A/N: Thank you for those who left reviews for the last chapter. Just to clarify, Callen is still alive, but NCIS is giving the illusion that he died in the crash for protection. I hope this chapter helps clarify more about why Cairns was after Callen.

Chapter 27

Thea lifted her head up to the blue sky and praised God for saving her husband from certain death. After speaking with Stephen, her spirits lifted. She still had to wait a week before he could arrive at Flathead Lake, but he was safe and alive, healing and moving. Two more broken ribs, the same ones from Mexico. She continued to hold a grudge against Mosley for her husband's near-death over three months ago, now her anger was aimed at a new culprit, Eric Cairns. He'd lost his position at Langley and will face time in prison, but even that didn't give her enough comfort. Not until she held her husband in her own arms and saw that he was indeed safe.

Movement from behind her caught her attention. John Callen had returned and this time he was not alone. He had returned with his wife, Natalia, and a familiar face, her neighbour, Audrey Harper.

She moved swiftly up the hill to meet them, demanding answers as to why John had brought Audrey to their safe place.

"Why is she here?" Thea burst out immediately.

"Walk with me, Thea. Please." John led her away from the vehicle, out of hearing from Audrey.

"Jason Harper was my son, my long lost son from over thirty years ago. He was ten when his mother left me. I thought I had lost him for good, only to discover he'd found me, and it led him to become an agent. His mother changed their family name, that is why I never found them. Audrey is pregnant with my grandchild, and Sean was family to your husband and children. Until it is safe for her to return to L.A., she needs somewhere safe. She's scared and grieving. She needs you all to get through this pregnancy."

"By bringing her here, you place us all in danger."

"No, I haven't. It's safe now. Eric Cairns and his men have been arrested."

"Then why can't she return to L.A.?"

"We need to tie up the loose ends on who these Russian mercenaries are before you can all return home."

"Do we know why Eric Cairns framed our people and wants my husband dead?"

"Agent Jack Sloane has found some interesting facts about Cairns. Let me fill you all in at once."

"I do not want my children to know anything about this. Tell me here." Her patience had run dry.

"Please, let me tell you all at once." John urged her. "Kensi's mother can entertain the children while we talk."

Thea nodded her head. Her eyes shifted to the new visitors, studying John's wife before shifting to Audrey—the neighbour she never had much opportunity to know very well before now.

"Thea?" Audrey took a step towards her. "I'm sorry if my being here is a concern to you. I never wanted any harm to come to you or your family."

"Yet, your husband knew we were in danger and said nothing." Thea bit on her tongue to stop the blame that rushed out. "I'm sorry, Audrey. You did not deserve that."

"You are right. I did know. Jason, I mean, Sean, he told me to tell Stephen to run if anything happened to him. I wanted to know more but he asked me to trust him. For months I sat on the knowledge that there was a threat out on your husband. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what happened to him too."

Thea's eyes shifted to John for clarification. "She knows?"

"No, actually," John admitted, sheepishly. He turned to Audrey, "I apologise, I was under strict instruction to not tell you until we reached here. Stephen is alive."

Audrey heaved out a heavy breath. Relief washed over her. "Thank goodness for that. What happened?"

"Let's go inside and talk." John walked up beside her and led her inside.

"Thea?" Natalia Carston called out to her.

"I'm sorry. You must be Natalia. Hello. It's nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine. To meet any family of John's is a long time coming. My children are cousins to your husband. We are family, and I hope we can get to know you all."

"For a long time, Stephen never knew he had any family. We would like that very much." Thea drew in a sharp breath. "How is Garrison?"

"He is well and sends his love to you. He misses you all and cannot wait to reunite with you soon."

"You know where he is?"

Natalia smiled with warmth. "I do. I think you'll figure it out soon enough."

"He's where?" Her mind rushed at Formula one speed.

"If you needed to be safe where would you go?"

"At one time, I knew exactly where. Really?"

"Really."

Thea smiled warmly. Although their cabin on Morseby Island held some difficult memories, they'd rebuilt and enjoyed flying there for vacation whenever they could. Especially knowing that their aliases were intact and they were safe.

"He loves it up there."

"That he does. It was his idea."

"That doesn't surprise me at all. That's calmed me a great deal."

"And I'm sure you'll settle more once your husband returns."

"Yes, I will be."

They settled around the large dining table while the children played outside with Julia. The quietness was almost unbearable for Thea before John started.

"Agent Jacqueline Sloane in D.C. found some interesting facts about Eric Cairns, that even I wasn't privy to. It explains a great deal. I'll start at the beginning."

Blood pulsed past Thea's eardrums and she couldn't believe everything John was telling them. An attack on her husband because of a kind action by his father to give Eric's mother a new life in the U.S. Rage grew within her.

She rose from the table and walked outside, the need for fresh air was strong. Someone else with Russian ties who'd been after her husband all because of who his father was. Would their children also be killed because of who their grandfather is?

"Thea," John called out after her. Her pace was quick and he had to run to catch up with her. "Stop."

"I think I've heard enough."

"I'm sorry that your husband has spent his life being hunted."

"Even though he lived with a letter for a name and spent his life far away from any family, he remains the target for anyone who has it in for his father. It's not fair. He never deserved any of it, nor the attack from the Comescus. Enough!"

"Thea. Please calm down. Hetty's told me that you are pregnant again. Please think of the baby."

She took in a greedy breath and slowly released it. "I'll calm down when Stephen is here and I know he is safe. That the danger that's chased after him for most of his life has gone for good. I'm sick of the running and hiding. I want—I need our children to grow up living their lives in a happy and safe environment."

"Look at your children, Thea! They are safe and happy, running around wearing Julia out. Just look at them. They have no idea about the danger that their father's been in."

"Don't assume anything," Thea warned. "You cannot pass anything by Alice. She knows."

"But she's happy. She settled that first day when I turned up because you gave her reassurance that everything was okay. If you continue with this anger, they will worry."

John was right and Thea nodded. "It doesn't mean I have to listen any more about Eric Cairns."

"Okay, deal." John pulled her in for a hug. Thea capitulated and held him too.

"I'm, sorry. I've been selfish. You've lost your son." She stepped back from him, the guilt from her behaviour weighed on her shoulders.

"And you almost lost your husband. You have every right to be angry. I've wanted in on the interviews but Director Vance forbad it. I wanted to kill them all slowly with my own hands. Sean did not deserve to die."

"No, he did not." Thea took another greedy breath. "How is Audrey dealing with the news over who Sean really was?"

"It's been tough on her, losing her husband, being pregnant and alone. Then to find out he wasn't Jason Harper. She's doing far better than to be expected."

Thea nodded, she understood part of what the woman was going through—she herself was almost in Audrey's position.

"You believe she'll be better off here than in a safe house somewhere?"

"I couldn't think of anywhere better than for her to be with family."

"You want her to stay with you and your family, even after it's safe for her to return home." Thea realised just how much John wanted and needed this.

"She and the baby are all I have left of Sean." John chewed on the inside of his cheek and it reminded Thea all too much of her husband. She wrapped her arms around him.

"I'm sorry. I really am." Thea stepped back. "You are welcome to stay, but I'm not sure how long we'll stay here. After Stephen is released from the hospital, as soon as he's ready, we'll head home."

"You're happy to return to where—" he couldn't say anything further. Knowing he'd been in the house next to his long lost son hours before he was murdered, tore at him.

Thea quickly shook her head. "No. Never there. Our old home." Her eyes darted around them. "Where you took Garrison."

John nodded, he realised what she meant. "Natalia told you."

"All she said was that it wouldn't take me long to figure out where he was."

"It's beautiful there, I can see why you love it." His eyes scanned around him. "A bit like here, but more isolated."

"Yes. We need to forget what happened in L.A., and to Stephen."

"Will you return to L.A.?"

"I haven't spoken to Stephen yet, but we agreed, if anyone came after him or any of us again, we'll leave, this time for good. At least our aliases haven't been burned, and they didn't find us living next door. We can't take the chance we'll be safe the next time someone comes hunting after him or any one of us." Her hand shifted her to her belly and a smile formed. She could feel the slight rise. What a change a few days made.

John watched her and he matched her smile. "Family is the most important commodity we have in this life. Hold onto them all. Keep them safe."

"I intend on making sure of it." She headed back to the house. She had bridges to mend in forming a friendship with Audrey. For her husband's family's sake.

In all the years Jack Sloane had worked as a Forensic Psychologist, she rarely didn't find the motive behind the perpetrator's behaviour. Eric Cairns was no different, although, she never understood their reasoning.

Jack stood next to Leon Vance in the viewing room while CIA Director, Gary Sharp, entered the viewing room. Eric Cairns looked up and a smile appeared when he saw him. The smile quickly faded when he saw the rage that simmered under Sharp's cool facade. Cairns knew that look well. Sharp was good at disguising his rage, but only to those who didn't know him well. Eric knew Sharp for over twenty years. He knew everything about the man before him, and he went on alert.

"CIA Director Gary Sharp is now interviewing former Deputy Director, Eric Cairns." Sharp sounded formal. Any friendship the two men had, vanished like a vapour of breath as it had never existed.

"I can explain." Eric began.

"I hope you can because I'm still trying to understand the situation," Gary replied. "An attack on a Federal Agent on U.S. soil. Make that three." He added in Sean and the Lieutenant's deaths onto Callen's attack. "And the two in France."

"I had nothing to do with those other agents. They were Russian mercenaries."

"So you're admitting to the attack on Agent G. Callen."

Eric fisted his hands and set his jaw. Hearing the name made his anger rise.

Gary laid down the photo of Agent Callen on the table to face Cairns. "Agent Callen was a good man and a great agent. While he worked under us at Langley, he never did anything to make anyone believe he was working for the Russians."

"He knew the language like a local." Eric defended.

"As good as you are, I believe." Gary pulled out a photo of his mother, Shirley.

Eric's eyes widened at the photo. "Why do you have my mother's photo? You leave her out of this."

"Your mother remembers her mother tongue like it was only yesterday when she left Moscow."

"Stop it!" Cairns demanded.

"She told me how much she's enjoyed living a free life in America. All the advantages of life here gave her and her one and only son, Eric." Gary met Eric's eyes and stayed staring.

"Damn you, Eric! I trusted you with my life, my family. How dare you deceive me and go after one of our people."

"He was a Russian spy."

"No, Eric. You are the spy." Gary pulled out a file, it was rather thick and held all the Russian cases Cairns worked over the years.

"Tell me, what happened on this case, when you and Agent Callen flew into Moscow in 1990? He was under your care and almost died, if it wasn't for officer Delaney, who was skilled in medicine and saved his life. Your written report is sketchy at best. You say in here," Sharp scanned through the report, "that Agent Callen broke protocols and made contact with a former General Kuznetsov. You wrote in here, that this is how Callen was burned as a CIA operative and was taken captive and shot in the chest. That you and Officer Delaney rescued him and got him out of Moscow."

"That's right," Cairns stated. He remembered that visit like it was yesterday.

"You lie," Gary seethed. "You lied to me and to the CIA. What did you pay Delaney to get her to shut up about what really went down on that trip?"

"Nothing. It's the truth."

"That's not what Delaney is saying now. She's written a confession and has resigned from the agency, because of what you forced her to do. Threatened her with her life and that of her family—her small boy who was five at the time."

"She's lying," Cairns yelled back.

"No, Eric. You are the only one who is believing the lies that spill out of your mouth like black liquid."

Gary pulled out Delaney's statement. "I Janet Delaney declare what I have written to be the truth and nothing but the truth." Gary cleared his throat. "On March 23rd 1990, Eric Cairns sent G. Callen into danger without back up. He deliberately sent him in to be killed, after they'd had an argument over General Kuznetsov. G. Callen overheard Eric Cairn's conversation with the General and realised that the two men were family. Callen called Cairns out on it and told him he was a spy and was working for the Russians. Eric became furious and held his weapon at Callen, wanting to kill him for stating the truth of the matter. Callen said the General was Eric's grandfather, and he told the General his mother was alive and well in D.C. He gave him her new alias, and the name of the man who had helped her escape Russia."

"Oh, it gets better." Gary waved the paper in front of Cairns.

"The tension between the two men escalated after this. Callen attempted to reach a contact within Langley, Henrietta Lange, whom he trusted, to tell her about Cairns and to warn Langley. But before he could call her, Eric set a trap for Callen and he was kidnapped from the rear of a club in Moscow and taken to an empty warehouse, where he was tortured and later shot, expecting him to die. I broke the commands of Eric Cairns and went in to rescue Callen on my own, administrating medical treatment which included removal of the bullet inside his chest. I managed to get him out of Moscow after reaching Henrietta Lange myself, but I was threatened by Eric Cairns that my son would be killed if I told anyone what really happened in Moscow. I refused to work with Eric Cairns after that case and lived in fear for my family's life that he would kill them. I am speaking out now since hearing that Eric Cairns has achieved his goal in killing G. Callen, an innocent man and a great agent."

"That bitch!" Eric spat out.

"Did you ever ask how your mother had her stroke all of those years ago and had to go through therapy just to talk and walk again?" Gary ignored Eric's childish behaviour.

Cairns stilled. "What do you mean, how she had her stroke—she had a blockage in her arteries that caused it."

"Do you really believe that, Eric?"

Gary Sharp pulled out the medical file of his mother's. "It states in this report that a concoction of drugs was found in her bloodstream. Cocaine, methamphetamines and other stimulants that increased the pressure in her blood vessels that caused them to rupture, giving your mother a hemorrhagic stroke. She's fortunate she was found when she was and lived, and remembers the visitor she had just before the stroke. Your mother is a smart woman. Smarter than her son, it appears. Your grandfather sent someone familiar to your mother from Moscow, and they drugged her. You leaked her whereabouts to her father whom she was hiding from, which led her to suffer that stroke. You caused her to almost die at age five-five. What do you have to say now, Eric?"

"No, that cannot be true." He sat there dumbfounded. "He wouldn't do that do her."

"He did. And we have found the proof that the person your mother said came to visit her and drugged her, entered the country around the dates she had her stroke. One week after you passed on your message to General Kuznetsov, he sent someone to finish her off."

"You lie." Eric rose from the metal chair that he'd had enough of and paced the room.

"What did General Kuznetsov do for you in return? Kidnap and kill Agent Callen? Or perhaps the two of you came up with an arrangement, that every time you had to go to Moscow for the CIA, your grandfather made a deal with you?"

Eric Cairns stopped his pacing and glared at Gary Sharp. He studied the lean and strong body of his former boss whom he had admired for so long. He could see his light brown hair was thinning on top from his vantage point and realised that whatever friendship they once had, they would no longer regain that trust again. There was nothing left in his life that would bring him joy. His own wife and children would abandon him as Gary had done. There was no way they'd be loyal and love him after they heard the truth of all that he'd done. The deals he'd made with his grandfather, the American men and women who'd died thanks to him. Agent Callen had been the thorn in his side for so long that he'd lost his way in ensuring he remained safe. It was his hunt and revenge on Callen that led to his demise—even after his death, Callen continued to haunt him and destroy all that he'd built in his life.

"Tell us about the Russians you had sent to Jason Harper's home, and to kidnap and kill Lieutenant Tony Sutton."

"I told you that had nothing to do with me." Eric moved back into the chair.

"What about the Russians who killed NCIS Agents Bradley Moore and Adrian Prior in Paris?"

"I know nothing about who killed them."

"But you orchestrated their deaths, didn't you? You had Officers Dasper and O'Conner to steal the Faberegé egg and send a message to your contacts in Moscow that it was these NCIS agents. All arranged in order to bring Agent G. Callen out of the shadows, to hunt him down and kill him."

"I did nothing of the sort."

"Careful, Eric. We have Dasper and O'Conner's statements. They confirm the evidence that Agent Jason Harper, AKA, Sean Stratford, had collected on you. NCIS has the evidence to prove you are guilty of five NCIS agents. I'd say you're looking at five life sentences, if not the death penalty."

Eric Cairns paled. He'd not considered that all of the NCIS agents deaths would be pinned on him. He'd accepted he'd go down for Agent Callen's death and would live with it, but the other four, he struggled to accept. The death penalty loomed over him like the grim reaper.

"I want the truth about the Russians. And I want it now."

Leon watched Jack Sloane exit the viewing room. She'd heard enough from the former Deputy Director of the CIA. She closed and locked the door to her office and made a call.