Keepin' it Real

"Nature versus nurture. Quite the conundrum," Hetty said, walking into the bullpen, and breaking up Callen and Sam's argument.

"You can't use the word conundrum before nine thirty, Hetty," Callen said, reading his newspaper.

After Hetty had announced the case, Sam turned to him as they were heading into Ops. "So Taylor's attitude, is that nature or nurture?"

"Don't go there, Sam," Callen warned. To be honest, he wasn't sure. He just hoped Taylor didn't pick up on any of her mother's habits or attitudes. It was a good thing, if one were to argue the nurture argument, that Taylor's mom hadn't been a part of her life.

After the case of the fake money had been resolved, Callen sat in his car, thinking about his conversation with Natalie Giordano. Maybe if she hadn't been a cop, he would have taken her up on her offer, but now, his daughter was his only concern.

And the rule of dating cops? Well, that had come from Taylor's mom. Riaane Vandenhoven. She was the one who started it all. Riaane was one of those natural born operators, born for undercover work. But their relationship? It wasn't undercover, but it mind as well had been. The lies, the deceit, it was like one big, fat, undercover operation. But it wasn't. And the result of their little "fling" had been Taylor.

Riaane had him never saw eye to eye on anything. First- to keep the baby. Riaane wanted an abortion. Callen wanted to keep the baby. Second- names. That had resulted in some massive blow ups. Callen was still surprised to the day that they had come up with Taylor Kaatje. Kaatje translated into English was Katie. Third- parenting styles. Callen was a pushover in Riaane's mind. Fourth- when Riaane had dropped Taylor off with her father to go work for the CIA. He had been deep undercover when that happened. Their first encounter after Riaane had pulled that "stunt" was when Taylor had been four years old.

Callen and Taylor's mom had been young. Way too young to raise a baby, at 20. And Taylor had suffered from their lack of maturity and lack of communication. Skylar had told him a couple days ago that the last time Taylor or Skylar had seen Riaane was fourteen months ago, when she showed up at Taylor's soccer game. Skylar and Riaane were also estranged, as was Riaane and Taylor's grandfather.

Taylor was on the soccer field, sweating like a stuck pig. A 2 hour soccer practice, they were 93 minutes it, and Taylor literally wanted to die. Their coaches, Monica Hughes and Jim Prentice, were working the girls to exhaustion. It was hot out, and unusually humid for LA.

"This is what you get when you play on a club team. You work! And run!" Jim yelled at his players.

"And kill us," Taylor muttered to her best friend, Allyson Rodriguez.

Jim was getting madder by the second and they were doing "suicide's." Suicide's were fine on a basketball or volleyball court, but on a soccer field they were just that- suicide's. And they had to do 15 of them. "Come on Vandenhoven! You can run faster than that!" Taylor was on suicide 14. "Seriously Vandenhoven! Pick up the pace!" Taylor's birth certificate may have said Taylor Kaatje Callen but she went by Taylor Vandenhoven.

After finishig 15 suicide's, Taylor collapsed on the grass. Monica hauled her up though. "Start walking. You'll get too stiff and lactic acid will build up." All Taylor was thinking about was a cold fucking shower and sitting on the couching watching TV. Playing for two different teams was running her exhausted. This was her second practice of the day.

"You look different tonight," Taylor remarked, pouring over her homework, as Callen slipped inside Skylar's Santa Monica home.

"Different, how?"

Taylor shrugged. "Women troubles, dad?"

"We're not having this conversation," Callen replied. He wasn't having this conversation with anybody, especially not his 17 year old daughter. "Although, we could talk about your love life. When can I meet the boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend?" Taylor laughed. "You think me, Taylor Vandenhoven, would have a boyfriend? Obviously you don't know me well enough, Dad."

"I want to meet him."

"So you can intimidate him? Nope, don't think so," Taylor said. "Especially if you bring Super SEAL."

"Sam?" Callen laughed.

"Yeah. Especially him. Conversation is over, Dad. You are not meeting any of my guy friends."

"We will see about that," Callen smirked at his daughter. She just glared at him.