A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating. Have now finished writing this story so will try to update every week. I hope you all enjoy reading this and I thank all those who have stuck with me this far.
"Callen." He said. He was getting over the fact that she had just gotten the better of Deeks. Anyone that teased Deeks was ok with him.
"First or last name?" Yana asked.
"Just Callen." He said as their hands dropped.
"Ok, Callen, just Callen." Yana said. As she headed toward the only empty desk in the bullpen, she stopped by Deeks and held her hand out. "Other than Prince Charming, is there another name you go by?" She hopped that she hadn't embarrassed him too much. But the fact that Callen had understood her crazy plan and went with it, he liked to tease the man.
"Uh, yeah. Detective Marty Deeks. How long were you standing there?" He asked. He hadn't even heard her approach, then again, he was talking to Kensi.
"Pretty much from the moment you sat down. Detective, not agent?" She was wondering why a detective was on the team.
"Yeah, liaison officer." Said the only other woman in the team. She came around her desk and went to the woman. "Kensi Blye." Kensi could tell by her handshake that she was a field agent, her hands had the callouses of repetitive firing. "So, Scotland Yard? You're a long way from home. What are you doing here?" Kensi made her way back to her desk and leaned against it watching the other woman sit behind Sam's desk.
Yana noticed the others watching her place her things on the desk. As she went to move the alien bobble head Callen called out "Don't touch the doll."
"Got it." She moved her hand away from the doll and placed her computer on the space she had. She dusted the lid of it off before opening it up. The others noticed that it was a few years older than the ones they were using. "I'm here simply to do a few reports, re-adjust then head home. I hope." Deeks was the only one to catch the last two words and as she had her head tilled down, Kensi wasn't able to read her lips.
"What do you mean 're-adjust'?" Kensi asked. She noticed that Yana tensed up at the sound of someone getting a cup from one of the cupboards in the kitchen behind them. She didn't relax until footsteps waded away.
"Pray you never have to find out, Agent Blye, it's not fun." She looked up at Kensi as she said it then looked back down at the keyboard in front of her. Her voice was filled with pain, horror and sadness. They all looked at each other as she simply stared at the keys.
Trying break up the tension that had come about from her last words, Deeks said "They're for typing words into the computer."
Before Kensi or Callen could admonish him, they heard a small chuckle come from Yana "That's not the problem. The problem is … I can't remember the password." Her fingers hovered for a moment longer before she stared laughing. Then a few seconds later the laughter turned to great racking sobs that shook her whole body. She pushed the chair back a little and hunched over as the crying continued. Deeks sitting beside her saw her wrap her arms around herself and went to pat her shoulder just as Callen called out to stop him, but it was too late, he had touched her arm.
What happened next, Kensi and Deeks didn't fully understand how until they watched the footage later in ops. But Callen had seen it before, had done it a couple of times himself. Yana stopped crying. One hand snapped out and grabbed the hand that had touched her. She stood in the same instance, flipped him over her shoulder and had a knee on his chest in the space of a couple of seconds, a knife at his throat. It was instinctive, reactive, the kind of thing that only happened after being undercover for a very long time. He reached the two on the ground and, staying in Yana's sight came toward them.
"Yana?" Callen called softly. He called a little louder when she didn't respond the first time. "Yana? It's alright, Deeks was just seeing if you were ok, ok?" he crouched in front of her and placed his hand on the one holding the knife. He was ready for the reflex action of her throwing a punch at him and caught it. "It's alright. You're safe." He didn't let either hand go until her breathing clamed and she looked at him through clear eyes. When she did, she fell back, nearly pulling Callen on top of Deeks until he let her go.
"Oh God. I'm so sorry!" she covered her mouth with a hand as the tears fell from her eyes. As she stood, Callen pointed behind him and said "Gun range." He had a feeling that Granger wouldn't want her to leave the Mission as she was. He knew that the best way to fight the demons or adrenalin was either a very long run or to shoot something. Yana nodded and took off, but not before grabbing one of her bags.
Waiting until she was out of ear shot, Kensi and Deeks rounded on Callen and asked in hushed voiced filled with shock and fear "What the hell was that?"
"That is the reaction of someone realising that they are no longer undercover. She doesn't look older than you Kens, so my guess is that it was her first undercover job, and it was a long one." Some of it he knew from Granger, but the rest was based on his own feelings and reactions after his first long term undercover stint. He stood, gathered Yana's laptop and headed out to find Nell and Eric to see if they could unlock the computer for her and then find Granger and let him know what had happened.
Kensi and Deeks were left to try and figure out what had just happened. "What was that all about?" Kensi asked him.
"No idea, but she sounded like she didn't know if she could go home." Deeks looked in the direction of the gun range. He went back to his desk and started to write up a report of the days happenings on the case.
Kensi did the same all the while wondering what was going on. She thought back on Yana's words and hoped that she would never have to go through whatever Yana had.
Callen found Granger in an office in a quiet part of the Mission. He knocked on the open door and waited until Granger nodded for him to come in.
"You handled that well. Thank you." It was the second time that day that Granger had left him speechless.
"I know what she's going through. Now, why is she here and why did you tell me that she's your niece?" Callen needed to know why Granger had told him at all. And why she was here. She had settled into Sam's chair quickly.
"She's here because she can't go home at the moment. The people she was under with operate out of Europe and, as far as she's told me, it isn't over yet. She has a lot more freedom now that she didn't have before."
"And?" Callen knew he was pushing, but he had to know.
"And because you know what she's going through. I can't get a hold of Mr Getz."
"Why haven't you told Hetty?"
"Because the situation is very delicate. And Hetty could very well hit it with a sledgehammer if she found out anything."
"That's not an answer."
"No, but it's all you're going to get." Granger clasped his hands in front of him and looked at Callen. "Keep an eye on her for me, please. I have to go back to Washington for a while, right when she needs her family around her."
Callen had never heard the soft pleading tone from Granger before and he nodded to the older man that he would do his best. "What if Hetty asks me about the two of you?"
"You can tell her. But not the rest of your team, clear?" He said after a moment's pause. Callen nodded again and Granger dipped his head back to the paperwork on his desk and Callen knew that the meeting was over. He left and decided to make his way to the gun range to see if Yana was ok.
As Callen walked past Hetty's office, the woman called out. "Mr Callen, a word?" He sighed and headed to her desk, wishing that he had been able to go to Yana first.
"Yes Hetty?" He hoped that the innocent tone he adopted would convince her that he had no idea what was going on.
"What do you know about the young woman?" She was sitting behind her desk a cup of tea in her hands.
Callen sat in the chair across from her and answered. "Her name is Yana Talbot, she's with Scotland Yard and has just finished a major undercover operation. If I had to guess, her first."
"What about Granger? What is his connection to the girl?" Hetty was more than a little mad at the fact that Granger had told Callen and not her about whatever was going on.
"His niece." Was all Callen said.
"Anything else?"
"He wants her to talk to Nate." Callen figured that Hetty would know where he was and get him here.
"Not possible at the moment."
Or not. "He wants me to keep an eye on her."
"Why?"
"He figures that I know what she's going through."
Hetty saw that Callen had told her all that he knew, or more accurately, had been told to reveal. She nodded and let her lead agent continue on his way.
Callen left and continued onto the gun range. He expected to hear gun fire, instead he heard an unusual hissing whacking sound. He entered and saw Yana load and fire a bow and arrow.
She heard him enter and turned her head to look at him. She turned back to the target in front of her and released the string. "Is the detective ok?"
"Deeks? Yeah, he's ok." Callen lent against the wall beside her, allowing her to keep him in her sights. He watched as she drew, aimed and fired in a steady methodical way for three arrows then was stunned at the speed at which she let the next six loose. With each arrow she drew, aimed and fired in the space of a heartbeat. She was holding five of them in her hand but the last arrow she pulled from a quiver on her back. "Nice shooting. But why the bow?"
"Takes more hand eye co-ordination than a gun, so it calms me down more." She opened the door that led to the back of the range so that she could collect her arrows. "Granger tell you who I am?"
"Shouldn't that be Uncle Owen?" Callen couldn't help but let a small chuckle escape his lips at that. He was trying to picture Granger playing with a younger version of the woman in front of him. A picture that burst at her next words.
"I only met the man for the first time last night when he picked me up from the airport." She wandered around pulling arrows from the insulating foam while she answered him. "So, no, it's Granger for now." She re-joined him behind the barrier, placed the arrows back in her quiver and started shooting again.
"So why are you here?"
"Like I said before, write reports, once I remember the password, readjust to having a normal life and to rest. Really rest, uninterrupted by nosy detectives."
"You were awake?" Callen had been sure that she was asleep.
"Not until you said 'I wouldn't'. I guessed as to what happened when I heard him yelp." She giggled as she thought about that.
Callen joined her after saying "And then you snuck up on him." He laughed as he remembered the look on his face and the sound that the younger man let out.
Eric walked in on the two of them laughing and when they saw him with the large and now very purple bruise on his face, Yana fell to the floor in silent hysteria while Callen sobered up a little and watched the young woman. After a moment and Callen could see that she was still trying to get her laughter under control, he turned to Eric and asked "What is it Eric?"
"We have a lead." Then he turned and went back to ops.
"Yana? I have to go." He helped her to her feet, she was still trying to get her laughter under control, but now it was just light giggling. He figured that she hadn't laughed like that in a while, which was why he had joined in. Help her get it out. He might get her to talk to him about it over a sparring match later. Sam had found it to be a very good way of getting him to talk at all.
"Go?" clearly she had missed the conversation between him and Eric.
"Yeah. We got a lead on the case we've got."
She nodded then asked, "Was that the other man I hit this morning?"
"Yes, his name is Eric."
"Can you tell him I'm sorry?"
"I'm pretty sure he knows but I will. You can make it up to him with a couple of rounds of video games if you can play." He led the way back out to the bullpen and spotted the rest of the team heading up the stairs. "I had Nell and Eric find out the password to your computer." He said as he walked past his partner's desk that now had Yana's laptop sitting on it again.
"What?" She yelled and raced to see if it was open. She found it sitting with just the password screen on it. She looked up at Callen.
"I just had them find out what it was, not open it." He said. He had seen the fear on her face and wondered what caused it. What was on the computer that was so bad? "It seems kinda old." He said, remembering the dust she had blown off it.
"Yeah, haven't used it in a few years." She sat down in front of it and started typing the password that someone had written out on a piece of paper and stuck to the desk. Callen left her to it and headed up the stairs after his team.
Hetty watched as Callen and the rest of the team headed out after the briefing. The lead was just a letter with demands that had been posted using the standard mailing system, so untraceable. The DNA was running from the seal but there wouldn't be anything till the morning, so Hetty had sent everyone home. Callen had stopped by Yana to see if she was ok, and after getting a nod had left for the night. The young woman was still working on the computer and didn't look like she was stopping for a while. Hetty made two cups of Earl Grey tea and took one over to her. She wanted to know more about her.
A/N: I have laughed so hard that I have ended up on the floor. Had a really bad day at work and had dinner at a friend's place. We did something that was really funny and once I started, I couldn't stop. Best I had felt in days after.
A/N2: If there is anything in this story that doesn't make sense, let me know.
