This chapter is going to be a little different. I'm going to have it be from several of the character's point of view. I hope you enjoy!
Also, I got some reviews and PMs saying that they would like to see this stay more focused on Callie instead of Connor and Jude. The story will still focus on Callie, but I do want to put Jude and Connor in there. All of my stories have Callie as the point person and I would like to shake it up a bit.
Stef's POV
I drove Callie to work the next morning and tried to find the right words to say to her.
"So, uh, how was your first day?" I said nervously. It was so weird; I was nervous to talk to my daughter.
"Didn't we talk about this last night at dinner?" She said as she glanced up from her phone. She could tell that something was up. After all she was trained to observe and read people.
I laughed a little. "Yeah, I just wanted to break the silence I guess. Callie?"
"Hmm?" She hummed, focusing her attention on her phone.
"Love, I need you to pay attention to me for just two seconds." I said more firmly.
Callie set her phone down in her lap. "Sorry, Ziva was texting me about the case they caught yesterday."
"Callie, I want you to know that you can come to me or mama about anything. You do know that you can trust us, yes?" I grabbed her hand to try and reassure her but only felt her tense under my touch.
"Did Jude say something to you or Lena?" She whipped her head to the side so she was facing me.
We pulled into the navy yard so I parked and shut off the car. "No, he didn't." I lied. "You just get kind of distant sometimes and I just wanted to make sure that everything is okay."
"I'm fine." Callie said harshly. She glanced at her watch and grabbed her bag and coat from the backseat. "I have to go. I'm going to be late."
Without saying another word, not a goodbye or an "I love you", she got out of the car and jogged to the NCIS building.
I sighed loudly and sent a quick text to Lena.
I think she's onto us. She got very defensive. We need to talk to her tonight. There is definitely something that she is suppressing.
She wrote back quickly:
Don't worry yourself too much, my love. I'm sure she will be fine. Call me at lunch. xoxo
I took a deep breath and told myself to just let it go for the time being. But, Callie's sudden change in attitude stuck with me all day.
Callie's POV
Jude had to have said something to Stef and Lena. I'm very good at concealing my emotions everyone except for Jude. I knew something was up when Stef started getting all nervous in the car on the way to the navy yard. I knew that a longer talk was going to be coming that night, but I just pushed it out of my mind while I was at work.
Once I got to my desk, I sat down and started in on the paperwork that had piled up. I tried to go slowly so I would have to work on it when I got home, hoping that it would be a good excuse to at least post-pone the talk with Stef and Lena.
"Hey kiddo, you look like you could use a pick-me-up." Gibbs said as he set down a cup of coffee on my desk.
"Thanks Gibbs." I smiled and took a long drink. The coffee was perfect: dark roast and no added sugar or creamer.
"Gibbs, Tony and McGee are bringing up the suspect. They should be up here any minute." Ziva said, out of breath from running up the stairs.
Gibbs nodded and turned to me. "The guy that is being brought up is a really bad guy, Cal. He killed a Marine and seriously injured another. Stay at your desk; I don't want you getting hurt."
Just as he finished talking, the elevator doors opened and the squad room was filled with angry screaming.
Gibbs and Ziva ran over to help DiNozzo and McGee control the guy.
"Get the hell off of me! I will kill you all! Do you hear me? I'll kill all of you!" I tried not to look up, but my attention was gained when Tony screamed followed by yelps and cries of pain from the rest of the team.
The guy had broken free from the agents' hold and the zip-tie cuffs that secured his wrists and was running in a bee-line for the stairs.
I jumped up from my desk and ran after him.
"Callie, NO!" Ziva yelled at me.
I ignored her protest and slid to a stop just before I slammed into the criminal. I kicked his knee to the side which sent him to the ground. He screamed and cursed at me as he kicked my legs out from under me.
I fell to the ground but regained my composure quickly and avoided his fist that would have slammed into my face. We both jumped to our feet, ready to take the other one down. He lunged at me, grabbed me by my torso, and threw me into a wall. He lunged once again, but I was quicker. I punched him in the throat as he was coming at me. He was gasping for breath which allowed me to put a pressure point in his neck and make him pass out.
It all happened so fast that the team couldn't even get to us before I subdued him.
"What the hell did I tell you to do?!" Gibbs screamed at me. "I told you to stay at your damn desk! He is a murder Callie!"
"What did you expect me to do Gibbs?! Let him run out of the building? He'd already hurt all four of you! I did what I was trained to do and I subdued the suspect! What do you want me to say? That I'm sorry that I helped? Fine! I'm sorry that I didn't let him escape! Happy?" I yelled back. I stormed off to my desk and grabbed some paperwork and headed down to Abby's lab.
Ziva's POV
Gibbs and Callie finally stopped screaming at each other and Callie ran off to the elevator, probably going down to Abby's lab or to autopsy.
Gibbs stood beside me fuming. His lip was bleeding and a bruise was already forming by his eyebrow. Tony and McGee ran over and hauled Thomas, the suspect, off to an interrogation room.
"Gibbs, she didn't try and defy your orders. She–" I was cut off by my boss spinning around violently to face me.
"What do you mean she didn't try to defy me? She completely disregarded what I told her and threw herself at the beast! She could have gotten killed!" His words were filled with anger, but his face was plastered with fear.
"She reacted to the situation! New Intelligence pounded it into their heads to fight when the situation presents itself! She wasn't thinking when she ran at Thomas. She wasn't in her head. Just cut her some slack, okay?" I pleaded. Once I got a nod from Gibbs I walked to the elevator to go find Callie.
Come down to my lab. Callie is in here and she's pretty upset.
Abby's text lit up my phone and I hit the button for the lab.
When I got downstairs Abby's music was blaring and Callie was in the office screaming at no one.
"What's going on?" I asked when I reached Abby.
"I don't know! She just stormed in and locked herself in my office. She cried for a split second and then turned on the music. She's been yelling ever since. I can't really make out what she is saying, but I know that she is swearing a lot. I think you should go in there." Abby said. Her voice was full of worry and she pushed me towards the automatic doors.
I walked in and turned off the music, but that didn't stop Callie's yelling.
"Do you realize how much they messed us up? Jude still has nightmares! He thinks that they are going to come and kill us for betraying them! And I would be lying if I said that I didn't think the same thing. I want to trust Stef and Lena, but I can't! The last time I loved people as much as I love them, they were taken from me! I'm scared that if I get attached to them they are going to be taken away from me just like you and dad were!" Callie's voice cracked but she didn't stop. "Are you even listening to me, mom?! Why did you and dad have to agree to that last tour? You damn well know that neither of you had to go. You'd only been home for two months! You had two kids at home who needed you both! Were you really that unattached to your own children that you just had to go halfway across the world to get away from us? Did you really hate us that much?" She was crying freely now and tried to get more words out, but failed to do so.
I decided that it was a good time to move in as I might not have gotten another chance for a while. I took a step closer and put my hand on her should to try and comfort her. But, it must have scared her because she whipped around and tried to hit me. Luckily my Mossad training prepared me for this. I caught her arm, but instead of fighting back, I just wrapped her into a tight hug and tried to make her feel safe.
"Hey you're safe now, okay?" I slowly pulled her to the ground with me. After a few moments of struggling against me, Callie finally relaxed and let her guard down. Tears poured down her face and soaked into my shirt. "Gibbs isn't mad at you. He was just afraid that you were going to get hurt."
"Ziva…" I heard from behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw Abby standing at her desk. "I don't think that's what she was upset about."
I looked at her puzzled but before she could go on, Callie cut in. "I'm not mad at Gibbs. I'm mad at my parents. They should have been here to protect us. They both agreed to another tour when they had barely been home. They were supposed to be getting out of the military. Neither of them really wanted to be parents that much. It was their escape from us." She pulled away and wiped her tears. "If they would have stayed home Jude and I wouldn't have been kidnapped and turned into killers." She looked down at her hands dejectedly.
"Hey, I'm sure that your parents loved your very much. They had duty to serve their country. They answered the call." I said reassuringly.
"And they didn't have a duty to their children?" Callie got up off the ground and walked into the lab. "I have a lot of work to do." She grabbed the paperwork and stormed out of the room.
I started to go after her, but Abby stopped me. "Let her go. She just needs some time to cool off. Just let her do her own thing for the day."
I sighed in defeat, but knew that Abby was right.
Connor's POV
I was stuck at work with my dad for the second day in a row. He was trying to get me into a fancy charter school called Anchor Beach. We were waiting for my entrance exam results to come back and he didn't want me to be in his apartment alone all day so I had to hang out at NCIS all day.
I was spinning around in his desk chair when Callie sat down at her desk rather angrily. She looked like she'd been crying.
"Hey, you okay?" I asked cautiously.
"Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Thanks." She said abruptly.
"I don't want to distract you, but I did want to talk to you about something really quick." I waited for her to acknowledge me before I went on. She looked up and nodded so I continued. "Uh, so Jude… he seems really cool. I know that he agreed to go to the batting cages with me and my dad on Saturday, but I was wondering if he seemed excited at all. It's just that when I asked him he seemed a little hesitant. Did he say anything about it… or me?" My cheeks blushed for some reason. I tried to make it stop but couldn't.
Callie smiled and turned in her chair to face me. "Jude is very excited to hang out with you on Saturday. He kept saying how cool it is going to be. He probably seemed hesitant because he's never played baseball before. I'm sure he just doesn't want to embarrass himself."
"Oh, well tell him that he shouldn't be embarrassed. Even if he isn't good! My dad and I can help him get better if he wants!" I realized that my voice sounded a little too "giddy".
"Alright, well I'll pass along the message." Callie said with a little laugh.
I smiled back at her. I moved closer to my dad's desk and started working on a drawing I had started earlier. It was a portrait of Jude. He had such strong features that I just had to draw them. I don't know what it was about him, but he had my full attention every time we talked.
Callie's POV
Ziva gave me a ride home from work that day. I'd texted Mariana and told her to tell Stef that I didn't need a ride. The whole car ride back to my house was really awkward. We tried to make polite conversation, but it just fell flat on its face.
When she pulled into my driveway I said thanks and goodnight, but she stopped before I could get out.
"Listen, give Stef and Lena a chance okay? Don't be scared to trust them or to open up. I'm sure they just want to help you. And if you feel like you can't talk to them, you know that you can always talk to me about anything, right?" Ziva asked with concern in her voice.
"Yeah, I know Ziva. Thanks for the ride. I'll see you tomorrow." I jumped out of her car before she could say anything.
I walked inside quickly and tried to go straight to my room but Lena's voice stopped me.
"Callie, can we talk to you for a minute sweetie?"
I turned around slowly and saw Stef and Lena sitting on the couch with an empty space in between them that was obviously meant for me.
"I actually have a lot of paperwork that still needs to be done by tomorrow. I'm going to go upstairs and work on it before dinner." I ran up the stairs before they could stop me.
I shut the door and sighed in relief when I saw that Mariana wasn't in the room. I tossed my bag on my bed and started to change into more comfortable clothes, but the pain stopped me. I walked over to my mirror and examined myself. Black and blue bruises painted my back and arms from where Thomas slammed me into the wall.
There was a knock at my door and I scrambled to put a shirt on but was too slow.
"Callie, we need to talk." Stef said from the doorway. "We understand that– What the hell happened to you?!"
I whipped around and saw Stef and Lena standing in my room with worried looks on their faces.
"I'll say it again: What the hell happened Callie?!"
Leave me some reviews on what you would like to see happen next!