12 days, 11 hours and 27 minutes after Callen had been hit in the chest five times, was he taken off the respirator and allowed to breath on his own. 2 hours after that, Lara Macy was booked on a flight to Dulles Airport. She told Hetty she'd stay in town, long enough for Callen not to be completely critical and be able to breath on his own. She had decided to take the Special Agent in Charge position in Marseille, France.

Unfortunately for her, Mike Renko was waiting beside the check in desk for the airline. "How'd you know I'd be here, Renko?" Macy asked, annoyed. She wanted to leave without her team knowing. She honestly didn't really have a solid explanation for why she wanted away from Los Angeles, other than things between her and Callen weren't working and she needed a change of scenery. She trusted Hetty would give the team a reasonable answer on why Macy up and left.

Mike Renko shrugged. "I figured you'd be on the first flight out of here after Callen was taken off the respirator. Guess I was right."

"Okay, that explains how, but why, Mike?"

Renko rolled his eyes. "You act so cold and tough and whatever inner personal demons you have, I hope you can work through them. But I know you and you are a good person and this is probably killing you to leave."

"Since when did you become Nate?"

He shrugged again. "I did a pretty piss poor job at trying to act like Nate, didn't I?"

She laughed. "Yeah, you did. But thanks for trying. Now move, I have a plane to catch," she told Mike.

He looked at her. "If you ever need anything, Mace, I am only a phone call away. I will be on the first flight to Marseilles."

Macy smiled. "Same goes for you, Mike," she replied. Finally she dropped her luggage and embraced Mike. She stood there, in his arms for longer than she expected.

She silently wiped a tear from her eye and pulled back. He gave her a smile and a wave and she continued on her way unto the baggage line up. She knew Kensi, Eric, Sam and Nate would all be here if she had of told them. She'd never admit it to Renko, but him coming to see her off meant a lot of it.

"Hey Mace, whatever happened to Major Hottie?" Mike called back.

Macy turned around. "Mike," she warned.

"You end it?" Mike asked.

She shook her head. "I'm not telling you."

Renko laughed. "You didn't end it, did you? Impressive, Mace."

"Bye, Mike," Macy said, finally, and continued on her way. Mike Renko and her had become a lot closer over the years, especially as she was his handler when he went undercover as Matty Ray.

Macy had arrived in Washington and made her way to the Navy Yard. She was going to have a discussion with Leon Vance, the Director, over the details regarding the new SAC position in Marseilles.

She got off the elevator and went immediately to the stairs. She had been here, many times before. Hell, her and Jenny Shepard used to go out for drinks on a regular basis, even though Macy highly doubted anybody knew about their clandestine meetings. She was about up the stairs when Agent Gibbs came out of MTAC.

"Agent Macy, how are you?"

She eyed him. "Jethro."

"How's Callen?" Gibbs got straight to the point.

Macy looked down at the floor and then back at the legendary agent. "Docs took him off the respirator this morning. Downgraded from two seconds from death to how the hell did he survive."

Gibbs chuckled and took a drink of his coffee. How he was allowed coffee in MTAC, blew Macy's mind. "That's Callen for you. What are you doing in town?"

Macy didn't know how to handle this "nice" Gibbs. The Gibbs she knew, judged her work and abilities from 18 years ago, when she was a Lieutenant in the Corps. She was an ass to Gibbs during her time as a MP, but she was just doing her job. Hell, even Mike Franks defended Macy's actions. "I got the SAC position in Marseille."

"When do you report?"

Macy shrugged. "Going to visit my mom in Cumberland for a couple days, and then head over there. I don't officially start for another three weeks."

"I'm down an agent," Gibbs started to say.

"No," Macy said quickly, knowing what Gibbs would say. She knew Ziva David stayed in Israel and it also meant Gibbs was a man down, now with just McGee and DiNozzo.

Gibbs smiled. "Ah, come on Mace. We'd work great together."

"No," Macy re-iterated. "Now, I have a meeting with Vance." She walked away, quickly, so Gibbs didn't have a chance to say anything else to her. Working with Gibbs would be a disaster.

Like Gibbs, she bypassed Vance's secretary and went right in. A little bit of a force of habit with Jenny, that now carried over to Vance.

"Nice to see you, Agent Macy," Vance said. He gestured to the chairs at his desk and she sat down, with him following.

"Before you even ask, no."

Vance looked at her. "No, to what?"

"Joining Gibbs' team temporarily. Not no, hell no," Macy told Vance, straight up. There was no beating around the bush with Leon Vance. She never bullshitted with him, telling him how it really was. Tact wasn't one of her best abilities. However, when diplomacy was needed, she could deliver. She just hated to and it usually required a trip to the gun range after.

Vance smiled. "I figured that would be your answer. I know you'd like to visit your mom, so we'll keep this short and sweet. I know Naples is the main office in Europe and Marseille is just a field office, but I'm hoping with you being there, we are going to be able to do more out of the Marseilles office. Grace Stevens, who was formerly the SAC in charge really needs to be an undercover agent and not a SAC. I blame that one on Director Shepard. I really would like for you to head up the Force Protection Detachments to take a little bit of pressure off of Naples. Mainly, the Israel and South Africa offices."

"Israel?" Macy said. "I think Mossad isn't a huge fan of me."

He smiled. "Exactly. They know your hands were tied with Rivkin but they know you get the job done and don't beat around the bush. Eli David is not looking forward to working with you. To him, you were a thorn in his side for kicking Rivkin out of Los Angeles."

She looked at Vance. "Awesome. So instead of you dealing with Eli David, I get to deal with him as a fresh new face?"

Leon Vance laughed. "SecNav is all for it. Also, we are wanting to start up a Force Protection Detachment in Cairo so you'd be in charge of overseeing that."

"I can do that," Macy said.

He handed her a huge folder, more like four huge folders. "This is the job requirements and your agents. As we discussed before, the contract is 2 years in Marseille and if you want to change after that, we can look into it."

"Thank you," Macy said, genuinely.

Vance looked her in the eye. "And don't think of this as a demotion, Lara. I know you were the SAC for Los Angeles and that comes with a lot of glitz and glamour and the SAC job in Marseille is a subordinate office. But, you do have a large amount of responsibilities and I would consider this as a promotion."

Macy nodded. "I'm guessing you know who will be telling me that I took a demotion?"

He rolled his eyes. "Owen Granger has just been appointed Assistant Director of NCIS, in Europe. It's not my choice; it's Davenport's. Have friends on the hill paid off for Granger."

"I'm reporting to Owen Granger?" Macy spat out. She hated Granger with a passion. He had previously been at the State Department and he had his hands in too many jars he shouldn't have and wiggled himself onto cases he had no jurisdiction over. As far as Macy was considered, she could deal with Granger when he was with the CIA and he should have stayed there.

Vance shook his head. "No. You are reporting to me. Owen Granger will be at the Naples office. If he interferes with what you are doing, you have my permission to come to me. With that being said, I'm not playing principal."

Macy let out a big sigh of relief. "Does Granger know I have the SAC position in Marseilles?"

"No, will it be a problem?"

Macy shrugged. "It might be for him."

Sam Hanna came into the office the next day, and went straight for Macy's office. Instead of Lara Macy, he found her office completely cleared out. He checked Nate's office, but the light were off and Nate probably wasn't there yet. He looked around for a solid ten minutes, and no Lara Macy.

"Looking for someone?" Hetty asked him, coming up behind him.

Sam gripped the rail and then looked back at the little ninja. "Yeah. Where's Macy?"

Hetty looked at her watch. "Given the time difference, probably in a meeting with Leon Vance in DC."

"She never mentioned anything last night?"

"That's because she didn't want to," Hetty said.

Kensi came in the door. "Has anyone seen Mace?"

Sam shrugged his shoulders. "DC."

"Well how long is she going to be gone?" Kensi demanded to know.

Hetty sighed. "Get Eric, Renko and Nate in and I will explain." Within ten minutes, the other three remaining people were gathered around a conference room table with Sam and Kensi. "Agent Macy has been promoted to SAC in Marseilles."

"Isn't that a little bit of a demotion?" Sam asked.

Hetty smiled, her signature sly smile. "Not when Leon Vance is done with her."

Kensi, Nate and Eric all stared at Hetty like she was crazy. The only one who wasn't completely shocked by the revelation was Renko. "Renko, what aren't you telling us?" Kensi asked.

"Nothing," Renko said.

Nate looked at him. "Did you know?"

Renko shrugged. "I had my suspicions," he lied.

Eric looked shell shocked. Eric did not handle change well. "Who's going to be in charge now?"

"Me," Hetty said. They all looked at one another. Hetty. Hetty was in charge?! "I'm the new operations manager. Someone needs to look after you children."

Sam rolled his eyes. "We're not children, Hetty."

"No, you are not. And some things will be changing around here. First of all, I have a acquired an old water factory. Beautiful décor inside. Spanish Mission style. Anyways, it will be our new operations center."

"Starting when?" Kensi asked.

"Tomorrow," Hetty answered. "Tomorrow, Miss Blye." Things were definitely changing with Hetty in charge.