- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: Where's Sam?
- G. Callen: He went home to spend time with his family.
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: Ah, that's good. He needs that... especially now.
- G. Callen: [Long pause] What about you? You ever regret not settling down - and having a family?
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: I think about it sometimes. Maybe when I'm older.
- [Hetty chuckles]
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: And you?
- G. Callen: I think I'll keep looking for mine first. Good night, Hetty.
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: Good night, Mr. Callen... Good night, Walter.
- Kensi Blye: Speaking of partners, where's Sam? Mr. Always 5 minutes early is late - again.
- Marty Deeks: And he's taken 3 long weekends this month.
- Kensi Blye: You know what that means?
- Marty Deeks: He's in rehearsals for an off Broadway revival of Cats.
- G. Callen: I'll tell him you said that.
- G. Callen: [Callen and Sam enter. Hetty's on the phone with Deeks and Kensi watching] I don't like the looks of this.
- Marty Deeks: We'll then you're not going to like the sound of it.
- Sam Hanna: What's going on?
- Kensi Blye: The State Department has suddenly gotten involved in our case, and graciously asked that NCIS stand down.
- G. Callen: Stand down?
- Kensi Blye: Yeah.
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: As in withdraw, acquiesce, retrocede, cease and desist.
- Marty Deeks: Your thesaurus runth deep, Hetty.
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: And your drawl runth over, Mr. Deeks.
- Kensi Blye: [after Callen opens a small panel for Kensi to escape through] What - am I a contortionist? Don't answer that.
- [to her communicator]
- Kensi Blye: Deeks, that goes *especially* for you.
- Marty Deeks: I just wanna have some beers with my partner.
- Kensi Blye: I can do that.
- Marty Deeks: Yeah? Can you? Partners - just have some burgers, watch the game?
- Kensi Blye: Of course... I'm just one of the guys.
- Marty Deeks: Well, if that's the case, maybe we should hit up a Strip club.
- Kensi Blye: Don't be an idiot.
- Marty Deeks: All right.
- Marty Deeks: Don't you think it's strange that Callen's a talk radio guy?
- G. Callen: Why's that?
- Marty Deeks: I don't know. I've always kind of considered you more of a - you know a - TV static white noise type of guy.
- G. Callen: I have no idea what you're talking about.
- Marty Deeks: Well, I am a man of mystery.
- Kensi Blye: Mystery or misery?
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: Well, on with it.
- G. Callen: On with what?
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: Your new case, of course.
- G. Callen: Ah
- [Everyone heads upstairs. Eric starts downstairs and prepares to whistle. Callen signals him to stop]
- G. Callen: Save it.
- Eric Beale: What? Hetty straight up ganked my whistle?
- Kensi Blye: Don't worry, you're nothing like Dr. Phil.
- Marty Deeks: Thank you.
- Kensi Blye: With that speech impedement, you'd never make it on TV.
- Sam Hanna: Yeah, well Hetty just got me a new coffee maker -except this one takes an extra long time to brew.
- G. Callen: Waiting can be the hardest part. Takes a lot out of you.
- Sam Hanna: The waiting I can deal with. This uh, coffee maker came with a special mug - an incredibly stunning mug.
- G. Callen: That can be tricky, because if you get distracted by the mug...
- Sam Hanna: I know.
- G. Callen: Or if you let things heat up.
- Sam Hanna: I know.
- G. Callen: That's when you get burned.
- Kensi Blye: What are the chances of Maeko Tanaka hiding out in Malibu?
- Sam Hanna: I'd say zero to none.
- G. Callen: Well, we still have to check it out.
- Marty Deeks: Road trip to the 'Bu.
- Sam Hanna: Please don't call it that. It just encourages the people who live there.
- Marty Deeks: But I really want to be a member of the But-tang clan.
- Sam Hanna: [to Kensi] Please make him stop.
- Akio Tanaka: [In Japanese to his cellphone] Maeko. Good morning. There is an American Policeman here who would like to talk with you... No, I don't know why... Humor him.
- Sam Hanna: [In Japanese] You wish I was just a cop.
- Kensi Blye: [Watching surveillance video] Wow. Good samaritans do exist in LA, and he's cute too. You think he's a doctor?
- Eric Beale: Just keep watching.
- Kensi Blye: [Kensi groans] I'll never meet anyone, will I?... Really? You guys can't muster up a "lots of fish in the sea" speech? No? All right, let's just concentrate on the case.
- G. Callen: There has to be something you can do about this.
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: Not if we want to keep our jobs. Director VAnce has me on a *very* short leash. He's even threatened to bring in an Assistant Director to oversee West Coast Operations *just* to keep an eye on us.
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: An illegal Japanese immigrant, and the reputation of a former Marine are hardly matters of National Security.
- Sam Hanna: Is that so? A Fire Team is composed of 3 Marines and their leader. 3 Fire Teams make a squad. 3 Squads make s platoon. 3 platoons, a company. And so on, and so one. All the way up to an entire division. But it all starts with one Marine. A SEAL never leaves a man behind. But that's exactly what we're doing.
- G. Callen: You know he's right, Hetty. Maeko is the only person who can prove Connor's innocent. If we let Tanaka get away with this, it's like saying that his money is worth more than an innocent life.
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: Why do I feel as if my short leash is about to strangle me? You can't go at it - guns blazing. Tanaka is a modern-day Samurai. Which means to pull this off, you guys have to be modern-day ninjas.
- Sam Hanna: Ninjas?
- Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: No one can know this was us.
- G. Callen: Who's more discreet than us?