It was never my intention to follow the storyline that will be revealed on the 100th episode of NCIS LA. Just used bits & pieces, simply because it fits! Special thanks, once again, to Mr. Shane Brennan himself!


Chapter 3

A voice behind him hissed "Don't move. Keep your hands where we can see them."

A Callen who was alert could have handled it.
But Callen had let his guard down, shocked by what he had just seen, and swallowing away another wave of nausea. The trick he could usually pull easily - stepping back and grabbing the gun – failed terribly. Who-ever it was, managed to keep the upper hand. The back of the gun was used to pistol-whip him and Callen was knocked out.
He was unaware that he was thrown on the back of his own car, which sped off from the crime scene.

"Damn, G!" Sam scolded. The only thing he saw was the car leaving, just when he got worried when his partner had left the house and had not returned.

"He should not have been here anyway. You knew he was not cleared," Granger said.

"What do you mean, I knew? So did you. We should have stopped him anyway," Sam muttered. "He's probably going lone wolf once again. And if he does, he does what he's best at. Become a ghost."

"In that case we'd better hurry on solving this case, agent Hanna. Let's go."

o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)

Los Angeles || Kellerstreet

From the blackness of 'nothing' he slowly got aware of the immense noises from outside. Wherever he was, it was close to both metro as highway. There were choppers too. He let his hand go over his head. The stickiness proved him right, this gash on his head might cause some headaches.

Callen got up, obviously too soon since the dizziness caused acute nausea. He slowly lowered himself, leaning his aching head to the soothing cool wall. Where was he, and why?

o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)

Los Angeles || NCIS LA Headquarters

"He was there?" The sharp voice of Hetty Lange hollered. She sought support by leaning on her desk, her hands clenched in fists. "Owen, how could you!"

He cleared this throat, nervously. "Henrietta… I wished I could have prevented that."

"But you didn't. You let him watch? And you let him walk away?" She shook her head in unbelief. "He IS this case, Owen."

She noticed her outburst shocked Granger. They rarely argued like this, and maybe he did not deserve it. But it literally hurt Hetty to know that Callen had been around and had seen the gruesome scene which must have been put there to lure him.

'Oh, Clara… Who was the love of your life?' She said quietly to herself.

All those years since he finally appeared back in her life, Hetty had been wondering if Callen would ever find out more than she had done herself, so far. She had used all her contacts, digged deeper in files than she ever did before when it came to personnel. She had asked Hunter to look for more during the time she was undercover in Romania...
And oh, she had wanted to protect her best agent, her surrogate son, for the everlasting threat of the family feud. So far, all leads to the father and to why Clara had wanted to leave Romania so suddenly, ended up nowhere.
It was why her sixth sense had told her to keep Callen away from it all. If éver there were a moment he could find out more about his past, he would grab it with both hands, perhaps forgetting all necessary rules of safety in this job.
'Hélas'. Hetty probably underestimated his need to know, this time.

Not exactly knowing what to do next, she slowly took the stairs to the operation center.

"Mr. Beale. Get me on the phone with agent Callen."

"On it Hetty." The young tech operator immediately pressed the pre-dial button. Nothing. "Cell phone is dead," he said, surprised.

"GPS not traceable?" Nell wanted to know. She immediately started looking. The answer came soon, with a worried look she sent Hetty. "He must have dumped it right on the spot, Hetty."

"He is going off the grid. Have LAPD find the phone and bring it in, will you Miss Jones?" Then she turned to Eric again. "Any chance you can find Mr. Callen's car somewhere in this town?"

Enthusiastically Eric spoke "Kaleidoscope are my eyes, Hetty. Won't be long till we find him!"

o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)

Sam had noticed how Granger had been peeved about Hetty's remarks. But it was as if there was more to it. Something Granger might have wanted to share, but now was not so sure of.
Granger had walked out of the office, probably needing some fresh air before he could face Hetty again.

"Hetty?" Sam asked. "Any clues so far? Anything you want me to do?"
At the very same moment he asked, he felt like a green probie, unsure if he should be pro-active. Mostly, it was Callen who was the quick and clever planner, the one who took decisions.

She shook her head, clearly concerned about this case and how it would affect Callen. "No, Mr. Hanna. All we can do right now is wait for Kaleidoscope I think."

A soft cough was the way Nell interrupted them. "Since we all know Callen lived in Romania for some time, his father could be Romanian too. So, I ran searches on Romanian male visitors entering Los Angeles in the past few weeks. And meanwhile we had our systems check if any property has been recently sold or rented to any citizens originating from Romania or Russia."

"You did, Miss Jones? Any results so far?"

"Too many in fact. But some of them maybe worth to find out more about," Nell said. "So… Deeks and Kensi are working on some of the clues. You might want to share thoughts with us."

More self-assured than he had ever seen the young information analyst before, Sam was pleasantly surprised to see how Nell seemed to take over some of the tasks that either Hetty or Callen would take care of.
He followed her and Hetty upstairs to the operation center where she had put the most relevant information they had so far on the large screen.

"First… the crime scene. For all we know the property was a rental. Tenant's name is Simon Farrett. We managed to trace him, he came around at the house and all he could tell LAPD was that he sublet it to a neat looking older man who wanted to have his family in there."

The nasal voice of Granger came from behind them. "Name?"

Without looking surprised, Nell turned around. "Rollins. Farrett never had any suspicions at all. Rent was paid for three months in advance."

"Mr. Deeks, Miss Blye. Your turn to go to the crime scene. Look for any clues about a family life of the subtenant."
Hetty sighed heavily. No matter how thorough Nell's work and that of the other team members, they had not found where Callen would have gone to.
"Mr. Hanna, a word please?" She left ops, hearing the large former seal following her.

She sat down in the deep window sill, or rather leaned against it since her tiny posture hardly reached the floor. Then, she looked in the deep brown eyes of the big senior agent. "Any secret meeting points where you might find Mr. Callen right now, Mr. Hanna?"

Sam shook his head. "I've been thinking about that too, Hetty. The unbelief in his eyes, the way he must have felt, knowing it was all about him, the way he sped off… Where would he go? When something makes him feel off, I sometimes find him on Venice beach."

She nodded, well aware of the fact that 'her boy' sometimes needed the solace of the sound of waves on the beach. She added "The cemetery is the only other place I am aware of. But I had Mr. Beale check, and his car was not spotted on any of those places. Neither at his house."

He read it in her eyes. "You think something is very wrong, don't you Hetty?"

There was another small, sad nod. "Indeed I do, Mr. Hanna."

o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)

Los Angeles || Kellerstreet

Maybe he dozed off for a while -he could not remember. But then there were voices. Angry ones, somebody laughing. Callen could make out at least five different voices.

He was simply put in a small stockroom of what probably belonged to a garage or something like that. Nobody had cuffed his hands, which meant that whoever kept him in here either underestimated him, or was too sure they would outnumber him anyway.

He remembered those words from Janvier, last time he'd met the villain. 'The game is not over, agent Callen.' But there was no way Janvier could have set this up. Could he? Janvier was safely locked away in Colorado, for all they knew.

He tried to concentrate on what he heard. Would he recognize any of the voices? Was it French he heard? Or Russian?—Wait. Romani?


Thank you for reading. Please let me know what your thoughts are...
And remember, this storyline IS different from ep 5x04 | 100th ep.