"I've added something more to the bedroom," Zoya spoke once they reached the bedroom. "Just look around."
Callen looked around, wondering what Zoya had added. He looked around the room but so far he didn't see anything. Then he noticed a picture frame hanging next to the TV. That wasn't here before. Callen stepped up to it and looked at it carefully. It were pictures of him, of him and his family. In the top left frame was a picture of him and his dad, it was a screengrab from the video he had. In the top right frame was a picture of him, his dad and Amy also taken from the video. In the bottom left frame was a picture of his mother, the picture he had gotten when Hetty had given him the files and in the bottom right frame was the picture of him and Alina. Callen softly let his hand go over the pictures.
"You did this?" Callen asked as he turned back around to Zoya.
Zoya could see that Callen's eyes had gotten a little watery. "Yes I did. I thought it would be nice to hang them up, instead of keeping them in your box."
Callen walked up to Zoya and wrapped his arms around her. "Thank you honey, it's beautiful. I love it."
Zoya wrapped her arms around Callen's neck. "You're welcome honey. I'm glad you love it."
"It's perfect. Thank you Zoya." Callen leaned forward and kissed Zoya.
"You're welcome Grisha."
"Did you take the pictures from the box?"
"I used those but you still have the original pictures in your box. I made new ones for in the picture frame."
"Okay. I really love it, it's very sweet of you."
"You're welcome G. I saw the picture frame online and I thought it would be nice."
"It really is nice. Our home is just perfect. Everything is beautiful, you did a great job."
"Thanks."
"I'm absolutely sure we're gonna love it here."
"Yeah I'm sure about that too. Anywhere with you is perfect."
"Yeah, you're right about that."
"I should get started on dinner."
"Dinner can wait."
Callen kissed Zoya again and backed her up to the bed. After making love Zoya went downstairs to get dinner ready. Once dinner was ready they moved a few of the things on the dinner table so there was room to eat. Once they had cleaned up after dinner they went outside. Together they lay down on the hammock. It was a beautiful April day, it was still hot outside. Callen lay on the hammock and Zoya lay in between his legs with her back against his chest. Callen had his arms wrapped around Zoya.
"I could lay here forever," Zoya admitted.
"Me too. Too bad we can't sleep outside."
"Yeah too bad, this is really comfortable but the bed upstairs is comfortable too."
"Oh that it is. How are your injuries feeling?"
"They are feeling good, they don't really hurt anymore. I'm hoping I can go back to work after my next appointment."
"When do you have to go back?"
"In two weeks. I hope I can go back then, I've had it with sitting home."
"Yeah I know how you feel. But it wasn't so bad now, you could finish our house."
"Yeah, that's true."
They lay there for a while before moving inside. They lay down on the couch and watched some TV before heading upstairs to bed.
…..
The next day Callen's team came by to help them move the stuff from their old house into their new house. They put the living room stuff into the room at the front of the house and the bedroom stuff they put in one of the spare bedrooms. The other stuff they put in another room for now, Callen and Zoya would see what they would do with these stuff. Zoya was at the old house packing a few of the last things. Once everything was gone Zoya made one more sweep of the place to make sure they had everything. Callen returned with the van to get the last few things.
"Is this everything?" Callen asked.
"Yep, we've got everything."
"Okay good."
Zoya carried the last box to the van as Callen stayed in the house. He looked around once more. He was going to miss this place but he was happy to move into the other house with Zoya. This house was special to him but he would always have the memories, it would be good to start a new chapter of his live with Zoya in their new house. Callen took one last deep sigh before leaving the house and locking the door.
"You good G?" Zoya asked as Callen got in the car.
"Yeah I'm good." Callen looked at Zoya. "I'm good, really."
"It's okay you're gonna miss this place. This place has a lot of memories for you."
"I know, but those memories will always be with me. It's a nice house but I'm loving our house now too. It's our house, our place to start our lives together. It's perfect."
"Yes it is and yeah you're right. Those memories will always be with you and we will create new ones in our house."
"Yes we will."
Callen leaned over to Zoya and gave her a kiss before he drove home. The others were still there. They stayed for some beer and pizza before going back to their houses. The house was now completely finished, everything of their old house was now here. They had put it up for sale and it was already sold. Zoya would hand the keys off with the realtor tomorrow.
…..
Callen and Sam were called out to investigate a scene where fire had taken please. A SCIF was at the location and a dead firefighter was found in there. They needed to determine if anything was stolen.
"So have you talked to Zoya about what happened in Russia?" Sam asked as they were driving to the scene.
"I have."
"That's good. I'm glad you talked to somebody about that. Does she know your name?"
"Yes she does."
"I know you got a new ID." Sam spoke as they pulled up to the scene and they got out of the car. "Let me see it."
"There's nothing to see."
"What's the big deal, G?"
"The fact that you still call me that means it really isn't." Callen pulled out his ID and showed it to the LAPD officer.
"Old habits die hard. Come on," Sam said.
"No," Callen shook his head but Sam grabbed the ID out of Callen's hand.
Sam looked at the ID. "There it is."
Callen looked back to the LAPD officer. "Thank you," he spoke and Sam and Callen walked further.
"Grisha Aleksandrovich Nikolaev Callen.
"You happy?"
"I'm pressed that it all fit on one card."
"Yeah."
"Hold up, it's an old photo. They didn't even give you a new photo."
Callen grabbed his ID back from Sam. "I like that photo."
"You look angry in that photo."
"Come on," Callen said and he walked inside.
"Probably because you didn't know your first name."
They walked inside and examined what was left. The fire had destroyed pretty much everything. Callen and Sam walked to the SCIF where Nell was. It turned out that two hard drives were missing and someone had knocked the dead firefighter out cold. After Nell left Callen and Sam went to look at the rest of the building, maybe they could find something there as to who broke into the SCIF and had killed the firefighter. With their flashlights on they walked into another room.
"Damage is even worse in here. Tight, confined space. Perfect conditions for a flashover," Callen spoke as he examined the room.
"Huh," Sam said, realizing something. He saw a firefighter behind him passing by. "Uh, can I borrow your UV light? I'll bring it back. I'll bring it back."
Sam turned off the light and turned the UV light. The wall lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Wow," Callen chuckled. "Either somebody had way too much fun in here…"
"Really G?"
"You didn't let me finish. Or three dozen people had just the right amount of fun in here."
"Okay, Howard Stern, are you finished? That's an accelerant pattern."
"Right, but it wasn't poured. It looks like it was sprayed, but from where?"
"A lightbulb," the arson chief spoke as he walked into the room.
"Do you have an idea, or….?" Callen questioned.
"No, it came from the lightbulb. You take a needle and you inject accelerant into the bulb, you screw the bulb back in, and the when the light turns on...
"Boom," Sam finished.
After looking at the scene Callen and Sam went back to the office. Here Nell and Eric told them what they had discovered. It seemed like the firefighter may have been killed by one of his own. They couldn't tip them off, that would scare him away and they would never get the hard drives so undercover mission it was. Sam and Callen were the ones to go undercover as firefighters.
Sam went to the kitchen, preparing lunch and keeping the other firefighters busy as Callen went to snoop around. Callen snooped around the gear, looking for the jacket. But he couldn't find it. All the jackets this company had were different that the ones they saw on the footage.
"What, no steak?" Callen asked as Sam joined him.
"Oh, I had one. It was delicious," Sam teased him.
Shortly after that the bells rung and they had a call out. They were actually going into a real burning building.
Zoya was driving through LA, getting some groceries, when she had to wait for a passing firetruck. She watched the truck drive by and she could have sworn she saw Callen and Sam sitting in the back of the truck. She shook her head, she must have seen it wrong, but they really looked like Callen and Sam. Once the firetrucks had past Zoya drove through. She did some groceries before going back home.
Once she was home she starting looking at some wedding venues. She and Callen had briefly talked about it and wanted to have a summer wedding. It would work well then because they both would be off from work so they could go on their honeymoon after that. Zoya picked out a few she thought looked nice. She would show them to Callen later and once they had picked one they would see if there were available for when they wanted to get married.
It was just past 6pm when Callen walked into the house.
"Hey Zoya," Callen called.
"Hey G," Zoya replied as she walked back from the patio, she was busy setting the table. "How was your day?"
"It was just fine. Had to go undercover."
"As a firefighter?"
Callen looked at Zoya with a weird face. "How did you know that?"
"I thought I saw you and Sam sitting in a firetruck earlier today when I was shopping. I thought I saw it wrong."
"Nope you didn't. Sam and I did have to go undercover. A firefighter had been killed inside a SCIF. We thought at first that it was a fellow firefighter that had killed him, so Sam and I went undercover, but he wasn't. He was killed by the arson chief, he was the one that had taken the hard drives from the SCIF. He used a possible terrorist list, he thought he was some sort of vigilante or something."
"Ah okay. So you and Sam were firefighters? Did you really have to go into the fire?"
"Yes we were and yes we had too."
"You two okay?"
"Yeah we're fine. Sam had some training as a SEAL and I volunteered with wildfire prevention when I was eighteen. It was fine."
"That's good." Zoya walked up to Callen and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I bet you looked really hot as a firefighter."
"I guess."
"I know you did." Zoya gave Callen a kiss. "Dinner is done."
"Good, I'm starving."
…..
Today Zoya had another appointment with the doctor. She really hope she would be cleared to go to work again.
"I've gotta go to work, let me know how it goes," Callen spoke as he got ready to leave.
"I will G. Have a good day and be careful."
"I will." Callen gave Zoya a kiss. "I love you."
"I love you too."
Callen gave Zoya one more kiss before he left for work. Zoya left a few minutes later to go to the doctor's office. She sat in the waiting room until she was called in. The doctor examined her and deemed her fit enough to return back to work. Zoya was really happy about that. She had missed work and the rest of her team. After she was done at the doctor's office she went to work. It was good to walk into the office building again.
…
"What do you have?" Callen asked as the agents walked into OPS.
"This morning LAPD raided a warehouse in Inglewood. After a shootout they breached and they found this," Eric told the agents and he put several pictures on the big screen.
The agents looked at the pictures. They saw some dead bodies lying on the ground and on some other pictures they saw military grade explosives and plans to make a bomb with it.
"Why did LAPD raid this place?" Callen wanted to know.
"They had gotten a tip that a street gang was hanging out here but there's clearly much more to it, that's why they send the case over to us," Nell explained.
"Alright, see if you can identify the dead guys and where they got these explosives. We'll go hit the scene."
All four agents left and went to the building. Once there they showed their badges to the LAPD officer to get on the scene. They gloved up and started looking through the place.
"Hey G," Callen suddenly heard a familiar voice behind him.
Callen turned around and saw Zoya, his Zoya, standing there.
"Zoya, what are you doing here?" Callen asked confused.
"I'm working."
"You got cleared?'
"Yes I did and I could go straight to work."
"That's great, but what are you doing here?"
"Working a case."
"So are we. Did we get the same case?"
"Perhaps. What did you get?"
"LAPD raided this place and after the shootout they found military grade explosives and plans to make a bomb. What did you get?"
"One of the dead bodies matches a person of interest of ours. We've been tracking him for a while. We had suspicions he was planning a terrorist attack but we never could get anything to stick with him but I guess we were right."
"Guess we could work together on this case then."
"I'll call my boss, have him call Hetty."
"Sure that's fine."
"Hey Zoya, good to see you again," Sam spoke as he stepped up to the two.
"Hey Sam, good to see you too."
"What are you doing here?"
"Working a case, seems like we got the same case. One of the dead guys is a person of interest of ours."
"Ah okay, well look forward to working with you then."
"Likewise."
Callen and Zoya both called their operation managers before going back to work.
"How about we go to the boatshed? Compare our notes there," Callen suggested to Zoya once they were done.
"Sure that's fine."
Callen and Sam and Zoya and her partner went to the boatshed as Deeks and Kensi and the two other agents of Zoya's team went back to their own offices.
"Grisha, Sam, this is special agent Hailey Wade," Zoya introduced her partner once they were in the boatshed. "Hailey, these are special agents Grisha Callen and Sam Hanna."
"Nice to meet you both," Hailey spoke and they all shook hands. "Grisha huh? You're Russian?"
"Yes partly I am."
"He's a cute one Zoya," Hailey said to Zoya with a smile. "You did well."
"Anyway back to the case," Zoya spoke.
Zoya filled Callen and Sam in on what they had so far on one of the dead guys. She sent everything they had to Eric and Nell so they could use it and Eric and Nell had sent everything they had over to Zoya's office. For now there wasn't much more to do than wait. Zoya called her office and had the techs come to the boatshed and Callen had Eric and Nell come to the boatshed so they techs could work together.
"Everyone, these are Liam Sutton and Keira Graves, our tech operator and intelligence analyst," Zoya introduced them.
"Nice to meet you all," both Liam and Keira spoke.
"These are Eric Beale and Nell Jones, our tech operator and intelligence analyst," Callen introduced them.
"Hi, nice to meet you," Eric and Nell spoke.
"Well let's get to work shall we?" Nell suggested.
The techs set up their stuff and connected to their offices.
"So, that's agent Callen?" Keira whispered to Nell.
"Yes he is and don't forget he's engaged to your special agent in charge."
"Oh and I know but that doesn't mean he's not cute cus he is, don't you think so?"
"Oh I don't know, I've never really looked at him that way."
"He is cute, he's got that bad boy look and those beautiful blue eyes."
"Yes, he has," Zoya spoke, suddenly appearing behind her intelligence analyst.
Keira was startled by Zoya's presence. "Sorry Zoya, I…"
"Just get back to work okay."
"Yes ma'am."
The agents looked through some info and compared thoughts as the techs were busy finding new information that could help the team.
It was about an hour later when they had some new information. The agents and the techs stood around the table and on the screen the techs showed the new information.
"So, we have compiled all of our data and looked at the dead guys that were found," Nell started. "Since you guys already had some information on this guy Keira and Liam went to look for him and anyone connected to him."
"We may have a link for him here in LA," Keira told the others. "We looked into some of his contacts and the tip LAPD had gotten on the place. The common vector between that all is this man, Ramon Sanchez." Keira put his ID on the screen. "He works at a company that transports military grade weapons and explosives. Now according to the records the last shipment never arrived, it was supposed to arrive this morning but it never did and the company can't find the truck anymore."
"So it could be that Ramon was driving this truck and delivered the guns to the gang instead of where they were supposed to go," Zoya spoke. "Did Ramon show up for work this morning?"
"Yes he was clocked in."
"The only way we're gonna find out who exactly stole that truck is to go undercover there. Are they hiring someone?"
Kiera pressed a few keys on her tablet. "Yes they are looking for a new receptionist and a new delivery truck driver."
"That could work. You're up for some undercover work G?"
"Yeah sure, but you're not going undercover."
"Why not? I'm an agent."
"You just got back from an injury."
"Oh come on G. I'm perfectly capable to go undercover. I wouldn't be back at work if I wasn't." Zoya sorta yelled at him.
"You just returned to work. I'm not sure it's the best thing to do right now."
The others looked as the pair argued. Sam smiled a bit, he had some of these discussions with Michelle too sometimes.
"I'll be fine G, this is my job. You would do exactly the same."
Callen knew she was right, he would do the same and he had done the same when he came back to work after his near fatal shooting.
"Fine," Callen sighed. "Just be careful."
"I will G, I promise. You too."
"I will."
They gave each other a quick kiss before going to their offices to get ready. Zoya arrived at the company first and after her meeting with the CEO she took her place behind the receptionist desk. A little later Callen walked in.
"Good morning sir, how can I help you?" Zoya asked politely.
"Good morning, I'm here to see Mr. Darren."
"Do you have an appointment?"
"Yes it should be in there."
"What's your name?"
"Adam Reid," Callen answered and Zoya pressed a few keys on the keyboard.
"Ah yes I see Mr. Reid….."
"Please call me Adam."
"Alright Adam, have a seat over there and I'll let Mr. Darren know you're here."
"Thank you."
Callen flashed a smile at Zoya. That damn smile that made her go weak in the knees. It was a good thing she was sitting down. She picked up the phone and called Darren. A little later he came to pick up Callen.
"Well, I guess you'll be seeing more of me," Callen spoke a little later when he was back in the entrance way. "I'm gonna be working here too."
"That's nice, welcome."
"Thanks. It seems like a nice place."
"It is, I think. I haven't been here long either, just started this morning."
"Well, that's nice. I guess we were both meant to start today then huh."
"I guess so."
"I'll see you around."
"I'll be looking forward to it."
Callen left and Zoya went back to her work, she was busy trying to find out if she could find anything that could be useful. During lunch hour it was quiet in the company so Zoya took her chance to snoop around. She used one of her keys to get into the server room and connected hers and Callen's office to the company servers. She was just about done when she heard someone coming into the room. She was about to hide when she noticed who it was.
"G, what are you doing here?" Zoya softly spoke.
"Just checking on you, have you found anything?"
"No, not so far. Just hacked into the servers. Our techs have access to it."
"Okay good."
"Have you found anything?"
"No, not much yet. I haven't been able to talk to Ramon yet, but something's definitely off here. They are not really trusting the newbie just yet."
They were about to leave the room when they heard someone else coming into the server room.
