Callen walked into Jakes room and closed the door, he was broken there was no other word for it, he had thought the team had his back, now he knew better.
Jake stirred as Callen grabbed a bag from the bottom drawer and started putting essentials for his son inside.
He reached over and switched off the monitor realizing that he had left the other part in the lounge with them.
In his heart, he knew Kensi's words were not true. He had waited, but he knew that the danger to Jake outweighed everything, however, the reaction of his team…his former team showed him that he could not trust them to watch his back and by extension his sons'.
Jake was still fast asleep as he wrapped him in his coat and placed him in the car seat, the Tylenol doing its job and letting him sleep off the fever. Callen was grateful for that, as he needed to leave as quietly as possible, he did not want a scene with anyone all he wanted to do was to get his child somewhere safe. With the Team's attitude to Deeks' reappearance he could not be sure that they would put Jake first, nor that they wouldn't throw him 'under a bus' so to speak.
He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, the large bag over his shoulder and his son in his arms and listened as Kensi and Sam argued with Hetty about how unfair it had been for them to have been kept in the dark and how they needed to go and help save Deeks.
Callen blinked his eyes and swallowed quickly at the all too familiar feeling of betrayal rearing its ugly head again. It had been so long that he had actually decided that he could finally let his guard down and trust. Now he knew better.
He walked to the front door, daring anyone to come and stop him, but no one noticed them leave.
As he slammed the door, there was a loud crash from inside. Callen looked back worried he had broken one of Hetty's priceless antiques, but still no one came out.
He sighed, strapped the car seat into the passenger side of the car, and threw the large bag on the other side. "Well Jake it's just you and me, they obviously don't want us here, and not even grandma…Hetty came out for us, so…time to move on son."
He closed the car door gently, took out his badge, and walked to Hetty's front door. He wanted to go it and leave it, yell at them for making him care, but he could not do it, he could not open himself up to hearing about how they wanted Deeks back and how he was being selfish and he was not good enough. He had had enough of that growing up; he was not going to do it again and there was no way he was going to let them do it to Jake, so instead he left it and his cell phone on the small outside table Hetty had by the front door.
He drove around for hours, going to every stash, bolt-hole and hiding spot he had, taking out all the money he had hidden away just for this situation; with a little over three hundred-thousand dollars, he was good to go. He took his fake passports out of the last safe he had hidden, plus the new ones he had had made when he and Jake came back to Los Angeles and he walked back to the car, the sun was starting to rise over the city and Jake was stirring and would need food soon.
He pulled into a diner over forty miles from their last stop, as Jake stirred and got him changed and cleaned up.
"You ok kid?" he grinned as Jake smiled showing his new tooth.
"Hey you got a tooth!" he exclaimed as Jake babbled happily.
He lifted him up and walked into the diner, "Morning." Wanda the server smiled as the handsome man and little boy walked in, "What can I get you?" she asked.
Callen smiled, "Coffee, pancakes and some milk please." He slid into a booth balancing Jake on his knee.
Within moments, Wanda turned up with a highchair and milk in a bottle. "Don't worry, we sterilize the bottles and the teats are new, looks like you both have had a rough night."
Callen nodded as he handed Jake the milk, "Yeah teething."
"So you've let your wife sleep in, that's sweet." Wanda smiled.
"His mother isn't with us anymore." Callen said as he sipped on the coffee Wanda was pouring.
"Awww, how can someone leave someone as precious as you?" she said ruffling Jake's hair and beaming as he giggled.
"She died." Callen explained.
"I'm sorry." Wanda said genuinely sorry, the man and boy looked too tired and she had always had a soft spot for waifs and strays. "We don't usually get many people stopping here in Phelan, so are you just passing through?"
"Yeah…I was wondering if you had a motel in town, I could use a few hours sleep?" Callen asked, already feeling tired as he slowed down and the emotions from yesterday started to take over.
"We have one, well it's a few rooms attached to the back of the diner, not anything fancy, but they are clean and have a bathroom." She told him.
Callen nodded, "I'll take a room, thanks." She put a plate of food in front of him and a smaller cut up plate with pancakes on in front of Jake who started eating happily.
"I didn't order any food." Callen said looking at the breakfast special in front of him.
"On the house love, you need to keep your strength up for your little one." She smiled.
Overwhelmed by her generosity Callen stood up and hugged her, "Thank you." He said.
Wanda smiled, "My son was your age before he died, I would like to think I could still help where I can, I'm sure your parents would be proud of you."
Callen blinked and nodded, not wanting to tell her, but the older woman seemed to notice straight away, "You all alone son?"
"I have Jake." He said as he sat back down.
"Do you mind?" Wanda gestured to the empty side of the booth and at Callen's nod; she sat down with a grateful smile.
"Do you have anyone else to help you with your boy?" she continued.
"It's just us…I'm an orphan." He did not know why but he found her easy to talk to.
Wanda smiled again, "Me and Bert have run this place since our son died, he was a Marine, died six years ago. He never had a family, but I think he would have made a lovely father. Now this is all we have." She admitted.
"It's a nice place," Callen said looking at the small diner, there were no other customers but the place was clean and he had to admit as he gave in and ate the food, it was good.
"It's a dust bowl, there's nothing here, but it was the last place we stayed with Mike, we sank all our savings into it after he died." She admitted. "Now surely even if you don't have family you must have some friends?"
Callen shook his head sadly.
Max snarled as he looked over Marc's plans for the raid on the LAPD evidence locker, "I don't like this," he growled. "I'd rather we just shot the shit outta them and took what we need, I'm too old to be play acting."
"You are not play acting Max. You are going in as Deeks, Not everyone in LAPD knows you…or rather he is dead, you can get us in and out with the minimum of fuss." Marc told him.
"I suppose it saves bullets and time, but nothing will stop me from wasting that slime Stimpson if he so much as even dares to cross me." Max picked up his gun and started cleaning it.
"We have to do this tonight Max, Romanov will be meeting us in three days, we get the guns, we sell the guns and you have one untraceable to kill that Callen guy and get Martino back, then as you said he can rot in hell and we can raise Martino to head this empire."
Max cocked an eyebrow at his brother in law, "You have plans for my boy then?" he asked guardedly.
"I do and for you, you will both one day help me expand my business empire, and we will control the flow of arms and drugs going in and out of America." Marc said handing Max another glass of whiskey.
Max drank it quickly, wincing slightly at the burn on the way down. "For my son…" he said
Marc nodded, "For the next generation of Giamatti's, your boy will have power and people will bow down to him, he will do both you and Sara proud."
"How do you know she would be proud," he asked sullenly.
"She told me that what she wanted was for you all to take over the family empire, to be able to move somewhere hot and knowing that Martino would be so respected that no one would ever put him down or call him useless."
Somewhere inside Deeks a memory of a man standing over him, calling him a worthless and useless kid came to mind, "No one will ever call my son that." He vowed, "We need to get him back, raise him with the respect he deserves."
"Amen brother!" Marc said and poured Max another drink.
Sam and Kensi listened as Hetty read them the riot act, there was no way that what Kensi had just said to Callen could be left to stand.
They sat as Hetty explained how Callen and she had decided to keep the team out of the loop, so they could move on until they found and hopefully rehabilitated Deeks, she explained what Rachel Cranston had told them about Deeks' condition, about what she had learned of the death of Sara Giamatti and the message that Callen had received in the mail.
By the time she was done, both Kensi and Sam felt contrite, Kensi the most, she knew she shouldn't have gone off at Callen; however, the shock of her partner and friend again being alive had shaken her to the core. "I should apologize to him," Kensi decided standing up suddenly and knocking the tray of tea things over in the process. Immediately she moved with Sam to pick up the pieces of fine bone china scattered on the floor.
"Mr. Hanna, I will deal with the rest of this, would you go and ask Mr. Callen if he wouldn't mind coming down here for a moment, I believe you have a lot to talk about." Hetty requested and Sam moved to comply.
Kensi sank back onto the couch and dropped her head into her hands, "I messed up so bad Hetty."
Hetty shook her head, "You made a mistake dear, it happens…However, you do owe Mr. Callen an apology, He trusts you like family and Jake is the most important thing he has, he promised Mr. Deeks he would protect that boy with his life, and it is a testament to his friendship with Mr. Deeks that not once has Mr. Callen shirked from his task."
Sam ran down the stairs, "Hetty, He's gone!" he exclaimed.
"Who?" she asked, fearing that Jake had been kidnapped.
"Callen and Jake, there's a bag missing and some of Jake's things, the basic's a kid needs, but they are gone." Sam was angry his partner had chosen to run instead of trusting the team to have his back.
"Maybe he's just taken Jake outside, you know, to listen to the ocean?" she walked towards the door and gasped as she looked down, Callen's badge and phone were next to the front door on the outside table. "Sam!" Kensi exclaimed, "He's really gone, he's left his badge and his cell phone."
Hetty sighed, "I am afraid he may have, and if Mr. Deeks is able to find him before we do both Mr. Callen and young Jake may be in grave danger."