Rating K
Day in the life at the Hanna Home.
Disclaimer: The NCIS:LA Team belongs to their respective creators, the rest -including errors belong to me. No infringement intended. Special thanks to my beta Cat, who tries her best to teach me tense.
BLACK BAG:
Callen stands stunned. He can hear the blood pounding in his ears, his heart thumping. He clenches his hands into fists and swallows hard.
What has left him distressed is not some bomb-toting madman or heavily armed terrorist. It is instead a six year old clutching a black garbage bag. The dreaded hideous black trash bag. The thing of nightmares.
Sam passes him in the hallway. "Come on to the kitchen. Michelle is making tacos."
Sam doesn't seem very concerned and after subtly scrubbing his sweaty palms over the seam on his jeans, he follows his partner to the kitchen.
The bright sunny kitchen is full of good smells. The island is full ingredients for the tacos: chopped tomatoes, grated cheese, sour cream and cut avocados. Michelle is stirring ground meat in a skillet on the stove. She seems equally unconcerned that their daughter is stomping up and down the hall yelling, "I don't have to clean my room, ever, ever again!"
"Uh." Callen looks from the food to the doorway and back.
"It's perfectly normal behavior." Michelle gives him a rueful smile. "Kamran is rebelling, just a little, testing her limits."
"And today, she's decided to run away from home," Sam adds. He takes up a fork and stirs the last ingredients into a bowl of pico de gallo. "We told her we were sorry to see her go, but if she was going to she has to take all her stuffed animals with her."
Callen stares down the hall. Kamran is dragging another large bag as far at the front door.
Michelle starts filling taco shells with the ground meat mix. "It's perfectly normal behavior. Doesn't mean I like it, but she won't leave." Michelle plated the tacos and brought two to the island. "Kamran, do you want tacos before you go?"
Kamran stood in the doorway to the kitchen, her arms crossed over her chest. "Do I have to clean the counters when I'm done?"
"Yup."
"But I'm running away."
"True, but while you're still here, you still have to follow the rules."
She stomped one foot, but then sighed and scooted the tall stool up to the island. "Ok, may I have extra cheese, please?"
"You may." Sam filled the taco shell up with her favorites, scooted her stool a little closer.
Callen stares at his plate of tacos. His stomach is still queasy with tension.
"You ok, partner?"
"Yeah." But he wasn't. Out of the corner of his eye he could still see one of the big, black trash bags sitting in the hall. He choked down his meal while the rest of the family chatted around him. Kamran seemed to have forgotten her anger. At the end, Kamran picked up everyone's plates and set them on the counter near the sink.
"Ok," Kamran said as she wiped her hands on the tea towel. "I'm going now."
"OK." Michelle got down on one knee and gave her daughter a hug, but it wasn't as emotional as Callen would have thought. It might be the same hug she would give sending Kamran off to school.
Kamran then went to her dad. "Are you going to keep making me clean my room?"
" 'Fraid so."
"Then I have to go." She reached up for a hug. He hugged her back.
"I'll miss you very much."
"I'll miss you too."
She headed out to the hall and started to gather a bag into each hand.
He couldn't take it anymore. Callen got down on his knees right in front of her. Sam cleared his throat, trying to wave him off, but Callen just couldn't stop.
"Please don't go." His voice was a little more gravelly than he'd intended.
"But Uncle G," Kamran stared in all seriousness.
"If you go, how will I find you for hugs and stuff?"
She seemed to think it over. "I could come live with you."
Callen blanched. He clearly had not thought this through. "Well, you could. But I don't have a tv or a radio or any games or anything."
"Well that won't do," Kamran said seriously.
"You'd have to sleep on the floor, cuz I don't have a spare bed."
"No, that's no good."
"Could you maybe stay here, where I could find you and get hugs whenever?"
"Hmm." She tugged at one of the bags. It was heavy. She reached out one small hand and touched it to his cheek. "Ok, Uncle G, for you, I'll stay."
He reached out and pulled her into a hug holding her close and breathing in the clean scent of her until she squirmed. "Too tight, Uncle G."
His smile was a little wobbly and maybe his eyes were a little bright, but the wind had come up, so he blamed it on the Santa Ana's.
"I'll help you put these back in your room, ok?"
"OK." She skipped ahead, letting him heft the two bags. Under her direction he carefully put away beanie babies and stuffed bears and 3 pairs of socks, her purple 6 sided pillow and a pair woolen mittens.
Sam and Michelle stood in the kitchen, shoulder to shoulder, listening in. "I wasn't sure which of them was going to break first."
Michelle nodded. "He looked a little green when he got here. He can't be that upset about her running away."
"It took me a minute to figure it out, too. The trash bags."
At her puzzled look, he continued. "When he was a kid, in foster, when they are going to move you to a new place, they put all your things into black trash bags."
"Oh," she whispered softly. "Oh!"
"Yeah, but don't say anything."
"I won't." She felt bad for the way Callen had grown up. "I think we should make ice cream sundaes," she said with a little glint in her eye.
Sam shook his head. "You baby him."
"He needs a little." Michelle smiled as she patted him on the stomach. "You can run an extra mile to work it off."
"Thanks," he said sarcastically. "But try to remember this feeling the next time G comes over and decides he needs to sleep on the couch and then bang around your kitchen dismantling your blender."
"I will try." Michelle started to turn away, but he pulled her in close for a hug. "Tell them to come get their ice cream and make sure you get those garbage bags back in the cupboard."
He kissed her softly. "Yes ma'am," and kissed her again.
08/2016