Chapter 6

Callen swayed a little as he turned to this man, he looked at him intently, "Who are you?" He growled.

"My name is Stringfellow Hawke, this is my cabin." He said again, knowing he had told him this before.

"Who are you to me?" He asked, taking a step away from the man and moving as an older man started up the stairs towards him.

String turned as Saint John came up the stairs.

"Sin Jin?" He turned to his older brother.

"G, go back to your room, we'll talk there." Sin Jin said, hoping to calm the younger man down.

Callen's head was reeling, he looked over at the picture of his mother in the family portrait. "Who is she?" he pointed at the painting.

"She's our mother." String said honestly. "We are your brothers."

Callen stepped back as if slapped. His mother had had another family? He'd been left in the wilderness of the foster system and she'd been living another life with another family?

Then, for him, it all tumbled into place.

She had left him because he wasn't as good as this other family, maybe all he remembered was wrong, she wasn't dead, she'd just left him and gone back to play happy family's with her two perfect sons, leaving the defective one to fend for himself.

Callen blinked a few times, for once pleased his training would help him hide his true feelings.

He felt like his soul had been ripped from his body. He had always held onto the notion that he'd had a family somewhere who one day would find him, tell him his name and tell them they had been searching for him his whole life. They would tell him he was loved and lamented all the lost years without him.

That wasn't true. His family were, by the look of the size of this cabin wealthy, they obviously had the money to look for him and they hadn't. ... And Hetty! She was their aunt? Was she his aunt? She knew about them and had not told him.

He felt totally betrayed, bereft and alone. Rodriguez and Maria had been right, they didn't want him.

"Nice to meet you." He said his face a blank. "I need to rest." he turned and walked back to the room he'd exited from and shut the door on them.

"Well, that went well." Sin Jin quipped as both boys looked at the closed door.

String raised an eyebrow and said nothing.

Hetty walked up to the boys having told the others to wait downstairs, even though Sam argued to be able to go up and see him.

Both String and Sin Jin had not moved from outside the door, torn between wanting to talk to their brother and their understanding of his desire for privacy.

Hetty smiled at seeing both her nephews torn as to what to do, usually both of them in their own way were decisive and ready for action.

"Well, let's see if Mr. Callen is still with us." Hetty said, not wanting to worry them, but she had been concerned about his earlier escape attempt.

Callen had shut the door and sunk down behind it. The room was spinning and he felt strange. His fight or flight response had had a different effect this time, he was afraid and frozen in fear. He wanted to leave, to run and leave these betrayers behind. But at the same time he wanted answers; however, nothing could make him open the door and confront the two men who said they were his brothers.

He'd never felt this indecisive before, it wasn't him. He got up and started pacing, not realizing his movements were getting more and more frantic until he tripped and fell. He sat not moving, not making a sound as the tears he couldn't hold back fell silently down his face.

He realized with a shock, he was crying, he hadn't cried since he was a child. Old habits were still in play as he found himself moving to a corner and, curling up, not making a sound, lest he was heard and hurt.

He tried to get a handle on his emotions and at that point realized there was nothing he could do but let it out. He'd been there only once before in his adult life, after Romania, after Hetty had shown him a picture of his mother and told him her name. He knew there was nothing he could do, but let the emotion run its course and wait it out.

He heard the door knock, but couldn't bring himself to answer it.

"Mr. Callen?" Hetty called through the door, "I would like to speak with you if you have a moment."

Callen swore to himself, she was the last person he wanted to see right now.

He hastily wiped his eyes and pushed his emotions down.

"I'm tired Hetty." He called, "I'm still here." he added, knowing that she would think he had run away again. Maybe he would have done if he actually had a clue where he was. The only thing he didn't want to do was to step foot outside the door.

"I'm coming in Mr. Callen." The tone of Hetty's voice let him know there was no room for argument.

Callen swiped at his eyes and looked away from the door as it opened. He could hear more than one person outside the door and he hoped that it would be only her that entered, he relaxed a little as he heard her instructions.

"Wait there, I'll talk to him." She said softly to whomever was outside as she closed the door.

He kept his head down and her heart broke as she saw him. It wasn't the first time she had seen him this dejected. But before, he had been a teenager and she hadn't in some way been the cause of his pain.

"Mr. Callen?"

He turned his head away and she moved closer, placing her hand softly on his shaking shoulder.

"We did not mean for you to find out this way." Hetty said honestly.

"You knew…" Callen's voice was raspy and tired. "All this time you knew, you are related, they said so. Did they know or did you just spring it on them?"

Hetty sighed, feeling every one of the years she had lived, "They knew about you. They have known since you were in the CIA."

"You hid me from them?" He asked, "Why?"

Hetty sighed, "I did what was necessary at the time."

Callen moved from her touch, "So... Why didn't they find me when they knew about me? Why didn't you tell me about them?"

Hetty moved to sit in the chair opposite.

"Sometimes things are complicated. Saint John was missing in action in Vietnam, for a long time Stringfellow was alone. He was hurting, they thought your mother died in 1962, to find out she had been alive right up until 1974 and that she had died in Romania and not on the lake in front of the house. He would have been hurt too much."

Callen swiped his eyes, stood up and started to pace. "So we can't hurt your nephews can we, but it's ok to leave me out in the cold. Out with… I had family Hetty. You knew them, you are related to them… what about me? Are you related to me?" He asked.

Hetty folded her hands together, "I am." She said simply. "I am a cousin of your mother's through her mother's side of the family."

"Why didn't you tell me? Why keep the secret?"

"Because the truth would hurt you." She said softly.

Callen scoffed, "I have already figured out the truth. Clara had a whole other family, they had everything money could buy. She gets cold feet runs away and whoever raised Stringfellow obviously didn't want a Romani bastard tainting their wonderful family. So you all left me, I'm not good enough to be part of the family. I get it, don't you see Hetty, I have never been good enough to be a part of anyone's family."

"No!" Hetty's voice rose in frustration, "It's not that at all…"

"No, I bet it wasn't. I've had enough of being lied to, first you, then Sam." Callen shook his head, it still wasn't totally Sam, first Sam tells him he's not missed or needed at NCIS or on the team, then he is in…. Something, and Sam is telling him to hold on, that he is needed. He shook his head. "I don't... I…" He got angry, "I want out of here. I don't need this Hetty, you say you're my aunt, that you care about me, but you left me in the system, you lied to me, I wasn't even good enough for you to foster. You lied the worst, you told me you knew nothing about my family, you took me in but never fostered me officially, You told me you didn't know my mother's name, you had known her all your life. Why weren't you there for us?"

"Because I couldn't be!" Hetty's voice had risen and Callen heard footsteps hurrying up the stairs.

"WHY?!" He shouted.

"Because I'm a Comescu!" Hetty snapped back at him as he stumbled away from her shaking his head.

"No... Not you..." He looked scared as the door banged.

"Callen, Hetty?" A man's voice came through the door and for a moment Callen couldn't place it, was it a Comescu? Was this all an elaborate plot to kill him?

The door banged again and Callen looked desperately around, he needed to get out of there, not even thinking he headed to the balcony and jumped, not hearing the terrified scream from Hetty behind him as he fell.