LIVY'S POV:

The nightmare was worse than it had been the past few nights. This time, I could see the faces of my team, all of them dead. Their eyes were wide open and they looked somewhat surprised. Their bodies were mangled and bloody from the violent explosion.

The look in their eyes haunted me terribly and I awoke with a gasp, drenched in a cold sweat.

"Livy?" Callen mumbled drowsily, waking up beside me. "Are you okay?"

I hugged myself tightly, trying to hold back the sobs that always followed one of my bad dreams. "I will be," I told him, rocking back and forth.

G sat up and turned on the bedside lamp, flooding our bedroom with dim light. "C'mere," he said, pulling me into his strong arms and holding me tightly against his bare chest. "I'm right here, Livy. I'm right here."

I nodded, clinging to him tightly. "I know you are, G."

"Was it the same dream?" he asked quietly, stroking my long hair tenderly.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Worse this time." Wiping my tears away, I pulled back a little.

"Livy, you know that I'm not a big fan of Nate being inside our heads, but I think maybe you should talk to him about this," Callen advised me. "That is what he is there for."

Nodding again, I snuggled close to G once again. "I'll do it first thing in the morning," I promised him.

"Let's get a little more sleep before the alarm goes off," Callen said, turning the light off.

I slipped beneath the covers and nestled my body close to Callen's, loving the feel of his arms wrapped around me as I tried to fall asleep once again.

I couldn't remember a time when I had been as happy as I had in the last six months since I'd married Callen. We spent every possible moment together and still worked side-by-side on undercover missions.

Being married to G was like spending every day with my best friend. We never fought, and Callen endured my novice cooking skills manfully, even when the food was burned.

When the alarm went off an hour later, I reluctantly crawled out of bed and got into the shower in preparation for work. When I emerged, G was already in the bathroom, shaving at the sink.

"Good morning, baby," he greeted me, giving me a quick kiss. "Feeling better?"

"Yes, I am," I told him honestly. "Who wouldn't feel better with such a sweet husband to hold her when the dreams get too bad?"

"I love you, Livy," he whispered, leaning in closer.

"I love you, too, G," I replied, pushing him away. "But I'm not letting you get shaving foam all over me. We did that yesterday morning."

Callen laughed as he went back to his morning ritual and I headed into the bedroom to apply some makeup and get dressed.

In forty-five minutes, Callen and I were in the car, heading to work. We stopped by the bakery a few blocks from our apartment and picked up a breakfast of coffee and bagels, like we did every morning heading in to the Office of Special Projects.

"I think we're going to have to find a healthier alternative for breakfast, G," I told him, biting into my bagel. "These things are full of carbs and calories."

"Yeah, but we run them off in the gym every evening," Callen reminded me. "We'll do an extra mile tonight."

I reached out and slipped my hand into G's. "If I get fat, you'll divorce me, won't you?"

We pulled up to a stoplight and Callen leaned over to kiss me deeply. "I will never divorce you, sweetheart. You're my Juliet."

"And you're my Romeo," I told him.

CALLEN'S POV:

When Livy and I got to OSP Headquarters, we kissed one more time and then went inside. She and I had a strict no contact rule when we were at work. It wasn't an official NCIS rule; It was our rule. We didn't want to make any of the team feel uncomfortable, especially since we were stretching the rules by being a married couple on the same team.

"It's about time y'all got here," Sam remarked, shaking his head as we came in. He and the rest of the team were seated at their desks, talking between amongst each other. "You're three minutes late. What exactly do you two do out there in the parking lot before you come in?"

"None of your business," Livy told Sam smartly, punching his shoulder and tossing her handbag down beneath her desk.

"You know, Eric can just pull it up on the security cameras he's got posted outside," Sam threatened playfully. "I'll bet it's better than cable TV."

"Seriously, your mind is in the gutter, my friend," I pointed out.

"Give them a break, Sam," Kenzie told her teammate. "When you get married, you'll be the same way."

"If, Kenzie. If I get married," Sam declared, tossing a piece of wadded up paper at her.

"Who's talking about marriage again?" Nate wanted to know, coming into the bullpen. "Because I'm not entirely sure that Director Vance will be willing to overlook to interoffice marriages."

"Nobody's talking about getting married again right now, Nate," Livy told him. Then, she looked at me and nodded towards the rest of the team, raising her eyebrows.

"Has anyone seen Hetty this morning?" I asked everyone, distracting them so that Livy could get Nate somewhere quiet to talk to him.

OLIVIA'S POV:

I took Nate's arm and pulled him aside. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked him quietly. It took a lot of encouragement from G to convince me that spilling my guts to the team psychologist could help with my nightmares.

"Sure, what's up?" Nate wanted to know as we walked to a quiet, secluded alcove. "Are you and Callen having problems? I'm not a marriage counselor."

"Callen and I are fine, Nate," I assured him. "We're better than fine. This is about what…what happened in Kuwait three years ago."

"When your…team was killed?" Nate asked carefully. I could tell he knew it was a sensitive subject.

"Yeah. I've starting having these terrible nightmares," I explained. "I wake up sobbing and terrified."

"Do you want to talk about it?" he wanted to know. "Talk to me, I mean."

"Well, that's what I thought I was doing." Sometimes, Nate could be so difficult. He really, really needed to get out more.

"Oh, well, I'll need to make some notes, in that case," he said, leaving to get a pad and pen, presumably.

"No, Nate," I stopped him, grabbing his arm. "I just want to talk about this to…a friend, you know. I picked you because I know you well, and this is what you do, but I don't want to lie on a sofa and tell you how I feel."

"I wasn't going to ask you to lie on a sofa," Nate told me, his expression one of confusion and bewilderment.

"Can't we just…walk around upstairs, where it's quiet, and I'll tell you what's going on," I suggested. "I really don't want you making notes that will end up in my file."

"That sounds good to me," he agreed. "Come on, let's go."

As we walked around the upper level of office, I explained everything to Nate—the dreams and how they made me feel.

"So, you see the faces of your team?" he asked me.

"Vividly," I told him. "It's as if I'm there again. I even feel the pain again!"

"Has anything triggered these memories? I mean, you weren't having these dreams ever since the bombing, were you?" Nate wanted to know.

"No!" I exclaimed. "If I had been, I'd have come to you a lot sooner. And, as far as what could have triggered them, I have no idea."

"Did you see anyone or anything that reminded you of what happened? It could be anything—a smell, a sound, a word. Something has to have triggered these nightmares."

I shook my head, exasperated with myself. "No, I can't think of anything, Nate."

"Don't worry, Livy. We'll figure this out," he assured me.

I glanced over the rail and Callen smiled encouragingly up at me. I love you, he mouthed to me.

I love you more, I mouthed back.

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