Project 'C'.

Chapter 11

There were no more sounds from Callen for the rest of the night. He finally slept soundly, his temperature coming up very slowly until at 03.30 Daniel was able to take the heating blanket off of him and cover him with a regular blanket, which he grasped and pulled over himself with a sigh and turned on his side to sleep.

Sam stood up and stretched and nodded to Hetty who followed him out, "I'm going to get a coffee Hetty, do you want to come with me you look wiped." Sam said.

"Thank you." Hetty said giving him a tired smile.

She followed him to the cafeteria, and sank tiredly into a booth as Sam brought her a cup of tea giving her an apologetic look for the paper; he placed it in front of her and sat down facing her.

"How's Deeks?" he asked.

Hetty smiled, "He is awake and recovering nicely, he understands that you are with Mr. Callen while he recovers, he said something about Ms. Blye wearing a nurse's outfit around the office while both he and Mr. Callen recuperate, however I fear Ms. Blye vetoed that idea." She said with a slight smile as Sam grinned.

"So I take it Deeks is back in surgery?" Sam laughed.

"No, but he is on constant watch now. I do believe those two are good for each other." Hetty mused and Sam nodded in agreement.

"I'm glad he's getting better." Sam said sincerely, "Hopefully we can be back to full speed soon, Callen needs to bounce back from this…" he broke off looking into his coffee cup.

"He will I am sure of that, Mr. Callen has been through a lot worse."

"I failed him; I wasn't there to have his back." Sam said softly. "I promised myself that I wouldn't leave him without back up…I promised him…he's my friend Hetty, more than that he's my family, my brother…I didn't know any of this about him. Why didn't he let me in, why didn't he tell me?" Sam asked her.

In Sam's eyes Hetty knew everything and to not have her, nor Callen let her in on his secret, had hurt him deeply and then having him not trust the team and run out on them was unthinkable to him.

"He didn't know how to tell you." Hetty said softly.

"I'm his partner; he knows how to talk Hetty." Sam snapped.

Hetty grimaced at the taste of the paper in the tea and looked up at Sam, "How do you describe being you, looking out of your eyes, feeling what you are feeling? Would you have gone over to Mr. Callen and explained to him that when you see a phone or a computer you just see a phone or a computer?"

"No? That's what everyone sees they don't need it explaining." Sam said.

"That is not what Mr. Callen sees, but that is exactly how he thinks. He did not realize that you could not see the emissions from electrical devices as he could, I only found out about it when he asked me once why I was calling upstairs rather than going up to see Mr. Beale, I asked how he could tell and he said the blue lines from my office to Eric's. I think you were on a health kick with him at the time and you were making him walk to each department rather than call them." She recounted with a smile.

"That was two years ago!" Sam exclaimed with surprise, "I just don't get how I didn't see…" he stopped as Hetty filled in what he was about to say.

"That Mr. Callen was different to you?" she asked looking into his eyes as if she were, (And she may actually have been) staring into his soul.

Sam nodded, "I want to be there for him, I want this to not affect our working relationship or our friendship."

"Then don't let it." Hetty said sharply. "If Mr. Callen had been injured in the line of duty and God forbid been disabled because of his injuries would you have felt any different about him? If that incident in the MRI scanner means that he has…and I really am praying he does not…have a brain injury that leaves him permanently impaired would you treat him different?"