Don knew overprotective. He’d grown up with a little brother who never looked where he was going and who always got picked on and bullied, sometimes dangerously so. He’d looked out for Charlie his entire life. Well, until Colby had volunteered last year, which had relegated him to the backup position. But still, he got it. He understood overprotective right down to his bone.

Thus it wasn’t a huge surprise to find Callen and Hanna waiting for him at his car about three months after he and Kensi started dating. It didn’t matter that she could kick all their asses on a bad PMS day. It didn’t matter that she’d be livid if she found out that they’d taken her well-being onto themselves. The only thing that mattered to Callen and Hanna was that someone they didn’t know was dating their little sister. So to speak.

Nodding to each, he greeted, “Callen. Hanna.”

“Eppes,” Hanna rumbled.

Callen stayed leaning against Don’s car, not answering, just looking at him steadily with a faint, almost-friendly smile in place.

Don understood that, too. He’d done it enough times with Colby, and Coop back in the day, that the routine was intimately familiar. One was the obvious threat: big, buff, black Hanna with his bald head and arms as big as small trees, and the other was the real threat: slender, buzz-cut, boy-next-door Callen with the expressionless, often forgettable face. “What can I do for you?”

“Just thought we’d stop by for a chat, since we were in the area,” Hanna answered.

Of course, just because he understood all of this didn’t mean he planned to just go along with it. “Uh huh. Anything in particular you want to talk about? Paperwork? Another case?”

Shaking his head, Hanna told him, “Kensi says you two are skirting the edges of serious these days.”

Don looked over at Callen for a moment, but the man continued to stand there, leaning on his car. Glancing back at Hanna, Don decided to cut to the chase. If he was late again, Kenski would kill him and she was way more scarier than either of them.

Don’s lips quirked into a grin and he said, “Look, I’ve got five minutes to get on the freeway or I’m going to be late for dinner again and this time, I don’t have a good excuse. So. Yes, I’m dating Kensi. Yes, I like her a lot. No, I have no idea if I love her, if we’re going to last or break up, and yes, I might wind up breaking her heart. But there’s also the very real chance she’ll end up breaking mine. I don’t hit women, I don’t string them along, and I know that if you think I’m treating her badly, they won’t find the body. Does that about cover everything?”

There was something of amusement on Hanna’s broad, handsome face as he shot a look at Callen, who shrugged. Hanna met Don’s gaze again and said, “Yeah, that should do it.”

“Good, because I need to go,” Don said, motioning at his car.

They stepped away from the vehicle, but on his way passed, Callen finally spoke. He said quietly, in an easy, friendly tone of voice completely at odds with the words, “It’s not so much that they won’t find your body, but more that you’ll really wish you were dead for a very long time.”

Don met Callen’s pale blue eyes and for the first time in a long time, felt a shiver of fear. He managed a smile, though, and replied lightly, “Good to know. Good night, guys.”

He slid into the driver’s seat and buckled up, pushing the key into the ignition and turning on the engine. He drove out of the FBI secured parking lot, somewhere they shouldn’t have been able to get into in the first place, leaving two very scary men in his rearview mirror. Don let out a long, shaky breath. It was definitely weird to be on the other side of the threat.

Karma, as Kensi was sure to say, was a bitch.