A/N - Sorry for the long delay - a non-self imposed hiatus due to a storm taking out our internet. By the time the provider checked everything and sent replacement equipment it was over a week later! And the big kicker - I write on multiple difference devices so store my documents in the cloud - no internet - no writing! Though I did get some other things caught up since I couldn't sit and obsess all day on the computer. Got to look for those silver linings.

All back to normal now.

Hawk - Thanks for your review. Getting that closure and chance to say goodbye was definitely something she needed. Home is that tricky place isn't it. We'll see.

Thanks once again for the support. I'm glad you all enjoyed the wolf/meadow scene.

Onward we go with Romania Part 3.

CHAPTER 14

Romania Part 3

Callen opened the rental car door and waited as Sofia slipped off her sandals.

"The beach?" She looked up at him curiously. "Don't we have those in LA?"

Callen closed her door and held out his hand. "Not this one." His fingers closed around hers as he led them down the steps to the sand. His heart was pounding slightly harder in his chest than he would've like it to be. He wasn't entirely sure how what he was about to tell her would go but he was following his instincts and they had a pretty good track record of steering him in the right direction.

"What is it about this beach that's so special?" Sofia asked him.

The sand was soft and warm underneath his bare feet. "It's where my mother died," Callen answered quietly. Sofia stopped and the resistance against his hand brought him to a stop as well. Callen turned to face her.

"Here?" Sofia queried tentatively.

Callen nodded.

"You remember it?" she asked.

"Not much. I remember looking at her and her smiling at me. The next time she was already dead." The picture in Callen's head wasn't clear to the child he had been but it was clear to him as the adult he was now.

Sofia slipped her arm around his waist and leaned her head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "That's not something any child should have to see."

"I didn't see it," Callen told her. "Just the effect. At least not that I know of."

"That would be a memory most would want to forget."

Her voice was so gentle and caring Callen felt the tears push against his eyes. She pulled emotions from him that he would normally be able to keep buried.

"Yet I want to remember, to know for sure what happened, and can't." Callen was silent for a few moments, enjoying the comfort from her this time. She'd been through so much this trip that she had needed comfort for where as his memories tended to revolve around happy ones - with her. "That's not the reason I brought you here," he said. Callen shifted her so she faced away from him. He stepped in close behind her and, over her shoulder, he pointed to the house on the hill. "See that house?"

"Yes."

"It was theirs. Comescu's."

"Oh."

Callen turned her around to face him. "I thought ... " He brushed some hair back from her face. "I hoped it would help you if you saw it." Callen's hand settled on her shoulder. "That is where we took most of them down. Maybe it might help you believe they're gone. You know they had Hetty. We came to get her and that was when I remembered that it was here that my mother died."

Sofia frowned. "They lived there?"

Callen nodded.

"Then or after?"

"Then. I checked."

"This was the meeting point that your mother was told to come to?" Sofia asked, disbelief clear in her tone.

"Mama?" Grisha looked up at his mother, his hand held hers tight.

"Play. Smile." She reached and brushed his hair back from his forehead even though it was nowhere near his eyes. "Soon we'll be safe. Someone is coming to get us. Have fun and don't worry my beautiful boy."

Grisha could see the worry in her eyes even though she was smiling at them as if nothing was wrong.

"Is it Papa coming to get us?" Amy asked.

The smile turned sad and the hint of tears came into his mother's eyes.

"No my sweet girl. Not this time. But when he can he'll find us."

Grisha watched as Amy slipped off to the waters edge. He was tempted to join her. It had been a long time since he'd played in the sea, but he didn't want to go so far away from his mother. Instead he knelt in the sand to make a sandcastle.

"Yes." Callen briefly closed his eyes and pushed back the emotion that the new memory brought forward. "She told us to have fun. Someone was coming to take us somewhere safe ... She was wrong." Callen focused back on why he'd brought Sofia here. "They're gone. I want you to know they won't hurt you again." She'd spent forty years running, hiding and dreading them finding her. It was important to him that she didn't feel that anymore.

"What about the one who was left?" Sofia asked. "Ilena wasn't it?"

"She's no threat," Callen assured her. "She left the family a long time ago. Hated what they did. Helped us get someone on the inside."

"Oh." Sofia turned slightly and her gaze drifted up to the house. "Why here though? If they were there, isn't it just like taking you to them?"

"Yeah." It was something that had bothered him too since he'd realised where his mother had died and that the Comescu's had lived nearby. "Hetty was called off from the meeting. We don't know why."

"Someone on the inside?" Sofia asked.

"It's possible but it was a long time ago. I doubt I'll ever get answers to what happened here." Hetty didn't know why either, though he suspected she'd yet to give up trying to find out.

Sofia turned and studied him for a moment. "I could try-"

Callen shook his head and cut off her words. "No." As much as he wanted to remember, he didn't want that.

"Grisha -"

"No. I don't want you to," Callen said firmly. "You've been hurt enough and who knows what you might see."

Sofia smiled. "If you really don't want me to I won't but I would like to help. You've given me so much."

Callen shook his head again and Sofia gave a little nod of acknowledgement. She reached up and cupped his cheek. "Very well, but if you change your mind..." she said softly. Callen caught her hand against his cheek and their eyes locked.

"I won't."

Thoughts of his mother, lost memories and his past slipped from Callen's mind. She was so close. He was positive from the little things that had been between them this trip and over the two weeks before that she was interested in exploring where they could go on a personal level beyond friendship. His gaze dropped to her lips before returning to hers. Acceptance, interest, a flicker of heat that he recognised from that night that seemed so long ago. A night that was supposed to just be one night. A night that had changed his life in so many ways. Callen felt Sofia's hand slide a little toward the back of his neck, a slight pressure to it inviting him forward. Her eyes dropped to his lips and back again.

"Fi?"

Sofia smiled and the space between them started to close.

A sudden gasp from Sofia broke the moment. Her eyes went wide and she started to fall. Callen caught her before she did and lowered them both to the sand.

"Fi, what's wrong?"

Her breath was fast and she looked at him with those eyes that were still wide and glazed, like he'd seen those times when a memory pulled her into the past.

"Fi?"

She blinked and the haze disappeared. Her pale green eyes stayed wide and became full of something that he wasn't expecting. Surprise and amazement.

"Fi?"

"Ilie and Darius," she whispered her fingers gripping his arm tightly.

"Who?"

"The two men who took you all away from the camp."

Callen thought back to the brief memory of being on the horse that night. It had become slightly clearer with time. "I remember someone with dark long hair. He was holding Amy on her horse that night. Someone was holding me but I didn't see him. My mother was on one on her own."

Sofia nodded. "Darius. Ilie must've been holding you. He had short hair, Darius long."

Callen was pulled in two directions. Part of him not wanting to ask, not wanting to know if she'd seen something horrible, but the other part, the part that craved answers wanted to. She'd already seen it. Would it really hurt her anymore to share it with him?

Sofia didn't give him a chance to ask.

"You were looking at a small toy soldier, a sound made you turn to your mother. She was dead. You looked up and there was the shooter, his gun pointed at you." Her breath stumbled and her voice lowered, a hint of pain to it. "You weren't supposed to survive."

Callen's heart thudded in his chest. What had she seen?

"How did I?" he asked, not entirely sure he was ready for the answer.

"You were looking at him," Sofia continued, "the shooter."

Small flashes of the memory she was referring to kept flickering through Callen's mind. Snapshots he could place in that memory but not full scenes. There didn't seem to be an order to them. He couldn't put it together alone.

"You were scared but before he could shoot, Ilie tackled him to the ground. Told you to run. You heard Darius call your name. You turned to him." Sofia took a breath and Callen took over.

"He already had Amy." The memory was right there but not quite fully in his reach. "Was coming to me. I started to run…" Callen tried but he couldn't seem to place the next bit from the jumble in his mind. He stared at her, the words on the tip of his tongue to beg her to help him. She knew and he didn't have to say it.

"You ran," Sofia said, "and when you were almost to Darius there was a noise, just like the one you'd heard that made you look at your mother. You stopped and turned. The shooter was lying still, facedown in the sand. Illie was struggling to get up. Darius caught your hand and was starting to move to him but Ilie told him no. Told him to take you two and run."

The memory was falling into place quickly with her help. Callen nodded. "There was a knife in his chest," he said.

"Yes," Sofia confirmed.

"He died."

"I would assume so. He fell back down into the sand just as Darius started to pull you away."

Now he could remember the full memory. Darius had been pulling him along, trying to move them quickly but Callen's small legs didn't go fast enough so Darius had picked Callen up in his arms and run. Amy being older and taller had been able to keep up enough.

Something around his heart tightened - grief, pain, disbelief maybe. How many more people would he discover died because of this feud that had nothing to do with him? It started with his great grandfather and Callen had ended it but it hadn't been confined to just his and the Comescu's family. So many innocent people and lives destroyed.

"I'm sorry you had to see that." Callen pulled away from Sofia. At least he tried. She wouldn't let him go and gave him a look that told him not to bother again. He stopped, unsure. He'd failed to protect her from further pain. This was why he hadn't wanted her to try and look. Maybe it was a sign that he should walk away before he hurt her anymore. Memories for Sofia could be just as painful as something physical, perhaps even more so since she'd never forget where as physical pain would heal. But then physical pain would also leave a memory too.

"Why?" Sofia asked him quietly yet firmly.

It took Callen a moment to realise what she was asking of him. "More bad memories for you," he answered.

Sofia shook her head. "No Grisha. That's not what I take from that memory."

"You saw more people die. People you knew. That must've hurt."

"Oh my sweet protective Grisha." Sofia smiled and rose from her knees. Callen stood too and before he could step away she had both his hands in hers making sure he stayed within her reach. Whatever this connection was between them seemed to give her an insight into him that not too many people had. It rivalled those who had managed to know him for a long time and well. Like Sam. Gibbs. Hetty almost but there were too many barriers to this kind of connection with Hetty.

"The deaths were a tragedy, yes." Sofia held his gaze with hers. "But that isn't what the memory truly shows."

"Ilie died. My mother died." Callen didn't care that the shooter had died. "Why is it anyone connected to me seems to die?"

That may be a slight exaggeration but it wasn't far off it. Hetty had almost died coming here to protect him. How none of them ended up injured, or worse, when they'd attacked the Comescu compound Callen had no idea. How many times had Sam put himself on the line for him as well? Gibbs had done the same. Alina, Hunter, Renko. Who else was going to be hurt because of him?

"Why did Ilie die?" Sofia asked him.

"I ..." Callen couldn't answer. He couldn't say 'because of me' to her. What if it caused her to run, to get away from him so it didn't happen to her? As much as he didn't want her to be hurt because of him, he didn't want to let her go from his life. Was he really such a selfish bastard?

"He was protecting you and Amy," Sofia said firmly. "He and Darius stayed. They didn't just deliver you to the meeting point and run. I'm guessing they wanted to make sure your mother met her contact safely. That you were all safe." She squeezed his hand. "When she was shot, they would've realised it wasn't the contact she was supposed to meet. That was when Ilie came to stop the shooter killing you. He protected you."

"He died because of me."

"No," Sofia shook her head. "Not because of you. He died because of them and because of the kind of man he was. He died for you and Amy. For two innocent children. And then Darius protected you. Somehow he must've got you far from their reach."

"Why would they do that? For someone they barely knew?" Callen blinked back the tears. He wanted to turn his back on this conversation, try and forget the tally of deaths that just continued to go up because of him, his family. Because of something a man he'd never met had done.

"Because," Sofia cupped his cheek and their eyes connected, "like you they were kind, loyal, caring and brave men. I remember Ilie being there for Papa when Mama died. He would take Papa fishing or for a walk while his wife, Ana, would look after me."

No. Not more to add. It was hard enough dealing with knowing all those who had been in the camp let alone adding connections and names to who they were. "Ilie had a wife?" Callen asked. "Children?" Even he could hear the despair in his voice.

"No children." Sofia shook her head and Callen felt something akin to relief. "Not for them," she continued, "but they looked after any child who needed extra help as if they were their own, including me."

"His wife?"

Sofia's look turned sad. "A few months before you arrived at the camp Ana got very sick. She didn't survive. It had nothing to do with you."

The relief grew a little more with that revelation.

"Darius? Did he have a family?

"No. I don't know if there was someone but there was no wife or children for him." Her voice lowered. "It was Darius who came that night to warn us all. My father told me. Darius is why we are still alive."

Callen hated to ask the question but once the thought had taken root in his head he had to know. "Are you sure he wasn't the traitor?" Someone had taken them to a place right under Comescu's nose. Maybe...

"No he wasn't." Sofia shook her head. "No chance. If Darius was the traitor, with Ilie dead he had no one to witness anything he did. He could've just delivered you to them on the hill, or killed the two of you himself. But he didn't. You're here. That's solid proof that Darius was not the traitor."

Callen could tell she believed that with everything she had and so he did as well.

Her other hand cupped his other cheek and Callen briefly closed his eyes at her touch. A tear fell from one closed eye and when her thumb caught it he opened and stared at her.

"Is it any wonder you do what you do?" There was a tenderness in Sofia's voice that reminded Callen of when she'd spoken to the deer in the meadow.

Callen frowned in confusion. "I do what I do because I'm good at being someone else. Life in foster care gave that to me."

There was a reason he didn't tend to be himself with anyone. Protection. It had hurt too much to be him. The little boy with no parents, no family, not even ones he could remember. The little boy nobody seemed to want to keep. It was easier to be someone else and push the real him deep into a box and seal it. Only with her was it impossible to keep that box sealed. She pulled the real him out and he couldn't do a thing about it.

Yet with her, he didn't seem to mind. With her, the pain was manageable. Perhaps with her, given time, he would heal and the pain would stop. It was already starting - he wasn't the lost little boy with no family or no one to want him. He was looking at someone who did very much want him in her life back then and now.

"Life gave you much more than that," Sofia said, tears shined in her eyes. "Because if it didn't you could just as easily have been something else. Even one of the bad guys. Being able to be someone else doesn't automatically mean you are good. Before that part of your childhood, two men showed you a wonderful example of protecting the innocent. Which is what you do now."

"I .. I get the bad guys more than that." Callen was no hero. He just did what he was good at.

"And by taking down the bad guys, just like Ilie." Sofia's tone was firm and confident. "You protect the innocent. By helping protect those who are in trouble until they are safe again, you are just like Darius." A few tears overflowed from her eyes and Callen saw the belief in what she was saying shining in her eyes behind those tears that had yet to fall.

"I didn't want you to see more bad things," Callen told her. "You'll never forget it." If she stayed with him, there was a risk she'd see more memories of his; things he didn't even want to remember because of how dark they were.

"I don't want to forget it."

Callen frowned. "Why not? I do." He would love to forget how many people had died because of his family.

"Grisha, don't you think Ilie and Darius deserve to have their bravery and courage remembered?"

It was like a sudden blow to the stomach that came out of nowhere. It hit him swiftly and unexpectedly that she was right. Callen didn't want to remember that more people had died to protect him. But when you looked at it from a different perspective, it was a wonderful thing. Two men who barely knew them had sacrificed everything in an attempt to keep his mother, Amy and himself safe. They could just as easily have walked away and saved themselves but they didn't. Weren't they men that a young boy would want to aspire to be like? Good and brave, courageous and giving.

"You're right. They do," Callen admitted.

"Perhaps one day you'll remember what happened to Darius." Sofia let her hand drop from his cheek and rested it on his chest. "And more but for now, know this. Those two men were some of the most unselfish men I have ever had the privilege to know." Her thumb rubbed gently over his heart. "Just like you."

Callen put his hand over hers on his chest. "You almost died because of me."

Sofia shook her head. "I almost died because of them. Not you."

"You stay in my life, there will be enemies who want to hurt me. They'll come after you."

Sofia raised an eyebrow and stared into his eyes. "And you would just let them take me?"

"No! I'd find you. Always." His response was instantly pulled from him. It surprised him in the force behind it and the quick shaft of pain that flared at the thought of someone taking her. Yet he knew his response was pure and true. "You just left that life of looking over your shoulder behind. You can't want to do it again."

"No," Sofia admitted and Callen's heart stuttered in his chest before speeding up. He'd just opened the door for her to walk away and he instantly wished he hadn't.

"I don't want to live a life looking over my shoulder," Sofia said, her other hand coming to rest over the top of their hands that were still held against his chest. "But I do want to live the rest of it with my friend - with you - in my life."

"You can't -" Sofia shook her head and he stopped.

"I choose this life this time, Grisha. I choose not to lose you again." Her voice softened. "I didn't get the choice before. Don't you think that after everything I've been through I deserve to choose how I live my life from now on?"

Callen nodded, not able to say anything. His throat and chest were tight and there was an overwhelming feeling of relief that she hadn't taken him up on his offer.

Sofia pulled her hands from his, put her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Callen's arms slipped around her waist and tightened, bringing her body flush against his.

"Then I choose this," Sofia whispered right next to his ear. "With you ... To have you, someone that I have always been free to be who I really am, in my life." Her head settled on his shoulder and she held him tight. "I choose you." Her words whispered over the skin of his neck and went straight to his heart.

Tears fell from his eyes. Callen let them, knowing that the way they were right now, she wouldn't see them. Then he smiled. She might not see them but he had no doubt she knew they were there.

Because she knew him and he couldn't hide from her.

He didn't want to hide. Not from her.