I don't want another kid going through that but I also know she needs to be challenged. Hell, she potty trained herself because she didn't like the feeling of a diaper and she's not a baby anymore."

"Want my advice?" Sam asked with a smile.

"Not really but you're going to give it to me anyway." Callen said with a smirk.

"Send her to school for three days a week and then see how she does. If it looks like she's adjusting, send her for the whole week."

"She's two, Sam." Callen said and Sam could see it was hard on his friend to think of his little girl all grown up.

"And just like her older sister, she's a genius. I still don't understand how you ended up with TWO kids on the genius scale."

"You're not alone on that one." Callen said just before they knocked on the door.

Julia's condo

"Maeve, go wash your hands please." Julia said from the kitchen.

"Okay, Nana." Mae said before she dropped her ducks and went to wash her hands.

"Do you want more tea, Anna?" Julia asked with a smile.

"I'm good for now, thank you." Anna answered with a sad smile.

"What's on your mind, dear?" Julia asked.

"Maeve." Anna smiled.

"Ah, the one person we don't have to worry about." Julia smiled.

"I feel like I'm missing so much now that I'm working at ATF and living so far away from her."

"Callen feels the same way and like I told him, she's fine. She knows that her mommy and daddy need to work long hours to make her world safe." Julia said as she took Anna's hand in hers. "She's happy and she's safe. That's all that matters." She finished as the little girl came running into the kitchen.

"Mama stay to eat?" Mae said as she lifted her arms and Anna knew what she wanted.

"Mama will stay with you." Anna said as she kissed her cheek.

"Did Callen say anything about the visit with Dr. Zara?" Anna said as Mae ate her lunch.

"He recommended that Maeve start preschool in the new school year. Looks like she's like her older sister, smart and caring." Julia smiled with pride. "Laura just started working at the school close to OPS, so they went to look at it this morning."

"That's nice. She will be close and she'll love having Laura as her teacher." Anna smiled.

"Anna, look at me." Julia said. Anna just turned towards Julia, "She's going to be fine. Look how Emma-Grace turned out." Anna lifted her eyebrow, "Bad example but you get where I'm getting at."

"I don't want Maeve to end up in this line of work. Emma's different and I don't know how you do it with Kensi and Zach but I don't want my…" Anna took a breath, "Daughter to be anywhere near this life."

"I thought the same thing with Zach but kids will follow their own way in life." Julia smiled. "I hate knowing my kids are out there putting their lives at risk but they're doing what they love. So, I let them do what they need to do and I'm here when they need me."

"I'm not that strong. It kills me knowing Emma-Grace's somewhere I can't find or help her."

"Now you sound like a mother. Welcome to the grey-hair mother group, we meet every Thursday at noon. The entrance fee is a bottle of wine." Julia smiled.

Anna just laughed, "Do we get badges when our kids do stupid things and we survive the heart attack?"

"We do… like Girl Scouts." Julia smiled as Mae handed her the plate.

"Thank you, Nana." Maeve smiled. "Mama, play with me."

"What would you like to play?" Anna said as smiled at the little girl.

"Dolls." Maeve said with a smile as she handed her a crochet doll that looked like her.

"Who made this doll, Mae?" Anna asked.

"Amma made mama doll." Mae said and she handed her another doll, "Dada doll too."

"Emma made them for her as a Christmas gift. Each member of the family has their own doll." Julia finished for the little girl.

Anna just looked at the doll and she knew Julia was right… Maeve was going to be okay.

"Do you two have any idea how hard it is to drag a toddler out of bed in the middle of the night?" Callen asked as he walked into the bullpen with a sleeping Mae on his shoulder, "This better be good."

"We might have a glue to where Hetty is." Nell said as she looked at the TV screen.

"Failed, Action, Skin" Callen said. "What does it mean?"

"We don't know yet. Hetty circled it in this book she left me and it was only readable with a special light she gave Nell." Eric said holding up a book.

"And you just realized it now?"

"Well to be fear, I didn't know Eric had this book." Nell said.

"And I had no idea it had anything to do with her disappearance." Eric said, "I till I had this dream last night where I was chasing a honey badger in my avocado disguise, and then I saw myself in the office with Hetty and we were drinking scotch."

"Stop. I don't want to hear if this gets weird with you and Hetty in any way." Callen said holding his hand up.

"What? No!" Eric started, "What are you talking…?" However, once I had a dream that Hetty and I were in a hot tub with Charles Nelson Reilly and Grimace, and that did get disturbing." He finished before chewing his nails. "Still hate bubbles."

Callen looked at Eric weirdly, "Is this code for something?"

"Maybe but we still don't know what. We've searched the internet, our files, you name it. We've tried it as a password in our system but nothing." Nell said.

"So, it's a Hail Mary. It was hard to find. You wouldn't have found it unless you were looking for it. Which suggests it's a fail-safe in case things go wrong. She also designed it so that it took two of you to crack it, which would only happen if we were all worried about her." Callen finished.

"Hmmm." Was the two meerkats could say.

"At least she left us some breadcrumbs." Callen said.

"Hmm. Breadcrumbs may have been more useful." Nell said, playing with her fingers, "Not to be a Debbie Downer but still have no idea what any of this means."

"Did she give you anything? I mean maybe we need another piece to solve the puzzle." Eric asked. Callen just shook his head no. "Well, I guess she figured we're the only two smart enough to figure it out." He said towards Nell. The two of them looked at Callen.

"No." Nell said as Eric said, "Just kidding."

"Don't." Nell smiled with a wink.

"I'm not kidding." Eric whispered.

"I think this would have been a lot easier if Hetty just gave us all secret decoder rings." Deeks said as they were looking through Hetty's office. "I mean what are we looking for?"

"Looking for clues." Kensi as she lifted a piece of coral.

"Because she couldn't just leave a Post-it note on her refrigerator like everybody else?"

"Well, she didn't grow up in the Cold War." Kensi said as she got up.

"Ah, she probably started the Cold War." Deeks said as he was looking into the camera.

"Yeah, well… admittedly, her methods can be a little…"

"Extreme? Antiquated? Ridiculous?" Deeks said sarcastically.

"I was going to say 'old school'" Kensi smiled as she opened the top drawer of the desk.

"Yeah, definitely old school. Like the Roaring Twenties." He finished as he placed the camera down heard Kensi sigh behind him.

"Man."

"What's that?" He started to ask but Kensi just held up a picture of Granger and Hetty.

"You know, most days I still find myself going to call Granger. I don't want to go through that again."

"Well, the good news is you're never going to have to because Hetty's coming back."

"You don't know that Deeks."

"I do. I positively do. I know that for sure. You want to know how I know that?"

"How?"

"Because there's no way that she could live her life without this." He said as he lifted a glass clown's head.

"What the hell is that?" Kensi asked as she laughed.

"I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure if we boiled it down in hydrochloric acid, we'd find like a note inside."

"Okay, now you're just mocking."

"Kensi, do you want to snuggle?" Deeks said in a high-pitched voice before someone cleared their throat behind them. Both looked at Mosley like two kids who were just caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shay asked with her arms crossed.

"Right this moment or in my life?" Deeks asked looking confused.

"Okay. Eric and Nell found a hidden message in a book Hetty gave Eric we think it might contain a clue as to where she is." Kensi said.

"What did it say?" Hidoko asked.

"We're still trying to decipher it."

"Where are the others?" Mosley asked.

"Callen and Sam are also looking for clues."

"So, this takes precedence over all our other cases?" Shay asked the two agents.

"No, of course not."

"What she said, with a no." Deeks said pointing to Kensi.

"Okay, tell Callen and Sam to please report to my office." Shay said to Hidoko before walking away.

"Will do." Hidoko answered back before she headed up the stairs. "Where's Callen?" she asked as she walked into the war room.

"Uh, he's with Sam in the armoury going through some of Hetty's things." Nell answered without taking her eyes off the three words on the screen.

"So, Hetty left you guys a coded message?"

"Yeah, we think so." Eric said still looking at the screen.

"What3words." Hidoko said out loud.

"Uh, the three words that we're all looking at on the screen." Eric said.

"Is this the right order?" she asked.

"Well, it's the order we found them in, though the chronological order in the book was: skin, failed, action." Nell said.

"I mean, the 'failed action' I get but I don't understand what the 'skin' is referring to."

"It's what3words." Hidoko said again and they just turned towards her, looking confused.

"It's the three words that we're looking at on the screen." Eric said again.

"What3words is a geocoding system that maps the world into three-meter squares which are each given a unique three-word identification." Hidoko explained to them.

"Okay," Nell said before she started to type on her tablet.

"'Skin failed action' is nine square meters somewhere on the planet."

"So, that will be… It's Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam." Nell said as she brought the map up on the big screen.

"Wow, great job." Eric said towards Hidoko as he ran out of the War room.

"Thanks for that." Nell added. Hidoko just smiled at the redhead.

Relieved, that's all Callen could think as Hetty laid her head on his shoulder. One person found the next one to find… Emma-Grace. Maeve has her Gran gran back and he wondered if the little girl would remember the person she only knew from pictures. After making sure Hetty and Keane were settled into the hospital, he drove towards Julia's condo. Julia was making sure she spent as much time with the little girl since Zach left. She was trying to stay busy with a 'grandbaby' so she didn't sit and worry about him. He knew the feeling. Maeve kept on asking where Emma was and if she wasn't asking about Emma, she was wondering why Anna wasn't staying with them. He's running out of things to say so he just told her that they'll be back soon but that will only keep her content for a little while. Parking the car and walking up the steps, he could hear loud music coming from Julia's place. Smiling he knew what they were doing… Dance party! Knocking he heard Julia running to the door. Opening the door, he could see she was out of breath.

"Looks like someone's having fun." Callen smiled as Mae ran to him.

"Dance party!" Mae yelled over the music.

"Sorry, had to get the wiggles out of someone." Julia said once the music was turned down, "And who doesn't like a dance party."

"Dada dance with us." Mae said as she wiggled out of his arms.

"Daddy's too old for dance parties." Callen smiled, "But I can always do a tickle attack with a little ducky." He said as he started to tickle her. Julia could see the stress of the past few weeks, was washed away as soon as he heard the little girl's laughter. If only Emma-Grace could see how big her little sister has grown.

Pain, that's all he felt as he watched them take his dad away. Alex hates him, Jacob will hate him when the time comes and Maeve will try to figure out why Bedushka isn't at Aunt Alex's house. His heart felt like it was ripped out and stomped on. He hated himself for not being able to save his father. Hated himself for not being able to save the family he'd always wanted. He knew that Emma wasn't close to her grandfather and that she was angry that he allowed Olga to bring her to the US and what her intentions were. He couldn't blame her and he was angry too but Emma made it clear that he could have a relationship with his father and she made sure Maeve had a good relationship with her Bedushka but she didn't want him in her life. She wanted to move on from her past life and she was looking towards the future. He wished she was here, she had a way of looking at things in a different light. She could put stuff in perspective like nobody else in his life. Walking into house, he saw Hetty sitting on the couch with Maeve next to her and a book in her lap. Leaning on the door frame, he watched them for a bit. Maeve loved Hetty the moment they met and she was always happy to try any type of tea Hetty offered.

"I think Daddy needs a hug." Hetty said as the little finally saw her daddy.

"Dada, gran gran made tea." Maeve said as she ran to him. She was always so happy to see him at the end of the day and she could make the heaviest day feel like it was a walk in the park.

"Did you like it?" Callen said with a smile.

"Not her favourite." Hetty said as she made her way out. "Night Maeve. Night Mr. Callen."

"Night Hetty." Callen said as he walked down the hallway to get Maeve ready for bed.