Special Agent G Callen stood staring into a bedroom closet shaking his head. Instead of racks of clothes and shoes and bags, it was filled with screens, computers and bundles of wires. He lowered his gun to his side and took in the complex set up.

"You good G? his partner Sam arrived a moment later having cleared the rest of the house.

"You see this?" Callen gestured to the closet.

"Woah." Sam muttered. They hadn't expected to find anything like this when raiding the home for their suspect. It was a drug case, not a cyber crime.

"We're going to need help." Callen sighed and pulled out his cell.

Twenty minutes later Nell Jones pulled up at the house, nestled amongst a wooded area up anlong dirt track. On exiting her car, she grabbed a large black case filled with various equipment, unsure what she'd actually need. Callen hadn't given her much detail on the phone, just that her skills were needed on site and to get there asap.

Lugging the heavy case to the house, she entered and found Sam pacing in the hall, texting on his phone.

"Hey Nell, Callen's upstairs, main bedroom." He told her. "Need a hand with that?" he asked, taking in the large silver case.

"I'm good, but thanks." She replied, giving Sam a quick nod as she carried on towards the staircase.

Nell took the stairs and found her way along the hall to the main bedroom. She entered and found Callen standing in front of the closet door.

"Hey Nell" he glanced over as he greeted her. "I need you to figure…this…out" he gestured to the closet and Nell stepped forward to take a look.

"Wow." She muttered. "You don't ask for much do you?" She quipped eliciting a smile and a chuckle from the agent. "I'll get started." She added as she crouched down with her case to start pulling her equipment out.

Just then Callen's cell rang and he quickly answered.

"Callen." he paused and listened. "We'll be right there." Then he slid his cell into his pocket and turned back, looking down at Nell.

"Sam and I are needed on another lead. You good here?" he asked.

"I'm good." She replied. "I saw LAPD outside, are they staying?" Nell had no problem being in the field but being alone always carried a risk, and she'd fallen victim to that risk before.

"Yeah, they're sitting on the house just in case she returns." Callen replied. "Call me with what you find." He added as he headed out.

Nell got herself situated, plugged a USB into one of the ports on one of the computers in the closet and started her work. She knew it could take a while to find out what was on these, why they were hidden in a closet and what link they had to their drugs case.

xxxx

An hour or so later, Callen and Sam were walking back to their car after interviewing a lead in their case. It hadn't led anywhere, at least nowhere they hadn't already been. As they reached Sam's challenger, Callen's cell rang. It was Eric.

"Callen." He answered.

"Callen, I got a distress signal from Nell, you gotta get back there, like now!" Eric practically shouted through the phone. Callen's jaw tightened and his lips pursed as he listened, then he hung up and yanked open the door of the car.

"Sam, move." Callen he said through gritted teeth.

It was an agonising ten minutes before they made it back to the house they had left Nell at. The whole drive there, all Callen could think about was it had happened again. He'd left Nell at a scene and something bad had happened. When am I going to learn?

What greeted them when they screeched to a halt outside the house sent panic coursing through both agents. Sprawled out on the front lawn were the two LAPD officers, blood covering their chests.

Callen signalled to Sam to check the officers, while he sprinted to the house, gun drawn. The front door was wide open and full of bullet holes. He made his way inside, fast but cautious, sweeping around the large entryway quickly. Sam joined him moments later.

"They're both dead " Sam said gravely. "I'll check down here, go find Nell." He added. Callen nodded and made his way to the stairs, taking a look up with his gun aimed, before he started up the first tread.

"Nell?" he called out as he was about halfway up. The silence in the house suggested the perpetrators were long gone but the silence was also killing him. She should respond. If she was okay, she'd respond.

"Nell!" he shouted more forcefully.

From her hiding spot under the bed, Nell heard someone enter the house. She grasped at her gun and held her breath as she listened, trying to work out if this was friend or foe. And then she heard it. Her name, with his voice. She was safe. She let out the breath she had been holding and wiggled herself out from under the bed. It was the first time she'd been able see what she'd heard and her eyes widened. The bedroom was littered with bullet holes, windows smashed, wood splintered, and the closet computer system was destroyed. Hearing her name again, she snapped back to reality, holstered her weapon and called back.

"In here."

Callen reached the top of the stairs when he heard it. It was quiet, almost weak, but it was her. He stepped up the pace and went straight to the room had left her in. The door was hanging off the hinges and bullets had clearly been flying.

"Nell." He sighed in relief when he saw her standing and seemingly in one piece. "What happened?"

"There were at least four men, all armed. I saw them from the window and I know when I'm out gunned, so I hid." She glanced over at the bullet ridden bed and the impossibly small gap at the bottom she had somehow got herself under.

Callen looked around, noted the destruction in the closet then went back to Nell, wondering how on earth she had managed to come out of this unscathed.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked, his blue eyes looking her over from head to toe.

"I'm fine." She tried to smile but her heart was still racing. She'd never admit it but she had never been more scared than when she lay under that bed, praying whoever was in the house wouldn't look under it.

"Nell, I'm not sure you are, hold still." Callen closed the gap between them and took her left arm, seeing clearly now a deep red stain that was spreading out from torn fabric on the sleeve of her dark grey sweater.

"What?" Nell asked, looking at what he was looking at. "Oh." She recognised what she saw and it wasn't good.

"You've been shot Nell." Callen told her as he started to take off her sweater to get a better look. His heart was racing, this was his fault. He'd left her there with just two LAPD officers to look out for her. His mistake and she got hurt. Again.

"I've been shot?" Nell asked, her voice sounding shaky. Her head was feeling light and it only got worse when she looked down at her exposed arm to see a nasty gash, bleeding profusely. "I've been shot." She said again as she stared at the wound, more to herself than him.

Callen's heart was pounding but he was ever the professional.

"You'll be fine Nell, it's just a graze." He tried to reassure her.

"Just a graze?" she asked as she stared at the mangled flesh of her arm. Suddenly she felt incredibly dizzy and light headed and she grasped Callen's arm with her hand tightly.

"I need to sit down." She said weakly.

"I got you, I got you." He said gently as he shuffled her backwards to the edge of the bed and lowered her down slowly.

Just then Sam arrived, gun still drawn. He glanced around the room, shocked at the state of it.

"Sam, we need an ambulance." Callen said with a grimace. Sam took one look at Nell and her bloody arm and just nodded, stepping away to call it in.

Callen knelt down in front of Nell, his hand reaching out to brush her hair from her face.

"How are you doing?" he asked gently as he visually examined her arm. It looked bad but after being cleaned up and some stitches she'd be alright, and just have a scar as a reminder.

"Uh, I don't know." She replied, glancing down at her arm again and feeling nauseous when she did so, making an audible groan.

"You should probably stop looking at it." Callen half joked. "Let me find something to wrap it with til the paramedics get here." He rose and disappeared into the ensuite bathroom, returning with a small towel. He wrapped it around her injured arm and held it tight to stop the flow of blood.

As Nell sat there with Callen on one knee before her, dilligently checking her arm, asking her if she was okay, and staring at her with those impossibly blue eyes, a well of emotion started bubbling up and she couldn't stop tears from escaping her eyes.

"Urgh, this is so stupid." She said as she wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. "I shouldn't be crying over this."

"You feel how you feel Nell." Callen told her. "I wasn't all sunshine and roses when I got shot. And Sam, well you should have seen him when Hetty was pulling the bullet from his leg." He smirked, recalling the drama the larger agent had created. It seemed to help as Nell smiled a little bit. "We've all been shot at one point, it's a hazard of the job. We have a club, monthly meetings and everything." He laughed a little, Nell did too, and he was glad he could take her mind off the situation if only for a few seconds.

"It really hurts." She admitted.

"I know." Callen said gently.

xxx

It was dark when Nell finally arrived back home from the hospital. It had taken a while but she'd finally gotten seen, had her arm cleaned up and stitched up. The Doctor had assured her she'd only have a small scar but Nell wasn't so sure given she had fifteen stitches in her arm. With one arm now strapped up in a sling and having been given some serious pain meds, she fumbled with her keys at her door a little but finally opened it and stepped inside to her sanctuary. She was glad of the quiet, having been surrounded by people all afternoon. It had taken a lot of convincing for Kensi and Deeks to just drop her off at her building door and not see her upstairs. She dropped her keys in the bowl by the door when she stepped in, locked up behind her, and headed to the kitchen for water, or a beer, she wasn't sure yet.

But as she crossed the room she stopped in her tracks at her dining table when she saw a small vase with a bouquet of colourful fresh flowers sitting on it. That hadn't been there when she had left that morning. She glanced around nervously, listening intently for any sounds to indicate someone was there. In their line of business someone sneaking into your apartment was usually a bad thing and after the day she'd had she should be expecting the worst. But then what bad guy would sneak in and leave flowers, she asked herself. Nell looked back at the vase in confusion, and noticed there was a card balanced amongst the flowers. She gently plucked it from its perch and turned it over to read the message. Her lips curled up in a smile as she read the four words printed on the card, knowing exactly who the flowers were from.

Welcome to the club