Chapter 14.

Jack watched wide-eyed as Hetty pulled her move and made Vasilie sit in the chair.

He was amazed that she had managed to subdue Vasilie so fast, he backed away from the man warily, "Soon?" he asked Hetty, "Do they know where we are?"

Hetty nodded although for a fact even she wasn't sure. "I have great faith in my team, and your father never stopped searching for you all the time you were gone, I do not doubt he will be moving every loose stone in Los Angeles to find you."

Jack shot a look to see the truth of her words in her eyes.

"He never tried to find you, the old woman is lying," Vasilie spat at Jack and smiled as he visibly flinched.

"Mr. Comescu, firstly, it is already obvious that you have underestimated myself and my team, and secondly I would suggest that you stay quiet before I do something you will regret, people have died for much less than calling me an old woman." she said her voice level and guarded.

He looked at her and couldn't suppress a shudder, something about this old woman scared him.

"They are not coming." He said again his voice wavering as the false bravado betrayed him.

Jack looked worried, it had been a week and it seemed that Vasilie could be right.

His thoughts were cut off by the sounds of a car, smashing through the main warehouse, doors slammed and the cries of "CLEAR!" rang one by one until the door to the room they were in was kicked open.

Sam came in first holding his weapon ready, "G! in here…" he stopped and smirked at the sight of Hetty holding a gun on a very grumpy Vasilie Comescu.

His gaze grew darker as he spotted Jack who instinctively moved away.

Sam held his weapon on Vasilie giving Hetty the opportunity to lower hers.

Hetty immediately moved to Jack's side as he back up to and slid down against a wall.

"Jack?" Hetty asked and reached for his shoulder.

"Is it over now?" Jack asked.

"Yes Jack, it's over," she stopped as Sam called Eric to send an ambulance, "It'll be ok now."

Jack looked over at the door and saw as Callen, Kensi and Deeks came running through the door.

"Dad?" Jack muttered and passed out with the pain.

Callen looked over as Hetty caught his son, he ran over and took the boy's weight from her and gently lowered him to the ground.

"It's ok Jack, I'm here, help is coming." He said repeatedly as he cradled his son's head in his lap, carefully avoiding touching his arm or anywhere that was bruised, silently begging the ambulance to hurry up.

Jack woke slowly, he could smell antiseptic and there was a bustling noise, people moving about nearby. He didn't open his eyes he just wanted to hear one word, one word to know whether or not he was safe.

"Jack, it's ok son." Callen's voice came from right by his ear.

"Daddy?!" Jack moved as fast as he was able and wrapped his arms around Callen's neck ignoring the pain that moving his plaster casted arm caused.

Hetty looked over from her seat in the corner as she watched father and son reunite.

"It's ok Jack, it's over Vasilie is gone, Kensi, Deeks and Sam personally escorted him to jail. He can't hurt you anymore." Callen promised rubbing his son's back for comfort.

"I'm tired." Jack yawned as the morphine in his system pumped and took effect, "Will you be here when I wake up?" he asked.

Callen smiled, "Always son." He promised.

Waiting while he fell asleep, Callen shot a tired look to Hetty as a nurse walked in, "Mr. Callen I thought we agreed that now your son is safe that you would come back and allow us to finish your treatment, that wound on your shoulder needs restitching." She said as she checked Jack's charts.

"Do it here, I'm not leaving him." Callen ordered.

Hetty nodded and the nurse went to get the doctor and a tray of instruments.

"I have to go and check on the status of Vasilie, I'll be back as soon as I can." Hetty said standing up.

"I'm not leaving." Callen replied stubbornly.

"I would expect nothing less." Hetty reassured him, "The doctor will be informed that you are to both remain together."

Callen nodded and felt all the tension he'd been holding onto drain out of him and for the first time since Jack had been taken he slept putting his head next to his son on the bed.

As both Callen and Jack slept, Hetty got on the phone to Eric.

"Mr. Beale, I want to know the status of the...delivery... of Mr. Comescu to…" she was cut off by Eric.

"There was an accident, the car they were in was hit by a drunk driver," He said the worry in his voice plain.

"Status of my agents?" Hetty asked worried sick for them.

"Sam has a broken leg, Kensi is unhurt and Deeks has a concussion and a slight head wound, they are on their way to the hospital as we speak,I'll get Kensi to let you know when they arrive. Also, Comescu is dead, he took the brunt of the crash." Eric informed her he didn't want to tell her that the other vehicle involved was a van and that a rebar the van was carrying had shot over the cab and decapitated Vasilie Comescu, although in his opinion this was another reason why you never messed with Karma.

Hetty sighed with relief that her Agents hadn't been seriously hurt.

"Do what you need to to make sure they are not compromised and liaise with the LAPD for this one Mr. Beale….and Eric...thank you." she replied a small smile evident in her voice.

"You're welcome." Eric grinned on the other end although of course Hetty couldn't hear it, she knew he was pleased.

She put the phone down and turned looking at her boy's back in the room finally sleeping.

"It's over…" she said more to herself than anyone else.

"DAD!" Jack yelled as he ran from his room and skidded into the kitchen, "Dad! you up?" he called.

Callen walked in from the back yard as Hero followed him in.

"What?" he asked for a moment worried, then he saw the grin on his son's face.

"When's my appointment? Is it still today?" he asked looking on the calendar for the fifth morning in a row.

Callen looked at the big red circle Jack had drawn on the date, December 19th…

"Oh is it today?" Callen smirked as he poured his son a glass of milk and took a plate of bacon and eggs out of the warmer and placed it in front of him. "Eat your breakfast first, we have time."

Jack sat down and with his good hand grabbed his fork shooting another annoyed look at the plaster cast on his other arm.

"Can I surf with Uncle Marty afterwards?" Jack asked.

Callen put his coffee cup down and resisted the urge to roll his eyes, Uncle Marty still sounded as creepy and wrong as it had years ago when Deeks was trying to scam the support staff with his card shark skills.

"We'll see, we still have Christmas shopping to do." Callen said with a slight grin.

"We can go?" Jack grinned trying to wolf down his breakfast.

Callen laughed, "Slow down champ. I've got to shower and then we can head off." he walked down the corridor to his bathroom listening to his son try and pull his new laptop onto the table with one hand, knowing when he went out that an advert for the new phone he wanted would be sitting on the laptop and accidently left open for him to see. He still hadn't told him that Hetty had picked up the new phone and all the accessories it needed about a week ago for her grandsons christmas present.

Showering quickly, Callen let the hot water run over him as he sighed with relief. It had been six weeks and Jack was getting his cast off today. He had been doing therapy with Nate and unlike his father he was fully engaging and despite the occasional nightmare and flashback he had settled back into his real life with ease.

Callen who still wasn't fully opening up to Nate had flashbacks and nightmares of his own, every morning he woke up convinced it had all been a dream and that his son was still missing, until he left his room and saw his son's mess all over the house.

Unlike before he wasn't picking Jack up on it yet, he knew he should but the mess was to him a reminder that he was a father again and his son was safe. Nate had approached it a few times but Callen had brushed it off, he was still afraid that with his own fears and the small amount of problems that Jack was still having, that any confrontation would lose him his son.

He lent his head against the cool tiles and allowed the hot water to wash over him watching his fears slowly drift down the drain with the water.

He stepped out of the shower and listened to the sounds of Jack and Hero in the main room and smiled, getting dressed as quickly as he could he headed out there.

He grabbed his car keys and called Jack, "Come on then son, let's get that cast of and then we have a lunch date."

For a second Jack's face clouded over, "You have a date?" he asked. Callen hadn't said anything about a date.

Callen smirked, "No we have a date." he reiterated and headed out to the car.

Two hours later after a stop on the way for a double double burger, the boy's turned up at the skating rink Jack without a cast and wondering what was going on.

"JACK!" a young girls voice came from behind him.

Jack turned to see Sam's daughter holding skates and grinning, "You don't have your cast!" she exclaimed.

"Nope." Jack grinned picking her up and twirling her around, "What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Family skating," Kamran replied.

Jack looked down at the skates in her hand, "Sounds like fun," he looked up at his father, "Can we skate?" he asked.

Callen produced two pairs of skates from behind his back, "You'll need these." he said and Jack reached for his pair and he and Kamran ran to a bench to put them on.

"You spoil him too much." Sam said walking up behind him.

Callen looked over at his son, "I do, I know...but right now he deserves it, we'll work on it later." he deflected.

"We will…" Sam affirmed and nudged Callen as he spied Kensi and Deeks in the corner.

"You think…?" Callen started and stopped as they kissed. "Okay...so yeah they did."

Michelle joined them laughing, "Well that took long enough, Hetty is over there if you want to join us, and Sam...someone is here to see you."

Sam looked at Callen who had a huge grin on his face, confused Sam turned and smiled as he saw his son Aiden, standing behind him.

"Aiden!" He hugged him and took him off to the side to talk.

Callen smiled and looked over as Jack was led onto the ice by Kamran who slowly led him around the rink.

For a moment he felt a lump in his throat, Sam had his family, Kensi had Deeks, and he had Jack, but something was still missing.

"Mr. Callen?" Hetty walked up and put her hand on the railing he was leaning against.

Callen shook his head, "Hey Hetty," he smiled sadly.

"Are you alright?" she asked worried for him.

Callen sighed and smiled,

"Yeah, just thinking of what we have lost over the year." he admitted.

"Ms Rossetti?" She asked as she followed his gaze to Jack.

Callen nodded, "I wonder, if she ever really loved me. I mean she had Jack, so maybe…" he turned and plastered on a smile and waved as Jack and Kamran skated past.

Hetty placed a hand on his arm, "Come and sit." she said. She led him to a bench and sat next to him.

"I do not know what Ms. Rossetti's motives were, but I think somewhere inside her, she did at one point care about you both. What made you think of it?" she asked.

Callen sighed, "I dunno, seeing Kensi with Deeks finally, Sam with his family all together, then there's Jack and I, we aren't your run of the mill family, he and I both have issues we need to deal with, he still has nightmare," he confided.

"As do you I fear," Hetty replied.

Callen nodded, he stopped as a woman walked up and handed both himself and Hetty a hot chocolate, "I assume you are that delightful young man's father and grandmother," she said pointing to Jack who was holding onto the railing.

"Yes," Callen answered looking up at the young woman who smiled at him.

She put the drinks down, "He said to say happy Christmas." she winked at him and walked off.

Callen kept staring in her direction as she stopped to talk to Michelle who laughed at something she had said.

"Maybe there is hope for the future after all son," Hetty said quietly.

Callen looked at his son, who was once again skating now with Kamran and Aiden, then he looked at Kensi and Deeks who were kissing in the corner and then Deeks laughed at something that Kensi said, and watched as Sam and Michelle lent on the railing watching the children.

"You know, maybe...just maybe there is Ma." Callen replied with a smile.