Forever's a long time

Chapter 7

Sam sighed as he closed the phone.

He hadn't taken his eyes of Callen the whole time he'd been talking with Hetty.

Callen looked the figure of dejection, his knees drawn up to his chest and his head bowed. He wasn't even looking at the ocean that was shimmering green/blue in front of him. His shoulders were hunched and his whole posture screamed depression.

He had explained to Hetty what had gone on in Callen's head. How he had thought that his love was wrong, Hetty in turn told him all she had managed to learn from both Bill and Sheila before they had been taken by the LAPD into custody.

Sam sank down onto the chair, he had suspected as much. Mostly from the ramblings Bill had spewed in the back seat of the challenger on their way to the boatshed, but also from the reaction Callen himself had had when he'd seen the man. Bill in turn, had given into Granger's questioning, he'd admitted he was part of a peodphile ring.

However he wasn't responsible for the death of his son. Gunnery Sergeant Wilson's killer was still out there.

Sam was angry, all of that effort, and still no killer. He was glad that Wilson had been stopped, but now it needed to go further and Nell was looking into the ring that Bill had admitted to being a part of.

His gaze darkened as he looked across the street to his partner's form, thinking about how unfair it was that he had had this done to him as a child. For a moment Callen looked up and locked eyes on Sam. Within seconds his head dropped.

Sam knew he still looked angry. His eyes widened in horror as he realized that Callen must be thinking he was mad with him.

Sam dropped the phone on the glass topped boat that had been turned into a coffee table and headed across the street.

Callen looked up as there was a sound of screeching brakes.

He saw Sam move as a van nearly ran him over. He stood up in horror as the doors opened and two men with machine guns manhandled him into the back of the van, Sam desperately trying to get away, one man pointed the automatic in the direction of Callen and with a resigned, but sad look towards his partner, Sam climbed into the van as Callen started running in the van's direction.

"SAM!" He yelled as the van sped off.

He pulled his phone out and called Eric. "Eric camera's on Ocean Drive, Santa Monica. Dark blue transit van, Sam's been ...taken." He choked on the last word, sending the Agent in Distress code he had for Sam.

Less than ten minutes later, and at least two extra speeding tickets to his name, Callen walked into Ops.

He wouldn't even look at Granger who looked at him with something akin to pity in his eyes.

"Eric, what have you got?" Callen asked a tight ball of fear in his gut.

Nell stood in front of the large screen, "We've back tracked the van to a parking lot in south central LA."

"I don't wanna know where it was, I wanna know where it is." Callen growled.

Eric stepped in front of Nell as if to protect her. "We don't know, the van went down Ocean drive, it turned into a residential street and we lost it."

"We tried Sam's cell phone, it's still registering as being inside a house near to where he was taken."

Callen nodded, his hands balled into fists.

"There has to be something? Is there anything to say why Sam was targeted?"

"Could it be connected with the Wilson case?" Deeks asked.