Emme & Callen Chapter 1

When Emerald Anasta got a phone call from Director Vance to report to NCIS Special Ops she was pissed; she was supposed to be on inactive duty until she decided she wanted to come back not when Jarvis said so she knew it had been him not Vance; but being the good little foot solider Gibbs had taught her how to be she left her home in Boston and headed for LA and not before Tony text her to not forget her bikini, one thing she knew for sure; she was never going to be able to wear a bikini even if she wanted to.

Emerald Anasta was damaged goods; which is why she was on the inactive Agent duty list. Emerald or as her friends call her Emme; was injured while on duty in Mexico 3 years ago and since then has been a little hesitant to return to the field. She was glad that she had the weekend to settle into her apartment and get used to West Coast time.

When she got to ops on Monday morning Hetty was waiting for her in her office. Emme had heard all about Henrietta Lange; a lot of people she had worked with believed she was an urban myth created to scare the new agents into making sure they stayed in line; but Emme knew Gibbs and Gibbs knows Hetty so she knew damn well the 'urban myths' are actual fact.

"Hello Miss Anasta and welcome; come in and we'll have a nice cup of tea and have a chat" Hetty said "or coffee if you prefer"

"Ah Hi; tea is fine I don't drink coffee" Emme replied

"Well that's good maybe it may rub off on your team mates" Hetty said smiling

"Team mates? I don't know if you know but I'm not cleared for duty"

"You were cleared for duty 7 months after your accident; it's all in your record"

"Damn" Emme hissed

"Is there a reason you don't want to come back to work?"

"I almost died; when you get on a first name basis with the trauma surgeon and nurses you really need to re-think your life and job wouldn't you"

"I've never been in that situation before"

"Lucky you; can you tell me why I'm here"

"There director has made is a requirement that there is to be a psychologist on the team at all times and you have the training"

"You have a psychologist Nate Getz"

"Who is away on assignment; you will be here as a fill in for Nate while is away and working as an agent and our liaison agent with a Washington DC office; you'll be taking your orders from Vance and Granger; you will be in the office most of the time"

Just then two agents walked in talking for too loudly making Emme jump in surprise; she had almost forgotten that she was in a bustling office.

"The team is here now we'll go and introduce you and then you can get started on Nate's records on the team"

As we walked over I recognised a familiar red head.

"Emme" Nell said rushing over and hugging me; Emme froze from the contact.

"Hi Nell" Emme replied trying to relax from the sudden contact

"What are you doing here" Nell asked

"I'm about to explain that to everyone Miss Jones" Hetty answered saving me from having to reply "This is Special Agent Emme Anasta; she has been placed here by Secretary Jarvis; so it will be above all our pay grades to complain about it; after the incident at the NCIS head office in May Secretary Jarvis has decided that there is to be a psychologist on the team at all times" Hetty said

"But we have psychologist Hetty" Nell said "Yes Miss Jones but because he is away on assignment out of the country we need someone to fill in till he is back on a permanent basis" Hetty replied

"So she's taking Nate's place" one of the agents said; he didn't look like he wouldn't smile much, his blond hair was cut very close; with 5 o'clock shadow and bags under his eyes that look permanent but it seemed to add to his attractiveness but what topped it off was his piercing blue eyes that made you think he could see right through you.

"No Mr Callen you misunderstood me; Miss Anasta is here until Mr Getz is back permanently for the moment she is just filling in; but Miss Anasta will be working as a liaison Agent with our head office. Her orders come from Director Vance and Assistant Director Granger so Miss Anasta will be co-team leader. Mr Callen if you have a problem with that you know who to make the complaint to" Hetty said "you will all have to have meetings with Miss Anasta once she is caught up on Mr Getz's files" Hetty introduced me to all the members of the team and pointed to them as she did so Emme knew exactly who was who. Emme knew a little bit about Eric from Abby she had said he was a very cool guy and easy to get on with.

Emme went and got 'settled' into Nate's office and started reading his notes on the team and to get to know then as well as the open cases that the team were working on; the office phone rang.

"Anasta" Emme said answering the phone

"Emme you're wanted up in the Ops centre" Nell said

"Okay I'll be right up" Emme replied hanging up. As Emme started out her phone rang it was McGee;

"Hey McGoo, I haven't got around to unpacking yet but I'll start tonight; I will find your Doctor Who DVD" Emme said answering

"There's no rush Emme but that's not why I'm calling; someone is trying access your file" McGee said worry in his voice

"I know exactly who it is; they really don't like new people here" Emme replied noticing Hetty was at her desk "I've got it under control thanks Timmy I'll call you later" and she hung up and took the stairs to at a time.

They didn't hear her enter Ops, so she took it upon herself to use the closest computer to throw Eric out of the system. "What happened there Eric" Kensi asked him

"I threw him out of the system" Emme replied before Eric could answer "because what you lot were making him do is an invasion of privacy; you were told all you need to know, I want to be here just as much as you want me here Agent Blye; if I had I had a choice I would have stayed at home in Boston or transferred back to DC because at least Gibbs treats his work colleagues with respect; now why was I called up here if it was to face the inquisition I'll go back to doing real work"

"We have a case" Nell replied from behind me "Hetty wanted you read in on it"

"Okay then why don't we get started on actual work" Emme said focusing her attention on Kensi as she spoke "instead of using ops for our own personal use"

"You know Gibbs" Callen asked

"Yes" Emme replied looking at him "I'm sure you can call him to confirm that if you don't believe me; but do it on your own time; Nell take the floor"

"Who put you in charge" Kensi asked

"SECNAV" Emme replied focusing on the screen and avoiding Kensi "got a problem with it take it up with him; now if you don't mind Agent Blye we have work to do"

When the brief was over Emme went to go back to Nate's office but she turned and headed back the other way and left ops and got in her car and drove away. She found herself at the beach; she bought herself a pair a sunglasses at a stall and found a shady spot and sat there for a little while before heading back to ops to write her psych evaluation on their current case and gave it to Nell because she wasn't quite ready to go toe to toe with Kensi again; but she didn't leave Nate's office for the rest of the day.

Emme was packing up for the day when there was a knock at the door; she froze before answering.

"It's open" Emme said the door opened and it was Kensi

"Hey Emme can I come in?" Kensi asked

"If you're going to challenge me no" Emme replied

"No I came to apologize; you were just trying to your job; and I shouldn't have gone behind your back looked at your file"

"Well thank you maybe we can get off to a better start tomorrow" Emme replied

"Deeks" Kensi said "what are you doing here?" "I was coming to invite Emme to have a drink with us; it was her psych eval that helped us close the case" Deeks replied giving me a smile he clearly had practised

"You closed the case" Emme asked

"I said I was going to do the asking" Kensi said to Deeks; Emme's question going unanswered

"I appreciate the asking but I'm going to have to decline; I've still got a lot of unpacking to do" Emme said speaking over the top of Kensi and Deeks's bickering "maybe another case" she said picking up her back and siding past them in the door way. She got held up when she went to walk past the bullpen

"Are you coming out with us?" Sam asked

"Not tonight; I've still got some unpacking to do; well unpack until I find McGee's stuff so I can send it back to him; so goodnight"

McGee's DVD's were in the first box she unpacked so she didn't bother unpacking anymore; she put the DVD's in her bag so she wouldn't forget to post them in the morning. Emme decided to go and have a shower to wash away the grime of the day; the water was lukewarm even with the hot tap on full and no cold water at all; the hot water had run out completely right before she was just about to start washing her hair.

"I guess washing my hair will have to wait until morning" Emme said lot loud to herself. She had just finished dressing when her phone started ringing; she made a dash for it and didn't bother looking at the caller ID

"Hello" Emme said answering

"How was your first day?" Gibbs asked in greeting

"Gibbs, it was okay it's not going to be an easy place to settle into" Emme replied hearing her former boss's voice relaxed her

"McGee told me about your little mishap"

"Yeah; it was just a misunderstanding it's all cleared up now; they are very suspicious of new people from what I can gather"

"Callen giving you a hard time?"

"Ah no; still early days though"

"I better let you go so you can unpack; looks like Jarvis wants you there on a more permanent basis"

"Perfect because LA weather agrees with me so well" Emme laughed

"Well I'm sure if you want to come back to DC you only have to ask"

"I'm not a runaway Gibbs"

"Not anymore" Gibbs countered "Exactly; sorry to cut this talk short but I'm going to turn in early so I can head in early tomorrow to get ahead of the paper work and maybe use the gym before everyone else gets there"

"Well okay Em you take care and remember we've all got scars; just ask Callen"

"I will, thanks for the call Gibbs"

"Call me if you need to; there's no shame in wanting to come home Em; your dad would be proud"

"Semper fi"

"Semper fi" Gibbs replied and Emme hung up. She wished Gibbs hadn't brought her dad up, she seemed to miss him more and more every day and it made her think of her family she lost long ago; she looked down at her wrist at the tattoo that she got to remind herself of her mother; the words in similar elegant script just like her mother: Breathe, Live, Love.

When Emme got up the next morning she had no water what so ever; so she decided that she'd shower after she'd worked out in the gym and use her lunch break to look for a better apartment and ASAP. When she got to ops the changed into her gym gear; no one else was in so she didn't put her shirt on over sports bra. Emme stopped and looked at herself in the mirror in the women's change room and did inventory on her scars; there was her appendix, the four bullets holes she got from a Mexicali cartel member; who she pay in kind and shot him point blank between the eyes and the stab wound that was just below her sports bra; which was a lasting reminder of the attack on her family. She looked at her tattoo that was on her right side 3 brightly coloured butterfly evenly spaced up her side connected by vine; each butterfly represented a member of her family; white for her Dad, green for her mum and yellow for her sister with purple flowers a points along the vine, then above that in the same script as the tattoo on her wrist was her Bostonian est. 1981 tattoo that she got when she was 18 and her mother went through the roof when she came home with it; two days later her mother was dead. Emme physically shook herself and put on her iPod which only seemed to have Frank Sinatra on it; she made a note on her phone to rip tony a new one later and headed out to the gym.

Emme has set an alarm on her iPod that would give her at least 15 minutes to get in the showers and be ready to face the team. She was about an hour in to her work out now working out her anger issues on a punching bag, when the hair on the back of her neck stood on end; she swung around ready to strike whoever it was but she over balance and crashed right into Callen knocking us both to the ground.

"Oh god sorry" Emme said trying to disentangle herself from Callen and ended up elbowing him in mouth "oh crap" she scrambled up

"You have a mean elbow" Callen replied his mouth bleeding

"Oh crap" Emme said again and grabbed her clean towel and held to his face "why did you sneak up on me"

"I didn't, I didn't know you had your headphones in" Callen's answer muffled by the towel

"It helpful for me to listen to music while I work out; are you okay"

"I've had much worse; your eyes are very blue"

"Oh god did you hit your head"

"What"

"Why are you bringing up my eye colour?"

"You think I have concussion because I'm bringing up your eye colour?" Callen chuckled "I only mentioned it because I'm looking you in the eye; but they are very beautiful eyes".

"Thanks" Emme said blushing and she was grateful for her dark olive skin tone; it wouldn't show up the blush as bad as it was

"You have tattoos" Callen said

"Yep girls are allowed"

"I wasn't questioning it; you just don't seem like the kind of girl that would have tattoos"

"Well Abby is a terrible influence"

"Ah Ms Sciuto; very different character"

"But the sweetest person you'll ever meet" Emme replied but she noticed Callen's gaze linger on her stomach "If you're okay I'm going to hit the shower"

"Well don't hit it as hard as you hit me because we don't need a broken shower"

"Ha, ha Agent Callen" Emme said heading for the safety of the changing room and the shower.