"Life is not simple."

"I understand that. What I don't understand is why you refuse to be happy."

"What makes you think that I am not happy?"

"The look in your eyes."

"I..."

"Don't try to hide it from me. I just want you to be happy."

"Caleb, it is my job to make sure you are happy, not the other way around."

"He's not like the others."

"What do you mean?"

"He's not like..." he trails off, making a realization.

"Like who?"

"No one."

"Caleb, like who?"

"Eli."

"How would you know anything about Eli? You cannot go on what your grandmother tells you. Most of it is probably true, but there are two sides to every story."

"I'm not."

She freezes. She swallows hard, "What do you mean, you're not?"

"I have met him."

"You have met him? When?"

"A long time ago."

"A long time ago?"

"I was too young to remember."

"You've only seen him once?"

"No. Every couple of months he drops in for a few days."

"She allows this?"

"She says that I have to go. Something about it is the only way to repay him."

"I cannot believe her."

"Don't change the subject," he warns her.

"What is it that you wanted to know?"

"Why haven't you told Tony, how you feel?"

"It is not important."

"He doesn't strike me as the type who is going to leave you, at the first sign of trouble."

"He is not."

"Then what is the problem?"

"Our boss has rules against it. It is against NCIS policy. It is a bad idea. I do not want to ruin our partnership. I do not want to lose my friend."

"I am the only one that you are willing to take a gamble on?"

"That is different. You are my son."

"He's not my father. He is nothing like him."

"You didn't tell me a whole lot about meeting him."

"What's to tell?"

"What did he say? What did he do? What was your impression of him?"

"He was a jerk. I didn't like him."

"That's it?"

"He was tall. Taller than I had pictured. Blonder than I pictured. He had nice white teeth. There isn't much to say."

"Why not?"

"I don't like him."

"Because?"

"He didn't talk to me."

"He didn't say anything to you?"

"No. I meant he talked at me, not to me. He treated me like a five year old, who couldn't understand."

"He patronized you?"

"Exactly."

"Did he seem serious?"

"As a person?" Caleb raises his eyebrows.

"In pursuing custody?"

"Yeah. He acted like an entitled jerk."

"Did he offer any explanation, as to why he would show up, now?"

"No. I don't really care. I don't want to have anything to do with him."

"You don't have to hate him. He was young."

"That is not an excuse. Being young is not an excuse. He was old enough to make a baby," he replies angrily.

"That is true. Sometimes we do things, without considering the consequences."

"You are supposed to be responsible for your actions."

"Caleb, I agree."

"But?"

"I didn't understand his decision, then, but I do now."

"Are you saying that if you could go back that you would have chosen differently? You wouldn't have chosen me?"

"No. That is not what I am saying."

"Would you? If you could go back, would you choose differently? Would you have decided not to choose me?"

"I would have done a lot of things differently. I would change a lot of things. You are not one of them. I would not take you back. Not for a second."

"So why didn't you come to see me? When you moved here why didn't you come for me? When you became a citizen why didn't you come for me? Cards, letters, emails, and phone calls are no substitute for being there. You should have been there for me. I needed you, and we weren't there."

She feels herself breaking. She feels the tears welling up in her eyes. She feels herself going to dark place, that she did not like to visit. She swallows hard, trying to hold back the tears.

"I'm sorry," is all she can manage to get out, before the tears start to fall.

"That's it? You're sorry. That is all you have to say?"

She wraps her arms around him. He resists. She pets his head. "I'm sorry. I wish, every single day that I could go back, and fix this. I wish that I had been there for you. I cannot change the past, no matter how much I want to. All I can do, is try to be better, in the future."

"Why didn't you ever come for me?"

"Because I believed her. I believed that she was better for you. I didn't think that I could ever be good enough, to be your mother. I thought that you were ok. I thought that you were better off without me. I would only screw up your life. I..." she trails off.

"I needed you. I remember waking up crying, because I wanted you. I wanted you, and you weren't there," his words are heart wrenching.

She feels herself having a hard time breathing. She inhales. She wipes away tears. She doesn't let him move.

"I am here now."

He hugs her back.

"I love you."

"I know."

"You can let go, now."

"No, I'm never letting you go," she argues.

"Mom, I can't breathe."

She lets go. She looks at him. Her son. Her little boy. No, he wasn't a little boy, anymore. He was a young man. He would be a good man, one day.

"How can I make it up to you?"

"I don't know if you can."

"Can you ever forgive me?"

"I already have."

"How?"

"You judge a person by their past actions, until they change. Then you have to change the way that you judge them."

"I want to make this up to you, somehow. Maybe I never can, but I want to try."

"That isn't necessary."

"Please tell me something, that I can do."

He smiles, "There is one thing."

"Name it."

"Do you remember when my pacifier got taken away?"

"You were far too old to have a pacifier. You rarely even used it. You just carried it around."

"Do you remember that I threw a fit?"

"Yes. I couldn't get you to stop crying. Nothing I did would make you feel any better."

"Except..."

"Cupcakes, with gummy worms in them. You begged me to make cupcakes. When I turned around to get the pan you dumped a whole bag of gummy worms in them."

"You thought that it was disgusting."

"But you loved them."

"I have some gummy worms in my bag," he admits.

"I will get the cake mix."

He leaves the room. When he returns he finds her standing next to the counter. She is frozen. She doesn't say a word. He touches his shoulder.

"I got the gummy worms," he hands the bag to her.

She doesn't say anything. He looks at the items sitting on the counter. A mixing bowl, a spoon, some oil, eggs, a cake mix, and a bag of gummy worms. He looks at her hand. She holds onto the bag that he just gave her.

"You already have gummy worms?"

"They were in the cabinet, next to the cake mix. Sometimes I get home with them, and I don't even remember putting them in the cart."

"You think about me subconsciously, when you're at the grocery store?"

"Not just at the grocery store. I see things, all the time, that remind me of you."

"Like what?"

"There some advertisement with a dinosaur on it, and all I could think of was you in your dinosaur pajamas."

"I wore those all the time."

"Every night. You had three pairs that were identical, so that I didn't have to wash them everyday."

"I think about you, too."

"You do?"

"Yeah. At my school we have kindergarten buddies. The other day my little buddy brought me a book to read to him. I saw it, and I thought of you. It was a book that you used to read to me."

"I read a lot of books to you," she recalls.

"Every night."

"And sometimes when you woke up, too."

"I'm sure that you would remember it."

"What was it?"

"Wherever You Are my love will find you."

"I wanted you more than you ever will know, so I sent my love to follow wherever you go," she quotes.