Callen and Zoë had been married for almost a year now. Just after they had gotten married they had moved to another house, a bigger house. They lived on 172nd street now, on the edge of Gardena and Torrance. They had a two story house with garage. The house had a front and back yard. The front yard was surrounded by a low white picket fence and the back yard had a closed high dark wood fence. The front yard had some plants and bushes. The doorway had a small porch. The outside of the house was light yellow stones with a dark tiled roof. The window and door frames were white. Immediately left of the front door was the living room with fireplace. Behind the living room was the kitchen with a bar in light wooden style and dining room. Right of the left door were the stairs. The house had four bedrooms and a full bathroom upstairs with tub and a toilet downstairs. It was a beautiful house and both Callen and Zoë really enjoyed living there. Married life was just perfect so far. They loved being married and they had shared their wish to maybe expand their family but they would just let it happen and see when it would happen.
Zoë was waiting at home for Callen to come back. The team had to go to Russia for a case. Callen had called her before he got on the plane back that a lot of things had happened in Russia and that he would fill her in when he got home.
It was late in the evening when Callen arrived back at home. He parked the car in the driveway and as he walked up to the door he saw that the light was still on inside, meaning Zoë was still up.
"Hey honey," Zoë spoke when Callen walked into the house and got up and hugged him tightly.
"Hey honey," Callen replied as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. It felt good to hold her again.
"I'm so glad you're home again," Zoë told him as she pulled out of the hug and she kissed him. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too."
Zoë wanted to know what had happened in Russia but she decided not to pressure him right away. He would tell her. Callen kissed her again. He was so happy to be back home again. It had only been a few days but he had really missed his wife. Callen picked her up and Zoë automatically wrapped her legs around his waist as Callen walked them up the stairs to their bedroom. He gently lay Zoë down on the bed as he kept on kissing her. He was so grateful to have her in his life. He would tell her about all the stuff that had happened in Russia but right now he just wanted to enjoy having her in his arms again. He just kissed her for a while before clothes started to come off and they made sweet love.
Afterwards Zoë lay with her head on Callen's chest and his arm was around her.
"I love you honey," Zoë told him.
"I love you too."
"Everything went okay in Russia?"
"Yes it did. The case part anyway." For a minute is was quite before Callen continued. "I found out some information about my father."
"Really? Your father?" Zoë asked surprised as she sat up in the bed.
Callen sat up against the headboard. "Yeah. I wanted to know what happened with my father. I had asked Eric to look into it. But Hetty instead looked into it and she told me that my dad had somehow survived the gulag. He had helped many more people escape to America after that under the name Konstantin Chernoff. He was there when I was in Moscow back in the day."
"So he's still alive?" Zoë asked, hoping her husband would have the chance to get to know his dad.
"No unfortunately he's not."
"Oh honey, I'm so sorry to hear that. I hoped he would still be alive."
"Yeah me too. Hetty found out the name he took after Nikita. He lived in Ruza, a small town just outside Moscow, and he's buried there on a cemetery. He died in two thousand eight."
"Oh G, I'm sorry," Zoë told him and she planted herself on his hips and wrapped her arms around him. "I had hoped you would meet him one day so he could give you some answers perhaps."
"Yeah me too. I just don't understand why he didn't try to find me after he escaped from the gulag."
"Maybe he couldn't. Maybe it wasn't safe enough. But he was probably keeping an eye out on you. Remember all those pictures and stuff Michael Reinhardt had. Perhaps he was in contact with your father."
"Yeah perhaps."
"Thank you for telling me and know that I will always be here for you."
Callen looked at her and moved a lock of her hair behind her ear. "I know. I don't know what I would do without you."
"I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere."
"That's good to know."
Zoë moved forward and gave Callen a kiss. They made love once more before Callen gathered Zoë in his arms as he slid down into a lying position. With Zoë in his arms they both fell asleep shortly after.
…..
Today was the couple's first wedding anniversary. Their anniversary was on a Sunday so they didn't need to work. Callen was awake already but he had no desire to go out just yet, he enjoyed lying there with Zoë in his arms.
"Good morning my wife," Callen spoke when he noticed Zoë was awake as well.
"Good morning my husband. Happy anniversary," Zoë replied as she stretched herself a bit in Callen's arms.
"Happy anniversary," Callen replied. He lifted her head up and he kissed her. "I can't believe we've been married for a year already."
"I know, me neither. But I've loved every second of it."
"Me too."
Callen kissed her again and turned her around on her back. Before they knew it their pajamas lay around the room and they were making love.
That evening they went out to dinner. Callen had booked them a restaurant as a surprise for Zoë.
"Wow you look beautiful," Callen stated when Zoë came back downstairs.
Zoë was dressed in a maxi blue dress with white flowers on it.
"Thank you, you look very handsome as well."
Callen was dressed in a pair of dress pants with a dark blue shirt on top. They walked outside and waited for the taxi to take them to the restaurant.
"We're gonna eat here?" Zoë asked surprised when they got out in front of Spargo.
"Yes I hope that alright."
"Yeah it's fine, but isn't this a little expansive?"
"Nah for once it's okay. We only have our first wedding anniversary once."
Together they walked inside and were shown to their table. They ordered a bottle of Merlot for the table. Zoë had the pan roasted chicken and Callen had the Japanese Sirloin steak. As dessert Callen took the Apple strudel while Zoë took the chocolate souffle. Callen paid for their dinner before they took the cab back to their house. As soon as they were in the house and the door was closed Callen pulled Zoë to him and kissed her deeply. He loved everything about this woman, he couldn't believe that they had already been married for a year but he was very looking forward to spending many more years as her husband.
"I have a surprise for you as well. Why don't you make it a little cozier in here while I'll grab it?" Zoë stated.
"Deal."
Callen gave her one more kiss before Zoë disappeared upstairs. Callen poured them both a glass of wine and he started the fireplace and he closed the curtains. He moved the table aside and lay a blanket down in front of the fireplace. He looked at the direction of the stairs when he heard Zoë come back down. He was mesmerized when he saw her. She was dressed in a sexy night gown, red colored.
"Wow….." Callen exclaimed, staring at her.
"You like?" Zoë teased as she seductively walked up to him.
"Wow," Callen said again, having trouble to form words. "Damn, I have one hot wife."
"Glad you approve," Zoë smiled at him.
"Oh I definitely approve," Callen smirked at her.
Callen pulled her down so they were sitting on the blanket. Zoë grabbed their wine glasses and handed one to Callen.
"Here's to us, to an amazing first year of marriage," Zoë spoke.
"To us and to many more happy years."
After they had drunk a bit Callen put their glasses aside. He couldn't take it anymore just looking at Zoë, he needed to touch and kiss her. He lay his wife down on the blanket and kissed her deeply. Zoë worked on getting his clothes off as Callen kept on kissing her. With the fire crackling in the background they made sweet love in front of the fire place.
The next morning they woke up, still lying on the blanket in front of the fireplace. Callen had pulled another blanket over them.
…..
It was the end of July now which meant Callen and Zoë had their summer vacation coming up. They would just have to work a few more days before they had three weeks off. Zoë was working in her office when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," Zoë said and the door opened to reveal Callen.
"Hey Zoë, you got a sec?"
"For you? Always?" Zoë replied with a smile. Callen walked into the office and closed the door.
"Something has come and I have to go undercover," Callen told her, straight to the point.
"Undercover? For how long?"
"I don't know, it could be a few months."
"Few months?!" Zoë replied shocked.
"Yeah, I'm not sure yet but it's a deep undercover mission so it can take a while."
"But we have vacation coming up."
"I know the timing totally sucks but this has to be done. It's an old alias from me that has been activated again so it has to be me. It can be a while until we get enough information to move in. I'm sorry honey."
"I know that with your job that this can sometimes happened I just hoped it would never happen, at least not for so long."
"I know, I don't like it either and if there was any other way I would take it, but unfortunately there's not."
"When are you leaving?"
"In about an hour."
Zoë knew that sometime these last minute cases could come up but she didn't like it one bit. She didn't like it when Callen was undercover, let alone for weeks. Callen walked over to Zoë.
"I'm gonna miss you," Callen told her as he leaned on the arm rests of her chair.
"I'm gonna miss you more."
Callen pulled Zoë into a standing position and kissed her deeply before he hugged her tightly.
"I'll be back before you know it."
"Just be careful."
"I will, I promise." Callen gave her one more kiss. "I love you."
"I love you too."
"I'll try to make some form of contact when I can."
"Alright but be careful. Don't risk contacting me if it's not safe, if it'll get your cover blown."
"I will and I won't." Callen gave Zoë one more kiss. "I've gotta get going, get my stuff and have Eric and Nell update me."
"Alright," Zoë replied but she didn't want to let go of Callen. "I don't want you to go."
"I know honey but I have to."
"I know, I know." Zoë gave Callen one more deep kiss. "Okay, go, before I start crying."
"I'll be back as soon as I can."
Callen gave Zoë one last kiss before he left her office and went to get ready. Callen hated leaving her, but sometimes these things had to be done. Zoë sat back down on her chair and took a deep sigh. She knew this could happen but she didn't like it. She just hoped Callen would be safe and that she could hold him in her arms again in a short time.
Zoë didn't get much done the rest of the day. She was shocked out of her thoughts when there was a knock on her door.
"Come in."
"Hey Zoë," Nell spoke as she stepped into the office. "I've just sent you an email with an app, if you'd like you can communicate with Callen through that app. Callen has the app on his phone as well."
"It is safe? Won't they find out if they look through his phone?"
"No, it's a app that fits with his undercover alias and everything is in code so it's perfectly safe."
"Oh okay, but if it's in code how will G and I know what the other actually says?"
"I will show you. Can you open the app for me?" Zoë went to her email and opened the app. "I tried it out before with Callen to make sure it works. If you click on the last message and then on the three dots here you get the option save. If you click that you will get a pop up and if you enter your code there it will decrypt the message. Thirty seconds after the message is decrypted the original text will appear again so no one is the wiser."
"And how will G know what I type if it's decrypted?"
"Just type in what you want to say and when you hit send the app automatically changes the text to something else."
"Ah okay. And are you sure it's safe?"
"Yes it's absolutely safe. I wouldn't put Callen in danger if he wants to contact us."
"Thank you Nell."
"You're welcome."
"What's my code to put it?"
"It's in the email as well."
"Thanks."
"No problem. I hope this eases your worries a bit."
"Or only make them worse if I don't hear from G in a while. But I'm sure everything will be fine."
"Of course it will. Callen's a great agent, he knows what he's doing. And we have agents there for back-up all day. Every time a different agent so we don't get made. But someone is always close by should Callen need help."
"Thanks Nell."
Nell left the office and Zoë looked at the app. She hoped she could communicate with Callen at least a bit. She decided not to use the app unless Callen contacted her first. She didn't want his phone to ping or something when he was in a sticky situation.
…
Callen had been away for a few days now, so far everything was going fine. At least as far Zoë knew. The agents that were there for back-up didn't get any distress signals but Callen hadn't contacted her yet through the app. But Zoë thought he was probably too busy for that the first couple of days, to sneak away and text her. Zoë dreaded going home every day after work because she would go home to an empty house, a house without Callen in it. It had only been a few days but Zoë missed him terribly. She had no idea how she was going to make it through weeks perhaps months of Callen not being here. She just wanted her husband back safe and sound and in one piece. She needed to trust what she knew, that Callen was an amazing agent and that he knew how to handle these undercover operations. Callen said that it might take a while to wrap this up but Zoë hoped it would be sooner than later. Every night she slept in one of Callen's shirts and lay cuddled up to his pillow, pretending he was right here next to her. Ever since Callen was away she woke up every morning with a weird feeling in her stomach. It was only in the mornings so she wrote if off as just nerves, hoping it would pass.
In the afternoon when she sat behind her desk she saw the app pop-up. Her heart skipped a beat when she noticed she had a message from Callen. Just like Nell had told her she decrypted the message.
'Hey beautiful, how are you? Here everything is still fine. I'm okay, nothing to worry about. Mission is going as planned. I miss you so much,' the message from Callen said.
Zoë started typing a reply: 'Hey handsome. I'm good, worried about you, but good. Glad to hear everything is going fine. I miss you too.'
'Glad to hear, you don't need to worry about me. I'm fine, I promise. I'm being careful.'
'I know it has only been a few days but I wish you were back already.'
'I know, me too. But it unfortunately can be a while before I'm back. We need to have enough intel before we can move in.'
'I know, I just wish it would happen sooner than later.'
'Me too, but I can't rush it.'
'I know. Just be careful okay.'
'I will, I promise. I love you and I can't wait to have you in my arms again.'
'I love you too and I can't wait for that either.'
'I've gotta go. Talk to you later. I love you.'
'See you honey. I love you too.'
Zoë looked at her screen for a minute, the messages had been encrypted again but she still knew what Callen said to her. She hoped that the weird feeling in her stomach would subside now that she had heard from Callen.
The next morning Zoë woke up again with a weird feeling in her stomach and as soon as she got out of bed she felt herself get faint. She sat down on the bed again hoping it would pass soon. When she thought it had passed she stood up but she felt herself getting really nauseous. She quickly ran to the bathroom and was just in time to throw up in the toilet. Afterwards she splashed some water in her face and looked in the mirror. She looked a bit pale. Wondering what was going on she decided to make an appointment with the doctor, just to make sure she didn't have a stomach bug or something. She called the doctor and there was still a spot open for this morning. The doctor looked her over and took some blood to run some tests on. She would call her when the test results were in but her hearts and lungs sounded just fine so that was nothing to worry about. Feeling a bit reassured Zoë left the doctor's office and went to work.
Zoë was about to call it a day when her phone rang. She saw it was the doctor's office.
"Hello, this is Zoë Moore," Zoë answered the phone.
"Hello Zoë this is Dr. Adams."
"Hello doctor, did my test results come back?"
"Yes they have. It reveals that you're pregnant, about ten weeks along I recon."
Zoë couldn't believe what the doctor was saying! She was pregnant?!