OPS Manager: Emotions bubbling over and calming down again ;)

knirbenrots: Oh, he cares alright. As for thinking about leaving… yeah way. Doesn't mean he won't have protection around… or even be without company.

trscrny: Indeed, he's always thinking and yeah, mending fences with Hetty. Callen's situation would be difficult for everyone involved, I guess. Political fallout, finger-pointing, legal loopholes and the like.

all: please be aware that this ride is slowly coming to an end. This will be the second to last chapter. Next week an epilogue will make up the conclusion of this story, so prepare yourself for that ;)

Xxxxxxx

Manhunt

Chapter 24

Callen had periodically checked in on his team during the day but had mostly given them space to reconnect with their respective families. Kensi and Deeks had remained in their room with the moms while Sam had spent a lot of time outside with his kids.

Eventually, Kamran had approached him and asked him to help them corral her father back upstairs. Callen could understand the need to be outside after a prolonged captivity, but Sam also needed to rest and heal, so he had nudged and prodded and generally made a nuisance of himself until Sam caved and returned to bed. He'd been asleep only moments later, leaving Kamran to share a conspirative grin with Callen.

The newly arrived family members had been a lot harder to convince to go to bed and not camp out in the team's room for the night, but Callen had eventually managed to usher them from the room. He had settled in with his team, taking up his customary position on the ground by the door, a last line of defense against any threat however unlikely it was to appear.

Compared to the night before, sleep had come a little easier to the three people under his guard. They seemed more settled, more relaxed. Time healed wounds and put things into perspective, but Callen suspected having family around had sped up the process.

He had been somewhat wary of making the decision to bring their families here, hadn't been sure if he would overstep his boundaries by deciding upon that and not giving his friends any time to argue so their families wouldn't see them injured. Their reactions had put that worry to rest and the comparatively calm night further supported the validity of his decision.

Callen's own sleep improved as well. He wasn't completely on guard anymore. He was still awake for long stretches during the night, but that wasn't any different from his normal nights. Compared to the last few weeks though, the periods of sleep were deeper and more restful. Whenever he was awake, he quietly moved through the room, checking on his friends before settling back down and letting his mind wander.

It was barely past dawn when the door opened a crack. His hand was at his weapon, but he didn't draw it, instead watched as the door was opened further. Roberta Deeks glanced inside, her gaze washing over the sleeping team members before she turned to him and then ventured into the room, a mug in her hand. She squatted down next to Callen and offered him the mug.

Callen smiled slightly, waiting for the typical whiff of coffee to reach him, only to be surprised when he found she had handed him tea instead. Not many people knew that he actually preferred tea over coffee, and the simple gesture that spoke of familiarity and of her having taken the time to learn that tidbit about him, settled warmly inside of his chest.

"Thank you," he murmured appreciatively.

Roberta gave him a gentle smile but didn't speak. Instead, she patted Callen's cheek before straightening and stepping away.

It was such a gentle, unconscious gesture that it made Callen ache for a mother he'd never known. He watched her as she once more glanced at his teammates, her gaze lingering on her son for a few seconds before she withdrew from the room. Callen rolled to his feet and followed her, inexplicably drawn to her.

If she was surprised by him following her out, she didn't let it show. Together, they moved quietly through the hallway and downstairs into the kitchen.

Boomer was up and moving around outside, obviously restless but at the same time his movements were unhurried and didn't reveal the tension of a soldier finding something amiss.

Callen turned away from observing the man and settled himself into one of the kitchen chairs. He watched Roberta as she bustled around the kitchen, a somewhat familiar sight considering they had spent quite a few evenings together after closing the bar.

"How are you holding up?"

Her question surprised him somewhat. "Shouldn't that be my line?" he countered.

Roberta turned around to face him, her features settling into an unimpressed expression. She leaned back, her arms stretching out behind her, her hands bracing her against the counter. "Honey, everyone with eyes can see you've had a rough time lately. You may not have been tortured like they were, but you were wounded nonetheless."

He knew she wasn't talking about any physical injuries. Callen was glad that he'd put his mug down on the tabletop or he might have lost his grip on it or at least sloshed some of its contents over his hands. Her blunt words surprised him. For one, not many people could see through his masks like that and for another thing: usually, no one really dared to confront him like she just had, to call him out on his blusters or his projections. Sam and Hetty were actually the only ones to do so - and even they didn't dare to do it often.

Callen bit his lip and glanced down at his mug. He curled his fingers around it to still the slight tremor that had settled in them. He only glanced up once more when a hand came to rest on top of his, Roberta's fingers curling soothingly around his. Her eyes were easy to read, showing worry and a protectiveness that surprised him. Callen tilted his head back down to escape her probing glance, only to have a single finger settling under his chin and nudging him to look up once more.

"Whatever anyone told you? Whatever you've been telling yourself? Don't go there. You brought them home, you're the reason they are upstairs and healing," she told him. Her words were soft, but they held a fierce and uncompromising strength. "You did good."

"I should have-" he murmured.

"Everyone else should have!" Roberta argued back swiftly, cutting through his argument like a scythe cutting through mist. "I don't know much about you, since you dress yourself in so many protective layers of armor, but I know that what they accused you off should have been laughable to anyone who ever saw you interact with your people. So: whoever doubted you? That's on them. Not on you!"

His smile was somewhat strained, and though he was somewhat skeptical, her words still penetrated some of the self-doubt.

"You did good," she repeated softly but firmly before she withdrew, likely noticing that he didn't really know what to do with her words and that he would withdraw and wall himself in if she pushed any further. This was where Deeks had gotten his people-skills from. Roberta's son worked on the same intuition when it came to understanding and connecting with people.

Callen turned his head back down, his eyes on the mug of tea in front of him. At the same time, he watched her from under his lashes as she busied herself with making breakfast.

He couldn't say he was close to Roberta but even though she hadn't really said anything he hadn't heard before, her words resonated through him. It was somewhat strange because she was a woman of contradictions. On the one hand, there was an abusive past, but at the same time, she embraced life with a positive outlook while expecting things to go astray with a stoic acceptance. She was a woman who had been through quite a lot in her life, but while they were fundamentally different in many ways, she still managed to reel him in and give him perspective.

Callen released a soft breath and felt his shoulders relax a little bit, allowing some of the tension to release.

Roberta glanced at him upon his sigh, took in his body language and returned her attention to the stove with a slight smile.

Nothing more was said while she prepared a feast for many more people than were currently housed inside of Amlou.

Xxxxxxx

"So, Leon, where are we?" Hetty asked the Director, once the connection was established and the man came on the screen.

The Director's eyes slid to the side where Callen was perched against the desk, and he huffed out an aggravated breath. His eyes returned to Hetty, but she merely arched an eyebrow.

"Charges against Agent Callen are in the process of being dropped. It'll take another 24 to 48 hours to finalize the process, but it's a mere formality by now."

Hetty nodded graciously, "very well. Thank you, Leon."

The Director's eyes left Hetty and once more moved over to where Callen stood.

Callen met the man's gaze. He gave him a curt nod of acceptance, but didn't verbalize any gratitude, because he didn't feel it was warranted. He kind of still held a lot of ill feelings towards his superior, so he wouldn't go around thanking the man for anything right about now.

"And on the other matter?" Hetty pressed when the silence became somewhat stifling.

"As you know, we've received the analysis from Miss Jones and Mr. Beale. The prison guard they've identified as the one most likely to have interacted with Janvier has been suspended and is in custody. He's being interrogated as we speak."

Callen had indeed seen the intel that Nell and Eric had sent. He'd read through the reports together with Hetty. None of the names Nell and Eric had found rang a bell. They were unknown to them, which was somewhat of a relief. They'd had to fight against a mole within their own building before. It would have rankled to have another traitor so close by. Still, the fact that Janvier had managed to convince, bribe, threaten or whatever anyone into this elaborate setup was disturbing anyhow.

The man definitely held a grudge against them, and Callen was under no illusions that he wouldn't try again. The fact that Janvier had waited and planned for as long as he had didn't bode well for the future. Even in isolation, he had still managed to mastermind this fiasco.

Callen listened on as Hetty and Vance debated the best possible routes to take, guardrails to put in place and strategies to make sure they had all the ground covered.

He contributed rarely, for his mind was occupied with his own strategic planning.

Xxxxxxx

Everyone had come down for dinner, leaving the table filled to the brim with people, including Sam's old teammates and everyone's families. Spirits had been high with all three injured teammates out of bed and downstairs. Sam, Kensi and Deeks all still moved stiffly and carefully, and there were shadows in and under their eyes, but they were visibly getting better.

Later, Callen had withdrawn outside once more, unused to being around so many people for extended periods of time. He also wanted to give the others more family time. And on top of that, he was still contemplating ways to make sure Janvier didn't continue to pose a threat against anyone close to him.

Callen briefly glanced up when Sam appeared at his side. His partner settled himself against the railing, his eyes on the water beyond Hetty's property. Dusk was falling around them, partially shrouding them in shadows, but it was still light enough to see. Callen took in his best friend's stance, grateful to see that the lines of pain were faint. Sam still kept his arm tucked against his chest to immobilize his shoulder, but other than that, he seemed to be doing alright.

Reassured, Callen returned his gaze to the horizon as well.

"We trusted you."

Sam's words sliced through the silence and Callen flinched as if struck by the other man's words.

He let his head hang down and closed his eyes. "I know I messed up," Callen murmured after freeing the breath that had lodged in his chest. He felt Sam's eyes on him but didn't meet the other man's eyes, didn't even turn towards him.

There was a heartbeat of silence. "No, G, that's not what I said," Sam contradicted him gently. The words were even, no particular inflection in them. When Callen didn't speak or react, Sam went on, "we trusted our team leader. We trusted you to get us out and you did."

"Took me too long," Callen muttered self-deprecatingly under his breath.

Sam went on as if he hadn't spoken. "We knew you'd come for us, and we knew we just had to hang on a little longer. And that's exactly what you did. Don't you see? The only one placing the blame on you is you."

Callen sighed softly. Even though he knew that the others didn't blame him, he couldn't let go of what he perceived as a mess of epic proportions that fell at his feet.

"You're good at this blame game," Sam continued quietly, "you're a leader. You take the weight of the world, the weight of any blunder on your shoulders and you wear it like armor. You've been my partner for years, G. I've doubted your social skills with how queasy you tend to be around people unless you're undercover, I've doubted your fitness with all the crap you eat and I've even doubted your sanity with all the stunts you've pulled, but never did I doubt your loyalty and that you'd have our back."

"I should have tried breaking out earlier." The words were quiet, but this time, Sam fell still beside him, obviously captivated by his tone of voice. "It took me four goddamn days to escape from the FBI after we chased our tail for five days before that. We both know I have the skills to escape within an hour, but I didn't! Another three days went by before I reached out to Nell and Eric and another three before we even suspected that you guys weren't dead but instead in enemy hand. That's fifteen days, Sam. Fifteen!"

"And without you and Nell and Eric digging deep?" Sam countered, "it would have been worse, G, way worse - and you know that. Stop trying to find reasons to make yourself the bogey man."

Callen briefly glanced over, and he knew he couldn't hide the helplessness that was blatantly displayed in his features. He was a master of hiding himself, but right now, against Sam, he was powerless to cloak his feelings. "Can't," he croaked and then shivered, shaking his head. "You were dead, Sam. For days, I thought I'd lost you." He hung his head in shame, "I was paralyzed by that." He sighed and went on before Sam could speak up. "I've been accused of being cold-hearted and ruthless due to my ability to compartmentalize, but those days?" He shook his head, "I couldn't function and that's on me. So yeah, I did fail."

He shoved away from the railing to retreat, to run away, but before he could take more than a step, Sam's hand closed around his forearm and gave a sharp jerk, spinning him around. Surprised, Callen stumbled and fought to catch his balance when Sam pulled him forward and into his body. Before Callen could catch his balance and step back, Sam's arm closed around him, bracing him in and holding him captive against his chest. "You know what? I'll allow it," Sam murmured against his ear, "you're allowed to be human for once."

The need to get away warred with pent-up emotions and the feeling of his best friend's solid strength - and after a moment of indecision, Callen surrendered and relaxed into his partner's hold, merely fighting not to let himself shake apart from the turmoil.

Xxxxxxx

Two more days had passed since his talk with Sam. By now, Vance had sent word that Callen had officially been exonerated. On top of that, the dominos had started to fall. There were five more people who had been identified as having been part of Janvier's scheme.

Both the FBI and NCIS had found traitors in their own ranks. According to Hetty, Vance was furious and had ordered a thorough investigation.

Of the five people Janvier had found, three had been vetted by Citadel. The OPS team had investigated Citadel years ago, uncovering a scheme to vet unqualified persons against favours to be called in at a later time. All three of their suspects had still been beholden of the previous company's CEO, Dr. Susan Rathburn. She was another one who obviously still held a grudge against them.

It seemed that Janvier had managed to get a hold of her through the prison guard and another intermediary, and she had entered the game with the sociopath gleefully. Her own minions, vetted all those years by Citadel's corrupt system, had been drawn into the plot and things had spiralled from there.

It was as Callen had suspected all those weeks ago. It had been people placed high in their respective food-chains inside of their agencies. The mole within NCIS had managed to convince SecNav to hand the case over to the FBI, stating a conflict of interest and other nonsense, while the planting of evidence had occurred inside the FBI's chain of command.

Of their three Citadel-suspects, two were killed within 24 hours of their discovery, making this into an even bigger conspiracy as more people came out of the woodworks while the higher-ups tried covering their tracks.

By then, a government wide manhunt had been started to finally rid the system of any of Dr. Rathburn's plants. Security clearances were being revoked until personnel could be vetted again. Until then, the investigation was reduced to a small group of trusted individuals. Callen itched to go hunting himself, but he refrained from going down that path. He had more important things to do for the moment.

Nearly a week after they had rescued his teammates, he could see all of his friends firmly on the road of recovery. Sam's ex-teammates would be heading back home tomorrow, and Callen suspected that the team and their respective families would follow soon after. By now, he could enter the US without being detained, so it wasn't strictly necessary to remain here anymore. Still, he knew they all enjoyed the quiet reprieve they'd been granted by being here and that was why no one had brought up leaving just yet.

The last few weeks had been hell on all of them and he wasn't certain where they would end up - individually and as a team.

Callen turned his head when shuffling footsteps approached. The soft click of crutches gave away Kensi's identity before he fully turned around to lay eyes on her. He gave her a small smile as she settled herself against the railing beside him, joining him in his private hide-out where he could often be found.

He observed her calmly, checking for pain or discomfort. "You good?" Callen asked quietly after she'd put the crutches within easy reach and braced her weight on the stone ledge to take it off her left leg. The knee was healing, but it would be a while before the brace could come off and for the moment, she couldn't put much weight on it. It wasn't quite clear if she would regain full mobility of the joint, but that, too, was for later.

"Where's Deeks?" she asked instead of an answer.

Callen wasn't certain if she was deflecting or if she was indeed predominantly interested in her husband's whereabouts. He pointed towards the water where several small blobs could be seen bobbing up and down on the waves.

Kensi huffed. "Should he be out there already with his back and his splinted fingers?"

Callen shrugged. "It's less about surfing, I think, and more about sorting things out on his own," he gave back quietly, "he's mostly just sitting on the board. Plus, he's not alone. Boomer and Fox are with him."

The first time, after his captivity and torture at the hands of Siderov, Deeks had struggled badly against what had happened to him. This time he seemed more or less stable. Still, there was a haunted quality in his eyes that Callen recognized as a traumatic wound. In true Deeks' fashion, that wound would heal best sitting on a board and bobbing on the waves.

They all had their individual coping mechanisms, but they were also pulling together as a team, finding hold and stability in each other's presence.

Ever since his talk with Sam, Callen had begun to plaster up the cracks in his own amor. Also, he'd had similar talks with Kensi and Deeks where both of them let him know they were on the same page as Sam. The knowledge that his team had his back and still retained their trust in him had helped in finding stable ground again.

They observed the scenery in silence for a while. He could tell there was something Kensi wanted to say, but he knew better than to push her. She would clam up if he did. The two of them were very similar in that regard.

Eventually, the silence was broken by her soft words, "I don't know if I can come back from this."

Callen knew she didn't mean her recovery on the whole because that wasn't in doubt - neither physically, nor emotionally. She was talking about something else, and Callen could guess very well what that something was.

He didn't turn towards her, instead kept his eyes on the water below. Callen hummed softly in agreement, "yeah, me neither," he admitted.

He felt rather than saw Kensi jolt in surprise beside him, her head whipping around towards him. "Seriously?"

On the one hand, he shouldn't make this conversation about himself, but on the other hand, he knew it would help Kensi if he opened up and let her see some of his own doubt. Callen turned his head and watched her for a moment before shrugging, "yeah, seriously. A lot has happened lately. I don't regret all that we've done for our country, the times I've bled for the greater good, but I'm wondering if it's time to let someone else take over."

"I wouldn't have thought you'd ever say that," Kensi said softly.

Again, he shrugged, "neither did I. To be honest, I've never expected to survive for as long as I did, and I don't know what else to do with my life. I've been an Agent in one capacity or another for many years and I didn't think I'd ever step out of the game unless it was with a fatal wound." Callen glanced back at the waves, watching Deeks and his two companions for a few moments.

Callen had shrugged off betrayal before, had hidden all the many disappointments life threw at him and carried on as if nothing had happened, but right now, it felt as if that last betrayal - on top of watching his team die - would be the one thing to topple the house of cards he had built.

Callen straightened and turned his body fully towards her, leaning his hip against the stone ledge. "Look, there's no need to make a decision right now. I'm not ready to decide and I doubt you are either. Talk it over with Deeks. You're in this together. The decisions you make impact on each other's lives, and you should probably make them together."

"He's been ready to stop for years. He just continued because I didn't want out," Kensi said softly.

Callen smiled slightly, "he was ready to stop several years ago," he agreed, "but he didn't just continue because of you, Kens," Callen contradicted. He held up a hand to silence her when she opened her mouth to argue, "he wouldn't have pushed through FLETC and fought against everything as hard as he did just because of you. That's not how it works. It was something he wanted for himself. Sure, your presence on the team helped, but you weren't his sole reason."

Kensi watched him and Callen huffed out a laugh at the surprise he saw in her features. "I have eyes, Kens, and yes, I talk to him every now and then," he told her evenly, even though she hadn't asked. Just because Callen didn't have a very dominant style of leadership, it didn't mean that he wasn't aware of what was going on with his team.

He turned back towards the water when he saw Kensi's nod of acknowledgement. Callen let the silence settle around them once more, simply sharing the same space with her, enjoying her presence as she seemed to find comfort in his.