#7
Visiting day at the Prison (Again)
"…Nell dyed her hair back to how it was originally"
"Thanks, Kens…. But I really don't need to know that"
"Come on, brother. No need to be like that!" Mike replied, trying to keep things civil in front of Grace
"Kens, can you take Grace. I need to speak to Mike alone"
Kensi replied that she would, but made known she wasn't happy about the situation
After Kensi and left with Grace trailing behind her, sadly looking at her father in his prison jumpsuit
Once Kensi and Grace were gone, Callen turned his attention back to Mike
"She chose her side… I don't want to know anything about her anymore. If it involves Grace, fine. But I have no interest in pretending we're anything more than strangers"
…
Back at the Boatshed (6 Months ago)
"G, didn't tell you I was coming. Did he?!"
Deeks stayed silent, considering how he could best answer.
"You don't have to spare my feeling, Marty. You obviously weren't expecting me…"
"Come on, Nell. He's dealing with a lot … It probably just …'slipped' his mind"
Deeks didn't know what else to say. The truth was that he didn't know what to say. Callen hadn't told anyone she was coming… Although to be fair, he had hardly mentioned Nell since he showed up. Grace on the other hand…in the few moments downtime they had had, he had almost never shut up about her.
"...What's brought you back?" Deeks added,
"G…" Nell began, before rethinking "Callen, wants me to … he wants me to find, Eric"
Deeks momentarily made an 'O' shape with his lips "Ah" he added
…
Kensi pulled her cell out of her pocket to check the message she had just received. Callan had said fewer than 20 words since they left the boatshed. She didn't know how to approach him… he had been back for little over a week, and he seemed less like himself than at any time since she had known him. He was supposed to be feeling great… he was back with Nell, he had Grace… he didn't need to hide from the authorities anymore.
"Glad to be back?" She eventually asked, desperate to break the awkward silence
"Yeah… it's… yeah" he replied, never drifting his focus from the road, almost like he wasn't really wanting to converse
….
Visiting day (again)
"Come on, G. You can't keep this up…"
Before Mike could finish what he was saying Callen stood up and started shouting
"SHE SLEPT WITH BEALE!..." Callen started, before a pair of guards rushed over and pushed him back down in his seat "…This is her doing, Mike. As I said, if it involves Grace… sure, tell me. If not… I'm not interested"
"G!"
"I'm serious, Mike. I don't ever want to know about her, or the bastard growing in her belly"
….
"Auntie K. When will Dad come home. How long does he have to stay here?" Grace asked innocently, as Kensi walked her out of the prison
Kensi didn't know how to answer. She could tell the truth, and risk upsetting the young girl. Or lie, and risk it coming back to bite her in the ass.
"He'll stay here for a while yet, Grace. He… he did something that he has to pay for" She started, knowing that it would be difficult for Grace to hear, let alone understand.
"Eric?"
Kensi froze… This was something else. This… Kensi didn't know what to say, let alone do. She stopped mid stride, and was too scared to even look at Callen's only daughter for fear she would give away some piece of information.
"I know him and Mom used to be close. Is he why Dad's here?"
….
6 Months ago
Kensi slipped her Cellphone back in her pocket. She had been waiting to find out what had Callen in a touchy mood, the text from Deeks answered that question.
"Is Nell glad to be back. She has to be looking forward to seeing her…. Come on G. Just… I'm not gonna play games anymore…. What's wrong, What's eating you?"
"You don't want to ask that question, kens"
"The hell I don't"
Callen slammed the brakes on and steered the car into the side of the road. Once the handbrake was on, Callen jumped out of the car and started briskly walking away from the car, and away from Kensi.
"Callen!" Kensi Called out as she chased after him "Come on. Talk to me…"
"You really want to know!?" Callen replied as he stopped and turned to face her "My family are in hospital because some nut job found the Mission, slipped a bomb onsite, and killed a more than a dozen agents. And you want to know the kicker?"
Kensi gave him a look to indicate that she wanted to know
"The only person that seems to have made it out… the only one that no one has seen or heard from is Beale. The same BASTARD that put my daughter in harms way. MY daughter"
"…and Nell" Kensi added
"Kens… whatever Nell and I had, it's over"
"But you killed that guy for her"
"No. I killed him because she let him in MY daughters life. She put Grace in a position where she could have been hurt, where she could have seen her mother getting slapped about" Callen looked at Kensi, noticing the look on her face that said she didn't believe that it was just because Grace had been in the vicinity
"Come on, Callen. No one who knows you, would believe that you didn't do what you did just because he could have hurt Grace. You're in love with Nell"
…
Kensi somehow manage to calm Callen down, and get him back in the car. This time however, Kensi drove… not wanting to expose the citizens of Los Angeles to Callen driving while angry.
Callen couldn't work out how she had managed to talk him into letting her drive… Callen had swore, years ago, that he would never get back in a car that Kensi was driving ever again.
About half an hour later they reached the hospital to find Mike and Sam waiting in reception.
"Good to see you're still with us, brother" Mike said, glad that Callen hadn't disappeared again.
"Not gonna abandon my family" Callen replied, not fully focussed "Anyway, what… what's the doctor said about you pair?" he continued, regaining his focus
….
Nell had set herself up on the couch in the boatshed, leaving the table for the agents working cases. She hadn't really wanted anything to do with Eric again, not after what had happened. But it was a means to an end… finding Eric now, could help bring her and Callen together again. Or was she just deluding herself. She had been thinking about that while flipping through eric's personnel file… he had been thrice commended for involvement in ongoing cases. He had also been disciplined just as many times for unauthorised access to sensitive files.
When Nell looked into the log of files he had accessed, and searches he had undertaken outwith authorised operations, it had been trying to tag where she was… tracking where Callen had gone when he left OSP, looking for any trace of any of his legends, trying to access FBI facial recognition records and even accessing WITSEC transcripts for where she had been moved to when she entered WITSEC with Callen. Everything he had done was to find where she had gone.
Her mind drifted back to memories of their early years working together, socialising outside of work, joint involvement in charitable Christmas events.
There had been many times that she had thought about Eric during the years where she convinced herself that nothing would ever happen with her and Callen. That Callen was an unattainable fantasy for her.
She shook her head, trying to drag herself out of long forgotten pleasant memories. It was then that she noticed a log for an attempted access to the OSP Mainframe after the explosion, after her and Callen had returned to LA. She recognised the log on… it was one of many that they had both devised during the more recent years of their partnership, for use incase of emergencies… incase OPS mainframe was compromised.
Nell quickly scribbled something on a post-it note and closed over the laptop, looking about to see who had noticed her fevered scribbling.
Realising no one had paid her the slightest attention, she grabbed a set of keys then slipped out the back and into a car from the motorpool.
…..
What the hell was she doing… why was she trying to help the man that had put her and her child at great risk. But that had also been one of her truest friends… And the way things had been with her and Callen for the last… god only knew how long it had actually been like this, at times it felt like weeks, other times months or even years. But at this moment… Nell wanted her friend. It hadn't even entered her mind why she wanted Eric, and not Kensi or Deeks.
Nell pulled over at the side of the road and reached into her bag, pulling out a service weapon… not her own. Mostly because she wasn't even employed by NCIS anymore.
Tucking the weapon at the small of her back, she got out of the car and moved into the building. Why the hell was she doing this… she should have asked Marty to come with her. But she knew that he answered to Callen at the moment, and deep down she knew that Callen wanted nothing more than to beat the technical operator to death, and probably beyond, for what he had done years ago…
"Nell?"
…
Callen looked around the boatshed from the access passage, not finding Nell he asked one of the agents that had been brought in from San Diego to assist, if they had seen Nell. When they admitted they hadn't even noticed her being in the boatshed he pulled out his cell and dialled the cellphone he had grabbed for her to use to call her mom and sister.
"Come on, Nell" he muttered as he listened to the dial tone.
When there came no answer, grabbed a laptop from one of the support staff and typed a phone number to track.
…..
Callen jumped out of the car after seeing the motorpool car abandoned outside the apartment building. He grabbed his gun with his service weapon with his right hand and held his cell in his left as he followed the tracking for Nell's cell.
Reaching the apartment closest to where her cell was being tracked to, Callen tucked his cell back into his pocket and grabbed his back up from his ankle holster.
Taking a deep breath, he kicked the door in and began sweeping the room. What he saw broke his heart… There on a mattress and under a filthy quilt was Nell, and Eric Beale… Nell's dress folded over a nearby chair.
Callen felt his anger build within him… he launched himself towards Eric and started pistol whipping the younger man, despite Nell begging him to stop…