Chapter 5

That evening in the Hanna house.

The phone rang and Michelle picked it up. She just said "Yes?" and then looked at her husband and told him, "Hun, it's for you."

He took the phone, and answered it, "Sam Hanna."

"Mr. Hanna, this is Henrietta Lange, Operations Manager for the Office of Special Projects at NCIS. I believe congratulations are in order for you." the voice on the other end of the line said.

"I have the job, Ms. Lange?" Sam asked, a huge smile breaking forth across his face.

"First of all, please call me Hetty. Technically, you do not have the job...yet. Mr Callen has been given a deadline of 12:00 noon tomorrow to approve of you as his partner. He will wait to the very last minute before choosing you."

"How are you so certain?" Sam asked

"I know my people, Mr. Hanna. You need to be at the boat house tomorrow waiting for him. Please bring a go bag with a change of clothes and something to wear to work out in our gym. These things you can place in your locker here at the Mission. You don't need to bring your personal sidearm. One will be issued to you here. Any questions you may have we can discuss when you arrive. I look forward to seeing you later tomorrow afternoon, Mr. Hanna."

"I will do that, Hetty, and thank you so much."

"It will be our pleasure to have you, Mr. Hanna. Welcome Aboard." Hetty said as she hung up.

Sam hung up the phone and went over to his wife. He picked her up off the ground and twirled her around a couple of times as he told her, "I got the job, Chelle. She said that I got the job."

With her head resting on his shoulder, Sam never saw the sly smile of satisfaction that broke out on Michelle's face.

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The following day at the Mission

Eric Beale came down from his lair in ops and went over to Callen. "Hetty asked if you would go with me to the boat house this morning. I have to make sure that those cameras are all synced to the system here."

Callen started to wonder, *Did Hetty forget about the deadline she gave me yesterday, or was she trying to show me what life would be like for me if I don't comply?* He had just about convinced himself that Sam Hanna would be the one that he would at least try out as his partner. But he was damned if he let the little ninja control him. He would wait until the very last minute before calling the former Seal and letting him know he had the job.

Helping Eric took longer than Callen expected. He looked at his watch and saw he had about five minutes before Hetty's deadline was up. The agent pulled out his cell phone as he and Eric were leaving the boat house. Imagine his surprise to see Sam Hanna was already there, waiting for him outside, leaning up against his Challenger.

"I was just getting ready to call you." Callen said

"Hetty said you would wait until the last minute," Sam replied. "She told me to meet you here.

"Of course she did." Callen responded and thought to himself, *Is there nothing that she does not know or have her little hand in.*

He looked over at the tech and told him, "Eric, this is Sam. Sam, Eric. You can take off now, I'll ride in with Sam."

"Hi, Sam," Eric said over his shoulder as he continued to arrange the tools in the truck. "I'll see you back at the Mission, Callen. Thanks for the help this morning." With that he climbed into the maintenance truck and drove off.

Sam looked at Callen and asked him, "Does this mean that I have the job?"

"For now," Callen said. "We'll see how well it goes. Toss me your keys and I'll drive us over to the Mission."

Sam looked at him with a slightly angry look on his face. "This is Charlene. No one drives her but me."

The smaller man had a look of surprise on his face. "You named your car? I thought they only did that on stupid TV shows like The Dukes of Hazzard".

"They used a bunch of prop cars for shows like that. This is not a prop. It's not just a car. It is a vintage 1970 Challenger, handed down to me from my father. I have started to restore it, but I still have a long way to go." Sam said defensively.

"What have you done so far?" Callen asked.

"I changed out the engine, getting rid of the stock block and dropped in a V-8 magnum with a four barrel carb and duel exhaust system." the big man proudly told the agent about his baby as he ran his hand adoringly along the fender.

As he climbed into the passenger seat, Callen asked, "So what you still planning on doing to it."

"Her, not it." Sam reiterated. "Her name is Charlene. I have to redo her interior and give her a few new coats of paint."

"Seems like a lot of work for just a car, even though it is a sweet ride." Callen said.

Sam was starting to wonder, *Could he could work with "just an agent" who couldn't appreciate such a fine car?* He started Charlene up and followed Callen's directions to the Mission, parking where Callen showed him

As he punched in the security code and opened the door, the agent turned to the former Seal and told him, "This is the Mission. Our location here is on a need to know basis. Most people have no idea that it is here, and we like to keep it that way."

Sam asked him then, "So it probably would be good to take a different route every day to come over here?"

Callen's opinion of the ex-Seal just went up a whole bunch. "That would be a good idea. I'm glad you picked up on that."

Sam was given a short tour of the Mission, and the two of them soon ended up in the armory and gym area. "There are a couple of things I need to check you out on if you are going to be my partner," Callen told him. "First of all, how well can you shoot?" He went to one of the gun lockers and pulled out a pistol and magazine. As he handed it to Sam, he asked, "You ever use a P228?"

Sam didn't even look at him, but started to check out the gun. "I'm familiar with the SIGs. We knew them as M11s and they were standard issue among Seals."

"This is yours, then. You want to try it out?" the agent asked

"You have a gun cleaning kit?" Sam asked in return. "I make it a habit to never fire a weapon I haven't cleaned myself."

Another point for the big guy. Callen pointed to a stack of boxes. "Over there. You can put it in your gun locker."

"What do you use for assault weapons?" Sam asked as he disassembled his weapon.

"Standard assault weapons are SIG SG 552s and for heavy firepower we use Heckler & Koch MP5A3s." Callen replied.

"We used MP7s, MP5Ns, and Mk23s – the SOCOM pistols, so I should have no problem with anything you have." Sam told him. He was already starting to reassemble the pistol as he looked up as Callen and asked, "What about shotguns?"

The only one we have here is a Mossberg 590. It belongs to Hetty, our boss. My friend Gibbs, Senior Agent In Charge at the Washington office, was a marine. He says that model is still shotgun of choice for gyrenes and swears that Hetty is still tough enough to make the grade in the corps.

Sam loaded the pistol, put on the protective gear, and waited until Callen had his on. Then he emptied the magazine at the target. As Callen pulled the paper target back, Sam started to clean his weapon again.

Callen looked at the target and saw that the holes were evenly divided between lethal head and heart shots, except for one in the shoulder. He looked at Sam and asked, "Miss one?"

Sam said, "No, just wanted to show you that I don't always need to shoot to kill."

Callen's fear of letting this big guy have his back was lessening by the minute.

The two of them moved on to the gym and locker room. "You can leave a change of clothes here in case you can't make it home to change," Callen explained to Sam. "You have a seperate locker for gym clothes, so you don't have to mix those in with good smelling ones. Don't worry about any special clothing that you may need for the ops that we may need to run. Hetty has an extensive wardrobe and dresses us out as needed. She will have to get your measurements to size you though."

"Now, you want to change so that I can see how much I am going to have to teach you about hand to hand combat," Callen said as he went to his locker and pulled off his sweatshirt.

As Sam started to change he let out a big laugh. "You're gonna teach me? This should really be interesting."

They started some mild grappling. In one of the moves Sam's hand slid up the side of Callen's arm and shoved the sleeve of his tee shirt up, disclosing the ragged scar that was there. Sam saw the scar and immediately became angry, thinking that Callen is just toying with him. *This is where he tells me the job is no longer mine*, Sam thought. He stopped fighting with Callen and backed up a couple of steps. "OK, you can stop playing around, and do what you want to me to pay me back. I won't stop you." he told the smaller man.

Callen stopped and looked at Sam. "What do you mean 'pay you back'?"

"You know what I'm talking about, You were the CIA agent that I pulled out of Libya."

"You were the Seal that pulled me out?" Callen asked in amazement. "You saved my life there. I'm just sorry that I never got the chance to thank you for it."

"Save your life? Hell, I almost killed you trying to keep you quiet. And all that pain I put you through just so that you could be moved. You were in so much pain you were cursing me out."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Callen replied. "From the time I was dropped off at the safe house until I woke up in sickbay after they operated on me, the only thing I can remember talking with me was a tub of ice cream that was begging me to eat it, and I was complaining that I couldn't get my fingers on the spoon. Now, you certainly don't look like that tub of ice cream, especially since it was vanilla."

Both of them started to laugh as they tried to get that picture out of their minds. Then they got serious, as they spent the next half hour sitting on the benches in the change room. Each one told the other what he thought had happened over those few days in Libya.

Sam explained to Callen about his fear that he had caused him to feel greater pain by what he had done to help him. Callen showed Sam his fears were groundless, because the only thing he came away with was the scar, and Sam didn't cause that to begin with.

Callen opened up just the smallest little bit and told Sam he was so afraid he would never get to pay the debt on his life. Sam told him that if they were partnered up they would each do whatever it took to keep the other alive, and never count the number of life debts each had on the other.

The end result of their little chat was an embrace and pat of the back by each one as they both decided that they could give it a shot of trying to work with each other.

Hetty saws the two of them walking together toward the bullpen. She smiled as she listened to the light banter that was going on between them and thought, *Two of my children down here and one upstairs, it's a very good start. Now maybe we need to add a female into the group. I have always wanted a daughter.*

As they went toward the bull pen, Hetty appeared behind them. "Mr. Hanna, I am Henrietta Lange."

Sam jumped a little, then turned around and told her, "I'm pleased to finally meet you, Hetty." and offered her his hand as he wondered to himself, *Does she always pop up like that out of nowhere?*

She turned toward Callen and asked him, "Are you sure you approve of Mr. Hanna as your partner, Mr. Callen?"

"Yes, Hetty, I think that he will work out well as my partner," was his response.

"No questions, fears, or reservations?" she continued.

"No, Hetty, I approve of him completely." Callen assured her.

Then Hetty turned to the former Seal, and asked him, "And you, Mr. Hanna, do you approve of Mr. Callen as your partner?"

"Yes, Hetty, I do." Sam answered.

"No questions, fears, or reservations on your part either?"

"None, Hetty, full approval." "Then, Mr. Hanna, please fill out these forms and return them to me as soon as possible." and gave him all the paperwork he needed to become an agent. "I will give you your badge and swear you in so that you can go to work full time here.

"Thank you, Hetty," Sam said as he took the papers and looked at the desks there in the bullpen.

"Take the desk right across from me," Callen told him. "You can make that one your own. This way I can keep an eye on you and keep you out of trouble around here."

Sam threw the papers down on his desk and walked right up to Callen. He stood like a statue, with both hands on his hips as he stared down the smaller man. He tried as hard as he could to look angry and imposing, but it was impossible with that great big smile on his face as he said, "What do you mean? You're gonna keep an eye on me. I was saving sorry butts like yours for a long time now." Then, looking like he was peeking around to Callen's backside, he continued, "I don't see your rear end to be any different from them."

Callen turned to hide his backside from Sam as he said, "Of course you saved lots of sorry butts, but purely hypothetical, you would never, never risk your own to go into someplace, say, like Libya, to pull mine out after a secret mission, would you? But even if you did, then neither of us would ever mention it to the other, because officially, it would never have happened and neither of us would have ever been there."

Sam laughed as he responded, "Nah, it wasn't me that saved the butt of any spook there who had a ripped up arm and a mind that was burned out on fever. I mean, who in their right mind would try to rescue a ghost? And hypothetically, if it would have been me, do you think that I would ever let you forget that I saved your sorry little butt even before you chose me for this job?"

Hetty overheard the banter of the two and thought to herself, *Bugger, they are already starting to sound like an old married couple. I'll bet they will keep score on how many times each of them saves the other. Oh well.* She just raised one eyebrow and sighed as she went back to her work. With Callen as her Chief Agent in Charge, and the former Seal approved as his partner, she had a feeling that this was going to be a very interesting place to work.

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I want to thank everyone who has stayed with me on this journey to the past. This was written for the NCIS:LA Magazines Callen's Corner Challenge #4. There are several stories that have been written for this challenge. [Each entry will have Callen's Corner Challenge #4 in the summery.] I have read them as they have been posted, and they all are excellent. Please leave a review for ALL the entrys. If you leave the best review, you could win the review part of the challenge. Good luck to all the contestants in the Writing and Review Challenge.