Chapter 7
Callen walked in the kitchen to find Jackson and Jethro already dressed.
"You're up early?" Callen said looking for his keys.
"Well, we thought we'd pick up Nell and the twins for you." Gibbs said.
"Dad I can get her." Callen argued.
Gibbs looked at his son with a smirk, "Yeah I know but your grandpa and I want some alone time so we thought we'd pick her up, you can get ready for meeting the in-laws.
Callen gulped his coffee down and coughed, "Yeah coz I'm really looking forward to that." He snapped.
"Nico, be nice. You won me over, remember how grumpy I was when we first met?" Jackson reminded him,
"yeah…" Callen poured another coffee and stared at it. "But you had to like me."
Jackson sat back down next to his grandson and turned his head to face him, "I am a grumpy old man son, if I hadn't liked you grandson or no there is nothing your father could have done to change my mind. I was angry at him for not telling me about you, ok he didn't know but it was you who made me realize that I needed to be a part of your life, the goodness inside you the strong man that you are and the good things you do every day are what make me proud to be your grandpa. Just you remember that son."
"Yes sir." Callen replied.
"Now you get sorted here for when your girl and your kids come home and let us go pick her up ok?" Jackson smiled and walked off towards Gibbs who was grabbing his keys.
Nell got the twins fed, dressed and put into two car seats, a nurse sat with them while she had a shower and got herself dressed and ready to go.
"You look lovely." The nurse said as Nell walked back in the room. She smiled and checked on the two babies that were sleeping soundly.
"Thank you, I'm so glad I get to go home today." Nell put her toiletries in her bag and looked up at the knock on the door. "Jackson, Jethro!" Nell smiled as they walked in, "I thought Nico was coming to get me, is he alright?"
Gibbs smiled, "He's fine, just making sure everything in the house is baby-proofed," he smirked thinking about his son's meltdown last night.
"Oh God, Tell me he didn't think of putting plastic bubble wrap on the Christmas tree, my mother did that my first Christmas." Nell said checking the straps on the baby seats.
Gibbs picked up little Jack and Jackson picked up Clara and they headed out.
Callen was in the kitchen relighting the oven on Deeks' pot roast as he heard the doorbell ring.
He hadn't expected anyone yet, Nell and his dad and grandpa were due in about an hour, Hetty was coming over that afternoon for dinner and to meet Nell's parents and they were due in the afternoon.
He looked around the house, it looked ok so he headed to the door. "Hello?" he said as he opened it.
"So you're the boyfriend." David Jones said looking down at Callen.
"Er, Mr. and Mrs Jones, we weren't expecting you until the afternoon. Nell isn't home yet."
"You're making her come home alone from the hospital?!" Liz asked shocked.
"No…no…my father and Grandpa are picking her up." Callen replied, "Please come in."
They walked in and looked around the house. "So is this Nell's house then?" David asked.
"Er no, it was mine, but now it's ours, she moved in months ago." He admitted. "Can I get you something to drink?" he asked.
"Not right now young man, I want to know all about you and why you thought it would be a good idea to not tell us you knocked up our daughter." David said.
Callen took a deep breath; he hadn't even closed the door. "Mrs. Jones?" he asked.
"I'll have a cup of tea, if you have any?"
Callen smiled, "I have a few, maybe you'd like to pick your favorite." He led her through to the kitchen where she looked at the shelf full of tea's he kept on hand for Hetty.
"OH!" Liz looked surprised as she picked a tea, Callen opened the caddy and spooned it into an infuser, "No tea bags?" she asked.
Callen shook his head, "Not unless you want to taste the paper."
"You know a lot about tea." She smiled at him.
"My boss taught me." Callen said.
"Oh," Liz said, "So your father and Grandfather are picking up our Nell, and the children?"
"Yeah," Callen handed her the china cup of tea.
"Thank you."
"I have to ask…Nicolai isn't it?" she sat at the kitchen table and David calmer came to join them, "Why didn't you tell us, more than anything else finding out after they were born hurt me, I wanted to share all that with my daughter."
Callen didn't know how to explain it, "We wanted to share it with my family…I wasn't deliberately asking her to keep it from you, but with my fathers schedule and cases the time was never right."
"Your father's a judge?" David guessed.
"No he leads the MCRT in Washington at NCIS."
"Sorry what? MCRT?"
"Major Case Response Team," Callen told them. "He's a federal agent as well."
Liz took a sip of her tea, "I don't understand how your mother could let you do this though, I mean why did you have to tell your family first?"
Callen got up and walked to the window, "It's complicated." He said, he knew they were worried for Nell, but he hadn't envisioned having to do this alone, but then again wasn't he usually alone. He thought.
"I grew up alone, in the foster care system I didn't know I had family, I found out by accident that someone who I thought was a friend was actually my father earlier this year. This was my first piece of family news to share and I really wanted them to know."
"And your mother?"
Callen looked at them and Liz gasped at the look of sadness on his face, "My mother was shot in front of me when I was five." He said flatly.
Nell opened the door to hear Callen's last comment and went over to hug him. "Nicolai, are you ok?" she asked concerned.
He turned and kissed her not caring that her parents were in the room. "I am now, where are the kids?"
"With their grandpa's." she smiled. "So My interrogation went pretty well, your dad and grandpa were awesome, how did yours go?" she asked with a pointed look at her parents.
Callen sighed, "Painful. But they really love you." He admitted.
"Of course we do." David said he got up and held his daughter, "Hey baby."
Nell stepped back and into Callen's arms, "Mom, Daddy, are you ok with this, because I love Nico and I won't have you giving him a hard time, I agreed with all the decisions we made during the pregnancy," she said stubbornly.
Liz hugged her daughter, "We just wanted to be there for you honey, and we could have helped."
Gibbs and Jackson walked in with the babies, "We feel the same way, unfortunately Nico doesn't yet realize that it is ok to bother family, as they like it. Ain't that right son?" Gibbs said.
"I…" Callen stopped as Jackson woke up and started fussing. He leaned over and gently lifted his son out of the car seat. "Shush it's ok…Daddy's got you." He said quietly.
"May I?" Liz asked and Callen handed Jack to her.
"Nell, he's beautiful. What's his name?" She asked, in all the rush of yesterday the babies names had passed her by, "Jackson Eric Callen."
"Callen? That's an unusual name?" David said, "I noticed your name isn't American, Nicolai, I assume your mother wasn't American then."
Callen couldn't answer him; luckily Gibbs took over, "No, Clara was Romanian, Nicolai and his sister Amelia was born in Romania. Hi, Mr. Jones, I'm Nico's father, Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Please just call me Gibbs or Jethro."
David stood up and shook his hand, "David, please Jethro, seeing as we are now family, so where did the Callen come from."
"Callen was Clara's surname and the only name Nico knew growing up."
"So he was Nicolai Callen then?" David asked confused.
Gibbs smiled, "If he had been it'd have saved a lot of time, no he didn't have a name, just G. Callen. It was on his bear when he was found."
"G?"
"For Gibbs his name is Nicolai Callen Gibbs. Only he didn't know it until this year."
Clara started crying and Callen picked her up. "Hei, fetiță, nu vă faceți griji ai o familie, esti in siguranta" he said quietly.
The others looked confused at him as Gibbs walked up behind his son.
"Voi toți aveți o familie acum, fiul meu, încredere în noi pentru a ai ajuta, de asemenea." He said.
Callen looked up at his father "Thanks dad." Callen handed Clara to Nell as she showed their daughter to her parents.
He went into the kitchen to check on the slow cooking pot roast of Deeks' and grabbed a coffee and headed back to the living room.
He stopped in the door watching his father and Grandfather as they chatted to Nell's parents and looked over at the babies and smiled, "So that's how they do it." He said looking at the scene in front of him.
Hetty entering the door behind him stopped and smiled, "Indeed Mr. Callen, this is how people do a family Christmas, and this one is yours, so…go enjoy, this time you get to be the right side of the window."
Callen smiled at her and held out his hand, she took it and went with him to meet the rest of the family.
Translations.
Hey baby girl don't worry you have a family, you're safe
You all have a family now my son, trust us to help you as well.