She Needed His Help

Disclaimer: NCISLA characters belong to Shane Brennan. All original characters and this story are mine.

Chapter 4

Callen looked up and found his father standing there. Michael came closer to him and sat beside him on the sand. They remained silent for what seemed a long time, before Michael broke the silence.

"I'm so sorry, son. For not being there for you, when you needed me."

Callen tensed up at his father's words. His fists clenched beside him, but he remained in his position.

"I don't blame you for hating me. I deserve it. But I was scared. Your mother and I tried to get you out. Hetty was supposed to meet us that day on the beach, but her superiors put a stop to it. She left the CIA after that and joined NCIS, so she could watch over you and Amy over here. It tore at her, knowing she was ordered not to help your mother. The CIA had no idea how bad it had become, and I had Amy and Michaela safe in my hotel room. I nearly lost you too that day. My only son." Michael broke. "I found you crying trying to wake your beautiful Mama up. I had to separate the three of you to keep you safe from the Comescus."

"You did." Callen looked at his father in the eyes for the first time, in a really long time. He saw his own blue eyes.

Michael creased his brow in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"You did lose me on that day. I died with Mama."

Michael shook his head. "No. You're alive and safe. Look at you. A handsome grown man, who's become a Federal Agent. You're mother and grandfather would be proud of you, if they had lived."

Callen struggled to keep himself under control. "You threw me out to the wind, where dogs laid in wait to attack me wherever I went."

"I don't understand, son?"

"Don't. Don't you ever call me son. You abandoned me and Amy in different orphanages, for goodness sake. And raised Michaela with your wife. You had a wife, and yet you betrayed her, by having an affair. We are just your illegitimate children you had with a Romani woman. You chose to keep Michaela and discard your other children. What kind of father does that?"

Callen rose to his feet and began to walk towards the water. "I would never leave my children, or discard them into the wind."

"Being a father is not always easy, George. Until you become a father, you never realise how much they mean to you, and the lengths you would go to protect them. The Comescus knew about you, George. They saw you on the beach with your mother. They were supposed to have killed you too. But they came back for you, did they not?"

"And we killed them, for revenge of my mother and grandfather. They call you a Admiral, but I call you a coward." Anger ran through Callen's veins like fire. "What did you do? Nothing. You took the one who didn't look like you, the one who looked like your lover and loved her. You never loved Amy nor me. We would reveal your dirty little secret. How's Martha now, knowing how you had a family in another country and tricked her into raising one of your bastards as her own daughter?"

"Stop it." Michaela had joined her father and brother out on the beach. She was glad they were out of the house, far away from her children's ears, after hearing her brother's words.

Callen turned and looked at his sister. "There is your only child. You have no other children. I may look like you and Blake, but I am not family. I have my own family, and after this case is over, we're going on a holiday far away from all of you." He was shaking and struggling to hold it together.

"George, please. Please don't push us away. We love you. We need you."

"George, listen to your sister, if you won't listen to me. Please." Michael pleaded with his son.

"I never pushed you away. I've spent most of my life searching for you. Only to find out you pushed me away." Callen broke. He fell to his knees and cried. The pain in his heart hurt real bad. Worse than being shot, he thought.

Michaela fell down beside her brother and held him, just like he had done with her during the night. "George, please. I need you. Just as much as you need us. You have family, more than just your team."

Michael knelt down the other side of his son. "I'm sorry, son. I really am. If I could turn back the clock, I would change it all. I so wanted to keep the three of you together. We were a family, and family needs to be together. But I can't do that. Please forgive me." Michael was finding all the emotion of the past forty odd years catching up on him. His deception to Martha, who he had always loved, the loss of Clara, and two of their three children. All in the need to keep them safe. Then there was the more recent pressing concerns of keeping Michaela, Blake and Mia safe from Scott. He couldn't understand why his son-in-law had suddenly became violent towards his daughter. Then there was the death of his eldest daughter, Amy. How that bastard had ever found out that Lauren was Amy, George's sister, he never understood. But it had made him very afraid for his other children's safety. "If you died, George, I would never have forgiven myself. It nearly killed me when Owen told me about Amy."

Callen's head snapped up at his father's words. "Killed you? Were you there? Were you the one she called out for help, because she was scared? Did you see her blown up in a car, and you had no way of saving her?" Callen shook his head and stood up again. He was more than angry now. "How dare you tell me how much it nearly killed you when Granger told you about Amy. Every night I dream of her. I see her face, hear her screams. See her life ended as the car she was tied up to the steering wheel in, blew up. And not even know that she was my sister. Yeah she peeved me when she stepped in for Hetty. But if she had told me who she was, it would have prevented all of this. She would still be alive."

"No, George, it wouldn't have stopped him from killing her. There was nothing you could have done to have saved her." His father tried to tell him.

"How do you know that? You weren't here." Callen's fists were clenched by his side again. Michaela noticed and tried to calm her brother down.

"Why do you say that, George?" Michaela asked him.

Callen looked at his sister. "You look so much like Mama, you know Kayla. It's like she is still with us, when I see you." Tears fell down his cheeks. "I miss her so much." He turned to his father. "I'm sorry I let them die." Callen shook as he cried. "I didn't mean for either of them to die."

Michael held onto his son. "None of it was your fault, George. Please don't blame yourself. No one blames you."

Callen shook his head. "No. You must blame me. Anyone who comes into my life dies." His eyes were red from crying. "Please, let me go. Leave me alone."

"George." Michaela pleaded with her brother. "I need you. We all need you. I am alive because you rescued me. You've got to believe more in your self worth."

Somehow, Michaela's words sunk into Callen's mind. She was right. If he hadn't heard her screams and rescued her from those two men yesterday, she may be dead right now. Then he thought back to Hetty's words from the night before. 'You saved her life.' He looked at his sister with a puzzled look on his face.

"George?" Michaela and their father watched Callen's reaction to her words. "Are you okay?"

He nodded. "Yes. I think I am. Thanks, Kayla. You're right." Callen gave his sister a big hug. "It's just hard for me. I've been alone for so long. This is all so strange to me. But now I have a family of my own, and then my family turns up out of the blue, it's a lot to take in."

"Wait, you have a family? Wow, George, this is great news. Who are they?"

Callen suddenly realised he had slipped out something he hadn't even revealed to his team, nor his partner. "Um, no one knows about us."

Michaela and Michael could see Callen's awkwardness.

"She's someone in my team, she's an analyst. Her name is Nell Jones. She and I have become really close and..."

He felt awkward to say the word love. But he needn't worry, cause his sister helped him out.

"You're in love," Michaela added.

Callen nodded. "She's twelve weeks pregnant, and we've not told anyone yet."

Michaela and Michael smiled at him. "Congratulations, bro."

He returned their smile.

"Congratulations, son."

Although Callen had told him not to call him son, he couldn't help it.

"I am so proud of you. What you have achieved is amazing. And you have done this all on your own."

Callen couldn't believe his ears. "Thanks."

Martha watched her husband and daughter with the Agent who had rescued her daughter the day before. It had hurt to hear Michael tell her about his family in Romania. Yet she for some strange reason understood. They had tried to have children, and she had almost pushed him away from her grief. Then he had suddenly left without saying anything, and she thought she had lost him forever. But two weeks later, he returned with a gift. A beautiful three year old girl named Michaela. She had noticed how much Michael had doted on their daughter, and if she was honest to herself, she would admit, that little girl was what had saved their marriage, and her. Having Michaela as her daughter had healed her from her depression of not being able to bare children of her own. They were happy and loved her as if she was their own. Now she knows that that little girl was her husband's real daughter. Did that knowledge change how she felt towards her husband and daughter? She was not sure. But she knew she still loved them both very much. And now there was the news that this Agent was her husband's son, whom he had separated for safety from a Romanian crime family. Michael had told her his son had been on the beach with his mother when she had been murdered. He had only been five. If only she could have turned back the clock and raised all his children as their own. She hated seeing their grief. The Agent looked lost, and she could see he was deeply hurt. She had watched him shouting and refusing his father on the beach, and how Michaela had come along to help her father and brother reunite. She realised it must have been so hard on him, growing up not knowing who he was, or where his family was. Her heart went out to George. She wanted to help, so she decided to walk out onto the beach and see if she could make them all feel better.

"Hi." Martha said when she came close to Michael, George and Michaela. "I'm sorry for all the hurt you've endured in your life." She said looking at George. "I know you have no reason to trust me, but your father really is a good man. Please give him a chance, George."

Callen looked at the older woman. "Even though he betrayed you? Why are you so willing to be kind to me, or to him?"

"We all make mistakes in our lives. Some are greater than others. Do you want to make a mistake that will eat at you for the rest of your life? Life is too short to hate. We need to forgive, so we can heal."

"So, you're okay with knowing he had a family? Children with our mother?" Callen watched Martha closely.

"The news has hurt me, I cannot lie about that. And it will take time for me to forgive Michael for keeping this news from me all these years. But the day your father came home with Michaela was the best day of my life. A gift of a child, I could not give him myself. I wish I could turn back the clock and knew about you all. Then I could have been a mother to you and loved you, like I know your father has always loved you. Please come inside, George, and eat some breakfast. Your partner has kept some warm for the three of you." She held her hand out to George and was relieved when he took it.