Just a simple thing that came to my mind after watching the last episode. No speculation at all, just a transition between "Cac Tu Nhan" (9x13) and whatever will come next.

As the doors to the Mission closed behind them, all three agents and detective silently steeled their nerves at the uncertainty of what the next days would bring and promised to come back home not as four but five.

For the last seven years, they had become almost the only constant thing in each other's lives. Through every heartbreak, failure, lose, and success, they had remained together and had managed to overcome every obstacle thrown at them.

During the walk towards the NCIS van that would take then to the airport, each of them turned to look at his or her teammates, and not for the first time realized, that when it really mattered, they only counted with the other. Yes, they all had families outside of NCIS but when it counted the most, when lives were at stake or the world needed them to be the superheroes of the day, they were on their own. After all, nobody else understood the sacrifices they sometimes were forced to make. This life wasn't for everyone but it's the one they had all individually chosen, and the one they now, together, promised to uphold.

Each of their law enforcement careers had started on much different beginnings, and they had all taken different paths. Eventually, thanks to destiny, or maybe the master of the universe, they had all ended up together and now, it was in their hands to bring back the little ninja lady that had interfered in all their lives at one point or the other, stirring them from harm and bringing them home.

-x-x-x-

As the NCIS team boarded the airplane, packed their bags on the overheard compartments and took their seats, they all wondered if they would be able to come back whole or eternally incomplete.

This wasn't the first international trip they took as a team, and it probably wouldn't be the last, but it certainly was the one with the biggest potential of changing their lives forever. After all this was not any case, if it even could be called a case, it wasn't a vacation either, maybe an adventure, and hopefully a rescue. Overall, it was just another of life's journeys… One they were glad to make together, and from one they desperately hoped to come back uninjured and well. Ultimately, as each member took their respective seat they all wondered internally if they would ever see Hetty alive again…

-x-x-x-

When the plane started to take off, the blonde detective noticed the strong grip his girlfriend had on her seat and he silently took each of her hands and enveloped them in his.

"Are you okay baby?"

"Yeah." She looked down, clearly embarrassed and not wanting the most important person in her life to see her in what she considered a moment of weakness.

"No, you're not, come here." The last two words just as they had been spoken on two previous occasions, and just as those times, they were followed by a strong embrace, and his hand cupped protectively over her head. Considering this time they were flying in the sky, and not standing on solid ground, the embrace was more of an awkward side hug, but the emotion was the same. "Everything will be alright princess."

Sighing sadly, the agent with the mismatched eyes, wanted nothing more than to believe those words, but the last years had left her doubtful and somewhat paranoid. "You can't know that for sure Deeks." She didn't want to sound negative, and get his own spirits down, but she also didn't want to be deceived.

"Yes, I know Kens. Because I'm here to protect you." His smile and the confidence in his words were enough to melt her heart, but the doubts were still there. "And nothing can go wrong as long as we are together." He punctuated his last words with a sweet kiss and a squeeze to their still intertwined hands.

"You were also there in Syria…" She again looked down, regretting the words as soon as they came out. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"

"It's okay, I won't ever forget that, and will always regret not having been able to get help faster. But, we got through it, and this time nothing will go wrong. I promise, Fern." His cheeky grin and the way his blue eyes shined as the words left his lips made her heart flutter and she wondered how she had gotten so lucky. "You're my world Kensalina, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that never changes."

The smile that lightened her face at the words, and the meaning and memory behind them, was enough to make his own ocean blue eyes shine even brighter. He loved this woman to the moon and back and he silently promised himself to do everything he could to make sure this trip didn't end in another heartbreak, for neither of them, or the two men sitting some rows behind.

He untangled their hands, and wrapped her in another side hug, as she snuggled into his chest and closed her eyes, wanting to let the old nightmares behind and feel only hope. Five minutes passed and her even breathing gave the indication that she had fallen asleep but then the sadly whispered words came out. "What if we don't find Hetty?"

"Then we keep searching." The conviction in his voice was unquestionable, and he felt no doubts about it. Hetty had saved his life, all of their lives, and it was their time to save hers. Even though given their still limited knowledge of what was really going on, and the last bit of innocence they had been able to cling to, they all wished, somehow, she wouldn't need saving.

"What if we never find her? Maybe we shouldn't come looking, that way somehow, she will always be alive, somewhere." The words sounded distorted in her own mind, as the heartbreak of their previous loses, made this possibility hurt even more.

"Like Granger?" No one could say he didn't know his girlfriend and he was always sure of what was going on in her mind.

"We still don't know where he is, but…" The sentence was cut, as silent tears starting making their way down her face.

"But he must still be alive?" Deeks completed the sentence, knowing that the pain of losing Granger was always present on the female agent. After all, he had been the last link to her father and the man she had hoped would walk her down the aisle.

"Yes…" The tears became silent sobs as her shoulders started shaking slightly.

"You don't need to look for a sign of life Kens, he's with us as long as we allow him to be. Everyone that we have lost is there, is here" He said as he silently touched her heart. "And that's how we can always make our way back home." As the words were spoken, his left hand drew comforting circles on her back, as his right brushed the tears obscuring her beautiful mismatched eyes, his own personal home.

"Since when did you turn into a philosopher baby?" The joke felt flat, but it was as much a real question as an attempt at some levity.

"Since Thapa taught me that home is not place, it is a feeling." He touched his own heart as the Gurkha's words echoed in his head. "I used to associate home with LA, always staying close to my childhood home, never wanting to move away, but, I know now that my home is wherever you are." A kiss to her lips and an extra moment lingering on top of her gave more meaning to his words.

"Thanks baby." She sucked in a breath as the last tears fell. She still wasn't feeling totally fine, and her doubts about this rescue mission weren't totally gone, but she could only hope for a successful outcome, if not Hetty would continue to live in her heart, until the day they really found her or when they had definite proof that she no longer was in the land of the living.

Agent and detective fell asleep in each other's arms, drawing comfort from the proximity to their other half and each of them silently thinking of the people they had, for better or worse, individually and collectively lost. Donald Blye, Gordon Brandel, Dom Vail, Jess Traynor, Mike Renko, Lauren Hunter, Jemadar Thapa, Michelle Hanna, and possibly Owen Granger. The last thoughts on both of their heads was that under no circumstance they wanted to add Henrietta Lange, or whatever her real name was, to that list…

-x-x-x-

As the junior partners cuddled together and found the peace they needed in each other, two seats behind them, the senior partners had their own moment of truth.

The team leader, sitting in the window seat, stared at the passing clouds as his mind floated in an unrelenting cycle of doubts. He had been quite ever since take off and his partner, sitting in the sit next to his, couldn't take it any longer. "Are you okay G?"

Callen was so lost in thought that it took Sam's three attempts to finally bring his partner back to the present. "Sorry big guy, yeah, I'm alright." The lie floated easily, and for anyone that had just met him, the words sounded like nothing but the truth. But for someone who knew him as well, or more, than he knew himself, the deceptiveness of the words was plain to see.

"Come on brother, don't lie to me now." Knowing his partner was not one to speak easily, Sam decided to push a little.

"Just thinking Sam." A sigh followed the statement, and it was a clear tale of the emotions behind the words.

"Care to share?"

"Do we have to?"

"We don't but I would like to."

Callen blew out a quick breath, knowing his partner wouldn't relent easily, and taking the questions for the concern that they were. "Just thinking about Hetty…"

That much was clear and Sam raised his eyebrows prompting his partner to elaborate.

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her Sam, and I don't mean here in this plane, but I probably wouldn't even be on this earth…" As the words left Callen's lips, the feeling in his heart, showed him how true they were, because only he knew how close he had come to total despair before his tiny guardian angel had stepped in.

"We're going to find her, brother. You know we will." Knowing his partner, and certain Callen wouldn't want to talk about the meaning of his statement, the memories behind it or anything else if allowed to, Sam chose to reassure him instead.

"I feel like I failed her. She stopped me from dying man. Maybe not really dying, but I was throwing my life away and it only would had been a matter of time before I ended up in a coffin or a cell. I'm here because of her, and she isn't because of me." Painful memories assaulted his mind along with the always fresh memory of having been a child that no one had wanted but her.

"You didn't fail G, we didn't fail. Her skills are incorporable and she didn't wanted to be found, at least not quick. You're giving yourself too much credit, when you should be giving it to her. We didn't fail, she just succeeded." The belief in Sam's tone only added to the truthfulness of the statement and both agents looked at each other and nodded.

"Thanks Sam." Callen finally said after a few minutes. Sam was like his brother, and he would understand that no other words were needed. It was testament enough that the previous lone wolf had decided to open up in the first place.

"We will find her, I just know it." Again the strength behind the statement added as much significance as the words themselves, and Sam emphasized them even more by his strong hand on his partner's shoulder. No one remembered more than him, how they had failed in their last rescue mission, and this time they wouldn't fail… he just had to believe it.

"We can't be sure big guy, but I will chose to believe you and see where it goes…" Callen smiled with the words, showing his best friend and brother, that his head was clearer even if the dark memories and even darker possible outcomes still swam at the back of his mind, unreachable for now, but always present and never entirely forgotten.

"Hetty's strong and she knows we will be coming." Sam's words were the last spoken as both agents eventually fell asleep. Both tired from their day of searching and eager to get to Vietnam so they could start working the field and find their missing link.

-x-x-x-

Twenty hours, many conversations, and some tears later, the three agents and detective made their way out the plane. Bags in hand, teammates to their sides and hope in their hearts, they walked the airport in search of security & customs.

For anyone who stared at the group, they couldn't begin to imagine the lives they had lived, the things they had seen, the sacrifices they had made, and the love they still had to give. One was a foster boy turned team leader and no longer mystery man, the other a Navy Seal turned senior agent and always the ultimate team man, the woman, a lost girl and daughter, turned woman, agent, and fiancé, and the last, an abused boy, turned lawyer, detective, and maybe someday agent. All of them coming from broken pasts and seemingly destined to be alone, but brought together into a team and a family by the woman they were now here to rescue.

As they stepped out of the airport and into the humid Vietnamese air, they again looked at each other just as they had done when leaving the Mission back in the City of Angels.

"We do anything necessary," was Kensi's resolute statement.

"It's in our hands," was Callen's confident response.

"We make things right this time," was Sam's determined follow-up.

"And bring Hetty home," was Deeks' heartfelt promise.

The team had left all their angels back in LA, and for this op, they were on their own. They had learned from their past lessons and this time no matter what or how much time it took, they would not fail. They had made their way into Vietnam as four, but they were determined to fly back home as five. And live happily ever after, if they just managed to save her life…

Thanks a lot for reading.