Chapter One
He woke up that morning smiling; lying next to him was Nell Jones, his girlfriend. She was lying on his arm using it as a pillow, when suddenly she jumped up and ran out of the bedroom and into the bathroom, he followed her to make sure she was alright, and found her throwing up into the toilet. He knew something was wrong, she wasn't throwing up because she was hung over, she couldn't be, he had had a couple of beers last night but when he had asked her if she wanted something to drink she had declined straight away, so he knew it wasn't that. 'So what is it?' He thought to himself as he walked over to where she was kneeling, throwing up again. He slowly started to rub circles on her back, comforting her as she continued to empty the contents of her stomach into the toilet. After a few more minutes she sat up and leaned against his chest as he sat down behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist. He sat there as she lay against his chest before she suddenly lunged forward throwing up into the toilet again. He was worried about her as he rubbed her back again.
'Hey, are you okay?' he asked as she sat back up again. She turned to look at him and nodded.
'Yeah, I'm good. It's probably just something I ate. Just give me fifteen minutes to have a shower, yeah?' was her answer as he stood up before offering her a hand up as well. He just nodded before heading out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom to find his shirt lying on the chair. He quickly put his shirt on and grabbed the jeans he kept under her bed, he smiled when he realised that she hadn't moved them even although she knew they were there.
'I have to tell him,' she thought to herself as she stood under the water of the shower. She had been fighting with herself for the past two weeks about whether to tell him or not. She knew that he had a right to know but she just couldn't bring herself to tell him yet no matter how hard she tried to. As she stepped out of the shower drying off and dressing she decided to tell him as soon as she walked out into the bedroom. She took a deep breath before opening the door, she saw him sitting on the edge of her bed tying his boots, before standing up and walking over to her. He wrapped her up into a hug, as she began to cry into his chest. She could feel his hand slowly running up and down her. She went to speak, she was about to call him G, his name but suddenly she stopped, it wasn't often that she called him G, in fact she had only ever called him G at work when other agents where around but most of the time she would call him Callen around others who didn't know him well and Jace the rest of the time, at home. She knew if she called him Callen or G he would think something was wrong or that she was going to leave, even if she promised not to but she had to tell him.
'Jace, I'm pregnant,' she told him as he suddenly let go off her and walked out the door, only stopping to grab his phone and gun from the bedside table. He left her never for her to hear from him again, and never for him to hear from her again.
Five years later.
He walked up the stairs to ops next to his partner, Sam Hanna, Junior Field Agent Kensi Blye, and the recently assigned LAPD Lesion Officer Marty Deeks. He walked through the door just after Sam, Kensi and Deeks, as he looked up he saw a face he never thought he would see again. He was so shocked that he dropped the cup of tea in his hand, as the cup hit the floor everyone looked at him, standing there, frozen, his eyes focused on the newest person at OSP, a partner for Eric, the techie.
'Everyone this is Nell Jones, she will be working with Mr Beale, here. Miss Jones, this is Mr Hanna, Miss Blye and Mr Deeks, and I am guessing by the look on yours and Mr Callen's faces you both already know each other,' Hetty introduced everyone, pointing first to Sam, then Kensi, and Deeks before turning to him. He and Nell stood there starring at each other, shocked. Nell without warning to anyone walked up to him and punched him in the jaw before shoving him and then continuing to hit him. He knew what was happening but he didn't do anything to stop her he knew he deserved it.
'You, bastard. Seriously you left and never even asked. How could you do that? To me? To Jacey? How Jace? How?' She started to shout at him in Serbian. He could see Kensi about to grab Nell as she continued to hit him. It was then when he saw the tears run down her face that he did something, he stepped forward and took a hold of her arms at her side. It was then that he broke the tears visible in his eyes as he looked at her. He had felt guilty about what he had done for years, since the morning he left her and never returned, the day he left the CIA so he wouldn't have to see her.
'Nell, I am sorry, I shouldn't have left. What did you do… once I left to… you know the baby?' He apologised speaking just like her in Serbian, tears running down his face as he stood there in front of her for the first time in five years. She looked at him as she pulled her left hand away and pulled out her wallet and took out the picture of a three year old girl sitting at a table eating lunch. She had his blue eyes, to him the little girl was gorgeous, and he regretted leaving.
'Her name Jace, was Jacey Callen Jones. Jacey Callen. After you,' she told him as everyone in the rooms jaw dropped as he suddenly pulled her forward¸ towards him as she started to cry. As soon as he pulled her forwards into his arms, she broke completely and started to lash out at him again. It was then that Eric backed out of the room followed shortly by Deeks, Kensi, Sam and finally Hetty. He knew whatever had happened it had hurt her, as she stood crying in front of him, shouting in Serbian.
Twenty minutes later he walked out of ops, straight past his team and into the gym where he started to beat the punch bag. He continued to hit it as he pushed his emotions down into a locked box, not wanting to feel what he felt. He was good at hiding his emotions, but in ops he had let everyone see them, people who normally didn't see them. After beating the punch bag for over an hour, he finally broke, dropping to the floor and crying as he sat there, his head leaning on the punch bag as he shook. He didn't know how long he had been sitting there when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He knew without looking that it was his partner Sam Hanna. Sam offered him a hand up which he took.
'I've fucked up, Sam. Big time,' He told him as he stood up and leaned against the wall. Sam looked at him confused, it wasn't often that he admitted to screwing up, but here he was admitting it.
'Callen, what did you do?' Sam asked concerned. He didn't answer he just walked out of the gym, completely ignoring Sam.
That night he sat in his old bed room, on his old bed from when he was a child and he had stayed with the Russian family, the Rostoff's, who he had stayed with the longest. Alina Rostoff, the girl he classed as his younger sister, hadn't thought it was fair that he didn't have a first name, had taking to calling him Jace, he didn't know why Alina had taking to calling him that, but even now he loves the name.
When he first met Nell, he introduced himself as 'G Callen, but you can call me Jace, or Callen.' He always did that, the only people now who call him Jace, are Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and Special Agent Mike Renko, but now that was getting rare. He no longer introduced himself as G Callen or Jace Callen, just Callen. As he sat thinking, he was suddenly jolted from his thoughts by the sound of the front door being opened and closed. He didn't move at first.
'Jace, you here?' he heard someone shout from downstairs, and he knew who it was – it was Nell, unless somehow Alina or Jenny Shepard had come back from the dead which he highly doubted.
'Yeah, one minute,' he shouted in Russian as he normally did when he thought of Alina, his little sister. He heard laughing as he stood up off the bed, before walking downstairs to the living room, where Nell stood tears rolling down her face. He took a step toward her, and that was when he saw the blood. He quickly walked forward and pressed against her right shoulder with both hands.
'What happened? Who did this?' He asked as he slowly pushed her down so that she was sitting on the floor, once he had her sitting he pulled off his shirt and ripped it, before using it to apply pressure to the wound on her shoulder. Once he had made sure it was tight enough he walked into his kitchen and began to rake around, after a couple of minutes he came out with a first aid box.
'Jace, I don't know what happened. One minute I was getting out the car to go and see Jacey's grave and the next thing I know a gun fired and then I came here. All I had wanted to do was see her… Ouch Jace, seriously that hurt,' she told him, as she bit her teeth together in pain as he bandaged up the wound. He smiled for the first time in five years. He knew he shouldn't be smiling as he bandaged up the love of his life after getting shoot but he still smiled, it felt good to him, that she had come to him and not someone else. As he stood there smiling at her, she did the same but closing the gap between them. It was then that she opened her eyes and saw five scars that looked about the same age as each other. She just stood there looking at him. As she saw each of the five scars she saw how close to dying he had become. She realised then that all she want was for him to wrap his arms around her¸ and never let go. He looked down at her, and suddenly realised that something was wrong, she was pale and there was more blood than before, then she started to shake again. He quickly ran upstairs, and grabbed a t-shirt that was lying on his bed, before turning and running back downstairs and into the living room. When he got into the living room he sat down in front of where Nell was sitting, he quickly moved her so that she was leaning on his legs.
'Right Nell, don't worry but this might hurt, but I need to see the wound. I am sorry,' he said as he started to tear off her t-shirt around her shoulder, and the removed it completely. She started to look shy about the fact that he had just removed her t-shirt, when he saw this he smirked and then started laughing 'Nell, it's not like I haven't seen you with your t-shirt off before!' He quickly washed the blood away with Alcohol that he had in the first aid box, before bandaging it again and pulling his t-shirt on to her. Once he had it on her, he grabbed his own shirt off the back of his chair and pulled it on quickly before turning back to Nell. Nell had managed to stand up but was now holding on the door frame struggling to hold her weight on her own. He walked over to her and put his arm around her waist as she leaned against him as he walked them both out to his car.
