Hello my darlings. I would like to thank dizzyapple95 and Petunia3116 for the wonderful reviews. I would also like to thank those of you who have followed and favoured since my last update.
So sorry about the long wait for this update, life got in the way. Anyway here is the next chapter, it is the last one set in season 2, episode 15 'Tin Soldiers'. I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS: LA, nor do I known any of the lines I have taken from the show.
When Callen finally let himself into his house, all he wanted to do was relax with a beer and the man he loved at his side. But seeing as Marty's car wasn't in his driveway, he guessed he had yet to arrive. Therefore he made his way to the kitchen and grabbed the dog bowls he had there for when Monty came round. Filling one with water, the other with food, he left them on the floor by the back door before going back to grab a beer out of the fridge. He was wondering what they were going to do for dinner when he heard the creak of the floorboards behind him. After his recent experience of people breaking into his house he didn't even hesitate to reach for his gun as he quietly made his way back to the front room. Though when he spotted who it was who was visiting him, he was more confused than anything else.
"I like what you've done with the place since Christmas." Hetty said, smiling up at her boy. She hadn't been sure she would find him here, thinking that maybe he would be at Mr Deeks'. In fact she had hoped he would be with the detective. She did not want Callen's behaviour over the last few days to affect his relationship with the younger man. It was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and was helping him grow so much as a person. Starting to learn to trust others, and depend on someone else.
"Okay now, if this is about Arkady I can-" Callen started to explain, thinking she was there because he had let the man go. But really it was for the best, having him owe Callen one would definitely be good in the long run. Surely Hetty could see that right?
Before he could say anything more, Hetty interrupted him. "I would have done the same thing myself. No, this is about you Mr Callen. I know that you are looking for answers. But the thing about the past is just that. It's the past. Today is what's important. And I for one am glad you are here." Hetty said with a smile making Callen look away at the emotion that was in her eyes. Damn it, how did she do that? Make him feel as if he had done something really stupid, but that she was proud of him all at the same time? It was some skill.
"Of course I would have preferred to find your house empty and for you to be at Mr Deeks' but… I brought you this." Hetty continued after a moment holding out a gold gift bag, the twinkle in her eyes telling Callen that she felt he really should have been at the younger man apartment.
"He and Monty are on their way here." Callen explained as he took the bag wondering what it could possibly be that she had gotten him. Opening it found something he didn't expect to see inside. "Did you buy me a plant?" He asked as he reached in to pull it out as he sat in his chair to examine it.
Hetty could help but chuckle at the disbelief in Callen's voice, or the idea that she would get him anything that would require any care or attention from him. If she did she had a feeling it would die. Therefore she explained her gift to the man in front of her. "It's an epiphyte. It's perfect for you. It doesn't require soil. You don't need to water it. It absorbs moisture from the air. It doesn't even need roots, but they make it more stable."
Callen understood completely what she was saying with her gift. That it was the plant version of him. Well at least it wasn't a prickly cactus. He might have taken offence at that.
"Goodnight, Mr Callen. Tell Mr Deeks goodnight from me as well." Hetty said after she felt she had given him enough time to understand what she was trying to impart. It was time to leave her boys to it.
"Goodnight, Hetty." Callen replied looking at his new plant, but before the woman could reach the front door to let herself out another voice spoke.
"Yeah goodnight, Hetty. See you tomorrow." Came Deeks' voice from the doorway to the kitchen where he was leaning, a bottle of beer already in his hands.
"You will indeed, Mr Deeks." Hetty replied as she opened the door and walked through it. She couldn't help but smile at the detective's arrival. Because she was sure he had not been there when she arrived. Which meant he had to have picked up a few tricks of the trade from his boyfriend. Either that or Mr Callen really needed to work on his security if it was that easy to break into his home. But she could discuss that with him tomorrow.
Callen waited until Hetty had closed the door before turning back to Marty. Smiling as Monty trotted over to him as if he owned the place.
"Where did you to come from? I didn't hear you come in." Callen questioned giving the dog a scratch behind the ears, just how he liked it.
"I wanted to see how easy it was to break into your house. And I have to say, for the man who tells me every week I need a new lock because it was too easy to get into my apartment, your security is abysmal." Deeks replied, a reprimanding tone colouring his voice as he spoke. He couldn't believe how simple it had been to get through the back door and into G home. It scared him how easy it was.
"I don't really have anything to steal, Marty." Callen responded placing the plant down as he stood and walked towards his lover. Aiming to take him in his arms and kiss him as he had been wanting to do ever since the firefight earlier. There just never seemed to be the right time until now.
"You have your life G. And that is something I can't lose. So you need some new damn locks, okay?" Deeks answered as he wrapped the hand not holding the beer around the man now standing in front of him. He needed G to know how much he couldn't lose him, so if he was able to bitch about his security, then turn about was fair play in Deeks' mind.
"Okay." Callen agreed nod. He couldn't really say no when he pestered Marty about it regularly. As such he was happy to agree. But right now he had other things on his mind. Therefore threading his hands into Marty's hair he pulled him into a kiss. It started gentle and soft, an unspoken apology for his recent behaviour, but it soon turned into something deeper. Filled with emotion and love as Deeks let go of the fear he had felt for the man he loved's life earlier that day. It was a joining of two people who had been apart. A way for them both to show that now the danger was past, it was time to find out where they were after all that had happened. After Callen distancing himself from Deeks, it was a promise for them to find a way back to each other.
When they finally parted for breath, Deeks pulled away from the hands holding him. He needed answerers now. And he would not be put off. So moving away from G towards the chair he spoke.
"So why are we here?"
"Because I wanted to show you something." Callen replied, watching as Marty looked around the room, his eyes seemingly avoiding the only thing in it that meant anything to G.
"What?" Deeks asked as he turned back to the man he loved and raised his eyebrow in question. There was nothing here, so what was it that G wanted him to see?
"This." Callen answered as he made his way to the mantel and picked up the tin that had been resting there. That was always resting there. "Or more to the point, what's inside it." he continued as he turned to the middle of the room and sat down on the floor, waiting for Marty to join him. It was time to share all he knew about himself with the man he loved. Time to let him know and see it all. Time to trust him with what he knew about who G Callen really was.
Deeks didn't hesitate to join G on the floor, though he did pause when he reached out to open the tin. He needed to make sure G really was okay with this. "You sure?" He asked cautiously his hand hovering over the lid waiting for confirmation from the man he loved.
"Yes." Callen nodded. That was all Deeks needed to crack the lid and stare at the few things G had inside. The first thing that caught his attention was the printed out picture of himself. It was an old one he had used when he was at the LAPD, and he couldn't help but raise his eyebrow at G when he saw it. Why did he had a picture of him in his keepsake box? Because looking inside Deeks knew that was exactly what this was.
"It was when you went undercover on the Lazik mission. I wanted to have something to remember you by." Callen explained seeing the look in Marty's eyes and the picture in his hand. It was obvious what he was asking.
"Wow, positive much? What did you think I was gonna die or something?" Deeks asked with a chuckle, though there was a real question underneath his jokey exterior. He really wanted to know what G meant by that sentence.
"No. But I didn't think you would still want me when you came back." Callen shrugged. It made perfect sense to him. Especially as back then he was all about his no relationship thing. He still couldn't quiet work out how the hell he had been so lucky as to keep Marty after all the crap he had put him through. Was still surprised that the younger man loved him so much that he came back to him time and again, even when he tried to push him away.
"Idiot." Deeks muttered with a shake of his head before putting the picture down on the ground beside him and reaching for the next thing that caught his eye. It was a card like those that you would find on flowers. Though this one had obviously come from a grave, the wording spoke of someone lost. But that wasn't what had caught Deeks attention. It was who it was signed by. It said it was from dad.
"I found that at my sister's grave just after I discovered she was dead. I never saw who left it, and have never seen a note like it since." Callen explained as he watched Marty pick up the card gently as if looking at it closer, trying to find any evidence on it. Not that he would. Callen had looked it over many times before.
"Do you really think it's from your dad?" Deeks asked looking up at the man he loved and seeing the stark emotion on his face as he started at the card.
"I don't know. I want to believe it is but…" Callen replied trailing off as the unknowns once more bombarded his mind. Was it from his dad? And if so, then where was he? Why hadn't he come to see him? Why had he abandoned him, them, so many years ago?
"But if it is where is he and why hasn't he contacted you?" Deeks finished for G. Putting voice to the questions he could see in the other man's eyes. He couldn't begin to imagine how G was feeling. Sure he hadn't seen his dad for years, but that was because he had put a bullet in the guy's shoulder, and really it had been for the best. Though thinking about it, seeing this card and the questions in G's mind, it did put another spin on why he looked his dad up for him. Maybe subconsciously G didn't want him to go through what he was, that in his own way he had been trying to help him find his family.
"Yeah." Callen nodded, not realising the thoughts going through Marty's mind, and just registering the questions he had stated. He couldn't believe how well Marty could understand him some times, even when he didn't completely understand himself, Marty seemed to know what he was thinking and feeling. A perfect example of that thought came with the words that Marty spoke next.
"Maybe he has a good reason G. And maybe one day you can ask him yourself what it is."
"I… I hope so." Callen agreed, not sure if there was any reason he could accept for not knowing the truth all his life. Of course that was put against how he would feel if he found out his father was alive. No he had no idea how he would reach in that situation.
And Deeks seeing the confusion clouding his mind decided it was time to change the conversation. So putting the card with the picture of him he pulled the photo of a young boy and even younger girl out of the tin. Looking at it he noticed certain similarities to the man sitting beside him.
"This you?" Deeks asked holding the photo up and smiling at the light that appeared in the older man's eyes as he saw it.
"Yeah. Me and Alina Rostoff. I stayed with her family for a while when I was in the system. She was the one who taught me Russian." Callen replied smiling as he looked at it, though it was tinged with sadness that the girl in it was no longer alive. That the one he had thought of as his little sister was dead.
Deeks studied the photo closer, trying to gage as much about the younger Callen as he could from it. That was how he noticed certain things that seemed similar to him, the shape of the room and the walls. Looking up he stared at the room he was sitting on the floor of before turning back to the picture and trying to imagine G's house containing the furniture he could see in it. It couldn't be… could it? He had to ask.
"Is this… was this taken in this house?"
"It was. When Alina died Hetty brought this house for me. She knew I had happy memories here and she wanted me to have a home of my own." Callen explained impressed that Marty had been able to see that fact. Though considering he was a LAPD detective, maybe he shouldn't have been surprised by that.
"How did she die?" Deeks asked turning to G. He could see this was painful for him, but that was part of being in a relationship right? That you share your pain with each other.
"She was killed by the same person who tried to gun me down." Callen answered. He then went on to explain about the case where they found the Russian girl, the last person he saw before he was shot five times in the chest. And he explained how it led him to Arkady.
Deeks sat and listened as G explained. Everything making so much more sense now, everyone's reactions to Arkady's involvement in their latest case, even how he had known to send someone to this house looking for G. It answers many of the questions he had had about the Russian.
When Callen was done, Deeks put the photo aside before reaching for the last thing the box contained. It was an old worn note book. "This a dairy?" He asked with a chuckle as he pulled it out. It looked like something that a young boy would use as such. Especially someone who spent their time in the system moving around. It would be a possession that would be cherished.
"No. That's a list of every foster home I ever stayed in, the five at the back are the ones my sister was in." Callen responded simply as he stared at the brown book in Marty's hand.
Deeks flipped it open and marvelled at the number of addresses it contained. Sure he had known G had moved round a lot as a child, or at least he had until he moved in with Hetty, but seeing this, it made it all seem that much more real somehow. But he knew he couldn't say that to G. So instead he concentrated on something else seeing this book raised in his mind.
"Who wrote it?" He asked wondering where G had gotten it, and why someone had had it in the first place.
"I have no idea. We found it on the same case I discovered my sister was dead." Callen answered remembering how that book had been the only thing he had been able to save from the fire when they had been investigating the man who had burnt him. Remembered meeting the woman who carried his sister's name, and remembered his first trip to his sister's grave. That memory reminded him of the lead soldier he still had in his pocket. Taking it out he placed it with the rest of the stuff that had been in the tin but was now sitting beside it.
He then started talking. Tell Marty everything that had happened on that first case, the meeting with Hannah Lawson and learning about his sister, right up to the end where someone photographed him and he gave chase. That led to the lead soldier he had discovered, and everything else he had found out while working on his own the last few days.
When he finally stopped talking he had told Marty everything he knew about who he was, about his past. Every little thing he knew he had shared with the man he loved.
The silence that descended at that point was heavy with the revelations Callen had just shared. With the worry he held about telling everything to someone else, even if that someone else was Marty, the man he loved and wanted to be with for as long as he lived. It was still something he had never done before, and it scared him in some ways, but in others he found some sort of peace settle over his mind. He had finally trusted Marty with everything he was. What happened now, what Marty's response was, would determine which of those emotions would prevail in his mind. It would decide whether he had done the right thing, or if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life.
"Thank you for telling me G." Deeks finally said, once he had sorted through all the information he had learnt. He was surprised about all that G had told him. It seemed when he had said he would tell him everything when the case was over he hadn't been joking. Deeks knew how hard it had to have been for the man he loved to open up like that, and he couldn't stop the well of feelings that that caused from rising up inside him.
Therefore rather than saying anything more Deeks did the only thing he could do. He reached over and gently took G's face in his hand as he placed a loving kiss on his lips. Hoping to say without words that he appreciated how much G was trusting him, and that he would never give him cause not to carry on doing so.
And Callen feeling Marty's lips on his breathed out a sigh of relief. He wasn't running away from what little he knew about his screwed up past. Marty was there for him, and would always be there for him. The peace in his mind won out, and he couldn't stop the genuine smile that appeared on his lips when they parted from the kiss. Marty knew everything about him and he was fine with it. He understood, and that was all Callen had ever wanted. Someone to love him and understand him the way the man next to him did. It seemed his dreams had come true after all, he had someone to be there for him completely. It was overwhelming, but oh so good. To know Marty would support him even after all he had told him meant more than he could possibly say, more than he could ever show. But he was going to make sure he tried to make the younger man realise just what he had done for him. Some when, somehow he would show him.