Callen sat on the bed, his bag sitting at his feet, waiting.
He wanted to go, but Sam had ordered him to wait. He hoped he was heading home with him. After being in hospital for a month, being reassured by Sam that he was here for him. That Sam's own injuries were nearly healed and that despite what he had thought, Sam loved him. He wanted to go home, or anywhere else where he and Sam could be alone.
Not once in the entire month had he seen Granger. He had put a ban on him knowing anything about him or contacting him for anything that wasn't case or work related.
Hetty and Nate had tried, but Callen had stuck to his guns.
Even Sam had tried talking to him, even at one point ordering him, but Callen had stuck to his guns and used his safe word.
"I'm not talking, not about this Sam." Callen had told him, "I'm not saying never, just not right now, ok?"
Sam had put his hands on his lover's shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. "You will talk to me when you are ready though, right?" He asked.
Callen smiled sadly. "I will." He promised, reaching up and pulling Sam into a kiss that left them both wanting more.
"Stay here." Sam had said, "I'm getting your discharge papers and we are going home."
Callen had smiled at that word, home with Sam. No matter how temporary his time with Sam was, he was still his home and he relished in every moment of it.
He had spent the last week with Hetty going over ideas for the rebuilding of Haven. Callen had himself insisted on a bigger bedroom and a hot tub and sauna, hoping that once it was rebuilt he'd be able to take Sam there to show him the surrounding area.
The view from the top of the mountain above the cabin was the place where Callen went to recharge his soul, more than anything he wanted to share it with Sam.
Sam had taken a long time reassuring Callen that he wasn't to blame for what Nick and Bill had done to him. It took him another three days and a few sessions with Nate to prove to him that what they had was nothing like he'd had with them.
Callen still had a niggling doubt, but was trying his best to quash it, every day he spent with Sam.
Granger paced the outside of the hospital, he knew Callen was being discharged today. Hetty had let it slip. He wanted to, at least, see his son had healed. He had a lot to tell him, things he needed to explain, but Grant wasn't giving an inch, he wasn't even picking up his calls.
Every time he had tried in the last month to see him, he had been told that he was banned. He'd gone to see if Sam or Hetty could talk to Grant to make him change his mind. But his son had been adamant that he was not going to even meet with him. He even tried going through Nate offering to be available for a family therapy session. Apparently Callen's reply to that had been if he had a family that needed therapy, he would do it, but as his family was dead, he was good. Making Granger sure that he would probably never find out why his son, who had wanted so much to have a family and a father, had pushed him away.
Callen sat in the wheelchair as Sam wheeled him to the entrance to the hospital.
Finally, he stopped and Callen looked up, the look of trust on his face when he looked at Sam pulled on Granger's heart.
"Can I get up now?" He asked, barely suppressing his grin, both his joy at being released and the fact that Sam had just brushed his fingers down his jawline radiating off him like a beacon in the dark.
Sam nodded, "Cars in the lot, I'll take your bag." He picked up Callen's holdall and held his hand out for him.
For a moment Callen hesitated, but Sam gave him a knowing look and Callen smiled.
Sam had promised him what they had wasn't wrong, he wasn't going to hide it and he wasn't going to leave him. This was Sam's first proof of that outside of the hospital room.
Callen took a few steps out of the hospital and stopped, sitting for a moment on a low wall just outside the doors. He looked wistfully at the sky as Sam watched him worried.
"You ok?" he asked.
Callen smiled and nodded.
"I didn't think I was going to make it Sam. I hoped you'd got far enough away, but I wasn't sure I was going to make it." He admitted.
Sam sat next to him his arm resting lightly on Callen's leg.
"I wouldn't have made it without you." He admitted. He turned and kissed Callen gently.
For a moment Callen smiled, then his face clouded and he stood up.
"Which way is the car." He said his voice hard and flat.
"G?" Sam was worried until he saw what Callen was glowering at.
Granger was watching them from his car about twenty feet away.
"Did you tell him I was being discharged today?" Callen asked.
Sam shook his head, "I haven't talked to him in about three weeks. Not since he tried to get me to lift the ban on his visiting you."
Callen stopped and turned taking his attention away from Sam in surprise.
"He wanted to see me?"
Sam nodded, "But you were insistent that you needed space."
Callen balled up his fist for a moment controlling his anger. He turned and walked up to the car.
Granger wound down the window.
"Grant, I..."
"Leave me alone, you are not my father, you are nothing more to me than the assistant director, do you understand? My name is G. That's it, nothing else. Now if you don't stop following me,Assistant Director Granger, I'll have you up on harassment charges." Without another word he turned and headed back to Sam.
"You good G?" Sam asked, looking back at the anguished look on Granger's face.
Grimly Callen nodded as he walked past Sam heading in the direction of the car.
Sam pulled up outside Callen's house.
"I added to the bed." Sam admitted as they walked to the door.
"You changed the bed?" Callen asked worried. He'd gone to a lot of trouble to pick out the perfect bed for him and Sam.
Sam pulled him in close in the alcove by his door. "I would never change that bed. You showed me how much you loved me by buying it. I said, I added, G." He put the key in the lock and opened the door.
Callen stood in shock, there was furniture in his house.
Lived in, recognizable furniture.
"That's your couch!" he said, pointing to the well worn leather couch in the center of his living room, "And your rug, Sam?"
Sam pulled him in and closed the door.
"I'm not living with Michelle anymore. It wasn't nasty, but she could see how much I was hurting without you."
Callen sat on the couch, a part of him was ecstatic. Sam was his, but Michelle? He didn't want her hating him.
He jumped as she walked around the corner.
"Welcome home Callen."
"M... Michelle, I..?" He stood up having no idea what to say to her.
She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. "It's ok Callen, Sam and I haven't been together... well, like that, in a while. I'm ok with this."
"What about Aiden and Kamran?" Callen asked amazed.
"They understand that we still care about each other and love them, they still love you too, you are and always will be uncle G. We raised our kids not to be bigots, they know their father loves them and he loves me, but he needs to be with you."
Callen sat heavily down on the couch in shock.
"I knew you were both going to end up together the day I went with you to buy the bed. Why did you think I was so picky on what type of bed you two needed?" Michelle added.
"You're living with me?" Callen asked in shock. It was the one thing he had dreamed about.
Sam smiled and sat next to him. "If you'll have me?"
Callen pulled him closer and kissed him. "Yes." he breathed when they finally broke apart.
Michelle stood there with a goofy grin on her face.
"You two are sweet together. Well, I'm picking Kam up from school, I'll see you both later for dinner?" She asked.
Sam nodded, "Sure 'Chelle, we'll be over at 7."
She turned and left.
"What was that?" Callen asked.
"That was a super amicable, kinda split." Sam said. "I still love Michelle, but I couldn't sleep with her anymore. I felt like I was cheating on you. She's smart she knew it was coming, she prepared the kids. They are fine, I see Kam everyday keep things as normal as possible for her. Aiden understands and he's fine with it." Sam laughed, "When I told him he just hugged me and said it was about time and that it was the twenty first century now, and it was about time I made an honest man of you."
Callen laughed, "So... You're here, like, forever here?"
Sam wrapped his arms around Callen making him feel calm and protected, "Yes G. I'll never leave you. Nearly losing you was a wake up call to me. I love you G. Callen."
"I love you Sam." Callen stopped as he realized what he said. "I do... I do love you." He braced himself, not sure what reaction he was going to get.
Sam said nothing, he didn't need to, the smile and the way his arms enveloped Callen said it all for him.
Granger sat down the street in his car as he watched his son and Sam walk back into their home after what had been a good evening with Sam's ex-wife.
He watched as they went inside and lights went on, his eyes straying to the other cars parked near their home. Instantly alert when cars drove past the house.
He needed to talk to his son, to explain, but even that was on the backburner right now.
He looked again at the email on his phone.
It was from an unknown sender to a little known email account in his name. It was just two words, but those two words sent chills down his spine.
' THEY KNOW!'
He'd received it three weeks ago and hadn't let Grant out of his sight, as much as was humanly possible since then. He wasn't going to let his son's outburst earlier stop him from doing what he had been doing most of his life, protecting him.
He had recommended him for the job in the office of special projects, knowing that the undercover work they did would keep him off the radar as he wouldn't be living with his own name but an alias. For the most part it had worked, until Marcel Janvier had told the Comescu's of his son's whereabouts and they had popped up on Hetty's radar forcing her to go to Romania to protect him. He sat thinking back to the day when his son had been born.
Amy had been with him in the main room of their little Dacha, while the midwife was in the bedroom with Clara.
She had been concerned with her mother's screams until he had sat with her and explained her new brother or sister needed to hear the loud noises, so he or she knew which way to go to be born.
"But papa?" Amy asked, "Why not just give the baby a map?"
Nikita smiled, "The baby is too small to read, so this way he or she hears your mother's voice, like when she needs you and calls you, well your mother needs the baby so she's calling."
Amy shrugged, "Ok papa." she turned back to the picture she was making for her mother, ignoring the noises until a shrill cry echoed around the house.
The midwife walked out wiping a bloody hand on a towel.
"You have a son Nikita." She shook her head, "I am sorry."
He walked up to her, "I have paid you enough, you will speak of this to no one. Anyone finds out about either of my children and I will find you. Vy ponimayete?"
The woman nodded, fearfully. "I will tell no one Nikita, I was your Kormilitsa and I will always be loyal to you."
He hugged the woman, "I know Anya, and I to you and your family."
"I will miss you when you go." She said sadly.
Nikita sighed, "I can't stay here. The KGB are after me, Clara needs to get back to America with our children and my father and brother are still looking for me."
She smiled sadly. "Come child, see your son. He is beautiful, however, he does look like your father."
Nikita walked into the room to see Clara holding the newborn child, he was struck by the cobalt blue eyes, they looked just like his father's.
He dampened down the feelings he had while looking at him and realized that if he were to be raised without any of the coddling his father would insist his son had, indoctrination into the party and the way of life he had lived, he needed to make sure his son was far far away. He kissed Clara gently.
"Are you going home?" She asked.
He nodded, "This will be the last time. I have a few things left to sort out. They have no idea yet that I am leaving. They don't know about you or Amy. We will leave Russia as soon as you and the baby are fit to travel, I have friends in Romania who will take us in, there is a small Dacha there we can stay until the children are old enough to travel. I still have a few people who need my help and I cannot leave them stranded."
Clara nodded, "I know my love, I will contact Arkady, he has offered to get me more supplies."
"I don't like him." Nikita said.
Clara smiled, "I know my love, but he is a valuable contact and my handler here. He has kept our secret and he will protect our children, of that I am certain."
Nikita shook his head sadly, "You do not have to see him with my father."
"It is a cover, just as mine was. He has the same goals as we do."
"I know, but I don't like how he goes about it."
Clara sighed as the baby sniffled looking for milk and she placed him at her breast. "We do what we can to protect our children." She said calmly.
"Always," Nikita vowed kissing her and then he left to bring his daughter to meet her baby brother.
Granger's focus shifted back to the present as he watched a lone figure exit an SUV and head towards Callen's home.
He exited the vehicle and followed him, getting the man into a headlock.
"Who sent you?" He asked, his voice angry and hushed not wanting to disturb the two men inside.
"Marcel and Anatoly. I was not to harm the boy, but to make contact with you. I am not armed." The man said, raising his arms to show he was in fact unarmed.
"What do they want."
"They want what the boy has, they want the list."
"Marcel knows your son has the list, he got a very close look at him last time your people had him, he saw the 'birthmark' he knows what it is."
Granger paled.
"You will give me the list or the next person to see your son will kill him."
"Where were you to meet them?" Granger asked.
"Santa Monica, by the pier." The man replied. "I need to take him your reply."
"Oh, you will." Granger smiled sadistically as he snapped the man's neck.
Sam watched Callen sleep, memorizing every inch of him from his face, to his body, to the small lump on his left earlobe, a birthmark he'd had since birth.
Sam had asked him about having it removed, but Callen had shaken his head.
It was a part of him and it didn't hurt, it never even bothered him, it was just there. Sam stroked the earlobe lovingly. It was as if he was wearing an earring, showing Sam in his own undercover way that he was taken, and by Sam no less.
It being permanent meant it was there forever like Sam's love for Callen.