A/N This is a quick story written for a fellow writer who passed away May 21. 2016. Rest in Peace Thomas. You are missed. I don't really know about his personal life except that his wife's name is Rose and he was a Lutheran Minister, there are children and grand-children. The rest is poetic license.

The Intermediary

The day grew short as he drove his car past the town hall. He'd never been to Fargo, North Dakota before and it seemed odd that Hetty would send him here. He knew that Nell had family around here but what would he need to be here for. Nell was safely ensconced back in Los Angeles in OPS with her friend, who Callen believed was her lover as well, Eric.

Hetty had given him an address of an old factory where he was to meet someone. Callen had no idea who or even why. Hetty had been unusually closed mouth about this job. Well he'd gone into other operations with less information and come out alive. He hoped his luck would hold out.

When he reached the factory he noticed the little church next door. Callen had a belief in a higher being, he just didn't attend a church of any particular sect. This one was a Lutheran church. It intrigued him for some reason.

He entered the factory and waited for the man or woman. A woman came to the doorway as he entered and waited there for him. She was a mere slip of a thing and if you looked closely you could see that at one time she might have had red hair. In his mind's eye he saw Nell as an older woman. "Are you Callen?" He nodded and she turned her back and motioned for him to follow her.

He looked back the way he'd come, pulled his Sig from his back and then walked through the door she'd disappeared through. She'd gone a distance down the large room, past the antiquated machinery that had been left there to rust away. She stopped at another doorway and when he finally caught up, she pushed him through and disappeared through another door.

An older man waited for him. He sat behind a desk that had also been left behind. He seemed winded by whatever it had taken to get him here so Callen waited for him to begin. In a few minutes the man began speaking. "I've been told you need a good talking to about a young lady that works with you: A Nell Jones. It seems that you have an interest in the young lady but are standing by, letting someone else take up her time. The other man does not stand a chance by the way. While it looks like they are interested in each other to everyone around them, they are just friends. She loves someone else, you. Your mission is to go back to LA and make her see that you love her too!"

Callen laughed out loud and returned his weapon to his back. "Hetty sent me all the way here to have you tell me this? Really? She couldn't tell me this? She had me sit on a plane for four hours and then drive here so that you could tell me this? Why?"

"Because you have to hear my story for it is much like yours. I spent a lot of time ignoring my feelings for my Nell, my wife Rose. Please don't do the same with yours. If you do, she may get away or worse yet you may both go through life alone. God didn't mean for us to be alone." The man motioned for Callen to sit.

Callen took the offered seat and the woman brought in a carafe of coffee and water for the man across the way.

The man poured the coffee for Callen. "Unfortunately I'm not allowed coffee anymore so I get water. Drink up, Rose makes darn good coffee."

Callen took the cup, sat back in the chair and took a sip of the coffee and raised his mug to the man across the desk from him. "This is good. Thanks." His face gave a sense of questioning. "What makes you so sure that your story and ours matches? Why do you think that I have those feelings for our Nell?"

The man laughed a small laugh. "Hetty is a good friend and a good judge of people. She's watched the two of you interact and react to each other. You want it to be big brotherly behavior but it isn't, is it? What are you afraid of?" When Callen didn't answer the man chuckled. "Didn't think so."

Callen wanted to get up and leave but felt his curiosity building slowly. He also didn't feel like he needed to answer to another man, a total stranger, about his feelings for Nell. "I've led a dangerous life and I have enemies. I don't want anyone in harm's way, especially Nell." The man could feel the worry, like a glove, surrounding the younger man.

Callen met the man's gaze and knew that he needed to know more. "Tell me about your Nell. How did you almost lose her? "

The man behind the desk chuckled again. He had the younger man's attention and both of them knew it. "When I was younger I was going to Theology School to be a Minister. That's my old church next door. I didn't have time for girls. My nose was to the grindstone, not unlike yours, but for different reasons. I understand that you don't really understand family because of your past, but that will come with time and a good woman. I was selfish in a way, I wanted to have a ministry, find a wife and then have a family. God didn't want it that way and I fought it with everything I had in me. He kept throwing my Nell, or in my case, Rose, in the way all the time. Everywhere I went, there she was. He was telling me that she was the one but I wouldn't listen, not unlike yourself. Start listening before you are both past caring about a life down the road. My Rose, started dating another of the students at school and it bothered me but not enough to make my move, at first. I kept seeing them together and realized that I felt something for her. I asked her out for coffee and she never saw that other student again. A couple years later after I graduated from school and was situated in a small church down state we married. We have two children who we are proud of and a couple of grandchildren. I've been so happy with Rose and our family. I don't want you to miss out on life with someone you love and who loves you with all of her heart."

Callen listened to the man and realized that is exactly how he felt about Nell. "Thank you I think that I will go back to LA and make my move." He stood to leave, reached across the desk and shook the man's hand. "Who should I say helped me with my decision?"

The man chuckled again. "Just Thomas. I have a nickname for you two, Nallen. I created it just for you two. Now get out of here and back to Nell."

Callen laughed again and turned and walked away, back to his car, back to LA and back to Nell.