I DO NOT OWNR THE RIGHTS TO THE NCIS:LA CHARACTERS, ONLY MY OWN.
The party was starting at seven o'clock sharp and of course he was late. He's promised Mr. and Mrs. Rostoff that he'd take their Alina trick-or-treating before the party. One block turned into another and then another. Before he knew it, it was a quarter to seven and they were five blocks from the house. He scooped up Alina and ran as fast as he could back to the house. Mrs. Rostoff was at the door handing out candy when he came running up the street, Alina giggling as Callen jostled her from side to side. She smiled as Callen stopped at the base of the walk, kissed the little girl good night and then turned to run again. Mrs. Rostoff yelled after him in her broken English to be safe. Callen merely waved and disappeared.
Seven-fifteen he walked through the door of the bungalow, loud music blaring teenagers dancing everywhere. He looked through the crowd for his friends, but saw her instead. Shorter than he normally preferred, but long legs and what looked like long blonde hair, which was twisted in a bun at the top of her head. She wore a little black French maid's costume with white lace peeking out from under the hem. There were a lot of other girls there who were a lot prettier, but this girl. Something about her got him.
She looked up from the conversation she was having and saw him, immediately, she grabbed her best friend's elbow. "Oh dude, who is that?"
Her friend looked directly at Callen and laughed. "No way Marn, he's so not your type. You go for the Dexter's."
She rolled her eyes and with her best valley girl impression said. "No shit Sherlock. He's fine."
"Ouch Bitch." Her friend laughed. "Too 'Rebel Without A Cause' for me."
"Bite me Bethy." She snapped as he waved at someone and disappeared.
Callen looked for her all night. Every time he saw a girl in a maid's costume, he craned his neck to see if it was her. Finally he found her towards the end of the night after the party thinned out and a group of maybe twenty lagged behind. She was sitting with her friend and a couple gnarly-looking guys, while her friend was thoroughly engrossed in the conversation she was off in the ozone. His friend pulled him to the back of the house where some of the kids were playing 'Seven Minutes in Heaven'. They laughed when the bottle landed on a 'betty' then a geek the next. The girl cringed and gagged as the two were locked in the closet. Almost immediately one of the two of them began pounding on the closet door begging to be let out.
After several other couples were chosen, Callen's friends pushed him into the circle. He struggled and tried to step back out until he saw her standing across from him, inside the circle. To his amazement, the bottle stopped on him. The next spin landed across the room at her. She smiled shyly at him.
They were pulled by the arms to the closet, shoved in and suddenly alone in the darkness. They stood there awkwardly for a couple seconds before either spoke. "What's your name?" she asked, licking her lips.
"G." He answered into the darkness. "What's yours?"
"M." she giggled.
Callen laughed. "It's alright, you don't have to tell me your real name."
"Good, because I'm not gonna. So are you gonna kiss me or what?" She asked placing her hands on his stomach.
Her touch was just like electricity. He smiled in the darkness and leaned forward praying he didn't go head-first into the wall. Callen reached out and found her waist wrapped in the silken fabric of her costume and pulled her against him. Instead of meeting her lips in one smooth movement, their heads smashed into one another. After a brief spurt of laughter, she leaned up and kissed him. Callen felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. Her lips were soft and tasted sweet. Praying she didn't bite his tongue off, he quickly pushed past her lips and touched hers.
The next thing he knew, her arms were around his neck pulling him closer and closer. They didn't hear the pounding on the door until the door opened and she was being pulled out by the arm.
"Damn Marn, my parents are here. We've got to go like NOW." Her friend said and pulled her to the door.
"That was the first and last time I ever saw her. I was moved the next day." Callen said with a weird grin on his face.
Sam shook his head laughing while Kensi and Deeks were visibly hanging on every word and disappointed with where he'd stopped. "You're joking, that's all?" Deeks asked.
"Yeah Deeks, that's all. I never saw her again, but I'll always remember that kiss. It was the kind of kiss you compare every other kiss to for the rest of your life." Callen told him with an even cheekier grin and dreamy eyes.
"That?" Kensi croaked. "That was your best Halloween ever? No wild night's egging or Toilet papering?"
Callen crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back. "Nope, just that kiss."
"Was that a true story?" Sam asked as he drove Callen home that night.
"Sam, would I lie to you about something like that?" He asked, squinting at the setting sun as Sam headed towards the coast.
"Why is this the first I'm hearing of this so-called magical kiss that you've compared every other kiss you've ever had to?"
"Just because you're my partner doesn't mean I need to tell you everything." Callen laughed and pulled the visor down hoping to block the sun.
"Yeah whatever, G." Sam smirked as he pulled up to Callen's house. "Lost your parking spot again, I see?"
"I'm getting really tired of fighting to park in front of my own house." He growled as he released his seatbelt and it slid across his chest.
"Who owns it?"
Callen shrugged and pushed the door open and climbed out. "I'll write down the license plate and have Eric look it up on Monday. You still bringing your kids over to trick-or-treat tonight?"
"Going to meet Michelle and the kids now. You'd better have plenty of candy, it's going to be a wild night. Halloween hasn't fallen on a Friday in years."
"I've got enough candy, Sam." Callen said but still second guessed the just over four hundred pieces of candy he'd bought.
Over the years; since he'd left and returned years later; the neighborhood changed. As the older members passed away or moved on they were replaced by younger couples or young families. To date, Callen only knew of one house on the street that had the original owners; original to when he lived there in the eighties. That would be the Armstrong's next door. He remembered their youngest daughter was the same age as the Rostoff's and would occasionally venture over to play. From what he could recall of their play and the stories of her family there were three children, but he'd only ever seen the oldest and youngest, never the middle child.
Over the last two years, he'd seen several new vehicles on the street. It started two to three summers ago with a green Dodge Caravan and it didn't take long to figure out where it belonged. The noise level next door rose threefold. By the holidays, a black Dodge Ram joined the mix. It would sit for weeks without moving. It would be tagged by parking enforcement and it would be moved before a ticket issued. Then this past summer a black Chevy Venture and blue Jeep Compass pulled up, both unloaded. The Jeep left and he hasn't seen it since.
Callen let himself into the house and went to check again how much candy he had. The house was warm, so he opened the back door. The faint scent of a cigarette wafted over the fence that too was new. He made himself a sandwich and grabbed a beer before he opened the bags and prepare to hand it out to the kids in the neighborhood. Once he finished his sandwich, Callen put the plate in the sink and closed the back door. He opened the front door and turned on the porch light.
The first of the trick-or-treaters was a large group six, ranging in age from what he estimated to be three or four to maybe fourteen. Darth Vader, to some girl with an opaque face and green and purple hair, Batman, a Jedi, Geisha and a maid. Not just any maid, the looked almost exactly like the girl in the maid's costume from the party. Her hair was not quite as long and was a little darker shade of blonde and her eyes were steel grey instead of blue. As soon as he dropped a few pieces of candy in her bag, she searched the group adults for an older version of the girl.
Three woman were at the base of the walkway, one in a wheelchair being pushed by one of the other, while the other was already walking ahead with her children. You could tell very easily whose children were whose, both by looks and personality. The blonde children were pleasant and thanked him for the candy whereas the brunettes simply walked away complaining that they only got two pieces of candy.
Callen stepped off the porch and started towards the sidewalk. Her hair was shorter, so much shorter and wore glasses. He noticed four silver studs up her ears and a fifth in her right ear in the cartilage at the top. She smiled at him as he approached. Callen held out a handful of candy to the two women both smiled and gladly accepted his offering. He stood there for a few seconds longer hoping for even a flash of recognition in her eyes. She simply smiled at him and thanked him again before she pushed the wheelchair to the next house.
It had been years since that party, as he walked back up to the porch he tried to figure out exactly how long it had been. Obviously she'd married and had children, not to mention the party was over thirty years ago, she probably long ago forgotten about it. He was standing on the porch deep in thought, remembering what her lips felt like on his, when Sam walked up.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, G." he laughed.
Callen snapped to attention. "You could say that."
"Let me guess you saw a French maid's costume and she reminded you of that girl?" Sam asked jokingly.
"Sam, she looked so much like her it wasn't even funny. Right down to the blonde hair, it was the exact same costume."
"G, I know Halloween costumes were made a whole lot better thirty years ago, but I seriously doubt it was the same costume." Sam reasoned.
Callen shook his head. "No, it had a hole in the seam on the left side at the waist. I remember catching it when I put my hands around her waist."
Sam looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "How much have you had to drink tonight?"
"One beer Sam. I saw her, I know it was her. It was the same smile, the same eyes." He told him as another group of trick-or-treaters walked up. Callen doled out a few pieces of candy to each of the children before they thanked him and walked away.
"Marnie, are you alright? You've been awfully quiet and thoughtful since we left the neighbor's house." Her mother said.
"I'm fine Mom." She said as she pushed her to the next house. "I just thought I recognized him from someplace."
"Well, he's been there for just a few years; while you were in North Carolina." Annette told her.
Marnie nodded, "I must have been mistaken." She said thinking back to that one night. The night that changed everything for her with just one kiss.