Sam Hanna pulled his Challenger up to the front of the large, abandoned former candle factory. "I guess this is the place," he said, glancing at his partner as he turned off the ignition. The two men got out of the car and walked over to the front door of the building.

"Do you really think we're going to find anything here?" Callen asked skeptically as he put his hand on the door handle and pulled, finding the door to be unlocked. He and Sam took out their weapons and cautiously entered the building.

"I don't know," Sam replied as his eyes scanned the large room. "I guess there's always a chance they left a clue to where they were going next." The team had been assigned to search this building, which had been the last known hiding place of a wanted terrorist, Fadhil Tahan. Their intel told them he had left this area over a week ago, but they had been ordered to see if they could find anything of usefulness in the large, abandoned factory building. Kensi and Deeks were on their way to help them.

"Well at least…" Callen's words were cut off by a sudden volley of gunfire aimed in their direction. Both men rapidly dove for cover, however, Callen was hit in the process of doing so and he slumped to the floor. Sam quickly put out an SOS message to Kensi and Deeks on his com as he went to try to aid his fallen partner. However, he was immediately surrounded by a group of armed men.

"You will put your weapon on the floor and raise your hands in the air or suffer the same fate as your unfortunate friend." Sam immediately recognized the man speaking as Fadhil Tahan. Their intel had been right, but the timeline had been wrong. Him and G going into the building on their own was like a small child walking into a den of rabid wolves. Sam put his gun on the floor next to Callen's dropped weapon and raised his hands as instructed.

"And now, you will give me your communications devices, please," Fadhil asked with exaggerated politeness as he held out his hand. Sam took off his own and when Callen didn't respond, gently removed his partner's as well and then handed them to Fadhil who promptly stomped on them, crushing them with his boot. "And now, if you please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Fadhil Tahan, but I suppose you already know that, yes? Otherwise, I doubt you would be here. And you work for NCIS?" he asked as his eyes went to the abbreviations on their body armor. "What is your name, please?"

Sam remained silent as he stared back at Fadhil defiantly.

"It would be wise for you to answer my questions, my friend," Fadhil said as he looked down at Callen with a sly smile, "or your partner will suffer some more unfortunate consequences which may not be pleasant for him to feel or for you to watch."

"Hanna," Sam said quickly. "Sam Hanna."

"So, Sam, how many others are here with you?"

"Your whole building is surrounded," Sam stated after a brief hesitation. "You should surrender now while you can."

"Why would we do that?" Fadhil asked, a tight smile on his face. "We have two hostages. Do your people care so little about you that they will allow you to be killed?" He glanced down at Callen who was writhing on the floor in pain. "Especially when one of you is in such poor shape? In any case, I'm not really sure that I believe you. If what you said was true, would we be standing here having this conversation out in the open? Where are all these people? I can't say I'm particularly impressed with their skills."

"They'll be in here soon enough," Sam said, his eyes and expression as cold as ice.

"Well they'll be disappointed when they do so, because you and your partner aren't going to be anywhere to be found," Fadhil said with a chuckle. He turned to some of the men around him. "Get him up off the floor."

"Leave him alone," Sam snarled, but he was ignored as two of Fadhil's men grabbed Callen by his arms and yanked him roughly from the floor. Callen groaned loudly at the sudden increase of pain as he was pulled along. Sam made a move to get his partner out of their clutches, but was quickly stopped by a gun shoved in his face.

"Carefully consider the consequences of any action you may take," Fadhil said. "Not only to you, but to your friend. Sometimes, inaction is the best course of action…"

"Maybe you should take your own advice," Sam stated. "You didn't need to shoot him. It was a very unnecessary action."

"Ah, my men are sometimes, shall I say, overzealous in their pursuit of keeping me safe. I am sorry for the inconvenience."

"Inconvenience? That's what you call shooting someone for no reason?" Sam asked.

"You and he had come to apprehend me, hadn't you?" Fadhil asked, his eyes steely as he stared at Sam. "I think that is a compelling reason to perhaps shoot someone. You both had your weapons drawn when you entered the building. You were perceived as a threat and treated as such. It was all quite logical."

The group of men stopped as Fadhil walked ahead of them and bent down. Sam watched as the man found a thumb-sized notch in the floor and pulled up a trap door. "Come on," he said, suddenly much more business-like. "We don't have much time."

One by one, they started down a stairway which led down into the darkness. Sam didn't like what was happening one bit, but had no idea of how to get himself and his partner out of the situation safely. He reached the bottom of the stairs and found that there were three different tunnels leading in separate directions. This situation was becoming more perilous with every tick of the clock. They started down the corridor directly ahead of them and had been walking for about 10 minutes when there was a loud sound which appeared to be an explosion.

"What the hell?" Sam exclaimed as the vibrations from the explosion reverberated throughout the tunnel.

Fadhil began to laugh. "Do not be alarmed," he said. "It was just a little bomb that was set to blow up a large portion of the building above us. So now you see why your colleagues may not be able to find you for quite some time. They're not going to have any idea where you are. As far as they're concerned, you and your partner have been blown to pieces…"

xxxxx

Deeks and Kensi arrived at the candle factory shortly after they had received Sam's SOS call. They had been instructed by Hetty not to enter the building until reinforcements had arrived. "What do you think happened?" Kensi asked as she and Deeks stood outside their vehicle, both anxious to go inside and do what they could do for their teammates.

Deeks shook his head. "I don't know, Kens…I mean, the intel was clear that Fadhil had moved on…unless…"

"Unless he hadn't?" Kensi asked, looking troubled by that possibility.

"Yeah, unless he hadn't," Deeks agreed with a nod.

"But, even so, if…" Kensi's words were cut off by the sudden explosion from inside the building. The percussion of the blast knocked them both to the ground. "Oh my God," Kensi said, her eyes filled with shock over what had happened.

Deeks slowly got to his feet and reached for Kensi's hand, helping her up. "Are you all right?" he asked her.

Kensi nodded, still staring at the badly damaged factory. "Yes…are you?"

"I'm good," Deeks answered grimly, his blue eyes also focused on the building. "I'm a lot better than anyone in there is…"

xxxxx

Finally, they stopped walking and the men holding up Callen, let him go, allowing him to slump to the ground. Sam immediately went to his partner and knelt down beside him. "G? G, can you hear me?" His eyes went to the area of bleeding at the bottom of Callen's protective vest. The bullet had just managed to find his lower abdomen, right where the protection had ended. "G?"

Callen managed to open his eyes and looked back at Sam. "Ni…nice mess we've gotten ourselves into," he whispered weakly.

"Don't worry, I'm going to get us out of this," Sam said with a reassuring tone he did not feel in the least. He looked over at Fadhil. "Do you have any bandages?" he asked. "I need to stop the bleeding."

"We need to remove the bullet," Fadhil said matter-of-factly, looking at Callen as if he was a specimen under a microscope. "Now is as good a time as ever."

"What?" Callen shook his head, his eyes widening anxiously. "No…no you don't. I'm good, thanks. I'll get that done when I leave here, by a real doctor in a hospital."

"Sometimes hospitals are not possible. This is one of those times." Fadhil smiled malevolently. "Don't worry. Your name is G? Don't worry, G, it will only hurt until you pass out. This is how we train our medical personnel. We have found that having them practice on our prisoners is ideal. They get experience and practice without them having to take chances on our own soldiers. If they make a mistake, it is no great loss. It is also entertaining to see how the patients react to the procedures. Some faint right away, others cry pitifully for their mothers, some beg and plead for their own deaths to escape the agony. I wonder how you will react…I look forward to this discovery."

"Don't touch me," Callen demanded, looking more than a little bit horrified by this latest development. He watched warily as two of Fadhil's men approached.

Sam quickly got in front of his partner. "Get the hell away from him," he snarled. "You're not touching him."

"Mustafa? Jahmir? Come here and make sure that Agent Hanna doesn't interfere with his friend's medical procedure."

Two large men, both musclebound and larger than Sam came toward him, both with menacing expressions on their faces

"Stay away from me!" Sam demanded, aiming a punch at the first man who moved within striking distance. He was easily grabbed and subdued though, his arms tightly held so that he was helpless to aid his partner. Callen tried to scurry away from the other two men approaching him, but he backed into the wall of the tunnel and was easily putty in their hands as they grabbed him and dragged him to his feet. "Leave him alone!" Sam yelled, but to no avail.

The two men were then once again forced through the tunnel, Sam struggling to escape the whole way while Callen basically struggled just to walk. There were a few times when his legs gave way and when that happened he was dragged. He felt dizzy and sick to his stomach and wanted to be anywhere other than where he was. Finally, they reached their destination, a room with a metal table with straps attached to the sides of it. "No," Callen said as he frantically tried to back away, but his weak struggles were easily thwarted. He was forced onto the table and his bulletproof vest was roughly removed. Then, his arms and legs strapped down and straps were placed over his hips and chest, effectively keeping him immobile. Callen was silent now, knowing any struggles on his part were absolutely futile. There was no escape from what was going to happen.

His gaze locked with Sam's who mouthed that he was sorry. His partner appeared utterly distressed by the situation. The one thing Callen knew with certainty was that Sam felt even worse than he did. He knew how he would feel if this was happening to his partner. "Not your fault," he whispered back. He then closed his eyes and began the mental task of trying to put himself into another time and place. He could not allow himself to think about what was about to happen to him.