AN: Yes, this is FINALLY done. I did not intend to leave everybody hanging for five years, I swear. Life got a little hectic (two moves, three+ jobs at two different companies, taking up running again, marathon training, etc.), but I was determined to finish this before moving (again) this week. Hopefully it lives up to expectations. One note: Everybody in the field can hear the people at Five-0 headquarters and in LA, but the folks in the field can only be heard by others if they activate their mics. Otherwise there's too much cross-talk. Oh, and as a reminder, this is set in 2013/2014-ish, during the gap between Ziva and Ellie on NCIS, before the S4 finale on LA and before Kono and Adam flee on H5-0 — but Doris McGarrett has left Hawaii and her whereabouts are unknown.
Hawaii 5-0, Act 4
Sam stood to the side of the computer table in the Five-0 office and watched the screen with the data Eric and Abby were feeding them from LA. Gibbs was across from him, with Steve and Danny at the head of the table.
"Guys, it looks like one team is turning off on Farrington," Eric said.
Abby chimed in. "Steve, do you or Danny have any idea where they might be headed? That part of the island doesn't look as developed."
"It's not," Steve said. "If they're trying to hide, Mokule'ia Forest is a good spot."
"No, see, if the CIA is behind this, which it seems they are, we should be thinking like them, Steve," Danny said, hands moving as fast as his words. "If they're bringing in one of those black planes-"
"Coming in dark," Steve said.
"Whatever. My point, Steven, is that if the CIA is involved, that these scumbags are probably headed for Dillingham."
"That's correct." At the sound of the British accent from behind him, Sam turned.
"Kort," Gibbs said. "Wondered when you'd show up."
"You weren't kidding about the eye patch," Danny said.
"No, Detective Williams, he was not," Kort said. "The result of a narrow escape from a serial killer a few years ago."
Sam was not going to ask. "Do you know they're headed for Dillingham, or are you just guessing?" he asked.
"They're headed there," Kort said.
"Eric, can you and Abby find that plane and figure out an ETA?" Sam said.
"So there's a plane coming in dark to Dillingham," Steve said. "Where's the other car headed?"
"Still on Kamehameha, headed back toward Honolulu," Eric said.
"Sand Island, but it's a trap," Kort said at the same time.
"Sand Island again?" Deeks was audibly rolling his eyes. "Isn't that where you guys found the smallpox testing site?"
"It's a small island," Steve said. "Kort, what do you—"
"Whoa!" Abby shouted. "Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs!"
Sam looked over to see the forensic scientist bouncing up and down on the screen.
"Whaddya got Abbs?" Gibbs asked.
"There's chatter coming in from across Asia and the Pacific Rim that McGarrett's dead," she said. "I can't tell where it started because it surfaced in several places at the same time."
"That's because the CIA is behind it," Kort said.
Gibbs motioned for him to continue, even as Danny opened his mouth and grabbed Steve's arm to keep him from advancing on the CIA agent.
"As I was saying," Kort said. "Unless you would rather attack me than hear what I have to know?"
Steve held up his hands and stepped back, and Danny mimed zipping his lips.
"The CIA put out the word that McGarrett was dead to lure a former asset out of hiding, after they were unable to track her," Kort said.
"What does the CIA want with my mother?" Steve said, and Sam wondered if G would be dealing with things like this if his mother was still alive or if Steve's mother was uniquely problematic.
"A better question might be why the car headed back toward Honolulu has just dropped back behind us." Chin sounded calm, but he'd sounded the same way throughout the smallpox case, so Sam wasn't buying it. "Cuz, you still see them, right?"
"We don't have to track them," Sam said. "Eric can monitor them with Overwatch. If this is going down, we need to get everybody back here and geared up."
"Mr. Hanna is quite right," Hetty said. "Make haste in returning, and let Eric and Abby focus on tracking these miscreants." She stepped up so her face filled the screen. "Now, Mr. Kort, perhaps you should finish telling us what you know."
"The CIA plans to use the research the Naval Lab has been developing in a few operations," Kort said. "Somebody who looked at the file saw McGarrett had been involved with the original operation to extract the scientist, and decided the Agency could take care of two problems at once."
"Remove anybody who might know this research existed, and find their former operative," Gibbs said.
"She might be their agent, but she's my mother," Steve said. "Besides, I didn't know what the research was. None of us did."
"He's right," Sam said. "We knew just enough to complete our mission, and the research wasn't part of the brief."
"Hey guys, we have a problem." Kono's voice broke in, followed by a screech.
"Boss, that second car dropped back again and is now trying to run us off the road." Sam couldn't tell which agent that was, until Gibbs said, "We're on it DiNozzo."
"Kono, you got this?" Steve asked.
"Could use a distraction."
"DiNozzo, check the glove box," Steve said. "You should find a distraction in there."
"What have I told you about storing grenades in my car?" Danny said. "Although yes, they are probably helpful now, but still. No normal car needs its own stash of explosives."
Steve held up a hand as he dialed a phone. "Cath, where are you?" he asked, then listened. "Great. We need some help. Kono's driving Danny's car, and the guys we're after are trying to run her off the road on Kamehameha." He gave her the coordinates. "Thanks, Cath. I owe you."
"You still with Lieutenant Rollins?" Sam said, but wasn't surprised when Steve ignored him.
"Kono, Cath's going to run interference for you," he said. "She's about eight minutes out. DiNozzo, watch for a blue '73 Corvette Stingray, and don't throw any of those party favors at it."
"Classic like that? Not a chance."
"Chin, get back here, fast. Danny, call Duke and give him a heads-up before HPD gets in the middle of this." Steve rubbed a hand over his face. "OK, we need to split into two teams, one to Sand Island and one to Dillingham."
"Haven't you been listening?" Kort said. "Sand Island is a trap." He walked forward until he was less than a foot in front of Steve. "The Agency knows how Five-0 operates, McGarrett. They've set this up to draw you and your team out to Sand Island so they can ambush you. Abduct Kalukaua, force you and your team to ride to the rescue, then attack you."
"They clearly have never seen Kono's roundhouse kick," Danny said.
"And they are at Sand Island," Steve said. "So we go in and take them out before they're expecting us."
"Steve, you are not walking into a trap, I don't care if you are Super-SEAL," Danny said. "We are going to figure out how to do this so nobody ends up dead."
"I can get a couple of people close to the Agency's Sand Island location," Kort said. "My face won't ping their radar, so one person in the trunk and another in the backseat can get in unnoticed."
"G and Nell," Sam said. "She stands the best chance of hiding in the backseat, and G has experience coming out of car trunks firing."
"Just as long as you're not beating on me first. This is not going to be another 'turned on my partner' play." G's voice wasn't as cranky as his words, at least.
"No worries, partner," Sam said. "If we do this right, you'll slip out where nobody can see either of you."
"I'm eight minutes out," Chin said.
Sam looked over at Steve, who looked like he was arguing with Danny without saying a word.
"Fine!" Danny threw up his hands. "But not until we hear back from these nice LA agents that they succeeded."
Sam turned to face Steve. "What did Danny just agree to?" he asked his old teammate.
"As soon as Callen and Jones clear Sand Island, we take out the bastard trying to run Kono off the road, then head to Dillingham," Steve said.
"About that." Tony's voice silenced the room.
~NCIS~H50~LA~NCIS~H50~LA~
Tony braced himself as he reached for the grenades in the glove compartment of the Camaro. "You people usually store explosives in your cars?" he asked as Kono swerved between cars on the highway.
"Bossman does, even though this is Danny's car," she said. "I'm glad he insisted we take it if we're-" The other car bumped them from behind. "Playing bumper cars with these okoles." She sped up and squeezed in a space smaller than anything even Ziva would have attempted. Tony decided he wouldn't mention that.
Deeks was swearing in the backseat. Tony glanced back to see Kensi had turned around. "No sign of the Corvette yet," she said, gun in one hand. "I could take out a tire, but with all the traffic—"
"Too risky," Tony said. "Kono, is there someplace along here we can take this off the highway?"
"As soon as—" Kono grinned. "The Navy has arrived!"
Tony glanced over to see a metallic blue beauty had pulled up parallel to them. Kono looked over to the woman with long, dark hair, grinned, and took a hand off the wheel enough to motion, her body hiding the movement from the car behind them.
"Hang on," she said. "We've got to do this before we get into Waipi'o."
The Corvette dropped back and Kono started moving toward the right lane, followed by the dirtbag's car. McGarrett's Navy friend was in that car's blind spot, also moving over toward the right.
"Everybody, brace yourselves," Kono said. She beeped the horn twice, then slowed. The Corvette boxed in the dirtbag on the left, so his only option was off the road, into farm fields.
Kono pulled over, and Tony was out as soon as she was off the highway, Deeks and Kensi right behind him. All three trained their guns on him.
"Hands on the wheel," Tony said. The man scowled, but did. "Deeks."
"Right." The detective advanced and got the man out of the car, then searched him. "Kens, look at this." He flipped a wallet backward without looking.
Kensi caught it and opened it, then held it up so Tony could see. "State Department," she said.
"I don't understand why Langley doesn't come up with a better cover that doesn't scream 'I'm a spook'," Tony said. "Boss, we got our guy and he's definitely related to our least-favorite pirate."
"I don't want to know, do I?" said the sailor with the muscle car.
"Cath, at least wait for the Danny version for entertainment," Kono said. "Now what?"
"Give me a minute," Tony said. He walked over to Cath. "Hi, I'm NCIS, and I'm pretty sure you know how to use this." He offered her his gun. "If you wouldn't mind helping everybody else make sure Mr. CIA behaves while I question him?"
"My pleasure," Cath said. She leaned closer and lowered her voice. "Commander Joe White used to run SAD operations during his time with the SEALs, and he taught Steve everything he knows. You might find his name useful if your spook doesn't want to talk."
Tony nodded, and turned, walking up to where the CIA agent was still braced against the car. "Turn around," he said. When the man complied, he gave him a Gibbsian stare. "We have you. We know about Operation Strawberry Fields, and that you and the rest of your group of spooks went rogue and killed a former SEAL, attempted to kill Commander McGarrett and targeted former Master Chief Hanna, who is an NCIS agent." He grinned, the one Abby compared to a shark's smile. "I don't take kindly to people who try to kill NCIS agents, especially when they're from the CIA. Neither does my boss."
"Your boss?" The man looked bored, but the question popped out anyway.
"Leroy Jethro Gibbs. And if you have any doubts about the wrath he'll unleash on anybody from the Agency who messes with an NCIS agent, well, just ask Kort about his first run-in with Gibbs, during Operation Lodestone." Tony grinned. "So, when is the plane landing at Dillingham."
"We aren't-" He stopped. "I don't know what you're talking about. Dillingham Airfield is basically abandoned."
"Wrong answer," Tony said. "And you know it, because you're lying your little spook heart out. I wonder, if you told the truth, would it grow three sizes? Or are you so far gone, you're worse off than the Grinch?"
"You're crazy." The CIA agent started inching away.
"Ah, ah, ah. No moving," Tony said. "You see, I might despise your sneaky CIA ways and desire to kill an NCIS agent, but everybody else here? They work with either Hanna or McGarrett. I'm the best friend you've got right now, because with them, it's personal. I just hate you on principle."
"I want a lawyer," he replied.
"Now, see, that's where pulling off this caper in Hawaii was your bad decision," Tony said. "In case nobody told you and the rest of your spooky gang, the Five-0 task force has— What do you call it, Kono?"
"Full immunity and means," she said. "Besides, we all know there's no way this case is ever going to court. So if I were you, I'd listen to Agent DiNozzo."
"Or we could take him back and let McGarrett interrogate him." Tony smirked. "After the Agency targeted him and his mother, I'm sure he'll go easy on Agent—"
"Matthews," the man said.
"So, Agent Matthews, will you tell me, or would you rather take your chances with McGarrett?"
"I'd talk to DiNozzo," Deeks said. "McGarrett and Sam Hanna interrogating you? That's going to be worth making popcorn to watch."
"Usually only Gibbs interrogations are good enough for popcorn, but I'll give you that one Deeks. Especially since I heard something about a shark tank…" Tony made his grin as big as he could. "So-" He stopped as he heard the conversation from the palace, then activated his mic. "About that," he said. "Nobody needs to come help us. We're about to bring Agent Matthews in for questioning. Seems he'd rather not talk to me, even though I warned him McGarrett and Sam were waiting for him."
Tony listened for a second, then moved so he could see the rest of the team. "Kono, you and Kensi get back to the palace. Sounds like your sniper skills are needed. Deeks, if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye on this joker while I drive, I'll follow Catherine back."
"Oh, Steve's going to owe me two dinners for this one," Cath said as Kono and Kensi left. "Come on, let's go."
"I'm sure the CIA can find this car later," Tony said, taking his gun back from her. "Deeks, if he tries anything, shoot him."
"With pleasure," Deeks said.
~NCIS~H50~LA~NCIS~H50~LA~
"Nell, you getting this?" Callen asked as they watched Chin use his lights and siren to clear a path back to the palace.
"We're going in with Kort to Sand Island?" she said. "Who knew being the short one had advantages sometimes."
"Hetty," they both said at once.
In the front seat, McGee's phone beeped once. "Abby and Eric think they found the plane headed for Dillingham," he said. "Looks like it won't arrive for another 90 minutes."
"It will only take us half that to get there, less if we use the lights," Chin said.
Callen nodded. "McGee, your team has dealt with Kort more than I have. How much can we trust him?"
"Tony doesn't trust him at all, but that's because Kort once blew up his car," McGee said. "Gibbs, well… Usually when Kort comes to us, it's because he thinks we can help him. As long as helping us also helps him, he's reliable."
"That's … not very reassuring," Callen said. "So, why is he helping us now?"
"Well, the original mission was against the Russians, which means they're the ones most likely to be angry if they found out the CIA had stolen their research," Nell said.
"You're forgetting Doris McGarrett," Chin said. "Most of her work was in Asia, and she has a lot of enemies. She knows where a lot of bodies are buried. She put some of them there."
"If she still knows enough to be dangerous, maybe Kort thinks getting on her good side will help him at the Agency," McGee said.
"This is why I left the CIA," Callen said. "NCIS involves getting shot at a lot more, but at least I know who's on my side."
"So, Kort could be leading us into a trap," Nell said.
"Only if he has a death wish," McGee said. "He knows better than to double-cross Gibbs, or he should by now."
That "should" kept echoing in Callen's head as they returned to the palace, geared up, and hid in the sedan Kort was driving for the trip to Sand Island. He braced himself as they pulled onto a dirt road on the small island, probably not far from where the smallpox testing space had been.
He listened, then heard three quick thumps, a pause, and then a fourth — the signal for him to get out.
The car slowed, but never stopped as Callen eased his way out of the trunk, pushing the lid down quietly once he was out. Nell already was crouched in the shadows, shielded from view of the building by a stack of empty pallets. Kort continued driving at that same glacial pace.
"Kort says the men we want are in this building," she said.
"Satellite thermals show three people in the northwest corner," Eric said.
"Blueprints from the city building department show a small room in that corner, likely an office," Gibbs said. "G, remember Gdansk?"
G scanned the building, noting windows and doors. "That'll work. Now, radio silence until this is over, in case they're scanning our frequency."
"Gdansk?" Nell looked up at him.
"The office is on this wall, at that end," Callen said, motioning. "We move along this wall to the office window, then I'll pop up firing at them. That will force them into the main warehouse area, which should be empty based on Kort's information. You'll be waiting at that doorway to pin them down, and I'll come around to join you."
After everything else that had happened so far, the takedown was anticlimatic. By the time Callen joined Nell at the doorway, two CIA agents were on the ground and this third was putting his gun down.
Callen trained his gun on them. "Nell, do you have enough zipties?"
She nodded as she holstered her gun. "Shouldn't there be more people here?"
Callen had been wondering the same thing. "Let's take a look around once they're secure." He flipped on his mic. "Sand Island is secure," he said. "Three hostiles, all alive."
"Danno, call Duke and have him send a couple of squad cars over," Steve said. "Make sure he knows they need to go to the Palace, though, not HPD."
"Send Gibbs with them," Callen said. "He'll get answers faster than anybody."
"No need, Mr. Callen," Hetty said. "Assistant Director Granger is already at HPD briefing the chief, and will make sure these rogue operatives don't talk their way out of custody." She paused, then added. "Although, Jethro, I imagine you and Owen could get quite a lot of information from them if you were to team up."
Nell's eyes widened at that, and Callen heard somebody snort on the comms, but he couldn't tell who. "Thanks, Hetty," he said. "McGarrett, we'll look for any intel on what they're planning at Dillingham while we wait for HPD."
"Roger that," McGarrett said.
"Nell, I'll guard them," Callen said. "You go see what you can find in the office."
She nodded and disappeared, returning a few minutes later with a folder stuffed with papers, two laptops and a thumb drive.
"If we get these back to the palace and upload them, Eric, Abby and I can analyze what we have while the rest of you are driving to Dillingham," she said.
Callen thought about it for a second. "We'll still have 10 people for Dillingham, even with you and Gibbs staying behind."
"That should be plenty," Nell said, then activated her mic. "It doesn't look like they have many people up at Dillingham. They must be figuring it won't take too many people to handle Mrs. McGarrett."
"Then we know one more thing about them: They definitely never met my mother." McGarrett sounded resigned.
Just then, they heard sirens and cars outside. "HPD is here," Callen said. "We'll be back at the palace in a few minutes."
Sure enough, when they walked outside, Kort was waiting. "This is the last time today I play chauffeur," he said.
~NCIS~H50~LA~NCIS~H50~LA~
Back at the palace, Steve enlisted Sam's help to pull equipment from the armory. "Listen, man, I really appreciate you and your team coming all this way to help," Steve said.
"You still owe me a steak dinner," Sam said. "You weren't here the last time I was in Hawaii."
Steve switched off his mic, and motioned for Sam to do the same. "Yeah, I was in Japan. Looking for Shelburne, who turned out to be my mother." Steve paused. "You ever chase down something that seemed so important, and then when you found out, wished you'd stopped before you got there?"
"You and G should talk. He's been looking for answers about his family for a long time, and every bit he learns satisfies him for a minute, then he's back looking for more."
"Yeah? I doubt he ever found out his mother was CIA," Steve said. When Sam didn't reply, he looked over to see his former teammate smiling at him. "Really?"
"And her father was OSS," Sam said. "G worked for the agency for a while, too. But that work got his grandfather and mother killed, and almost got the rest of us killed a year or so ago."
"Wait, I think Danno mentioned something about this. A blood feud, or something?" Steve thought back to the wave of words that his partner had deluged him with after he returned from Japan and needed something to wash away all the questions he still had. "I thought he was exaggerating."
"G's life is just that weird," Sam said. "Sounds like maybe yours is, too."
"So do you want me to give him advice, or him to give me advice?" Steve asked, recognizing the tone in Sam's voice.
"Maybe I just think you each have some perspective the other might benefit from," Sam said. "Now come on, let's finish this thing so I can get my steak."
"Sounds like Kono's back," Steve said as noise filtered into the armory. He flipped his mic back on, then headed back to the main room, Sam following.
"So, here's the plan," Steve said. "Kono, you and Kensi head out now in your car. There's just the one runway, so set up where between the two of you, you can cover the most ground."
Kono nodded and the two women headed for the door.
"Jones will stay here and work with Beale and Scuito. Gibbs and Granger can handle interrogation," Steve said. "That leaves eight of us for the rest of the op. Four pairs: Hanna and Callen, McGee and DiNozzo, Deeks and Chin, me and Danny."
He paused to listen to Nell's report from Sand Island, and tried not to sigh. "Then we know one more thing about them: They clearly never met my mother," he said. As he was listening to Callen's reply, Cath walked in. "The guys are putting your spook in interrogation," she said. "Anything I can help with?"
"We could use another set of hands to sort through all the intel that NCIS is bringing back here," Steve said. He quickly introduced her to all the visiting agents. "OK, everybody gear up. Sam, you and Callen will ride with me and Danny. Everybody else, go with Chin."
"Babe, then we're either taking your truck or two cars," Danny said, grabbing the Camaro's keys from him.
"We'll take the truck," Steve said. He needed Danny's words to distract him on the drive up. Why couldn't Doris be a normal mother?
"What about Kort?" Sam asked.
Before Steve could say anything, Gibbs replied. "He stays here, where I can watch him," he said.
"I heard that, Gibbs," came the British voice through the coms. "I promise, I'm on your side."
DiNozzo snorted and McGee rolled his eyes.
"Let's go." Steve led the way outside. Chin headed out, McGee, Deeks and DiNozzo with him.
~NCIS~H50~LA~NCIS~H50~LA~
The closer they got to Dillingham, the tighter the skin around Steve's eyes got. Not for the first time, Danny wished Doris McGarrett had actually died in a car accident back in 1992. Or at the very least, that once she'd returned from two decades on the run, that she had retired and spent her time with the two kids who'd mourned her when she'd faked her death. This... This... This rejoining the CIA and going on missions and making new enemies who decided to use Super-SEAL as bait, that was too much. He ignored the voice in the back of his head, who sounded remarkably like a pissy Steve, pointing out that this wasn't solely because of a new mission of his mother's, it was because of the original one he was involved with, and he'd be in the cross-hairs even if she was actually dead.
But he couldn't actually say any of this to Steve's face, not now, so he rambled on about Grace and cheerleading and her pleas to go surfing next weekend, baiting Steve into a defense of surfing as though Danny was still the schmuck who refused to set foot near a longboard. Sure, he was no Kono, but he surfed more than he probably should with his bum knee.
He caught Hanna and Callen exchanging glances, but neither one told him to shut up, so he could only hope that they understood what Steve needed now was a tidal wave of words to drown out the ghosts in his head.
The com crackled in his ear, a burst of static, then Cath said "The plane's twenty minutes out, coming in low."
"Roger that," Steve said. "We're almost at Dillingham now. Chin, Kono, everybody in place?"
"We're set in overwatch, Bossman," Kono said.
"North side of the runway is covered," Chin replied.
That left the south side for them. More buildings for cover, but more people, too, with the main building on that side. Danny vowed that whatever else happened today, nobody else was dying. Except maybe a CIA agent or two.
They piled out of the truck and Steve motioned. Hanna and Callen went one way and Danny followed Steve over to their spot, concealed from prying eyes by stacked shipping containers. By the time they were in place, Cath was back on coms.
"Three people in the warehouse next to DiNozzo and McGee," she said. "Another two in a car by the west gate.
"Chin, see if you four can take out the three in the warehouse," Steve said. "Quietly, so the two by the gate aren't alerted."
"And if they are?" Danny said. "We cannot, repeat, cannot move without a plan for what happens if this goes like every other case and we have a hail of gunfire."
"Chill, brah," Kono said. "If it gets loud, we can cover and take them out if you can't cross the tarmac in time."
"We'll get there in time," Steve said. "Danno, we have to take these guys down before that plane lands. You know that."
"Yes, yes, I know. But when this is over and your mother is safe, I want words with the CIA." If Steve wanted to put somebody in a shark tank, Danny had a couple of candidates, starting with whoever was behind this disaster of a plan.
"If you ladies are done, we're going to move on three," Chin said.
"I'm done," Danny said, throwing up his hands.
"Yes, on three," Steve said.
Danny listened to grunts coming through the earwigs, but no shots rang out.
"One down," DiNozzo said.
"Two down." McGee sounded out of breath, but triumphant.
"You don't want to do that," Chin said. "Put the gun down." Danny could hear talking in the background, but not the words. Then it abruptly cut off.
"Three down," Deeks said.
"Chin?" Steve asked.
"Deeks pistol-whipped him while he was busy threatening me," Chin replied. "Steve, they're tracking the plane, which looks like it's only a few minutes out, coming in from the northwest."
"I've got eyes on it," Kono said. "Cath's right, it's coming in low."
"Have the two by the gate noticed anything is wrong?" Danny asked.
"Not yet," Kensi said. "Kono, I'll watch them. You keep an eye on the plane."
"No need," Callen said. "We can see it."
Steve stepped forward and looked around the corner of the building.
"We're not clear yet," he said. "We still have two hostiles who could try and attack the plane, plus we don't know who's on the plane and if they're friendlies or not."
Cath chimed in then. "Kort says the CIA didn't get anybody on the plane. They decided it was too risky."
Yeah, too risky to take on Steve's spooky mother and her ninja skills. No wonder Rambo was who he was — look where his genes came from. Steve looked back and raised one eyebrow and Danny realized he was muttering. "Just … let's see if we can finish this off without explosions," he said to the big goof. "For once."
"I can't promise that," Steve said.
And then the plane was coming in, landing down by the other end and rolling, slowing as it passed the buildings between the LA agents' position and theirs. Nobody else made a move on the runway, but Danny could see the coiled tension in Steve's body, ready to attack if somebody did make a move.
The plane stopped, and the hatch opened, a stairway descending to the ground. Doris stepped out, her hair darker and redder than the last time she'd been in town.
"Chin, Danny, let's go meet her. Everybody else, cover us," Steve said.
As they walked across the tarmac, Danny caught a slight pause in Doris McGarrett's walk, and wondered if it was because she saw she had a welcoming committee she didn't expect, or if it's because it was Steve.
"Steve?" she said, as they got closer. "But… I heard…"
"I'm not dead, Mom," he said. "They tried, and failed, but made it sound like they succeeded to draw you out."
"Who tried?"
"The Agency," Steve said.
"The two by the gate are on the move," DiNozzo said. "Overwatch, cover us."
Danny whipped around, gun drawn, ready to cover Doris if they slipped past the others.
Somebody fired, then it was an all-out gun battle, with the DC and LA agents converging on the two men headed straight for the plane. One of the perps dropped, and McGee waved on Deeks and DiNozzo as he stopped to grab the gun and check for a pulse.
"He's dead," McGee said, just as the other man swerved once, then again, blood blooming on his shirt, before he fell.
Callen was the first one to that body, and he was quick to announce "So's this one."
"Excellent work, everyone," Hetty said. "Now, Commander McGarrett, you should get your mother and your team back to the palace, before anything else should happen."
Chin joined them, and the other agents were crossing the runway, headed toward them as well.
"Does somebody want to tell me what's going on?" Doris asked. "Steven?"
"You want to know what's going on, Mom?" Steve's tone was one Danny had become too familiar with in the past two years. "The CIA wanted to find you and couldn't, so they decided to kill me and a team of SEALs I worked with because they thought you would surface for my funeral. And it's not like I had any way to reach you to let you know once we figured it out, so we had to take them out to protect me and another SEAL and keep them from kidnapping or killing you when you landed. So, you tell me: Why is the CIA that interested in finding you?"
"I don't know," Doris said. "Are you sure it was the Agency?"
"Am I-? Yes, Mom, I'm sure," Steve retorted. "You know what? I'm not going to do this now." He turned to Chin. "Chin, Doris is going to ride back with you. Deeks can ride with Kono and Kensi."
"Of course," Chin said, but Danny made a note to pick up a bottle of Chin's favorite tequila — and get Steve to help pay for it — for taking one for the team.
By the time they were back at the truck, Steve was pale and listing a bit. Danny grabbed the keys from his hand. "You are not driving," he said. "You have cracked ribs and have been through too many time zones with too little sleep in the past 48 hours, so you are going to let one of us drive."
"Sam," Steve said. "He can see over the steering wheel."
Danny smacked him lightly on the arm. "Short jokes? I'm going to let that one go because you've had a rough day — days — but seriously Steven?" He handed the keys to Sam Hanna. "Farrington to Kamehameha, then follow that all the way into town," he said.
Once they were in the truck, he looked at his watch. "It's too late for everybody to head out today, and seriously, I think we all need a good night's sleep that's not on a cargo plane, but tomorrow, we should all get together for a barbecue at Steve's."
"Luau, Danny," Steve said. "This isn't New Jersey."
"Fine, then, a luau," Danny said. "Something to thank everybody for coming all the way to Hawaii to stop this little CIA caper and save your life."
"Kono's probably already figured out what we need and made a shopping list," Steve said, but his head was against the door and his words were beginning to slur.
By the time they were on Kamehameha, Steve had fallen asleep, and Danny hoped he would stay that way the rest of the drive back.
~NCIS~H50~LA~NCIS~H50~LA~
The next day, Callen was sitting on the grass, beer in hand, watching Kensi, Deeks, Kono and Chin in the water with surfboards and Danny's daughter, when Steve sat down next to him, grunting a bit.
"How do the ribs feel?" he asked.
"Like I'm going to be sleeping in a chair again tonight. Sam even chased me away from my own grill, told me to relax," Steve said. "Listen, I want to thank you again for bringing your team out here to help."
"Thank Hetty," Callen said. "I'm glad this trip to Hawaii ended better than our last one did." He looked over. "How's your mom doing?"
"Yeah, I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask," Steve said. He blew out a breath. "Sam, he said your mother was CIA?"
"Hetty was her handler," Callen said. "I only found that out a couple of years ago, after the Comescu family came after me."
"The ones from the smallpox case?" Steve asked.
"Yes. They killed her when I was a child. I barely remember her," Callen said. He waited, wanting to see where Steve was going with this.
"Doris, she faked her death when I was 16," Steve said. "They told me and my sister it was a car crash, but it was a car bomb. My dad thought it was because he was investigating the Yakuza, and they had tried to kill him and accidentally gotten her." He paused. "I didn't know any of this until a couple of years ago, and then my mentor in the Navy, my dad's best friend, took me to Japan and then it was 'surprise, she's alive.' I still don't know if I can trust either of them."
"Because if they kept those secrets, what other secrets are they keeping," Callen said, remembering the same feeling. "If they lied for so many years, how can you trust they're telling the truth now."
"Yes, exactly," Steve said. "Do you trust Hetty now that you know she kept it from you?"
Callen chuckled. "Hetty is … Hetty." He smiled. "I'm sure Sam's told you stories."
"He has. Are they true?"
"The ones that sound the least plausible are probably the most accurate," Callen said. "Hetty is a force of nature, and has the best tradecraft I know. When I finally sat down with her, months after Romania, I didn't trust her. She knew I had no memories of my family, or even my name, and she kept that from me. But she did explain, and she answered all the questions she could." He thought back to those dark days. "I don't know if I agree with what she did, but I understand why she did it, and I trusted her so much before I found out that eventually I got back to trusting her, even after that."
"You trusted her before," Steve said. "I guess… Maybe that's my problem. I don't know that there's any basis for trust with Doris. She lied about everything when I was a kid, even to my dad, then she faked her death and it ended up breaking our family apart. I blamed my dad for the next twenty years, and then he was dead, killed because of my mother, and by the time I learned enough to realize why he sent us away, why Victor Hesse killed him, I'd stopped trusting anything."
Callen thought about that for a minute. "Hetty was the first person I could trust," he said. "She identified me when I was a teenager bouncing from foster home to foster home, and recruited me. I spent time with the CIA and DEA. Finally, we both ended up at NCIS. The only part of our shared past that was changed was that Hetty knew about me well before that. Everything else, that was history."
"Foster homes?" Steve asked.
"Thirty-seven of them between when I was five and when I aged out at 18," Callen said. "Do you wish that you had stopped looking, that you hadn't found out?"
"I don't know," Steve said. "I think it's inevitable I would have found out something, because the terrorist who had my father killed and who was after my mother has been after me for the past few years. But yeah, sometimes I do wonder if life would be easier if Mom was just the schoolteacher who died in a car wreck when I was 16."
"There's a chance my father might still be alive," Callen said. "Possibly in a gulag, but who knows." He looked over at Steve. "I want to find him, find out why my mother was trying to flee to America with us, why he wasn't there when we needed him." He sighed. "What the G stands for."
"You don't know?"
"No, and neither does Hetty," he said. "At least you know your name, and where it came from."
"My grandfather," Steve said. "I was named after him. He was on the Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941."
"My grandfather worked for OSS and made enemies of the Comescu family, who eventually killed him," Callen said. "Sometimes I wonder if he would still do what he did, if he'd known what would happen."
"And?" Steve asked.
"That is one of the unsolvable riddles of my life," Callen said.
"There are no easy answers, I guess," Steve said. "And I don't think I can stop asking the questions at this point."
"Same," Callen said.
"To finding the answers, then," Steve said, holding up his beer bottle.
"To answers," Callen said, clinking his beer against Steve's. He looked around. "So, let's go see if the big guy's finished grilling. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."
Thank you again for sticking with this over a five-year hiatus. Also, any comments are greatly appreciated, though my replies might be slow because of moving. If you've been reading my latest Breathe story for NCIS, now that this is done, I'm returning to that. No promises on posting schedule because it just seems to tempt the news gods to hurl more thunderbolts, but I still plan to finish by year's end.