Never Ending Spiral.

Callen looked at his hand in horror, there was blood on it and it was his.

He had just breathed in the Spiral virus and without thinking he hit the emergency button that would seal the lab off. He looked up as Sam stood transfixed the other side of the door wanting to get through to his partner.

"Get her, don't let her get away." Callen ordered.

With a pained look at his partner Sam tore himself away and ran after the female terrorist with the case full of the Spiral Virus.

Callen watched him go and put a hand briefly on the door.

"Bye Sam…" he said quietly. "It was an honor..."

He walked further in and coughed again as the virus took hold.

There was no hidden syringe of antidote this time, no Hetty approved get out of jail free card, this time he knew he was going to die.

Blinking a few times as his head swam he staggered and leant against a wall for support, sliding down it and ended up sitting on the floor.

He gave a small sarcastic laugh, he was going to die alone.

He didn't want to touch anything but the urge to pick up the phone and call someone, anyone was overwhelming, however he knew that if he did and the CDC removed his body, he might leave a bit of the virus that might just infect someone later.

He thought about the things which hadn't seemed important to him before, the things he had given up on and now had become the things he was regretting.

Joelle, he regretted not telling her the truth from the start.

Of course he knew with his job he shouldn't have told her the truth at all, not without clearance, but he had needed her...someone...someone to look past the fake, the persona that he was, someone to see him.

Deeks had Kensi, Sam had Michelle, Eric had Nell...he wanted that, someone who knew what he did for a living who he was and didn't judge him for it, was that so bad?

He smiled remembering the conversation that he had had with Joelle the day that Kensi and Deeks finally let their 'thing' become something, publicly.

He had looked over and smiled seeing Sam with his family all together and then the Text he'd received from Eric cancelling Christmas dinner with him as he'd gone with Nell to her family for Christmas, she had asked him to go as her boyfriend. He had apologized but Callen was happy for his friend and told him so.

He had tried to make things work with Joelle, he was still trying, but she was having trouble with the fact that he had originally lied to her.

So he had spent Christmas alone.

He hated that word more than anything, everyone had someone out there that cared. He did, he thought he had, somewhere though after the case with the lawyer whose father had watched from afar but never contacted his son, he had reluctantly given up on the idea of ever meeting his father. after all if after all this time his father couldn't be bothered to find him, why should he put himself through any more pain.

Maybe, he was wrong, maybe he should continue his search for his father, if for no other reason than for his to find out his first name. Maybe his father didn't want to know him, fair enough, he had lived without him for so long he could continue to live without him, but at the very least the man owed him a name.

He winced as he coughed and a wave of pain overtook him, this Spiral Virus was working faster than anything he had seen.

He let a tear slip out, he didn't want to be alone.

But he was, and he knew it.

He closed his eyes for a few moments….

"Mr. Callen?" He heard a voice and for a second he thought he was dead and it was his mother.

"Mom?" he asked as his eyes fluttered open.

"No, Mr. Callen it's me…" Hetty said again, "Hold on I have arranged for the CDC to come and help you."

Callen coughed again. "I'll try." he said not wanting to disappoint her, but he was so tired. His ribs were screaming and he was still coughing up blood.

He closed his eyes for another second and jumped as he felt a hand on him.

"Agent Callen, it's the CDC, we need to get you into a Hazmat suit for transport."

A man in a suit held out a white dust suit to Callen, "Take off your shoes and put this on." He instructed.

Callen struggled into the suit, everything grinding to a halt the first time he coughed.

"Why hasn't he got a mask yet?" A woman nearby asked.

He looked worried that the woman had been their terrorist, but he relaxed when he noticed she was Chinese, not Irish.

The man handed him a mask and helped him put it on as Callen swayed. "Get the gurney!" the man called.

"Don't…" Callen said holding his arm, "Don't let me die alone, please."

The man stopped and patted his hand, "I won't Agent Callen."

"G," Callen coughed.

The man smiled, "G, you are not alone there are a lot of people worried about you." he said as Callen's eyes fluttered shut.

For a second there was a flurry of activity as he fell into a coma.

Outside watching Hetty found herself grasping Sam's hand.

"He'll be ok, won't he?" Sam asked looking at the diminutive operations manager. She looked around to find Kensi and Deeks looking worried as well.

The door opened and the man who had been standing with Callen walked out.

"Ms Lange?" He asked.

She nodded and stepped away from the group to Identify herself. "How is he?"

"We don't know, he's fallen into a coma I stayed with him as he was going under, he didn't want to be alone, he was rather adamant about it." he added, wondering why but wisely not asking.

"He won't be." Sam affirmed, "I'm coming with you."

Kensi and Deeks looked worried, "Mr. Hanna…" Hetty began.

Sam shook his head, "No Hetty, he's had enough of being alone, I know he'd be there for any of us in an instant if he could, He's my partner and I'm not leaving him, if he hadn't hit that switch I would have been in there with him anyway."

He turned to the man from the center for disease control, "Get me a suit, I'm coming." he told him.

Every day for two weeks Sam sat by Callen's bedside as they did a battery of tests on him. He called Hetty twice a day with updates and called Michelle more with the same updates.

It had been touch and go the first week with Callen hovering close to death and Sam watching from outside an isolation unit.

Gowned up CDC personnel spent all day with him, monitoring stats and not leaving him alone for an instant.

Sam listened as the beep from the heart monitor kept giving him a steady reminder that his partner was alive.

He turned bumping into a man in a white lab coat, "How is he doc?" he asked.

The man turned and picked up Callen's chart on the wall, his shoulders relaxing as he read the content. "He's responding well to the antiviral Agent Hanna, he's out of the coma and is now sleeping, it looks like he could wake up in a few hours." he said.

Sam smiled, "Thank you doc." Sam shook his hand and looked into the doctor's cerulean eyes, he turned to look over at Callen who was still sleeping.

When he turned back the doctor was gone.

He helped himself to a coffee and called Hetty filling her in on the change in Callen's condition.

"Agent Hanna?" he looked up as a woman in a white lab coat came down the hall, "I'm sorry I made you wait, I was running some more tests, I was told you were enquiring after your partners condition?"

Sam nodded, "It's ok, I saw his other doctor, he filled me in on his condition." he smiled.

However the smile soon dropped from his face when he saw the worried look on the doctor's face. "Agent Callen has no other doctor, it is just myself and my team all of whom you have already met." she said.

Worried Sam headed to the nurses station to check the security camera's, but at no time did the man ever look towards the camera.

He pulled out a phone and called Hetty describing the man to her.

"Thank you Mr. Hanna, but you don't need to look into it, I have faith that Mr. Callen is in no danger. I am glad to hear he is out of his coma, if you would be so kind as to alert me when he awakes and I will come down to visit him." she told him.

"You're sure we don't need Eric to find…" Sam started but was cut off.

"No Mr. Hanna, trust that I will deal with it, you concentrate on being there for your partner." she insisted.

"Ok Hetty, I'll call you when he wakes up." Sam said and hung up.

He walked into Callen's room and sat on a chair in the corner.

Any minute now Callen would wake up, grin and come out with some wise crack about Sam being there.

And Sam would be the happiest man on earth.