Nate let out a loud sigh as sat on one of the chairs Hetty gestured to him. He seemed to have interrupted something between her and Granger but she was the one who invited him down here. She wanted to know his results or rather, his opinion. Not that he had many. He looked hopefully at her desk only to be disappointed. For once they weren't sharing a scotch. The day he felt like he needed one too.

"I have to assume that it did not go as well as you hoped, Mr Getz?" Hetty asked but it was more of a statement than a question really.

He had spent the last thirty minutes trying to get Callen to open up to him and, as usual, he had got nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. Callen just gave him the run around, never giving away anything personal. Except the nightmares but Nate already knew about those.

He couldn't help Callen if he didn't open up. Was it trust? Fear? Nate didn't know which meant he couldn't fix what made Callen so against talking. Oh, yes, Nate knew that because of the way Callen had had to grow up that emotions weren't things he could lose control of or that people couldn't be trusted. He got that; he really did. And he didn't expect miracles, he knew better than that.

And Hetty already knew this. She knew just as well, if not more, than he did that the last thirty minutes had not gone well. Apologies, that wasn't "helpful language". The last thirty minutes did not go as he had hoped. There. That was much better. Except it wasn't because it meant the same thing.

Nate leaned forward and began talking, "Would it be wrong to say that my goal in life is to-"

"You've failed." Hetty interrupted before he could get any further.

"Miserably." Granger added.

Nate' mouth gaped open.

"I didn't even finish my sentence!" He complained.

"We knew what you were going to say," Granger said dismissively.

"Indeed." Hetty agreed.

Nate looked very put out at this suggestion.

"You couldn't. You can't read minds."

Not that he was completely convinced about that but still. There was no way they knew what he was about to say. He wasn't that predictable. He hoped.

"You were going to say that your goal in life is to get Mr Callen to open up, were you not?" Hetty asked.

"...Yes," he admitted. "But that's a lucky guess."

Granger snorted beside him.

"I neither believe in luck nor make guesses, Mr Getz."

"Of course not."

"And neither of those will help you with Mr Callen."

Well, all his education wasn't working in the Senior Agent so luck was really all he had here. And that was beside the point. He wanted Callen to open up to him. Was that really an unreasonable goal to have? It didn't have to be a lot. Just a little would do. A little bit of time of him being honest with him, with himself.

"It should," Nate said heavily, rustling through his notes. "These are tried and tested methods that-"

"Evidently do not work on Mr Callen," Hetty said gently.

Granger muttered something under his breath about not on anyone else either. Hetty raised an eyebrow.

"Something to add, Owen?"

"Of course not, Henrietta."

"Hm."

Nate shifted uncomfortably at this exchange. He never could tell if they were annoyed at each other or not. And he didn't particularly want to be in the crossfire if they were.

And now both of them were looking at him expectantly. Great. He didn't know what je was supposed to say.

"I don't suppose you know what will work?" Nate decided to ask.

Hey, he was always open to new ideas. And Hetty knew him best so her suggestions ought to be good ones. They might actually get him somewhere.

"Last time I checked, that was your job, Mr Getz."

"Well, yes, but I thought because you know Callen that -"

"- doesn't mean I know how that boy's mind works."

"That boy of yours is in his forties, Henrietta," Granger pointed out.

"I don't think anyone knows how his mind works," she continued as if she didn't hear Granger. Then she smiled. "That would be your job, Mr Getz."

That didn't exactly inspire confidence in him. Actually, it made him want to run far, far away.

"How am I supposed to do that? Nothing has worked. He doesn't talk."

Nate knew he couldn't be successful with every person he spoke to but he did have little victories with most people. But not Callen.

"You might want to set your goals a little lower when it comes to Mr Callen. Small, baby steps," Hetty delicately informed him.

"Like an inch from the ground," Granger said unhelpfully.

"Owen."

"Just being realistic, Henrietta."

Actually, he still might be being overly optimistic. Maybe using metric would be better, more room for success on his part and he needed some success. A centimetre was smaller than an inch, right?

"You need to temper realism with hope, Owen."

"Hope's no good."

That was a rather depressing view of the world but something he'd come to expect from Granger.

"Of course, it is."

Granger looked unconvinced by that but he just snorted and didn't say anything further. Hetty looked back to Nate.

"Hope is always a good thing to have, Mr Getz," she said pointedly. "It is the one thing that keeps up going."

Hope. Hope? That was her advice? He just had to hope that Callen would talk to him eventually? Then his indignation left him and he deflated. Hope was really all he had, wasn't it? He couldn't (wouldn't) force someone to talk. So, hope it was.

"Now," Hetty said, pulling out a bottle from under her desk and setting it on it. She also produced three small glasses with a 'clink'. "Who's up for some scotch?"

Nate immediately seized a glass, much to his superiors' amusement but he didn't care.

"I thought you'd never ask."