Forever's a long time

Chapter 18

Callen paced as mad as hell. Sam sat there watching him as his brat paced his hands clenching and unclenching as his rage ran through him.

Owen and Hetty stood just inside the front door as Callen glared at Granger in anger and Hetty in disbelief.

"You brought him here?!" Callen snapped.

"Mr. Callen." Hetty said in that maddening way she had when she knew she had to calm him down. "I couldn't wait for you to get over your anger. Your father and I need to talk to you now." She watched as he screeched to a halt.

"I'll talk to you Hetty, about almost anything but I don't need to and I won't talk to him!"

"Enough!" Hetty snapped, "This isn't about you or your ego."

Callen looked at her as if she had slapped him around the face.

"Hetty?" He said, surprised and hurt.

Sam moved further into the room as if to protect his partner his eyes never leaving Granger.

"You have a bigger threat out there to you than me son." Granger said.

Callen laughed sourly, "And you care?"

Granger shook his head, "Of course I care, everyone in this room cares. This isn't a case, Eric isn't in Ops to back you up and this threat is bigger than the Comescu's."

Hetty flinched slightly at that as Granger shot her an annoyed look.

"What was that?" Callen asked.

"Nothing." Granger growled.

Callen walked up to his father and stood nose to nose, "If you won't be honest with me, then leave. I'm sick to death of all the secrets and lies."

"Please sit down Mr. Callen." Hetty said.

"Henrietta, no?" Granger interjected.

"It's about time we told him, he needs to know the truth for his own safety. Anatoli is not like my family." She said as Callen sat.

"Who are your family?" Callen asked, pointing at Hetty, "And who is Anatoli and why are you..." He looked at Granger pointedly, "Afraid of him?"

Hetty looked uncomfortable and Callen looked worriedly at her.

"Mr. Callen you have to understand, there has been a lot of secrets at play in your life, but everything that has been done was with the express goals of protecting you and your sister."

Callen sat back, seemingly unconcerned, but Sam noted the extra tension in his shoulders and stood behind him, resting his hands lightly on his shoulders.

Hetty sat stiffly, "I will understand if after this you do not want to talk to me again, but please... hear me out while I explain."

Callen nodded and waited.

"I made a huge mistake in 1974, I took the word of my family over the truth. After I found out I regretted my actions or inactions as they were and I spent the rest of my life trying to atone for the mistake I made. I was told an enemy of my family, a woman I had known for a while. A woman I had on the orders of my family befriended for information, was about to take the family out. When this woman came to me for help, I did nothing. She told me about her children, I was told this was a lie, to make me want to help her, it wasn't until afterwards I found out the awful truth." She waited as Callen watched trying to comprehend her words.

"I failed your mother, a wonderful woman, who had no intentions of hurting my family at all, a stupid feud that should never have been continued, this is why I went to Romania for you Mr. Callen, to my home, my cousin, Alexa."