"Hey Jo," Callen called as he walked into the house.
"Hey G," Joelle called back from the kitchen.
Callen placed his bag by the door and walked towards the kitchen. He walked up to Joelle and gave her a kiss. "How was your day?"
"It was just fine. How about yours?"
"It was good. Dinner smells great."
"It's almost done, can you set the table."
"Of course."
Callen gave Joelle one more kiss before he went to set the table. He helped Joelle carry the pans over to the table and they sat down to eat. Now was a good a time as ever to tell Joelle he had to go away.
"Something has come up at work, I have to go away for a few days," Callen told her straightforward.
Joelle knew this could happen but she was expecting it. "Oh, okay."
"I know we just got back together….."
"It's your job G. If you have to go, you have to go."
"I can't tell you everything about the case but if you want I can tell you as much as I can. If that would be better for you."
"Is it dangerous?"
"My job can always be dangerous, but this is a risky mission."
"Is Sam going with you?"
"Yes he is and I promise you I'll be careful but the mission does has its risks."
"Okay." Callen could tell that Joelle was a bit uncomfortable with this. He hoped this wouldn't change her decision about coming back to him. "Don't worry about me G."
"Huh?" Callen was shocked out of his thoughts.
"Don't worry about me G. I'll be here when you get back."
Callen smiled at her, it was like she could read his thoughts. "That's good. I don't know how long I'll be gone. It's not undercover, I just have to work a case somewhere else, so maybe I can call you."
"That's fine. Just promise me you'll be careful."
"I will be very careful Jo."
"Okay good. When are you leaving?"
"Early tomorrow morning."
"For how long?"
"I'm not sure yet, probably three days, maybe less, maybe more. Depends on how fast we can solve the case."
"Alright."
They finished diner and enjoy a quiet evening on the couch. Joelle was already upstairs when Callen went upstairs too. He walked towards the bedroom and heard something like crying coming from the bedroom. He walked into the bedroom and saw Joelle crying on the bed.
"Hey honey, what's wrong?" Callen asked as he walked up to the bed and sat down next to Joelle on the bed.
"Oh, it's nothing," Joelle replied as she wiped her eyes.
"It's gonna be okay Jo. I'll be back before you know it. I promise. I promised you I'd come back to you and I will."
"I just don't wanna lose you, not after we just got back together."
Callen pulled Joelle towards him and wrapped his arms around her. "You're not gonna lose me Jo. It's just a few days and then I'll be back, I promise. It's gonna be okay Jo. It's okay that you worry about me, but I promise you I'll be careful and I'll come back to you. I'll be fine Jo." Callen pulled Joelle upright and looked into her eyes. "I love you Joelle, you're not gonna lose me."
"Promise?"
"I promise. I wanna spend many more years with you. It's gonna be okay."
Callen wiped the tears from her face with his thumbs. He leaned forward and kissed Joelle deeply and passionately. He knew the mission was dangerous but he had to do this and he had no plans to die in Russia.
Callen picked Joelle up and placed her in the middle of the bed and lay down on top of her without breaking the kiss. Callen moved his hands underneath Joelle's pajama top and pulled it up over her head. Joelle's hands found the hem of Callen's shirt and pulled it up over his head. They made passionate and sweet love. Callen made sure Joelle could feel that he really wasn't going anywhere and that he would be back in a few days. With him leaving the love making seemed better somehow. It felt so good to both of them. Joelle clung to Callen for dear life as she reach her high point and Callen followed shortly after. Once they had regained their breaths they looked into each other's eyes. Joelle placed her hand on Callen's cheek.
"I love you G Callen and I know you'll come back to me but I will worry about you when you're gone."
"I love you too Joelle Taylor. That's only normal, it's what you do for people you love. Sam told me that, even though Michelle is an agent too, she still worries about him. I'll keep good to my promise and I will come back to you."
"Good, I'm gonna miss you."
"I'm gonna miss you too, it's just for a few days."
"Make love to me again G."
Even though they had just made love, Joelle wanted to again. She wanted to feel close to Callen while he was still here.
"Anything for you," Callen replied with a smirk.
After they had finished they fell asleep in each other's arms. Callen was woken up early the next morning by his alarm. He quietly slipped out of bed and got dressed. He packed his bag.
"G," Joelle called before Callen wanted to leave the bedroom.
"Yeah Jo?"
"Be careful."
"I will Jo."
Callen walked over to her and gave her a deep kiss. "I'll be careful and I'll be back before you know it. I love you."
"I love you too."
"You're welcome to stay at my house while I'm gone, I don't mind."
"Okay."
Callen gave Joelle one more kiss before he left. Sam was there to pick him up.
"How did Joelle take it?" Sam asked as Callen got in the car.
"Okay, I could tell it was hard for her and that she worries about me but I think it'll be okay."
"Okay good."
Callen and Sam went to pick up Anna and they went to the airport. They arrived in a cold Moscow. Luckily they had packed some warm things. They went to Hetty's loft they had stayed at the previous time as well. They figured out their plan and they decided to get a guard who works at the prison to find out exactly where Arkady and Sharov were being held.
Callen and Sam kept watch outside as Anna went into the club. Anna managed to get him outside and she pushed him into a van. Callen and Sam dropped Anna off at the loft and brought the guard to a warehouse. They interrogated him and in the end they found out where Arkady and Sharov were being held.
Okay, now they knew where they were being held but that still left them with the task of getting them out. This Russian prison wasn't easy to break in. He wasn't really helpful with finding a way to get them out, he said it was impossible. Callen and Sam released him and they went to the loft.
"Anna?" Callen called as they walked into the loft.
"In here," Anna called back from the dining area.
"You found the equipment," Sam stated.
"You didn't tell me Hetty can be in two places at once."
"Two's an understatement."
"There's food in the kitchen." Sam picked up a gun and a cleaning cloth and went to the kitchen. "I did that one already."
"Doesn't like anyone touching his weapon, so to speak," Callen explained. "You gonna be able to get the rest of the stuff we need?"
"Yes, I already have somebody working on the ambulance. The drug is easy."
"Well, let's hope one of 'em isn't allergic. Any idea about your dad?"
"Oh, you mean Arkady? Yeah, calling him my dad would be a stretch. HE's more of a business associate."
"Hmm, all this for a business associate, huh?"
"Look, if either one of them has an allergic reaction to the hydromorphone, we need to get them in the ambulance fast enough to revive them. Can we count on Vlad?"
"We should be able to. All he has to do is get the drugs into Arkady and Sharov and tell everyone he's called an ambulance once they are out. The rest is up to us."
"What's our backup?"
"We don't have one."
"Okay. What's our escape plan if things go bad?"
"Get the hell out of dodge."
"I thought you did this for a living."
"Breaking into Russian prisons? No, this is a, this a first for us."
"Let's hope you have a knack for it."
They couldn't do much more now than wait so Callen pulled his phone out and called Joelle. It was evening here in Moscow but in Los Angeles it was just past noon.
"Hey G," Joelle answered.
"Hey Jo," Callen replied. "Am I interrupting you?"
"No it's fine, I'm having my lunch break. How are you? How is the case going?"
"It's going fine so far. We're working on gathering intel before we can actually move in."
"Okay that's good. Just be careful."
"I will Jo, I promise. I'll call you later if I have time or otherwise I'll call when we're on our way home."
"That's fine G, just be safe."
"I will. I love you."
"I love you too."
"I'll see you soon."
"Yeah see ya, bye."
"Bye."
Callen hung up the phone and he, Sam and Anna went over the plan to try to get Arkady and Sharov out.
It was already the middle of the night but Callen was still up. Sam and Anna had gone to bed already but Callen just sat on the couch going over the plan.
"Why are you still up?" Anna's voice shocked Callen out of his thoughts.
Callen sighed as he folded the map. "Sleeping has never been one of my strong suits."
"Aren't you cold? Freezing out here," Anna spoke as she walked over to the couch and sat down.
"Eh, I'm okay."
"Who's that?" Anna asked as she looked at Callen's laptop screen.
"Remember you asked about a backup plan? You may be looking at him. According to our tech guys, we have a less than six percent chance of pulling this off."
"Maybe we get lucky."
Callen leaned back on the couch and sighed. "And maybe we get captured and killed."
"You shouldn't have gotten involved in all this."
"You couldn't have done this alone."
"Yeah, but at least, then, nobody else gets hurt if I fail a solo attempt."
"We have come too far to back down. Besides, Pavel may be able to turn the odds in our favor."
"How?"
"By changing where the game is played. Look, we have a big day tomorrow. Why don't you get some sleep."
"Oh. No, no, no. I'm fine. Really. Just, um, tell me the plan."
"Well first we have to find Pavel, he's got connections to make some things happens. But he's going to want something from us in return. Guy like Pavel it's not about money for him and we always run the risk of him selling us out."
Callen stopped and noticed Anna had put her head on his shoulder and had fallen asleep. Callen pulled her blanket up a little more. She was a nice girl but she was no Joelle. Callen carefully stood up from the couch and placed Anna on the couch so she could sleep. Callen went to the dinner table and went over the plan so more.
He managed to get a few hours of sleep. The next day they had managed to find Pavel and he met Callen and Sam at the warehouse. Pavel wanted to help them but there was a catch. The team in Los Angeles had to find a person of interest to him. If they would apprehend him Pavel would them in moving Arkady and Sharov. Pavel left and Callen and Sam went back to the loft. They would just have to wait until they would hear back from the LA office.
Anna was in the kitchen making coffee when Callen walked in.
"Our team in LA located Fedor. They're gonna make contact with him now."
"Great. Coffee?"
"Sure." Anna grabbed another cup and poured Callen some coffee. "Thanks."
"Come on. Join me," Anna spoke as she walked over to the table and Callen joined her.
Sure having coffee with her in the loft here wouldn't do any harm. For a minute it was quiet.
"What do you think about me?" Anna asked.
Callen wondered where this was going. He did tell Anna he had a girlfriend. "That's kind of a broad question."
"Yeah, I guess it is," Anna replied with a smile. "Callen, I don't know if what I'm doing is right."
"About Arkady?"
Anna nodded. "When I was a child I used to make up these stories about him. Stories about him doing amazing things all over the world. Being a hero, helping people."
Callen knew exactly what she was talking about. When he was a kid he fantasized about his parents very often. "And for those reasons, he wasn't able to be there. There wasn't enough time for him to be your dad."
"You know these stories."
"I would wager that your stories, they were better than the stories I told myself when I was a kid."
"Why is that?" Anna wondered.
"Your dad had a name." Anna smiled at Callen's answer. "Why do you smile?"
"I just, I try to tell myself that-that people that do what we do, do the jobs that we do, I try to tell myself that we're normal. But the only people I come across are broken, like me."
"Maybe being broken is normal," Callen spoke with a smirk.
It was nice talking to Anna, she understand him, understood the job that he did and she knew what it was like to have the sort of same past as he did. But she was no Joelle, Callen loved Joelle, not Anna. She was a nice girl, she would be a friend, like Kensi.
After they had heard from the LA office that they had captured Fedor Callen contacted Pavel. He would help them. He gave them the details of the prison move. Callen, Sam and Anna made a plan to intercept the van and rescue Arkady and Sharov.
When it was time to leave they changed clothes and went to a place where they could intercept to van. Anna stopped the van in the middle of the road with a cow that didn't want to move. They had set a trap and the van drove into a covered ditch. Sam moved in and placed a small charge on the back door to open it. Callen moved in as well and Anna grabbed her gun. Anna stood in front of the van keeping her gun on the driver as Callen busted the window and eliminated the driver as Sam dealt with the guard in the back of the van. They quickly took Arkady and Sharov out of the van and moved, seeking cover.
Because Sharov was injured they couldn't proceed with their normal escape plan. They needed to figure out something else.
"I'm gonna call Hetty," Sam spoke as he walked past Callen. "We need a contingency plan."
Sharov was injured, they were taking a break for now. He was sitting on a rock and Callen walked up to him.
"How you doing?"
"It's amazing to finally put a face to your voice."
Callen wasn't going to fall for this so easily. "Pretending to know me isn't gonna make us trust you any more than we already do."
"You know I'm with the company."
"We vetted you. You checked out, but that doesn't mean you're real."
"Callen, my voice doesn't sound familiar to you?"
"Should it?"
"While you were stationed in Russia working Moscow, I manned a few different safe houses over the years."
"Oh yeah?"
"You were in Sevastapol, right?"
"I don't know, was I? Why did I call in?"
"Because she wasn't who she said she was."
"She?"
"Your asset. I don't remember her name. It was a long time ago. I'm sorry. But I do remember they turned their backs on you. Because you were alone, if you didn't find a safe have that night you'd die."
"You directed me to that safe house?"
"Yeah. I take it because of my injury we can't have a safe extract."
"No."
"I have an active code. All I need is a sat phone."
Hetty told Sam that Sharov should be able to find them a safe house if he was really who he said he was. It was Callen's decision. Callen decided to trust Sharov, he was probably their best bet to get out of the country safe and Sharov needed medical attention soon. Sharov told them the location of where they needed to go. They all got in the car they had stashed away there and Sam drove them to the place. They arrived at the place but didn't see anything around there. But these were the coordinates Sharov had gotten for the safe house. They heard a click of a radio outside. They listened to the voice on the radio. Sharov gave his credentials and they were told where they safe house was.
Sam did as the man on the radio told them. Once they were at the point and they all got out of the car and walked. Callen walked in front of the group with Anna behind him and Sam at the back with Arkady and Sharov, with guns ready in case this was a trap. They saw a man on a motorbike pulling up.
Callen looked at this man, there was just something familiar about him. He just couldn't place it for now. They went inside and Garrison attended to Sharov. Callen looked around and noticed a lot of matryoshka dolls standing on the table. As Callen was looking at the dolls he noticed a coin lying on the table, the same coin he had found at Arkady's and Arkady had told him that his father would hand them out in Russia to refugees. Could this man Garrison be his father?
After some new intel had been received they decided to leave now. Garrison had arranged an escape plan for them. They all grabbed a horse and left. After a while they arrived at the place where they were picked up. The others walked off but Callen stayed behind with Garrison.
"Thank you for your help," Callen told Garrison.
"You know who I am?"
"I think so. Maybe, yeah. I don't know."
"I know much about you. And you don't, don't know me. I don't believe in excuses, giving reason for actions. The actions themselves are what matters."
"Well, sometimes."
"You can hate me."
"I don't hate you. But the reasons matter. To me, they matter."
"Then I will tell you." They heard a car approaching. "Another time I will tell it to you all. Everything."
Sam knew the commander who came to rescue them. They loaded Anna, Arkady and Sharov into the car. Sam looked back at Callen, something was definitely going on with his partner.
"Callen, I know who you are and the things you've done. You are good man."
Callen looked at him with tears in his eyes. This really was his father, he had finally found his father.
"Sorry, sir, but we do need to leave right now," one of the men called.
Garrison held out his hand and Callen took it. "Do svidaniya, Grisha."
"Grisha?" Callen looked at him with a weird face.
"Grisha Aleksandrovich Nikolaev. Your mother wanted you to know from where you came."
Callen couldn't believe it. He finally had a name! He finally knew his name! Callen just looked at him and walked off, joining Sam.
"G, you good?" Sam asked.
"Yeah." Callen looked back at Garrison and smiled a bit. "I'm good."
They got in the car and they were brought to an airport. Callen sat down in the chair with a heavy sigh. He had finally met his father and he finally knew what the G stood for. It was Grisha. Finally he had a big piece of the puzzle. Sam wanted to make sure his partner was okay but he had an idea of what had happened so he would just leave Callen in his own thoughts for now.
Once back in LA Callen and Sam went back to the office and walked into Hetty's office. It was around 11pm. Hetty was waiting for them.
"Good job gentlemen," Hetty spoke as Callen and Sam walked in. "You may go home now and I'll see you tomorrow morning."
Callen and Sam packed their stuff and went home. They were both glad to go home. Sam had missed his family and Callen missed Joelle. He wondered if Joelle would be at his place. Since it was already late when they arrived back in LA Callen didn't want to call her in case she was asleep already. Callen drove to his place and noticed Joelle's car standing there. With a smile on his face he walked in. As he walked in he saw that the house was dark. He quietly shot the door, dropped his bag next to the couch and walked to the bedroom. Joelle was sleeping peacefully in the bed, hugging his pillow. Callen smiled at the sight, he was glad that she was still here. He quickly walked to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth and used the bathroom. He threw an empty roll of toilet paper in the bin. It was then when he noticed something lying in the bin, something he wasn't expecting.
