Chapter 10

As it turned out Hetty owned two other cabins on the lake, smaller than Stringfellow's, but not by much. Hetty stood the team down after putting a call into Vance and called Eric down for a break letting Granger and the B team take over the day to day operations at the mission. Kensi, Deeks, Eric and Nell took one cabin. Sam and Hetty the other. Callen opted to stay with String and SinJin after both brothers protested him leaving, citing the fact they had missed out on too much as it was.

Callen was pleased the others decided to stay, as much as he was enjoying time with his brothers, he needed the familiarity of his team. The only people he had pulled away from was Archangel, who for some reason unnerved him, and Hetty.

Sam was concerned about Hetty, she had moved to her cabin and not been to join the team or the brothers for meals since she had arrived there. He could see the sadness within her at the lost of contact from Callen. He knew she had her reasons, but he could see how much the rift between them both hurt them.

It was late, it had been a week since they had moved to the cabin and Sam headed down to the main room, after talking with Michelle and filling her in, to talk to Hetty about the rift between her and Callen.

He stopped at the top of the stairs as he heard Archangel and Hetty talking.

"You need to talk to him Michael, I don't believe you kept this from them!" The shock in her voice was evident.

"We all keep secrets Henrietta, You kept yours for the greater good, it's the same reason that I kept mine." Archangel argued.

"Yes and look how well, keeping my secret turned out, all the boys are angry with me and although Saint John and Stringfellow try for my sake, Mr. Callen will not even look at me, and when he does... Michael the look on his face breaks my heart. Why didn't you tell me?"

"It was a Top Secret Operation, She had no idea who I was or what I did. You know how important keeping a cover is in our line of work."

Even though he knew it was wrong, Sam couldn't help but stand there and listen.

"But when you got involved with Stringfellow and got him involved with the Airwolf mission, surely you knew then?" Hetty asked.

Archangel shook his head, "I didn't know, not till the first time I walked into Strings' house and saw the painting. Even then I tried to convince myself that I was wrong, that it wasn't her."

Hetty sighed, "What convinced you it was?"

"When he was talking about how his mother died. How He and Amy came back to the house and something was missing." Archangel slumped into the chair opposite Hetty. "I knew then, all that I had tried to deny was wrong. I thought they were dead, I knew, because you said that G was their brother, you never mentioned Amy. Never once…"

"I didn't know of your connection, I was hurt as I thought Amy had died when she was eleven, then there was a case where, for a brief moment I had hoped she was alive, but she wasn't." Hetty sipped her tea settling back into her chair. "The question here Michael is are you going to tell him?"

Michael took a sip of his own tea, "I don't know. I want to, I really do. But seeing how he reacted to your little omission, and the fact that he's finally settling and getting to know his brothers, I worry that by telling him I'll be doing him more harm than good."

Hetty nodded in understanding, but she had a question that needed asking, "Michael, when the children got back to the house, where were you?"

Sam's eyes widened in shock as he heard the question, This man was G's father?

"I had sent Clara and the children to meet you, the KGB were onto me, my cover was compromised, I tried to get to them, but I was taken and questioned for six months before I escaped, that's how I got the limp. I was never cleared again for fieldwork. I met Callen a week before the attack by Moffat, I knew he was looking into my past in a bid to blackmail me to steal Airwolf, I had to keep my distance." Archangel looked sad but sighed and continued. "I kept tabs on him as much as I could, but Moffat noticed my interest in him, so I arranged to have him transferred to NCIS."

Sam walked into the room, "This Moffat, is he a danger to G?" He growled concerned for his partner.

"How much did you hear?" Archangel snapped at the man.

"Enough to know you're lying to him, he deserves to know the truth, there's been too much lying in his life."

"I agree, but right now he needs to recover, I promise Mr. Hanna, I will tell your partner the truth as soon as I can."

"Good, and you can start by telling him his name."

"I will, I promise. Sam I am glad you are looking out for my son. I promise you both Henrietta and I have his best interests at heart. He's learned a lot recently, right now he needs to connect with his brothers, learn who he is in their lives, what his place is. Please Sam, let him do that first. Let me get to know him, unguarded, before we tell him. Please?" Archangel asked.

Sam sighed, "I'll do it, but I will tell you now I think you are making a huge mistake."

Callen laughed as SinJin showed him a photo and told him the story of Strings first fishing trip.

"Honest, he screamed as he baited the hook and cried for hours after he landed his first fish." SinJin grinned as String smiled indulgently. "And, it was about four pounds smaller than your first fish." He nodded at the picture String had insisted on taking when Callen had landed his first fish a week ago, although he had been mixed up in his head, his pride of catching his first fish was evident. The picture was surrounded by others, one of Callen with both his brothers, one of G with the team and one of G with Sue and Caitlyn. It had been a week since that first fishing lesson with String and he was slowly, allowing them in, they were telling him stories they had of his mother and he in turn was telling them, heavily redacted stories from his own childhood, just the few nice memories he had, the nicer homes he had stayed in.

Callen laughed, "I went hunting once, had a set of foster parents into living off the land, insisted I go hunting for deer with them."

"How did that turn out?" SinJin asked.

"I cried for hours, I didn't want to shoot it, so I hid all the bullets." He admitted.

"What happened?" String asked.

"I got them convinced they had left the ammo behind and we went camping anyway and they caught rabbits instead, but I didn't have to shoot them." Callen replied. What he left out was that the day they were due to return the foster father had found the ammo under Callen's sleeping bag and had beaten him so bad that he spent two days in hospital afterwards, the foster parent swore he had fallen down a cliff.

String, somehow could sense there was something Callen was holding back, but didn't push. "You have any pictures of you as a kid?" he asked.

Callen smiled and nodded, "I didn't, not till recently. There was a guy, Hans Schreiber, who had apparently been following me all my life, he had hundreds of photo's in his closet. So now I have lots."

Both SinJin and String looked interested at that, "Do you think he was your father?" SinJin asked.

Callen shook his head, "I did for a while, but when he died, he told me to tell my father the debt was paid. Turns out my father apparently helped his family escape through the iron curtain. Had a name, but not sure if it's correct, I've been told a few names, Nikita, Michael, Garrison… I don't know anything more than that really, sorry." Callen sighed.

"I am too, if we knew a bit more we could work on finding him." SinJin offered.

Callen shrugged, "What's the point, he didn't want me as a kid, I doubt he'll want to know me now." He sighed.

"His loss our gain." String grinned, standing up, "Come on G, the others are coming over for a Barbecue tonight. You're helping with the grill."

"All of them?" Callen asked his stomach lurched at the thought of having to see Hetty again, and the man that was hanging around, the man in white, Archangel. Callen had a bad feeling about him."

"G?" String stopped, "We have your back, but you have to understand Hetty is our aunt, not just mine and SinJin's but yours as well, she's also your boss. You don't have to trust her or like her. Hell. I don't trust Archangel, but I have to work with him and you will have to work with her. Now is a good time to find middle ground. We will be with you the whole time. Trust us?" String asked as he laid a hand on G's shoulder.

Callen nodded, he knew that no matter what was to come he had a family now and he did trust them.