Chapter 5

A low murmuring reached his ears as his eyes slowly opened.

He wasn't in his basement, he had no idea where he was.

He looked for Maria, but couldn't see her anywhere.

He had clean bandages on and the room itself was bright and airy, wooden beams were the first thing he focused on, it looked like a kind of log cabin. Only it seemed larger than any log cabin he'd ever seen.

Slowly, with pain still filtering through to his nerve endings, he sat up looking for his clothes.

A fresh pair of jeans and a blue shirt sat on a chair.

He slowly tried to pull the jeans on. The murmuring got louder and Callen flinched as he realized the voices had no accents.

His first thought was to panic, he didn't know these voices and where was Maria?

He looked around for a quick escape even though he had only got his pants on, the shirt still sitting on the chair.

Moving as swiftly as his injuries allowed he opened the window, there was a small terrace outside and a trellis going down one side, it didn't look very safe, but whoever these people were they were not his benefactor or his wife. He owed Rodriguez his life and he had been warned the others wanted to hurt him.

Old insecurities and worries he had had as a child surfaced.

Rodriguez had said that they would hurt him and he couldn't handle any more pain. His head was pounding and his thoughts were still fuzzy but he knew one thing. He wasn't going to be hurt anymore, Maria hadn't hurt him. She had helped him, she was safety to him and he needed to find her.

"G?" Hetty's voice stopped him in his tracks, his leg halfway over the railing on the terrace.

"Hetty?" He asked in shock.

Had these people take her too?

"What? Are you ok? Why are you here? Where is here?" He couldn't help but just ask all the questions that popped into his brain, he didn't know why but he seemed to have lost the filter between his brain and his mouth.

He froze hanging onto the railing unsure which way to go.

He had to know, he couldn't run now, not if she were in danger.

"Mr. Callen, please… Come back over this side of the railing." Hetty asked, her heart in her throat.

What Callen didn't know was there was a large drop that side and if he slipped he would fall and die.

He climbed back in and stopped his back hard to the railing as he watched the two men who entered behind her warily.

Both men stopped worried for the man on the terrace. The older man in the white suit with the eyepatch said keeping his voice steady so as not to panic the younger man.

"Well, you look better Callen," He said, his eye not hiding the worry on his face.

"Who are you?" Callen's grip on the railing hadn't lessened he was fully prepared to throw himself over in an attempt to escape if he could get the others to rescue Hetty, after all they wouldn't come for him.

"My name is Archangel, I am an old friend of Hetty's, come inside please Callen, it is cool outside."

Hetty held her hand out to him and he wanted to take it, he really did, but the small voice inside him screamed not to trust them. However, he did follow her inside still keeping a distance between himself and the woman he had cared for like a mother.

"Ok, but…"

"You need to rest Mr. Callen, the drugs in your system have not fully cleared out of you yet."

"I haven't been taking any drugs." He argued. "I don't do drugs!"

"You had Rohypnol in your system Mr. Callen." Hetty said as she pulled a blanket over him as he laid back on the bed.

"I did?" The disbelief was obvious in his voice, but he sighed, she might be right.

"We don't think you took it deliberately, However Mr. Callen you do need to get this out of your system."

"I need to get out of here, I need to find...I need to leave." Callen argued.

"Mr. Callen. Trust me you will be free to leave as soon as you are fit enough, just stay here on the bed and let the drug work it's way out of you."

Callen sighed, there was no fighting her in this mood. He just hoped Maria would be safe till he found her.

"So where am I?" He asked.

"My house, I'm Stringfellow Hawke." The other man said.

Callen whipped his head to study this man, he didn't seem mad at him or angry. However there was something about him that unsettled him.

"I'm sorry about your brother." Callen said.

String looked at Hetty and Archangel in confusion. It wasn't often he was knocked sideways by something, but this had confused him.

"My...Brother?" He asked.

Callen closed his eyes for a second and swayed as his head spun, "I know I'm not who you wanted, I don't know why, Sir...he was confused. I don't know where he is."

"He's dead Mr. Callen." Hetty said assuming that her senior agent meant Rodriguez himself.

Callen went quiet and closed his eyes, soon his breathing evened out the toll of his exertion taking effect. He had cost this man his brother, at the expense of saving his life.

Archangel looked at Hetty worried, "You know him best Henrietta, do you think he will be alright?"

Her brow furrowed as she looked at the man she had known since he was a teenager. She hadn't liked his reaction it was one she had seen many a time before, when he was holding onto something painful and didn't want to share.

"I don't think he should be left alone for now." She advised.

"I'll stay." String said, he wanted time to study the enigma that was his brother.

"Michael and I will be right down in the main room." Hetty advised.

As she closed the door, String studied his brother's face. He could see the traits they both shared obviously inherited from their mother, and the differences which had to have come from G's father.

He sat silently for ten minutes just waiting.

Callen stirred, not noticing the figure in the corner. His stomach rumbled and he felt thirsty. He reached for the glass of water beside his bed but stopped as the glass was halfway to his mouth, remembering Hetty's information about him being drugged.

He jumped as String spoke, "It's not drugged, it is fresh spring water. The spring is near to the cabin and I get it pumped up to the pipes."

He took a tentative sip, it was good.

"Who are you?" He asked not remembering that he had asked that earlier.

"My name is String, this is my house. My brother and I rescued you."

Callen was for a moment hurt that his team hadn't saved him, but then he remembered that his team didn't care anymore.

"I am sorry you wasted your time." He said not meeting the other man's eyes.

"Callen, I didn't waste my time." String said. He was appalled how uncertain his little brother was, this wasn't the man whom he had come to know and care about in conversations with his aunt.

"But you didn't go there looking for me, Rodriguez had me confused with someone else. I don't know where your brother is." Callen admitted.

String wanted to tell him, to let him know than he had found his missing brother, but Hetty had asked him to wait until the drugs had cleared his system.

"I found you though and at least you are safe now, rest and heal. Aunt Hetty will be up later to check your dressings."

"Aunt Hetty? You're related to Hetty?"

String smiled, "Isn't everyone."

Callen shrugged. "Why is Hetty here?" he asked.

"You've been missing for six weeks, we've been looking everywhere for you." String told him.

"No...not six weeks, maybe that's how long they've been looking but I know I've been...wherever I was for at least nine months. Sir...Rodriguez, said so."

"And you believe him?"

"He has no reason to lie." Callen replied flatly. He sat up slipping his feet into his sneakers, "I need to go."

"Go where?" String asked.

Callen shrugged. He didn't know except he had an overwhelming urge to find Maria and keep her safe.

"Don't stop me." Callen growled at String.

"Wouldn't dream of it." String smirked and for a second Callen stopped. The older man reminded him of someone but he couldn't think who. "I think your team may want to see you though."

Callen laughed sourly, "Why? So they can gloat about how much better they are doing without me?"

"Is that what you really think?" String looked annoyed, "They pestered me and SinJin to be allowed to help us find you. They invaded my home and that blond guy drove me up the wall because he couldn't go with us."

"Look I'm sorry ok!" Callen winced as he pulled a shirt over his head, "I will go out of your hair and you can go and look for your brother rather than wasting your time with me."

String sighed as Callen turned and made his way down the hallway to the large balcony where he could see his team sitting in the main room and he stopped dead.

They turned and smiled as they saw him standing there.

"G!" Sam smiled as he looked up.

Callen was looking at them...no...past them, shock etched on his face and he turned to the man behind him his hands gripping the railing as the room seemed to spin.

"Who are you?" He growled anger etched on his face, "And why in the hell do you have a picture of my mother on your wall?"