Despite all, Callen felt restless.
As long as he could remember, he had been moving from house to house and there had only be some times when he felt safe, or when a house felt like home. After he recovered from the fifth of May, he had moved some times until Hetty had him to buy his house. Besides having his own base, he also felt at home with his team, who were like his family.
Being cut off completely from that, like right now, was awful.
Callen heard her stepping on the deck and turned around. Her dark, pixie hair was still wet from the shower and she was dressed in a white blouse and jeans short. She looked fresh and healthy, even without wearing any make up.
"I see you found a beer", she said as she held her own small bottle of beer up. "Cheers! So, have you made a decision yet?"
"I would like to stay, but only if you accept me as a guest that might have to leave soon again."
"It is no problem, but in that case, could you pay for a week in advance?" she said. "I need the money, the house is expensive, you see".
She blushed a little and continued "Oh, and I haven't even introduced myself… Hi. I'm Kat, Kat Franks".
Callen had to suppress his natural curiosity. Why would anybody live in an expensive house if they could not afford it? Not now, he decided. He did not need to know it.
"Hi Kat. I'm George MacAllen."
"Well, George. What brings you to visit Avalon?"
He sighed. "Bit of a burn out, and hiding from an ex-girlfriend. Just needed a time out."
Kat had noticed a worrisome gaze, but it didn't make sense to her that he was the person to suffer from a burn out right now.
She could imagine an ex-girlfriend, though. He was handsome, the adventurous type of guy who would always be attractive for women. Even the kind of guy she would chose for herself, if ever she would settle down.
However, she should not think of things like this, as she had her job to do and she needed no extra worries at all.
"You know what, George? Enjoy the views and have another beer if you like to. I'll be preparing dinner, and if you want, I could make yours as well. I planned to make a pasta salad. However, if you prefer to go out, I know some addresses in town too".
"I would like to join you", he said. "Maybe I should give you a hand?"
Kat wasn't too sure about that. When she was preparing food, it was easy to let her thoughts run free about this running case.
But seeing how eager he seemed to be to do something, she couldn't resist.
"Are you a good cook?"
"Probably not as good as you. I'm used to just grab something eatable, if not from my own fridge, I will find a night shop or buy myself a pizza. But I'll manage with the salad, with your help."
Although she recognized that way of taking care of dinner, Kat managed not to show it.
"Does it have to do something with your job?" she asked.
Callen hesitated just a few seconds about his answer. He could not give away too much of course.
"I guess so. I travel a lot and work at unusual times."
"Can't imagine how that will be" she answered.
o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)
It wasn't true at all.
Kat was all too familiar with that kind of living, but it was something he did not need to know.
She had arrived in Avalon only two weeks ago, following her suspect from Europe, via Washington, to Catalina. The house she stayed in belonged to one of the sheriffs deputies and he had helped her to redecorate it quickly, so, that it looked as it had been hers all the time.
Kat mostly worked alone, in Europe. This time it was international and she was glad there had been a good briefing in Washington. Her contacts in there had provided some handy materials.
During her runs and during walks to the grocery store, she checked if the suspect was still around. She had dropped some listening devices close to the place he stayed and planned to listen to today's tapes later on.
There was one thing that bothered her right now. The fact that she had not been able to reach her contact, the sheriff's deputy, for some days already.
o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)
Callen had noticed that she became less talkative. He could feel there was something on her mind that she did not want to share.
She felt his gaze. A quick glance showed that he looked at her indeed with his bright blue eyes, a little smirk on his face.
"Something you want to share?" she simply asked.
It surprised him that she seemed to be able to read his mind. Hetty had told him many times that it was not something one could learn, it was 'ones nature' as she stated it. It obviously was in her nature, as it was in his.
"Not right now," he said, "or it should be dinner".
She sent him a coy smile. It was good to have somebody, him, around. It took away some tension of the last couple of days.
They managed to make a proper meal together, talking about nothing special in particular.
After dinner, she was going to visit the police station to find out if they knew more about Huntington and to listen to the tapes.
Kat had noticed he didn't have a lot of luggage.
"If you want to, you can use my laptop" she told him. "I'll be in a friend's place for the next few hours".
Callen was grateful for that chance. Maybe he could find out more about 'his' case. He should find an internet café on the island the next day.
o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)
At the Office of Special Projects, the team had no ongoing cases. They finished some paperwork earlier that day.
Kensi sighed heavily. "This is so wrong guys. We don't know where he is or how he is".
"Hey, you are talking about Callen. Not any ordinary guy. He's the one who always survives. He might just be watching us right now without you noticing. The ghost, legendary for being unnoticed, you told me yourself," Deeks said.
He did not know if he said it to convince her or to convince himself as well.
"Might be so Deeks, but as long as we don't know who's behind it, Callen is the prey, not the hunter. And he is on his own, nobody to have his back," Sam said, worried as he was about his partner.
He was about to see Hetty when there was a famous whistle from Eric, noting they should come in the ops room.
"We've got a dead John Doe at Long Beach" Eric briefed.
"And? John Doe's aren't related to NCIS, are they, unless they're dead marines?"
"That, Mr Deeks, is true. However, our John Doe was dressed in an uniform and heavily mutilated. Your task to find out more about the who, the why, the what and the how".
They had not heard Hetty entering the ops room.
Hetty knew they weren't keen on another case right now. She just assigned this case to them to keep the team focused. It might work to clean their heads so that missing pieces in Callen's case might come easier to their mind.
Without their lead agent around, it was different in the bullpen.
Callen usually was the one kept them all sharp in discussions and who could, with only some remarks of the others, jump to conclusions and make important decisions.
Now he was gone and somebody somewhere knew too many things about him. That somebody needed to be stopped and those things should be put back in a safe place as soon as possible.
o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)
Kat was very concerned that Huntington still hadn't shown up.
He had offered his assistance in this case of human trafficking. It was a large case, involving some European countries, the United States and Mexico.
Kat had started the case from within Europe, where she was stationed for ICE. When she found out about an American connection it became an international case and her superiors had briefed several agencies.
It was decided that the European suspect should enter the States without suspicion and that Kat, as a US citizen, would stay as close as possible. And here they were, on Catalina. One of the agencies had recruited Huntington, a former DEA agent, to assist her.
Last thing she heard that he was about to contact an agency in Los Angeles, but he had not left any other information.
At the police station, they knew she came every other day to use the technical equipment of her agency, so that her own computer could not be traced at all. She did carry a small hard disk with her, on which some information could be stored.
This night, she should be back at the beach house earlier than other nights. She could do some transcripts of the hearing devices later on, she decided before she sneaked out.
She took the walk back through the beach way and entered the deck from the beach, only to discover that her guest had closed the doors.
Maybe he just went for a walk on the beach, she thought. She settled in one of the bear chairs on the deck and took two of the blankets that were kept there, and waited.
With the fresh sea air and the calming sound of waves, she fell asleep right on the spot.
Callen had taken a walk on the dark beaches indeed. It helped a bit to clean his head. He had tried to find anything on the computer that might help to solve his case but of course it was just a simple laptop and he could not get into the mainframes of his agency.
It was frustrating and he had needed to get rid of that frustration. He found a dark and lonely part of the beaches on the island, south from the village, and he had liked to be there. Now he should get back to the house, before his host would be back.
When he stepped on the deck from the beach side, he saw her, curled up under a blanket. For a while, he watched. She looked sweet and now, sleeping, innocent as well. Maybe the kind of woman he would have chosen himself. But right now, being an alias, he was just using her and her house as a temporary place and he should not jeopardize her.
He gently touched her arm, to wake her up. To his surprise, she was immediately alert and ready to attack him.
"Whoow—you calm down now, I did not mean to attack you," Callen said, as he stepped back, puzzled by her reaction.
Kat blinked her eyes a couple of times and slowly relaxed.
"I'm sorry," she said. "It's the kind of reaction that you have when you're living alone too long, I guess".
Callen said nothing, just reached his hand to help her up. He looked into her grey eyes, but there was nothing else she gave away.
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