It had been 2 years since Lorainne "Lori" Carter had joined the team. Callen was really starting to like her. She was a good agent. He had been undercover with her a couple times and he was impressed with how she handled herself. Lately Callen began to wonder if he saw her as more than just a colleague. He liked hanging out with her and he always felt different when she was around, not that he had shown to anyone. But he couldn't help to have these certain feelings for her.

But he was afraid to act on them. Because he didn't know how she felt about him. And he wasn't sure himself. He never had these kinds of feelings for a woman before. Should he ask her out on a date? And what if he asked her out and she said no? And then of course there was his rule about not dating someone who had their own handcuffs and not to forget Hetty's rule about co-workers dating.

Just as he was thinking about that the other agents walked in.

"Morning G," Sam said.

"Morning guys," Callen said.

"Anyone got plans for the weekend?" Kensi asked.

"Nah not really," Deeks said.

"I'm going out tomorrow night. What about you Kens?" Lori said.

"Nothing special," Kensi said and then they heard Eric whistling.

"New case on deck guys," Eric said.

The agents went upstairs. Eric and Nell explained the case to them. A marine had been killed. The team went to work to catch his killer.

9 hours later they had managed to grab his killer without any of the team getting seriously injured.

Everybody had already gone home for the weekend. Callen was still sitting in the bullpen working behind his laptop. He was thinking about Lori and if he should ask her out. During the day he managed to slip into the conversation the question about where she was going tomorrow and she told him.

"Still working I see, Mr. Callen," Hetty said as she appeared behind the agent.

"Just finishing up a report," Callen said.

"Come home, Mr. Callen, enjoy your weekend," Hetty said and she turned and walked away. "Goodnight Mr. Callen."

"Goodnight Hetty."

Callen logged off his computer and also went home for the weekend.

The next day…

Callen was sitting at home thinking what he should do and he decided to go to the same bar as where Lori was going to. He would see if she was there with friends or by herself.

He put on some nice clothes and went to the bar. When he walked in he saw Lori sitting at the bar. She seemed to be alone. Callen walked up to her.

"Hi, is this seat taken?" Callen said.

"Callen? What are you doing here?" Lori said.

"I'm just grabbing a beer and I saw you sitting all by yourself at the bar and I thought I'd join you, unless you're not here alone."

"No, it's fine. My friend actually just cancelled on me, she wasn't feeling well so I was just about to go home, but now that you're here we can keep each other company, unless you're not here alone."

"That's fine by me. I would love to join you."

"Okay, then I didn't dress up for nothing."

"Speaking of that: I must say you look very nice."

"Thank you, you don't look so bad yourself."

"Thank you."

They spent the entire evening talking to each other. They were actually enjoying themselves. They both saw a different side of each other, one they had not seen at the office or when they were undercover.

Around 1am they were both pretty tipsy and they decided to call it a night.

"You gonna catch a cab?" Callen said.

"No, I'm just gonna walk. I only live a couple blocks from here and it's not that far," Lori said.

"Alright, I'll walk you home then."

"Okay that's fine. I really enjoyed tonight. I really had a good time."

"Me too. It's nice to get out and just relax."

"Yeah it really is."

About 20 minutes later they were in front of Lori's house.

"This is me," Lori said. "Thank you for walking me home."

"It is my absolute pleasure. I really had a good time. I would really like to do this again."

"Me too, but isn't it against the rules?"

"We're just two colleagues having something to drink together. There's nothing wrong with that right?"

"Right. Well goodnight. I'll see you Monday."

"Goodnight," Callen said and he kissed her on her cheek.

The kiss caught Lori a bit off guard and she looked into his eyes and she noticed Callen's beautiful blue eyes and before Lori knew it her lips where on Callen's lips. Their lips only touch for a moment before Lori pulled back. They looked at each other and Callen grabbed her and planted another kiss on her lips, this time the kiss lasted longer. Lori pulled back and grabbed Callen's hand and pulled him inside. Lori closed the door and Callen pushed her against the door and cupped her face with his hands and kissed her again. Lori totally kissed him back and wrapped her arms around him to pull him even closer and Callen started unbuttoning her blouse.

"Should we be doing this?" Lori asked.

"I don't know, maybe not. But I can't help myself," Callen said while kissing her.

"I know me neither," Lori said and she started unbuttoning Callen's shirt as well.

Callen lifted her up and Lori wrapped her legs around him and Callen kissed her down her neck. Lori screamed with pleasure as he did that and that made Callen kiss her even more.

"Which way to the bedroom?" Callen said.

"This way," Lori said and she got back down on the floor and pulled Callen towards the bedroom while kissing him and taking off his clothes.

Once they were in the bedroom Lori pushed Callen onto the bed and took off the rest of her clothes and Callen did the same with his and kissed Lori again. Lori pushed him back onto the bed and jumped on top of him and started kissing him again.

"Well I guess it turns out to be a good thing that my friend cancelled on me tonight," Lori said with a cheeky smile on her face.

"Oh yes I guess it is," Callen replied with the same cheeky smile and he kissed her again.

Callen rolled her on her back and pulled the sheets over them. They had the most amazing sex together.

The next morning Callen was awake before Lori. He had gone out of bed already and he had dressed himself and was making some breakfast when Lori woke up. Lori got out of bed and dressed herself and walked towards the kitchen to get some breakfast. For a moment Lori had forgotten about what happened last night until she saw Callen standing in her kitchen.

"Good morning sunshine," Callen said.

"Good morning," Lori said.

"I made you some eggs," Callen said and Lori sat down at the kitchen table.

"We did do what I think we did last night, didn't we? I mean it wasn't a dream, was it?"

"No, it wasn't a dream."

"But what are we gonna do with work now then?"

"Well there's no reason why we can't work together anymore. I mean I think we're both professional enough to keep our private life out of our work life. Right?"

"Right. And we can't tell anyone. If Hetty found out she could send one of us away."

"Hetty is not gonna find out and I won't let her send you or me away. We're both too much of an asset to the team. And speaking of last night, I really enjoyed it. All of it."

"Me too. Especially that last part."

"Yeah, that was pretty amazing."

"Yeah it was amazing."

Callen stayed the rest of the Sunday at Lori's house and they went out to dinner together. Afterwards Callen dropped her off at her place and kissed her goodnight and went home and they agreed that they would act normally the next day at the office.

"Morning Kens," Lori said when she walked into the office the next day.

"Morning Lori. How was your weekend?" Kensi said.

"Fine, went out with some friends. Yours?"

"Fine too. Just relaxed and spend some time with my mom."

A little later they were joined by the other agents and they heard Eric whistling.

"What have you got Eric?" Callen asked as they walked into OPS.

"LAPD found a body early this morning. His body had washed up on shore. Captain James Reese. He was naval intelligence," Eric said.

"Anything specific about this guy?"

"According to his records he was working on a highly classified mission. I tried to see what it's about but I can't get in," Nell said.

"Any reason that the mission could have been compromised by his death?" Lori asked.

"It's a possibility."

"Alright. Kensi, Deeks you check out the crime scene. We'll check out his house," Callen said and the team left.

Callen, Sam and Lori arrived at his house. They looked around to see if they could find anything that could lead to this killer. Lori found a laptop.

"I'll take this back for Eric. Maybe he can get something off of it," Lori said.

They returned back to the office.

"Hey, what did you guys find out?" Callen said.

"Reese was dumped in the ocean but not after he had been hit in the head," Kensi said.

"So what was cause of death?"

"The blow to the head."

"I'll get this to Eric," Lori said and she walked upstairs. "Hey Eric. Got something for you. Reese's laptop. See what you can get off of it."

"Got it," Eric said and he went to work.

Callen, Sam and Lori were on their way to talk to Captain Robert Hayes, he and Reese were both working on the same mission. Just as they pulled up to his house they heard a loud noise coming from inside the house. They all grabbed their guns and moved towards the house. Sam kicked in the door.

"Federal agents!" Callen yelled and they quickly had to dodge some bullets. Sam shot one guy. They others guys tried to make a run for it. Callen and Lori went after them to stop them. They were firing back at that. Lori dove behind the kitchen counter to avoid the bullets. She had been hit. Callen had managed to shot one of the guys. The other one got away. Callen went back to check on Lori.

"You okay Lori?" Callen said.

"Yeah. I'm good. It's just a flesh wound. Did you get them?" Lori said.

"One of them. The other one got away."

"Guys, I found Captain Hayes," Sam called from the living room and he called Eric for an ambulance.

"Is he still alive?" Callen asked.

"Yes but barely. You two okay?"

"Yeah, fine. Bullet just grazed my arm," Lori said.

A few minutes later the ambulance arrived. They took Hayes to the hospital and they patched Lori up. They returned to the office. Eric was trying to find the guy that got away. About 2 hours later they got a call from the hospital that Captain Hayes was awake. Callen and Sam went to talk to him. He ID'd the guys who were at his house.

Callen, Sam, Kensi, Deeks and Lori went to catch him. Eric had found out where he was. When they arrived at the location, they saw him on the peer talking to some other guy. He spotted them and tried to make a run for it. The guy he was talking to as well. Callen, Sam and Lori went after one guy and Kensi and Deeks after the other. Both chases ended up with the agents shooting and killing the guy.

The case was closed.

Lori and Callen were spending more and more time together after work. They would go out to dinner or to the movies or something. After that night in the bar and the amazing time afterwards at Lori's place, they decided to take it a little bit more slowly. To get to know each other better before having sex again.

They were at Lori's place and they had ordered in a pizza.

"Can I ask you something Lori?" Callen said.

"Sure what is it?" Lori said.

"Well you already know about my family and that I grew up in foster care but what about your family?"

"Well I have 2 brothers and a sister and they live in Seattle and so do my parents."

"Seattle really? You're a long way from home then."

"Well yeah, but I grew up here in LA, we moved to Seattle when I was like 12. After I finished the academy I went to work with the FBI in Portland before I joined you guys here."

"Do you talk to your parents often?"

"Not as often as I would have liked. And I don't see them a lot cus of the job. But that's okay. I choose this live."

"Do you parents know you're a federal agent?"

"Yes they know, but they think I still work with the FBI. They don't know about NCIS."

"Are any of your parents federal agents or in the navy?"

"Nope, why do you ask?"

"Just curious what made you become a federal agent."

"Ah well, I always wanted to become a cop or something like that. I wanted to apply for the police academy first but then I saw that there was another academy to become a federal agent, so I did that instead. And after I graduated I applied for a job at the bureau and 2 years ago Hetty recruited me for the office here. How about you? What made you become a federal agent?"

"Well, being an orphan and having now family whatsoever, it was easy for me to go into a job where I could chase down bad case and go on undercover mission. I had no one to look out for but myself and no one that would need to know what kind of job that I did. So I worked with the FBI, CIA, DEA and then Hetty recruited me to work at the NCIS office here in LA and I really like it here. I finally feel at home here, the team is like a family to me."

"Yes, I the two years I've been here I really noticed that you guys look out for each other."

"Well yeah, apart from Sam nobody has a family of his or her own and the rest of the family they don't see very often so we are sort of a surrogate family in a way I guess."

"Did you ever doubt or regret your decision to become a federal agent?"

"No, never. This is who I am. How about you?"

"Sometimes I do wonder what my life would be like if I hadn't become a federal agent, would I still be living in Seattle, what job I would have then? But I never regret it. This is me, I like being a federal agent."

They managed to keep their private life out of their work life, although it was hard sometimes. Sometimes they couldn't keep their hands off of each other and they would sneak off to a quiet place where they would kiss each other very passionately.

"We shouldn't be doing this here," Lori said.

"I know, but I just can't help myself. Every time I see you I just wanna grab you and kiss you," Callen said.

"But what if someone catches us?"

"No one is gonna catch us, don't worry."

"Maybe we should go back before they miss us."

"In a minute," Callen said and he kissed her again.

2 months later….

Callen felt like lately Lori was trying to avoid him. She wasn't going with him so many times on cases anymore. She would go with Kensi and Deeks or stay at the office to do some research. And also after work, she would say that she was busy when he asked if she wanted to go do something and she wouldn't stay in the same room with him if they were alone. Callen was worried. Did she not like spending time with him anymore? Would she want to end their relationship?

On a slow day he saw Lori heading to the armory. He decided to follow her and ask her what's going on.

"Hey Lori," Callen said and he noticed that they were alone.

"Hey Callen," Lori said.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Can't it wait? I was gonna do some target practice."

"No, it can't. Have I done something wrong?"

"No. Why would you say that?"

"Okay. Then could you please tell me why you are trying to avoid me lately?"

"I'm not trying to avoid you. I've just been busy lately."

"Really? Cus lately I have the feeling you don't want to spend any time alone with me anymore. You're always saying that there's something else you need to do. Just tell me if you don't wanna see me anymore. I'll back off. But I thought we were having a good time together."

"We are having a good time and it's not that."

"Then what is it?"

Lori sighed heavily. "I'm pregnant."

Callen's eyes widened with shock. For a minute it was quiet.

"Are you sure?" Callen asked.

"Yes. I'm sure. Doctor confirmed it. And I'm also sure it's yours."

"We only slept together once."

"I know, but once was enough. The doctor was absolutely sure that I'm pregnant. I know this isn't planned at all."

"No, it's not and I have no idea what to do right now," Callen said and he started to pace up en down the armory.

"Yeah me neither. I was so not expecting this."

"I need to get some fresh air," Callen said and he walked out.

"Callen wait," Lori said but Callen kept on walking and Lori was left standing there.

Lori wondered if she should go after him, but she decided to leave him be for a little while. She figured that he would come to her when he was ready to talk again. She really hoped she hadn't scared him off.

Lori did do some target practice and returned to the bullpen. She saw that Callen's seat was empty.

"Where's Callen?" Lori said as she sat down behind her desk.

"He walked past about 15 minutes ago. He said he went to get some fresh air. Haven't seen him since then," Sam said. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. I just wanted to ask him something, but it can wait."

Callen returned about 30 minutes later. But they really hadn't had a chance to talk because Eric called that he had something new for them. They went to work on the case and Callen hardly talked to Lori unless it was work related.

7 hours later they were finished with the case and Callen had already gone home for the weekend. Callen and Lori had not talked since she told him that she was pregnant. Lori wondered if she should stop by Callen's place to try to talk to him. She decided to leave it for tonight and let Callen sleep on it. Maybe he was ready to talk to her tomorrow.

That night she was lying in bed thinking about everything that had happened. She was really happy when she was spending time with him and she really liked him. But now she was pregnant with his child and that changed everything. What if he didn't like it? He did run off when she told him and they had not spoken since. Lori really didn't want to lose what she and Callen had. Finally she had found someone who she really liked and who she didn't have to lie to about who she really was.

Callen didn't sleep much that night. He kept thinking about what Lori had told him earlier. He was having a baby. He didn't know anything about being a father and he wasn't sure he was ready to be a father. They had been only going out for about 2 months, but he really liked her. And he could be himself with her. No secrets, no aliases, no cover stories. Callen wondered what to do.

For a week they didn't speak to each other unless it was work related. Lori tried to speak to Callen but he didn't want to. That Friday evening Lori was sitting on the couch just thinking about everything that had happened lately. Earlier that day she had dropped off an envelope at Callen's house, just after he had left for work. She snapped out of her thoughts when there was a knock on the door. Lori opened the door. A man barged into the house and knocked her out cold.