Chapter Text
Threats
Sam stood in the bullpen with his arms crossed, leaning against the front of his desk and staring across the ‘great divide’ at Hetty’s desk. His partner and their supervisor were in the midst of a hairy and heated argument. Something about a traffic violation.
G trudged back to the bullpen and eyed his partner. “I’m certain you overheard that one.”
“Yeah, what’s going on with you?”
“Me?” G pointed to his chest. “She started the argument not me.”
“And you broke the law?”
G settled down at his desk and leafed through the file centered on it. “She’s got to be kidding.”
“Nope.” Sam grabbed the identical file off his desk. “Same instructions here. Finish this by midnight tonight.”
“I don’t have time for this right now.”
“Awfully busy for having zero op assignments.”
“Remember I’m working on something on the side.”
“How could I forget?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You haven’t told me about it, but you’re acting a little strange.”
G took the report and stood. “She says I have to work with you.” He stepped over to the two desks opposite him and scooted Deeks’s chair over to Sam’s side. G threw the file on the desk and slouched into the chair.
“I think you’d better cop the attitude for all concerned.” Sam sat next to him.
“She pisses me off. Okay? I’m within my rights to be angry about this.”
“Really? After you obtained the traffic ticket?”
“Try tickets.” G leaned over the report, trying to ignore his partner’s scrutiny.
“Tickets? No wonder she’s peeved.”
“Red light. Speeding. Reckless endangerment.”
“Seriously? What’s your problem?”
G lowered his voice and said, “I’m spooked.”
“About your extracurricular activities?”
“Yeah, something happened this morning and it’s got me nervous, but I’m still going to pursue my line of investigation.”
“That’s my partner.” Sam patted G on the back. “Let me know if you need any extra help.”
“Oh, I intend to when the time is right.”
G leafed through the gobs of intel from their last op which occurred over a week ago. To compile this would take all day and then some. But Hetty wanted it by midnight. He shook his head and lowered it into both of his upturned hands.
“That bad?”
“Well, you look at all this… stuff… we’ve got…” he noted the time on his watch, “sixteen hours to complete it.”
“I’ll take the first three days of the op and you take the last two days.”
“Thanks a bunch, Sam, you just took the easiest part.”
“What do you want? I’m taking on three days and leaving you only two. You want only one?”
“Would be nice.” G gave him a poor little puppy dog look.
“I got it. Okay?”
“Thanks.”
“You owe me one.”
He muttered more to himself, “By the time I’m done I’ll owe you more than that.”
G removed last week’s reports by all four team members. He could barely decipher Deeks’s handwriting. It reminded him of the chicken scratch a doctor writes in a patient’s file. And this guy was a lawyer? Kensi’s handwriting was much more legible. Usually they all typed their reports into a computer. Yet Hetty had insisted they all write them out longhand. For my torture? He quickly read through her report and took some notes about how to compile the overall intel results. Then there was Sam’s immaculate handwriting with his signature distinct descriptions. Oh he was thorough and good and G understood why he was a top notch federal agent. G decided to use it word for word as the beginning paragraphs of the report he would write.
While rereading Kensi’s report, G daydreamed about her secretive past. He was this close to blowing it all wide open.
“Mr. Callen?”
He startled and glared at her standing in front of the desk. If his eyes were daggers, she would’ve been stabbed numerous times.
“Stumped about the report?”
“No. Daydreaming of a time which was easier than a sixteen hour stint to produce a detailed report which should take as least two days or maybe more to complete.”
“You’ve got two heads. Use them.” She flipped on her heels and left the bullpen.
“Now, what was that about?” G asked, glancing sideways at his partner.
“I’m not going to get involved with your cat fight.”
“It’s not a cat fight.”
“Looks and sounds like it to me.” Sam made a hissing sound and chuckled. He finished writing the sentence he had worked on for the last couple of minutes.
“By virtue of being my partner, you’re already involved.”
“Well, thanks, but no thanks.” He picked up the file folder and leaned back in his chair. “Ever wonder where Deeks and Kensi are?”
“Nope. Because she’s not going to tell us. She wants us focused on this… her busy work.”
When the lowered voices from Hetty and Granger across headquarters got increasingly louder, G’s attention perked up and he strained to listen to them standing in Hetty’s office. “Sounds like a dog fight over there.”
“Yeah, got wonder what that’s about.”
“Probably me and those three traffic violations.”
Sam lowered his voice, “That would be settled in less than a minute. That’s a lingering fight.”
G leaned forward and honed his hearing skills to figure out what they were saying. He didn’t have to wait long. As their voices grew louder, bits and pieces of the argument drifted over to the bullpen. Keep it under wraps… He’ll give it up… She’s worried… Tactics… The heated conversation was about him and he knew it. Granger must know about ELINT. Either that or I’m getting paranoid now.
He relaxed in his chair and stretched. Right now this report came at the worst time in his external investigations. G needed to concentrate on his private research op. He redoubled his efforts, determined to finish Hetty’s busy work early.
#
Four hours later, Sam and him broke for lunch and got permission to work at his home. G hurried home to his house and gathered all the newly left evidence, filing it away in a wall safe in his study.
Sam walked into the house carrying their take-out lunch.
They settled down on the brown leather sofa in the living room and ate their Chinese food in silence.
G came up for air first about twenty minutes later. “I’m halfway through writing the final pages of the report.”
“Halfway? That’s good.”
“Yeah. I’m surprised especially after reading Deeks’s horrible handwriting.”
“Tell me about it. The guy needs lessons in writing legible and coherent sentences.”
“What’s a sentence?”
Sam chuckled and rubbed his stomach. “I’m finished eating.” He stood and bussed his plate and the containers to the kitchen.
“I’ll take care of things.” G hurried after him, hoping he had ridded the countertop of all the evidence. He silently prayed there wasn’t anything new placed on it. He breathed out a sigh of relief. The surface was bare.
“It’s the least I could do.” Sam closed the containers and loaded them into the refrigerator. “Looks as if you’ve got enough for at least one more meal.”
G took two fortune cookies from a bag and tossed one to his partner.
Sam cracked open his cookie. “Okay, my double bubble fortune is… ‘Your day will go faster with wisdom.’ Hm… My day would go faster without a ridiculously long report due by midnight.”
G laughed and broke open his fortune cookie. His jaw slacked open.
“Okay, someone’s been peeking into your private life.”
“No… This is spookier than this morning.”
“Well, if I had a clue about what happened to you this morning—“
“I’m not ready to disclose anything.”
“You’re extra jumpy and on edge.”
He wanted to believe his partner wouldn’t notice his behavior. Fat chance. He just got through accepting his partner’s excellent skills on and off an op.
“So read yours.”
“It says… ‘When engaged in risky business practices, people in glass houses would be wise to use pebbles.’ Talk about a creepy fortune.”
“So you’re engaged in a risky op?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s all you’re gonna tell me.”
“For now.” G tossed the fortune on the countertop and leaned over it with both hands placed on the counter’s edge. “That’s just plain creepy… at least for me.” He flipped on his heels and stared across the room. “Maybe I need to stop what I’m doing before I’ve gone too far.”
“Is it illegal?”
“Borderline.”
“Define borderline, G?”
“I’ve got my nose where it doesn’t belong researching someone’s secretive background.”
“Who?”
“Someone both you and I know.”
“The plot thickens and….”
“That’s all I care to say at this point. If any further problems emerge I’ll call you.”
“What kind of problems?”
“Someone’s warning me to back off.”
“And you’ve decided to ignore them.”
“Of course, hey, it’s me, what do you want?”
“I’d expect it from you.” Sam leaned against the countertop and folded his arms. “We’d better get back to work.”
“At least it keeps my mind off the private investigation.”
“You’ll call me if—“
“I told you I would.”
They finished clearing the Chinese food containers off the coffee table in the living room and then settled down with writing their reports.
“Want a beer?” G asked.
“No thanks, I’ll be too relaxed to finish my duties. Maybe with dinner.”
“And you’ve got that meal planned.”
“Pizza.”
“Sounds perfect.”
G got back to work on the report.
#
Five hours passed during which G finished drinking three glasses of water and typing thirty pages of the report. He leaned back on the sofa and stretched his arms overhead. G stood and took a bathroom break in his master bath. Scrawled on the bathroom mirror in blood-red finger paint were two words:
DEATH SENTENCE
G shuddered and closed and locked the door. He quickly rinsed it off the mirror.
If that wasn’t an ominous warning… oh hell… what did these people want him to do?
After using the bathroom, he closed the bathroom door, hoping to keep any evidence which might be written in the shower hidden from his partner’s scrutiny.
When G entered the living room and saw that his partner wasn’t there, he panicked. With his heart thumping loud in his ears and fast in his chest and his legs trembling, he stuffed his hands deep into his jeans pockets to hide his trembling fingers from his partner. G paced the room twice, trying to work off his nervous energy, and settled down on the sofa, waiting for Sam’s return. Too much time passed, at least it felt as if that were so. One glance at his own watch told him only two minutes had ticked by before Sam returned to the living room.
G released a long pent up sigh.
“I took the liberty and ordered a pizza and breadsticks,” Sam said, shutting down his cellphone.
G could only hope that his partner had been in the guest bathroom and kitchen. If he had searched the house for him, it would’ve appeared odd when he found Sam. So that option never entered his mind.
“That’s a good idea,” G said. “How far did you get in your end of the project?”
“Couple of more pages and I’ll be finished.”
“Seriously? Me too.”
Sam eyed his partner and sat back down on the sofa in the living room.
G shot off the sofa and grabbed two beers from the refrigerator. He offered one to his partner. G sat on the brown leather sofa and flipped the top off the beer, offering a toast to Sam. “To our completion of Hetty’s time waster.”
Sam clinked his opened bottle against his partner’s. “To you sharing about your newest off duty project.”
The corners of G’s lips turned downward. “You only wish I’d share it.”
“Not only have spooky things happened to you, but you’re acting strange.”
Damn. “It’s probably being here where it occurred.”
“Right, G, come on man, you expect me to buy that load of—“
“I had hoped, but you’re too good at what you do,” G said. “Someone’s threatening me. I’ve gotten too close to the intel I’ve sought. There you’ve got it.”
“Must be ground shaking intel.”
“It is. That’s all I can say until I’ve got more proof of what I believe occurred with this person.”
“Or until someone acts on one of those threats,” Sam said.