I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THE NCIS:LA CHARACTERS, ONLY MY OWN.
Standing at the sink, Annette smiled before she turned to face her daughter. "Why do you need them right now?"
"I was going to have Marty look them over. I get my first check on Wednesday and I was going to file them next week and hire a process server to find Jason."
Annette couldn't hide her smile, "Why are you in such a hurry to file for divorce?"
Marnie smiled sheepishly at her Mother. "You know exactly why, Mom. I want to be able to tell him how I feel with a clear conscience. I was going to give him a copy of the signed, filed and served divorce papers for Christmas and finally tell him I love him."
Annette's face went serious. "How do you know he feels the same?"
Marnie's smile fell. "I don't, but what else do I have to lose? The kids love him and we've spent the last two weekends over there. Mom, he's talking about setting up rooms for the kids so they can have a little privacy if they want. Granted they'll be sleeping on the floor until we can get my furniture out of storage, but why else would he clear out two rooms for them? We're going to be over there cooking Wednesday night and Thursday morning and we're probably going to just stay there. I'm ready Mom, I want this. I want Callen to be in our lives as more than just a friend. I love him." She said on the verge of tears. "I lost him once and I won't let it happen again."
Annette walked over and placed her hand on Marnie's cheek. "I hope you're not setting yourself up for disappointment." She said looking outwardly worried, but inside she was jumping for joy.
No sooner did Marnie make herself a cup of coffee and go out to the back yard, Annette was on the phone. "She's looking for the papers." She whispered trying not to wake anyone else.
"Why?" He asked.
"She's going to file and give them to you for Christmas. Marnie want to tell you she loves you." She told him beaming.
"Well, she's in for one hell of a surprise isn't she." He laughed.
"Have you served them yet?"
"No, Sam and I are headed down there this afternoon. Jason should be home by the time we get there."
"Just tell me, please. You do love her, don't you?"
"Yes I do." He told her and heard Annette's breathing hitch.
Callen was waiting outside when Sam pulled up. "A little eager to get to work this morning?"
"I got a call from Annette this morning, Marnie's looking for her divorce papers. Apparently she was going to file next week and give me a copy for Christmas." He said looking lighter than air.
"You're going to marry her aren't you?"
"That's the plan." Callen grinned.
"You know you're going to have to do it before Annette gets any sicker." Sam pointed out.
"I know, I was planning on proposing over Christmas and it's up to Marnie as to when we actually get married. Hey, are you guy going back to New York this year?"
"Always, why?" Sam asked looking at Callen while stopped at a red light.
"When are you leaving?" He asked.
"You still didn't answer my question, why?"
"Marnie mentioned wanting to have one last huge Christmas for Annette, but can't afford what she wants to do." He said and started to explain when Sam interrupted.
"You're taking them to New York for Christmas?" He asked excitedly.
"Yes, and I'm going to need your help. I wasn't going to tell Marnie, but I think it's best if I do so she doesn't go out of her way planning a Christmas at home."
"Michelle and I will help in any way we can." Sam assured him.
Marnie had noticed a lot of hushed conversations around her or conversations that would cease when she walked into the area and she'd had about enough of it. Even Hetty smiled knowingly at her. She was becoming very uncomfortable and wondered if maybe her performance was lacking. However, Nell had been in the field once over the last week and while Marnie limped through, she was able to get everything the team needed. So much that Hetty even invited her to her office for a celebratory drink that evening. No matter what happened, Marnie loved her job and learned something new every day. She vowed to try harder, being that she still had two and a half months left of her probationary period.
Sam looked at his watched and nodded towards the door. Callen smiled as he started packing his bag. Kensi and Deeks grinned like mad. Hetty walked over and offered a few words before they left. Sam had to laugh at Callen's excitement. He'd never seen him giddy and that was the only word to describe Callen's behavior as they pulled onto the five south. Once they were through the down town traffic, it was smooth sailing until they hit the San Onofre gate at Camp Pendleton.
Sam flashed his badge and received the usual wave through at the gate by some snot-nosed non-NCO. They wound their way through Northern tip of the base on Stagecoach Road to Vandergrift and out the back gate and turned left onto College Boulevard. Callen was tapping on his knee while they waited for the light to change so they could turn left onto the seventy-eight towards Vista. Once they got into Vista, Callen pulled out his phone and gave Sam the directions to the house. They pulled up just in time to see Jason pull up in a brand new Dodge Ram twenty-five hundred.
It took everything Callen had not to jump out of the Challenger and pound him into the ground. Here Marnie and her mother scrounged everything they could to buy the kids what they could for school until Sam and Michelle stepped. They waited until he was in the house before Sam gave Callen a wild smile and climbed out of the car. He could smell dinner cooking; an almost nauseating stench; as he walked up to the door. Sam rang the bell and a small dog went crazy.
"Brewster, that's enough." A man shouted before he opened the door. He stopped and gave Sam the once over with a snarl until Sam gave him one right back. "Can I help you?"
"Jason Wilson?" Sam asked calmly, suppressing the urge to punch him. A pretty blonde walked to the door. He waited for Jason to confirm his identity and once he did, held out the papers waiting for him to take them. When he did, Sam simply said. "You've just been served."
Jason looked at the papers. "What is this?" He asked horrified, with the blonde looking over his shoulder. By Sam's guess she had to be no more than twenty-three, twenty-four. A pretty girl if you're into the trophy type, definitely not someone you'd want to take home to your mother.
"Dissolution of Marriage?!" She shouted and swiped the papers from him. "I thought you told me you were already divorced and you have not one but three kids? You asshole, you told me the baby was with some girl in North Carolina."
"Ally, let me explain, this is a mistake." Jason pleaded. "That's not even my wife's name?"
Sam clenched his fists and centered himself as Jason denied even being married to Marnie. The girl walked away and returned with a driver's license. "Really you son of a bitch, why does the name on this license match the name of the woman who's divorcing you?"
Jason tried to grab the license out of her hand. "Where did you find that?"
"In your shit." She screamed. "No wonder she's divorcing you, you're fucking cheating on her…with me!"
The next thing Sam knew, she snacked him across the face and pulled back for a second attempt when Jason grabbed her wrist. The two struggled and toppled over. In one swift move, she had Jason on his back, punching him in the head. As Jason tried to block, the girl stood and kicking him in the crotch. "Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to stop or I'll have to call the police." Sam said between giggles and cringes as she kept at her barrage of blows and kicks.
Seven minutes later two Vista Sheriff's cruiser's pulled into the driveway. The two were pulled off one another and cuffed, Sam gave his statement. Sam returned to the Challenger and laughed for ten minutes while he tried to tell Callen how she beat the crap out of Jason. Callen kicked himself for staying in the car at the base of the driveway behind the neighbor's fence. Amid their laughter they agreed that while it wasn't exactly what Jason deserved, it was a start.
Callen grinned like the Cheshire cat when he knocked on Marnie's door. Her father answered and shook his hand as Callen walked in. "Hello Mr. Armstrong, how are you tonight?"
Nick laughed. "Every night it's the same thing. Please call me Nick, by the look on your face I take it things went well?"
Callen burst into laughter again. "Oh yes, very well. From what Sam said, he should have a nice shiner in the morning."
Nick chuckled, wishing he could've been there to see this soon-to-be-ex-son-in-law get the crap kicked out of him by his new girlfriend. "Marnie and Annette are in the kitchen getting dinner for us adults pulled together, come on in."
Callie, Alec and Avery ran through the house yelling at the top of their lungs and nearly jumped on Callen. He sat for a few minutes talking with the kids about their day at school, while watching Marnie look over her shoulder at them as she stirred the pot of spaghetti. Her smile priceless. God he loved her and within a few days she'd know. Even after hearing it from Annette this morning, he was still nervous that she'd be angry with him for filing the papers.
After dinner was finished and the dishwasher loaded, Callen and Marnie spent some time with the kids at his house before they brought them back for bed. The kids were anxious and excited for the Thanksgiving break, knowing that their mother and Callen both were off for four days straight. Callen had promised to take the kids Christmas shopping for their mother that weekend. After talking a little with her parents, they wandered back over to his house.
"What's going on at work?" Marnie asked as Callen handed her a beer.
"What do you mean what's going on at work?" He asked truly clueless as to what she was referring to.
"You can't tell me you haven't seen it or know what I'm talking about. Hell G, you're part of it too. I can walk into the bullpen or even Ops and everyone stops talking. Or everyone's whispering around me. What's going on?" She asked point blank.
Callen pushed off the counter and laughed. "Marnie, it's nothing."
"No, I'm not imagining it, it's not nothing." She snapped.
"Marnie, it's the holidays. There's always a lot of hushed conversations around the holidays. I think you're reading into things more than you need to." He told her.
"I don't believe you, something's up." She told him and stalked off to the living room.
