Just a silly little idea I came up with and thought I would play with for the Christmas season. Kind of like last year's "A Thanksgiving Tale." Anyhow, hope you like it :)

xxxxx

"Come on, G, open the door," Sam called out as he stood outside the front door to his partner's house. "I know you're in there. We're going to be late."

There was no answer. Now feeling a little bit apprehensive, Sam pulled his set of keys out from his pocket, found the one key that corresponded to his partner's front door and opened it. "I'm coming in!" he called out as he opened the door. When he did so, he found the front room to be deserted. "Hey G?" he called out once he was inside.

He slowly made his way through the house and hesitated when he found himself outside of his partner's bedroom. He knocked on the door and then cautiously opened it when there was no answer. There he found Callen, in his bed, still fast asleep. His first thought was that he was hungover but when he approached his bed, he saw that G's cheeks were flushed. He put his hand on his partner's forehead and found it to be pretty warm. "Looks like you've got that flu bug that's going around," he said softly. "Hey G?" he gently patted his partner's shoulder. "Come on, buddy. Wake up."

"Go away," Callen mumbled. "I'm sleeping."

"I just need to talk to you for a minute then you can go back to sleep," Sam persisted. Finally he was successful in getting Callen to open his eyes, well at least partially successful. Callen looked up at his partner blearily with his eyes half open.

"What?" Callen asked.

"Did you call into work?" Sam asked.

"No…not yet. I was going to."

"Okay," Sam said with a nod. "I'm going to go make you some tea and call Hetty. You just rest until I get back."

Callen nodded, his eyes already closing. "Thanks, Sam," he murmured.

"You're welcome."

xxxxx

Sam returned about a half hour later to find his friend seemingly at least partly alert. He was sitting up in bed, with his back against the pillows, looking drowsy. "You're awake now?" Sam asked as he placed the tea on the nightstand next to Callen's bed and handed him a plate with some buttered toast on it. "You don't have much in the way of food, G, but you do have bread, at least."

"Thanks," Callen said as he took the plate and nibbled on a slice of toast, but made a face as he swallowed.

"Sore throat?" Sam asked knowingly as Callen nodded. "I called Hetty. She wanted to know your symptoms. I think she thought you were faking to get out of the work Christmas party today."

"Why would I do that?" Callen asked. "I'm fine with the Christmas party. I like it."

"Well, I told her you have a fever so she knows you're really sick. In any case, what are your other symptoms, G?" Sam asked. "And I'm pretty sure I already know the answer, but do you have a thermometer?"

Callen rolled his eyes. "No, I don't have a thermometer. Don't need one. I'm not dying, Sam." He covered his mouth as he coughed and sighed.

"Okay, cough, sore throat and fever," Sam said. "Anything else?"

"I'm just tired and I have a headache."

"Any body aches?"

Callen shrugged. "I don't know…I guess I feel a little big achy."

Sam nodded. "Cough, sore throat, fever, fatigue, headache and body aches. Sounds like the flu to me, G."

"Okay Dr. Hanna, I'll concur with your diagnosis," Callen said as he reached for the tea and took a sip. "Mm… This is good," he said. "Hetty would approve."

"I'm going to make sure you have something more substantial for lunch," Sam said with a grin. "You need to keep your strength up."

"Don't worry," Callen said as he continued to sip the tea. "I'm pretty sure I have some cans of soup in the cabinet."

Sam shook his head. "You're having something better than cans of soup, G. Don't worry. I'll figure it out."

"But…you're not going to be here," Callen said as he finally began to figure out what Sam was saying. He realized he was mentally processing a bit slower than usual.

Sam grinned. "Wrong. I am going to be here. Hetty insisted that I stay here and take good care of my under-the-weather partner, unless something comes up that I'm really needed for."

"But, what about the party, Sam?" Callen asked. "I don't want you to miss that."

"It's okay, G," Sam said. "Maybe I'll head over there at the end of the day, okay?" He really didn't care if he went or not, especially if his partner couldn't go, but he didn't want to upset him when he wasn't feeling well.

"Okay," Callen said, still obviously unhappy about the situation.

"Now, why don't we put this tv to some good use," Sam said as he reached for the remote control and started scanning through the channels. When he came to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," he stopped. "There you go G. You just rest and watch this happy little Christmas show. If you need anything just shout out. I'll be in the living room, okay?"

Callen nodded as he looked back at his friend. "Okay, Sam…thanks." He wasn't really all that comfortable with people taking care of him. Maybe it was because he'd been on his own for most of his life. He just didn't like feeling like he was bothering people, but Sam was always so good about it, as was his family. They never made him feel like he was being a bother.

"No problem, G. Feel better, buddy."

Sam then went out to the car to retrieve his laptop. He brought it back into the house and plugged it into an outlet in the living room. When he peeked into Callen's bedroom, his partner seemed to be fully engrossed in watching the Christmas cartoon. Sam smiled to himself and went back into the living room to get some work done.

xxxxx

Callen spent the morning in bed, watching Christmas specials. After "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," he proceeded to watch "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "A Year Without A Santa Claus."

Sam went out at around noon to get them some lunch and came back with homemade chicken noodle soup for Callen with a couple of packages of oyster crackers, and a sandwich which Callen declined, but Sam put it into the refrigerator in case he wanted it later. Callen ate his soup, which was loaded with chicken, vegetables and plenty of noodles, then watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "Frosty the Snowman." After that, sleepy, warm and with a full stomach, he turned off the television, burrowed under the covers like a hibernating bear cub, and fell into a sound sleep.

xxxxx

"Ho, ho, ho, time to wake up, youngster!" a voice bellowed practically in his ear. Callen opened his eyes and stared up into the piercing blue eyes of Marty Deeks who was standing over him, but this was not the Marty Deeks he knew. Callen quickly closed his eyes again. This wasn't happening and if he went back to sleep it would all go away. He was pretty cold though and he realized that he was lying in snow.

"Deeks?" Callen asked as he opened his eyes again and stared up at the younger man, except he wasn't the younger man anymore. He was old now with white hair and a long, fluffy white beard. Callen shook his head. "This…this isn't really you, is it?"

"Well, no one calls me Deeks because frankly it's rude," the other man replied. "Santa Deeks it is, my little friend."

Callen grinned. "Did Sam put you up to this?" he asked.

"If you mean Sammy, my head elf, he doesn't like to be referred to as Sam and I'm not sure what you're talking about. "Henrietta, my top security advisor, informed me that you showed up on our Intruder-cam."

Well that made sense at least, Callen thought to himself as he sat up and then slowly got to his feet brushing the cold, wet snow off him. Hetty could definitely be a top security advisor. The part about Sammy did not make sense though. If he was to refer to his partner as Sammy, he'd be in danger of getting punched. Not to mention, in no world would Sam be any kind of an elf. It had to be a different Sam. "So, where am I?" he asked. "Why is it so cold and why is there snow?"

"You're in the North Pole, lad," Santa Deeks answered.

"Yeah, right," Callen said, shaking his head with a smile on his face. At that point though, he started to really take in his surroundings. When he saw the many small multi-colored buildings all covered with Christmas lights, and the merry decorations everywhere, he started to get suspicious. But when he saw the small group of elves, riding by in a sleigh pulled by a reindeer, his heart sunk and he realized that what Deeks had told him could very well be the truth. He was in the North Pole and had no idea how he had gotten here or how he would get back home again.