#2
Nell was late into OSP the following Monday morning, and was in a rush to get into OPS and get started as quickly as possible. Hetty had been very accommodating of Nell's new responsibilities and medical needs. But Nell didn't want to take advantage. As she rushed in from the parking structure, she saw Mike Renko walking down the corridor towards her. She expected the usual from the veteran special agent… namely a look of derision and then for him to walk past her. On this occasion, he failed to live up to her expectations…
"You better be happy now that he's gone. This is on you" he almost spat at her before he carried on down the corridor before ducking into the men's locker room.
Despite being late, she felt she had to find out what Renko had meant.
….
"Who's gone?" Nell asked, before she had finished fully opening the locker room door, despite already knowing the answer
"Fuck off, Jones. Don't start pretending you suddenly care about anyone but yourself"
"You're talking about , G, right!?. Where's he gone?"
"Even if I know. What makes you think I'd tell you!"
"You don't understand why I did what I did… it's not like… Trust me, Mike. There's more to this story than you know"
"What I do know, is you hurt my friend. He was just starting to get over you , and you show up and twist the knife a little more"
"I wasn't trying to hurt him. I promise you. I can't get into why I did what I did, right now. I just need to know where, G's gone"
"How bout some quid pro quo. You tell me why you left him, and I'll tell you where he is…"
….
Trudging around red square, Callen was analysing his option… work the case quickly, and risk injury or work it slow and precisely. To work it slowly would give him too much time to think about why he was here, rather than being at home. The way he was feeling now, he couldn't care less about whether he got hurt, if it provided a distraction from his thoughts. That's not to say he was suicidal… far from it. He still had a strong urge to remain alive, as he had things he still wanted to do…
….
"…So we'll give you an injection that will help make you sleepy. Then we'll take you into surgery and try and remove as much of the cancer as possible. Do you have any questions?"
Nell shook her head and waited for the doctor to leave, before the nurse came in to give her the injection
"You're gonna be okay. Is there anything I can do while you're in surgery?"
"Just… can you check if Kens needs any help with Grace. Help her out if she needs it. And… I know it'll sound… if I don't… you know, come through this… can you tell him, I'm sorry"
"Come on, Jones. You'll get the chance to tell him yourself"
"Please, Mike. It's important he knows that I didn't leave because I didn't love him"
The doctor returned into the room along with one of the nurses, Nell had seen earlier. Mike stepped back, out of the way to let the doctor give Nell the injection before moving her to surgery
"Please, Mike. Don't let him think I didn't care… if I don't make it, don't let him think I don't love him"
….
Mike sat in the hospital waiting room, debating what to do… he had made promises to Nell. He had made promises to Callen… His loyalty would always be to Callen, but for now he had to do something that would put his future at OSP at risk… something that he couldn't live with himself if he didn't do.
Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out his cell phone and quickly dialled a number from memory
….
Callen was in the middle of initiation into a cell of the Russian Bratva, when his cell started to chirp.
Whoever was trying to contact him obviously considered it important… procedure didn't call for any contact other than at pre defined times to report the latest activity and intel.
"Кто мешает нам" (Who Disturbs us?)
Callen's phone kept chirping … he was attracting the wrong kind of attention. With the Bratva member quickly approaching him to do god knows what.
Stupidly, Callen pulled the cell phone out of his pocket and tapped to check the text message
{She had cancer!} the message sent a chill down Callen's spine. It suddenly started to make sense…
"Вы были изгнаны и будет страдать за это нарушение. Шаг вниз" (You are expelled and will suffer for this disturbance. Step down)
Callen did as asked and stepped down. Stepping down infront of this monster of a man… Callen had some flashes, memories of Nell, of them together… of that look of disappointment she had given him in the interview room.
He knew where he had to be… and it wasn't in Moscow
Callen waited till the monster of a man leaned down, trying to intimidate Callen.
When he thought he would have the benefit of surprise, Callen head butted the monster of a bratva member with as much force as he could, sending him staggering back in shock.
This had the other bratva members, a tall skinny guy with what could best be described as a mullet and the other, an obese gentleman with very short hair, almost as if he was trying to hide that he was really turning bald, rushing to react and stop Callen getting away with the attack.
The tall, skinny guy came right at Callen, forcing him to fight back, while the obese member tended to the monster of a man.
Callen fought back against the skinny man, arguing with himself as to how aggressive to be… the last thing he needed was to leave a trail of bodies in Moscow while he was trying to LA. But he wasn't going to just lay down and take whatever these Russian bastards were willing to give.
Callen had been frisked when he arrived, so didn't have a gun. Which left him to fight hand to hand. Never was Callen so pleased to be able to use the advanced hand to hand combat training that Hetty had insisted everyone learn.
It was while thinking about how glad he was that he slipped up and missed an opportunity to dominate in the fight for his survival… ending up with both the tall mullet man and the obese guy holding him back while the monster of a man approached, having quickly recovered from the head butt, and started beating Callen to a pulp… ignoring the pained cries from Callen
….
Renko was worrying… it had been almost a day since he had gone against standard procedure and text Callen on a cell phone registered to his cover, letting his friend and ex partner know why Nell had actually left Los Angeles…
He had expected something… a text, a call… something, anything, other than radio silence.
Just maybe, Callen had managed to find a method to move on from the short Analyst. Mike wished his 'brother' had been able to… but he also knew that for Callen, his fire would only truly burn for the one person, even though she had been the cause of so much of his emotional pain.
Callen was Mike's best friend in the world, even though they weren't partners anymore, that didn't stop them watching out for one another… So until Callen reappeared, Mike would watch out for Nell and Grace. Even if the kid wasn't Callen's, they were a package deal… so he couldn't watch out for, Nell without watching out for the kid.
"You okay, kid?" Mike asked, wondering where the 'kid' comment had come from. Sure, Nell was a bit younger than Himself and Callen. But not so young as to justify the comment
"You're still here" Nell responded, still feeling quite groggy from the sedatives, while trying not to sound to surprised that Mike was there "How long was I out?"
"About 18 hours. Doc's been in and out couple of times"
Nell pushed her head back into the pillow, feeling more than a little disturbed by how her life was working out. Not so long ago she had been a rising star within OSP. Having progressed from being a temp to a fully fledged analyst and occasional field agent. She had good friends, a nice home… then there was Callen… whatever they had had was clearly over.
What had she expected… she walked out on him… she had clearly meant something to him. She had tried to convince herself that going to see him when she got back to LA was just to let him know that Grace may have been his daughter. But finally being honest with herself, she knew that she had gone to see him because he still meant a great deal to her despite what had happened between them. She had lost count of the number of times while she was back living with her mom, where she would let her mind drift and think about how he was, what he was doing… it was during those times that she wished he was on facebook, then she would have been able to check what was going on with him… that he was okay… and see whether he had moved on from her…
….
"I know you're there, G!" Mike called out, looking around, staring over at the ledges of the surrounding buildings "She's okay!. She survived the surgery"
Mike didn't know if he was just hoping that Callen was there. He did know that the other man wouldn't just abandon the analyst. Not when he knew that she hadn't just left him because of the lie.
Looking back at the message screen, he could see the double tick indicating that the message had been received and read. But every sent message since, was just marked received, not read. Mike knew Callen better than Callen knew himself… sure he couldn't answer the questions about his past, but everything else… Mike knew, just as Sam did too. Between the two of them, one of them was either with, or watching over Nell and the kid. Kensi stepped in to sit with Nell, when Sam or Mike were unable to physically sit with the young analyst.
….
"Hetty's granted access to OSP DNA records… so you can find out if she's Callen or Eric's little girl."
"Thanks, Kens. For quite a while, I've wanted to be able to be able to know… but now, I …" Nell paused
"What?. Come on, Nell… you can talk to me"
"I know I can. I just… what if Grace is , G's. What if she never gets to know her father"