He looked like he just saw a ghost. He hadn't seen her for about 25 years but she still looked a lot alike. Callen blinked his eyes to make sure he was seeing it right. Marisa 'death' mother stood in front of him. Sara was just as confused as he was. She hadn't expected him to show up here. But wait, this would mean he knew about Marisa. What was she going to tell him? She figured running at the point would probably be best. Callen saw her running away and went after her to get some answers. She was still in good shape after all these years. Callen caught up with her just before she wanted to get into the car. Callen slammed the car door close and turned her around to look at him.

"Sara." Callen spoke and he stepped back when he saw it was really her.

"Hi Callen."

Callen was shocked. He had so many questions for her. "What...? Why…? How..? I heard you were dead." Callen got a little angry.

"I was, well not technically."

"But why? And why come here? Do you know the people whose graves you just visited?"

"Yes, well not personally but I know who they were."

"So you know that they were Marisa's adoptive parents?"

Sara looked surprised and shocked as Callen said Marisa's name. "You know about Marisa?"

"Yes I do, for about 5 years now."

Sara was happy that Marisa had found her father. "How?"

"We work together."

Sara smiled as she realized her daughter had become a federal agent too. "She's a fed?"

"Yes, we work together at NCIS."

"NCIS? You don't work for the bureau anymore?"

"No, I left a little while after our mission. Why didn't you tell me that you were pregnant?"

Sara sighed. She never thought she would be having this conversation with Callen.

"Not now Callen." She turned around and opened the door of her car.

Callen walked over to her and put his hand on the car door. "Tell me, didn't you think I had a right to know?!" Callen got a bit angry.

"Of course you did."

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

They noticed they had gotten some attention from some people.

"Not here. Get in, we'll talk." Callen thought about it for a sec. He wasn't sure if he could trust her after all these years. "Don't worry. You can trust me."

Callen got in his car and followed Sara to her place.

"Would you like a beer?" Sara asked as they walked in.

"Sure," Callen replied and sat down on the couch.

A little later Sara joined him and they just looked at each other. It was a bit awkward.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were pregnant?"

"I don't know. I thought about it for a while. But I wasn't sure what to say to you. And I didn't know how you would feel about it. In the short time we were together I thought that you were not someone who would settle down and have a family."

"You could've at least told me and then I could've made that decision by myself."

"Would you have stayed with me if I had told you?"

"I think so yeah. I really like being with you and we had a good time together."

"Yeah we did. And to be honest I liked it when I found out I was pregnant with your baby. I know we were only together for a short period but you were the first one I had these kind of feelings for."

"Same goes for me. Why did you give Marisa up for adoption?"

"It was too dangerous for her to be around me. There were some people after me."

"Is it that why you faked your own death?"

"Yes, together with the bureau we decided to fake my death. There was no other way I could get away from these guys."

"What happened?"

"I was shot by one of the goons working for him. They had left me to die, or at least that what they thought. I was wearing my vest. We knew that they were coming after me and that they would kill me when they had found me. So we made a plan. We attached a bag of blood to the outside of my vest. They shot me but my vest caught the shot. The bag of blood opened when they shot me so blood was pouring out of me. So they thought I was dead. The bureau treated this like I was really dead, body bag and all. I went into hiding until they had found the people responsible."

"Yes, but that was just a part of the group."

"What do you mean?"

"We've come across the guys that killed you. They came after Marisa and they are the ones that killed Marisa's parents."

"Oh my god. Is Marisa okay?"

"Yes she's fine. We got them. So where have you been for these past 25 years?"

"After this I transferred to the field office in Madrid. It stayed there until a few months ago. I decided I wanted to go back to America. I figured after so many years it would be safe. I got her and I went to find Marisa. I wanted to know how she was doing. Then I heard that her adoptive parents had been killed so I came here to LA."

"Have you seen Marisa?"

"No not yet. I have no idea what to say to her. I was hoping I didn't have to explain myself to her or you."

"You didn't think Marisa deserves to know her mother is still alive? She thinks you're dead," Callen spat at her.

"I know, but what would I say. 'Hello I'm your dead mother and I'm back from the grave'."

"Yeah not really an easy way to start the conversation. But you have to tell her otherwise I will. I can't keep this from her."

"So you two have a good relationship together?"

"Yes we have. I really like hanging out with her and she likes hanging out with me and she's really a good agent."

"Well, she didn't get that from strangers," Sara said with a smile.

"No, she didn't. How did you find out about her?"

"She had a box. You gave her that box. It had a lot of stuff in there for her, including who her father was."

"Yeah I remember putting that box together for her. I wanted her to know."

"She found out I was her father and a little later I found out too. That was about 5 years ago. She was an intern at the time at NCIS."

"I'm glad you found each other and that you have built a relationship together. I don't wanna destroy what you guys have."

"You won't. But you have to tell her the truth, just like you told me."

"I will, I promise."

Callen still couldn't really believe that Marisa's mom was still alive and back in his life. She was the first woman he really loved. Ever since he had found out about Marisa he could've imagined being a family together with her.

"So what is Marisa like?"

"She's really sweet and caring. We get along great. She's a very good agent, very good at undercover ops. She saved my ass on some occasions. She reminds me a lot of you."

"She does?"

"Yeah, she looks a lot like you. She's got your smile and your personality."

"She does? Do you have a picture of her?"

"Yeah." Callen pulled out his phone and showed her a picture of Marisa.

"She's beautiful. There's not been a day that went by without me thinking of her. I'm glad she's doing alright and that she found you."

"Yeah me too."

They sat talking for a little while longer. It surprised Callen how at ease he was with her, even after all these years. He was of course still shocked to find out she was alive. But maybe this could be a second opportunity for them. It was almost 11pm when Callen got up to go home. Sara got up as well. Their faces were really close together. Callen thought about kissing her but he decided not to. She had just come back.

"Don't tell Marisa just yet, I want to tell her myself."

"I won't. Why don't you come over to dinner tomorrow evening? I'll invite Marisa too."

"You'll think she'll be okay with it?"

"I think so."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then. What's your address?"

Callen gave her his address and left. Callen went back home and grabbed himself another beer. He sat down on the couch and just thought about everything that happened today. Sara, Marisa's mom, was still alive and she was here in LA. Callen wondered how Marisa would react to this. A part of him wanted to protect her and not let her meet her mother but he couldn't do that to her. She had a right to know.

The next day Callen and Sam were driving to a suspect. Sam noticed something was off with his partner.

"You okay G?"

Callen sighed and turned to Sam. "Promise me you won't tell Marisa."

"I promise. What is going on G?"

"Marisa's mom is here in LA."

"Marisa's mom? I thought she was dead," Sam replied confused.

"Yeah so did I. But it turned out she's not. The bureau faked her death."

"Really? When did you see her?"

"Yesterday. After work I went to the cemetery and I saw her standing over Marisa's parents grave."

"Wow. That's something. Why is she back?"

"She came back to the US after living in Madrid for the last 25 years and she heard about their deaths so she came to LA to see how Marisa was doing. She was shocked to see me standing there behind her and that I knew of Marisa."

"Damn, what are you gonna do now? Have you told Marisa already?"

"No not yet. She's coming over for dinner tonight and Marisa's mom will be there as well. I wonder how she'll react, it's not every day that your mom comes back from the dead."

"No it's not. Good luck with it."

"Thanks," Callen sighed.

That evening Marisa was at Callen's place at 7pm for dinner.

"Dad, what is going on? You're acting strange all day."

"I asked you over here cus there's someone who would like to meet you."

"Who?" Marisa asked a little annoyed.

"Me," Sara sat as she walked out of the kitchen.

Marisa looked shocked as she saw the person coming out of the kitchen. She nearly dropped dead. "Mom?"

"Yeah sweetie, it's me. You look so beautiful."

Marisa didn't know what to say. All these years she thought her mother had been killed but here she was, standing in Callen's place.

"What..? Why….?" Marisa stammered. "You're alive?"

"Yes sweetie I am."

"But how?"

Sara told her what had happened.

"So you were alive all these years and you never once thought about coming to see me?" Marisa said a bit angry.

"I didn't know if it was safe to come and see how. I heard you had a wonderful adoptive family and I didn't wanna mess with that."

"You're my mother! I had a right to know you were still alive!"

"I know sweetie. I wanted to come and see you so badly. There's not been a day that I haven't thought of you since you were born. From the moment you were born I was so much in love with you. It was hard for me giving you up for adoption. But it was the best thing to do at the time. I couldn't stand to see you get hurt because of me."

"So why are you here now?"

"I heard what happened to your parents and I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright. I didn't know you had found your father."

"So you're back now?"

"Yes I am. And if it's alright with you I want to be part of your life again."

"I'd love to mom," Marisa told her and she walked up to her to give her a hug.

Sara was happy to hold her little girl in her arms again. She was so proud of the woman she had become.

"I love you so much sweetie. I missed you so much."

"I missed you too mom."

Marisa couldn't help but cry. Callen came over as well and the three of them hugged each other. They had a nice family dinner. Marisa asked Sara a lot of questions. For so many years she had searched for her family and now she had not only her father in her life but also her mother.

Around 10pm Marisa went back home. Marisa lay down on the bed and just looked at the ceiling. She couldn't believe what happened today. Her mom was still alive! Marisa was looking forward to building a relationship with her mother as well. She hoped that they would get as good of a relationship as she and Callen had. She was tired so she fell asleep soon.

Sara stayed over at Callen's place when Marisa had left.

"She's a very beautiful young woman. I'm proud of the person she became," Sara spoke.

"Yeah me too. She was very lucky to have such wonderful adoptive parents."

"You knew them?"

"Yes I did. They were very sweet and they were okay with Marisa getting to know me after we had found out about each other. Marisa was devastated when they were killed."

"Yeah I can imagine. Luckily she had you."

"Yeah. I'm lucky to have her in my life too. I really love her."

"You know, ever since she was born I wondered what it would've been like if we were still together and we would've become a family."

"Yeah me too since I found out about Marisa."

"Would you have liked that?"

"I think so."

"I really liked the time we spent together."

"Me too, you were the first man I really feel in love with."

"Same for me. Well not man but woman."

"I know. I could feel that. I tried to look for you after I found out but I couldn't find you so I figured you had moved on."

"If I would've known you were pregnant I would have come back to you."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well maybe this is a second chance for us."

Sara moved closer to Callen and she kissed him. She half expected Callen to pull back but he didn't. Instead he pulled her closer and deepened the kiss. The kiss felt so good. All the feelings of 25 years ago came back up again. Before they knew it they were lying in bed half naked. It amazed Callen how at ease he was with her and how easy all those feelings came up again. He still loved her and by the looks of it she still loved him. Callen took the rest of her clothes off, leaving her in only her underwear. She still looked good, even 25 years and a baby later. Sara moved her hands over Callen's chest and she felt the scars of the bullet holes. She stopped kissing him and looked in his eyes.

"How did you get these?" Sara asked as she moved her hands over the scars.

"I got shot at. Someone wanted me dead. If it wasn't for my partner I'd be dead right now."

"Damn, did you catch them?"

"Yes we did."

Callen moved his lips back down to her neck and reunited the passion between them. It had been a while but they still knew what the other liked. They were teasing other, but they loved it. A little later Callen couldn't take it anymore and he buried himself inside of her. It felt so good making love to her again. By the sounds she was making she loved it too. 5 hours and 3 rounds of love making later they lay content next to each other.

"Wow, that was amazing. Just like I remembered it," Sara breathed out.

"Yes it was," Callen uttered.

Sara turned on her side and Callen did the same.

"For the last 25 years I couldn't stop thinking about you. I really liked what we had. I wish we could've had more time then."

"Yeah me too. I'm really glad we had Marisa, even if I wasn't there. She was a very wonderful daughter. I love her."

"I'm glad you do. When I was pregnant with her I sometimes hoped you would just walk back into my life again and we could be a family."

"Yeah after I learned about Marisa I regretted not looking for you after we split up. Shortly after we split up I had to go undercover again and we sort of lost touch."

"Yeah I know. I was too busy with staying off the radar so that they wouldn't find me and Marisa."

"I can understand that." Callen moved closer to Sara and placed his arm around her. "So what happens now?"

"I don't know. Why don't we just take it one day at a time? Get comfortable around each other again."

"We seemed pretty comfortable a few moments ago," Callen told her smiling.

Sara smiled back at him. "I wasn't just talking about that. I was talking about Marisa too. It's gonna be a little getting used to for her to have her mother around. And about us, let's just take it slow see where we end up. We haven't been around each other for a while. Let's just get to know each other again before we dive into anything."

"Then what was this?" Callen asked referring to their love making.

"Just making up for lost time and maybe the start of something again."

"You really wanna give us another shot?"

"Yes I want to. If that's alright with you."

"Yes it's fine by me, I want that too. I still love you."

Sara saw the look in his eyes. It was the same look when he told her he loved her 25 years ago.

"I love you too. I've always loved you. You gave me something wonderful, a beautiful daughter."

Callen leaned forward and kissed her again.

"You gave me something wonderful too. Thank you for giving me this wonderful daughter."

"You're welcome."

Callen kissed her once more and together they fell asleep in each other's embrace. The next morning Callen woke up and felt someone lying next to him and he remembered everything that had happened yesterday. He opened his eyes and saw Sara asleep in his arms. He quietly got out of bed and got dressed. He was just about to poor himself a cup of coffee when Sara walked in.

"Good morning," Sara spoke as she walked into the kitchen.

Callen turned around and saw her standing there in one of his shirts. "Good morning, you want some coffee?"

"Yeah sure." Sara sat down at the kitchen table. "I never thought you would buy a house, let alone have furniture in it."

"Yeah neither did it. For like the first 5 years here at NCIS I didn't until Hetty bought this house for me."

"Hetty? As in Hetty Lange?"

"Yep, that's her. You heard of her?"

"Yeah I heard something about her but it always so some unreal, I thought she was some urban legend."

"Nope, she's very much really. She's only 4 feet but she's scary. You don't wanna mess with her."

"Noted. So what did you do after you left the bureau?"

"I went to the CIA and the DEA before Hetty recruited me with NCIS."

"So you work here in NCIS now in LA?"

"Yep."

"I didn't know there was an NCIS field office in LA."

"There isn't. This is the Office of Special Projects. We don't exist to the outside work."

"So what, you're undercover?"

"Yes. We deal mostly with terrorists here. We specialize in undercover work. We're what you call 'Legends'. I lost track of how many aliases I have."

"Isn't it dangerous sometimes?"

"Yeah, but it's not like our work at the bureau was dangerous."

"True. So how's Marisa in all this undercover work?"

"She's really good at it. My partner Sam says she got that from me, the ability to change into another person in seconds."

"That's good. I still can't believe how she turned out."

"Yeah me neither. She had very wonderful adoptive parents."

"That's good to hear. I'm glad she got the know you. I always wanted her to know you. That's why I put together that box for her."

"That was nice of you. I was shocked at first when I found out she was my daughter. I already knew her at that point, she already worked with us."

"I guess she followed in her parents' footsteps by becoming a federal agent."

"Yeah she did." Callen moved closer to her and kissed her. "I've gotta go to work, I'll see you later."

"Alright. Do you have Marisa's number for me? I want to ask her if she would like to have dinner with me tonight."

"Sure." Callen gave Sara her number. Callen gave her one more kiss before he left for work.

Only Callen was in the bullpen when Marisa arrived.

"Morning dad."

"Morning Marisa."

"How's mom?"

"She's good. She really wants to get to know you."

"Yeah, I want to get to know her too. Did you have any idea that she faked her own dead?"

"No none, I was just as shocked as you were."

"It's weird that after so many years she's back."

"Yeah it is. Oh yeah, she was going to call you today to see if you wanted to go to dinner with her tonight."

"Oh alright, that's fine. So how are you and mom doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on dad, I saw the way you looked at her. You still love her." Callen sighed. He really didn't want to discuss this with his daughter. "I know you still love her dad. I could see it and I think she still loves you too." Callen just concentrated one his paperwork. "You can ignore me, dad but you still love her. I can see it."

Callen knew Marisa was right but he didn't want to admit that to her. It was a slow day today so Callen decided to look into Sara, to see if she was telling the truth. He had no reason not to trust her but still. It was weird her showing up like this 25 years later. He didn't find anything odd. She was employed at the Madrid office for the last 25 years. Everything that he could fine about her was right. He decided to let it rest and just let it happen.

That evening Marisa went out for dinner with her mom. They met at the restaurant.

"Thank you for coming," Sara greeted her daughter.

"Thanks for asking me. I really want to get to know you better."

"Me too. I so wished I could've been a part of your life for the last 25 years. It killed me to give you up. You looked so cute."

"Where you happy when you find out you were having dad's baby?"

"Yes of course I was happy sweetie. I just wished your father was there with me."

"You still love him?"

"Yes I do."

"He still loves you, you know."

"Yeah I know. I could see it."

"So dad told me you met on a case when you worked with the bureau."

"Yeah that's right."

Sara told her some things she remembered about Callen when they worked together and some things about her past that Marisa wanted to know. Marisa told her about her childhood and what she did growing up and how she ended up as a federal agent. They were really enjoying themselves. About 4 hours later they walked out and walked around the corner to the parking lot. It turned out they were parked next to each other. Just as they were saying their goodbyes a van skidded to a halt behind them. Before they could do anything they were knocked out and dragged into the van.