I finished my coffee with Sara and Gretchen and headed to the mission. Hetty's Porsche was in her parking space and from a phone call I received, I knew that the bolo had came back and Kensi and Deeks were on their way to San Diego. Carla wouldn't be in until later. I parked my car and strode into the building.

Hetty sat at her desk and I had the feeling that she waited there for me. I stood in the bullpen watching her and she knew it. I stalked into her office and sat in the chair opposite her. She'd been waiting for me just like when she introduced me to Carla. She pushed a fresh cup of tea my way. I took it as a peace offering but I didn't take it in my hand. I wasn't ready for that. She looked over her glasses at me and waited for me to begin. "Hetty…just who is Carla Andrews? What does she have to do with us?" I waited a moment, staring her down and when she didn't answer I spoke again. "Or should the question be…What does she have to do with me?" I sensed Hetty's wariness setting in. This was going to be a mental battle between her and I. Unfortunately, I've usually lost those battles, but not this time. I'd had time to think about how to play this one.

Hetty closed her computer and sat back in her chair, cradling her cup of tea. Her steely gaze met mine. "She has nothing… and everything to do with you."

I picked up my tea, not sure if I would drink it but the bone china felt good against my hand and the aroma of the tea seemed to calm me. "What exactly does that mean? Why won't you just answer the question? Who is she?" I felt my anger building. Her lack of answers infuriated me.

Hetty sipped her tea. She thought long and hard about how to answer this question. She'd been thinking about it for years and now the time was here to answer it. "She is my best friend. There has never been a better friend and I would do anything for her… anything." Hetty gazed off into her past. If there had been anything in the world she feared it would have been this moment and that fear rose like bile in her throat. She knew what this answer could mean, she never wanted to face it and now the moment was here. "I have done probably the hardest thing a friend could do for another, and I took on that challenge knowing full well what the ramifications could be. I look at the results of that challenge every day. I look at the fine man he has become. I look at the distance he has come just in the last two years and I am happy that he let someone into his life and that he cherishes her. I look at you Mr. Callen and see all those things and have on many occasions called you my son and am proud of you." She looked at me and sorrow touched her face. "But you're not my son…. you're hers."

I felt like I'd been hit with a two by four. I hadn't expected to be given that much honesty in so few sentences. "Why? Where has she been? How could you two do this?" I felt the tears welling up and I tried valiantly to vanquish them.

Hetty knew what the truth would do to him. It could destroy all she'd worked on for most of his life. She'd never wanted to do this but Clara had insisted upon meeting him and getting to know him. Hetty had argued against it but had lost out to her best friend's desire. "Mr. Callen, your mother never wanted to leave you and Amy but circumstances didn't allow you to go with her. She needed to go with your father to Russia and the gulag. She had been arrested by the Russians as well. The woman who you saw killed on the beach was another operative who looked a lot like your mother. She waited with you, for me to get you and bring you back to the United States to be with your aunt. Clara knew that the Comescu were after her so she left you with Carmella thinking that you'd all be safe. The Comescus were making a point. When I arrived I brought you back here and separated you to protect you from the Comescus. When Amy died there was no way to reach your mother. She never knew about Amy's death until she arrived home."

I was so angry with the two of them. I felt my jaw set and the tears start again in the back of my eyes. It took everything I had not to scream at her for all the years of lies and torment, all the terrible foster homes and orphanages. "Why after all these years did she want to see me?.. Is it to assuage her guilt for leaving us?.. Am I a curiosity to her?.. Let's check out what happened to my little boy whom I left, what, forty years ago? What?... Up until ten years ago she didn't exist, where was she in those ten years that she couldn't have come sooner?"

Hetty shook her head. She hated what this was doing to her boy, not Clara's boy, but her boy. This was maddening and painful for him. "She arrived in Berlin eleven years ago, alone. She'd been freed by the Russians. She was waiting there for your father but he never came. After waiting for slightly more than a year she received word that he'd died in the gulag. The Russian government has a long memory and he was never going to be free from them in this life. Once your mother was gone he slowly drifted away. Your father died ten years ago. Clara came back to the United States through the CIA and they gave her a new life and with her skills she became a valuable asset to NCIS."

I needed to know more. It was tearing me up inside. I wanted to yell, but I didn't. I kept my voice low and icy. It was a trick I used in interrogation quite often but this was no trick. I was very angry. "So…Where was she? Didn't she want to see me until… now?" My voice almost broke then but I wouldn't let it.

Hetty was concerned about my well being. My face was red and she could see my frustration. My eyes held back the tears, but just. "She has been asking to see you for some time now. I did not want to do this. I felt it was better to leave it like it has been than to throw her at you. She insisted on seeing you before she retires and goes off. She honestly didn't want you to know who she was, but you and your partners picked up on her identity too soon. I didn't want you to know either, that is why I set her up as a substitute agent to take Mr. Hanna's place. We both knew she wouldn't be here long."

I broke my gaze on the woman who I had always thought of as my mother. My eyes fell on her teapots and cups. The beauty of them always made me smile, but not today. I wanted to smash them all in retaliation for the lies and the pain I felt at this moment. "Where is she now?" My voice came out harsh and cold and I hesitated because I didn't know if the next statement was the truth. "I want to talk to her." I remembered the conversation we had at O'Malley's. "She asked to meet my family. I'm not sure, but I think I'd like that." Don't get me wrong I was still quite angry. This hurt like hell, but my daughter should have the chance to meet her grandmother.

Hetty stood up and came around her desk to stand before me. "She met them yesterday. She says you have chosen wisely with Sara and that Gretchen is adorable. She is proud to call them family. They 'bumped' into each other at Fields Market yesterday afternoon. Sara never knew who she was. As to where she is…I don't know. She may show up or she may not. We'll have to see. Just know this was not done maliciously. She loved your father and went to prison with him and loved you and Amy enough to let you go. I know that will never be enough but…try to understand her position."

I nodded my acceptance of the situation because if I'd opened my mouth to respond I might've lost it either way. My emotions were so screwed up as to the pain and grief, or the joy that I felt because she wasn't dead, I didn't know what to do. My self-worth took a hit because she couldn't or wouldn't face me. I wanted that opening or closure so badly. "I need to see her, to talk with her."

Hetty looked remorseful. "It may not happen. I hope she comes in today and the two of you talk but I'm not holding out any hope for that"

I looked at the cup of tea in my hands and took a sip. It was the tea that Hetty drinks when her nerves are at their breaking point and she sees nowhere to turn. I smiled inwardly at the choice but resented that she felt that I'd need it. "Why now? You never answered the question?" I took another drink of the tea. Maybe I did need that soothing effect after all.

Hetty poured herself another cup of the tea. Obviously we weren't done with this nerve wracking conversation. "Clara pressed me for this for perhaps the last year. We'd spoken of you often. I tried to keep her up to date of your exploits but it's not the same as being here and seeing it happen every day. She wanted desperately to see you, talk with you and even work side by side with you. The decision to have it happen was a hard one and one that I really did not want to make. I loathed this idea. It could never turn out well for you or either of us. It has caused you pain and that is not something I wanted for you." She lovingly touched my shoulder with her small hand. "You've had enough in your life. She's going back to Europe when she is done here. That may well be today. I don't want her to go back there. The Comescu are still looking for her and you."

I placed my now empty cup on her desk and rose to leave. "When this is done, you and I will have a good cleansing conversation. I want the rest of my history if I don't get it from my mother." I turned my back on my boss and sometime mother figure and stormed into the armory. It seems I needed a little target practice.