A/N: Final chapter. I hope you've enjoyed the ride.

After several minutes on the floor, Nell managed to get Callen to stand and led him to the couch. As they walked, he noticed a slight roundness to her stomach. He stopped walking and stared as Nell turned to him to see what had made him stop. She saw his eyes on her midsection and went to him. She took his hand and placed it over their growing baby. She looked up into his eyes and saw elation mixed with concern and fear. Nell placed her hands on either side of his face and drew him in for a kiss. "It's ours, and you're going to be great."

"Really?" He asked, placing both hands on her, still worried.

"Yes. I only had to see how you interacted with Sam's kids to know how great you would be."

"When?"

"Melbourne Cup night." She blushed, then smiled as she saw the same blush creep over his own cheeks. "I didn't know for sure until about a week after you went under. The rest of the team know. I didn't want them to tell you. You had enough to worry about without adding me to the list. Anyway, Sam did a pretty good job of looking after me, making sure I ate right and got plenty of sleep. Michelle's been a big help too." As she spoke, Nell worked on the wound on Callen's shoulder as he rubbed her belly, a smile planted on his face. Once she had finished, Nell ran circles over his back, making them bigger until she touched the wound on his shoulder from his childhood, at which point he froze. It was the same wound that he had shied from her touch when they were in Melbourne.

"What do you remember from that day Callen?" A voice said from the door. Callen swung around, pulled his gun from behind his back and stood in front of Nell. Lana stood there, in jeans and a loose top because of the wound to her back.

"Lana? You used to call Alina that until I taught you how to say it properly. Tina? That really you?" As Tina nodded, he lowered his gun and went to hug her. As her arms went around him, Nell could hear him crying again.

"I thought you were dead, Callen, we both did." They squeezed each other for a moment longer then Tina said "She was so determined to find you. If you didn't believe her, she was going to call me to come and help. My partner and I were just around the corner. When those shots rang out, I didn't need dispatch to tell me what had happened."

"Why didn't you tell Sam that you knew me?" He asked as they sat.

"I never got the chance. I never knew who you worked for; I didn't have a starting point."

"Wait, why did you ask George what he remembered from that day?" Nell asked, her arm around his waist.

"You don't remember?" Tina asked.

"What?"

"Selin, Selin is Niles backwards." As she finished, Callen stood abruptly from his chair and made his way over to a window.

"George?" Nell asked as she followed him. She saw him rub his shoulder over the wound that he didn't want to talk about.

"Niles was a man who tried to kidnap Alina and I when we were kids. Callen heard us yelling and raced to help us. "

Flashback

Callen was coming back from a sleep over when he heard yelling coming from the Rostov's yard. He dropped his bag and raced toward the sound and when he got closer, he saw a man holding onto Alina's hand and he was pulling her toward a car. Tina was holding her other hand and was desperately trying to pull her away from the man. It was the middle of the week, so there were not a lot of people around. Callen cleared the fence and tackled the man to the ground, forcing him to release the girl's hand.

As the two stood, the man pulled a knife. When Callen turned his head to the girls, he tried to stab Callen. Tina saw the move, grabbed Callen's shirt and managed to pull him off balance enough that the man missed him. As Callen stumbled backwards past Tina, the man, not meeting any resistance to his attack, continued forward and stumbled into Tina. The small girl screamed as the knife cut her shoulder.

Callen, hearing her, regained his balance and yelling at Alina in Russian to get inside and lock the door, charged at the man. He managed to get under the knife and tackled him to the ground again. As Callen struggled to gain control of the knife, the man cut him on his shoulder. Callen cried out as he was pushed back. He managed to get the knife just as he was hauled off the man.

By the time the girls had gotten into the house, other people had come out. They saw the fight, heard Callen yell in a foreign language, saw the girls run into the house and misinterpreted the situation. Some of the men grabbed Callen and hauled him off the man. They seized his hand that had a knife in it. Someone twisted his wrist until he dropped the knife. He saw the Rostov's pull up and saw Mrs Rostov racing to the house calling for her daughter, while Mr Rostov hurried over to where the neighbours were holding Callen.

"No you don't understand, he …" Callen didn't get to finish when he was suddenly backhanded. His head whipped to the side. He looked up when he heard Mr Rostov cursing at him. He tried to explain but was cut off by another slap from the man. His eyes filled with tears as he went still in the arms of those holding him. He took a breath and stood tall as the mask that would remain for the next thirty years slid into place.

The moment he felt the hands holding him loosen, his captors thinking that he wouldn't fight anymore; Callen shook them off and ran. He vaulted over the fence, grabbed his bag and had vanished around the corner before the people in the yard had any idea where he had gone.

End Flashback

"After you disappeared around the corner, Alina and I raced outside to find you. Nobody listened to us when we tried to tell the adults what had happened. At the time, Niles was a well-respected man in the area, so everyone believed him when he said that he had stopped you from trying to take one of us away." Tina said as she handed her tow audience members a cup of tea and sat down opposite them.

She took a drink as Callen asked "How do you remember all that? You were only about four."

Tina smiled slightly and replied "Actually, until I hit thirteen, I was pretty small for my age. I was six at the time." She took another drink and asked Callen "Where did you go?"

"The one place I knew where someone would listen to me," He looked over at Nell, "Hetty's."

FLASHBACK

Callen ran hard and fast. The backpack containing everything he had bounced on his wounded shoulder painfully with every step. At first he didn't know where he was running to until he stood at Hetty's door. Forgetting that he had a key, he pounded on the door. It opened and he fell into the house, almost collapsing on top of Hetty.

"Mr Callen?" Hetty gasped as she took in his appearance. He had blood on his shoulder and over his chest, a large bruise forming on his cheek and his lip was split in a couple of places. She somehow managed to get him inside and onto a couch, where he curled up into a ball. Hetty watched as silent sobs racked him, wondering what on earth had happened.

Callen had been very happy at the Rostov's. They helped him come out of his shell so much that she hoped that he would be there permanently. Because of his lack of records, and the fact that Hetty couldn't find them, meant that he could never be adopted; but she held out the hope that they would want him permanently.

She tried to touch him at one point to try and get him to talk to her, but he slapped her hand away, rolled over and curled up even tighter on the small couch. She stood there, trying and failing to think of a situation that would have made Callen run from the only family that he wanted to stay with. In the end she headed to the kitchen to make a meal for the boy when he awoke. She then made several phone calls and got the answer. What she was told did not match up with what she knew of the boy.

Callen came out of his ball when he smelt the makings of lasagne, his favourite meal when he stayed with Hetty. He didn't even remember getting there. He unwound himself from his bag, which he had not let go of, left it on the floor and headed into the kitchen.

"How are you feeling, Mr Callen?" Hetty asked as she heard him enter. She turned around and deposited the pot of meat and sauce onto the bench.

"Headache, thirsty." Hetty quickly handed him a glass of water and some pills and told him to sit. "I thought you would have called the cops on me." He said as she helped him out of his shirt so she could see what wounds he had received this time.

"And why would I do that?" She asked as she heaved a silent sigh that the worst wound on his shoulder was small and would not require a trip to the hospital. She dabbed anti-septic on it, added a numbing cream and quickly put five stitches into the wound. She caught Callen watching every move she made, no doubt storing it all away in case he ever had to sew himself or someone else up.

"Because I…" Callen trailed off, unsure what it was he had done.

"Why don't you tell me what happened while we put this together." She said, seeing that he had no idea what had happened.

END FLASHBACK

"Hetty helped me to realise that I had done the right thing. And if people don't want to listen and understand everything, there was nothing you could do about it until the time was right. I stayed with her for two months. Then she found me a place with an old friend of hers."

"The last family you were with?" Nell asked as she curled up next to him.

"No, but ever since then, they were ok people. People that had kids stay with them until they got back on their feet, safe places if I needed somewhere to go. I never stayed anywhere as long as I did with the Rostov's."

Tina sat on the other side of Callen then. "Niles was caught four years later dumping the body of a four year old girl. When the police told the Rostov's, they couldn't believe that they had driven you away. When they tried to find you it was too late, you had aged out and disappeared. They feared that what they had done to you that day; turned you into a villain. There were no records of you anywhere after you turned twenty."

"After two years in the Navy, I went into government work. Not having a real name made it easier for me to vanish." Callen said as thought about what Tina had told him. He had tried to save her and Alina, only to have everyone think that he was the bad guy. Now he knew that Alina and Tina had always known the truth and had never given up on him. He just wished that he could go back in time to that day on the beach with Gibbs and asked her what she was doing following him.

"I still live in the house with my husband; I would love if the two of you came over for dinner." Tina said, wrapping an arm around him and clasping Nell's hand in hers.

"We would love to. I want to know more about her." Nell said. The three sat in silence for a moment until a phone jolted them out of their thoughts. Nell pulled it out of her pocket and spoke for a moment. Callen could hear Hetty and wondered what she wanted.

Nell put the phone back and turned to Callen. "George, Hetty wants us to head home. Reports can wait until tomorrow. Sam will take us home. Tina as well, unless she has a car at work."

"No, Simon picked me up. Thank you."

"No, thank you, Tina." Callen said, "You and Alina always believed me, I should have stayed…"

"Nothing you said would have worked back then. They only saw and believed what they wanted. You did the right thing." Tina said as they stood. They hugged and headed out to meet Sam.

Sam had left after dropping Tina off at the boatshed. He had Eric patch the cameras and mics to his phone and listened as the last pieces that made G. Callen who he was, fall into place. The pair had told him of Nell's findings on Boxing Day, and Sam had been over the moon. Since then, every spare minute they had, were spent trying to find his father.

Sam and the others also helped, asking for favours, calling in markers; putting out every lead they could to find him. So far, nothing had eventuated, but with all the tentacles they had out there, something had to happen soon.

He listened and joined in as they engaged in conversation on the way back to Callen's place. Sam was about to pull up when he saw a figure standing on the porch. He continued on after Callen had also seen the shadow. After parking around the corner and making sure the women were safely locked in the car, they headed back to Callen's.

Coming over the back fence, they headed toward the front of the house. Callen went through the house while Sam made his way along the side. After pausing a beat, Callen pulled open the door while Sam ran around the side and pushed the stranger inside.

Sam pressed the guy against the wall inside the door, while Callen quickly searched him. After finding nothing but a wallet, Sam stepped back and allowed the man to turn around. He had white hair and after Sam switched on the light, he could see that he was in his late seventies. He looked over at Callen, who was staring at the man's wallet.

"Dad?" he asked as he looked up.

NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: Los Angeles

Six months later, Callen was holding his brand new daughter, Alina Clara Callen, while Hetty set up the camera. Standing next to him was his brand new wife Nell, and newly discovered father.

Nikita had believed him to be dead, along with his wife and daughter, so had never searched for him. Instead, he had gone after those who had destroyed his family and sent them to prison. One of his contacts in Russia had heard of the questions asked by Nell and told him where they had come from. Once he arrived in Los Angeles, he picked up on more threads and leads the team had put out in an attempt to find him. He managed to contact Hetty, who told him where to go.

On either side of them were a newly engaged Deeks and Kensi, with Eric, Sam, Michelle and their kids. Nate had once again made a timely appearance, Gibbs had gladly made the long trip from Washington and the unknown couple from their house warming party were there as well. Once Hetty had everything ready, she took her place at the front of her mismatched perfect family.

"Ready everyone?!" She didn't even wait for a confirmation as she hit the remote.

Callen raced after his running daughter eighteen months later, trying to get her ready for a bath. He passed a photo on the wall that stood out from all the others. It was in a gold frame and measured three feet long by two feet high. The unknown couple were slightly behind the group and off to the side; Deeks and Kensi could be seen kissing while Nell and Callen looked down at Alina with Nikita looking at them. Nate, Hetty and Gibbs were smiling broadly as they looked at the rest of the team.

A plaque was attached to the bottom of the frame that had just two words.

"My Family"

Well, there we go. When I started The Penpal all those years ago, I had no idea it would go for so long, let alone spawn two more stories. I hope those who have stuck with me have enjoyed reading these as much as I've enjoyed writing them. Thank you.