Again, it was Deeks who first saw their boss and coughed pointedly to get their attention. Callen spun around only to come face to face with Hetty. Well, face to torso. Nell yelped but was quickly steadied by Kensi.

"Hetty, we can explain," he said quickly, not really knowing how he was going to explain this. Because this was really something else.

Hetty rubbed at her head in exasperation before answering, "Pray tell, Mr Callen, how exactly can you explain yourself and Mr Hanna throwing Miss Jones across the room?"

Because that was exactly what they were doing. Or were doing, rather, as they had abruptly stopped doing so when they noticed her.

"It's like a demented game of catch," Deeks unhelpfully supplied.

Sam glared at him for comparing what they were doing to something so childish. Not that he could deny that it didn't look like that. But still.

"We were just-" Callen tried to grasp for the word he needed.

"Do not say that you are teaching her new skills," Hetty interrupted. "Throwing someone across the room is not teaching someone new skills."

If anything, it was putting the fear of God into them. Something this career did a fine enough job of doing itself. It did not need to be extended unnecessarily.

"Pity," Sam said only to take a sheepish step back when she directed a glare at him.

"I was going to say evasive measures actually," Callen corrected.

"Evasive measures," she repeated sceptically.

Callen nodded, sparking off very enthusiastic nodding from the rest of the reprobates. They looked like bobble heads.

"And what, pray tell, do evasive measure have to do with throwing Miss Jones across the room?"

She was almost afraid of the answer, to be completely honest. It wasn't like any of this lot were particularly sane. Normally, that was an admirable attribute - they had a fantastic ability to think outside the box - but in this case it was just headache inducing because their thought processes were never exactly normal for this sort of thing. She knew this to be especially true at the moment because of the look that just came over Callen's face. It was equal parts conniving, innocent and mischievous.

"Well, you see, Nell is so small and light that a bad guy could just chuck her out of the way. She needs to be prepared for the sudden motion."

How he managed to say that with a straight face, Hetty couldn't tell you and she doubted Callen would be able to either. However, she did notice that it took all of his energy not to at least crack a grin. The rest of his team, however, did not have his control because they were all chuckling.

"The sudden motion of being thrown into the air?" Hetty said slowly in disbelief.

"Well, yes, Nell's pretty easy to lift. See?"

Callen easily lifted Nell up in order to prove his point. The petite redhead just sighed her acceptance as her legs dangled in mid-air.

Hetty didn't know what it was about Callen and lifting her two female agents into odd positions but he persisted on doing it. A show of masculine strength, perhaps, but he didn't usually indulge in such antics. That was more Sam's thing.

"So, someone could quite easily grab her and heft her around," Deeks hastened to add, apparently thinking that the team lead wasn't doing a good job of explaining their reasoning.

"What he said," Callen said with a shrug.

"And how often do you expect Miss Jones to be, ah, 'chucked around' in the field?" Hetty asked, peering over her glasses.

"Uh...," Callen tried to think of a realistic number but failed so he turned to their resident (now with both feet safely on the floor) Analyst. "Nell?"

"Well," she began, interlocking her fingers in front of her. "With the right conditions and taking into account the frequency I go into the field along with the chances of me getting grabbed, I'd say that it would be a frequent enough occurrence."

"Hmm."

That was an awful lot of unnecessary words, none of which completely convinced her.

"And is there a reason that you are not doing this with no protective equipment?"

"There's mats on the floor," Sam said with a shrug as if that dismissed her concern.

Which it did not. Definitely did not.

"What have I said about damaging assets?"

"Uh, not to?"

"Exactly."

"We're helping her stop get damaged in the field," Callen protested.

"By damaging her."

It wasn't a question. Nevertheless, Callen tried to answer.

"We catch her."

He actually sounded somewhat insulted at the idea that they wouldn't.

"Well, I do," Sam decided to add with a smirk. "G nearly dropped her."

Callen whirled back round to him.

"I did not!" He spun back to face Hetty. "I didn't!" Then he turned to Nell. "Tell her!"

Honestly, the man was going to pull a muscle if he kept going back and forth that. Nell gave him a hesitant look.

"Ha!" Sam crowed. "See! Nell agrees with me!"

"Nell," Callen said in an injured tone.

"I did nearly hit the ground."

"I still caught you," he insisted.

"Barely," Deeks coughed.

Callen turned his glare on him instead as Kensi snickered beside him.

"See?" Sam said. "We obviously need more practice at this."

"More practice at snatching Miss Jones out of thin air?"

Really?

Sam shrugged. "This way we can just grab her and run if needed."

Sanity really was a dying trait these days. You know what? It wasn't worth the fight.

"Oh, carry on then." She told them in an exasperated tone.

She didn't want to deny all of their fun after all. Anyway, they had a point, they did need to be prepared and she herself had been thrown about her fair share of times when antagonising people. It was probably best for Nell to be ready for that.

However, the fist pump between Sam and Callen was completely unnecessary. It wasn't like they had beaten her at anything.

"I'm holding each of you responsible for any injuries that might happen," she informed them.

She did need her Intelligence Analyst after all. Nell was the only one she had found that she liked and she did not want to go looking for a temporary one if Nell ended up in the hospital. Hetty didn't think she'd be able to stand it even for a little while.

"We won't break her," Callen assured her.

Nell made an indignant noise at the very thought.

"Maybe we could play piggy-in-the-middle with her?" Deeks suggested.

"No, Mr Deeks," came Hetty's echoey voice before any of them could answer.